Your style is as unique and distinctive as your face, your voice, except that you can choose it, you can can work on it, enhance it. In this course we will introduce aspiring writers to the art of putting pressure on written language. We will study the use of metaphor and imagery, and demonstrate how clarity, grace, and inventiveness in word choice are imperative to a story’s success. Writers will emerge with the revision skills essential to all writers of good stories and good prose.
This course is part of the Creative Writing Specialization
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Creative Writing SpecializationWesleyan UniversityAbout this Course
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Learner Career Outcomes
22%
started a new career after completing these courses
22%
got a tangible career benefit from this course
11%
got a pay increase or promotion
Shareable Certificate
Earn a Certificate upon completion
100% online
Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.
Course 4 of 5 in the
Flexible deadlines
Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.
Approx. 8 hours to complete
English
Subtitles: Arabic, French, Portuguese (European), Italian, Vietnamese, German, Russian, English, Spanish
Learner Career Outcomes
22%
started a new career after completing these courses
22%
got a tangible career benefit from this course
11%
got a pay increase or promotion
Shareable Certificate
Earn a Certificate upon completion
100% online
Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.
Course 4 of 5 in the
Flexible deadlines
Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.
Approx. 8 hours to complete
English
Subtitles: Arabic, French, Portuguese (European), Italian, Vietnamese, German, Russian, English, Spanish
Offered by
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University, founded in 1831, is a diverse, energetic liberal arts community where critical thinking and practical idealism go hand in hand. With our distinctive scholar-teacher culture, creative programming, and commitment to interdisciplinary learning, Wesleyan challenges students to explore new ideas and change the world. Our graduates go on to lead and innovate in a wide variety of industries, including government, business, entertainment, and science.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
2 hours to complete
Meaning, Sense, and Clarity
Here in the first module we focus on putting pressure on your words so that they mean what you intend. We balance abstraction with the need to make good sense. And we discuss the first and last stylistic difficulty of any prose writer, being clear.
2 hours to complete
9 videos (Total 56 min), 2 readings, 1 quiz
2 hours to complete
Writing with Nouns and Verbs
In the second module we look at the various parts of speech and how two of them—nouns and verbs—are the building blocks of good style and good narratives. By relying on nouns, we make the people, places, and things of the narrative world vivid. By relying on verbs we keep the story alive and in motion.
2 hours to complete
6 videos (Total 32 min)
2 hours to complete
Economy
In the third module, having practiced putting words in, we learn to take them out. And why: for humor, for clarity, for cleanliness, and for that fleet quality of wit that makes a style irresistible.
2 hours to complete
5 videos (Total 44 min), 1 reading, 1 quiz
2 hours to complete
"No Ideas But in Things"
In the the final module of the course, we learn to balance the drive to get at ideas and feelings, with the need the story always has for concreteness, realness. We learn to express ideas in the form of physical things in a narrative world, to produce a style that speaks as much to the world of the senses as to the world of the mind.
2 hours to complete
6 videos (Total 43 min)
Reviews
TOP REVIEWS FROM CREATIVE WRITING: THE CRAFT OF STYLE
by MSApr 18, 2016
Great class for the content I needed. I audited this class and benefited from the theory discussion and practical exercises. The class guided me to improve my writing style which was my ultimate goal.
by LRDec 17, 2018
Lessons were well done, good mix of teaching and illuminating discussion between accomplished writers. Exercises are creative and well thought out. Feedback from classmates is generally helpful.
by ATJan 18, 2017
Excellent course by Salvatore Scibona. The range of subjects covered was so wide and the practical tips given in the course are really helpful. Thanks a lot Salvatore, a well-designed course :)
by JSAug 30, 2020
This was the best and most useful to me of the four Wesleyan courses I've taken so far, all of which have been excellent and useful. This one really showed me a tool that I'd never understood.
About the Creative Writing Specialization
This Specialization covers elements of three major creative writing genres: short story, narrative essay, and memoir. You will master the techniques that good writers use to compose a bracing story, populated with memorable characters in an interesting setting, written in a fresh descriptive style. You will analyze and constructively evaluate peer writing. In the Capstone, you will draft, rewrite, and complete a substantial original story in the genre of your choosing.
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