Course Overview
- Title:
- Write Your Heart Out: The Craft of the Personal Essay (May 2011)
- Type:
- Online Group Seminar
- Cost:
- $399.00
- Time Estimate:
- The content of this course unfolds over several weeks. There are few scheduled meeting times, except for several live discussions, so you'll be able to learn on a schedule that works for you. The minimum time commitment each week is three to four hours.
About Online Group Seminars
In an online group seminar, you will gather with other participants in a virtual space, logging in from anywhere, day or night, over the course of several weeks. A faculty member guides the group through new material, moderates discussions and provides individual feedback.
- May 2 to May 27, 2011
Discover powerful stories from your life and tell them in ways that will resonate with others, whether in print or online. You’ll see how to take those experiences from an idea to an essay that an editor wants to publish and the public wants to read.
What Will I Learn:
- To cultivate quality story ideas from your life experiences by studying universal story archetypes
- To shed the shackles of storytelling conventions and insecurity
- To break down personal essays to their DNA so you can quickly start telling your stories
- To use the essential tools of effective writing
- To recognize the types of personal stories editors want to publish
Who should take this course:
Writers, columnists, educators, public speakers -- anyone with a personal story to tell.
Keith Woods
Keith Woods is vice president of diversity in news and operations at NPR in Washington, D.C. He previously was dean of faculty at The Poynter Institute and a former sportswriter, news reporter, city editor, editorial writer and columnist at the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Technical Requirements:
No special software is needed. However, we strongly recommend you have a high-speed or broadband connection. This course also will require Flash Player 8 or higher. (Get the latest version of Flash here.) For Mac users, we recommend accessing this course with Firefox or Safari 2.x or higher.