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  • Berkeley Global

The Craft of Writing

ENGLISH X421

41080
Delivery Options Online

Become comfortable with the craft elements fundamental to creative writing, including imagery, voice, character, scene, summary and setting, and learn to apply these craft elements in the fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction genres. Through weekly readings and discussions, you learn and develop skills and techniques to help you pinpoint what makes a piece of writing memorable. You’ll use what you learn to discuss your classmates’ writing critically and thoughtfully and to revise your own writing. Enrollment is limited.

Course Outline

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Course Objectives

  • Identify, analyze and apply key craft elements in works of fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry
  • Familiarize yourself with elements of the various crafts and a variety of concepts used in critiquing and understanding creative texts
  • Look for patterns with an eye to what makes a piece of writing effective and compelling
  • Write and discuss your own writing critically and thoughtfully
  • Contribute to deliberate and successful habits in revision
  • Complete a portfolio of work: one to two poems, one story and one sample of creative nonfiction
  • Make deliberate decisions about how to shape specific elements in your own creative writing
  • Develop your unique voice through the use of craft Identify traditional genre definitions and explore how genre boundaries may be blurred
  • Read closely and write carefully for craft—word by word, and passage by passage
  • Identify both strengths and opportunities for development in your classmates' writing by posing questions rather than making declarations of judgment
  • Maintain a daily writing practice in a writing journal
  • Develop and implement goals to effectively revise your work

What You Learn

  • Imagery
  • Voice and point of view
  • Character
  • Plot and conflict
  • Scene, summary and story
  • Setting and tone
  • Narrative arc
  • Genres and forms
  • Poems, prose poems and lyrics
  • Truth in creative nonfiction: essays and memoirs
  • Revision
  • Workshop of final portfolios
  • Moving forward as a writer

How You Learn

  • Reading assignments
  • Craft assignments
  • Writing assignments, which may include poems, short stories and creative nonfiction
  • Discussion participation and assignments
  • Classmate critiques and peer reviews
  • Writing journal
  • In-class exercises
  • Essay (online section)
  • Final portfolio
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Sections

Section 049

Full

Jan 27, 2021 to Apr 07, 2021 Live Online

Course Fee(s)

Course Fee credit (2 units)

$675.00


Section Schedule

Jan 27, 2021 to Apr 07, 2021

Type Live Online

Access classroom-style interactive learning from anywhere in the world! Attend scheduled online sessions with your instructor and classmates in addition to completing your coursework.

Live Online format allows you to take classes from anywhere with an internet connection. Classroom sections will be taught in this format through Spring 2021. Learn more about this format.

Beginning August 15, 2020, you must have a Zoom account to participate.

Many schools are now accepting transfer credit for online coursework, including health and sciences programs. Check with your institution before enrolling.

Days

W

Time

6:30PM to 9:30PM Pacific Time

Dates

Jan 27, 2021 to Mar 03, 2021

Type Live Online

Days

W

Time

6:30PM to 9:30PM Pacific Time

Dates

Mar 17, 2021 to Apr 07, 2021

Schedule and Location

View Details

Instructional Hours

30.0

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Instructors

  • Laurie Ann Doyle

Section Notes

No Class Meeting 3/10.

Section Materials

  • Textbook (Mandatory) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott © 1995 Anchor Books ISBN 0385480016 Textbook ISBN: 9780385480017
  • Textbook (Mandatory) Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft by Janet Burroway © 2014 Pearson 4th edition ISBN 0134053249 Textbook ISBN: 9780134053240

Section 050

Wait List

Feb 02, 2021 to Apr 27, 2021 Online

Course Fee(s)

Course Fee credit (2 units)

$675.00


Type Online, Fixed Date

Enroll in this course by its start date and complete it by its specified end date. There are no live sessions, but plenty of opportunities to collaborate with your classmates and instructor.

Dates

Feb 02, 2021 to Apr 27, 2021

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Instructors

  • Marc Schiffman

Section Materials

  • Textbook (Mandatory) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott © 1995 Anchor Books ISBN 0385480016 Textbook ISBN: 9780385480017
  • Textbook (Mandatory) Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft by Janet Burroway © 2014 Pearson 4th edition ISBN 0134053249 Textbook ISBN: 9780134053240

Section 051

Apr 06, 2021 to Jun 29, 2021 Online

Course Fee(s)

Course Fee credit (2 units)

$675.00


Type Online, Fixed Date

Enroll in this course by its start date and complete it by its specified end date. There are no live sessions, but plenty of opportunities to collaborate with your classmates and instructor.

Dates

Apr 06, 2021 to Jun 29, 2021

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Instructors

  • Megan Turner

Section Materials

  • Textbook (Mandatory) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott © 1995 Anchor Books ISBN 0385480016 Textbook ISBN: 9780385480017
  • Textbook (Mandatory) Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft by Janet Burroway © 2014 Pearson 4th edition ISBN 0134053249 Textbook ISBN: 9780134053240

This course applies to the following programs:

Interdisciplinary Writing Program

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Individualized Study Plan

  • Effective Writing in the Workplace
  • Writing for Social Media: Prose That Works for Web 2.0
  • Grammar, Mechanics and Usage for Editors
  • Journalism Workshop
  • Science Writing
  • Writing the Feature Story
  • Introduction to Public Relations Writing
  • Writing and Editing Internship Program
  • Editorial Workshop I: Introduction to Copyediting
  • Writing Skills Workshop
  • Writing Creative Nonfiction
  • Creative Nonfiction Workshop
  • Developing the Memoir
  • Developing the Memoir II
  • The Craft of Reading
  • The Craft of Writing
  • Exploring Creative Writing
  • Introduction to Writing Fiction
  • Intermediate Fiction Writing
  • Advanced Fiction Writing
  • Developing the Novel
  • Screenwriting: The Art of Visual Storytelling
  • Poetry Workshop
  • Poets Studied and in Conversation
  • American Fiction
  • The English Novel
  • Great Novels You Always Meant to Read
  • Mystery Fiction
  • Shakespeare

Learn More About this Program

Certificate Program in Writing

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Required Courses

  • The Craft of Reading
  • The Craft of Writing
  • Writing Skills Workshop

Electives (Literature)

  • American Fiction
  • Contemporary Voices: Speaking From the Margins
  • The English Novel
  • Fact or Fiction: Reading and Writing the Personal Essay
  • Great Novels You Always Meant to Read
  • Great Writers Steal: How the Work of Other Writers Can Inform and Inspire You
  • Mystery Fiction
  • Shakespeare
  • Short-Story Masterpieces
  • Meet the Writer: Guided Study and Discussion With Fiction Writers
  • Ursa Minor Production Class

Electives (Writing Workshop)

  • Exploring Creative Writing
  • Introduction to Writing Fiction
  • Intermediate Fiction Writing
  • Advanced Fiction Writing
  • Writing Genre Fiction: Science Fiction, Mystery, Romance and More
  • Mystery Writing
  • Developing the Novel
  • Screenwriting: The Art of Visual Storytelling
  • Screenwriting Workshop
  • How to Write a Story
  • Writing and Appreciating Poetry
  • Poetry Workshop
  • Poets Studied and in Conversation
  • Writing Creative Nonfiction
  • Creative Nonfiction Workshop
  • Developing the Memoir
  • Developing the Memoir II
  • Journalism Workshop
  • Science Writing
  • Writing the Feature Story
  • Writing and Editing Internship Program

Courses of Related Interest

  • Children's Picture Book Writing Workshop
  • Story Lab
  • Writing the First-Person Essay

Learn More About this Program

Notes

Departmental contact: extension-letters@berkeley.edu | (510) 643-1110

Prerequisites

Students must be proficient in English and have a solid grasp of English grammar.

In order to succeed in this course, it is recommended that non-native English speakers have achieved a minimum TOEFL score of 90. All other non-native English learners should instead consider COLWRIT X400.1 Academic Writing for ESL or COLWRIT X411 Business English for ESL Students. Please contact the department if you require any additional information.

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ENGLISH X421 - 049 - The Craft of Writing

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Online

Laurie Ann Doyle

Laurie Ann Doyle, Extension Honored Instructor, is the author of a new collection of stories World Gone Missing (Regal House Publishing: October, 2017), a top book pick at The East Bay Express and praised by The New York Times bestselling author Edan Lepucki for delivering “astute portrayals of people who desire connection, hope, and renewal." Winner of the Alligator Juniper National Fiction Award and a Pushcart Prize nominee, Doyle’s stories and essays have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Jabberwock Review and Under the Sun, among many other literary journals, as well as anthologized in Speak and Speak Again (Pact Press). She co-founded Babylon Salon, a San Francisco literary series now in its 11th year, and has been teaching writing at UC Berkeley Extension for more than a decade. Find her online at www.laurieanndoyle.com.

Course Fee

Marc Schiffman

Marc Schiffman, M.F.A. (Ph.D. equivalent), has taught a variety of writing and literature courses over the years for the University of Maryland. He also has published short stories and articles in many literary journals, and his novel The Man Who Controls the Earth was published in 2012 and Men and Angels was published in 2016. His most recent short story was published by the Chicago Review of Books online literary magazine Arcturus.

Read Schiffman's take on teaching online.

Course Fee

Megan Turner

Megan Turner, MFA, is a fiction writer and editor. She has taught online, overseas, and in college and college prep programs. She also served as a foreign rights coordinator at one of the big five publishers in New York. Her short fiction has appeared in journals such as Fiction International, Witness and Atticus Review.
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