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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

Expand or collapse section

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 077

Sep 16 to Dec 09

Type: Online, Fixed Date

Instructor:

  • Laurie Ann Doyle

Cost: $885.00

See section 077 Details

Type Online, Fixed Date

Dates

Sep 16, 2025 to Dec 09, 2025

Instructional Hours

30.00

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Section Notes

This Fixed Date Online course starts on September 16 and ends on December 9.

Fixed-Date Online courses have specific start and end dates. Students will receive access to the course in Canvas on the course start date. Course information will be emailed to enrolled students and posted to the announcements page in Canvas.

 

TEXTBOOK NOTE:  Any complete edition may be used.

Section Materials

  • Textbook

    (Mandatory)

    Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

    © 1995 Anchor Books ISBN 0385480016 Textbook ISBN: 978-0385480017
  • Textbook

    (Mandatory)

    Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft by Janet Burroway

    © 2014 Pearson 4th edition ISBN 0134053249 Textbook ISBN: 978-0134053240

Fall 2025 enrollment opens on June 16!

This course applies to the following programs:

Certificate Program in Creative 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
  • Great Writers Steal: How the Work of Other Writers Can Inform and Inspire You
  • The Handmaid’s Tale: Writing Dystopia, the Female Gothic and Social Commentary
  • Re-envisioning the Past Through Historical Fiction
  • Reading the Postmodern: Writing and Rewriting Genre, Gender, and Culture
  • Shakespeare
  • Adaptations & Retellings
  • Banned Books

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
  • Poetry Workshop
  • Creative Nonfiction Workshop
  • Developing the Memoir

Courses of Related Interest


Learn More About This Program

Notes

Departmental contact: extension-letters@berkeley.edu

Instructional Types

Live Online
Live Online courses provide an interactive learning experience with scheduled synchronous online sessions held via Zoom video conferencing (Pacific Time). Learn more about the Live Online format.
Online, Start Anytime
Continuous enrollment course begins when you enroll. You have a minimum of 90 days and a maximum of 180 days to complete the course.
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.
Classroom
Take classes in-person at one of our buildings or partner locations.

English Language Proficiency Requirements

All of our courses are taught in English. If English is not your first language, please use the following test scores as guides in order to be successful:

  • TOEFL: 90
  • IELTS Academic Format: 7
  • DAAD: C1
  • TEM-4 or TEM-8: Level 70
  • Duolingo: 125

Note: You do not need to submit test scores.

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The University of California, Berkeley, is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). UC Berkeley Extension—like all other UC Berkeley schools, colleges and departments—is accredited by WASC through the University.

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Course Fee

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.

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