The Craft of Reading

Course Objectives

• Gain the tools to read any text with an eye towards how it was constructed
• Explore a variety of writing techniques
• Acquire analytic skills to read and write with fuller comprehension
• Be better prepared to carry on with your own creative projects

What You Learn

• What it means to read as a writer
• Voice, including the difference between voice and narration
• How a narrator moves through time using language
• Varieties of tension
• Themes
• The art of the memoir
• The difference between a memoir and an autobiography
• Audience’s effect on your writing
• Choosing a point of view
• Magical realism
• The line between fiction and memoir
• Components of style and structure
• Finding the climax
• Anchoring your story in a time and place
• Writing with authority about the larger world
• What is nonfiction
• Setting as a character
• Comedic writing: rhythm, juxtaposition, repetition and other elements
• The difference between comedy and satire
• Writer as a social critic
• Special demands of creating unknown worlds

How You Learn

• Lecture notes
• Reading assignments
• Writing assignments (including two short papers for online sections)
• Discussion participation and assignments
• Student feedback
• Final paper