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  • Berkeley Global

The Craft of Reading

ENGLISH X429

41113
Delivery Options Online

To write well, you must read well. By learning to read with the eyes of a writer, you can develop an understanding of what makes great literature work. Class readings include novel excerpts, short stories and memoirs, from classics to contemporary treasures. Weekly writing assignments emphasize analytical responses to the works, while providing the chance to practice writing strategies revealed through close reading. Appropriate for all levels of writers, this course teaches you to read widely, respond deeply and turn any piece of writing into your own best teacher.

Course Outline

Expand or collapse section

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
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Sections

Section 066

May 20 to Aug 12

Type: Online, Fixed Date

Instructor:

  • Katie M. Flynn

Cost: $840.00

See section 066 Details

Type Online, Fixed Date

Dates

May 20, 2025 to Aug 12, 2025

Instructional Hours

30.00

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Section Notes

This Fixed Date Online course starts on May 20 and ends on August 12.


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.

Section Materials

  • Textbook

    (Mandatory)

    Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

    © 2018 Riverhead Books ISBN-13: 978-0735212206
  • Textbook

    (Mandatory)

    Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong

    © 2021 Penguin Random House ISBN-13: 978-1984820389
  • Textbook

    (Mandatory)

    A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

    © 2022 Random House Trade Paperbacks ISBN-13: 978-1984856036

Section 067

Jun 10 to Aug 12

Type: Live Online

Instructor:

  • Andriana Mendoza

Cost: $840.00

See section 067 Details

Type Live Online

Days

T

Time

6:00PM to 9:00PM Pacific Time

Dates

Jun 10, 2025 to Aug 12, 2025

Location

Live Online

Schedule and Location

View Details

Instructional Hours

30.0

Location

Live Online

Delivery Options

Online

Available for Credit

2 semester units

Section Notes

This Live Online course runs on Tuesdays from June 10 to August 12.

Students will receive access to the course in Canvas on the course start date. Zoom meeting information will be emailed to enrolled students before the first class meeting and posted to the announcements page in Canvas.

 

TEXTBOOK NOTE:  Any complete edition may be used.

Summer 2025 enrollment opens on March 17!

This course applies to the following programs:

Certificate Program in Creative Writing

Expand or collapse section

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

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

The course number has been changed. Previously, it was listed under ENGLISH X7.

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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Course Fee

Katie M. Flynn

Katie M. Flynn’s short fiction has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Tin House, and many other publications. She has been awarded Colorado Review’s Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction and the Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing. Her first novel, The Companions, came out March 2020, and her interlinked collection of short stories, Island Rule, is forthcoming from Scout Press/Gallery Books.

Online

Course Fee

Andriana Mendoza

Andriana Mendoza, M.F.A., attended UC Davis for literary analysis, creative writing and education. Her 130-page thesis "Who Hurt You?" focuses on Latino narratives within the Bay Area and is published in the UCD Graduate Library. You can also find her poetry and short fiction works in the magazine Open Ceilings: Undergrowth, Vol. III. Recently, her nonfiction piece, "The Fat Girl Allegory", was selected by Roxane Gay to be a part of The Audacity's Emerging Writers Series. She fosters writing and storytelling as a means of creative expression in students of all ages.

ENGLISH X429 - 067 - The Craft of Reading

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