Arts: Writing   

In this course, expect to have an enjoyable time with cut-up poetry. During each class, students will create poems from snippets they cut from a variety of  instructor supplied books. These mostly library discards or thrift store finds range from a driving manual to a sewing manual to a book about preparing for a wedding. Composing poems in this fashion will broaden one's experience of creativity with words. Looking for connections among seemingly disparate sources exercises the mind, giving the imagination free rein. Anyone who can use a pair of scissors and who has an open mind and a playful spirit will succeed in this course! There is no prerequisite and no homework.

This workshop is for (a) individuals who have already completed the “Nonfiction Writing Workshop” and are working on longer, personal projects, or (b) individuals who have already embarked on a personal long-form, nonfiction writing project on their own.  Participants in this workshop need to submit a Personal Writing Project (PWP) in the first week. It need not be finished, but it needs to be at least 3,000 words in length. These writing samples may be excerpted from participants’ longer nonfiction projects. Over a 10-week period, the instructor will analyze participants’ writing samples, and participants will read each other’s PWPs and share constructive feedback about the effectiveness of the content. Participants will also enhance their nonfiction writing skills by studying “Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer” by Roy Peter Clark.

NOTE: “Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer,” by Roy Peter Clark (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2006), is required for this class.

Community Journalism @ Ashland.news will explore the practices of community journalism, and how it helps provide the information “oxygen” to facilitate democratic, economic and social vibrancy in a community. Students will also learn how stories and/or photos are assigned, reported, and prepared for publication. We will focus on techniques for gathering, writing, editing, photographing, and publishing factual information about the citizens, events, politics, economics, and culture of a localized area – all intended to enhance a community’s quality of life. Participants will formulate a reporting plan to supplement future editions of Ashland.news and prepare stories and/or photos for publication. Beginning the third week, students will gather news in the field, reporting or photographing, writing, and doing preliminary editing on each other’s reporting, all with an aim for publication. The reporting and editing cycle will be repeated three times.

Come develop your writing style in this ten-week introduction to creative writing. No previous professional writing experience is necessary.  All you need is a love of writing and a willingness to share ideas with others.  Each class will feature an introduction to a different type of creative writing, including short story, drama, fiction, creative nonfiction, haiku, and numerous forms of poetry, followed by in-class readings. After readings, students will be invited to comment constructively on each other's work. Lectures will describe what students are to write each week and suggest reading examples, which will also be included in a list of references emailed before class.  If you have taken this class in the past, you are welcome to join us again. 

The Nonfiction Writing Workshop offers practical training to enhance nonfiction writing skills. Class materials include selected readings, posted online, that demonstrate key writing techniques practiced by well-known authors. Students are required to submit four 500-1,000 word writing samples for analysis, one every other week, by midnight, Fridays (or Saturdays), using content derived from their experience. Students will read each other’s work and share constructive criticism about style and content. The instructor will also comment on each exercise. The storytelling techniques emphasized are applicable for memoir, historical articles, long-form journalism, and book-length nonfiction for print or the internet. Students should expect to spend 4-6 hours a week reading assignments and students’ work and writing. Previously taught courses have been amended annually, based on previous students' feedback.

NOTE: “Bird by Bird,” by Anne Lamott (New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1994), is assigned to be read by the end of the term.

This course gives students a structured opportunity to write and share short personal narratives. The format is derived from "The Sun" magazine which includes "Readers Write" every month. We will review samples from past issues and write our own responses to prompts from “The Sun.” We will also look at upcoming topics and write essays that we may choose to submit for publication. In addition, each week we will be discussing writing practices that support strong and compelling pieces. Students should commit to writing one 200 - 600 word essay each week and be prepared to post it on our interactive course website on SOU's Moodle. Students will read and respond to each other's work.  Together, we will create an encouraging, supportive setting in which to share. This course has been taught several times before; however, all new prompts will be given this term.

NOTE: There will be no class meeting on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday January 16.

As components of a dramatic work or its entirety, monologues provide unlimited possibilities for the creation of memorable characters and riveting stories. This workshop will include writing, improvisation, and performance, as well as opportunities to share work created between class sessions. Writers and performers at all levels of experience are invited to explore the exciting possibilities of this compelling literary-dramatic form. (If you are a writer with no theater experience or a theater artist with no writing experience, you are warmly included in this invitation!)