Course subject
Writing courses in The Course Register: browse 63 active and 66 total continuing, professional, and extension Writing listings with start dates, tuition, enrollment status, format, and issuing-source links.
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Whether you are writing a memo to your boss or a letter to the editor, it is crucial to craft your argument clearly and persuasively. Build confidence by improving your writing's organization, logic and style so that whatever kind of writing your work…
Ready to take your fiction to the next level? This writing workshop builds on the skills from ENGLISH X464: Introduction to Writing Fiction and dives deep into the art of the short story—while still offering valuable insights and exercises for novelists in…
Study the essentials of public relations and get a start on a new career. Learn how to make your message newsworthy based on media conventions so you can pitch effectively and ensure optimum coverage. Learn how to write press releases and email pitches and…
Develop your personal writing style. Learn the basic concepts and techniques of writing fiction, with the aim of heightening your sense of language and developing your ability to solve problems of structure, characterization, viewpoint, storyline, imagery,…
Do you aspire to a career in journalism or simply want to explore journalistic storytelling? Get a practical, task-based introduction to news writing and reporting, and learn standards embraced by the best media practitioners—old and new. This class is…
Explore multiple writing and revision techniques, drawing possibilities for new work from your own work and the poems of others. Learn to open up your poems to further invention and revise them to invite both surprise and mastery. You read published poems and…
This project is the final requirement in the Professional Writing Program, where you synthesize the concepts you have learned and apply them to an individualized writing project. This capstone project can be used to enhance your portfolio or complete a…
Get a practical introduction to the diversity of science-writing opportunities, including those for news organizations, magazines, institutions and websites. Learn about finding story ideas and reliable sources, conducting interviews, matching writing style…
Writing for visual media requires learning to conceptualize and shape a story that can be told with images. In this 10-week workshop, learn the fundamentals of narrative screenwriting (creating compelling characters, and building plot, story structure,…
Learn the tools and concepts to produce effective technical documentation and presentations relevant to a wide range of professional fields, whether you are in engineering, physical or social sciences, industry, health care, academia or government. You…
Build on the skills you developed in Technical Communication I JOURN X465, and hone your ability to define a document's audience and purpose to present the information in an optimal form. Improve your technical writing style and technique while creating…
Study the principles and best practices for information design in today’s workplace. Learn the fundamentals of graphic design theory while gaining valuable knowledge in the human information processing system. Learn how to understand and build information…
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.…
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…
Learn to write effectively for social media, specifically blogs, LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. Establish a coherent writing process and brand voice; learn editing techniques; and examine the interplay between platform-specific context, content…
One joy of writing fiction is the many kinds of stories you can tell. In this class, you will explore several popular genres of fiction—literary, mystery, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, horror and romance. Learn techniques that are essential to all…
This hands-on, collaboration-driven course is designed to help writers strengthen the core skills that make academic prose work. You’ll build a strong foundation in organization, tone, style, and genre conventions while practicing how to adapt your writing…
Develop an understanding of how feature stories blend journalism and art, exploring the dual nature of features based on facts but with the voice of a novel. Learn how to analyze features and how to research, report and write your own. You also learn how to…
This course focuses on the general trajectory of book publication from the launch of the book on, specifically the role of editor in the modern iterations of publishing. It covers the entire process, from a book being sold into the market to release, PR and…
Designed for both aspiring story analysts and screenwriters who want to accelerate their careers, this course helps you master the methods used by story analysts who evaluate submissions to production companies, agencies and studios. You learn how to do an…
This workshop focuses on writing a solid draft of an original television pilot, whether half-hour or one-hour, building from an outline completed in the previous course. You begin by reworking and refining your story idea and outline as needed, addressing…
This workshop guides you to write a solid draft spec script from your half-hour comedy outline and move as far ahead as you can in polishing it. You begin by reworking your outline to simplify your story, nail down the essence of your characters, focus and…
Mirroring the process that professionals undergo in current episodic series production, this course guides you to write a solid first draft of your script of an existing series and work on polishing it. You begin by refining your story idea and outline as…
Dialogue may seem to be the easiest and most fun aspect of screenwriting (look at all those pages fly by, and with so much white space!), yet it's often the most difficult thing for the aspiring screenwriter to do well. Great dialogue is a vital vehicle for…
Modeled directly on how writers write in the real world of one-hour dramas, this course focuses on what is most central to creating a strong script as well as the largest piece (40 percent) of the writer's deal with any show: the story and outline. You learn…
This course teaches you how to create an airtight story and outline--the critical first step in writing a strong half-hour comedy script of an existing series and a process that makes writing your script much easier, faster and more successful. You begin by…
This workshop guides you to complete your current project. You focus on developing a successful second and third act with special attention given to structure, character development, emotional content and cinematic style. You also acquire self-editing…
Designed for writers with at least one screenplay under their belts, this workshop guides you to launch and make significant headway on a new project. The goal is to develop a strong premise that sustains your entire script, create and refine the story…
This second in a four-part sequence in writing a feature film script has you hit the ground running. You begin by pitching your story based on your outline and revising it to make sure the premise can carry the entire movie. Armed with a workable outline, you…
In the last of a four-part sequence in writing a feature film screenplay, you reach FADE OUT. In the process of completing your script, you hone in on structuring conversations, explore how to maximize your story's visual implications, deepen scene writing…
The third in a four-part sequence in writing a feature film screenplay, this course focuses on writing a significant portion of Act II. You also refine your story outline; flesh out main and secondary characters; continue to develop the art of the scene as it…
The first in a four-part sequence designed to take you through the full process of writing a feature film screenplay, this course grounds you in the key craft elements of story structure, plot, scene development, character, theme, genre and dialogue and shows…
One of the most misunderstood concepts in the craft of fiction writing is the relationship between character and conflict. A story can involve a complex character with fascinating thoughts, ideas and interests, but without a conflict that motivates the…
This is a reading and exercise-based class designed to explore and practice dialogue, voice and point-of-view in fiction and creative nonfiction. Each week, we read sample fiction and creative nonfiction to identify how the content is influenced by the…
Poets push language to the limits of its potential by forming words into sounds and images. In this workshop, you read examples from diverse contemporary poets as you learn how to craft images while avoiding clichés, employ simile and metaphor to enhance…
Short, well-focused articles provide one of the surest pathways for breaking into publication. It's easier than you might think--if you know how the print and online publishing worlds work, understand the needs and demands of particular markets and put some…
Romance novels generate just over one billion dollars in sales revenue annually in the United States. With online platforms allowing authors to learn to write better, find compatible publishers or publishing options and market the work product, there has…
This lecture course is an introduction to Eastern storytelling that opens readers’ minds to radically different ways of telling a satisfying story. Discussions in the West around diversity in the arts often focus on the identities of characters and creators.…
Joseph Campbell once described psychologist Carl Jung’s writings about dreams as examining x-rays of the spiritual state. This workshop introduces writers to techniques to replicate the ability of dreams to turn complex or unconscious ideas into powerful…
The most important step in selling an idea or script is creating the perfect pitch document. This document can serve as a guide for yourself during your verbal pitch, but it can also be a roadmap for your pilot and series once it is sold. In this workshop,…
Mentorships provide individualized support to advanced writers who seek specific and focused guidance in their work. Students select a mentorship focus from a pre-determined list of options provided by the instructor as part of their application process.…
From Oppenheimer to Bridgerton, many great films and television series are adaptations. Adaptation is the craft of taking existing source material and creating a new work in another medium. Virtually every story -- from novels to newspaper columns to video…
It’s been demonstrated that by using improvisational techniques, television writers can go deeper into character and story development. In addition, improvisation can enhance the writing of the script and is a great tool for fine-tuning pitches for episodic…