COURSE DESCRIPTION

Aimed at all self-motivated creative individuals who already feel comfortable with their English, our Creative Writing/Online Literary Lab offers a unique opportunity to enhance the ability to formulate complex ideas, think critically and express oneself in writing. The course consists of an attractive combination of creative writing tasks and inspiring thought-experiments, providing the fullest experience to both consumers & producers of literary texts. The primary emphasis is on content, structure, style, and clarity of expression rather than on grammar as such. The syllabus also offers a discussion of the basic strategies of composition, narratology, and essential concepts of literary theory with emphasis on their practical use. By the end of this course, students will learn how to fully exploit their creative and intellectual potential, understand the fundamentals of the writing process, and master language skills and strategies which will help them to produce original and fully representative literary texts.

The whole course takes two 10-week-long terms to finish and consists of the following loosely connected sections: Creative Writing/Online Literary Lab (winter term) and Advanced Creative Writing/Online Literary Lab (summer term). Each of the terms consists of four original, tailor made creative tasks and one revision activity. You will work under the guidance of skilled supervisors who are ready to discuss all aspects of your writing process, help you with understanding your tasks, and provide you with regular feedback on your work and progress.

COURSE PLAN

Creative Writing/Online Literary Lab (winter term) is a 10-week-long online course which consists of the following main tasks:

TASK 1: Defamiliarise!

Examining instructive examples, students become familiar with the literary concept of defamiliarisation. Utilizing this concept in their writing, students choose one of the given topics and write a piece of creative writing that is based on defamiliarisation as a descriptive strategy and/or the main motif.

TASK 2: Write the Space

Students become familiar with literary strategies that underpin the ways of representing space, place or setting in literature. Utilizing these concepts, students choose one of the given topics and write a piece of creative writing that focuses on representing space, setting and/or atmosphere in fiction.

TASK 3: Blog it out!

Turning attention to a relatively modern literary form, students become familiar with the major “dos and don’ts” of blog writing, study some typical examples and look at some typical blog categories. Considering these inputs, students write a blog entry of their own and send it to their teacher. As a part of the task, students will also read and briefly comment on a blog entry written by their fellow students.

TASK 4: Creative/Narrative Perspectives

Students become familiar with literary strategies and concepts of point of view and/or narrative perspectives in literature. After studying selected examples, students will be asked to write a point-of-view narrative adopting a subjective persona.

TASK 5: Task Revision

For their final task, students are asked to choose and resubmit one of the texts submitted for previous tasks 1 - 4. They are expected to consider and eventually incorporate changes and/or correct mistakes or any other problems pointed out by instructor in his review and write a brief analysis of the changes made.