8/12/2019 Writing With Style (Syllabus and Reading Resource
List)
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University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education,
Madingley Hall, Cambridge, CB23 8AQ
www.ice.cam.ac.uk
Writing with style
Credit / award Non-accredited
Start date 30 April 2014 End date 28 May 2014
Day and t ime Wednesday at 7.15pm 9.15pm
No of meetings 5
Venue Madingley Hall, Madingley, Cambridge, CB23 8AQ
Course Director Dr Sarah Burton
Fee 150 Course code 1314NWR021
For further informationon this course, pleasecontact
Academic Programme Manager or Administrative Secretary
([email protected]@cam.ac.uk)or 01223 746223/212
To book See:www.ice.cam.ac.uk or telephone 01223 746262
Course Director biographySarah Burton is most fulfilled when
combining writing with teaching in some form. She does notbelieve
that creative writing can be taught in the conventional sense, but
that it is possible to assistthe developing writer to nurture and
develop their own unique voice. She believes that talent iswhat the
student brings to the table and the tutor's role is to recognise,
challenge, nurture, chide,encourage, criticise, praise and advise
(and possibly many other things) or generally bring to bearall
his/her experience to help the student become the best writer
he/she can be. She believesteaching and learning is a contract
between promise and experience, depending on mutual respectand a
shared delight in the possibilities of the written word.
Course syllabus
AimsTo provide students with the literary tools to:1. evoke a
sense of time and place;2. reveal character through action and
speech;3. create a relationship with the reader.
Content
Writing with style aims to help you bring the stories you want
to tell alive by addressing keytechniques in effective writing.
Classes will focus on establishing a strong sense of place,managing
the passage of time, deploying both action and speech to create
strong characters, andstrategies for keeping the reader turning
those pages. Students will study the means by whichgreat writers
have managed to create particular effects, and through
understanding thesestrategies, be encouraged to apply and adapt
them to strengthen their own work.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.cont-ed.cam.ac.uk/http://www.cont-ed.cam.ac.uk/http://www.cont-ed.cam.ac.uk/http://www.cont-ed.cam.ac.uk/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]
8/12/2019 Writing With Style (Syllabus and Reading Resource
List)
2/2
University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education,
Madingley Hall, Cambridge, CB23 8AQ
www.ice.cam.ac.uk
Session 1 (30 April): A sense of place
Evoking a strong sense of location.
Session 2 (7 May): A sense of time
Establishing period, managing time passing, considering
tense.
Session 3 (14 May): Discovering character through action
Show, dont tell: allowing characters to reveal themselves by
what they do rather than what yousay they are.
Session 4 (21 May): Discovering character through speech
Letting your characters speak for themselves through writing
realistic and revealing dialogue.
Session 5 (28 May): Keeping the reader on board
Recruiting the reader, keeping their interest and making them
care.
Presentation of the course
Structured questions and discussions during thesessions.
Interaction with students on VLE and by email outside
sessions.
Outcomes
As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time
available, students should be able to
understand, and have some experience with:
1. using literary strategies to convey a strong sense of time
and place;2. using literary strategies to convey the revelation of
character via action and speech;3. using literary strategies to
convey a sense of bonding between reader and narrator or hero.
Student participation
All students are expected to take an active part in this
university-level course. Therefore, allstudents will be expected
to:
(i) attend at least two-thirds of the classes and any fieldtrips
and day-schools;(ii) participate actively in class.
Note Students of the Institute of Continuing Education are
entitled to 20% discount on bookspublished by Cambridge University
Press (CUP) which are purchased at the Press bookshop, 1Trinity
Street, Cambridge (Mon-Sat 9am 5:30pm, Sun 11am 5pm). A letter or
email confirmingacceptance on to a current Institute course should
be taken as evidence of enrolment.
Information correct as of: 03 October 2013
