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Online Fiction and Nonfiction Writing    Youth

CONTINUING EDUCATION CATALOG CLASS LISTINGS


Writing

BUSINESS

Contact: Kathy Berigan, kberigan@dcs.wisc.edu
Phone: 608-263-3494 or 800-442-4617 • Fax 608-265-2329
Location: 21 N. Park St., Rm 7302, Madison, WI 53715-1218

See additional subject listing at www.dcs.wisc.edu/pda/writing
Join our mailing list! www.dcs.wisc.edu/pda/mailform.htm
Cancellation policy

Back to basics: grammar, punctuation and writing review

Good basic writing skills can help you be more successful in your job. This workshop is a refresher of standard English conventions that if used consistently are likely to produce clear communication.

Instructor: Alice Honeywell
T, Feb 9, 9 am-4 pm, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St, Limit 25, 0.6 CEU, $150, Program #7048
Registration print form
Registration online

Proofreading and copyediting

This workshop teaches you how to eliminate embarrassing mistakes and achieve a polished writing style. Learn to mark errors with proofreaders’ symbols and to justify changes when working with writers. We also introduce the best reference tools for editing. Note: This is not a computer-based class.

Instructor: Gerry Max
Th, Feb 18, 9 am-4 pm, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St, Limit 25, 0.6 CEU, $150, Program #7051
Registration print form
Registration online

Workplace writing

Learn some tips for improving your memos, manuals, and reports in this one-day workshop. We focus on 10 ways to improve your writing, include a brief grammar review, and discuss how to create flow, avoid faulty arguments and bias, and win the reader’s approval.

Instructor: Alice Honeywell
T, Feb 23, 9 am-4 pm, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St, Limit 25, 0.6 CEU, $150, Program #7049
Registration print form
Registration online

Writing good sentences: editing for clarity and conciseness

This one-and-a-half-day workshop shows you how to write clear, efficient sentences that have good movement and flow. Find out how to create variety in sentence structure and eliminate unneeded words. Topics include dangling and misplaced modifiers, active and passive voice, editing, and punctuation.

Instructor: Gerry Max
T, Feb 16, 9 am-4 pm, W, Feb 17, 9 am-noon, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St, Limit 25, 0.9 CEU, $200, Program #7050
Registration print form
Registration online

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RELATED PROGRAMS

Desktop Publishing

Nonprofit Development

Public Administration

Workplace Communication

FICTION AND NONFICTION

Contact: Laura Kahl, lkahl@dcs.wisc.edu
Phone: 608-263-3494 or 800-442-4617 • Fax 608-265-2329
Location: 21 N. Park St., Rm 7341, Madison, WI 53715-1218

See additional subject information www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing.
Join our mailing list! www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/wrmail.htm

From notebook to new work: a journaling workshop

Want to recharge your writing? Join us for exercises that get—and keep—your pen moving. Delve deep into memory and dreams. Write fast to outrun your inner critic, then slow down and ponder. Sift through entries to find a story’s core, the start of a poem, or the heart of a memoir. Transform your experience through language and discover how language transforms you.

Instructor: Angela Rydell
W, Mar 24-Apr 7, 6:45-8:30 pm, Lowell Center, 610 Langdon St, Limit 15, 0.6 CEU, $90, Program #7134
Registration print form
Registration online

So you want to start that novel

You’ve created characters you love—maybe some you love to hate. Now it’s time to get them in trouble and ask: what’s at stake? On-the-spot exercises bring your characters and voice into focus. Discover the secret recipe for dynamic settings: fusing character and action. Set goals to maintain momentum, and take home tricks—like dialoging with characters—that spark surprises and promise tension on every page.

Instructor: Angela Rydell
S, Jan 30, 12:30-4 pm, Lowell Center, 610 Langdon St, Limit 15, 0.45 CEU, $55, Program #7133
Registration print form
Registration online

Take your scenes to the next level

Scenes thrive on trouble—not by starting before the trouble begins, describing it, or zooming in on characters contemplating their troubles. Want to punch up your scenes? Set up the tension and tense up the setting. Learn about power plays, contrasting agendas, nested dialogue, starting points, and hooks to transition and build momentum. Bring a scene with you and apply these new techniques right away.

Instructor: Laurel Yourke
S, Apr 10, 11 am-2:30 pm, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St , Limit 20, Enroll by Apr 18, 0.85 CEU, $55, Program #7143
Registration print form
Registration online

Wednesday writing workshop: intermediate

This ongoing group for writers in all genres meets on 10 Wednesdays between January and May. For dates and details about how the group works, contact Laurel Yourke at 608-265-3972 or lyourke@dcs.wisc.edu.

Register: 608-265-3972
Instructor: Laurel Yourke
Dates to be determined, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St, Limit 15, Enroll by Jan 31, $105/5 meetings, $200/10 meetings, Program #7144

Writers’ Institute

Fiction and nonfiction writers gather each year to update their craft and marketing know-how. The Institute includes agent pitch meetings, critiques, and the Poem or Page Contest.

Instructors: Various
FS, April 23-24, 8 am-5:15 pm, Sun, April 25, 9 am-noon, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St, Enroll by Mar 27, 1.35 CEU, Fees vary, Program #7105
Registration print form

Writing a successful screenplay

Write a screenplay that grabs producers, agents, and actors. Beginners, experienced screenwriters frustrated by “passes,” and novelists studying story structure or adapting their books also find this workshop a must. Includes Top 10 Don’t-Go-There Mistakes and Page One/First Five Pages tests. Fee includes critique of first 10 pages.

Instructor: Christine DeSmet
S, Mar 6, 9:30 am-3:30 pm, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St, 0.5 CEU, $125, Program #7104
Registration print form
Registration online

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ONLINE

ONLINE/ANYTIME Creative nonfiction

Creative nonfiction is not the tedious essays you might have suffered through learning to write in school. Instead it allows you to use all the tools of the fiction writer to develop factual material, whether that material is based on your own life or not. This course helps you develop or refine your nonfiction writing skills through one-on-one guidance from an experienced writing instructor.

Instructor: Rita Mae Reese, rreese@dcs.wisc.edu
2.1 CEU, $175, Program #9034
Registration print form
Register www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/online

ONLINE/ANYTIME The dialogue shop

Shop the “aisles” of this workshop for professional tools to power-up your dialogue. Topics include: six dialogue functions; 12 techniques to cure flat dialogue; monologues; creating memorable lines; “framing” and “echoing”; six ways to create subtext; private language, dialect, and more; dialogue and character tags; and punctuation power. Both levels offer feedback; at Level 2 you polish several professional techniques.

Instructor: Christine DeSmet, cdesmet@dcs.wisc.edu
Level I/Level 2, 2.0/3.0 CEU, $115/$165, Program #9021
Registration print form
Register www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/online

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ONLINE/ANYTIME How to write compelling fiction

Basic fee includes seven lessons and feedback on exercises covering beginnings, point-of-view, plot, dialogue, characterization, and more. Premium level includes detailed critique of an additional 2,000 words of your fiction.

Instructor: Rita Mae Reese, rreese@dcs.wisc.edu
Level 1/Level 2, 1.0/1.3 CEU, $135/$175 with critique, Program #9004
Registration print form
Register www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/online

ONLINE/ANYTIME How to write great feature articles

Interested in writing feature articles but not quite sure where to begin? Led by professional writer and mentor Rita Mae Reese, this course gives you one-on-one instruction, prompt feedback, fun mini-exercises, and tips on how the pros do it. Learn to organize and write articles that are publishable in today’s mass media. Opens Jan 4. Send a blank e-mail to: join-writing-feature-articles@lists.wisc.edu to join the waiting list.

Instructor: Rita Mae Reese, rreese@dcs.wisc.edu
Level 1/Level 2, 1.0/1.3 CEU, $135/$175 with critique, Program #9015
Registration print form
Register www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/online

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ONLINE/ANYTIME Poetry writing: getting to good

This online poetry workshop first untangles, then interweaves the separate strands of poetry. Units cover sound: melody and music; tangibility: image and emotion; figures of speech: metaphor and meaning; language: compression and explosion; and theme: synthesis and synergy. The course offers analysis of poetry, strategies for revision, checklists, humorous and illustrative examples, a glossary, Web links, interactive questions, and instructor critique.

Instructor: Laurel Yourke, lyourke@dcs.wisc.edu
2.0 CEU, $159, Program #9027
Registration print form
Register www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/online

ONLINE/ANYTIME Screenwriting: write your first draft fast

Pour a cup of java and let's make speed mesh with quality. We cover: making a script effective from the start, developing story structure, deepening characterization, enriching scenes, discovering the secrets of middles, finding endings. Level 1/ basic exercises plus feedback on your first 20 pages; Level 2/Be-A-Pro and Script Critique: feedback on all exercises and a critique of your finished draft.

Instructor: Christine DeSmet, cdesmet@dcs.wisc.edu
Level I/Level 2, 1.2 CEU/9.0 CEU, $195/$395, Program #9009
Registration print form
Register www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/online

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ONLINE/ANYTIME Take your characters to dinner

Embark on a lively e-mail journey through the elements of fiction. Written assignments for each of the 12 units take beginning to advanced writers through character revelation, dialogue, plot, point of view, and setting, and on to your first story or beginning of a novel. The instructor, Laurel Yourke, gives professional feedback to your submissions. Text: Take Your Characters to Dinner by Laurel Yourke. Visit the course at www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/online/writing/fiction.

Instructor: Laurel Yourke, lyourke@dcs.wisc.edu
2.0 CEU, $135, Program #9006
Registration print form
Register www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/online

YOUTH PROGRAMS

www.dcs.wisc.edu/outreach/youth.htm

COMING IN SUMMER
Write-by-the-Lake Workshop and Retreat

MTWThF, June 14-18

OTHER RESOURCES

Bring our writing coaches, teachers and workshops to your community or conference

Contact Christine DeSmet, cdesmet@dcs.wisc.edu.

We tailor our writing workshops and publication-design training to meet your needs, time, and budget.

Independent Learning

Go to http://il.wisconsin.edu to view current course offerings. To learn more about writing courses, contact Laurel Yourke, 608-265-3972 or lyourke@dcs.wisc.edu.

RELATED PROGRAMS

Desktop Publishing

School of the Arts at Rhinelander

Theatre and Drama

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Cancellation policy: If you are unable to attend or arrange for a substitute, you may obtain a refund minus the $20 administrative fee by contacting our registration department at least 3 business days prior to the program. If you cancel 3 business days or less before the program, or do not attend, you are responsible for the entire fee. To cancel or arrange for a substitute, please call 800-725-9692.

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www.dcs.wisc.edu • Updated November 11, 2009

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