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Noncredit, online learning through the Dept. of Liberal Studies & the Arts
| "This course is a blast. i just love this and your insightful comments." -Rita Rogers, Sequim, Washington Read other comments from previous students. |
Improve your poetry writing skills as you move step by step from activities that inspire a first draft, on to strategies for revision, then to submitting a polished poem in each of five units, each including a professional critique. Enrollment is limited.
Untangle and then interweave the separate strands of poetry. Instructor Laurel Yourke will guide you through the five units:
In each unit, you work through a variety of exercises, readings and challenges which lead you to writing a polished poem with your new skills. Laurel then gives you a written critique of your poem to explain what you've mastered and where you can improve. You will analyze poems, reflect and experiment, practice stretching exercises and learn strategies for revising your poems. The course material also includes writer checklists, illustrative and humorous examples, a glossary of terminology, useful Web links and interactive self-tests.
Writing, reading and falling in love with poetry are all processes. None of these happen using the linear or intuitive side of the brain alone, and none of these happen suddenly rather than gradually. To accommodate this, Getting to Good combines discussion, examples and links to a variety of sites and poets. You will immerse yourself as a poet in varied kinds of experience. The course encourages you with specific tips for reading, writing casually and writing seriously, all the while reflecting, questioning and taking various kinds of writing risks.
You do the lessons at your own pace. You can e-mail questions any time, with or without a lesson.
Review the current technical requirements for students in Learn@UW online courses.
You can start our workshops anytime, and there are no required hours to log on. It's all done with one-on-one correspondence with the instructor using email. Some classes have materials on a web site, but you can access those at your leisure with a password that we will give you. We have writers from around the world participating in our workshops, and we have success stories. A lot of great writing gets accomplished via email. Because of the one-on-one nature of our workshops, you'll find them an excellent "coaching" or mentoring situation that will keep you going. And if you want to just work on your own-hey, that's fine too. Of course you can do the suggested exercises on your own and pass on the feedback if you'd rather do that. We're also here throughout the year if you have questions.
Laurel Yourke, of the UW-Madison Department of Liberal Studies and the Arts, is the author of "Waiting for Beethoven" (a poetry collection) and "Take Your Characters to Dinner: Creating the Illusion of Reality in Fiction." She has received the UW-Madison Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Council of Wisconsin Writers Award for Encouragement of Wisconsin Writers. An associate director of Writer's Institute, she has taught literature and creative writing in ongoing intermediate and advanced writing workshops, School of the Arts at Rhinelander, Write by the Lake, public school and college classrooms, Distance Education courses, Elderhostel, College Week for Kids, Senior Academy, Arts Week and interactive television. She has published reviews, feature articles and print- and web-based course materials on fiction, poetry, composition, literature, and advanced creative writing. Her poetry has appeared in various university presses and other periodicals including "Wisconsin Academy Review," "The Larcom Review," "The Wisconsin Fellowship Poets Calendar" and twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Registration is $159. Enrollment is limited. You will earn 2.0 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) when you complete the course.
Your contact for more information about "Poetry writing: Getting to Good" is Laurel Yourke, 608-265-3972, lyourke@dcs.wisc.edu.
“I always see a course as a point of departure, so that’s how I’ve approached this. I read the short lessons, think about them, start asking questions, and then find other readings to supplement, while trying to do all the written parts as well as time permits. The course looked like a skeleton to me, and it was my responsibility to flesh it out. So I learned a lot, though I also expect it to take time for that to become evident.
I really appreciated the honesty of your comments. It was with some trepidation that I enrolled in a non-credit course, fearing that someone on the other end would be more interested in making me feel good than helping me learn. On the other hand, I really enjoy non-credit courses because you can just relax and enjoy, so I’m glad to have found this combination of low-key and rigor.
Furthermore, you manage to say a lot in quite brief comments (which, ahem, I’m having some difficulty with here) – so throughout, I’ve also been taking note to prepare for when paper-correcting season starts up again.” ~ Lynn Palermo, Lewisburg, PA.
"The material was well chosen to give examples of each topic. Rather than a review of the history of poetry the course materials focused on contemporary poetry. This gave me ideas that I could use in doing the exercises. The best and most helpful part of the course to me was the prompt and detailed critiques that Laurel gave to my poems and my revisions. She asks what type of critique you want and I wanted every single weakness pointed out; and I got just that. Thanks Laurel." ~ Joem D. Phillips, Santee, SC
“I'm inspired by your skill. I know I still have so much to learn but I am starting to learn what works and what doesn't and why. Without you and your course, I would not have had anywhere to go to "get to good" someday. It was a pleasure to see you handle the voice and words with such exactness. I was impressed. Thank you.” ~ Donna Wolff, Kansas City, Kansas
“Thanks for everything, Laurel. I have grown up a lot in this course..have had to ask myself if I really wanted to be a poet or was I just diddling around and kidding myself. To discover what being serious means and have to ask yourself if you want to be serious and then find out you do is an incredible new awareness. A joy. Thank you so much for that!
Read more comments from past students.
The same writing staff that bring you these great online classes also provide individualized writing critique services. Learn more by visiting our writing critique services Web page. The Writing News
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More distance education: Independent Learning journalism and writing courses are another option for distance education through University of Wisconsin-Extension. Most courses are available for college or high school credit.
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File last updated: May 12, 2009 |