|
|
|
Five Steps To Online Copywriting Success
One of the most important priorities of evey online business should be their copywriting. Online copywriting skills are a "must have" for anyone who is thinking about real success with their online business.
It doesn't matter if you're marketing a...
Phases of Instructional Design/Technical Writing
The development of a project is typically done in four different phases. In the project analysis phase, a market research is conducted to determine the courses that need to be developed and the information that they should cover. In the design...
Profiting From Writing Your Own Ebook
As you might have heard, the Internet is all about information. Millions of people logon to the Internet each day searching for information. They're searching for everything from health and wellness to love and relationships. People crave...
The Myths Of Writing: Have You Bought Into These?
There is an image most people carry of the artist (think Van Gough's self-portrait, the one with his ear bandaged), working in solitude in a barren garret in a dark corner of the city. Everyday is a struggle. He continually walks between moments...
Writing For The Web: Where To Get Article Ideas
A friend and I were talking the other day about writing. He liked to write, but even so his biggest problem was finding things to write about. My friend was astounded at the volume of writing that I do - at least one article and something as many as...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A WRITING COURSE PROPOSAL
At some point in their careers, many writers may teach writing courses, either before a live classroom audience or, these days, online. But how does a new teacher develop that first course proposal? What elements should go into it?
Sometimes a prospective employer may offer guidelines or forms, and when those are online they help everyone. Check your local adult education centers website to see if it offers online proposal guidelines. Read whatever information you can find for online writing classes at your favorite writing sites, too.
In most cases a proposal will need to include at least five basic elements:
1. Your contact and personal information (such as citizenship status, for payment purposes) as well as your professional biography.
2. Your sense of the target audience for your class.
3. Your sense of what students will gain/learn from your class.
4. Your sense of course expenditures (including costs for guest lecturers or other needs, especially for live classes).
5. Contact information for individuals who will serve as referees for you.
Still, if you cant find the specific program proposal guidelines and requirements that you need online, you must contact program directors at local colleges/continuing education programs by phone or e-mail, yourself. Explain that you are a writer who is interested in learning about the procedures for proposing courses. Be forewarned that institutions and programs operate on different schedules; some may plan ahead just weeks at a time, while others may have an entire academic year already set the previous winter.
Fine. What if, after all that, you're simply instructed to send a cover letter and a general course proposal? What then?
I trust all professional writers to handle cover letters. You should also take this opportunity to update your resume or c.v. and review your list of references in case you are, indeed, asked for that information as the screening process continues, too. Its also a good idea to review your clip file and consider which of your writing samples you might submit if requested to do so.
As for the proposal itself, here are some additional elements that will render it immediately more professional and complete:
6. Your name, title ("Instructor" is fine if applicable!), and, again for live courses especially, a note about your office hours, if you plan to hold them ("by appointment" or "to be determined"). Place this information in the top left-hand corner.
7. The course title. Be sure it accurately reflects the course content. One of my early course was titled The Historical
Novel: A Writing Workshop. I like poets and essayists and playwrights just fine, but this course wasnt for them!
8. The course description. Catalog copy generally runs tight. Try to describe your course in no more than 75-100 words; be prepared to cut this description even further. View samples from previous catalogs or listings to get a sense of the institution or programs editorial style. Be direct about the purpose/goal of the course.
For example, heres a description for the historical novel workshop mentioned above:
"This workshop is for writers of historical novels. Through tailored writing exercises and discussion of selected texts, the course will address issues of particular challenge to historical novelists: use of real characters, setting, and tensions between fact and fiction. Primary focus, however, will be on critiques of students work."
9. Prerequisites (if applicable). A line such as: "Students must submit a one-page synopsis and five pages of their work-in-progress" signals from the start that only writers particularly committed to their work should enroll.
10. Schedule of meetings and reading/writing assignments. This doesn't necessarily have to be set in stone, but you'll acquire--and convey--a better sense of your own course if you think ahead to the class meetings and to how you will be making use of each. One writing program director once advised me that prospective students tended to respond favorably to having some mention of the authors theyd be reading for a course within the description, so it can make sense to provide the same information, in even greater detail, for the authorities, too.
Once you are preparing the actual syllabus for a course, you'll want to delineate additional policies. Depending on the class/institution, you may need to think about grading policies. And a writing workshop benefits from a set of critique guidelines everyone understands from the start.
But don't worry too much about that. Yet. Start with the proposal, and add that to your writing practice.
Copyright 2004 Erika Dreifus. All rights reserved. Article reprint permission is granted provided that the entire article--including the About the Author information--remains intact and unaltered. Please send a courtesy copy of the reprint to erikadrei@yahoo.com .
About the Author
Dr. Erika Dreifus is a writer and writing instructor in Massachusetts. She edits the free monthly newsletter, "The Practicing Writer," and is the author of "The Practicing Writer's Primer on Low-Residency MFA Programs." Visit her website at http://www.practicing-writer.com .
|
|
|
|
|
| Writing.Com: Writers, Writing, Poetry, Creative Writing, Fiction ... |
| An online community dedicated to fostering writing skills. With a free membership anyone may read, write, rate, and review works. |
| www.writing.com |
|
| Welcome to Writing-World.com! |
| Writing articles and resources. Tips about how to become a better writer, get published and find writing markets. From Moira Allen. |
| www.writing-world.com |
|
| Guide to Grammar and Writing |
| The Guide to Grammar and Writing contains scores of digital handouts on grammar and English usage, over 170 computer-graded quizzes, recommendations on ... |
| grammar.ccc.commnet.edu |
|
| Purdue University's Online Writing Lab - The OWL Family of Sites |
| Writing lab and resources. Email newsletter available. |
| owl.english.purdue.edu |
|
| OWL at Purdue University: General Writing Concerns Handouts |
| This page contains important links to the writing: planning/writing/revising aspects of the OWL website. |
| owl.english.purdue.edu |
|
| Writing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| The original Mesopotamian writing system was initially derived from a system of ... If it is deemed to be a written language, writing in China will predate ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Writing.org - Advice for Freelance Writers |
| Articles to help you launch a freelance writing career, from a former literary agent and PLAYBOY editor. |
| www.writing.org |
|
| Writing HTML |
| More than just an HTML reference, this is a structured approach for learning how to create web pages, designed by specialists in learning at the Maricopa ... |
| www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu |
|
| National Novel Writing Month - National Novel Writing Month |
| NaNoWriMo is an annual (November) novel writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world. |
| www.nanowrimo.org |
|
| Poynter Online |
| Apply by Dec. 11 Reporting and Writing the Untold Stories Apply by Dec. 11 ... Reporting & Writing for Multi-Platform Newsrooms. Apply by Jan. 10 ... |
| www.poynter.org |
|
| Pages tagged with "writing" on del.icio.us |
| This short online course provides a practical introduction to writing fiction. During the course you will be expected to write two short pieces for ... |
| del.icio.us |
|
| BBC Get Writing |
| The BBC's online resource for writing drama and comedy for television, radio and film. |
| www.bbc.co.uk |
|
| TOC About Writing |
| Menu of articles on writing written by professional SF/F writers. |
| www.sfwa.org |
|
| 11 Rules of Writing -- a concise guide to important grammar ... |
| A concise guide to some of the most frequently violated rules of writing, punctuation, and grammar. |
| www.junketstudies.com |
|
| NAEP Writing Subject Area |
| NAEP assesses student performance in writing periodically in grades 4, 8, and 12 for the nation, and in grades 4 and 8 for the states. |
| nces.ed.gov |
|
| Writing: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
| See all blog posts tagged with writing on Technorati. |
| www.technorati.com |
|
| IPL Teenspace: A+ Research & Writing |
| Includes step-by-step instructions on researching and writing, how to find information online and offline, as well as links to useful resources. |
| www.ipl.org |
|
| Dictionary.com: Writing Resources |
| Free online English dictionary and reference guide. List of sites writers can use. |
| dictionary.reference.com |
|
| WritingFix: Home of Interactive Writing Prompts and 6 Trait ... |
| Daily and interactive writing prompts. |
| www.writingfix.com |
|
| Advice on Academic Writing |
| Includes articles on critical reading, planning, researching, style and editing, grammar and punctuation. |
| www.utoronto.ca |
|
|