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Testimonials This is a new workshop! Look for testimonials coming soon.
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POWER
Writing Facilitator: Sandy Chase Workshop Syllabus Do you shudder when you envision the
demonic red pen, that stalked you through high school or college? Worry
that your writing is wordy or weak? Have trouble organizing your
ideas onto a cohesive whole? This workshop will fortify you against
your worst writing fears, because
you'll have POWER! In this workshop, we'll look at writing as a process comprised of manageable stages: Planning, Organizing, Writing, Escaping, and Revising. Tackling small steps instead of battling the whole will empower you to write more effectively as you morph from writer to editor. Plus, you'll have an opportunity to practice your newly-learned strategies and expand your skills through instructor feedback. Week 1:
The Five Stages of Writing
Session 1 will introduce you to the writing stages. You will also evaluate your own writing process by completing a brief questionnaire that you can share with your facilitator. Session 2 provides you with strategies for planning your writing. You will learn ways to analyze your reader and decide on your purpose for writing. Exercises will help you generate ideas for the next stage. Week
2: Organizing Ideas You
will learn to choose from the following organizational strategies:
categorizing, diagramming, reporter’s formula, and outlining.
Week 3:
Writing Drafts
The
crux of the workshop, “Writing Drafts,” will teach you how to identify
the sections of a manuscript or document and analyze the importance of each for
unity. You will practice
creating thesis statements, which you will compare with topic sentences.
You will also learn how to support your topic sentences and choose
and organize the most effective organizational strategy. A session will
also be devoted to persuasive writing.
Writing effective conclusions is also included.
You will have ample practice and group feedback, designed to
enhance your learning. Week 4:
Revising
After
you have escaped from your draft and have distanced yourself as the
writer, you will explore ways to troubleshoot your own and others’
writings for unfocused, incoherent drafts.
You will also revise sentences for incorrect structure, faulty
punctuation, and inappropriate voice.
Objectives
By
the end of the workshop, expect to improve your ability to:
Prerequisites: Basic
grammar and punctuation skills and paragraph development. Required
Materials:
None About the
Facilitator
Sandy
Chase has parlayed her love of writing
with her training/teaching background into positions as writing director,
internal consultant, and human resource communications officer for a
government agency. She has
devoted most of her 30-year educational career teaching writing and
designing instruction for the University of Virginia, Katharine Gibbs
School, and the US government.
Sandy also reviews manuscripts for Berrett-Koehler and
Prentice-Hall publishers. Although she writes for a living and enjoys her job, her real love is creating poetry and prose about life. To her, writing is like music with its crescendos and rhythms that evoke different moods. A personal essay about her “new daughter” was published in Real People, Real Stories: How the Internet Is Touching Lives by Suite 101.com. Another essay was recently published in Surviving Orphelia by Perseus Publishing. Workshop
Begins: April
28, 2003
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Recommended Books recommended on this page are not required reading for participation in the course. Required materials, if any, are listed in the course syllabus.
Writing
with Precision One of the most popular and respected style guides ever
written, this handbook by a seasoned writer with more than forty years of
experience offers ten principles and seven axioms that professional
writers use to express their thoughts clearly and effectively. For anyone
faced with the challenges of written English, Writing with Precision
can help readers write more clearly, more effectively, and more precisely
than they ever have. |
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