Crafting the Essay

Crafting the Essay (WRTG), while previously a CTY course has now been turned into a CAA course and a CTYOnline course. If you are looking for the old Crafting the Essay click here. This course is used to create personal essays and express yourself through writing. This course is offered at Bristol, Easton, Haverford, Hong Kong and Santa Cruz

Course Description

From the CTY Summer Catalog:

Participants in this course examine the concepts and practices authors use to craft engaging personal essays and learn to use the literary devices and figurative language common in fiction and poetry to enrich their own nonfiction prose.

Through textual analysis and class discussion of readings by creative nonfiction writers such as Annie Dillard, Richard Rodriguez, and Charles Simic, students learn the hallmarks of effective personal essay writing. In their own work, students experiment with imagery and language, tone and mood, and a variety of structures.

In addition to daily readings, informal writing assignments, and regular workshops, students complete several major writing projects. They gain a clearer sense of the skills and practices of successful writers and greater knowledge of their own strengths as authors. In addition, they leave the course with critical-reading skills that transcend disciplines and will help them in future coursework.

Creative Nonfiction

Unlike Crafting the Essay, Creative Nonfiction is a course offered at CTY sites. At SAR it is taught by Laurence Ross, a legend, what a man, truly, I love him, you love him, we all love him. As he will tell you many times, he has a year round pool membership and is one of the top five Lady Gaga essayists in the nation. He is also a master hand raver, however, you will only see him in action if you take his class. He owns a leather baseball cap. He mainly dresses in all-black but occasionally wears an acid wash denim vest. It is suspected he owns a wide variety of brightly colored clothing but never decides to wear it. There is no factual basis for this theory, but we like to believe it's true. He is a lovely vampire giant man. Highly recommend. Part of the class involves analysing Britney Spears music videos. Take the class.