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Induction
What are we going to be doing?
Here we explain the overview of the course and agree ground rules and expectations. We also get conversant with wiki technology which enables students to upload and review their material quickly. This is also the opportunity to ask whether there’s a particular type of document participants would like to be good at writing. If there is, we can create a special exercise around this and make it part of session 4.
Session 1
What is good writing?
What is good writing? Is it simply self-expression or there something else at work? How does writing a parking ticket differ from writing a great speech? We define the terms of the game and examine how simplicity and the right attitude gets you further with a reader than anything else.
Session 2
Keep it simple.
We take simplicity a stage further and look at what gets in the way of it. We also frame the question: What makes something inspiring?
Session 3
The narrative tool.
In this session we look at the simplest unit of thought, the beat, and explore how it builds into a narrative tool. We then use this and see how it works in any piece of persuasive writing.
We look at ads, letters, speeches and song lyrics that have changed people. We look a powerful letter written by a 16 year old girl who is appealing for her kidnapped sister to be returned.
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