Essay & Opinion Writing I
GUIDE TO NONFICTION COURSES
Essay & Opinion Writing I is a 10-week workshop, which includes lectures, exercises, and the critiquing of student projects. It’s for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
Do you enjoy sharing your viewpoints? What do you think of, say, global warming or the latest water-cooler TV show or the forgotten value of handkerchiefs? No topic is too major or minor to warrant exploration. There are many places to air your views—magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs, books, newsletters—and many forms to encapsulate them.
People will be eager to hear you out…if you know how to elucidate your thoughts better than the average loudmouth on the bus. Here you’ll learn about the leading forms of viewpoint writing—personal essay, lyric essay, op-eds, reviews, and others—as well as writing craft and how to market your work.
Whatever you have to say, we’ll show you how to say it effectively and compellingly.
This course will boost your writing confidence and give you the tools to be a better writer when writing essays or opinion pieces.
Cheryl Roshak
transition and career coach
Notes
A personal essay is similar to a memoir; both incorporate elements from the writer’s life. But a personal essay focuses more on the viewpoint, and a memoir focuses more on the story. Gotham also offers courses on Memoir Writing and an Intensive on Personal Essay Writing.
Upcoming Classes
NYC classes are being scheduled. Please check back soon.
10-Week
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Online
Anytime, week-long sessions
Tuition: $464 (returning students: $434)
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Zoom
Real-time videoconference
Tuition: $464 (returning students: $434)
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One-on-One
Tuition: $1895
Syllabus
This course gives you a firm grounding in the basics of essay/opinion writing craft and gets you writing an essay or opinion piece (or two). Course components:
Lectures
Writing exercises
Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work two times)
New York City/Zoom classes
The syllabus varies from teacher to teacher, term to term. Many topics will be similar to those covered in the Online classes.
Online classes
Week 1
Introduction to Essay & Opinion Writing: The different forms of essay and opinion writing—personal essays, reviews, op-eds, persuasive essays, exploratory essays, lyric essays. Creative nonfiction structure—lede, nut graf, body, kicker. The basics of framing.
Week 2
Purpose and Meaning: Your point (and you do have one). Finding an essay’s guiding principle. The role of theme in creative nonfiction.
Week 3
Description: Putting the “creative” in creative nonfiction. Finding the right word. The art of selection.
Week 4
Voice: Elements of voice. Role of voice in essay writing. Finding your writer’s voice.
Week 5
Personal Essay: Blending the personal and universal. Using your experience to shed light on a larger subject.
Week 6
Review Writing: Structure of reviews. Balancing honesty with mutual regard.
Week 7
Op-Ed/Persuasive Essay: Logic in creative writing. The art of persuasion.
Week 8
Reported/Exploratory/Lyric Essays: Reported—narrative nonfiction using style, dialogue, and description. Exploratory—essays that begin with a question. Lyric—nonfiction that experiments with rhythm, sound, and syntax.
Week 9
Revision: The art of revision.
Week 10
The Business: Finding the right market. Making your pitch.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
Teachers
Amanda Oliver
Amanda Oliver is the author of the nonfiction book Overdue: Reckoning With the Public Library (Chicago Review Press), and her essays have appeared in Electric Literature, the Los Angeles Times, the Rumpus, PANK, and Medium, among many others. She is formerly the nonfiction editor of Joyland Magazine, and she has taught for the University of California at Riverside. She holds a BA and an MLS from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and an MFA in nonfiction from the University of California at Riverside.
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Angie Chatman
Angie Chatman has told stories on The MOTH Radio Hour, StoryCollider, Stories from the Stage (The World Channel), and Boston's Fugitive Stories. Her essays and short fiction are forthcoming or have appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review, Taint, Taint, Taint, Pangyrus, the Rumpus, Blood Orange Review, Hippocampus, and Business Insider, among others. She has taught for the Boston Public Library and the University of Hartford. She holds an MBA from MIT-Sloan, and an MFA in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction from Queens University of Charlotte.
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Genevieve Kingston
Genevieve Kingston is the author of the memoir Did I Ever Tell You? (Simon & Schuster), based on her New York Times Modern Love essay “She Put Her Unspent Love in a Cardboard Box.” Her produced plays include Café Utopia (Hudson Guild Theatre), Wild Home: Ohio River Valley (Notch Theatre Co.), Anna Karenina: a riff (Notch Theatre Co. at the Flea Theatre), and Past Perfect (Brown University/Trinity Rep). She has taught at Waterwell (at the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan). She holds a BA from the University of California-Berkeley, and an MFA from Brown University/Trinity Rep.
Read moreis the author of the nonfiction book Overdue: Reckoning With the Public Library (Chicago Review Press), and her essays have appeared in Electric Literature, the Los Angeles Times, the Rumpus, PANK, and Medium, among many others. She is formerly the nonfiction editor of Joyland Magazine, and she has taught for the University of California at Riverside. She holds a BA and an MLS from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and an MFA in nonfiction from the University of California at Riverside.
has told stories on The MOTH Radio Hour, StoryCollider, Stories from the Stage (The World Channel), and Boston's Fugitive Stories. Her essays and short fiction are forthcoming or have appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review, Taint, Taint, Taint, Pangyrus, the Rumpus, Blood Orange Review, Hippocampus, and Business Insider, among others. She has taught for the Boston Public Library and the University of Hartford. She holds an MBA from MIT-Sloan, and an MFA in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction from Queens University of Charlotte.
is the author of the memoir Did I Ever Tell You? (Simon & Schuster), based on her New York Times Modern Love essay “She Put Her Unspent Love in a Cardboard Box.” Her produced plays include Café Utopia (Hudson Guild Theatre), Wild Home: Ohio River Valley (Notch Theatre Co.), Anna Karenina: a riff (Notch Theatre Co. at the Flea Theatre), and Past Perfect (Brown University/Trinity Rep). She has taught at Waterwell (at the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan). She holds a BA from the University of California-Berkeley, and an MFA from Brown University/Trinity Rep.
Related Courses
Personal Essay 1: Exploring
The writer’s view on a topic, interlaced with experiences from the writer’s life.
Memoir Writing I
True stories about aspects of the writer’s life, whether essay or book-length.
Creative Nonfiction 101
A great entry point for the creative forms of nonfiction—memoir, essay, feature articles, reviews, etc.
