Aims of the course:
- To introduce participants to the basic terminology and techniques of poetry writing.
- To offer a broad overview of the variety of approaches in contemporary English language poetry.
- To provide participants with the opportunity to begin to master these techniques and experiment with different forms.
Course content overview:
Although prose and poetry both use words as their basic medium, poetry writing requires a different and distinct set of skills.
In poetry, the basic unit is not the sentence but the line; sound and rhythm are especially important; poetry can give the writer opportunities to think through imagery and form.
This course will introduce the students to these distinct aspects of poetry writing through examples and exercises.
Each week we will examine a particular aspect of technique, building up from the barest basics and moving towards experiment with different forms and approaches: the image; the poetry line; rhythm, rhyme and other sound patterns; form (the line and the stanza) in free verse; traditional forms.
Methods will include:
- close reading and discussion of published poems;
- writing prompts and exercises;
- sharing of work and feedback from the tutor and other students.
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online):
Orientation Week: 4-10 January 2021
Teaching Weeks: 11 January-14 February 2021
Feedback Week: 15-21 February 2021
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards,etc).
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
