The course will meet once a week for nine weeks at various locations in Birmingham. Classes will be limited to eight students to allow sufficient time for each student to be critiqued at least twice during the session.
Student work will be submitted to the instructor one week before they are due to be critiqued. The work should be in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx). It should be double-spaced, in a non-serif typeface. The type should be at least 11-pt and no larger than 12-pt. The work should total between five and ten pages.
The materials will then be redistributed by the instructor to everyone in the class. All distribution will be done via email.
Each week, students will receive, via email, two pieces written by their classmates. Students should read each piece at least twice. The first read should be casual, as if reading for pleasure. Afterward, the student should immediately write a few sentences about their reaction. On the second read, students should try to be more observant to the writer at work and make notes on the manuscript: mark sentences they think are especially well written, aspects of the character that they like, typos or cliches that should be fixed, thoughts about the structure of the story, etc.
Students should take care to write balanced critiques with positive reinforcement in addition to any suggestions they might have. Perhaps more important than knowing what DOESN'T work in a story, the writer needs to know what DOES work.
The first class will consist of some exercises and samples of the work expected. Subsequent classes will consist mainly of critiques. The critique will start with class members briefly sharing their thoughts on the work, followed by a more detailed critique from the instructor. Students and instructor will then turn over their written comments to the author of the critiqued work.
Students are encouraged to spend time looking over each person's comments and re-writing the work. The re-write should NOT be re-submitted to the class during the same nine-week session. When it is that student's turn to be critiqued again, new work should be submitted.