In our writing courses, students engage in close reading and discussion of professional and student work in order to develop both an appreciation for the nuances of well-constructed texts and the skills to craft lively and effective writing themselves. Each course follows the workshop format used in Johns Hopkins University’s Writing Seminars. During workshops, students receive detailed responses to their writing from instructional staff as well as from their peers. Serving as experienced fellow writers, instructors mentor students and critique their work as carefully as they would that of their colleagues. Instructors typically hold advanced degrees in creative writing, composition and rhetoric, or literature, and are themselves active writers. Class discussions and presentations, close-reading activities, and writing exercises help students identify and practice the elements of powerful writing: precise diction and vivid details; deft control of tone; careful use of irony and point of view; and attention to the rhythms of language. Students leave our writing courses with a foundation for success in AP and college-level courses and with the confidence to express their own voices in a variety of forms. Please refer to our Eligibility web page for minimum test score requirements for writing courses. Sample syllabi for all courses are also available. The following writing courses are listed below:
Creative NonfictionStudents in this course explore the literary devices and story-telling skills of creative writers and apply them to the crafting of fact-based narrative. Beginning with memoir and personal essays and moving to essays about the world around them, students learn to tell true stories using the traditional tools of fiction and poetry, with particular attention to evocative imagery and the beauty of language. By reading the work of accomplished creative nonfiction writers such as David Foster Wallace, James Baldwin, and Joan Didion, students learn about the interplay of personal experience and journalistic reporting and consider how a writer’s voice and experiences shape a text. Students assess the freedoms and constraints of creative nonfiction by reading and discussing the work of writers who experiment with the boundaries of the genre. In addition to daily reading and writing exercises, students complete four to six major essays. They experiment with literary elements, techniques for organizing essays, creating meaningful transitions, and beginning and ending their works effectively. Students leave the course with a clearer sense of audience and their own authorial voices, as well as a deeper understanding of the strategies and practices of strong nonfiction writing. Note: Students who have completed our Crafting the Essay should not take this course. Sample texts: In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, Gutkind, ed; materials compiled by the instructor. Session 1: All sites
Session 2: All sites Top
Fiction and PoetryE. L. Doctorow said, “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” In this class, students draw inspiration from the published works, journals, and rough drafts of writers such as Alice Munro, John Updike, Rita Dove, and Li-Young Lee. Examining a range of content, techniques, styles, and structures, students discover what it means to read like a writer. For instance, they may debate the distinction between the realistic and the fantastic in Gabriel García Márquez’s “I Sell My Dreams” or the value of concrete imagery in Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish.” Beginning with the spark of an idea and moving through the drafting stages, students write short fiction and poetry in various forms. Under the guidance of the instructor, students provide frequent feedback on each other’s drafts. The workshop format of the course creates an enriching space that fosters students’ development as writers. Students not only learn to give and receive criticism with tact and grace, but also refine their personal aesthetics, building a communal understanding of how voice, style, and structure comprise strong poetry and prose. Note: This course focuses on realistic, literary fiction and poetry. The genres of science fiction, fantasy, romance, and mystery are not part of this course. Note: Students who have completed our Introduction to Creative Writing should not take this course. Sample texts: An anthology such as Best American Short Stories of the Century, ed. Updike; The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, Strand and Boland; materials compiled by the instructor. Session 1: Carlisle, Lancaster
Session 2: Carlisle, Lancaster Top
The Critical Essay: Literature and the ArtsPrerequisite: Any CTY Intensive Studies writing or humanities course, or at least a "B" in ninth-grade English. In this course, students approach literature and the fine arts as texts to be read with a critical eye. Engaging art forms as diverse as painting, poetry, fiction, photography, and classical music, students explore not only how the arts frame different views of the world but also how different views of the world frame the arts. How, for instance, are Picasso’s painting Guernica, Faulkner’s novel The Sound and the Fury, and Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring all expressions of and reactions to disillusionment and rapid change in the wake of political and social unrest? Students also examine how artists are inspired by and interpret each other’s work. For example, how do Margaret Bourke-White’s photographs of Buchenwald inform Susan Sontag’s reflections on representations of atrocity in Regarding the Pain of Others? In addition to engaging the arts directly, students read and debate the ideas of eminent art and literary critics. As they begin to develop a language for writing about the arts, students complete essays that define, describe, compare, and contrast. In later assignments, students evaluate, analyze, and interpret artistic works. In these essays, students consider critics’ opinions and construct their own interpretations. They produce four to six major writing projects, developing their skills through an intense process of drafting, critiquing in workshops, and revising. Sample texts: An anthology such as Literature for Composition, Barnet; a novel such as Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf; materials compiled by the instructor. Field Trip Fee: $65 Session 1: Baltimore
Session 2: Not offered Top
The Critical Essay: Popular Culture
Prerequisite: Any CTY Intensive Studies writing or humanities course, or at least a “B” in ninth-grade English. In this course, thinking and writing about popular culture provide students with the opportunity to train a critical eye on the familiar. Students consider how elements of popular culture—drawn from film, television, popular music, and advertising—shape and are shaped by our society and value systems. Through lectures, critical readings, and class discussions, students acquire sophisticated tools to analyze the meanings, audiences, and social impact of popular culture. In addition, students read and evaluate analyses of contemporary culture and its icons by scholars and journalists. Topics of inquiry range from rap to shopping malls and include essays by authors such as Stuart Hall, Naomi Wolf, Molly Bang, Scott McCloud, and bell hooks. Writing assignments include a rhetorical analysis of an advertisement, an analysis of a film, and an essay in which students consider a person, place, or thing as a cultural artifact. Students produce four to six major writing projects, developing their skills through an intense process of drafting, critiquing in workshops, and revising. Sample text: Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, Solomon and Maasik. Session 1: Lancaster, Los Angeles
Session 2: Lancaster Top
The Critical Essay: Film
Prerequisite: Any CTY Intensive Studies writing or humanities course, or at least a “B” in ninth-grade English. From the bustling Manhattan of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights (1931) to the mythologized American west of John Ford’s The Searchers (1956), films have captured our imagination and our culture. More than just popular entertainment, films reflect the society that produces them. What, for example, does a gangster film like Howard Hawks’ Scarface (1932), a domestic melodrama like Dorothy Arzner’s Craig’s Wife (1936), or an adventure classic like Merian C. Cooper’s King Kong (1933) reveal about how we viewed our institutions, our country, and ourselves during the Great Depression? Through lectures, critical readings, and discussions, students in this writing course acquire the sophisticated skills necessary for college-level critical writing. Students analyze the form and content of classic Hollywood cinema (1910-1960), exploring how directors employ specific strategies to achieve desired results and how films create meaning, target audiences, and affect society at large. In addition to film clips from various cultures and eras, students watch four complete films, including one work by an acknowledged pioneer of world cinema, such as Akira Kurosawa, Agnès Varda, Satyajit Ray, or François Truffaut. Students write four critical essays in addition to a number of shorter projects such as scene analyses and reviews. Each essay is developed through a process of drafting, critiquing in workshops, and revising. Students learn to research specific details to support thesis statements, organize their thoughts coherently, and forge original voices with which to express their views. Sample texts: Movies and Meaning: An Introduction to Film, Prince; A Short Guide to Writing about Film, Corrigan. Session 1: Not offered
Session 2: Carlisle Top
Utopias and DystopiasPrerequisite: Any CTY Intensive Studies writing or humanities course, or at least a “B” in ninth-grade English. From Plato’s Republic to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, utopian and dystopian literature often examines the fine line between a perfect and an oppressive society. What makes the difference between an ideal world and a nightmare? Through extensive critical and creative writing, students in this course explore how utopian and dystopian works are constructed and how they can be used to engage some of the most pressing sociopolitical concerns of the times. Class sessions are designed to help students develop skills as both scholars and practitioners of utopian and dystopian literature. As scholars, students identify, discuss, and write about the underlying rules, laws, and ideologies relating to economics, politics, gender roles, religions, and technologies within the works they examine. For example, after reading Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta or Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, students may write an essay about dystopian protagonists and how they are able to effect change in unjust, oppressive societies. Likewise, students might compare gender roles in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland and Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower. As practitioners, students have the opportunity to construct and share their own utopian or dystopian visions.Class sessions are designed to encourage close reading, discussion, and both critical and creative writing. Students produce four to six major writing projects, including both critical and creative work. They develop their writing through an intense process of drafting, critiquing in workshops, and revising. Sample text: The Republic, Plato; The Parable of the Sower, Butler; materials compiled by the instructor. Session 1: Lancaster
Session 2: Lancaster Top
Advanced Fiction
Prerequisite: Any of CTY's Critical Essay courses, or CTY's Utopias and Dystopias course. This course provides an immersion into contemporary literary fiction, particularly the short story. In addition to writing short stories, students read and discuss works primarily by modern and contemporary fiction writers who work in a range of genres such as Flannery O’Connor, Tim O’Brien, Kurt Vonnegut, and Jamaica Kincaid. Students learn to hear the written word with a writer’s ear and examine the principles and practices of fiction writing such as plot, theme, and character development. The course strongly emphasizes comprehensive revision based on workshop comments and conferences with the instructor. Students leave the course with a working knowledge of the principle tenets of writing fiction and a portfolio of their own polished storie. Note: This course does not focus only on realistic, literary fiction. Students are welcome to explore other genres such as science fiction, fantasy, romance, and mystery. Sample texts: The Story and Its Writer, Charters; American Short Story Masterpieces, Carver; 20th Century Ghosts, Hill; materials compiled by the instructor. Session 1: Saratoga Springs
Session 2: Baltimore Top | 
