Get Me Rewrite: The Craft of Revision

Course Overview

Title:
Get Me Rewrite: The Craft of Revision
Type:
Self-Directed Course
Time Estimate:
This course takes about two hours to complete.

About Self-Directed Courses

In a self-directed course, you can start and stop whenever you like, progressing entirely at your own pace and going back as many times as you want to review the material.

"Get Me Rewrite" covers everything you need to improve your writing through the craft of revision. Using fun, interactive activities, you’ll explore:

  • Why writers face an uphill battle making time to revise their work and how they can overcome thinking their first draft is their best draft.
  • Techniques to improve your writing.
  • How to review your work with fresh eyes (and ears) to catch mistakes and fine-tune awkward passages.
  • How to make a great piece even better by removing unnecessary words.
  • Inspiration and tips from other writers.
What Will I Learn:

Upon completing this course, you will know how to:

  • Identify and tag problems in your copy
  • Identify weak verbs and other words in your text
  • Analyze the length of your sentences and paragraphs and determine how long is too long
  • Trim pesky and extraneous words and phrases that bog down your copy
Who should take this course:

Anyone who wants to make his or her writing better by revising it. It's tempting to just write and submit or post, but by taking a little time to look over your work and bolster your words, you will end up with much better and stronger writing.

Course Instructor:

Chip Scanlan

Chip Scanlan, visiting associate professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and former faculty at The Poynter Institute, spent two decades as a reporter, feature writer and national correspondent, and won 16 awards for writing, congressional reporting and public service, including a Robert F. Kennedy award for his exposé of hazardous exports to developing countries.

Technical Requirements:

For this course you will need to have at least version 7.0 of the Flash plugin installed. For the best experience, we suggest that:

  • PC users use Internet Explorer or Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox
  • Mac users use Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox or Safari
  • You set your monitor resolution to 1024 x 768 or higher
  • You use a high-speed connection