Writing (School Of The Arts) · Columbia University
4-6 hrs per week (one book per week), 3 short writing assignments, midterm and final were both journal excerpts
As with other workshops, most of the learning occurred as we practiced our craft of writing and received feedback not only from the professor but our fellow classmates. I am always in awe of the caliber of writing my classmates possess and appreciated the feedback I received from them and our professor. My writing is stronger because of it.
What a lovely guy. I would say that sometimes the class felt like it was geared towards men's opinions, but that is my only critique. Prof Yeh was understanding with extensions, welcomed feedback, and was a wonderful professor. I loved this class and thought it was really well-suited to creative writers as people and as artists. The journaling was hard but I think I grew a lot from it. Great class, would recommend!
I learned how to manage myself in a class taught by a creatively confining professor. I read material that had been included many times in prior classes, which are there are benefits too, but is disappointing. I practiced changing my style in order to respond to the one style that the professor was giving positive feedback to in order to protect my grade. This came after being told the style i was exploring and challenging myself, something I was wrong in figuring was welcome in a collegiate workshop, will not garner success and was unnecessary. However, this was actually quite beneficial because I learned that in reaction to a professor who is confining a class to one style of writing I have the ability to switch up my style. I learned that if this class is any indication of what "real world" writing is I will be going to business school as soon as possible.
A book a week (250-350 pages). Three "nonfiction-ish" pieces (one based on found conversation, another an oral history project, the last an application of one of the book's techniques). The hallmark of the course is the daily journal Prof Yeh expects you to keep and submit an excerpt of for the midterm and final. I have been meaning to keep a journal for years, and this course has been the perfect impetus to keep it up consistently. This sometimes felt burdensome but was ultimately very rewarding (mostly just to write something every day). Prof Yeh was very helpful with his feedback and pretty generous with the grading.
I learned how to prepare critiques, talk about writing, read like a writer, improve my storytelling, and pitch to editors.
Professor Yeh is just great. I went into this class not considering myself much of a writer and left with a better understanding of how to "read" the world through a writer's eyes. The syllabus for this course was wide-reaching but all incredibly written. Each class was mostly group discussion of the book we read, with about 15 minutes of his lecturing. The class size is small too so conversations were always intimate and people had interesting things to say. His lecturing was incredibly helpful for driving the conversation and providing advice for how to enter the world of publishing and editing (Prof. Yeh has years of experience editing for small magazines). His experience on the craft side of the writing process was fascinating and really added to our discussion of the interview based works we read. In short, Prof Yeh is generous with his knowledge and his moderation of the class. The final day concluded with a reading of our works in front of Sontag's UWS apartment and a gifting of a teeny notebook to each student.
This workshop was an overall detriment to my education. Professor Yeh is an objectively poor instructor and his workshop only taught me how to produce creative work for a grade.
how to push and challenge our ideas of writing and themes, high points etc. Really good feedback in class from students and professor that he facilitated from the beginning.
Take this class if you want real feedback from students and professor - this is not for the faint of heart and it can get very real, but that is what we are here for and I am a better writer afterwards.