The goal of CTY’s Writing Program is to provide students with a solid foundation in college-level writing. Students engage in close reading and discussion of student and published works in order to develop the writing skills necessary for success in all disciplines. Each course follows the workshop format used in graduate-level writing programs such as Johns Hopkins University’s Writing Seminars. During workshops, students receive detailed responses to their writing from instructional staff as well as from their peers. The instructor’s role is that of an experienced fellow writer who is the mentor of a small writing community; instructors critique students’ work as carefully as they would that of their colleagues. Writing instructors typically hold advanced degrees in creative writing, composition and rhetoric, or literature, and are themselves active writers. The CTY Writing Program approaches writing as a complex process in which content and style are intimately and subtly related. Students begin with Crafting the Essay or Introduction to Creative Writing, then move on to one of the Critical Essay courses. This two-course sequence teaches students to write fluently and effectively by emphasizing language, reflection, and analysis. With this strong foundation, students are prepared to continue with The Crafting of Fiction. Please refer to our Eligibility web page for minimum test score requirements for writing courses. Sample syllabi for all courses are also available.
Crafting the Essay
Crafting the Essay begins with the premise that students are members of a writers’ community. Drawing on their own experiences, students write literary essays and personal memoirs as they explore the nature and function of nonfiction prose. Beginning with invention and moving through the drafting and revising stages, students complete four to six polished essays. Students examine their assumptions about language and truth and explore the creative elements of nonfiction writing. Activities help students practice the elements of lively, powerful prose: vivid, precise diction and specific details; figurative language, including metaphor; and variety in sentence structure. Students also experiment with different techniques for organizing essays and for beginning and ending their work effectively. In addition, instructors encourage students to discover a personal writing voice and consider how that voice relates to audience and purpose. Throughout the course, students read and discuss—often as models for their own writing—the prose of writers such as E. B. White, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joan Didion, and James Baldwin. Note: Crafting the Essay is a composition course that challenges CTY students of all ages and abilities, including students who already receive high marks in their English classes. When feasible, students in this course are grouped with others of approximately the same age. Sample texts: The Art of the Personal Essay, Lopate; Elements of Style, Strunk and White; The Woman Warrior, Kingston. Session 1: Baltimore, Carlisle, Lancaster, Los Angeles, Loudonville, Saratoga Springs
Session 2: Baltimore, Carlisle, Lancaster, Los Angeles, Loudonville, Saratoga Springs Top
Introduction to Creative Writing
E. L. Doctorow says, “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” In this class, students draw inspiration from published works, journals, and rough drafts of authors such as Flannery O’Connor, John Updike, Rita Dove, and Li-Young Lee. Examining a range of content, techniques, styles, and structures, students use discussions and workshop techniques to discover what it means to read like a writer. For instance, they may debate the distinction between the realistic and the fantastic in García Márquez’s short story “I Sell My Dreams” or the value of concrete imagery in Bishop’s poem “The Fish.” Beginning with a spark of an idea and moving through the drafting and revising stages, students write three short stories. They also craft a number of poems in various forms, such as the villanelle, a sestina, and iambic free verse. Throughout the writing process, classmates and the instructor provide frequent feedback on each student’s drafts, often in a workshop format. Class presentations, frequent close reading activities, and writing exercises help students identify and practice the elements of lively, powerful creative writing: vivid, precise diction and specific details; deft control of tone; figurative language, including metaphor; careful use of irony and point of view; and variety in structure. 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. Sample texts: Materials compiled by the instructor; supplemental texts such as Best American Short Stories of the Century, ed. Updike and Behind the Short Story: From First to Final Draft, Van Cleave and Pierce. Session 1: Carlisle, Loudonville
Session 2: Carlisle, Loudonville Top
The Critical Essay: Literature and the Arts
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. Prerequisite: CTY’s Crafting the Essay or Introduction to Creative Writing. Field Trip Fee: $65 Session 1: Saratoga Springs
Session 2: Saratoga Springs Top
The Critical Essay: Popular Culture
In this course, thinking and writing about popular culture provide students with the opportunity to cast a critical eye on the familiar. Students consider how elements of popular culture—drawn from film, television, popular music, and advertising—both 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. Prerequisite: CTY’s Crafting the Essay or Introduction to Creative Writing. Session 1: Lancaster, Los Angeles, Saratoga Springs
Session 2: Lancaster Top
The Critical Essay: Science Fiction
The Martian tripods that strode forth to divide and conquer in H.G. Wells’s 1898 The War of the Worlds were not only monsters in a “scientific romance” but also a means of illustrating the real-life brutality of British imperialism. Science fiction, in fact, has always engaged pressing political and cultural concerns. Genre pioneers from Harlan Ellison to Ursula K. Le Guin have examined such issues as genetic engineering, class oppression, gender politics, and environmental sustainability. Beginning with early texts like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and concluding with current classics such as Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, students in this writing course explore major works of science fiction in their historical and cultural contexts. Through lectures, critical reading, and discussion, they consider how authors not only react to scientific or technological advancements, but also challenge our assumptions about society and ourselves. How, for instance, is Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles a critique of Cold War America amidst the uncertainties of the Atomic Age? What does Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower illustrate about contemporary racial tensions and urban decay? Students supplement their literary study with analyses of selected films and television shows, such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Minority Report, and Battlestar Galactica. They produce four to six major essays, developing their skills through an intense process of drafting, critiquing in workshops, and revising. Sample texts: The Stars My Destination, Bester; The Lathe of Heaven, Le Guin; Women of Wonder: The Classic Years, Sargent; The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, Silverberg. Prerequisite: CTY’s Crafting the Essay or Introduction to Creative Writing. Session 1: Carlisle
Session 2: Saratoga Springs Top
The Critical Essay: Film
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. Prerequisite: CTY’s Crafting the Essay or Introduction to Creative Writing. Session 1: Not offered
Session 2: Carlisle Top
The Crafting of Fiction
This advanced course provides an intensive introduction to 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, such as Flannery O’Connor, Tim O’Brien, 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 finish the course with a working knowledge of the principle tenets of writing fiction and a portfolio of their own polished stories. Note: This course focuses on realistic, literary fiction. The genres of science fiction, fantasy, romance, and mystery are not part of this course. Sample texts: The Story and Its Writer, Charters; materials compiled by the instructor. Prerequisite: Any CTY Critical Essay course. Session 1: Saratoga Springs
Session 2: Saratoga Springs Top | 
