10 Step Proposal Writing Course
At some point in their careers, many writers may teach writing
courses, either before a live classroom audience or, these days, online.
But how does a new teacher develop that first course proposal? What
elements should go into it? Proposal Guidelines and Forms
Sometimes a prospective employer may
offer guidelines or forms, and when those are online they help everyone.
Check your local adult education centers website to see if it offers
online proposal guidelines. Read whatever information you can find for
online writing classes at your favorite writing sites, too.
In most cases a proposal will need to
include at least five basic elements:
1. Your contact and
personal information (such as citizenship status, for payment
purposes) as well as your professional biography.
2. Your sense of the target audience for your class.
3. Your sense of what students will gain/learn from
your class.
4. Your sense of course expenditures (including costs
for guest lecturers or other needs, especially for ¡°live¡±
classes).
5. Contact information for individuals who will serve
as referees for you.
Still, if you cant find the specific
program proposal guidelines and requirements that you need online, you
must contact program directors at local colleges/continuing education
programs by phone or e-mail, yourself. Explain that you are a writer who
is interested in learning about the procedures for proposing courses. Be
forewarned that institutions and programs operate on different
schedules; some may plan ahead just weeks at a time, while others may
have an entire academic year already set the previous winter.
Proposal Manager Toolkit - Clarifications
Fine. What if, after all that, you're
simply instructed to send a cover letter and a general course proposal?
What then?
I trust all professional writers to
handle cover letters. You should also take this opportunity to update
your resume or c.v. and review your list of references in case you are,
indeed, asked for that information as the screening process continues,
too. Its also a good idea to review your clip file and consider which of
your writing samples you might submit if requested to do so.
As for the proposal itself, here are
some additional elements that will render it immediately more
professional and complete:
6. Your name, title
("Instructor" is fine if applicable!), and, again for ¡°live¡±
courses especially, a note about your office hours, if you plan to
hold them ("by appointment" or "to be determined"). Place this
information in the top left-hand corner.
7. The course title. Be sure it accurately reflects
the course content. One of my early course was titled ¡°The
Historical Novel: A Writing Workshop.¡± I like poets and essayists
and playwrights just fine, but this course wasn't for them!
8. The course description. Catalog copy generally
runs tight. Try to describe your course in no more than 75-100
words; be prepared to cut this description even further. View
samples from previous catalogs or listings to get a sense of the
institution or programs editorial style. Be direct about the
purpose/goal of the course.
Communication Plan Checklist
For example, hers a description for the
historical novel workshop mentioned above:
"This workshop is for writers of historical novels. Through tailored
writing exercises and discussion of selected texts, the course will
address issues of particular challenge to historical novelists: use of
real characters, setting, and tensions between fact and fiction. Primary
focus, however, will be on critiques of students' work."
9. Prerequisites (if
applicable). A line such as: "Students must submit a one-page
synopsis and five pages of their work-in-progress" signals from the
start that only writers particularly committed to their work should
enroll.
10. Schedule of meetings and reading/writing
assignments. This doesn't necessarily have to be set in stone, but
you'll acquire--and convey--a better sense of your own course if you
think ahead to the class meetings and to how you will be making use
of each.
One writing program director once
advised me that prospective students tended to respond favorably to
having some mention of the authors they'd be reading for a course
within the description, so it can make sense to provide the same
information, in even greater detail, for the ¡°authorities,¡± too.
Once you are preparing the actual
syllabus for a course, you'll want to delineate additional policies.
Depending on the class/institution, you may need to think about grading
policies. And a writing workshop benefits from a set of critique
guidelines everyone understands from the start.
Proposal Manager Toolkit - Cost Breakdown
But don't worry too much about that. Yet. Start with the proposal, and
add that to your writing practice.
© Copyright Erika Dreifus. All rights reserved.
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