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Abstract: The article summarizes the experience of realization of the elective course “Writing for Public: A Creative Workshop” at Tyumen State University. This course is designed for students of all undergraduate majors and includes practical introduction to the means of literary expression and composition techniques, as well as creation of journalistic and fiction texts. The literature review compares the approaches of foreign and domestic universities to teaching writing, as well as the approaches of professional training and courses of creative writing, while the practical part describes the experience of combining these approaches. Whereas the national courses of writing, treated as a general cultural competence, are based on philological knowledge (this approach can be called “philological”), in foreign courses much attention is paid to self-realization, removing writer’s block, and search for unique own voice (the “psychological” approach). The diversity of students’ demands and entrance competences requires a combination of these approaches. The article presents the experience of the use of the methods and techniques described in the literature, as well as the approaches borrowed from colleagues teaching similar courses. The practical realization of the course has shown the applicability of the following principles. The principle of gradual expansion of the audience: progression from writing “for oneself” or “for a small group” to writing for publication. The structure of a single lesson and the entire course are based on this principle. The next principle consists in the movement from free, private writing to focused, structured writing, with the conscious use of techniques and taking into account the genre requirements. This principle is also realized in the structure of an individual lesson and in the entire course. The course structure is also determined by the principle of moving from simple sketches, which fix observations of life, to journalistic genres and then to literary genres. The structure of a practical session, which demonstrates the application of the first and second principles, is shown on the material of the topics “Metaphor” and “Genres”.

About the author(s) :

Elena O. Arbatskaya

Tyumen State University (Tyumen, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7599-6688

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 05.11.2024; date of publication: 30.06.2025

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