Overview of Course

The course will help you become a better writer. And you’ll have some remarkable opportunities on your Semester at Sea voyage to help you flourish as a writer of creative and engaging non-fiction about diverse people, places and cultures. How will this course help you become a better writer? First, we’ll read good writing about the places we’ll be visiting. Second, we’ll discuss the craft and art of writing, particularly travel writing. Third, we’ll report on interesting people, places, and cultures through observation, research, and interviews. And fourth, we’ll write, edit and rewrite to make our stories shine. The best feature stories inform, provoke, inspire, and reward the reader with telling details and superb writing. We’ll get to write about our personal observations, interactions, and other experiences. We’ll use storytelling, scene-setting, character development, and descriptive detail. We’ll help each other improve our writing. This course relies heavily on coaching, which has been called “the human side of editing,” to improve the writer, not just the words.