Improving Personal Essays With Research & Reporting

$70.00 $80.00

This class will be taught over Zoom on Sunday, August 10 at 4:00 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT

In this two-hour seminar and generative workshop, students will learn how research and reporting can support and improve their personal essays. We will discuss why learning more about the world we live in (and talking to people in that world) helps us create a curiosity-driven writing practice that engages with contemporary culture.

Research and reporting can be intimidating endeavors: diving into historical archives, citing public records, leaving your house and talking to people. But the work of a “researcher” and a “reporter” can also look like going to the library, visiting a museum, chatting with a professor, or quoting someone from one of the genuinely nice corners of Reddit. Research and reporting allows us to indulge our curiosities, develop our areas of expertise, and collect first-hand experiences beyond what just organically happens to us. These practices, essential tools of all writers, help us attain knowledge that can elevate our work and, as personal essayists, do more than just expose and exhaust ourselves on the page.

This class is for writers of all levels and no prior writing experience is required. This class is built around four generative brainstorming exercises that will guide students to multiple essay ideas and potential avenues for research and reporting they can pursue after class. We will also review an excerpt from an optional reading (complete PDF will be provided). We will end with a short Q&A, time permitting.

This class will be taught over Zoom on Sunday, August 10 at 4:00 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT

In this two-hour seminar and generative workshop, students will learn how research and reporting can support and improve their personal essays. We will discuss why learning more about the world we live in (and talking to people in that world) helps us create a curiosity-driven writing practice that engages with contemporary culture.

Research and reporting can be intimidating endeavors: diving into historical archives, citing public records, leaving your house and talking to people. But the work of a “researcher” and a “reporter” can also look like going to the library, visiting a museum, chatting with a professor, or quoting someone from one of the genuinely nice corners of Reddit. Research and reporting allows us to indulge our curiosities, develop our areas of expertise, and collect first-hand experiences beyond what just organically happens to us. These practices, essential tools of all writers, help us attain knowledge that can elevate our work and, as personal essayists, do more than just expose and exhaust ourselves on the page.

This class is for writers of all levels and no prior writing experience is required. This class is built around four generative brainstorming exercises that will guide students to multiple essay ideas and potential avenues for research and reporting they can pursue after class. We will also review an excerpt from an optional reading (complete PDF will be provided). We will end with a short Q&A, time permitting.

About the instructor

Matt Ortile is an editor and writer who has taught creative writing seminars for the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, Poets & Writers, Kundiman, PEN America, the Center for Fiction, and elsewhere. He is the author of the essay collection The Groom Will Keep His Name and an editor for print and digital at Condé Nast Traveler, and was previously the executive editor of the literary magazine Catapult prior to its closure. 

Testimonials

“I love working with Matt Ortile because he knows that ‘personal essay’ doesn’t mean ‘exploitative tell-all circa 2011.’ He knows it means a rigorous work of art. He takes it seriously, helping an author sound, not like him, but like themself on their very best day.” —A. E. Osworth, author of AWAKENED and WE ARE WATCHING ELIZA BRIGHT

“Matt Ortile is the editor of my dreams. He knows how to tell a good story and doesn’t keep his wisdom to himself. He will treat your work with care and respect, provide you with actionable feedback, casually offer nuggets of genius that will make you nod and snap your fingers, but my favorite gift of his is this: He will make you excited to write.” —Edgar Gomez, author of ALLIGATOR TEARS and HIGH-RISK HOMOSEXUAL

“Matt is a generous, thoughtful editor. He encourages my weird ideas and encourages me to make weak ones stronger, and helps me give the reader everything they need in a piece. Working with Matt, I find new ways to make my writing sharper and deeper, and our collaborations always leave me excited to write more.” —Jaime Green, author of THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE; and series editor of the Best American Science and Nature Writing anthologies

“I don’t have an MFA, and so for years, I held myself back from pursuing my dreams of becoming a creative nonfiction writer. But I realized, after working with Matt Ortile, that the most important lessons of the MFA can happen in your working relationship with an editor. Matt was able to see the potential for a published piece when I had just a kernel of an idea—a tweet, in fact! The way he shepherded me through the publication process helped me develop my confidence as a writer. As an editor, he was lovingly rigorous. In the end, my piece he edited not only got published, it ended up becoming my most viral piece ever. I can’t wait to work with him again.” —Anthony Ocampo, author of BROWN AND GAY IN LA and THE LATINOS OF ASIA; and professor of sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona