Developing Structure and Style in a Personal Essay

$70.00 $80.00

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

In this two-hour seminar and generative workshop, students will learn foundational elements of structure and style in a personal essay. We will study the anatomy of an essay in class, and practice with writing tools that can shape our ideas into coherent narratives and lead to a first draft. 

When we write personal essays, we can define ‘structure’ as how we organize our story, and ‘style’ as how we tell that story. Put another way: the former can be called ‘shape,’ and the latter ‘texture.’ A strong sense of both must be present in our prose to minimize the gap between what we mean to say and what the reader takes away from our writing—or, at the very least, write something coherent and understandable. The craft techniques we will learn in class (the two-turns structure, the ladder of abstraction, “braiding,” etc.) are not the end-all-be-all methods of personal essay writing, but they will be handy tools in your repertoire when you are drafting and editing your work. 

This class is for writers of all levels and no prior writing experience is required; a history of reading essays of various forms is recommended. The class is composed of short seminars, generative exercises, and open discussions about structure, style, and how to braid the two in our writing. We will also review readings from Roy Peter Clark, Jane Hu, Aldous Huxley, Helen Rosner, and Jess Zimmerman. Students will leave the class with a potential structure/outline for a personal essay, plus a stylistic tool kit to improve their essayistic prose and communication skills. We will end with a short Q&A, time permitting.

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

In this two-hour seminar and generative workshop, students will learn foundational elements of structure and style in a personal essay. We will study the anatomy of an essay in class, and practice with writing tools that can shape our ideas into coherent narratives and lead to a first draft. 

When we write personal essays, we can define ‘structure’ as how we organize our story, and ‘style’ as how we tell that story. Put another way: the former can be called ‘shape,’ and the latter ‘texture.’ A strong sense of both must be present in our prose to minimize the gap between what we mean to say and what the reader takes away from our writing—or, at the very least, write something coherent and understandable. The craft techniques we will learn in class (the two-turns structure, the ladder of abstraction, “braiding,” etc.) are not the end-all-be-all methods of personal essay writing, but they will be handy tools in your repertoire when you are drafting and editing your work. 

This class is for writers of all levels and no prior writing experience is required; a history of reading essays of various forms is recommended. The class is composed of short seminars, generative exercises, and open discussions about structure, style, and how to braid the two in our writing. We will also review readings from Roy Peter Clark, Jane Hu, Aldous Huxley, Helen Rosner, and Jess Zimmerman. Students will leave the class with a potential structure/outline for a personal essay, plus a stylistic tool kit to improve their essayistic prose and communication skills. 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