Writers Institute

The Writers Institute prepares students for college and careers by engaging their creative and artistic passions. The Institute provides  a core understanding of writing workshop, journalism, literature, and essay writing. In the first year, students will take introductions to Journalism and creative writing. In the second year, students will take creative writing courses in playwriting, poetry, and fiction in addition to a Regents or AP preparatory class. In the senior year, students will develop submit work to the Random House writing competition and develop a portfolio of work as a senior project.

Journalism

Students learn the fundamentals of journalism, including reporting, interviewing, and writing for deadlines. Students write a variety of article types including op-eds, expository articles, and many more.

Playwriting
Students learn the fundamentals of writing for the stage, including plot, character, and theme. This work culminates in students’ writing and workshopping their own one-act plays.

Art of Writing

This course emphasizes both creative and expository writing. Students read poetry, short stories, drama, and literary and non-fiction to inspire their writing. Students examine authors’ voices and techniques to experiment and grow as writers.
Memoir and Fiction Writing
Students read a variety of short and long memoirs as mentor texts. Students learn about how to build a narrative through the effective use of imagery, symbolism, motif, conflict, tone, POV, etc. Students write their own short and long pieces of memoir and fiction. Ultimately, students will develop fiction and memoirs to prepare for submissions to the Random House Creative Writing Competition.

Creative Writing

Students will write poetry and flash fiction for student-led workshops and to prepare submissions for the school’s literary magazine, The Magnet.


Adv. Creative Writing
This course will focus their attention on the habits and processes of the writer. Students receive practice and instruction in the finer points of style, grammar, and syntax. Students create their final portfolio, which could be a single longer work of poetry, prose, or drama or a series of shorter works. Students will workshop works in progress with their group as well as in one-on- one conferences with the instructor.
Contact Mickey Ehrlich at merhlich@schools.nyc.gov or Gayle Zeitlin, A.P. of Communication Arts for more information at gzeitlin2@schools.nyc.gov.