Learn how to craft compelling feature articles from a professional writer and a New York Times editor.

Feature articles are the human side of journalism—pieces that go beyond the facts, exploring the world in a personal and compelling way. Such articles can examine virtually any topic, from the latest news to the newest trends to profiles of interesting people.

Feature articles abound in magazines and newspapers and they can even grow into books, such as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The Perfect Storm.

Article writing combines the reporter’s hunt for a story with a storyteller’s flair. In our course, you will learn such journalistic techniques as angles, “ledes,” research, and interviewing, as well as such craft elements as description, structure, character, and voice. You will also learn how and where to market your work.

Whether you seek to write stories drawn from serious news or the lighter side of life, we’ll show you how to write articles that grab a reader’s attention.

During the first ten weeks of this eleven-week course, a professional writer will teach you the fundamentals of feature article writing. You will have a weekly writing assignment and two opportunities to present a longer work for instructor and classmate feedback. The eleventh week will be devoted to an online Q&A with a New York Times editor.

Using a balance of lecture, exercise, and feedback on work from the instructor and classmates, this  workshop gives students a firm grounding in all the basics of feature article writing. Everything is presented in a clear, accessible manner.

• Begin writing two feature articles
• Lectures on types of features and basics of craft
• Writing exercises
• Present work for critique (two times)

Only this Premium article writing workshop includes a week-long Q&A with an editor from The New York Times.

Article Writing I is for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals.

Class size is strictly limited to 16 writers.

View a course syllabus

Instructors
S. James Snyder (Nov. 17) has written articles for USA Today, Newsday, the Newark Star-Ledger, L Magazine, the Villager, and Art Forum. He has served as film critic for the New York Sun, arts reviewer with Downtown Express Collider, film editor for SOMA magazine, and is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. He holds an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.

Jonathan Mandell (Feb. 23) has written articles for a wide variety of newspapers, magazines and websites, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Esquire, New York, ArtNews, Good Housekeeping, Reader’s Digest, Disney.com, and TheFasterTimes.com. He has served as editor-in-chief of GothamGazette.com, NYC editor of Culturemob, producer for CBSNews.com and CNN.com, and as a staff writer for Newsday and the New York Daily News. He has taught at the Columbia School of Journalism.

Guest Editors
David Corcoran (Nov. 17) has been an assistant science editor at The New York Times since September 2001. In that job he works with the 30-member science staff, assigning and editing articles and helping to coordinate pictures and information graphics for the daily paper and the weekly Science Times. 
     He joined The Times in September 1988 and has worked in a variety of positions, including assistant special sections editor, 2000-01; education editor, 1999; deputy graphics director, 1996-99; deputy New Jersey editor, 1995-96; deputy Op-Ed editor, 1993-95; assistant to the national editor for weekend news, 1991-93 and copy editor, national desk, 1988-91. As assistant special sections editor, he edited The Times’s 150th anniversary issue, ``From the Newspaper Age to the Information Age,’’ published on Nov. 14, 2001.
     Mr. Corcoran came to The Times from The Record of Hackensack, N.J., where he was chief news editor.  From 1977 to 1987 he was editor of The Record’s editorial pages, which won top honors from the New Jersey Press Association in each of those years and won a number of other state and national awards.  In 1976-77 he was a Professional Journalism Fellow (in what is now the Knight Fellowship program) at Stanford University.

Learn how to craft compelling feature articles from a professional writer and a New York Times editor.

Feature articles are the human side of journalism, combining the reporter’s hunt for facts with a storyteller’s flair. Such articles can examine virtually any topic: from news to trends to profiles to the offbeat corners. In our courses, you will learn such journalistic techniques as angles, structure, reporting, and interviewing, as well as storytelling craft such as scene, description, and voice. You will also learn how and where to market your work.

Whether you seek to write about serious news or the lighter side of life, we’ll show you how to grab a reader’s attention.

Article Writing II is for those who have completed Article Writing I or Travel Writing I or the equivalent.

During the first ten weeks of this eleven-week course, a professional writer will reinforce the basics of feature article writing, and delve into the fine points. You will have a weekly writing assignment and three opportunities to present a feature article for instructor and classmate feedback. The eleventh week will be devoted to an online Q&A with a New York Times editor.

Class size is strictly limited to 16 writers.

View a course syllabus

Instructor
S. James Snyder (Feb. 24) has written articles for USA Today, Newsday, the Newark Star-Ledger, L Magazine, the Villager, and Art Forum. He has served as film critic for the New York Sun, arts reviewer with Downtown Express Collider, film editor for SOMA magazine, and is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. He holds an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.

Guest Editor
To be announced

Food writing encompasses any kind of writing that focuses on food (or drink), be it a review of a restaurant down the street, an article on paprika or a wine tour of New Zealand, a story about helping grandma in the kitchen, or a collection of recipes for catfish. And you can experience the deliciousness of food writing without gaining a single pound.

Food writing requires a passion for food and the ability to summon its wonders in words.

In our courses, you will learn about the full spectrum of food writing—reviews, memoir, essay, articles, blogs, books—as well as such writing craft elements as description, structure, voice, and angles. You will also learn how and where to market your work.

Whether you seek to write about producing, preparing, or just partaking of food, we’ll show you how to spice your writing just right.

During the first ten weeks of this eleven-week course, a professional writer will teach you the fundamentals of food writing. You will have a weekly writing assignment and two opportunities to present a longer work for instructor and classmate feedback. The eleventh week will be devoted to an online Q&A with a New York Times editor.

Using a balance of lecture, exercise, and feedback on work from the instructor and classmates, this workshop gives students a firm grounding in all the basics of food writing. Everything is presented in a clear, accessible manner.

• Begin writing two articles or a book
• Lectures on types of food writing and basics of craft
• Writing exercises
• Present work for critique (two times)

Only this Premium food writing workshop includes a week-long Q&A with an editor from The New York Times.

Food Writing is for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals.

Class size is strictly limited to 16 writers.

View a course syllabus

Instructor
To be announced

Guest Editor
To be announced

Learn the most effective methods for selling magazine and newspaper articles from a professional freelancer and a New York Times editor. 

Many writers make a living, or a sizable portion of their living, by selling articles to magazines and newspapers on a freelance basis. The trick is to generate saleable ideas, match them perfectly to the right periodicals, then write terrific query letters. In particular, you must know exactly which publications are appropriate for which ideas (and how to figure this out among the thousands of publications).

In this five-week class you will learn how to execute each of these steps. You will also gain a realistic understanding of how you can begin a freelance career, move up the ladder in terms of prestige and pay, and manage your writing as a business. In addition, this unique course will give you the opportunity to interact with an editor from The New York Times in a special week-long discussion.

Among the topics covered:

• Overview of the magazine/newspaper market
• How to generate saleable ideas
• How to write great query letters
• How to scope out and analyze magazines and newspapers
• Effective ways to make contact
• How to send your materials
• Deciphering rejections
• Understanding contracts
• Managing the business side of writing

This course focuses on the selling of nonfiction magazine and newspaper articles. During the first four weeks, a professional freelancer will walk you through the strategies for selling magazine and newspaper articles on a regular basis and each student will have two opportunities to present a query letter to the instructor for feedback. The fifth week will be devoted to an online Q&A with an editor from The New York Times, a feature unique to this Premium class.

Class size is strictly limited to 25 students. 

View a course syllabus

Instructor
Cindy Price (Jan. 6, Feb. 3) is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, and writes for the American Michelin red guides. She primarily covers food and travel for the Times' Escapes, Travel and Dining sections, but has covered a range of topics for The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Sports section, Conde Nast Traveler, Philadelphia Weekly, Gotham, FHM, and the New Leader.

Guest Editor
To be announced

Learn how to write about travel—articles, memoir, essay, blogs, guidebooks—from a professional writer and a New York Times editor.

Travel writing lets us traverse the world on paper or screen, journeying everywhere from the cobblestone streets of Amsterdam to the brilliant-white beaches of Zanzibar. Reading of travel can provide the inspiration and information to set us in motion or it can transport foreign locales right into our homes.

Travel writing requires you to pack along a sense of adventure, a journalist’s eye, and a storyteller’s flair.  In our courses, you will learn about the full spectrum of travel writing, as well as such writing craft elements as description, structure, voice, and angles. You will also learn how and where to market your work.

Travel writing abounds in magazines, newspapers, books, and on the Internet. Whether you seek to write about places near or far, we’ll show you how to turn the world into words.

During the first ten weeks of this eleven-week course, a professional writer will teach you the fundamentals of travel writing. You will have a weekly writing assignment and two opportunities to present a longer work for instructor and classmate feedback. The eleventh week will be devoted to an online Q&A with a New York Times editor.

Using a balance of lecture, exercise, and feedback on work from the instructor and classmates, this workshop gives students a firm grounding in all the basics of feature travel writing. Everything is presented in a clear, accessible manner.

• Begin writing two travel pieces or a travel book
• Lectures on types of travel writing and basics of craft
• Writing exercises
• Present work for critique (two times)

Only this Premium travel writing workshop includes a week-long Q&A with an editor from The New York Times.

Travel Writing is for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals.

Class size is strictly limited to 16 writers.

View a course syllabus

Instructor
Andrew Collins (Feb. 23) has served as editor and writer on more than 150 guidebooks for Fodor's, Moon Handbooks, and Zagat guides. He’s the expert "guide" on gay and lesbian travel for the website About.com, and has contributed to Travel + Leisure, The Advocate, Sunset, New Mexico Magazine, Out Magazine and various AAA publications.

Colleen Kinder (Mar. 16) is the author of the guidebook Delaying the Real World (Running Press), and she co-edited the essay anthology Confessions of a High School Nerd (Penguin). Her articles and essays on travel and current events have been published in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Salon, the New Republic, Transitions Abroad, Ms., Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, Quarterly West, Ninth Letter, A Public Space, and Prairie Schooner, and the anthologies A Woman’s World Again (Traveler’s Tales) and 20-Something Essays by 20-Something Writers (Random House). She has taught at the University of Iowa. She holds a BA from Yale University and an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Iowa.

Guest Editor
To be announced