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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot by Wesleyan University

4.7
stars
4,727 ratings

About the Course

In this course aspiring writers will be introduced to perhaps the most elemental and often the most challenging element of story: plot. We will learn what keeps it moving, how it manipulates our feelings, expectations, and desires. We will examine the choices storytellers make to snag our imaginations, drag them into a fictional world, and keep them there. We will learn how to outline and structure a plot, discuss narrative arc, pacing and reversals and reveal the inevitable surprise: connecting the beginning, middle and end....

Top reviews

SD

Jul 13, 2020

It seems easy at the start; give it a week or two and you will be very surprised -- with yourself and your reaction to the feedback.

The instructions are easy to follow, the insights are priceless.

BM

Nov 4, 2019

The course was informative on how to build, structure and develop the plot of our own stories. It was also very helpful in guiding us through the editing process. A useful course for aspiring writers.

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1501 - 1525 of 1,595 Reviews for Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot

By Nazma P

•

Sep 14, 2022

Its good

By PHANINDER S

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Jan 10, 2021

super!

By ANUSHA C

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Aug 30, 2020

good

By Justin S

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Nov 21, 2020

The course pursues an agenda more than teaching to inform or instruct. The topics are listed to the subjective agenda of the course creators, and the excuse given is that too many people signed up for the course, so, it has to be peer reviewed. Scientific papers are peer reviewed, for obvious reasons and in the most objective context. The only time creative writing should be peer reviewed is in pursuing a graduate degree and before a qualified degreed panel.

This method could be attributed to laziness on the part of the course creators, but based on the excuses given, it’s social engineering. For example, for the second writing assignment, the students should be given a choice on what they want to write about, so long as they meet the syntax criteria and for written grammar and creative writing. The ABDCE method is not the only method for creative writing

Further, most of the students doing the peer review do not have the qualifications a seasoned professional teacher or teacher’s assistant has. The review is subjective and not objective. Subjectivity is not the best nor a good standard for grading someone.

By denise p

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May 4, 2022

I think course content and assignments were very good. I am not thrilled with the peer reviewed grading either from a submission point of view or from a reviewer point of view.

Some of the writing is so bad it's hard to even begin to give feedback. One story I tried to review was just a stream of characters and one was a copied page from Orpheus in the Underworld complete with links to subplots.

Some of the reviews given to me didn't make any sense in regard to what I wrote. Some reviewers leave comments that aren't even english.

Also, I found the software in the app terrible. I would write my stories in Pages and then cut and paste them to find all of my formating gone. I would reformat it in the coursera app but it would all disappear upon submission. If I tried to use the website, things were a bit better.

I wanted very much to love this course and continue, however, between peer reviewed grading in both directions and a poor app, I decided to not continue through the other four modules.

Good content and instructors, poor online experience.

By Sarah S

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Feb 29, 2016

The videos are quite interesting, though I think they are overly committed to very specific techniques. I did not, however, find the assignments and peer review system very helpful. People had a tendency, particularly on the first assignment, to read in requirements that were not actually stated or written down and failed people accordingly. There also does not seem to be enough people to review all of the assignments, either--perhaps due to the paywall for assignments. The very nature of the peer review system also guarantees you see a real range on the individual criteria you are evaluated on and the depth of the review. This exacerbates the very harsh "0 or 1" point option for all assignments (i.e. either you get a 1 and pass or you get a 0 and fail).

Bottom line: I think the course materials are useful and at the very least interesting for developing writers, but I'm not sure it's worth the $79 entry fee to gain access to the peer review, unless you really need or want the course certificate.

By Cherie R

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May 19, 2021

Hello I have found the craft of plot very helpful, especially following the classic formula of ABDCE. It was very enjoyable to do the assignments that all fulfilled the points of each lesson. It was also enjoyable reviewing my fellow students' work. I learned a lot from their examples. However, the course did have weaknesses as well as the above strengths. I thought some of the guest appearances were not as interesting and informative as I initially hoped they would be. (However, the presenter was very good and spoke with clarity.) Finally, I have found it difficult to make my way around the web pages for each week. For example, now that I have finished the course, I can't seem to access my fellow students' assessment of my assignments. Very frustrating. I think overall Coursera needs to review its website from the point of view of the end users -- i.e. students!

By Gordon W

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Sep 9, 2023

I learned a lot and enjoyed the video lectures. I feel that my writing skills were strengthened by working through the exercises. I have two suggestions for improvement:

The peer review process. (1) was disappointed in the feedback of some of my peers who did the bare minimum, or did not respond to the questions. Students who don't complete good peer reviews should not pass the course. (2) I think four is too many peer review assignments. Two would be more reasonable.

There should be at minimum a screening for English language ability to enroll in the course. It is wonderful that the Coursera community is so multilingual, it is frustrating to try to give feedback to a story with limited English. I had more than a few of these stories in my peer review.

Overall, it is not worth $49 a month.

By Kyle M

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Aug 17, 2020

The instruction part of it was ok, but the peer review aspect was severely flawed. Asking us to peer review items with people that are not native speakers and do not have a handle on sentence structure, meaning of words, grammar, etc. was difficult at best. I am convinced a lot wrote in their native language and then just used a translator software and called it good. I'm not knocking non-native English speakers taking the class. It had a lot of good information and they should absolutely benefit from the course. However, asking native speakers to grade their work is unfair. Out of the 12 that I was supposed to grade, 10 of them weren't native speakers. Frustrating ... especially when I had to wait weeks after the course to get my items peer-reviewed and wait to end the course ...

By Otto M

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Mar 9, 2021

Basically I'm satisfied. I gained some useful insights into building a plot for a story. The assignments forced me to think creatively within a well-defined and challenging set of requirements. Those were good exercises. I have booked the next package (Character Development).

EXTREMELY UNSATISFACTORY is the feedback from some other "students." Some feedback clearly came from real students who read my submission and offered constructive critical comments that directly addressed my submission. But too often the feedback was just a one-word comment: Yes, Good, Fine (never No, Bad or Poor). That is not feedback. I don't even believe it's real, in the sense that it comes from someone who actually read my submission. Coursera - this is something you can fix.

By David E G C

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May 10, 2016

-Made on 10/05/2016- Low quantity of information and resources. For the cost , is not even near to other moocs. Block the sending and sharing of activities, and unable the peer evaluation because of a required payment, really handicap the learning and the quality of the course. If I pay a Mooc, is becouse of a strong quality and substantial learning; this two lacking in this course. I can give you a list of other moocs around this and other subjects (film, writing, mat, entrepreneurship, photography...) for you to make relations and compare structures. Please revise this course, you have nice video edition and the teacher is good, and willing to teach, but the global course is missing several things. I encourage you to take my words.

By Christian B

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Jul 30, 2022

You can argue whether Freytag's Pyramid or ABDCE are the best way to go about teaching structure to write a novel, but that's a side quibble. My main issue with the course is the feedback system: I am at a stage in my writing journey where my main need is feedback from somebody who knows what they are talking about, and I am willing to pay money for it. I would have expected that at least the capstone course would provide that kind of feedback. Student feedback can be fine IF the prof is sitting at the head of the table and steering the conversation to the real issues. I don't need to know that "this reads well, I enjoyed it" - I need to know where it can be improved...

By Annie D

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Mar 24, 2016

Overall, I sincerely think this course was useful to me. I did learn, and that is great. I got some good advice from the reviewers. And I appreciated most of the videos, especially the shop talks.

But I wish the instructor or his staff were more present in the discussion area, and I would have preferred a better written material. The transcripts are not formatted. They are completely raw and difficult to use.

Furthermore, I don't think it is normal that people duly registered to the class have difficulties to get their 3 reviews. Too many people have to ask for it in the forums.

In conclusion, a good course with good video material, but a lack of presence and organization.

By Michel L

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Jul 19, 2019

The lectures are pretty good, and the assignments as outlined in the course are good as well. My criticisms are: 1) No actual interaction with the instructors of course, as suspected of course, I suppose; 2) There don't seem to be enough moderators, because the concerns I've raised in the past (in one of the other courses in the specialization mainly) go unanswered; 3) coursera support are useless for anything nontechnical; 4) Peer review is no enforceable at all, and since (2) and (3) are limited, you're left begging on the discussion forums for more reviews as time passes by, i.e., as you inch closer towards paying for an extra month of the subscription.

By John A

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Apr 27, 2020

Hello. I enrolled in this course with the 7-day free trial. I found the lessons interesting and the writing exercises challenging. I did not continue, however, because I don't feel I was learning if I was learning. I liked reading others' work and being able to share an opinion about it, and I enjoyed the peer review feedback. But because there was no feedback from the instructors, I just never knew if I got the lesson right. One more thing, while the peer reviews include a section for comments directly to the writer under review, I never knew how to access them, so all the feedback I got was the short answers to the peer review questions.

By Carla D C M C

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Mar 9, 2021

I enjoyed the video ,tips and explanations by the instructor, but found that the assignments were too "cookie cutter" and didn't allow for much freedom of writing. Peer grading should NOT be the only assessment system in courses like this. For the most part, students are not getting proper feedback. Consider yourself lucky if you get decent constructive feedback from someone. It seems many enroll just for the sake of it and submit assignments that aren't even a full sentence. Some people have such poor English skills that there should be a screening test prior to enrolling any creative writing course!

By Leena

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Mar 28, 2019

The course content I felt could be a little more in-depth.

This has just the basics. Also, reference reading matter should be given to understand each of the concepts the course talks about. Of course, the discussion forum is helpful as more matter seems to be available there through links. I particularly liked the assignments and deadlines. It made me follow the requirements and submit them and learn in the process. One cannot procrastinate. The peer assessments were good as well. I'm happy with the constructive feedback I received.

By Dewald S

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Feb 23, 2022

I enjoyed Brando's discussions and explanations, but I felt that some of the plotting advice was too formulaic and 'set in stone'. Obviously, this is a beginner's course, but it seemed a bit misleading to suggest that the ABDCE formula is inherently the best or 'correct' way to approach plotting a story or scene, especially given the way many successful and/or well-known authors have deviated from a by-the-book approach to plotting. Still, an enjoyable and interesting introduction to some of the basics of plotting.

By Orlanda R F

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Jul 13, 2020

The prof's teaching was good, but zero chance to engage with him or a tutorial assistant. Some of the participating students' education or comprehension levels were not sufficient enough for them to be put in the position of grading other students which a course pass depends on. The format didn't allow for discussion with student graders who were really good, or whose comments were useful and that you might have wanted to actually have communication with, which would have made the course so much more enriching.

By Megan F

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Jul 27, 2022

Plot is simplified - doesn't get into flashbacks or forwards, ideas to play with the plot structure to make it more interesting. Doesn't go into different genres of story either. Many people's texts I had to report becaue they hadn't done the assignment just put jumbled letters. But overall it was okay, and I learned about the 5 parts and distinct scenes. The understanding could be heped with animations or more interesting videos, just talking is kind of boring.

By Adelle W

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Aug 18, 2020

This is my first class. The discussion videos were very interesting. I did learn the ABCDE process and have found that very useful. Peer evaluations are very hard. I'm thinking that the purpose of the peer evaluation is to help the evaluator process the points taught in class. I do not think there is much help that comes to the writer as a result of these evaluations. I am hoping that there will be more effective feedback in future classes.

By Ignacio C

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Apr 2, 2019

Excellent content with a very close look to structure on writing. The four modules definitely create a new perspective of how to build a story. Some exercises need more feedback, a conversation with a mentor. This cannot be completed with the current dynamics. How can I know if my concept of scene was fully understood? How can I get more information about the scenes I builded on my homework. Just a space for this will make the course perfect.

By Maria J S d C G

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Mar 11, 2016

I did learn. However, some info could of been better explained. I felt like some videos didn't really further my knowledge. And the lack of communication on the discussions by the professor, was quite unbelievable. More participation by the professor would be appreciated. I do understand there's many people doing this, but if other can, why couldn't he? Maybe have an assistant?

Otherwise, like I said, I did learn a lot and I do appreciate it.

By Kalten B

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Feb 13, 2021

I enjoyed this course very much. There was a lot of good information that I was excited to learn. I would love more opportunity to practice the things we learned in the course. I also didn't enjoy grading and having my work graded by other students. I don't mind the pear reviews but I want to see a input from a professor as well. it would give me better encouragement on what I need to work on and what I am doing well at.

By Jason L

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Dec 15, 2021

The class was okay, but I would have liked to have had a little more meat to it. The quantity of lecture material was light compared to other Coursera courses I have taken, and this topic certainly could have had more content. The lectures were decent, but not enough of it. This was actually one course where I didn't mind the peer review so much, as it was interesting to see what other classmates thought of my writing.