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Course Description

Novice storytellers tend to associate the quality of a story with the quality of its prose. While a clear and concise style will facilitate understanding, the commercial success of “poorly written” books demonstrates that good storytelling, the kind of storytelling that fascinates and persuades, calls for a different skill: the ability to create urgency. This is not an ordinary writing course. This course explains how it is that stories engage and persuade and provides a theoretical background of the mental processes that guide attention and decision making as well as of the limits of cognition so that students can apply that knowledge to the crafting of more engaging and more persuasive stories. For that purpose, this course takes a multidisciplinary approach to storytelling, borrowing concepts from media psychology; communication studies; social psychology; and even seemingly unrelated disciplines such as cognitive neuroscience and ethology, the study of animal behavior.

Course Outline

Learn to apply concepts that make stories powerful and memorable in this course exploring what readers can’t resist.

Course Outline

What you can learn:

  • Identify what makes storytelling so powerful for readers
  • Understand what processes guide attention and decision making
  • Apply concepts from psychology and communication studies to your writing
  • Learn to craft persuasive, meaningful story elements

Applies Towards the Following Certificates

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Review Sections
Section Title
The Psychology of Compelling Storytelling
Type
Online
Dates
Jul 03, 2024 to Sep 10, 2024
Contact Hours
30.0
Delivery Options
Online  
Course Fee(s)
Standard credit (3 units) $720.00 Click here to get more information
Available for Credit
3 units
Refund Request Deadline
Jul 17, 2024
Transfer Request Deadline
Jul 17, 2024
Withdrawal Request Deadline
Jul 18, 2024 to Sep 10, 2024
Instructors
Section Notes

Enrollment limited to 15 students; early enrollment advised. Visitors not permitted. Internet access required.

This online course is conducted through Canvas, a secure website that allows students to log in to access lectures, discussions, and other course materials on demand. There are no required live class meetings. Each course is structured with weekly assignments and deadlines. Lectures and coursework are accessible throughout the week. Workshops are conducted in writing via discussion boards with your instructor and classmates.

Section Materials
  • (Mandatory)

    Internet access required to retrieve course materials.
  • Book (Mandatory) How Fantasy Becomes Reality: Information and Entertainment Media in Everyday Life, Revised and Expanded by Karen Dill-Shackleford Oxford University Press eBook or Paper edition ISBN 9780190239299
  • Book (Optional) My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante © 2012 Europa Editions Kindle or Paper edition ISBN 9781609450786
  • Book (Optional) Coffee, Shopping, Murder, Love ISBN 9781636280356
  • (Mandatory)

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE PUBLIC SYLLABUS FOR THIS COURSE.
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