Write Brightly
Taught by Will Daddario, PhD
Course Overview
Over the course of six modules, this self-paced course helps academics dynamize and enliven their writing through exercises and video lectures designed to cover the major parts of academic writing. In addition to in-depth treatments of description, analysis, theorization, the use of secondary sources, and style, Write Brightly introduces students to many different types of artistic expression, academic argumentation, and modes of verbal expression.
Read on for more details, watch this short video (to the right), or click here to Register for the class hosted on Udemy Online Learning. Promotional coupons available for a limited time! Email me (grow@invitingabundance.net) and tell me a bit about yourself and why you’d like a discount on the course, or contact Inviting Abundance on Facebook.
Ideal Students
Recently graduated undergrads in the Arts & Humanities who are considering grad school and need a solid writing sample
Early MA or PhD students in the Arts & Humanities who are developing their writing style and preparing to draft something for publication
Recent PhDs/Early Career Scholars in the Arts & Humanities who need help shaping something for publication or who have had trouble getting their work published
ABOUT Will
I am an active researcher, writer, and editor. To find out more about my broad-ranging interests and expertise in writing and editing, please visit my personal website, the Performance Philosophy book series and the open access Performance Philosophy Journal. I have also taught undergraduate and graduate students in theatre and performance studies courses. In my teaching I draw from the work of scholars and artists from across the Humanities, in particular Eastern and Western Philosophies, History and Historiography, Cultural Studies, Art History and Visual Culture, Critical Theory, Literature and Poetry, Religious Studies, and Urban and Modern Studies.
STUDENT ENDORSEMENTS for Will’s Teaching
"I'm forever grateful to Daddario for how much he invested in my education providing mentorship, both within and outside of formal institutions, which shaped my development as a young artist and thinker. Daddario's pedagogies simultaneously challenged and inspired, while reshaping my approach to writing. I learned to see the process of writing as more than a midnight deadline, a page limit to hit, or a hurdle to leap over. Instead, Daddario helped me to understand the act of writing as a process of contemplation, exploration, and learning.” —Justin S.
“From an undergraduate theatre historiography class to PhD application writing samples ten years later, Will has been an invaluable support for my ongoing development as a writer. His thoughtful and critical questions have helped me clarify my arguments, and his attention to details of rhetorical structure have sharpened my voice as a writer. Most importantly, however, is Will’s enthusiasm for expressing ideas through writing. His commitment to the medium is unwavering and truly contagious. His positivity and curiosity have motivated me through even the darkest hallways of getting an idea out of my head and onto the page. If you have a chance to learn from Will, don’t miss out!” —Rebecca S.
“Will’s unique navigational approach to teaching and mentoring is absolutely refreshing and essential for today’s students. As a former undergrad in his dramatic literature classes, I can say he doesn’t just bring his incredible depth of knowledge to every hand-crafted lesson, he also fully and precisely engages with his students as individuals—wherever they’re at in their own paths of self-learning. Six years later, I continue to employ and personally develop these thinking and writing techniques he introduced and held space for within his classes.” —Hannah S.
Course Options
Write Brightly: 6 modules that target key elements of academic writing, video lectures, multiple exercises, detailed feedback from the instructor, and transcripts of all the lectures that you can download and re-visit for additional practice. Course Registration: $50
Write Brightly Interactive: For those who complete the Write Brightly course, you can enroll in Wright Brightly Interactive and receive two rounds of editorial feedback for a paper on which you are currently working. This service has an additional cost and can only be engaged after a brief dialogue with the instructor. Email grow@invitingabundance.net to begin the conversation! Sliding-scale price range of $75 - $125
Overview of Modules
1: Thinking Closely
Writing well is a matter of thinking closely. In particular, the more closely you think about your object of study, your own approach to the material, your web of references, and your intended audience, the better your writing will become. By “better,” I mean more precise, more vivid, more nuanced.
This module serves two purposes. First, it provides you with material to spark your writerly imagination while simultaneously stretching your existing writerly muscles. Second, it helps you generate text that I can use to analyze your writing style, which, in turn, helps me understand you a bit better as a student in this class.
Through a series of exercises, you will describe and analyze a series of images, a trio of Haiku, and a lengthy academic quotation. You will be able to submit your work for feedback.
2: Description, Analysis, Theorization
This module works through these key elements of description, analysis, and theorization in order, in a sense, to teach you how to write from the inside out. That is, we don’t need to begin writing projects with neat introductions that lay out the argument in complete detail. We can, instead, begin in the middle, right in the thick of things, and work our way out from the object of study.
I cannot stress enough the importance of description and analysis. There are many aspects to writing, but these two elements are the bulk of the content that you will create. I recommend that you practice moving between description and analysis as much as possible. You can certainly do it with television shows, so turn that binge-watching into a productive epistemological and writing exercise!
3: Structure and Point of View: Cinematic Writing
Through this module, you will learn how to approach your writing "cinematically." We want to avoid the typical stasis that can come from academic language. By thinking of your sentences as vivid “shots” and by editing your paragraphs to create an exciting "montage," you can maintain dynamism in your writing. Finally, by re-defining the phrase “point of view” to mean a place from which your reader can view different angles of your scene, you can begin to play around with the wider mise en scène of writing.
4: Secondary Sources
Module 4 provides pragmatic advice for working with secondary sources in your academic writing. Through a series of exercises, you will deploy this advice while also thinking carefully about the work required to weave another person's writing into your own. By citing another’s work, you are rooting your essay into that work thereby forming a connection that will last forever. Once we treat the work of citation as its own art, then we can get creative with it and learn new ways of employing quotations.
5: Style
This module approaches style from the perspective of academic sociality. As a scholar of theatre and performance, I am aware of the deep connection between sociality and mimicry. It may seem strange to think of developing your style by mimicking the work of another person, but that strangeness is likely linked to the mistaken belief that your style is somehow unfettered by the work you read. How do we learn how to become people if not by imitation? How do we learn where our ethical beliefs begin and end if not by assessing the mimetic habits and actions we have acquired through our maturity? Through a targeted exercise in mimicry, we’ll adapt these questions to the task of academic writing and think of “style” as a composite of, essentially, syntax and rhythm.
6: Visualizing the Whole
This final module challenges you to think of the essay as a whole, albeit a whole that is constantly shifting and that can take different forms up until the very final revision. To do this, you'll engage in some map-making exercises and learn how to breathe new life into the old activity of "mind mapping."
Questions about the Course? Want to speak to Will about your specific situation, needs, and/or challenges? Please send an email to Will at grow@invitingabundance.net or give him a call at: 828.348.4164