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Creative Writing Courses: Best Online Classes for Writers

Hannah Yang headshot

It’s great to be constantly learning and improving as a fiction writer. But going back to school to get a Master’s degree in fine arts just isn’t plausible for most writers. Luckily, there are a ton of great courses you can take online.

How do you know which ones are worth your time and money? We’ve got you covered. Here are some of the best online courses for fiction writers.

17 Best Online Creative Writing Courses

Creative writing courses: faqs, 1. prowritingaid academy.

Brilliant writers aren’t born, they’re made. Writing is a skill that can be developed, just like any other, and ProWritingAid’s brand new learning platform is here to help.

With a ProWritingAid Academy membership, you get a unique combination of:

Here’s a peek at our course library!

ProWritingAid Library

2. The Novelry’s Online Writing Courses

Go from zero to finished novel in one year. The Novelry’s Book in a Year course is a year of complete guidance and support to write your novel and fulfill your ambition to become an author. In it, the team at The Novelry will lead you through the creation of a sound and appealing story idea, then onto writing the novel, then revising and editing your first draft. You will complete and hold in your hands a manuscript to professional standard ready to pitch to literary agents.

Looking for something else? The Novelry has dozens of courses about everything from writing children’s books to pitching to help you get started.

3. Jerry Jenkins’ Your Novel Blueprint

Are you overwhelmed by the prospect of writing a whole book? Jerry Jenkins’ Your Novel Blueprint is the course for you. Jerry has written 195 books and has made the New York Times’ Bestseller list 21 times!

His blueprint isn’t a formula, and it allows for your own style. But it covers everything from overcoming fear, to actually writing, to preparing your elevator pitch. The course is 58 modules long, and you get lifetime access. Plus, you can get access to a mastermind session with Jerry, an exclusive Facebook community, and video feedback on your story idea from the man himself, as well as the first ten pages of your manuscript critiqued by an author he trusts.

It’s pricey because it’s an investment in your career. But when you consider that an MFA costs over $30,000 and one college course might cost you $3,000, it doesn’t seem that bad. It rings in at $1,997. We think it’s totally worth it.

For a taster of Jerry’s expertise, watch the replay of Jerry’s webinar with ProWritingAid all about aggressive self-editing. You’ll pick up some great tips!

4. 100 Day Book by The Write Practice

100 Day Book is an online program that will guide you through the book-writing process. At the end of the 100-day program, you will have a finished book, and you will have internalized a process you can use again and again to write books in the future. Some of the unique features of this program: daily writing inspiration, encouraging feedback from the 100 Day Book community, a dedicated book mentor to help you problem-solve, and a $100 incentive if you meet your weekly deadlines and finish your book. Need we say more?

5. Mark Dawson’s Ads for Authors

Mark Dawson of Self Publishing Formula is a guru of self-publishing. He provides so many great resources to independent authors on everything about the business. It was hard to choose just one of his courses, so we picked the one on the most difficult subject: advertising.

Advertising books and using social media ads isn’t quite like advertising anything else, but Mark has it down to a science. You’ll learn how to actually advertise without breaking the bank and instead secure a good return on your investment.

It’s one of his pricier courses, but if you want to make a living off self-publishing, it’s worth every penny. It’s $849 and he offers monthly payment plans. This class only opens a few times a year, so you can sign up for the waiting list .

6. MasterClass

MasterClass is an amazing site full of classes on all sorts of subjects, taught by the greatest minds in their respective fields. There are several writing courses, and they are all taught by some of the biggest names in fiction.

Margaret Atwood’s is one of the most popular. But you can also learn from crime writer James Patterson, young adult author Judy Blume, fantasy author Neil Gaiman, and TV writer Shonda Rhimes. That’s just a few of them! There are so many more.

You used to be able to purchase individual classes for $99. However, a membership is only $180 a year, and you get access to over 80 classes. Who knows? You might pick up an additional hobby like photography or cooking.

7. Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot

We get it. Money is tight, especially for us starving artists. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn a ton about writing. Coursera is full of online classes, and The Craft of Plot is a great choice. This course is provided through Wesleyan University, and the reviews are amazing.

In about ten hours’ worth of video modules, you’ll learn everything you need to know about plot structure. This course will teach you how to craft a solid plot for your entire story, as well as structuring and writing powerful scenes.

This isn’t the only free course on Coursera. Wesleyan University offers many more options on different elements of fiction writing.

8. Grammar Lion: A Grammar Refresher

So it’s been a while since you were diagramming sentences and learning about predicates and clauses. Grammar doesn’t have to be a barrier to writing. Sure, there are great programs out there like ProWritingAid to help proofread. But you’ll make fewer mistakes if you actually understand the rules of grammar.

Grammar Lion offers several classes on grammar, including a couple of free ones. But if you need a refresher on all the rules of the English language, this is the course for you . There are explanations and quizzes, and it’s estimated to take twelve weeks to complete. Plus, you get a Grammar Guide—a real person who will answer any questions you have through email.

This course is a must-have for any writer who struggles with grammar. It’s normally $199, but at the time I wrote this article, there was a quarantine special for $79.

9. Curtis Brown Creative

Curtis Brown Creative offers a variety of courses to suit everyone. From writing crime novels, to writing your novel in three months, there are helpful options for every type of writer.

They launched in 2011 with the aim of finding talented writers and helping them to develop and publish their novels. The courses range in price from £125 to almost £2,000, depending on the the number of sessions offered.

10. Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing 101

Self-Publishing 101 is an extensive course with everything you need to know from the moment you type THE END on your manuscript. It’s a straightforward, easy-to-follow guide that will take all the guesswork out of how to publish your book and to get your indie author career off to the best possible start. Suitable for beginner to intermediate levels, fiction and non-fiction.

11. Lauren Ranalli’s Think Beyond the Book

Marketing is one of the hardest parts of being an author. We’re creatives, not advertising experts! But it’s also necessary. Think Beyond the Book is the course that finally made me stop dreading marketing. Lauren Ranalli is an independent author who made $10,000 in the first three months of publication, and she didn’t even sell on Amazon!

Think Beyond the Book is a monthly membership at $34. That’s because it’s not just one set course. You will get access to all of the modules about different aspects of marketing your book, but Lauren offers new content every month.

The best part of Lauren’s courses is that she gives you specific action steps. The most relevant ones for me were when she broke down how to plan six months of social media content. I was able to plan out three posts a week for six months, and it only took me a couple of hours. I also learned how to establish my brand. Plus, Lauren is incredibly helpful in the exclusive Facebook group.

12. Build Your Author Platform by WritePublishSell

There is nothing worse than doing all the things to have a well-written, edited, fantastic book only to watch it sell only a handful of copies on launch day. The biggest reason for "failure to launch" for authors is not having an author platform—a fan base—that is ready to go when you launch. WritePublishSell’s program, Building Your Author Platform , teaches the steps to creating and growing that fan base.

13. C.S. Lakin’s Emotional Mastery for Fiction Writers

If we don’t succeed in making our readers feel something, we fail. If they don’t feel what we want them to feel, we fail. To be effective writers, we must master the emotional challenge of our stories. It won’t do to hope we will move our readers in some way. It won’t do to hope we get across our characters’ emotions. We have to become masters of emotion.

That’s where C.S. Lakin’s course, Emotional Mastery for Fiction Writers , comes in. Learn how to become an emotion master.

14. Creative Writing Specialization

Coursera’s Creative Writing Specialization covers elements of three major creative writing genres: short story, narrative essay, and memoir . In the course, you’ll master the techniques that good writers use to compose a bracing story, populated with memorable characters in an interesting setting, written in a fresh, descriptive style. You’ll also analyze and evaluate peer writing, as well as drafting and completing a substantial original story in the genre of your choosing. Check it out now!

Coursera creative writing course

15. Bookfox’s Two Weeks to Your Best Children’s Book

It seems like there are tons of courses about writing for young adults and adults. But what about those of us who want to write a children’s book?

Two Weeks to Your Best Children’s Book has you covered. This course includes 30 video lessons on everything from the writing process to copyright law. Plus, you can post questions, and the instructor, John Matthew Fox, will answer them personally.

It’s also much more affordable than many courses. It’s only $149, and there is a three-month payment plan option. If you want to break into writing children’s books, this is the class for you.

16. Pandemic University

Pandemic University is a pop-up writing school made for and by locked-down and quarantined writers. Pandemic University offers suites of short and affordable creative writing classes online. By taking their classes, you’re helping support artists who’ve suffered financially during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can purchase courses a la carte on varied topics ranging from demystifying the publishing process to how to write topical satire, to how to read like a writer.

Want to try Pandemic University for yourself? They’ve been generous enough to offer members of the ProWritingAid community 25 percent off using the code PROWA25.

17. Conquer Writer’s Block

What if you could sit down in front of the blank page every day feeling optimistic and full of ideas? What would writing a blog post, article, or book chapter consistently do for your career? What if you had a writing system that helped you achieve all this and so much more?

That’s what Bryan Collins of Become a Writer Today can help you do. His course, Conquer Writer’s Block , gives you the skills you need to conquer the blank page in front of you.

Here are our answers to some common questions about how to pick a creative writing course.

Creative Writing Classes for Adults: How to Choose One

With so many options to consider, you should make sure you’re choosing the best online writing courses for your own goals as a writer. You should ask yourself:

Selecting a creative writing course

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you narrow down the list of options. After that, you can read reviews online and see what other students are saying about each course to help you decide which one best suits your needs.

Which Creative Writing Courses Are the Best for Beginners?

There are plenty of online creative writing courses for beginners. If you’re new to writing, ProWritingAid Academy is a fantastic place to start. You get access to writing lessons suitable for all levels, and you can work your way through them as you learn more.

You can also start with a free course on Coursera, like The Craft of Plot . Taking a free class can be a great starting point. Down the line, you can always choose a more advanced course to invest your money in.

Is a Creative Writing Course Worth It?

Creative writing classes are a great fast-track for improving your skills. They can help you hone specific aspects of your writing craft. They’re also a great way to meet other emerging writers so you can learn and grow together.

Benefits of creative writing courses

If you choose the right course for you, an online writing class can be well worth your time and money.

What are your favorite writing courses? Let us know in the comments.

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Hannah Yang

Hannah is a speculative fiction writer who loves all things strange and surreal. She holds a BA from Yale University and lives in Colorado. When she’s not busy writing, you can find her painting watercolors, playing her ukulele, or hiking in the Rockies. Follow her work on hannahyang.com or on Twitter at @hannahxyang.

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The vital presence of creative writing in the English Department is reflected by our many distinguished authors who teach our workshops. We offer courses each term in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and television writing. Our workshops are small, usually no more than twelve students, and offer writers an opportunity to focus intensively on one genre. 

Apply to Creative Writing Workshops

Workshops are open by application to Harvard College undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and students from other institutions eligible for cross registration. Submission guidelines for workshops can be found under individual course listings; please do not query instructors.  Review all departmental rules and application instructions before applying.  

Fall 2022 Application Deadline: 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, August 21 Spring 2023 Application Deadline: 11:59 pm ET on Saturday, January 14

Please visit our course listings for all the Spring 2023 workshops.

Our online submission manager (link below) will open for Spring 2023 applications on Friday, January 6.

Students who have questions about the creative writing workshop application process should contact Case Q. Kerns at [email protected] .

submit

Featured Faculty

Teju Cole

Teju Cole  is a novelist, critic, and essayist, and is the first Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice. "Among other works, the boundary-crossing author is known for his debut novel “Open City” (2011), whose early admirers included Harvard professor and New Yorker critic James Wood." 

Faculty Bookshelf

The burning girl by claire messud (2017).

The Burning Girl

Cooked by Michael Pollan (2013)

Cooked

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan (2001)

The Botany of Desire

The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee (2014)

the lives of others

Creative Writing Workshops

English cbst. blood, sweat, tears: the art and craft of horror writing.

Instructor: Nick White Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: Boylston G07 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course site ​​​​​​​

In this workshop, we will study the shocking art and bewitching craft that is horror. For those writers daring enough to face the abyss with me, we will spend the first half of the semester closely reading contemporary classics of the form, such as Victor LaValle’s  The Ballad of Black Tom , Carmen Maria Machado’s  Especially Heinous , Stephen Graham Jones’  Night of the Mannequins , and Samanta Schweblin’s  Fever Dream . The second half of the semester, we will devote our time to workshopping your own creative work: one shorter flash piece and one longer story or novel chapter (around 5,000 words). The final project will be a significant revision of the longer story or novel chapter.

Supplemental Application Information:   Prior experience writing fiction is helpful but not required. Please submit a writing sample of 3-5 pages of fiction, along with an application letter explaining your interest in this course, any writing experience you feel is relevant, and listing examples of work that moves and/or influences you, explaining why it does.

Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, August 21)

English CCFS. Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Teju Cole Tuesday, 6:00-8:45pm | Location: Lamont Library 401 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course site

This reading and writing intensive workshop is for students who want to learn to write literary fiction. The goal of the course would be for each student to produce two polished short stories. Authors on the syllabus will probably include James Joyce, Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Diane Williams.

Supplemental Application Information:   Please submit a cover letter saying what you hope to get out of the workshop. In the cover letter, mention three works of fiction that matter to you and why. In addition, submit a 400–500 word sample of your fiction; the sample can be self-contained or a section of a longer work.

English CFE. Writing Fiction: Elements of Craft, Style, and Meaning

Instructor: Neel Mukherjee Monday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: Barker 018 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course site ​​​​​​​

The course will consist of two halves. In the first hour of each class, we will be doing close readings/literary-critical analyses of an assigned text (we’ll be reading writers such as James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Petry, Lucia Berlin, Ernest Hemingway, Gustave Flaubert, among others), with the aim of isolating some aspect of the craft of writing in order to take bearings for your own. Amongst several other things, we shall also be looking at the politics of canon-making; at the white gaze; at writing as representation, empowerment, resistance, reclamation; at some of the long history of racial politics. In the second half of the class, divided into two equal segments of 55 minutes each, we will be workshopping the writing of two students.

Supplemental Application Information:   Please submit 3-5 pages of creative writing in prose (fiction is preferable, but non-fiction is also fine) along with a letter of introduction in which you write about why you’re interested in this course; what experience you’ve had writing; some of your favourite writers; what some of your favourite works of fiction are and why.

English CFF. From Fact to Fiction: Finding & Shaping a Story: Workshop

Instructor: Claire Messud Tuesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: Lamont Library 401 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course site ​​​​​​​

In this course, we will explore the evolution of a story from a factual anecdote or incident to a fictional creation. The aims of the semester are to learn to listen to someone else’s story in interviews, and to endeavor to find, from there, the necessary bones for a fictional narrative. What is most urgent? What is most emotionally affecting? What are the details from an interview that stay with you? And from there: what, from a broader account, is the story you are moved to relate? Once you make that choice, how do you do further research, if necessary? How do you select the point of view, the frame, the characters for your fiction? What are the ethics and responsibilities of these choices? In these riven and challenging times, storytelling is vital: learning to listen, to engage, and responsibly to relay what we discover. Each person we encounter is a bearer of wisdom and vast experience; so many urgent stories remain untold. How might we, as fiction writers, address reality, without simply writing about ourselves Several published writers will visit the class to share their experiences of research, and of the relation in their work of fact to invention. (Past guests include Akhil Sharma, Geraldine Brooks, Kirstin Chen and Jane Rogoyska.)  We will read published examples of fact-based fiction, and discuss the authors’ choices. The first third of the class will involve preparing and conducting interviews with a chosen subject, and sharing those interviews with the class. The second third will involve refining the story’s arc, research and formal decision-making, and writing a first draft. Finally, we will workshop the revised stories that have emerged from this process.

In these riven and challenging times, storytelling is vital: learning to listen, to engage, and responsibly to relay what we discover. Each person we encounter is a bearer of wisdom and vast experience; so many urgent stories remain untold. How might we, as fiction writers, address reality, without simply writing about ourselves?

Several published writers will visit the class to share their experiences of research, and of the relation in their work of fact to invention. We will read published examples of fact-based fiction, and discuss the authors’ choices.

The first third of the class will involve preparing and conducting interviews with a chosen subject, and sharing those interviews with the class. The second third will involve refining the story’s arc, research and formal decision-making, and writing a first draft. Finally, we will workshop the revised stories that have emerged from this process.

Supplemental Application Information:   Admission by application only. Please submit a brief letter explaining why you're interested to take this class, and, if you've a subject in mind, why it's interesting to you. There is no prerequisite for this course: all who are interested are welcome to apply. For your writing sample, submit 2-5 pages of creative work of any genre. If you haven't written creatively before, you might consider writing a brief character sketch or memoir piece. 

English CFMR. Interiority & Experience: Writing Character-Driven Fiction: Workshop

Instructor:  Claire Messud Thursday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: Barker 018  Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course site ​​​​​​​

This course approaches the writing of fiction with character at its center. If fiction is an exploration of what it’s like to be alive on the planet, character is paramount: we are who we are because of a combination temperament and experience. You can’t write convincingly if you don’t know your characters: plot, voice, detail, dialogue, setting – all these elements of story are interwoven with and dependent upon character. While it will be primarily a workshop of student fiction, we will read and discuss fiction through the lens of character – including works by Gustave Flaubert, Virginia Woolf, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison, Viet Than Nguyen, Ben Lerner, and Tayari Jones.  

Supplemental Application Information:  Admission by application only. Please submit a brief letter explaining why you're interested to take this class. There is no prerequisite for this course. For your writing sample, please submit 2-5 pages of creative work in any genre.

English CGF. Genre Fiction Workshop: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Horror, The Ghost Story, The New Weird

Instructor:  Neel Mukherjee Wednesday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: Barker 018 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course site

The course will consist of two halves. In the first hour of each class, we will be doing close readings of an assigned text, with the aim of isolating some concept or aspect of the genre under discussion in order to take bearings for your own. The assigned reading is obligatory. We will look at the convergences and divergences in the various kinds and modes mentioned in the title of the course. We will be thinking of generic topoi, conceptual underpinnings, imagination, style, world-building, storytelling, resolution, among other things. Some of the best writing in these genres is by women on issues of gender and intersectionality, so there will also be a strong feminist component to the course. These genres have also been used, with extraordinary creativity and to great effect, by writers of colour to meditate on issues of race, inequality, oppression, freedom, so the syllabus also features an introduction to that domain. 

The course will consist of two halves. In the first hour of each class, we will be doing close readings of an assigned text, with the aim of isolating some concept or aspect of the genre under discussion in order to take bearings for your own. We will be reading writers such as Ursula Le Guin, Ted Chiang, Nalo Hopkinson, James Tiptree Jr, Stanislav Lem, China Miéville, among others. We will look at the convergences and divergences in the various kinds and modes mentioned in the title of the course. We will be thinking of generic topoi, conceptual underpinnings, imagination, style, world-building, storytelling, resolution, among other things. Some of the best writing in these genres is by women on issues of gender and intersectionality, so there will also be a strong feminist component to the course. These genres have also been used, with extraordinary creativity and to great effect, by writers of colour to meditate on issues of race, inequality, oppression, freedom, so the syllabus also features an introduction to that domain.

In the second half of the class, divided into two equal segments of 55 minutes each, we will be workshopping the writing of two students.

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit 3-5 pages of creative writing in prose (fiction is preferable, but non-fiction is also fine) along with a letter of introduction in which you write about why you’re interested in this course; what experience you’ve had writing; some of your favourite writers; what some of your favourite works of fiction are and why.

English CACW. Advanced Creative Writing Workshop

Instructor: Paul Yoon Wednesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: Sever 211 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students  

Advanced fiction workshop for students who have already taken a workshop at Harvard. You will be responsible for participating in discussions on the assigned texts, the workshop, engaging with the work of your colleagues, and revise your work. The end goal will be to produce 2 short stories, or 2 chapters of a novel, to be submitted as your final portfolio. Supplemental Application Information:  * Please note: previous creative writing workshop experience required. * Please submit a short, five page double-spaced sample of your fiction. Please also submit a cover letter telling me your previous creative writing workshop experience, either at Harvard or elsewhere; then tell me something you are passionate about and something you want to be better at; and, lastly, tell me why of all classes you want to take this one this semester.

English CAFR. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Writing this Present Life

Instructor: Claire Messud Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Lamont 401 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students  

Intended for students with prior fiction-writing and workshop experience, this course will concentrate on structure, execution and revision. Exploring various strands of contemporary and recent literary fiction – writers such as Karl Ove Knausgaard, Rachel Cusk, Chimamanda Adichie, Valeria Luiselli, etc – we will consider how fiction works in our present moment, with emphasis on a craft perspective. Each student will present to the class a published fiction that has influenced them. The course is primarily focused on the discussion of original student work, with the aim of improving both writerly skills and critical analysis. Revision is an important component of this class: students will workshop two stories and a revision of one of these.

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit 3-5 pages of prose fiction, along with a substantive letter of introduction. I’d like to know why you’re interested in the course; what experience you’ve had writing, both in previous workshops and independently; what your literary goals and ambitions are. Please tell me about some of your favorite narratives – fiction, non-fiction, film, etc: why they move you, and what you learn from them.

English CCDS. Scene Work, Dream Work: Fiction Workshop on Design and Structure of Narrative Scenes

Instructor: Nick White Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Sever 105 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students

In  The Scene Book: A Primer for Fiction Writers , Sandra Scofield asserts that “[t]he scene is the most vivid and immediate part of story, the place where the reader is the most emotionally involved, the part that leaves the reader with images and a memory of the action.” This workshop will explore the elements of dynamic scenes: from lively narrative action to memorable dialogue. We will also study how to organize and structure our scenes within the short story and the novel. We will consult other craft texts on scenes and structure, including Jane Alison’s  Meander ,  Spiral ,  Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative  and Charles Baxter’s  Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction . Additionally, we will closely read several contemporary short stories, novellas, and novel excerpts that will serve as model texts for how to use scenes effectively in our fiction. You will write one flash piece and one short story or novel chapter (around 5,000 words), and both will be workshopped in class. Your final project will be a substantial revision of your short story / chapter. 

Supplemental Application Information:  Prior experience writing fiction is helpful but not required. Please submit a writing sample of 3-5 pages of fiction, along with an application letter explaining your interest in this course, any writing experience you feel is relevant, and listing examples of work that moves and/or influences you, explaining why it does.

Instructor:  Claire Messud Wednesday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: Barker 269 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students

This course approaches the writing of fiction with character at its center. If fiction is an exploration of what it’s like to be alive on the planet, character is paramount: we are who we are because of a combination temperament and experience. You can’t write convincingly if you don’t know your characters: plot, voice, detail, dialogue, setting – all these elements of story are interwoven with and dependent upon character. While it will be primarily a workshop of student fiction, we will read and discuss fiction through the lens of character – including works by Gustave Flaubert, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Anton Chekhov, Brandon Taylor, Min Jin Lee, and Tayari Jones.   Supplemental Application Information:  This course welcomes writers of all levels. Please submit 2-5 pages of creative (ie not academic) prose -- fiction or non-fiction -- along with a substantive letter of introduction. I’d like to know why you’re interested in the course; what experience you’ve had writing; what your goals and ambitions are for this course. Please tell me about some of your favorite narratives – fiction, non-fiction, film, etc: why they move you, and what you learn from them.

English CNGS. Fiction Workshop: The Good Stuff

Instructor: Meng Jin Thursday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: Barker 269 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students

This course is a workshop in pleasure and delight. And wonder and joy and laughter, and rule-breaking, and everything that makes literature lively and alive and worthwhile. We will discover (or rediscover) what it means to truly read for pleasure, attending to all this good stuff in works by writers such as Ross Gay, Ruth Ozeki, Natalia Ginzburg, and more—works that are not merely hedonistic or escapist, but attempt to maintain a modest humanism in spite of humanity’s sins, and to insist on cheerfulness and loving in the face of catastrophe and personal tragedy. Finally, we will attend to hope, exploring the wild utopian visions of Ursula K. Le Guin. As we read, we will cultivate instincts for joyful, resilient imagination in our own writing practice.

This is a generative workshop, a laboratory of idea and story, and a temporary creative community. Unlike in traditional workshops, writers will not bring near-finished works to the group for critique. Instead, workshops will be in service to the dynamic process and practice of creation. Every week, there will be opportunities in class to explore and to play through guided prompts and free writing, and to share raw, new work with each other and receive feedback. At the end of the semester, students will share with each other a fully realized original story written during our time together.

Supplemental Application Information:  Please read through the course description and syllabus, and write a letter in your own voice telling me why you’d like to take this course. Tell me about some books or writers you love and describe the kind of writer you are, or hope to become. If you’d like to share an example of your writing--1-2 pages of something you’re proud of, or a part of a project you’re working on--please do, and tell me why you chose it. If you don’t have a sample you’d like to share, simply tell me about what you’d like to write, in your letter.... Read more about English CNGS. Fiction Workshop: The Good Stuff

English CNL. The Novel Lab: Studying Long-Form Narratives in Fiction

Instructor:  Paul Yoon Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Barker 211 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students  

What defines a novel? And what does it mean to read one as a writer? How does a painter consider a painting or a photographer a photo? This readings class will study novels through the point of view of a practicing writer. We will read one novel a week, with the goal of exploring the ways in which long-form narratives are constructed, from chapter to chapter, from one movement to another—that is, the architecture of it. Please note: this is not a typical workshop. You will not be sharing you work every week, though later on in the semester we may participate in small group workshops and readings. Consider the class an investigation into all the tools a writer has to create fiction, with the end goal of producing 2 - 3 chapters of the beginning of a novel as your final project.

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit ONLY a letter to me. I want to know what your favorite novel is and why; and then tell me something you are passionate about and something you want to be better at; and, lastly, tell me why of all classes you want to take this one this semester. Please no writing samples. Again, note: This is NOT a typical workshop.

Write an Honors Creative Thesis

Students may apply to write a senior thesis or senior project in creative writing, although only English concentrators can be considered. Students submit applications in early March of their junior year, including first-term juniors who are out of phase. The creative writing faculty considers the proposal, along with the student's overall performance in creative writing and other English courses, and notifies students about its decision in early mid-late March. Those applications are due, this coming year, on TBA . 

Students applying for a creative writing thesis or project must have completed at least one course in creative writing at Harvard before they apply. No student is guaranteed acceptance. It is strongly suggested that students acquaint themselves with the requirements and guidelines well before the thesis application is due. The creative writing director must approve any exceptions to the requirements, which must be made in writing by Monday, February 7, 2022. Since the creative writing thesis and project are part of the English honors program, acceptance to write a creative thesis is conditional upon the student continuing to maintain a 3.40 concentration GPA. If a student’s concentration GPA drops below 3.40 after the spring of the junior year, the student may not be permitted to continue in the honors program.

Joint concentrators may apply to write creative theses, but we suggest students discuss the feasibility of the project well before applications are due. Not all departments are open to joint creative theses.

Students who have questions about the creative writing thesis should contact the program’s Director, Sam Marks .

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    Northeastern State University
   
  May 20, 2023  
2015-16 NSU Undergraduate Catalog    
2015-16 NSU Undergraduate Catalog [Archived Catalog]

|

Total number of hours required for minor  -  18

Required Courses:

  • ENGL 3143 - Introduction to Creative Writing #
  • ENGL 4853 - Creative Writing Portfolio Workshop #

Select 12 hours from:

  • ENGL 3113 - Travel and Adventure Writing #
  • ENGL 3693 - Short Story Workshop #
  • ENGL 4153 - Poetry Writing Workshop #
  • ENGL 4163 - Fiction Writing Workshop #
  • ENGL 4253 - Advanced Fiction Writing Workshop #
  • ENGL 4433 - Screen Writing Workshop #
  • ENGL 4823 - Advanced Creative Writing Workshop #
  • THTR 4513 - Playwriting #

Note: ENGL 3693, 4153, 4163, 4253, & 4433 may be repeated for up to six hours credit in the Creative Writing minor.

Students may earn 3 hours of Independent Study credit in exceptional circumstances, such as internship at a journal or press; earning a creative writing fellowship, grant, or residency; or acceptance of a substantial manuscript at a recognized press or publishing house.

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7 free online creative writing courses that you can enrol in right now

By Megha Sharma

creative writing write a novel online courses books authors

As a form of expression , a means to escape the reality, and a medium to communicate a larger ideology, the act of writing can serve different purposes. And no matter what your reason to put pen to paper, or keys to screen, these virtual lessons could help you develop the techniques you will require on your creative journey. Here, find out all the free online courses you can join to begin now.

Creative Writing Specialisation

Covering three major creative writing genres—short story, narrative essay and memoir—the course will help you master the techniques of putting your ideas on paper as clearly as possible. So if you’ve been meaning to work some engrossing features in your already existing plot, or better highlight the setting of your story, or simply articulate in a stronger fashion, let this lesson be on your shortlist. In case you’re just starting out, the course is equally rewarding.

Write Your First Novel

Have you been wanting to pen down your thoughts and weave them into a well-written novel? Go for this virtual course where you will learn an end-to-end approach to producing a work of fiction. Through a stepwise process that will culminate in your individual production of a 50,000-word book, the learning course will provide you all the important pointers right from the top.

Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest

Complete with video lectures, online readings, peer reviews and guest appearances from renowned authors, the course will offer an all-inclusive guide to creative writing for students and young aspirers. Apart from that, you will also explore the cultural significance of notable works , analyse the ways in which art and words interact, and become familiar with standard elements of a narrative, that include dialogue, point of view, theme, plot and so on.  

Write A Feature Length Screenplay for Film or Television

Whether your point of interest is serious dramas, romantic comedies or thrillers , the free virtual course will zoom in on every aspect of screenplay writing so you’re able to pursue the genre you want. Following in a well-structured process, you will have produced a pitch-ready script by the time the four-week programme is over. Along with learning how to create a basic idea and write loglines, you will be studying the Three Act Story Arc, and much more.

online course on creative writing

By Calin Van Paris

Tharshan Selvarajah, Indian food, South Asian food, best baguette prize, Indian chefs

By Arman Khan

Hermès, Salone del Mobile 2023

By Cristina Kiran Piotti

Memoir and Personal Essay: Write About Yourself Specialisation

Here, four published memoirists and essayists let you in on the tricks and tools of writing about yourself. Be prepared for professional tips, prompts, reading challenges and exercises among other interactive activities. Unlike many other courses where you will be producing a large body of work at the completion of the programme, here, you will be constructing a portfolio of work to use as valuable components later.

Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop

These lessons support the school of thought that poetry isn’t just a means of expression. Rather, using it for just that, is like “using the internet just for email”. If you too are willing to think beyond that, and take up the art to bring about a change in people’s thought and ideologies, the course is for you. Learn to use the several tools of poetic composition, study the works of contemporary poets and, of course, try your own hand at the skill.

Transmedia Storytelling: Narrative worlds, emerging technologies, and global audiences

In a world that believes in not just up-skilling, but also cross-skilling, this transmedia course serves to be an extremely well-rounded one. The description on the website states, “Transmedia storytelling is the practice of designing , sharing, and participating in a cohesive story experience across multiple traditional and digital delivery platforms - for entertainment, advertising and marketing, or social change.” So learn to develop expansive narratives and optimise your writing for mobile devices, social media communities, virtual and augmented realities and more.

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online course on creative writing

www.inkwellwriters.ie

Molly Keane Creative Writing Award 2023

Molly Keane

Competition deadline: 2nd June

The Molly Keane Creative Writing Award: since 1998 the Waterford City Arts Office has been running this national annual Creative Writing Award to celebrate the rich literary life of the late Molly Keane. 

Molly, pictured here in front of the Ardmore Round Tower, lived in Ardmore, Co. Waterford until she died in 1996. She started writing at a young age to ‘supplement her dress allowance’. Her first ten novels and four plays were published under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell.

She married into the Keane family of West Waterford but sadly her husband died at the age of 36. Molly ceased writing until 1981 when ‘Good Behaviour’ was published under her real name. It became a publishing sensation and was well received as a masterpiece of black comedy for which she was short-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize in 1981.

The Arts Office, Waterford City & County Council by kind permission of the Keane family is now inviting entries for a previously unpublished short story for this year’s award.

Eligibility

This is an open competition for people resident on the island of Ireland for a short story. The selection process will be from entries which have been previously unpublished or printed. Entries, which have received awards in other competitions, are also ineligible. It is highly advisable that entries are not currently submitted elsewhere for consideration.

While copyright will remain with the competitor, the Arts Office reserves the right to arrange the first publication and broadcast of the selected works. The right to use the stories to further publicise this award is also retained.

The winning story will be announced at an online Culture Night event in September 2023.

The winner will be awarded €250 cash plus a course of the winners choice in the Molly Keane Writers Retreat, Ardmore in 2024 to the value of €300. The writing course prize is non transferrable and there is no cash alternative.

Submission of a written piece implies the authors acceptance of the rules and conditions.

See here for further information.

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online course on creative writing

8 of the Best Courses/Programs to Learn About Breathwork Online

Breathwork can help you remain more level-headed in your day-to-day life, and there are plenty of courses to teach you the besics.

What is breathwork? Well, breathwork can be as basic as inhaling and then exhaling deeply, yet it can also be an incredibly advanced practice. But the best bit is that breathwork is an easy, natural, and free method to improve your wellness.

Breathwork can genuinely change your life for the better. Stress relief, better mental focus, and an improved outlook on life are only a couple of the emotional benefits of breathwork. To reap all the benefits of breathwork, below are some of the best online breathwork courses and programs.

The breathwork and pranayama course from Yogalap is made up of 60 lessons and over 15 hours of video. If you don't know, pranayama is an ancient but basic type of breathing practice that focuses on controlling your breath.

The course chapters start by covering things like connecting with your breath and tuning your breath. After that, you'll learn about centering your awareness, and there are even extra chapters that include guided meditations and physical exercises.

Whether you want to learn how to become a breathwork instructor or master the art of meditation and Qigong, Yogalap features a wide range of fantastic courses. Furthermore, Yogalap even offers free live sessions and yoga and breathwork retreats.

2. Alchemy of Breath

There's nothing better than a freebie to show you what is on offer, and that is exactly what Alchemy of Breath provides. All you have to do is register to join their free online breathwork sessions that founder Anthony Abbagnano hosts every Sunday.

This free session promises to give you lifelong and powerful breathwork tools. Plus, it's only 30 minutes long. If you want to delve deeper into breathwork, Alchemy of Breath has tons of excellent online courses for a small price.

As an example, if you struggle with anxiety and need a quick session to help put you at ease, try The Lions Breath course. It is only eight minutes long and a few dollars to buy and download.

3. Yoga International

Yoga International is a great place to find online yoga classes to do from the comfort of your own home . However, it is also a great place to find online courses. One of the best online courses to learn breathwork is Yoga International's Basics of Breathing.

The course is fairly basic as it comprises an introduction and then five short and sweet lessons. In fact, you can sign up and complete the entire course in less than one hour. Once you've finished the course you'll get a certificate.

Glo's breathwork training and classes are suited for everyone, whether you want to improve your energy levels, focus better, or merely increase your awareness. You can choose breathwork classes based on which teacher you'd prefer, your skill level, and how much time you have to spare.

If you're just beginning your breathwork journey, it's a nice idea to follow along with Divya Balakrishnan's classes—as they vary from level one to two.

Alternatively, For The Love Of Pranayama is also suitable for beginners, but it is a longer session and does require a yoga block or bolster pillow. Additionally, Glo features a huge library of live and on-demand classes like electrifying online HIIT classes and online Pilates classes .

5. Mindbodygreen

Mindbodygreen is the ultimate wellness platform to help you eat, move, and live life better. There are tons of classes to buy on its platform, with topics ranging from spirituality and meditation to personal growth and relationships.

For step-by-step instructions on how to master breathwork, try Mindbodygreen's Ultimate Guide to Breathwork. The guide includes multiple modules with 16 video lessons, guided breathwork sessions, and access to a friendly community.

Be sure to take a look at the class outline to find out more about what lessons are in store and to find out more about the instructor, breathwork healer, Gwen Dittmar.

6. Breatheology

The Breatheology platform primarily focuses on using the Breatheology Method to help you not only strengthen your lungs but improve your sleep, reduce stress, increase resilience, and so much more!

Breatheology offers essential, advanced, and instructor breathing programs from Stig Severinsen. Stig Severinsen, who is the founder of Breatheology, holds tons of impressive titles like a free diving world champion and Guinness world record holder.

In addition, there are also several completely free breathing courses from Stig that you can take advantage of. One of the must-try free courses is the Breathing Discovery Series. This series features three breathwork lessons over three days aimed at boosting your mind, body, and soul.

Udemy is an online learning platform with some of the most affordable and diverse courses. So whether you're looking for the best Excel courses or IT certification courses for beginners , Udemy has it all—including a couple of impressive breathwork courses.

Among the top-rated courses is the Power of Breath: Change Your Breath, Change Your Life from spiritual mentor Lynsie McKeown. The entire program is pretty straightforward, simple to navigate through, and is only about two hours in length.

The breakdown goes over the course content, which includes 15 lectures over six different sections. In this course, you'll be learning about everything related to breathwork—from the importance of breath to pranayama breathing practices and techniques.

8. Skillshare

Do you want to learn new skills online ? Whether you love graphic design and animation or music and photography, Skillshare is a place where you can explore a range of online courses that are best suited for creatives.

Additionally, Skillshare also boasts online lifestyle classes to boost skills like cooking, sewing, crafting, and breathwork techniques. Breathing 101, which is taught by Stephanie Erivo, is an online guide to teach you all you need to know about breathing.

This short Skillshare program features 11 lessons which begin by focusing on breathing techniques and posture, followed by breathing for fitness, breathing for relaxation, and a couple of natural breathing hacks.

Use Your Breath as a Tool to Enhance Your Wellness

You may not have heard of breathwork a few years ago, but it has become a popular wellness practice that is easy for anyone to pick up. Simply put, breathwork is breathing in a conscious, controlled way to promote and enhance your physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional well-being.

There are many different types of breathwork, from beginner-friendly practices like pranayama to more advanced breathing techniques like holotropic breathwork.

Those who practice breathwork regularly do so to improve their self-awareness, boost confidence, and get rid of negative emotions. So, with all its awesome benefits, why not try one or more of these online breathwork classes, courses, and programs?

AI Writing Detection Capabilities - Frequently Asked Questions

online course on creative writing

How do Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities work?

1. does turnitin offer a solution to detect ai writing .

Yes. Turnitin has released its AI writing detection capabilities to help educators uphold academic integrity while ensuring that students are treated fairly.

We have added an AI writing indicator to the Similarity Report. It shows an overall percentage of the document that AI writing tools, such as ChatGPT, may have generated. The indicator further links to a report which highlights the text segments that our model predicts were written by AI. Please note, only instructors and administrators are able to see the indicator.

While Turnitin has confidence in its model, Turnitin does not make a determination of misconduct, rather it provides data for the educators to make an informed decision based on their academic and institutional policies. Hence, we must emphasize that the percentage on the AI writing indicator should not be used as the sole basis for action or a definitive grading measure by instructors.

2. How does it work? 

When a paper is submitted to Turnitin, the submission is first broken into segments of text that are roughly a few hundred words (about five to ten sentences). Those segments are then overlapped with each other to capture each sentence in context.

online course on creative writing

The segments are run against our AI detection model and we give each sentence a score between 0 and 1 to determine whether it is written by a human or by AI. If our model determines that a sentence was not generated by AI, it will receive a score of 0. If it determines the entirety of the sentence was generated by AI it will receive a score of 1.

Using the average scores of all the segments within the document, the model then generates an overall prediction of how much text in the submission we believe has been generated by AI. For example, when we say that 40% of the overall text has been AI-generated, we’re 98% confident that is the case.

Currently, Turnitin’s AI writing detection model is trained to detect content from the GPT-3 and GPT-3.5 language models, which includes ChatGPT. Because the writing characteristics of GPT-4 are consistent with earlier model versions, our detector is able to detect content from GPT-4 (ChatGPT Plus) most of the time. We are actively working on expanding our model to enable us to better detect content from other AI language models.

3. What parameters or flags does Turnitin’s model take into account when detecting AI writing? 

GPT-3 and ChatGPT are trained on the text of the entire internet, and they are essentially taking that large amount of text and generating sequences of words based on picking the next highly probable words. This means that GPT-3 and ChatGPT tend to generate the next word in a sequence of words in a consistent and highly probable fashion. Human writing, on the other hand, tends to be inconsistent and idiosyncratic, resulting in a low probability of picking the next word the human will use in the sequence. 

Our classifiers are trained to detect these differences in word probability and are adept to the particular word probability sequences of human writers.

4. How was Turnitin’s model trained? 

Our model is trained on a representative sample of data that includes both AI-generated and authentic academic writing. While creating our sample dataset, we took into account statistically under-represented groups like second-language learners, English users from non-English speaking countries, students at colleges and universities with diverse enrollments, and less common subject areas such as anthropology, geology, sociology, and others.

5. Can I check past submitted assignments for AI writing? 

Yes. Previously submitted assignments can be checked for AI writing detection if they’re re-submitted to Turnitin. Only assignments that are submitted after the launch of our capability (4th April 2023) are automatically checked for AI writing detection.

6. What languages are supported? 

English. For the first iteration of Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities, we are able to detect AI writing for documents submitted in long-form English only.

7. What will happen if a non-English paper is submitted? 

If a non-English paper is submitted, the detector will not process the submission. The indicator will show an empty/error state with ‘in-app’ guidance that will tell users that this capability only works for English submissions at this time. No report will be generated if the submitted content is not in English.

8. Can my institution get access to AI detection to be able to trial this new capability? 

Yes, admins can set-up test accounts and allow instructors to use and assess the feature. If you’re an existing TFS customer, your admin will be able to create a sub-account and enable AI writing for only that account for testing purposes.

If you’re an Originality, Similarity or Simcheck customer, you can request test accounts by contacting your account manager or CSM.

New customers should speak to a Turnitin representative about getting a test account.

9. Can I or my admin suppress the new indicator and report if we do not want to see it? 

Yes, admins have the option to enable/disable the AI writing feature from their admin settings page. Disabling the feature will remove the AI writing indicator & report from the Similarity report and it won’t be visible to instructors and admins until they enable it again.

10. Will the addition of Turnitin’s AI detection functionality to the Similarity report change my workflow or the way I use the Similarity report? 

No. This additional functionality does not change the way you use the Similarity report or your existing workflows. Our AI detection capabilities have been added to the Similarity report to provide a seamless experience for our customers.

11. Will the AI detection capabilities be available via LMSs such as Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas, etc? 

Yes, users will be able to see the indicator and the report via the LMS they’re using. We have made AI writing detection available via the Similarity report. There is no AI writing indicator or score embedded directly in the LMS user interface and users will need to go into the report to see the AI score.

12. Does the MS Teams integration support the AI writing detection feature? 

AI writing detection is only available to instructors using the new Turnitin Feedback Studio integration . Since the MS Teams Assignment Similarity integration does not offer an instructor view due to Turnitin not receiving user metadata, AI writing detection is unavailable.

If an instructor using the Similarity integration has a concern that a report may have been written with an AI writing tool, they can request that their administrator use the paper lookup tool to view a full report.

13. How is authorship detection within Originality different from AI writing detection? 

Turnitin’s AI writing detection technology is different from the technology used within Authorship (Originality). Our AI writing detection model calculates the overall percentage of text in the submitted document that was likely generated by an AI writing tool. Authorship, on the other hand, uses metadata as well as forensic language analysis to detect if the submitted assignment was written by someone other than the student. It will not be able to indicate if it was AI written; only that the content is not the student’s own work.

AI detection results & interpretation

1. what does the percentage in the ai writing detection indicator mean .

The percentage indicates the amount of qualifying text within the submission that Turnitin’s AI writing detection model determines was generated by AI. This qualifying text includes only prose sentences, meaning that we only analyze blocks of text that are written in standard grammatical sentences and do not include other types of writing such as lists, bullet points, or other non-sentence structures.

This percentage is not necessarily the percentage of the entire submission. If text within the submission is not considered long-form prose text, it will not be included.

2. What is the accuracy of Turnitin’s AI writing indicator? 

We only flag something as AI-written when we are 98% sure it is written by AI. This is because we want to make sure we don't falsely flag something as AI-generated that isn't. This means, however, that we will likely miss up to 15% of text written by AI, with a less than 1% false positive rate (incorrectly identifying fully human-written text as AI-generated).

For example, if we identify that 50% of a document is written by AI, we are 98% sure that at least 50% is written by AI with a less than 1% false positive rate, but it could contain as much as 65% AI writing.

The above rates have been determined by our model in our lab using data that was carefully collected and verified in a controlled lab environment, but we know that real world use will differ from the lab tests. To take this into account,we’ve tuned our AI detector to minimize false positives on authentic text, even if it means we might miss some instances of AI writing.

3. The percentage shown sometimes doesn’t match the amount of text highlighted. Why is that? 

Unlike our Similarity Report, the AI writing percentage does not necessarily correlate to the amount of text in the submission. Turnitin’s AI writing detection model only looks for prose sentences contained in long-form writing. Prose text contained in long-form writing means individual sentences contained in paragraphs that make up a longer piece of written work, such as an essay, a dissertation, or an article, etc. The model does not reliably detect AI-generated text in the form of non-prose, such as poetry, scripts, or code, nor does it detect short-form/unconventional writing such as bullet points, tables, or annotated bibliographies.

This means that a document containing several different writing types would result in a disparity between the percentage and the highlights.

4. What do the different indicators mean? 

Upon opening the Similarity Report, after a short period of processing, the AI writing detection indicator will show one of the following:

5. What can I do if I feel that the AI indicator is incorrect? How does Turnitin’s indicator address false positives? 

If you find AI written documents that we've missed, or notice authentic student work that we've predicted as AI-generated, please let us know! Your feedback is crucial in enabling us to improve our technology further. You can provide feedback via the ‘feedback’ button found in the AI writing report.

Sometimes false positives (incorrectly flagging human-written text as AI-generated), can include lists without a lot of structural variation, text that literally repeats itself, or text that has been paraphrased without developing new ideas. If our indicator shows a higher amount of AI writing in such text, we advise you to take that into consideration when looking at the percentage indicated.

In a longer document with a mix of authentic writing and AI generated text, it can be difficult to exactly determine where the AI writing begins and original writing ends, but our model should give you a reliable guide to start conversations with the submitting student.

In shorter documents where there are only a few hundred words, the prediction will be mostly "all or nothing" because we're predicting on a single segment without the opportunity to overlap. This means that some text that is a mix of AI-generated and original content could be flagged as entirely AI-generated. 

Please consider these points as you are reviewing the data and following up with students or others. 

6. Will students be able to see the results? 

The AI writing detection indicator and report are not visible to students.

7. Does the AI Indicator automatically feed a student’s paper into a repository? 

No, it does not.  There is no separate repository for AI writing detection. Our AI writing detection capabilities are part of our existing similarity report workflow. When we receive submissions, they are compared and evaluated via our proprietary algorithms for both similarity text matching and the likelihood of being AI writing (generated by LLMs). Customers retain the ability to choose whether to add their student papers into the repository or not.

When AI writing detection is run on a submission, the results are shared on the similarity report - unless suppressed – and results regarding the percentage AI writing identified by the detector, along with the segments identified highly likely written by AI – are retained as part of the similarity report.

8. What is the difference between the Similarity score and the AI writing detection percentage? Are the two completely separate or do they influence each other? 

The Similarity score and the AI writing detection percentage are completely independent and do not influence each other. The Similarity score indicates the percentage of matching-text found in the submitted document when compared to Turnitin’s comprehensive collection of content for similarity checking. 

The AI writing detection percentage, on the other hand, shows the overall percentage of text in a submission that Turnitin’s AI writing detection model predicts was generated by AI writing tools. 

9. Why do I see the AI Writing score and the corresponding report on the similarity report prior to April 4? 

Our AI writing detection capabilities are part of our existing similarity report workflow to detect unoriginal writing.  While we released AI writing detection capabilities on April 4, 2023, prior to launch, we were preparing for the release and running our AI writing detector on a sampling of papers as part of our QA testing. This allowed us to confirm our readiness for release on April 4.  As a result, you may see the AI writing score along with the corresponding report on some similarity reports submitted between March 8, 2023 and April 4, 2023.

10. Does the Turnitin model take into account that AI writing detection technology might be biased against particular subject-areas or second-language writers? 

Yes, it does. One of the guiding principles of our company and of our AI team has been to minimize the risk of harm to students, especially those disadvantaged or disenfranchised by the history and structure of our society. Hence, while creating our sample dataset, we took into account statistically under-represented groups like second-language learners, English users from non-English speaking countries, students at colleges and universities with diverse enrollments and less common subject areas such as anthropology, geology, sociology, and others.

11. How can I use the AI indicator percentage in the classroom with students? 

Turnitin’s AI detection indicator shows the percentage of text that has likely been generated by an AI writing tool while the report highlights the exact segments that seem to be AI-written. The final decision on whether any misconduct has occurred rests with the reviewer/instructor. Turnitin does not make a determination of misconduct, rather it provides data for the educators to make an informed decision based on their academic and institutional policies.

12. Can I download the AI report like the Similarity report? 

No. At this time the functionality to download the AI report is not available. However, we are actively working on developing this capability, and we should be able to add it as a functionality in the near-term.

Scope of detection

1. which ai writing models can turnitin’s technology detect .

The first iteration of Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities have been trained to detect models including GPT-3, GPT-3.5, and variants. Our technology can also detect other AI writing tools that are based on these models such as ChatGPT. We’ve completed our testing of GPT-4 (ChatGPT Plus), and the result is that our solution will detect text generated by GPT-4 most of the time. We plan to expand our detection capabilities to other models in the future.

2. Which model is Turnitin’s AI detection model based on? 

Our model is based on an open-source foundation model from the Huggingface company. We undertook multiple rounds of carefully calibrated retraining, evaluation and fine-tuning. What we must emphasize really is that the unique power of our model arises from the carefully curated data we've used to train the model, leveraging our 20+ years of expertise in authentic student writing, along with the technology developed by us to extract the maximum predictive power from the model trained on that data. In training our model, we focused on minimizing false positives while maximizing accuracy for the latest generation of LLMs ensuring that we help educators uphold academic integrity while protecting the interests of students.

3. Is your current model able to detect GPT-4 generated text? 

Yes it does, most of the time. Our AI team has conducted tests on GPT-4 using our released detector to compare its performance and understand the differences between GPT-3.5 (on which our model is trained), and GPT-4. The result is that our detector will detect text generated by GPT-4 most of the time, but we don’t have further, consistent guidance to share at this time. The free version of ChatGPT is still operating on GPT-3.5, while the paid version, ChatCPT Plus, is operating on GPT-4. 

4. How will Turnitin be future-proofing for advanced versions of GPT and other large language models yet to emerge? 

We recognize that Large Language Models (LLMs) are rapidly expanding and evolving, and we are already hard at work building detection systems for additional LLMs. Our focus initially has been on building and releasing an effective and reliable AI writing detector for GPT-3 and GPT-3.5, and other writing tools based on these models such as ChatGPT. Recently, we conducted tests on GPT-4, the model on which ChatGPT Plus is based, and found that our detection capabilities detected AI-generated text in most cases.  

5. Will the AI percentage change over time as the detector and the models it is detecting evolve? 

Yes, as we iterate and develop our model further, it is likely that our detection capabilities will also change, affecting the AI percentage. However, for a submitted document, the AI percentage will change only if it's re-submitted again to be processed.

6. Can Turnitin detect if text generated by an AI writing tool (ChatGPT, etc.) is further paraphrased using a paraphrasing tool? Will it flag the content as AI-generated even in this instance? 

Our detector is trained on the outputs of GPT-3, GPT-3.5 and ChatGPT, and modifying text generated by these systems will have an impact on our detectors’ abilities to identify AI written text. In our AI Innovation Lab, we have conducted tests using open sourced paraphrasing tools (including different LLMs) and in most cases, our detector has retained its effectiveness and is able to identify text as AI-generated even when a paraphrasing tool has been used to change the AI output. 

7. Does Turnitin have plans to build a solution to detect when students paraphrase content either themselves or through tools such as Quillbot, etc.,? 

Turnitin has been working on building paraphrase detection capabilities – ability to detect when students have paraphrased content either with the help of paraphrasing tools or re-written it themselves – for some time now, and the technology is already producing the desired results in our AI Innovation Lab. In the instance when the student is using a word spinner or an online paraphrasing tool, the student is just running content through a word spinner which uses AI to intentionally subvert similarity detection, not using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT to create content.

We have plans for a beta release in 2023, and we will be making paraphrase detection available to instructors at institutions that are using TFS with Originality and Originality for an additional cost. It will be released first in our TFS with Originality product.

Access & licensing

1. who will get access to this solution will we need to pay more for this capability .

The first iteration of our AI writing detection indicator and report are available to our academic writing integrity customers as part of their existing licenses, so that they’re able to test the solution and see how it works. This includes customers with a license for Turnitin Feedback Studio (TFS), TFS with Originality, Turnitin Originality, Turnitin Similarity, Simcheck, Originality Check, and Originality Check+. It is available for customers using these platforms via an integration with an LMS or with Turnitin’s Core API. Please note, only instructors and administrators will be able to see the indicator and report. 

Beginning January 1, 2024, only customers licensing Originality or TFS with Originality will have access to the full AI writing detection experience.

2. When can customers get access to this solution? 

Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities are available now and have been added to the Similarity Report. Customers licensing any of the above Turnitin products should be able to see the indicator and access the AI report. 

3. Is Turnitin’s AI writing detection a standalone solution or is it part of another product? 

The first iteration of Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities is a separate feature of the Similarity Report and is available across these products: Turnitin Feedback Studio (TFS), TFS with Originality, Turnitin Originality, Turnitin Similarity, Simcheck, Originality Check, and Originality Check+. The indicator links to a report which shows the exact segments that are predicted as AI-written within the submitted content.

4. Why is AI detection not being added to other Turnitin products like Gradescope and iThenticate? 

We focused our resources on, what we view, as the biggest, most acute problem and that is higher education and K12 long-form writing. We are currently investigating how we can bring AI writing detection to iThenticate customers. We do not currently have plans to add these capabilities to Gradescope, since the primary use case for Gradescope is handwritten text while for AI detection we’re focusing on typed text. However, we are happy to learn more about customer needs for AI writing detection within this product. In addition, we are not pursuing ChatGPT code detection at this time. 

5. Where can I find more information about this new solution? 

You can find information about Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities  on this page .

6. I’m offended that Turnitin is making the AI writing detection free for instructors then charging for it later. It feels like Turnitin is advertising to faculty. 

We made the decision to provide free access to our detection capabilities during this preview phase to support educators during this unprecedented time of rapid change. We received a significant amount of positive feedback from customers, and we acted on that feedback.

Our goal has always been to work closely with our customers to create an optimal solution for educators. We need as many educators as possible to use our AI writing detection feature quickly to gather feedback and address any gaps.

We understand that you may be apprehensive about instructors using a tool or feature that the institution may not wish to purchase in the future. However, we have invested heavily in developing and improving our AI writing detection technology over the past two years. We believe that this technology provides significant value to our customers by providing data and insights on when AI-generated content is submitted by students. This enables educators to uphold academic integrity while advancing students' learning. Nonetheless, maintaining and improving our technology requires ongoing investment as AI writing tools evolve and improve at a rapid pace over time.

The decision to move to a paid licensing structure beginning January 2024 was made to ensure that we can continue to provide high-quality AI writing detection features to our customers. This enables us to invest in further research and development and improve our infrastructure to meet the evolving needs of our customers.

7. If I opt-out of AI detection, does it mean that my students’ submissions will not be assessed by the detection tool and data retained by Turnitin? 

Customers come to Turnitin to provide services that detect unoriginal writing, which, with the development of AI writing, now includes both unoriginal writing by humans and non-humans (LLMs).  Our AI writing detection capabilities are part of our existing similarity report workflow.  When we receive submissions, they are compared and evaluated via our proprietary algorithms for both similarity text matching and the likelihood of being AI writing (generated by LLMs). As such, suppressing the appearance of the AI writing indicator does not stop the assessment for AI writing. When AI writing detection is run on a submission, the result is shared on the similarity report, unless suppressed. When the AI writing detection is suppressed, it is simply suppressing the indicator showing the predicted percentage of AI writing; thus, the indicator will not be displayed on the similarity report, and the linking AI writing report showing the segments identified as written by AI will not be showing either.  However, they are retained as part of the similarity report. Therefore when the feature is re-enabled, the AI writing score will appear on the similarity report. 

This process is separate and apart from your designation of whether or not submissions can be stored in the ‘repository.’

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