Online Course: Write Short Stories for Children - Certificate and CEUs
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Online Class: Write Short Stories for Children

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Enroll today! This is a self-paced, online course. You have 6 months to finish. An instructor will monitor your progress and assess your body of work at course completion.
Course Cost: 6 Month Subscription
Basic Course (no certificate)   =   $30.00
Course with Certificate & CEUs   =   $55.00
Write Short Stories for Children with Instructor Margaret Shauers is a course which will prepare students to publish literature for children through a course filled with the practice and polish of writing activities complemented with instructor feedback. Students will have the opportunity to focus on one story which will be rewritten, refined, and actively marketed. (More than one story can be written and developed, but the emphasis will be on getting one ready to market.)

This course will assume that students are actively writing (or beginning to write) stories for children. It is a self-paced course (course begins on student's own timetable) Coursework will consist of a number of central lessons, quizzes, assignments, class polls, and netlinks . This course will be based on a 100 pt. grading scale, and the Instructor's specific grading policy will be presented in the class syllabus. For students who strive for course completion or other documentation might achieve several offered certificates based on academic performance, attendance and participation.

Earn a certificate (both hard copy and electronic) upon successful completion (additional charges apply). UniversalClass™ offers many wonderful learning tools to help you get the most out of your online course, including an online portfolio service that manages all your course completions.
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Course Description

This course is designed for those who wish to write short stories for children. It will lead the student through the basics of this art form into the specifics of characterization, age groups, plotting and outlining, drafting a story for children, rewriting and polishing the work. Final lessons will cover manuscript preparation and marketing strategies. Students will receive personal instructor feedback and critique. The goal of this course is to increase a  student's chance for publication.

Course Lessons

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Lesson 1: Facts & Fallacies

This first lesson discusses some of the fallacies about writing for children--and promotes some of the facts.

Lesson 2: Never Grow Up...Except...

Now that I've talked you into becoming a child again, I'll ask you to act like an adult at the same time! At least in the matter of language.

Lesson 3: Your Youngest Story Lover

Little people like stories! From the minute they are old enough (some prospective parents read to them when they are in the womb!) to hear the sound of a warm voice, children want to hear stories!

Lesson 4: They Listen--& Read

From older level five-year-olds through the age of seven, kids both listen (to read-aloud stories) and they read (or begin to read). The differences in the two types of stories are vast!

Lesson 5: The Most Active Readers

The most active reader around is the 8-10 year old. Most children this age can read, although they are still mastering the skills.

Lesson 6: The Big Kids

Eleven-and twelve-year-olds are more complicated than are eight to tens. The fiction they read grows with them.

Lesson 7: Characterization

One of the strangest quirks of the human mind is its capacity for being moved to tears, laughed, anger and joy by a fictional "person" who exists nowhere except the imagination.

Lesson 8: The Very Basic Plot

Characters must grab your reader. They also must have somewhere to go in a story. This is plot.

Lesson 9: Outlining--It Isn't What You Think!

The next step is to outline your story. Forget the Roman numeral outline format when writing fiction.

Lesson 10- Ready? Get Set. Write!

You've worked hard to get here and now--it's time to write that first story actually due in this class.

Lesson 11- Write it Right

You've already written the "heart" into your story. Now it's time to write it "right."

Lesson 12- To Market, To Market

Because we are creative, most writers dread marketing--the business side. Truth is, marketing is 50% of your writing career. But you can do it!

Optional Certificates Awarded

  1. Certificate of Attendance
  2. Certificate of Class Participation
  3. Certificate of Appreciation
  4. Certificate of Merit
  5. Certificate of Outstanding Achievement
  6. Certificate of Academic Excellence
Certificates may be awarded by the instructor at his/her own discretion and are based on student merit. To save your award and have a hard-copy delivered, there is a $30.00 processing fee that covers the customization, printing, and delivery of the award, as well as access to the UniversalClass™ Portfolio Service that documents your achievements online. Official awards have a serial number that verifies the authenticity of the award (great for employers to verify your achievement).
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Additional Information

Course Title : Write Short Stories for Children
CEU Value :

1.0 (Continuing Education Units)

Course Number : 2371
Course Type : Professional Development
Course URL :

http://class.universalclass.com/childstories

Course Rating : Reviewed & Approved on January 30, 2002
Instructor :

Margaret Shauers

Syllabus :

View Syllabus

Duration : Continuous: Enroll anytime!
Course Fee :

Basic Course: $30

   

with CEUs & Certificate: $55

NOT FOR COLLEGE CREDIT
This is a non-credit course, and is provided for your personal enrichment. This course is not intended to be a substitute for any state, government, licensing, or educational requirements.

Choose from 5 Payment Methods

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To use any of these methods you must press the "Join this Course" button on this screen and go through the online registration process in order to generate the correct order form and correctly process your enrollment.

Instructor Margaret Shauers has an extensive writing background. Her novels include : "Girl of the Prairie" and "Dark Knight"; published by Thomas Bouregy & Co., New York.
Children's books include: "Birth and Childhood of Jesus" grades 3-4 activity book, Shining Star Publications, Torrence, California, 1997. "Math Folder Games for the Christian Classroom" (K-2), Concordia House Publishing, 1998. Puzzles and Prayers, 2000. Currently she is working on a murder mystery for adults.

Her children's short fiction include more than 1000 stories published, many of which have been reprinted. Publishers include Highlights for Children, Children's Playmate, Child Life, Day Care and Early Education, Happiness and most religious children's publishers. Children's stories have been reprinted in South Africa, Mexico, Canada, the Netherlands, as well as in the U.S. Children's fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and approximately 10 stories were used in an elementary age school curriculum series.

In nonfiction she has published more than 500 articles, many of which have been reprinted. Publishers include Ladie's Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Kansas! Magazine, Grit, Women's Circle, Women's Household, Byline, Housewife Writer's Forum, Writer's Guidelines, Canadian Writer's Journal, Woman's Day, Family Circle, Lady's Circle, The Woman, many business, craft, religious and other specialty magazines. A chapter in the book "Golden Opportunities: Older Adults and the Church."

In adult short fiction she has published more than 20 stories published in American Accent Short Story Magazine, Caprice, Chiron Review, Women's Household, Farm Wife News, Fiction Primer, Red Herring, Today's Prairie Woman, Evangel, Seek.

In short humor she has articles published in Reader's Digest, Ladies Home Journal, The Rotarian, Happiness, Grit, Good Housekeeping, many farm and other specialty magazines. And in the area of Poetry she has published articles in Caprice, Chiron Review, Prairie Women, and Poetry Rendezvous anthologies.

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