I can tell people are getting soggy with this early summer of rain and chilly temperatures on the West Coast. You’re thinking about taking classes…in a classroom! That’s great, because I have a wide selection for you to choose from through my affiliation with UBC Continuing Studies.
First up, it’s my crash course in Food and Travel Writing.This is a one-week intensive course at the UBC Point Grey campus taking place July 16-20. Enrolment closes on Monday, July 9th.
Over the course of the week, I explain how the freelance food and travel writing processes work, with special attention paid to generating ideas and expressing them in query letters to editors. Other topics covered include travel blogging, restaurant reviewing, recipe writing, and how to make your travel story stand out from all the others. By the end of the week, you should have a saleable query letter to send out and the first draft of a story, with my personal feedback on your writing and story structure.
Say you are just really into creating a food blog…so you can document your adventures in eating. Spend a day with me and WordPress blogging platform expert Tris Hussey at the UBC Robson Campus on Saturday, September 15th. I’ll show you how to develop and maintain your food blog content will give you tips on themes, promotion and writing to attract a larger audience. I’ll also demonstrates the basics of food photography for your blog, and show you how good photography can be done without fancy props and expensive equipment. Taking your new content, learn to build a blog with Tris Hussey using the WordPress blogging platform. Learn the basics, add features and themes, and find out how to tune your blog for search engines. You will have your own food blog by the end of the day!
Looking into the fall, you have more choices. If you don’t want to commit to being on campus every week, you can take either food writing or travel writing online, over eight weeks, starting at the end of September. Both classes teach you the basics of the freelance writing process, but allow you to specialize in the field of your choice. New reading material and assignments are posted to a special website every week, and I give everyone individual feedback on your writing.
The UBC Writing Centre is also offering my Food and Travel Writing Course at UBC Robson Square in a ten-week session beginning September 27th. Classes run from 5:30-7:30pm, so if you work downtown you can just stay after work and join in.
There’s one more class for you to consider this fall that is not a writing class but a chance to learn much more about the food you shop for and eat. It’s called ‘Greening Your Grocery List’. It’s almost like you have to be a detective or food scientist these days to figure out what you’re getting when you go shopping for groceries. This course will help you sort through those mysterious words on your food labels. I’ll also explain what the words ‘organic’ and ‘sustainable’ really mean and how some companies try to gain your business through the practice of ‘greenwashing’. Other topics include sustainable seafood, dairy products, the 100-Mile Diet and buying guides to products like olive oil, coffee and meats.
To register or get more information on any of these courses just click on the links. If you have any questions, put them in the comments section below and I’ll answer them there. Hope to see you in-person or online soon!
