I recently completed the 5-course specialization in creative writing. For the most part the course material presented was good, especially the courses on plot, on setting, and on style. The course on characterization was a little vague. From the syllabus, it looked like it would be a good course, but the instructor did not follow the syllabus and was often very unfocussed in her presentation.

The weakness with this specialization is that all the feedback to the writer is provided by peers in the course. This I found very disappointing. Many of the other students were honestly very poor writers, and as a result, the feedback I received on my assignments was very superficial. In addition, rather than being able to learn from reading the writing of others, I found for the most part that the pieces submitted by others were very lacking.

If you take this course, know that it will provide you some good information about writing fiction, but the feedback you receive on your assignments will not help you learn. You will need to find another peer group of writers to help you with that.

The content of this course gives enough basis for aspiring writers to improve the settings and descriptions in their writing. The only improvement I would suggest is to have some input on the student's work from the faculty themselves. I understand that it would be a massive challenge to review all of the work submitted but only peer review feels a bit like a cop-out.

Clear lectures with practical advice, and very good assignments. The assignments in the plot class and the character class were too confusing and structured, but the assignments in the craft of setting class were perfectly designed to help the student practice whatever was taught in the modules. I know it sounds unimportant, but we're here to write, and when we're given awkward assignments, the peer reviews go haywire and the writing quality declines for everyone.

I read some of the best work, peer work, in this class and in the style class.

It's a good course. I learned a lot. For me the peer reviews are a weakness for a number of reasons: students don't always have the same understanding of the assignments; it would be nice to have feedback from an 'expert' e.g. the course convener; some of the students have a limited knowledge of English which reduces the value of their feedback;

The same as I have written for the other courses in the specialty. The course information was great and the assignments were very helpful. What lost points for the course was not the content provided by Wesleyan, which was good, but the poor effort on the part of many of the fellow students to really work on constructive critiques. For each assignment I had at least one of the three peer reviews that was useless to me to improve my writing, sometimes more. There should be a way to rate critiques so that students can't move on if they don't do the work of critiquing well.

Just as the Amy Bloom's course, this course has no descriptive arch and one is left to try and grasp the teaching points in a flood of reference material. Teach theory in a clear structure first please then provide reference. See Brando Skyhorse course, very structured.

In regards to the specialization, I found the Brando Skyhorse course more "technical" but this course seems to evoke talent from students. The peer grading was a pleasure to do. -leattol

Content was great, the app and peer feedback could be improved on

Amity Gaige is amazing. Sh goes a step further to make sure you understand the topic and she also gives thoughts and questions that make you think, about what you are doing.

I feel honored to give her a five-star rating.

I loved Amity Gaiged format. She made the sessions dynamic with interesting readings and videos, despite being an online course. It was fund and very instructive. I learned much more than what I expected. Thank you.

The course was very well organized and quite challenging. Each week gave me the opportunity to develop a piece which I have further developed into longer pieces which I am looking at publishing.

Excellent course- highly recommended. I liked how it tied into other courses in the series as well. I took many notes, and plan on revisiting the course during my writings to refresh some ideas.

Each step I take along this specialization gives me more and more to think about. This course continued to expand my knowledge on the writing process and helped me hone my skills a little more.

I would very much like to thank Amity Gage for her wonderful course , it was such an amazing experience and inspiring indeed.

Simply Amazing. The instructor was very motivational; she asked the right questions and came up with insightful answers.

This course was well organised and easy to follow, the assignments were very relevant and enjoyable to do.

A brilliant course ... great communication, enthusiasm, readings and exercises

I really enjoyed this course. I wish you offered more on creative writing.

I love this course! Thank you for making me a more confident writer.

This course made me look at setting differently.

Amazing course with an amazing teacher.

Great teacher and great course!

Good learning experience

I complained originally I did not see the reviews of my work. I did not see them on my telephone APP. but when I checked my Laptop I did.

As with all the other courses, I learned a lot from the writers and the modules. It gave me limitations, which forced me to work harder and be more creative.

I am quite a reader, so I tried to write as if it would be something I would like to read.

The peer reviews are hard to take, even when there is positive feedback, because the teachers here have instructed us all to be kind. Being kind doesn't kill your ego, but you can't be sure whether the critiques are the peers' genuine opinions.

The additional challenge in these assignments is to fulfill the requirements in a limited amount of words. This forces us way past our comfort zones, and I, for one, felt myself stumble a bit. So I recommend this course if you are serious about learning and willing to take risks in order to grow.

This was the first course taken in the specialization and I enjoyed the format -- videos, readings, assignments. One aspect I found a little cumbersome was the peer review process. The feedback I received was just enough to meet the criteria of conducting a review. I could have benefited from more useful feedback and I also would have liked to get some 'instructor' feedback, if not on each assignment then perhaps an overall assessment. The lack of valuable feedback is why I rated this course a 4/5 and not 5/5, otherwise I really enjoyed the course. Thank you!