I'm teaching a scriptwriting course this semester in the JMC and Film Studies program at a local university, and I've been making notes from the textbook and my own personal experiences. The focus will be on writing for Corporate Videos, Commercials and PSAs, and of course, Narrative and Documentary work.

My question is this: those of you who have taken scriptwriting courses before, what types of discussions and topics did you find most useful? What were difficult aspects of the subject? And, do you have any advice for other scriptwriters?

I've pulled a few gems from old threads on here, but I figured I'd try to get some fresh feedback.

I'm taking a class like that right now. It's called Advanced Electronic Media Writing. The class used to be taught in all the fields that you have mentioned above. Over the last 10 years, however, the professor who teaches it has narrowed it down to a Film and Television writing class. He told us that this change came to be because people who took it really only wanted to write narrative stuff. My school is more broadcast oriented than it is cinema so it's a bit strange that the class hasn't stayed more commercial. That being said, you might want to find out what the students actually want to learn about. I'm sure you can't up and change the whole course now but you might want to focus in those areas.

Other than that, my professor told us that past students wished that they had written more material for the course. Now, my class is pretty much required to write something every day. You could try boosting up the work load.

We're the exact opposite...the program is more broadcast than it is cinema. Some students who take this class will be film studies minors, but the overwhelming majority are usually Electronic Media students. That's one reason why I want to make sure to include the corporate and psa writing in there as well.

I had planned on doing an informal survey of the class to find out what everyone is going into. Likewise, although everyone will have to write a :30 to :60 PSA, they will have the option of either writing a Corporate, Promotional, Documentary or Narrative script. That way, all bases are covered.

Writing more...I like the idea! We're only meeting about twice a month (the rest of it is online), but I am planning on one writing assignment a week (in addition to the overall semester writings mentioned above).

What types of writings did you have to do? So far, I'm looking, within the first two weeks, at having them write up an interesting memory or personal story in as much detail as they can remember, then the following week, stripping it down to the bare essentials for a concept/synopsis, and from there converting that to a narrative and two column script. That's fairly basic, but I figure it will be something to get them in the process of hacking away at their writing, to learn how to trim off the adjective fat. Plus, it's about four weeks of different material from the same original material. I've got some other ideas in mind, too, such as having them actually pitch to the class.

Thanks for the thoughts, Harmonica!

Not sure if I mistyped something but I meant to say that my department is more broadcast than it is cinema. The ratio is probably somewhere around 4 or 5 broadcast classes to every one cinema class. The cinema classes are pretty much only theory.

Anyway, we are currently assigned to write 3 small (3,5,7 page) screenplays based on the exercises in the book Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect by Claudia H. Johnson. Two of the exercises are 1. a discovery and 2. a decision that cause the character to react or change. It's a pretty good book that helps you make scripts a little more personal. The rest of the class we will be studying structure and a few of the variations of it. We also work on creating a concept for a sitcom and a 25 page film or TV script.

Nah, you didn't mistype, I just can't read, apparently. Which is always good for an instructor. Ha. Anyway, that's about the same setup as us regarding the ratio and the theory.