Teaching

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Bonnie Laing began her working life as an elementary school teacher, and she has never lost the joy of helping someone grasp a new concept or idea and start to use it.
 

Creative Writing​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Bonnie currently teaches an Introduction to Creative Writing course at St. Lawrence College in Cornwall, Ontario.
 

She is the former Coordinator of the Creative Writing Program at Ryerson University in Toronto. At the time she ran it, it was the most extensive creative writing program offered in Canada.
 

Her Introduction to Creative Writing course runs ten weeks, but can be expanded to 12 weeks or condensed down into a weekend workshop.
 

The course covers most of the elements that comprise a good story, including:
Finding your own style
Building characters
‘Telling’ details
Effective dialogue
Plotting
Point of view
Mood, atmosphere and environment
Show, don’t tell
Exercises to improve the writer’s skill in these elements
 

Ms. Laing has also taught creative writing to community groups and to a group of HIV positive Aboriginal people at the Wabano Aboriginal Health Centre in Ottawa, to help them write about their experiences.
 

Plain Language Workshops​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Bonnie prefers the term Clear Language because she firmly believes that writing text that is clear does not make it dull or plain.
 

She offers workplace workshops in Clear Language to help organizations improve their internal and external communications.
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The workshop includes:​​​​​​​​​​​
Identification of those who can’t read
Importance of length of words, sentences and paragraphs
Elimination of passive language
Importance of space around text
Use of headings, sub-headings and bullets to break up text
How to measure readability
Exercises to turn complex language into Clear Language​

 

To learn more or to book a Creative Writing course or a Clear Language workshop, contact Bonnie at: bonnie@blaing.ca