Skills Portal

Struggling to express your ideas clearly? Wondering why your papers aren’t landing the way you’d hoped? Whether you're just starting out or preparing for publication, this tutorial is designed to help you write with clarity, confidence, and impact.

Our preceptors offer individualized support tailored to your goals—whether you're crafting a research paper, polishing a thesis, developing a conference proposal, or navigating the peer review process. We'll help you transform rough ideas into strong arguments, untangle writer’s block, and craft compelling prose that says exactly what you mean (yes, with grammar that sings).

Sessions may include guidance on structure and organization, revision strategies, citation practices (MLA, Chicago, etc.), research methods, and even engagement with literary theory. Our goal is to help you become the academic writer you want to be—ready to participate fully in scholarly conversations and share your work with confidence.

It turns out that writing dialogue can be tricky. A writer has to accomplish a lot through the way in which a character speaks, and how that speech is described. How do people talk to one another? Do they orate? Do they exchange fast and witty quips? Do they lecture one another to impart tons of needed exposition material? Does what they say and how they say it tell us anything about who they are?

In this class we will experiment with different ways to write dialogue and incorporate it into a story. We'll explore how details of character diction can change how a reader understands the text of what a character says. We'll do exercises designed to practice achieving particular goals Finally, students will apply what we're working on to their own writing and will receive feedback using our Collaborative Feedback method.

We're going to do a fair bit of writing, some in class, more outside of class as (optional) homework. By the end of the class a student should expect to be able to decide how a character should sound and then write dialogue that meets that goal.

Well-prepared writers enjoy more completion success! We will build worlds, plan character arcs, and try to define the bones of our stories during a month of glorious sub-creation! When you declare your intentions to the group, that act of bravery alone adds momentum to your writing efforts after the month is over. (This Module is great preparation before National Novel Writing Month)


Note: For more information about the Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE, please check out our video here.

When you think about your favorite stories, chances are you conjure the memory of a scene: the charge of the Rohirim at the coming of the new dawn, Luke turning off his targeting computer as he flies down the trench, or when Ged finally acknowledges the identity of the shadow being that has followed him literally to the land of the dead. Stories are built out of scenes, and scenes like the ones above make stories memorable.

In this class, we'll look at how to build scenes that accomplish specific things, according to the needs of the author and the story. We'll practice achieving specific goals, advancing the plot, expanding a characterization, even providing an opportunity fo exposition. We'll do this through assigned exercises, andby looking at how to apply these skills to the students' own stories.

We'll read each other's scenes and use our Collaborative Feedback method to help one another to sharpen our work. We'll be writers together helping each other's stories thrive.

We will walk through a complete project from pre-writing through writing, revising, editing, (revising, revising, revising), proofreading, and talking about publication options. Are you interested in finally getting down that memoir of your childhood? making a storybook for your grands? turning that daydream into a novelette? This adventure is for you! Whether your story is a draft, an outline, or a daydream, your project is welcome here in a place where we are aiming to finish it!

Note: For more information about the Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE, please check out our video here.

A Feast of Writing!

In one weekend, we're going to celebrate creativity by attempting a complete short story, novelette, or novella! Our format will include SPACE class sessions, WriterSpace focused writing time in excellent company, Bandersnatch Breakout room for talking about our craft and peer feedback, and an enthusiastic celebration of Story. So sharpen your quills, line up the inkpots, make a BIG casserole to last the weekend.

Here's the plan:
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Friday from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM Eastern
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Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Eastern
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Saturday from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM Eastern:
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Sunday from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM Eastern
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Our goal is to create a completed first draft in one weekend! Prompts, planning, focus methods, peer encouragement, machete editing, character crucibles — we’ll do it all. Writers will write between sessions as well as during.

You are going to end this amazing experience with a complete first draft of your story!


Note: For more information about the Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE, please check out our video here.

Write Our Hearts

Come for gentle writing. Introspection. Self expression in a circle of caring and community. Come gather virtually in the Cottage in the Woods with Sparrow: she literally wants us to prep food ahead and get away from the family and the dishes for forty eight hours to write our stories. It's so hard to find time for ourselves, so let's intentionally make that time. From Friday evening through Sunday afternoon there will be writing to prompts, conversation, ideas, blocks of free writing time. Does your heart ache to express a private grief on the page? Is your subconscious telling you to rewrite a story? Do you need to rewrite your story?

Here's the plan:
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Friday from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM Eastern
Escape session with community building and prompted writing time
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Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Eastern
Recovery session with prompted writing, free writing, and discussion
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Saturday from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Eastern:
Nap time.
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Saturday from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM Eastern:
Recovery session continues with optional sharing, prompted writing, and free writing
6p - supper time discussion
More Recovery session sharing and writing
9p - Sweet dreams until tomorrow
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Sunday from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM Eastern
Consolation session discussion, prompted writing, and free writing
Wrap up at 4p.
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Our goal is to write our hearts. Is that memoir? Is that a new story just for yourself? Is that a long, long prayer in the form of a poem? Writers might write between sessions as well as during.

You are going to end this amazing experience with something that is uniquely yours. Whether this turns out to be a narrative, creative nonfiction, or a huge list of Be-Happy-Attitudes, this deserves to be on your page, just for you.


Note: For more information about the Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE, please check out our video here.

We will meet to blend learning, discussion, and playing games with reading, appreciating, and commenting on one another’s work as it is submitted for peer review. Writers are encouraged—but never required—to submit new pieces in any state of draftiness or readiness up to 2,000 words each week for peer reading and feedback. Our Collaborative Feedback method, developed here at Signum University, asks us to comment at the author's comfort level through a structured reader (not editor) response. We gather to encourage the story that the author wants to tell. Our philosophy of kindness first might just turn around your previous experience of writing groups.





A seat has been reserved in this module for any writer (especially a beginner) of marginalized identity to support them finding their voice. Please simply write to [email protected] to identify yourself if you wish to join the class.





Note: For more information about the Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE, please check out our video here.

Please choose this module if you're excited to be part of our Creative Writing mini-modules in the near future! If you add this module to your wish list (or short-list it), we will include you in our communications about upcoming mini modules and let you know what's available.

Note: Our mini modules are special month-long group experiences designed for a small and intimate group of 2 to 4 students for the cost of 1 Token. As soon as we get enough interested students that reserve their seat, we'll schedule this class with the group and fly!

The Creative Writing and Worldbuilding Tutorial offers a mentor's guidance for novels, short stories, role-playing games, scripts, and more. Your writing can express your dreams or our culture's anxieties. The world you create can be thought experiments in "what if?" Your Stories can challenge your audience or comfort them or give them respite from their own monsters. Your Tutor will meet your project where it is, discuss what they see in the work with collaborative feedback, tailor writing exercises to level up your skills, and give you questions, prompts, and encouragement to help you move forward between sessions.

• For fully grown Tree projects, we provide developmental editing questions and encouragement, reader feedback, and coaching on copy editing for yourself.
• For Stories which are in drafting and early revision stages, we can provide skill development coaching, writing exercises, and focused feedback; for these stories, Creative Writing Tutorial is a strong supplement to the modules offered in Signum SPACE (Link: https://blackberry.signumuniversity.org/space/modules/sector/creative-writing/)

**If you want direct copy editing on a full project by a Tutor, we can make a special match for you and your Story; write to [email protected]

What makes a good children’s story? We’re going to address chapter books, cultural stories, and learning tales all through a lens of moral, cultural, and spiritual human development. Trying our hands at these forms should lead us to a nice folder full of works-in-progress at the end of the month. The December iteration of this module is designed to complete one treasured story gift for the holidays.

Note: For more information about the Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE, please check out our video here.

Blend technology and the humanities in a personalized tutorial designed for the digital age. Whether you’re exploring how digital tools can support literary research, learning data visualization or coding for scholarly projects, or analyzing media forms like film, podcasts, and games, this tutorial adapts to your goals. Engage with fields such as digital text analysis, online publishing, digital archives, adaptation studies, or interactive storytelling. These tutorials are ideal for students building digital portfolios, launching public humanities projects, or investigating how media and meaning converge in modern scholarship.

Explore the languages, cultures, and histories of East Asia in a flexible, student-guided tutorial. Whether you're developing your proficiency in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean (including work with characters, kana, or hanja), or delving into literature, philosophy, or cultural traditions, this tutorial supports both focused projects and open-ended inquiry. Your preceptor will help you identify next steps, recommend tailored resources, and support your growth—whether you’re practicing conversation, studying classical texts, analyzing a film, or preparing a research paper. Ideal for language learners, culture enthusiasts, or anyone looking to engage deeply with East Asia's rich intellectual and artistic legacy.

Come explore Fairy Tales from the inside! In the first meeting each week Pilar Barrera will lift up a Fairy Tale technique, character archetype, or trope. We'll discuss the story at hand and how that story technique makes meaning. Then, students try their own hands at that technique! What do we learn when we push these ideas to their logical extremes? In the second meeting, Sparrow Alden will facilitate a workshop-style discussion of our original tale-telling work; we'll encourage one another as writers and appreciate one another as readers! Our goal is to complete the month with a deeper appreciation for the tales we all love and a folder with one to four good drafts of original tales.

Note: For more information about the Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE, please check out our video here.

Travel through time and across cultures in a tutorial designed to deepen your understanding of the past and its relevance today. From ancient civilizations to modern revolutions, from folklore and foodways to empire and migration, these tutorials support students in historical research, cultural analysis, and interdisciplinary exploration. Work with a preceptor to develop your historical writing, prepare a presentation, or structure a long-term project. Whether you’re focused on a specific region, era, or theme, this tutorial helps you bring clarity, context, and curiosity to your study of history and culture.

Do you love the physical object of a book just as much as the information it contains? Do you smell your books when you get home from the library or the bookstore? Do you like working with your hands to make things? Then this module is for you!

This class is an introduction to the materials, tools, and methods of making books by hand. Whether you're looking to make "junk journals" on a tight budget or want to rebind your favorite tome in leather, you'll find the information you need in this module!

The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:

Outline	8-Session Structure
Week 1	Session 1: Brief History of Book Binding and Tools Overview
	Session 2: Materials and Terms - The Anatomy of a Book
Week 2	Session 3: Text Block Assembly 1 - Glued Binding Options - Perfect Binding and Double Fan Binding
	Session 4: Text Block Assembly 2 - Sewn Binding Options - Kettle Stitch, Coptic Binding, and Japanese Stab Binding
Week 3	Session 5: Cover Assembly 1 - How To Make a Softcover - Paperback and Wrap Covers
	Session 6: Cover Assembly 2 - How To Make a Hardback - Classic/English Binding and Hollow Back Case Binding
Week 4	Session 7: Cover Decoration and Finishing - Traditional and Modern Methods
	Session 8: Overflow, Resources for Further Research, and Final Q & A

Do you love to look at paintings, but aren’t sure how to make them yourself? Do you want to paint, but you don’t have room to store flammable, smelly chemicals like turpentine? Do oil/acrylic canvases and easels take up too much room for you to work in a small space? If you’ve painted watercolor before, have you wondered why they looked washed out or why you get certain unexpected textures in your color mixes? Then this module is for you!

This class is an introduction to the materials, tools, and methods of watercolor painting. Whether you're brand new to making art, a seasoned painter who wants to connect with other makers, or you just want to find out how Tolkien created many of his Middle-earth illustrations, you’ll find a place in this module!

The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:

Outline	8-Session Structure
Week 1	Session 1: Defining Watercolor – What makes Watercolor different from other art media?
	Session 2: Materials and Terms – What you need and where to get it
Week 2	Session 3: Prep – What to do before you start painting
	Session 4: Composition – Tips for visually interesting paintings and how to save your whites
Week 3	Session 5: Values – How to get good tone, range, and contrast
	Session 6:Color Mixing – Sediments vs. stains and how to make harmonious paintings
Week 4	Session 7: Texture – Tips for interesting textures and brushwork
	Session 8: Overflow, Resources for Further Research, and Final Q & A

Whether you’re beginning a new language, reviving a dormant one, or diving deep into the history and structure of how languages work, this tutorial offers personalized guidance for your journey. With one-on-one support from experienced preceptors, you can build practical language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking), pursue advanced grammatical or syntactic analysis, or explore historical linguistics and philology. From modern languages to ancient tongues, from Quenya to Latin, this tutorial supports projects in translation, language acquisition, comparative linguistics, and the cultural contexts that shape language use. Bring your goals—scholarly or conversational—and let your linguistic curiosity flourish.

Do you have a general idea or old class paper that you’d like to refresh for an academic conference? This module is for individuals who are interested in turning a past or current research project into an abstract (proposal) and script or outline for a 20-minute conference paper. Bring some past writing (or a bunch of notes) to our first meeting, and we will brainstorm possible venues; wrangle past writing into conference-accessible outlines; draft and peer review abstracts; and write or outline some paragraphs or sections for oral delivery. Everyone is welcome, but this class is specifically designed for novice conference presenters who have a specific topic (or past paper) in mind and would like directed guidance and weekly accountability during the revision and preparation process.

Explore the craft, impact, and meaning of literature through a personalized tutorial in Literature & Storytelling. Whether you're analyzing a classic novel, developing a comparative study of myths and epics, or researching contemporary fiction, our preceptors will help you deepen your understanding of narrative, genre, theme, and interpretation. Tutorials can focus on literary analysis, theory, close reading, or creative-critical intersections. Whether you’re preparing for graduate school, crafting a paper, or simply diving deeper into your favorite texts, this tutorial invites you to read widely, think critically, and grow as a literary thinker.

Bring your skills and passions to life with a hands-on, project-based tutorial in Music, Performance & Applied Skills. Whether you're composing, performing, researching music history, developing educational workshops, or exploring connections between music and literature, your preceptor will support your creative or academic goals. These tutorials may include performance coaching, guided practice, composition feedback, or structured reflection on process and technique. This space also supports interdisciplinary learners blending music with language, culture, or storytelling. Whatever your background, this tutorial celebrates your craft and helps you grow.

Delve into the big questions that shape our understanding of the world—across traditions, thinkers, and texts. In a tutorial on Philosophy, Theology & Religious Studies, you’ll engage with classic and contemporary ideas in metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, epistemology, or theology. Explore religious texts, spiritual traditions, or the interplay between philosophy and literature. Whether you're preparing for seminary or graduate study, developing an academic paper, or pursuing your own intellectual inquiry, this tutorial offers personalized guidance as you reflect, reason, and wrestle with the deepest dimensions of human thought.

One of the most crucial elements of education for millennia was teaching the ability to harness the potential of the memory. From the time of Homer until the 19th century, bards and bureaucrats both would have used established methods to organize and categorize their thoughts and remember crucial pieces of information. The legendary memories of men from Homer to Cicero to Shakespeare had less to do with their unique genius and more to do with their application of ancient methods of memorization, that can still be learned today. In this module, students will learn the ancient memorization techniques that allowed bards to recite thousands of lines of poetry and Shakespeare's actors to perform dozens of complicated monologues, and discover its applications to life in the 21st century.

Is your child struggling to learn how to read? Do they have trouble sounding out words, or understanding the meaning of new words? Do you struggle to explain why "one" begins with an o, and not a w? Then come learn more about the Science of Reading!

This introductory module will show you all about the Science of Reading, and why everyone should understand these fundamental linguistic principles throughout their reading journeys (not just kids!). We will discuss the history of the American Reading Wars and how they have impacted reading instruction, what happens in your brain as you learn to read, and how to use systematic, "building-block" approaches in your own home when reading with your little ones. If you're interested in the "why" and "how" of reading, then this module is for you!

Embark on a personalized journey through Tolkien's legendarium with our Tutorial in Tolkien Studies, where you'll explore the depths of Middle-earth alongside expert mentors who share your passion. Whether you're delving into Tolkien’s work for the first time or building on years of scholarship, our tutorials adapt to your goals—supporting everything from foundational reading to advanced academic projects.

Work one-on-one with a preceptor to analyze the linguistic foundations of Quenya, to develop a paper on the ethical dimensions of The Silmarillion, or to prepare a presentation for Mythmoot. Possible areas of focus include language and philology, narrative theory, theology, adaptation studies, or the broader mythic and historical influences that shaped Tolkien’s work.

Through personalized guidance, thoughtful feedback, and collaborative exploration, you'll learn to apply diverse literary lenses, engage meaningfully with existing scholarship, and develop compelling arguments—perhaps even toward publication or conference presentation. These tutorials build on Signum’s long-standing commitment to Tolkien scholarship and connect you with a vibrant, global community of fellow explorers in the world of Middle-earth.

Interested in expanding your focus to the wider circle of the Inklings? Our tutorials also welcome projects on C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and related authors. If you're examining themes like friendship, mythopoeia, theology, or imaginative fiction across the Inklings’ works, we’d love to support your journey.

What are the tools of the writer’s craft, and how can we sharpen them? In this module, we will learn about the writer’s toolkit through guided writing exercises and group discussion. We will use exercises from Ursula K Le Guin’s book Steering the Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story to explore tools like pacing, narration, point of view, syntax, and diction. Practice your writing technique, hone your craft, and embark on a journey with us through the “Sea of Story.”


Note: For more information about the Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE, please check out our video here.

Your story is unique. Do you want to set it down on paper for yourself? For your family? No other person has accumulated your experiences; no other person has had your potential, learning, drive, disappointments, challenges, triumphs, and quiet joys. We'll explore a variety of media and forms for memoir writing, from picture books to blogs. We'll interview one another with kindness and encouragement and draw amazing stories out of each other—and ourselves.


Note: For more information about the Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE, please check out our video here.