Malcolm Gladwell

Teaches Writing

Masterclass is $20/month (billed annually)

Ketchup. Crime. Quarterbacks. Thanks to Malcolm Gladwell’s books, these ordinary subjects have helped millions of readers grasp complex ideas like behavioral economics and performance prediction. Now, the renowned storyteller and best-selling author of Blink and The Tipping Point is teaching his first online writing class. Craft stories that captivate by learning how Malcolm researches topics, crafts characters, and distills big ideas into simple, powerful narratives.

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Browse Lesson Plan
1. Introduction

Meet your instructor—best-selling author and longtime New Yorker staff writer, Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm outlines what he has planned for your class and reflects on the idea of writing as a calling.

2. Structuring Narrative: The Imperfect Puzzle

Malcolm likes an imperfect argument—the perfect argument is too obvious. Learn how Malcolm builds an open-ended puzzle into his story, “The Ketchup Conundrum.”

3. Holding Readers: Tools for Engagement

Data is a big part of Malcolm’s stories. Learn three ways Malcolm helps readers digest data and engage with complex ideas in his writing.

4. Holding Readers: Controlling Information

Learn how to use surprises, guessing games, and suspense to invite readers into your story.

5. Research

Malcolm shares his guiding principles to uncovering a good idea for a story through research.

6. Selecting the Story

What makes a story worth pursuing? Malcolm talks through his criteria for spotting a unique story and the first steps of story development.

7. Developing the Story

Learn how Malcolm grows the idea of a story, and how he tests new ideas with family and friends.

8. Developing the Story: Analogous Worlds

Using David and Goliath and “What the Dog Saw,” Malcolm teaches you how to look for patterns and draw connections between seemingly disparate ideas.

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General
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MasterClass is the streaming platform that makes it possible for anyone to watch or listen to hundreds of video lessons taught by 85+ of the world’s best.
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Whether it be in business and leadership, photography, cooking, writing, acting, music, sports and more, MasterClass delivers a world class online learning experience. Video lessons are available anytime, anywhere on your smartphone, personal computer, Apple TV and FireTV streaming media players.

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Each class includes around 20 video lessons that are 10 minutes long on average, along with an in-depth workbook. You also get access to our smartphone and TV apps, offline lessons, our member’s only newsletter, and our dynamic community of members around the world.

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*Downloads only on iOS and not available for all classes. Audio mode is not available for all classes.

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