Malcolm Gladwell MasterClass Review:
Is It The Best Course for Nonfiction Writers?

Content and Structure of the Malcolm Gladwell MasterClass

Gladwell’s MasterClass is a little lengthy at 4 hours and 54 minutes. Malcolm teaches writing in 24 lessons with an average duration of 13-15 minutes. You can finish the entire course from start to finish in one sit, but that won’t be optimal. With the homework assignments from the 76-page workbook, it can take a few days to a week.

If you’re hurrying to finish his MasterClass, check my fast-track lesson plan to complete the course faster. It won’t be as comprehensive as finishing the entire thing, but you won’t miss much out on the key points.

Getting the Audience’s Reaction

1-4 Lessons Summary

Malcolm Gladwell’s MasterClass starts with what will be featured in his non-fiction writing class. He steps into structuring the narrative, comparing it to solving jigsaw puzzles. This chapter is on how to write a narrative and holding readers.

Malcolm shares his tools for engagement and ways to keep the audience’s attention by controlling information to invite the reader to make them guess. He teaches withholding information until the end to encourage readers to further reading. Malcolm also touches on adding suspense, a crucial aspect of storytelling.

This chapter was interesting as Malcolm explains various aspects to keep readers engaged and leave them guessing until the end. It’s an excellent beginning to the course, with great advice on capturing the audience.

Story Development

5-9 Lessons Summary

In this chapter, Gladwell shares his methods for doing research. Namely, with an open mind and promoting utilizing various means of research. Malcolm also recommends conducting research off the internet and encourages following your curiosity.

The following lesson covers Gladwell’s criteria for what makes a story idea worth pursuing. When finishing this part, he advises writers not to write in the first person, and Malcolm shows why it’s not a good idea. 

Malcolm takes his teaching from the past lesson to developing stories. He begins these two lessons about story development with how you can further test an idea to grow it. He gives practical advice to writers before ending the Developing the Story lessons with two case studies from David and Goliath to What the Dog Saw.

In the last lesson, Malcolm shares his tips on interviewing subjects and ends the chapter by teaching about what troubles him during the interview process.

Writing Characters

10-12 Lessons Summary

Lessons 10 through 12 are all about writing and developing characters. Together with the creative writing courses I finished on MasterClass, these courses can have taught me a lot.

Malcolm starts explaining it takes more than good writing to write appealing character descriptions. He finishes the second lesson by describing a character’s world and advises writers to practice describing characters through their settings.

This section of Malcolm Gladwell’s MasterClass ends with a character case study of The Pitchman. It’s a profile Gladwell wrote about Ron Popeil, a creator and a salesman of kitchen gadgets.

Writing the Story

13-17 Lessons Summary

This was my favorite part of Gladwell’s MasterClass by far for a variety of reasons. Gladwell explains different aspects of his writing style and the essentials nonfiction writers should follow.

Malcolm touches on sentence length and punctuation and how he uses them to create a rhythm. He then talks about the use of jargon in non-fiction writing and how you can use them to hook readers.

Malcolm then talks about calibrating tone and gives plenty of examples from his public speaking Q&As while comparing the way you write and the way you speak. 

This prepares the next lesson: Humor and Melancholy. Malcolm shares interesting points between sadness and laughter in writing non-fiction and setting and managing reader expectations. The chapter ends with a case study of his own work, Something Borrowed from The New Yorker.

Editing, Polishing, and Publishing

17-20 Lessons Summary

Malcolm Gladwell’s Masterclass covers editing, polishing, and publishing like a crash course. It’s very detailed, and I recommend aspiring columnists to listen carefully.

Malcolm Gladwell starts with the importance of reading your titles and how they grab attention. He thinks titles are similar to advertisements. The following lesson covers setting achievable goals to prevent disappointment, writing as you research, and writer’s block.

The last lesson covers ways to promote your book after publishing and learning from the reviews. He ends with Gladwell advising writers not to mistake critics for their readers. You should write for those who will be reading your work the most.

Recommendations and Closing

21-24 Lessons Summary

The last four lessons are more or less about life as a writer and Malcolm’s career advice to writers. He talks about launching a career as an aspiring writer and encourages upcoming writers to get a job that supports their passion.

I particularly enjoyed his advice on how and what to read. As an avid reader, I found these two lessons fun to watch and satisfied my curiosity about what he likes to read. Gladwell ends his MasterClass by summarizing nonfiction writing and compares writing to other art forms that require creativity.

Fast-Track Lesson Plan

Finish Malcolm Gladwell’s MasterClass in 3 hours, 10 minutes, and 3 seconds.

Engagement and Retention of Malcolm Gladwell MasterClass

It should be already clear from this Malcolm Gladwell’s MasterClass review that he’s a very engaging teacher. It adds to the enjoyment of this practical online writing course and makes it fun while you learn ways to become a better writer.

Since it’s a writing MasterClass, you won’t find it very visually appealing. However, Malcolm’s anecdotes and examples make it a fun course to watch.

The assignments are also engaging and encourage you to go beyond just writing. The class project guide will ask you to visit Wikipedia to find article ideas, analyze public speakers, and more. All these assignments complement Malcolm’s teaching style.