Can you teach writing

 

Shakespeare never took a creative writing course as far as we know. 

Would it have helped or hampered him.

Can writing be taught.

Yes.

No.

Both answers are true. For Fiction. For Journalism

For fiction:

Grammar, organization, the basics of editing can be taught. There are "tricks" successful writers employ such as limiting adverbs, selecting powerful verbs, use said and asked rather than words like declared, laughed, whispered, etc. 

Successful writers will show more often than tell, another "trick." Ex: He was angry isn't as powerful as he slammed the door. They owed lots of money versus The envelope with the paid bills was far smaller than those that still needed to be paid, but the checking account was empty.

For journalism:

The old who, where, what, when is the first lesson.

Talking about the inverted pyramid where the most important fact is written first and the importance then is reduced to the tiny tip of the last line is another lesson. 

As an editor, I found so many opening paragraphs in press releases by the time I got the reason for the press release, I didn't care. Some even make it into print.

Editing:

No matter what is written, rewriting (editing) makes almost every written piece better. In fiction once is not enough. I would love to see early Shakespeare manuscripts. To have or not to have, I need an answer instead of To be or not to be that is the question.

There will always be people who are natural writers where words flow from an inspired brain.

For the rest we need to develop our craft.