Hi class!
Midway through the semester, I'm amazed by the pages and pages of writing you've created. Your Writer's Journals are packed with reflections about great examples of published creative nonfiction, and your blogs are full of stories, memories, thoughts, and ideas. I'm also grateful that you've connected so well in group response! This week, you'll meet even more of your wonderful classmates. Congratulations: these are the folks you're lucky enough to work with through the end of the semester. Enjoy it!!
Writing Tip of the Week:
Choosing Great Topics
You may have noticed, while reading Susan Orlean, that nonfiction essays are not always personal to the self, or modified by personal opinion. Sometimes, great topics are the ones we discover, which have nothing at all to do with us. Having a certain degree of objectivity can give us an advantage as we write... whereas subjects we're close to can sometimes be harder to tell (because it's difficult to leave details out, or tedious to write all details in), it can be much easier to manage sufficiency of information and detail (without over- or under-doing it) when relating topics that are less personal to us. For instance, Orlean has also written about orchid hunting, taxidermy, and what the life of a ten year old boy is like. What are some topics you'd like to explore? Are there any that are, perhaps, less personal to you, that engage you all the same? Widening your field of possibilities as you consider topics gives you an opportunity to speak, without always speaking about yourself. This can be a relief to writers of personal essays!
WEEK 7's GREATEST LICKS
Here are some phenomenal single lines from your writing.
Alyssa: "[The bar] is like a good date: low-key, inexpensive, and care-free."
Brandon: "[When the gates open], it's like popping a balloon; all of the pressure is expelled and people walk freely to the security checkpoints."
Chelsee: "Arizona State University sold their bookstore to an outside company for many reasons that I am too low on the pay scale to know."
Jamie: "You think you've got freeways where you come from? You should see the ones we have here."
Jesus: "I hate social gatherings because whenever I'm surrounded by people, I imagine that everyone has come together to celebrate my accomplishments, and I always end up leaving dissappointed, no accolades to show for my exhausting efforts at socialization."
John: "This writing is supposed to focus on others per the assignment directions but I must briefly describe my heroic measures."
Katie: "Before me sat an old and rough looking man. Tattered clothes, dirt stains, and a rainbow of paint stuck to him."
Kayla: "We had just come from mini-golfing, and Mike had proven to us all that baseball wasn't the only sport you can strike out in."
Kimberly: "To offer a perspective of the size and scope of Comic-Con... the widely publicized 2008 Democratic National Convention, held in Denver, and the Republican Convention, held in Minneapolis... drew crowds of approximately 50,000 visitors each. Comic-con annually draws two and a half times this many visitors."
Nynn: "Now I have to admit, when I orginally though of NASCAR, I thought of rednecks and beer as well as Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights..."
Matt: "The circus of vice was capped by an electric sky."
Miranda: "... as of late, [Rhianna] seems to be forcing her strength rather than actually finding it."
Nicola: "With my family there has never been enough men to do a lot of the hauling of the water or the chopping of the wood or gathering of the coal."
Rebecca: "Upon entering Rawhide, there is not much to see. One kicks up thick patches of dirt and first sees a board that is used for throwing knives, but never seems to be in use."
Skylar: "Not until I made this decision to grow up did I realize just how much I needed to grow up."
Leena: "From the eight row up, I can hardly see the teacher's aid and the professor, let alone what they choose to be pertinent information that goes up on the white board with a dying white-erase marker."
Great work, everyone!
Continue on with your calendar this week, and afterwards, have a very happy Spring Break!
-AP
No comments:
Post a Comment