Week 13: Ending Out the Semester

Hi class Welcome to the final few weeks of the semester! This week and next, you'll continue onwards with blog posting, reviewing, and reading & writing Writer's Journal posts. After that, you'll begin work on your Final Project. I call your attention to that project now so that those of you with busy schedules or perfectionist tendencies can start working in advance. You'll find details about your Final Essay under "Tuesday, April 26th" on your Course Calendar. If any of you would like to schedule an appointment with me for assistance/feedback on rough drafts of your final essay, please schedule early. The final few weeks are busiest with student appointments, and I'd like to do my best to get everyone in who wants to meet. Optionally, I can meet off campus in Scottsdale (at a coffee shop) more easily than on campus in Tempe. This is also a good time for you to review grades, should you have any questions. I look forward to seeing some more fantastic writing on your blogs this week, and I encourage you to check out last week's Great Hits. :-) See, also, a new Writing Tip of the Week below. Happy writing! -AP GREAT HITS! Miranda's "Happiness and Health" http://glitteracceptedhere.blogspot.com/2011/04/43-happiness-and-health.html In this post, Miranda successfully creates the feel of ongoing, repeated action. That is not an easy thing to do, yet Miranda's particular voice as a writer lends itself to reflection of this sort. She describes an event where she and other students eat out as a matter of routine, breaking from their work at the studio. The tone of this account draws in her readers and allows us to feel included. I especially love the shift from scene to reflection in paragraph two. The second part of this post reveals a thoughtful, humanitarian psyche that can, at one and the same time, enjoy and appreciate a meal while considering the struggles of others. Both the tone, and feeling, resemble prayer. It's beautiful, Miranda. Thanks for sharing with us! Rebecca's "No Need for White Chocolate" http://owlsandicecream.blogspot.com/2011/04/prompt-43due-4-7-11-no-need-for-white.html This post is one of my favorite stories posted by Rebecca in this course. It's wonderful thanks to the subject matter itself, but also thanks to the great writerly choices Rebecca made. She did an excellent job "showing" the scene as opposed to telling us what to think or believe based on her own emotions or assumptions. The story is at once nostalgic, funny, and heartbreaking. We get introduced to a scenario that is wholly "high-school" era, where social acceptance is the heartbeat of everything else we strive to experience. We all have those moments of being rejected, yet they tend to be amongst the hardest moments to tell others about. I'm impressed then, that Rebecca did it so well. Excellent work! :-) Skylar's "Order in the Court" http://skylarthehonestone.blogspot.com/2011/04/prompt-43-order-in-court.html I am amazed by how this class uses their writing to go beyond the personal or interesting events from their lives to successfully write about topics of societal import. Skylar's post, "Order in the Court", is a prime example of that. Her masterful use of dialogue allows her to forefront keen political opinions with personal experience and an evocative scene. Eventually, she reveals what's at stake for her in sharing this story. She writes, "The judge was nothing but a robotic hammer, just doing her job, but without human capacities: no empathy, no compassion, no understanding. Is there no mercy for what people need? Why is it the innocent have to spend time away from their lives to judge the incompetent, the law-breakers, the unhappy, the unjust? Isn't that injustice?" Congratulations, Skylar, for making ideas as beautiful and lyric as songs are. Great work on this post! Leena's "Sleep Walkers" http://leenawalker.blogspot.com/2011/04/sleep-walkers.html In Leena's post, "Sleep Walkers", we watch a familiar scene: a study group of students (who could be anyone, anywhere) during an iconic late-night study session. I love the ambiguity of who the people are in the context of this scene, since there's a sense of universality to the experience. The ambiguity about characters also lends itself to the feeling of "sleep walkers", which is redefined, here, in the context of students who stay up way too late in preparation for an exam. Wonderful work with this post, Leena! I'm sure many of your classmates can see themselves in the mirror of your writing. :-) Writing Tip of the Week How to Title Your Writing One of the most difficult responsibilities of writing essays and stories is coming up with great titles. It's also one of the most important responsibilities. Titles create interest for readers, set moods, and set up major themes. They also work to specify topics and to argue. A great title is not unlike a great song name. It serves to locate one particular unit of creative work as independant, complete, and beautiful. Essays and stories without titles are like babies without names. Remember to name your babies wisely and intentionally. There are no fixed rules for Title writing, but you can learn a lot about effective titles by reading published work and seeing what professional writers do. Often, a particularly central subject is picked out and highlighted ("The A Train", "Birds at Night", "Cedar Falls"), and other times, a theme is highlighted ("Men Who Talk", "The Importance of Eating Breakfast", "Marriage Before 20"). Regardless, precision and specificity are of the utmost importance. A tip that I give to students who have trouble writing titles is, write a list of ten possible titles and then pick the best one. Another tip I give writers is to have other readers review your work and weigh in on title possibilities. In this class, it's possible for you to ask peer reviewers to suggest titles during their feedback of your writing.