Welcome!

Welcome Class of 2024!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Check this blog each class period for agendas, deadlines, educational information, advice about writing, and a whole lot of links to enhance your education. You are responsible for reading and interacting with the material I post on the blog and in our Google Classroom. The blog and classroom are useful resources for the course. 

Assignments will be posted on our Google Classroom. The writing drafts you will be creating will shape your writer's voice and will form your writing portfolio. 

If you're absent or missed something in class, please check the blog or Google Classroom to get caught up. Please ask for help if you need it. If you have a question about an assignment and are too embarrassed to speak to me in public (or you have a question that you think you will forget to ask), feel free to use the comment section or send me an email. It is your responsibility to talk to me about your needs. This is your education. Make it worthwhile.

Task #1: Your Writer's Manifesto

This morning, your first task is to write your writer's manifesto. What do you want to accomplish with your writing this year? Set some goals. When you have completed your list, send me a copy through Classroom site as participation credit. 

Then, with your partners, discuss and complete the following tasks for your group: 

A. Together list ways in which humans communicate (humans communicate through...) 

B. Reasons why humans communicate

This begins our first step as creative writing majors. It is important for us to examine how and why (and when), as human beings, we decide to communicate. Of course, communicating through writing is only one way we, as humans, communicate with one another. This course will cover areas of communication, the communication process, techniques of effective communication, along with performance skills, public speaking, and various writing projects (fiction, poetry, scripts, personal narrative, essays, etc.) If you go on to study the arts, literature, political science, divinity, history, business, advertising, marketing, teaching, law, journalism, communication, or media, you will definitely need a basic understanding of these concepts.

Task: Short Introduction Speech.

Our first speech will be rather short. On a Google doc or a notepad or journal/notebook, jot down any of the following answers to these personal questions:

• What is one thing you want other people to know about you?
• What do you want to do after you graduate?
• What is one event that happened to you that changed your personality/outlook on life forever?
• What is one thing you're proud of that you never told anyone?
• What single event in your life has made you a better person?
• If you could accomplish one thing in your life, what would you like it to be?

Answer some of these questions (at least one) and jot down at least 3 main points (or reasons why you answered in this way) you would want to share with the class about your answers. When you are called, unmute yourself and share your answers in a short introductory speech. 

Start with an introduction: who are you? (what's your name, etc.) then hit your 3 main points. Try to sustain your short speech with some details. End your speech after your details...you can thank us for listening, or leave us with something to remember, or inspire us with an image or detail that helps summarize your main points. 

For homework (due Friday) begin your baseline non-fiction assignment in Google classrooms.

HOMEWORK: Complete a draft of your baseline assignment and submit your work from the system (Google Classrooms) by Friday, Sept. 18.