The Book Of US
The Book of Us. This is the book that we wrote, edited and published by our class for our class project. Each student developed a non-fiction piece which, the way I saw it, was an interesting opportunity to write about anything we wanted, maybe an impact life experience, thoughts that had to be put in paper and shared to the world or maybe even just random thoughts. Each piece of the book had a purpose to be written, not only to get an A on the assignment, but to share a 5 minutes or more in which the reader can explore our minds. The process might seem pretty simple and straight forward (write, edit, publish) but it is the preparation which turned the project into a great learning experience. Below you will find each step we went through throughout the project.
PREPARATION:
Step 1: Finding the Purpose
Before even starting writing we had to come up with a purpose. Why are we writing this? What thoughts and ideas do we want to transmit? Is there a purpose at all? Dr. P introduced us the Real-World Writing Purposes "Field Guide" (from Kelly Gallagher) . In this guide we found six different purposes followed by an explanation and an example paragraph. This was a great start and very useful to get us started or even inspired to write about a specific topic.
Step 2: 1 Topic = 18 Topics
Before choosing our purpose, we came out with an interesting topic for us and tried to come up with 18 other more specific topics (three for each purpose). I personally didn't find this very useful since my final piece was about something completely different. Still I know I would've found this very useful if my piece was relevant to the topic I wrote about here.
PREPARATION:
Step 1: Finding the Purpose
Before even starting writing we had to come up with a purpose. Why are we writing this? What thoughts and ideas do we want to transmit? Is there a purpose at all? Dr. P introduced us the Real-World Writing Purposes "Field Guide" (from Kelly Gallagher) . In this guide we found six different purposes followed by an explanation and an example paragraph. This was a great start and very useful to get us started or even inspired to write about a specific topic.
Step 2: 1 Topic = 18 Topics
Before choosing our purpose, we came out with an interesting topic for us and tried to come up with 18 other more specific topics (three for each purpose). I personally didn't find this very useful since my final piece was about something completely different. Still I know I would've found this very useful if my piece was relevant to the topic I wrote about here.
Step 3: Quick Writes
In order to explore every purpose of writing we worked on them through "quick writes" which consisted of writing a mini-piece with each purpose with a time limit of 5 minutes, based om our 1 Topic = 18 Topics. Here is one of my Quick Writes
In order to explore every purpose of writing we worked on them through "quick writes" which consisted of writing a mini-piece with each purpose with a time limit of 5 minutes, based om our 1 Topic = 18 Topics. Here is one of my Quick Writes
Step 4: Mentor Text Graphic Organizer
In order to get more guidance we analyzed a published piece which we called Mentor Text. Here is a link to my Graphic Organizer.
WRITING:
Step 5: Down Draft
Here is a link to my Down Draft. This is the document where all the editing happened so it doesn't look very much as a draft anymore but more as the final draft. As you can tell the topic I wrote about it completely different from the ones I've been preparing, but that's the thing about writing: when it doesn't feel right you don't want to continue writing about it. That's why I started all over with this topic.
Editing:
Step 6: Final Draft
After the editing process, the Final Draft was submitted and ready to be published. Here is a link to the Final Draft.
Publishing/Exhibition:
Our Exhibition was the day we launched The Book of Us. A couple of students (including myself) read excerpts from our pieces. We also had Golden Lines Portraits which were hung all over the classroom. These consisted of a portrait for each author followed by a representative quote from the author's piece. Here is a link to my Golden Line Portrait.
In order to get more guidance we analyzed a published piece which we called Mentor Text. Here is a link to my Graphic Organizer.
WRITING:
Step 5: Down Draft
Here is a link to my Down Draft. This is the document where all the editing happened so it doesn't look very much as a draft anymore but more as the final draft. As you can tell the topic I wrote about it completely different from the ones I've been preparing, but that's the thing about writing: when it doesn't feel right you don't want to continue writing about it. That's why I started all over with this topic.
Editing:
Step 6: Final Draft
After the editing process, the Final Draft was submitted and ready to be published. Here is a link to the Final Draft.
Publishing/Exhibition:
Our Exhibition was the day we launched The Book of Us. A couple of students (including myself) read excerpts from our pieces. We also had Golden Lines Portraits which were hung all over the classroom. These consisted of a portrait for each author followed by a representative quote from the author's piece. Here is a link to my Golden Line Portrait.
REFLECTION:
When I first started writing my draft I did follow up my 1 Topic = 18 Topics Graphic Organizer. I started writing about the influence of soundtracks on movies, how it can change completely the meaning of a scene. This is a topic that I thought I would enjoy writing about, and I was right! I love films and lately I've been paying attention specifically to soundtracks which is one of the main reasons I feel so personally connected to movies. This topic seemed like the perfect thing to write about. I received very useful feedback and people seemed to love my piece, even more than I did.That's where I found the problem. I somehow didn't find myself very passionate about my writing. Don't get me wrong, I loved the topic but it was my writing that I had lost interest in. I had been working on that piece for a week and was almost done. It was due the next day and I decided to take a risk so I started a new piece. This time I wrote about my dad and me. I wrote about how we both are drummers and all the things I've learned thanks to him. I don't think I've ever been so proud of a writing piece as I am with this one. I wrote this in one night. I kind of felt like the whole week when I was writing the original piece went to waste, but it didn't. It was like practice. Since I started all over again I didn't receive as much feedback as the last piece did. I had to ask people individually to read my piece and to help me out. Overall I am very proud of my piece and even though I wrote it overnight I did put a lot of effort on it. I wouldn't change anything about it.
When I first started writing my draft I did follow up my 1 Topic = 18 Topics Graphic Organizer. I started writing about the influence of soundtracks on movies, how it can change completely the meaning of a scene. This is a topic that I thought I would enjoy writing about, and I was right! I love films and lately I've been paying attention specifically to soundtracks which is one of the main reasons I feel so personally connected to movies. This topic seemed like the perfect thing to write about. I received very useful feedback and people seemed to love my piece, even more than I did.That's where I found the problem. I somehow didn't find myself very passionate about my writing. Don't get me wrong, I loved the topic but it was my writing that I had lost interest in. I had been working on that piece for a week and was almost done. It was due the next day and I decided to take a risk so I started a new piece. This time I wrote about my dad and me. I wrote about how we both are drummers and all the things I've learned thanks to him. I don't think I've ever been so proud of a writing piece as I am with this one. I wrote this in one night. I kind of felt like the whole week when I was writing the original piece went to waste, but it didn't. It was like practice. Since I started all over again I didn't receive as much feedback as the last piece did. I had to ask people individually to read my piece and to help me out. Overall I am very proud of my piece and even though I wrote it overnight I did put a lot of effort on it. I wouldn't change anything about it.