For this assignment, please compose a
rounded portrait of one of your workshop peers as a writer, reader and young
adult. Working in pairs, you will be
developing profiles of one another to share in class and post on our course
blog. Your profiles should provide the
following, in whatever order you decide:
You will weave together your profiles from
four sources: a transcript of a personal interview (conducted in class and
possibly extended over the phone), any photos, video clips or recordings that
your peer makes available, an archive of your peer’s writings, and your own
journalistic notes. With photos and
clips embedded into your essay, it will become a multi-modal text,
functioning fully when we post it online.
These profiles should run between 1000 and 1350 words (3-4
double-spaced pages). A typed draft is
due on Monday, Aug. 19th. Final versions are due on Wednesday, Aug. 21st.
What was your most memorable/most dreaded writing experience?
What is the one thing you would love to write about? Have you written about it? If not, why not?
Growing up, what was your reading experience like at home? At school?
What reading medium(s) do you prefer: books, magazines, newspapers, blogs?
Describe some of your all-time favorite readings. Why are they so important/enjoyable to you?
Describe a key experience that motivated you to come to college/pursue your course of study.
Where do you hope to be in your work/life in four years? In ten years?
·
an account of the person’s cultural
background, including language use
·
a survey of the person’s education, including
attitudes toward learning/subjects
·
a narrative of a formative experience or
series of experiences, including sensory details
·
a description of the person’s
motivations and goals as he/she enters college
Be sure to acquire your partner’s email
address and phone number, as well as their times of availability for this
project so that you can stay in contact as the profile evolves. The idea is to collect much more material
than you have room for, then select the most interesting pieces and arrange
them in the most dramatic order. You
will begin with an interview, then pour over the transcript, along with the writing
archive and your notes, looking for a theme or “angle” you can use to engage
your audience and unify your portrait. Such
a theme must be true to life, even though it will necessarily simplify the
person.
Though your primary medium is text rather
than film, you may imagine yourself as the editor of a biopic. Your own writing will serve the role of a dubbed-over
narrator, bridging the gaps between quotes/excerpts, summarizing information
that you don’t quote, or fleshing out the peer’s first-hand accounts into vivid,
3rd-person narratives. Feel
free to alternate frequently between modes and materials as a way of
stimulating the reader’s interest.
Further tips on developing profiles may be found in Field Guide, pages 191-204.
Here are some suggested interview
questions to start with:
Are you
bilingual/multilingual? If so, what language do you prefer to read and/or write
in? Why?
What is your
writing/composing process like?What was your most memorable/most dreaded writing experience?
What is the one thing you would love to write about? Have you written about it? If not, why not?
Growing up, what was your reading experience like at home? At school?
What reading medium(s) do you prefer: books, magazines, newspapers, blogs?
Describe some of your all-time favorite readings. Why are they so important/enjoyable to you?
Describe a key experience that motivated you to come to college/pursue your course of study.
Where do you hope to be in your work/life in four years? In ten years?
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