This term, the Pearson Adult Learning Centre is offering
Writing 12 for the first time. Originally conceived as an either/or
proposition, Writing 12 has been more often given as a creative writing
course in recent years; longer ago, the course was frequently offered as a
journalism option. At the ALC, I am trying a "hybrid" of both streams.
Too often, adult students spend their time producing
academically correct but a bit boring prose. Essays and paragraphs pour
forth from our classes and, eventually, students get the hang of it. Nothing
wrong with that, but in the longer term, exercising their creative (and
journalistic) side offers benefits, including a more developed style and
sense of voice in student writing.
You know the students I mean: the ones who surprise you
with something keenly observed, a funny story, an apt turn of phrase.
Recently, my students have been challenged to "show" what
we see in a jealous person (but without any dialogue allowed). It's hard and
they've felt their way, sometimes falling back on an omniscient narrator or
using spoken words to make the scene succeed. But when one of them had a
character blacking in some girl's faces in a high school yearbook, I knew
the exercise had been worthwhile!
It's rare at the ALC, but because of our tightly
scheduled classes, Writing 12 is offered over a full year. I've had the
luxury of easing students in to writing more creatively (while still
treating them to a "Greek Technique of the Week" to help them polish their
rhetorical skills). Soon, we'll begin making the hard decisions of
publishing: what's good enough for publication and how might editing
strengthen a piece of writing?
So, stay tuned! Expect a student led online newspaper in
the second term. In the meantime, we'll continue to search for the "write"
way together.
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Writing Better Paragraphs
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