Life's a Croc:
What's The Deal Here?
Coming into this semester, I had no idea the types of work I would begin to do during this class. The idea of the e-portoflio and this site is to give you a glimpse of the work I did througout the semester for Writing 220, but to also demonstrate the development and growth I experienced as a writer during the course. My biggest takeaway from this course and this project is that the biggest gains and strides I made as a writer came when I stepped outside my comfort zone. Trying new things, such as a new genre of writing, or writing for a new audience, was never the easiest or most desireable thing at the time, but in the end, these were some of the most beneficial takeaways I'll have from the course. Below are three writing assignments, along with one recording project, that help demonstrate a few of the steps I took along the way.
From Journeyman to Minuteman:
Repurposing
The Minutemen were a relatively infamous anti-communist group that was founded shortly after the conclusion of World War II. This historical fiction piece, is meant to take a look inside the appeal of the group, and why someone would join the ranks of a group closely followed and monitored by the FBI.
For this project however, I'll take you through the entire writing process, starting witih a sketch draft I orignially made with my piece, then to the various drafts I wrote, culminating with the final draft of the piece. An annotated bibliography is included as well to help show the influencial pieces that helped me throughout the process as well.
For the 'Write' Reasons:
Why I Write
At the beginning of the semester we were asked to think about the reasons we write, and what the motivation behind writing was for us individually. This is my first piece from the class, but one that I continued to tweak throughout the semester as my reasons for writing were continually evolving.
The Ann Arbor Broadcasting System Presents
From Journeyman to Minuteman: A One Time Radio Special!
Remediation
Along with my the minor in writng class that I was enrolled in this past semester, I also took a English 290 class titled "American Sounds: Golden Age Radio from 1930-1962." Going into the class, I don't think I had ever heard a single old time radio recording, but the story couldn't be any different now. The class intorduced me to an entirely new genre of entertainment and writing, and for my remediation process, I decided to take a que from the major radio broadcasting companies of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s and attempt to make my very own radio show.
Based off of the story told in my remediation project, this radio show follows the styles of many popular 1950s radio shows, with accompanying sound effects as well, in attempts to give as realistic a show as to one which would have been played on air back during the Golden Age of American radio.
It was an incredibly eye-opening class and project, and while it turns out it is in fact a lot harder to replicate the shows than I initially thought, I think the audio recording is still able to provide entertainment in more ways than one.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
Writing Back On It All
Writing New Media
Coming into this course, my writing style, voice, and audience was more limited than I could have imagined. But by forcing myelf out of my comfort zone, really trying to connect with my work, and focusing on my audience and personal voice more than ever, I experienced tremendous growth as a writer. Here I'll take a more in-depth look at it all.
The People Behind It All
Obviously, a class this involved will either make you hate it and everything it represents, or if you go into it with an open mind and the right attitude, you can take away a lot and never look back. Thankfully I've been lucky enough to have done the latter, and linked here are the blogs I've posted throughout the semester. It helps capture the voices of all the students, as well as some of the things that go on inside the heads of each student throught the course of the year.u to
tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
Max Zwolan
Intro to the Writing Minor (January-April, 2014)
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.