Writing Workshop II Exercises

• Musical Computers

  
  Musical Computers is like the game musical chairs. Each student sits at the computer and types on an empty page. At the sound of the tone, they rotate to the next computer where they write on the same document. Depending on the exercise they can keep rotating or go back to their original computer.
  • Personal into Expository Writing: The first players write down a personal event from their lives that moved them deeply and caused them to think differently about life. Students should feel free to change names and places to protect their privacy as long as the feelings are genuine.
    The second players read the personal narrative critically to find a thesis, potential arguments around a larger topic, abstract concepts that could be defined, examples of inductive and deductive reasoning, potential research sources, pøssible cross-cultural and historical comparisons.
    The first players go back to their original page, read what the second players wrote and refine a thesis and outline for an expository paper related to their personal essay.
    For example, a woman describes how her feelings about her so-called "overweight body" caused her to visit friends at Rikers Detention Center and then start to date inmates because they made her feel better about herself. This could lead to a study on discrimination against overweight people, psychological profiles of the wives and girlfriends of inmates, distortions of the oedipal transfer onto the unavailable prisoner etc.
    
  • Layers of Description: The first players write a physical description of a person, the second players an emotional, and the third players an intellectual including objectives and resume. T The descriptions are printed and one actor plays each character in an improvisation. Our last layers of description took place in a cemetary with a number of vitriolic historical characters and dysfunctional modern ones. A few died and a happy time was had by all!
  • Letters to the Editor: The first players write an argumentative letter outlining a strong position on a topic such as abortion, capital punishment, guaranteed health care coverage, female circumcision etc. and the second players take the opposite point of view. The third players, as editors, synthesize a compromise.
  • Correspondance with a Martian: The first players describe their thesis and argument to a highly intelligent Martian who knows nothing about our culture. Everything we take for granted must be explained such as sex, television, politics etc. This is an excellent way for students to sharpen their conceptual abilities with a concrete, humorous assignment. Then the second players read the texts and write back as Martians. The first players then revise their thesis and definitions.
  • Utopias and Dystopias: The first players briefly describe the utopia that would occur if their proposal were completely implemented. For example, a student visualized the legalization of all drugs by the year 2000. Starbucks turned into a smorgasbord of marijuana, cocaine, heroin etc. Then the second player described the deleterious effects of this decadent Starbucks that led to the ruin of everyone's mindbody. More subtle utopias and dystopias can be brought to cyber life. This is an excellent way for students to judge the implications of their proposals.

• Oral Communication:

  
  During this phase of their work, students bring tape recorders to class to record presentations, speeches, debates and improvisation. Some people are much better at talking than writing; and everyone benefits from the open exchange of ideas. Oral communication also helps to eliminate writers' block because there is always something to transcribe.
  • Role Playing: Students give an oral presentation of their research to an audience composed of deliberately friendly and hostile members. Students learn to convince people who love them as well as people who hate them.
  • Debates: Traditional debates on a topic are held with a 90 second intro, 60 second argument against it and a 30 second rebuttal, just like Dole and Clinton! Everything is taped.
  • Finding the Fallacies: Students give an oral presentation incorporating personal narrative with argumentative exposition and the other students write down their informal fallacies of relevance, ambiguity and assumption. They pick the most egregious fallacy, exaggerate it and debate it back to the original speaker.
  • Interviews: Students interview each other as well as their research subjects and play back the tapes to analyse techniques.
  • Non-verbal communication: Each student imagines an interpersonal conflict based on their thesis and describes the characters and situation only to the two or three actors. The actors mime the situation, using gesture, facial expression, sobs, laughs, grunts, gibberish but no recognizable words. The class tries to guess the situation based on the non-verbal communication.
  
  

• Library Aerobics

  
  Students run up and down the stairs of the library as they learn the old-fashioned, never-to-be forgotten art of browsing. This is a good break from the corporeal rigor mortis of cyberspace.

• Movies, Madness and Music

  
  Students show films or photos, draw pictures, write poetry or play music related in any way they choose to their research. In the 21st century we need the right and left brains working together!

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