Sunday, March 25, 2012

Welcome to WRIT 1633! Post a profile of your classmate here as a comment.

For your first post to our course blog, I’d like you to get into pairs and interview one of your classmates. Using the questions we generated together as a class, take about ten minutes to ask your classmate more about him- or herself. In addition to the usual questions about who he or she is, where she or he is from, or what he or she does for fun, please pay particular attention to this person’s past experiences as a writer. What does your classmate remember about his or her previous writing instruction? What kinds of writing appeals (or doesn’t) to your classmate? Why? What meaningful or significant experiences has he or she had with writing? As well, ask questions about your classmate’s previous experience or interest in service-learning or volunteering for community-based organizations. Perhaps most importantly, try to learn more about this person’s experience with the issue of homelessness and what he or she hopes to learn as a writer, researcher, or civically engaged person by taking this course.

Once you complete both interviews, spend the next 20 minutes writing a profile (aim for 250-350 words) that vividly represents your classmate. Whatever issues you focus on, take care with this short piece, for it is our first impression of you as a writer, as well as the first impression of the person you interviewed. And don't forget to have fun with this piece—be creative and make it interesting! Use quotes, brief stories, and any other vivid details you can discover to enrich your profile of this person.

3 comments:

  1. This afternoon I interviewed Hannah Pepper. She is a freshman from Michigan who is currently living in JMac. She just switched from an engineering major to a biology major. Hannah has two younger sisters. She was born in Texas, though she moved to England when she was five and then again to Canada. Hannah has now lived in Michigan for about 12 years. In her free time, Hannah enjoys sailing, skiing, and snowboarding. She explained that the sailing in Colorado is not nearly what it is in Michigan, but she does enjoy the skiing and snowboarding in the mountains. She considered going to college for sailing, but preferred Denver to the East coast. Although she was not in a writing class last quarter, Hannah does enjoy writing thanks to an excellent writing teacher she had in high school. She prefers writing in a narrative format that is informative, but also tells a story. That, as opposed to a formal research paper, is what truly interests Hannah. We talked about a shared love of Ernest Hemingway, and in particular A Farewell to Arms. Hannah said that she had not really thought about viewing herself though the identities that we worked with in class, but that she does strongly identify with her gender. Hannah is enjoying DU so far, and talked about how she really likes the Denver area. Although she did not have to write any essays last quarter, Hannah is looking forward to exploring writing over the next ten weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado Julia Seldin left home to attend her first year of university at Kalamazoo College. After one year of being 1100 miles away from home Julia moved back to Denver to attend DU. Although Julia is majoring in Gender and Women’s Studies here at the university she is well versed in some of the decidedly timeless novels such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Wuthering Heights. Earnest Hemingway also stood out as one of Julia’s favorite authors. When not immersed in writing or reading Julia has followed her families inclination to play the harp, she is contemplating playing at the University next year. As far as identity is concerned Julia finds herself identifying most with her age, gender and ability. Julia’s decided minor in English shows her commitment and interest in writing—provided with this information I was able to surmise she is looking forward to both the writing aspect of this class as well as the service learning experiences.

    ReplyDelete