Writing Prompts

The Power of Hard Times

Getting through and learning from a hard time...

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Many days I have lingered beside the cabin door;
Oh, hard times come again no more.

-Hard Times, by Steven Foster

Download Design Writing Prompt: The Power of Hard Times

      Success polishes character; hardship builds character. The true measure of a person is how he or she acts and responds when times get tough, when values get tested, and choices--if there are any--range from bad to worse; in short, hardship is both a teacher and a test, and, if we don’t learn from hard-times and rise up to challenge hard times, we are destined to fail the greater tests of life: we do not grow or adapt or evolve. We will leave the earth with barely a ripple to be remembered by, a fleeting shadow of what once was possibility.

Writing Prompt....

Write a 300-350 word narrative paragraph using the Design Writing Prompt: Power of Hard Times that explores when you went through a hard time or when someone you know went through a hard time.

  • Introduce the theme of hard times and narrow that theme down to a specific experience in your life--or in a friend or family member’s life.

  • Describe the experience in your Setup & Smoking Gun.

  • Reflect in your Head & Heart on the lessons the experience continues to teach you.

  • Exit with a thoughtful conclusion that Opens the Door for a reader to continue thinking....

The maximum length is 350 words, so follow the details of the plan with focus and certainty, choose your words carefully, craft your sentences with clarity and conciseness, describe your scene with images and actions, reflect in thoughtful ways, and create a single paragraph that is compelling and memorable—and reflects the best effort you can give!

Due at the end of the third class period!  


The Power of Passion

 

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Give a damn about something...     

 

Download Design Writing: Narrative Paragraph

Download A-Maker: Narrative Paragraph

 

     Passion is the fuel that drives the engine of our potential. It ignites the fire in our belly and polishes the lens of our imagination; it enables us to see who we are, what captures the bent of our iconoclastic vision, and why we are alive. It drives us to persevere on whatever rocky path we take to a mastery of some specific thing that somehow powers the direction of our mind and heart and soul and being; moreover, it defines what legacy and testament we will leave behind, and it will tell the greater story of our life. In short, our passions, for better or worse, define our lives—and damn, our passions are worth their weight in words. So get ready to fill at least one small with a treasure trove of memory.

Prompt...

Using the Design Writing Narrative Paragraph Plan, tell us about one of your passions. It could be sports or a single sport; it could be a hobby or an activity; it could a personal trait that you strive to embody and embrace–really, it is anything that you are driven to master. It can't be drudgery or answering some lame call to duty. It needs to be something you do simply for the love of doing.

The maximum length is 350 words, so follow the details of the plan with focus and certainty, choose your words carefully, craft your sentences with clarity and conciseness, describe your scene with images and actions, and create a single paragraph that is compelling and memorable—and reflects the best effort you can give!

This is due at the end of school on Friday. Post to your blog and save as a Pages doc.

  • To be extra sure you are following the prompt, use the Narrative Paragraph A-Maker and be sure to get an A.

 


Embrace the Beast

The Rules of Punctuation

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If you don’t use it, you lose it...
~Fitz

What do you really need to learn? What teaching and what practice will help you learn what you “really need to learn” in a way that will somehow stay with you and be useful and necessary to your life.

Most all of you are pretty lucky I did not “grade” your most recent essay harshly for missing and misused punctuation, though I probably should have graded those few students who were in my class more harshly. It’s only fair. I practically beat them over the head last year with comma rules, hyphens, long dashes and semi-colons, brackets and the weird three-dot thingy. If they have forgotten, I blame myself. What kind of English teacher can’t teach what is basic and critical to good writing?

 

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Enter the Stream

The Courageous Writer

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Time is but the stream I go fishing in...

–Henry David Thoreau, Walden
 

     Writing well requires a writer to write with courage, confidence and honesty. Your journal is your place to live fully within yourself as a real and committed writer who practices these ideals. Journal writing is simply a way to give form and substance to your inner thoughts. It is simply a way for you to be completely you—not an expectation driven by academic expectations directed and choreographed by me.

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A Slice of Life

Finding meaning in the little things...

 

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“Sometimes, little things make a big difference...”

Nino Varsimashvili

 

     Through better and worse, happy and sad, hilarious and serious, we are all wrapped up and boxed at Fenn School--so we may as well write about it. Thanks for your first efforts at posting on your blog.  After I write this, I will take a little trip of my own down Freshman Blog Boulevard and reward myself with some good reading. You should do the same! I have yet to meet a person who doesnt like a good and sincere comment left on their blog posts.

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