To be a good academic writer, it helps to be an effective reader. Close reading of texts is the key. I found a great set of tips here:
Archive for the ‘Tips for Teen Writers’ Category
You knew your gamer would make a career of it…
Can you believe this? Video Game Grad Programs Opens Up Industry
Traditionally, video game designers learned their trade from other designers, a system that meant the people who made the games were often living in a monoculture. But that’s changed recently; for the past five or 10 years, universities have been offering degree programs in video game design.
The programs are not about coding; instead they look at games as a medium for artistic experimentation and collaboration. And as students emerge, they are gradually making their mark on the industry.
My kids have told me for years that they would be able to earn a living off gaming. Now, it appears they were right!
Shaking the dust off writer’s block
I spent some time surfing the web looking for ideas to help us knock open the internal world of words and found some good ideas! So if you and your kids want to kick off the fall with some new ideas (or if you are down under and feeling a little weary going into spring) try these! Here are five writing ideas. Don’t do them all in one day. Space them out over weeks.
- Write a collage made up of full-lines of selected source poems. (Choose the poems, grab lines from them, type them up, print them, cut them into strips and then reassemble in a new order to make a new poem! You can certainly add a line of your own if it helps.)
- Write a poem composed entirely of questions.
- Make notes on what happens or occurs to you for a limited amount of time, then make something of it in writing.(You pick a predetermined amount of time – like an hour or a morning.)
- Write on a piece of paper where something is already printed or written. (You might try writing in the margins of a book, or the margins around a photo-copy of a poem, or on the edges of a flyer…)
- Type out a Shakespeare sonnet or other poem (or song lyric!) you would like to learn about/imitate double-spaced on a page. Rewrite it in between the lines.
