Campus Event Journal #2

On Friday, October 31st, I attended Friday is Writing Day, where I listened to three new campus writers give presentations on their work.

The first presenter read a segment from his book on Chicago gangster rap.  He talked about how he met the rapper he would be following over the course of the book.  The writing really set the mood of the story, as he gave vivid descriptions of Chicago’s urban decay.

The second professor’s work was an analysis of the political blogging that occurred in the last election cycle.  She used her research to make statements on the demographics associated with the computer literate members of each political party.

The last professor presented part of a scientific paper concerning the genetic makeup of Minnesota wild rice.  His paper was presented to the Minnesota court in opposition to the construction of a mine.  He argues that the runoff from the mine would be damaging to the local wildlife who are dependent on the rice, and the Native Americans who harvest the rice as a crop.

Although the three writers didn’t cover topics directly pertaining to our class, I thought it was important to note how they were able to present ideas using many different forms of writing.  The first writer used a narrative style, the second writer wrote a math based book, and the third writer had a scientific paper.  Seeing how authors can use multiple different mediums to express their ideas is something that every aspiring author should do.