Students in the Bobby Hawthorne Experience at the 2018 MIPA Summer Workshop are learning how to include sources’ backstories and write in ways that engage and inform the reader. These techniques, according to instructor Bobby Hawthorne, will help them to establish a voice and engage the reader to connect with the story.
“He encourages us to go beyond the basics,” student Raija Kearney said. “It was kind of like a narrative. [For the first assignment] we had to take a picture and tell the story behind the picture. Basically going beyond the obvious, digging deeper into the story so that readers can be intrigued and not just hearing what they already know.”
Hawthorne said his goal this summer is to do just as Kearney described.
“[I want to] teach and inspire the students to go beyond formula, that they should learn the inverted pyramid and all the fundamental stuff and now they need to be moving way beyond that because this is just a different time, “he said. “I’m pushing the idea of telling the story behind the story, the backstory, telling readers what they don’t know and not regurgitating what they do know. Then telling these stories with a sense of authenticity and strong voice using interesting literary devices and interesting sentence structures. Engaging the reader so that the reader will read it and not just scan it. Writing to be read.”
Love it Madison! You know that “using your voice” is our theme. How appropriate for your first article. Excellent job!
Great first article! How ironic that the subject is our theme “using your voice”. I love it. Great job! Keep up the good work!
Hi MAdison Gladley, you wrote a nice news brief. Although I enjoyed reading it and was engaged, I didn’t feel you in this article. When you write you have to talk and you did not: the quotes spoke for you. Next time work on putting more of your words into place. Good job though.