On October 20, 2009, Eastern Michigan University opened its Ballroom doors to hundreds of students and faculty gathering together to spend the day exploring different types of writing during their event for the nationwide National Day on Writing celebration.
According the the NDoW's website, the day is used to, "Draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing we engage in and help make writers from all walks of life aware of their craft." The site also makes sure to mention that the National Day on Writing is a real, officially recognized national day, as of October 8.
Eastern's celebration focused on the idea that writing is used by everyone in everyday life, no matter where we are coming from. It is something that connects people on both personal and professional levels. The different levels of connection were apparent in the selection of activities.
The event offered a selection of activities available to the entire campus community. The activities ranged from creative- like the PEOPs activity in which participants created an image reflecting themselves with writing about what and how they write surrounding the image and a short biographical blurb under the image- to the informative- like the Roving Reporters in which students were given a camcorder and instructed to interview fellow students or staff about writing. Whichever category the activities fell under, one thing was apparent: the student center was alive with writing!
The National Day on Writing celebration showed the deep significance writing has on each person. It showed that we can use writing not only as a way to communicate, but as a way to discover ourselves. The event's activities linked writing to something that is deeply personal and differs between each writer.
Perhaps the most self exploring activities the celebration offered were the Writing Corps and the Bio Poems activities. Writing Corps allowed students access to a Mac computer in order to submit a short blog to Emuenglish.org's National Day on Writing website. The blogs focused on each writers personal stories. Writers reflected topics such as why they write, what they write about, and how writing has changed their lives. The entries, available for viewing on the emuenglish.org website. The Bio Poems activity prompted participants to create a 10 line poem about a themselves, a person they look up to, or the person they hope to one day be. Though the activity is rather easy, it probs into a deeper part of the writer, asking them to look seriously into the personal qualities they deem important.
Overall, the October 20 celebration was a successfull one: It was thought provoking and exciting. The event brought together people from all different walks of life to bond them with writing. The event managed to be both educational and fun, Eastern created an learning experience that was not painful, but rewarding.
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