Creative and Analytical Writing in the Classroom

             The digital storytelling project was my first writing experience with a website or blog.  It was a different experience than any other types of writing I have encountered.  The digital medium used for the project allowed me to observe a different side of writing.  The digital storytelling project encouraged creativity and I found that the writing for the project flowed much easier than a research paper. It was easy to think of ideas by just letting my mind wander.  The ideas for the storytelling came easy but navigating the website and putting my ideas onto the page was a little more difficult.  It took a while to figure out the set-up of the page, but after the initial confusion I actually enjoyed working with the website. 

              I think projects like the digital storytelling need to be incorporated in more English classes.  The project gave me the opportunity to branch out from typical academic writing.  As an engineer, I write a lot of boring lab reports, using simple sentences with technical words.  It was a nice break to write without these restrictions.  Writing in a digital medium, taught me that the medium in which I read something can really alter the story.  In digital medium, it is a lot easier to see exactly what the writer is trying to portray.  Digital medium allows readers to better connect with the writer and it allows the writer to add their own personality into the writing.  The digital storytelling project also forced me to take into account other people’s writing.  Since the page that my group wrote had to be based off the pages before I had to interpret their writings.  Though I had to interpret my classmate’s writings, I was able to take their writings in any way that I wanted.  The project let me be creative with my writing, because there was not any assigned structure for the project.  It was easy to explain my ideas because I could do it with words, pictures, videos and more. 

The digital storytelling project is very different from the analytical research paper.  The analytical research paper requires a lot more thought and there is a larger emphasis placed upon the technicality of my writing.  I think this type of writing is very important to teach in English classes as well.  With analytical writing, I am forced to do a lot of planning.  I need to make sure that I have enough sources and support for my paper.  I have to concentrate on how I am writing and I have to pull a lot more of out a source than I would expect.  Writing the analytical research paper, has taught me to pay attention and observe the small details within my source, which has not always been an easy task. 

Both the analytical research paper and the digital storytelling project have been useful in this class.  The digital storytelling took away the normal restrictions of academic writing and let me be creative, which is something I really enjoyed.  The research paper is more difficult to write and not as enjoyable, but that is understandable and is more realistic for the papers that I will write in future classes. The research paper is definitely easier since we were able to choose our own sources and the topic we wanted to talk about.  I am glad we were given the opportunity to write in different mediums and ways because it made the class a lot less technical and boring and I think that more English classes should incorporate this into their curriculum.  .