Inspired Writing

Inspired Writing

Started during summer 2010 and Texas A&M by former Apocalypse TA turned Instructor Brady Nash and TA Erica Mason.

Course Work

The First week of Inspired Writing deals with the topic of short stories. Each student constructs and composes their own short story and after rounds of peer editing creates a final draft for their portfolio. Short stories can be about anything (as long as it is TIPpropriate) and were an average of 1 to 3 pages. Term II Tipsters often joked about how all of their stories tended to deal with depressing subjects, though not one student could be classified as a depressive person.

The Second week of class focuses on Personal Essays in the form of "This I Believe Essays". Personal Essays told about the writer without actually mentioning themselves. Again, they could be about anything TIPpropriate. Most TIPsters did not like the sound of writing an Essay at the beginning of the week, but Personal Essays turned out to be much more than the standard five paragraph MLA format. In fact, they didn't have any formal structure at all. Each student wrote one personal essay, then re-wrote the same essay in under 500 words to submit it to the This I Believe Essay website for publication.

Week Three was dedicated to Poetry and all of its forms. Poetry was not necessarily the favorite form of writing for the majordy of the class, but nobody could say it wasn't fun. Brady and Erica introduced many of the students to SLAM poetry, which is basically standing up in front of people, speaking a poem in the craziest way you can and then returning to your seat. During the Poetry section of the class, Inspired Wrtiting took a fieldtrip to Hastings with the Geometry class for a poetry slam reading where all students had to perform at least one piece. Several RC's and other staff members attended and performed their own pieces.

Field Trips/Activites/WHY ISNPIRED WRITING IS THE BEST CLASS AT A&M!

• People Watching

-Second day of class, Inspired Writers journied across the treatourous street on the edge of the A&M campus to Starbucks for two hours of Stalking..I mean People Watching.. to help them come up with indiosyncratic charactersitics for their short story characters. -The idea for Pointless Debate Evening Activity was founded on this fieldtrip by Audrey, Nikki with two K's, Jeneane, Amanda and Niki with one K. Pointless Debate was held later during the Second Week in the TV lounge by RC Jordan Land, member of the Boytoyz. Subjects debated were: Burger King vs. McDonalds, Edward vs. Jacob, Tom Cruise vs. Brad Pitt, and Superman vs. Batman.

• Aggie Bookstore

-Inspired Writing student managed to persuade Brady to take us to the Bookstore (we say persuade to make us sound Beast, but deep down he really wanted to go anyway) since there were only four 4th years that had the option of going during free time. We went twice, because we are just that awesome, and we learned how well Amanda was at balancing things on her head.

• Hastings

-For Poetry Slam Reading Inspired Writing journied to Hasting's Bookstore with the Geometry class. At first the only people extited for the fieldtrip were the Instructors, TA's and RC's that were driving us. As the week progressed most of Inspired Writing was looking forward to it, and in the end EVERYBODY had fun. After reading we had an hour of free time. The Harry Potter section of the bookstore was thouroughlly inspected and approved by several TIPsters. In all, it was a pretty BA fieldtrip

• The Campus Library

-Inspired Writing spent several hours in the A&M library, because we didn't want to get bored sitting in our classroom all day like the other classes, and Brady was awesome at changing our location so we never were in one place for too long. The library was usually occupied by , but for the most part the two classes got along. It should also be noted that no mascot wars errupted from these encounterings.

Term II 2010 Class

• Aisha
• DJ
• Caleb
• Sarah
• Adiba
• Audrey
• Nikki
• Jeneane
• Heather
• Emmaline
• Niki
• Christine
• Mary
• Alicia
• Karl-Mary
• Amanda
• Ashley

Term II 2013 Class

• Jackson
• Dylan
• Jeremy
• Chuck
• Kate
• Lily
• Assorted Others