No Word Allowed

No Word Allowed

Teaching Writing

A few months ago, I gave my Intro to Creative Writing class this assignment:

Create a story, essay, poem, or play that is composed in anything EXCEPT Microsoft Word (or any word processing program). You must type the text into some other kind of software or application or tool, such as Google Maps, Facebook, Flickr, Xtranormal, Power Point, Ebay, Survey Monkey, Blogger, etc. Basically: if it’s got a dialog box you can type in, then you can use it. Your piece must engage with, make use of the medium or mode you’ve selected.

At first they thought I was crazy, but I spent some time showing them examples: Continue reading