FROM IMITATION TO CREATION

Austin MannStephanie Deaver

2/4/2015

TEACHERS!

• Are your students having trouble finding their writing style?

• Feel like you aren’t able to get your students involved with their writing?

• Are you finding your students looking up Wikipedia articles and just copying and pasting?

WE LIVE IN TROUBLED TIMES!

• STUDENTS CANNOT FIND THEIR WRITING STYLE!

• STUDENTS ARE COPPYING AND PASTING LEFT AND RIGHT, AND HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIND OUT WHO THEY ARE AS WRITERS!

• WE CANNOT GET AN ORIGINAL THOUGHT FROM THESE STUDENTS ON PAPER!

THERE IS HOPE HOWEVER!

• There is a technique that allows students to find their writing style by copying others.

• This Technique that I am offering you is groundbreaking, and when I say groundbreaking, I mean it has been used for decades!

• We have come today to offer you the tool that will revolutionize your classrooms and get your students off on the right track to find their reading voice!

WE PRESENT TO YOU IMITATING STRUCTURE!

• Imitating Structure is a tool that allows students to find what writing style they find best!

• IT’S JUST THAT SIMPLE!!!

• Charles Caleb Colton said “Imitation is the best form of flattery.”

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaaANll8h18

I SEE THAT SOME OF YOU ARE DOUBTING MY WORDS!

• Does this look familiar? “We hold these truths self-evident, that all men are

created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

-Thomas Jefferson-1776

THOMAS JEFFERSON ACTUALLY IMITATED JON LOCKE!

• In 1689 John Locke wrote “The magistrate’s power was limited to preserving a person’s civil interest, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and indolency of body.”

• The Founding Fathers used Imitating Structure to draft the Declaration of Independence.

NOW I KNOW YOU’RE THINKING IMITATING STRUCTURE IS JUST PLAGIARISM.

• Imitating Structure is a technique teachers have used successfully for decades!• “Used properly, imitation internalizes writing

techniques that students can later apply in infinite ways.” (Noden 79)

HOW IS IMITATION DIFFERENT FROM PLAGIARISM?

• Imitation just takes an author’s writing style, but you the writer, supply the content.

THERE’S GUIDELINES FOR IMITATION

• 1. Select a short passage that you feel is well-written. • 2. Read the selection carefully, preferably aloud to get the

full effect. • 3. Review your selection carefully, noting sentence length,

type, and word choice. • 4. Do either a close or loose imitation of the model by

selecting a subject that differs from the model’s but is suitable for treatment in the model’s style used by another author.

THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF IMITATION

• The Franklin Approach

• The Hamill Approach

• The Pooh Perplex Approach

• The Van Gogh Approach

THE FRANKLIN APPROACH

• Named after Benjamin Franklin• You read a selected piece of work that you enjoy. Then you

reread it and take notes on the selection. • A few days latter you then try to rewrite the passage without

looking at the original work. • The goal is to try to get the message of the passage down

again, but your work will not be word for word. • This is great for having students try to remember important

information without plagiarizing their work.

LET’S PRACTICE!

• Take out a sheet of paper please.• Read the passage on the next slide and take some

notes on parts of it that stick out to you. • DO NOT COPY DOWN ANYTHING WORD FOR WORD!

• Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, confirmed that ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening, and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of these dangerous individuals. “We find ourselves, most unfortunately in the same position we were two and half years ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped,” said Fudge last night.

-J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

NOW WRITE DOWN THE PASSAGE AS BEST YOU CAN REMEMBER

• Compare your writing to the texts.

• Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, confirmed that ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening, and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of these dangerous individuals. “We find ourselves, most unfortunately in the same position we were two and half years ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped,” said Fudge last night.

-J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

THE HAMILL APPROACH

• Named after Pete Hamill.• He would completely change the content of a passage,

but he would imitate the structure. • His approach invites students to look over the shoulder

of a talented writer and watch how she or he paints each image, zooming and layering, brush stroke by brush stroke, with specific nouns and added parallel structures.

EXAMPLE OF THE HAMILL APPROACH

• At first he didn’t recognize what was coming. He saw the moose stiffen and turn his head, his huge ears alert and forward, and then in a shadow he saw a flash of gray, just a touch, moving across to the rear of the moose. –Gary Paulsen

• Brad Wickland’s imitation of Gary Paulsen“At first he didn’t realize what was happening. He saw the car rumble and flash its lights, its huge engine roaring and grinding, and then in the shadow he saw a flash of red, just a touch, moving across the hood of the car.”

WE CAN SEE THE HAMILL APPROACH IN MUSIC TOO.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7Eki5EZ8o

THE POOH PERPLEX APPROACH

• It is named after Frederick Crew’s book Winnie-the-Pooh.• The purpose of this approach is to spoof literary analysis. • Students use similar wording and structure as those of

famous authors/ writers• Example: having students write their own story but

borrowing the introduction from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickenson

VAN GOGH APPROACH

• Is a spin off of The Pooh Perplex approach.• This is the best for students to find their own writing

voice. • To use this approach, we suggest you find a great

author and show his/her work to the class.• Tell them to observe this author’s perspective and

voice and try to have them PARALELL with other writers.

IMITATING IS ONE THING

But how do we get students to create original thoughts?

CREATION

• Take a piece of paper out and draw this shape on it.• This is a trunk.

The teacher quietly called his mom.

NOW YOU ADD BRANCHES TO THE TRUNK

THIS IS CALLED FALLEN TREE TRUNK

the teacher quietly called his mom.

While cooking dinner,

after opening a

bottle of wine,

NOW YOU TRY!ADD TWO BRANCHES ONTO THIS TRUNK.

we went and flew the kite

YOU CAN ALSO DO THIS ON THE RIGHT OF THE STUMP

• This is called Right-branching tree.

The teacher quietly called his mom.

while cooking dinner,

after opening a bottle of wine,

ORDER NOW AND YOU WILL GET STRATEGIES THAT WILL HELP YOU FURTHER DEVELOP YOUR

STUDENTS VOICES

WRITER’S SKETCHBOOK

• It will allow your students the ability to capture moments of inspiration.• This allows exploring students’ imagination.

PAINT FROM A FAMILY PHOTO

• This is where you will have students write from family photographs and what impressions they get.

IMITATE POETIC SENTENCES

• Students will come up with a short poem that emulate other poets sentence structure.

SEARCH FOR A PERSONAL VOICE

• This is where you will have students write an opinion piece but with a special twist!

• They must attempt to create a personal voice.

• For example: To Kill a Mocking Bird shouldn’t be taught.

ORDER NOW WHILE THIS OFFER STANDS!

• For the low price of a cookie (or the price of Image Grammar by Harry Noden), you too can have this power of helping students find their voices.