Eastern Michigan University English Department
Write-Link Program

 

LINKS
Student Application
Write-Link Feature Release
Acknowledgements

The Write-Link Program has been mentioned on the Detroit Public Television Web site! Click here to see the page!

 
Write-Link Feature Release


High School Students Learn ÒWriteÓ Ideas in New Summer Program

By Megan Cummins, Northville High School & Jennifer Szink, Jackson High School

This summer, a dozen southeast Michigan high school students had the opportunity to explore various writing fields and connect those fields to the issue of race as part of a new writing program offered through the Department of English Language and Literature at Eastern Michigan University.

Funded in part by a Michigan Campus Compact Venture Grant, the new Write-Link High School Outreach Program, held July 14-July 18, introduced students to the four major writing disciplines of technical communication, journalism, public relations, and creative writing. Students met all day, each day of the program to listen, learn and write. At the end of the program, students came away with a portfolio of writing samples, contacts with professionals and new friendships.

Write-Link participants included high school juniors and seniors from Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Howell, Jackson, Romulus, Detroit and Northville. Students learned about the four major writing fields through EMU English department faculty and professionals in the various fields.

Students then wrote various field-specific pieces, such as feature stories, press releases, poems and essays. Some of the writings focused on issues of race and diversity, as part of Detroit Public Television's (DPTV) "Matters of Race" program. This program brings awareness to the importance of diversity and strives to teach teenagers and others to accept and embrace the differences among different races. Students communicated their perceptions of race and diversity issues through a variety of formats, such as the following:

  • Creative writing: Students wrote poems and essays.
  • Journalism: Students write feature articles, which were based on interviews they conducted of one another.
  • Public relations: Students developed a media kit of press releases, biographies, a backgrounder and a logo that focused on a new Matters of Race Student Ambassadors program.
  • Technical communication: Students wrote instructions, a discussion board and other guidelines to assist users of DPTV's Web site on the ÒMatters of RaceÓ program.

Excerpts of students' work currently appear on DPTV's Web site, http://www.detroitpublictv.org/mattersofrace/discussion.shtml.