How Newspaper Columns Should Look — Because They Can

    For the next three months or so, I’ll be writing a monthly column on our community newspaper‘s education page.  The focus of the column is on K-12 students and writing.  I intend to write one piece on blogs.  The first piece was on creative writing exercises that you can do in the grocery store.  I asked if it would be possible to produce a hyperlinked version of the column to run at the same time as the print one. 
    The paper suggested that I wait a day and then run the hyperlinked version.  Which made little sense to me, as I was hoping that a hyperlinked version of the piece would be more useful to those folks reading along who might want more information. But it’s their paper, and I was fortunate to get the space.  Below is the column as I submitted it with my hyperlinks.  It seems to me like this is the direction that online journalism should take — not a reproduction of the content that appears in the print version — but an expanded version, with the ability to link content to research to other ideas to more content . . .
    My high school journalism students will be writing like this.  It’s not a ton of links — but they’re helpful when they’re there.  Right?

Creative Writing Exercises Help Writers to Flex Their Muscles

Writing is
a tool that all students need in all classrooms and, more importantly, in their
lives. And schools and families both
have to help to make sure that students can write effectively by the time they
graduate from high school.

The
, a group of educators and concerned others founded
by the College Board and chaired by Bob Kerrey, wrote in their to Congress on the status of writing in schools, that:

· The amount of time students spend writing . . .should
be at least doubled

· Writing should be assigned across the curriculum

· More out-of-school time should be also be used to
encourage writing, and parents should review students’ writing with them

Clearly, there is a lot to do, both
in and outside of the classroom. The
work does not have to be boring, though. Let’s start with a trip to the grocery store.

“If you don’t have the time to
read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write,” wrote Stephen King in his
book On Writing. Writers, the
good ones at least, don’t just read books. They read the world around them.

One of a writer’s best tools is her
skills of observation. Good writers
look deeply at everything and put those details and observations into their
writing. And there’s plenty to observe down
at the store. The grocery store has
everything a writer needs: people and
conflict. Ever waited in a long line
while the person in front of you counted out their thirty dollar purchase in
pocket change? That is one example of
conflict at the grocery store – I bet you can think of several more.

Next time you’re at the store, take the family, grab a notebook or an
index card, a pen or pencil or two, and give yourself an extra few minutes to
take a look around with a writer’s eye. Parents, if your children are too young to write, write for them. If they can write by themselves, keep your
own notebook and write with them. Creative writing can help you stretch those writerly muscles and get in
some writing practice. It can also be a
great family activity that everyone in the family can get involved with.

Writers notice things. Look and listen and smell and touch your way
through the store. Taste when
appropriate. The grocery store is full
of sensory information waiting to be captured in your notebook.

In addition
to using your senses, here are some things you might want to think about or pay
close attention to:

1. That guy over by the soda. You see him. Who sent him to the store today? How do you know? And why does he have five packages of bologna  in his cart?
2. Pick five items at random from your shopping cart. Write a short piece that incorporates each of those objects. (No, you can’t write about the time you picked five items out of your shopping cart.)
3. Many different groups use the grocery store as a place to sell things or share
        information. Think of a group that would never show up in front of the grocery store. Write about what happens on the day that they do.
4. Check the shopping carts at the front of the store. Has anything interesting been left behind? Describe what you see and imagine how it got there.
5. Close your eyes in the bakery and breath in deeply. Write about what you smell and what it suggests to your mind.
6. Visit the store on free sample day. As you taste different foods, think about what those tastes remind you of. Write about what you remember.
7. The families that you see in the store all have colorful stories. Invent identities and backgrounds for them. Consider what would happen if you snuck over and added some items to their cart. You choose the items.
8. At the checkout counter, look for a special treat that you wouldn’t normally buy. Write a letter convincing someone to buy it for you.

Enjoy your grocery store
adventure. Keep the good writing –
where else – on the refrigerator.

Bud Hunt teaches language arts in Longmont, Colorado and is a board member of the . You can view a
hyperlinked version of this column, with more prompts and ideas, at his
website, http://www.budtheteacher.com.