Inaugurated in the spring of 2003, this annual free event migrated in 2014 to fall semesters. Why a Festival for Student Writing? The Festival of Student Writing is designed to showcase research projects created by students in English 1010 and 1020 classes. It’s an interactive, noncompetitive event where students, faculty, and administrators engage in demonstrations, presentations, and discussions
of students’ projects. The Festival is designed to celebrate students’ work and to provide a large and live audience for their research projects. Who gets to participate? While the Festival is a public forum, participants are limited to student exhibitors/presenters enrolled in the ENGL 1010 or 1020 sections of participating instructors. Participating instructors design Festival-appropriate projects and ways for their students to participate in the Festival. What does the Festival look like? At the Festival, each participating class has roughly 16 feet of table frontage to display its projects (instructors may request more table space). Projects, however, need not be table-bound. Floor displays and performative projects are also encouraged. The more creative, the better! What happens at the Festival? Visitors circulate through the large room past students who are exhibiting or presenting their projects. Participating students discuss their projects with interested passersby. Students tend to rotate through the event: they spend some time with their projects and some time looking at and talking about others’ work. Some instructors set up schedules for their students. The room has a stage, but the Festival projects shouldn’t rely on use of the stage, since it’d privilege some projects over others. Including set-up and clean-up time, the Festival lasts an hour and a half. What kinds of projects will students display? Festival projects should be linked to students’ research projects for the term. Some projects will be collaborative, some individual. Festival projects don’t follow a single model or format, but traditional essays clearly are not the most appropriate format for this occasion. Suggested alternatives include (but are not limited to) posters, pamphlets, brochures, ‘zines, flyers, performances, and slideshows. Because the room is crowded and chaotic, students are discouraged from relying upon their laptops or other expensive equipment to exhibit projects. Who attends the Festival? Everyone who creates a project for the Festival attends, unless they have another class or an unavoidable conflict. Additionally, other students, administrators, professors, and staff attend. Other guests may include visitors from area high schools, prospective TTU students, and guests of participating students. To learn more about the Festival, contact your instructor or the coordinator, Dr. Tony Baker ([email protected] or 372-3909). See our promotional video on YouTube (search: Festival of Student Writing).
