Eastern Michigan University held its 25th Semiannual Celebration of Student Writing on Thursday.
The event showed varying forms of written work dealing with a wide range of topics. All of the projects were made by students in English 121.
Topics included Cinderella and body image, Peyton Manning, animal cloning, women in the media, taxing of junk food and the impact of social media, to name a few.
Freshman and computer science major Theo Issac, presented on the impacts of social media.
“I think it’s a good thing, just the way it brings people closer together,” Isaac said of social media.
He said he decided on his topic based on his chosen field of study.
“I was trying to think of something in computers I could do,” Isaac said.
Thomas Carter, 16, is taking courses at EMU under the Early College Alliance. The ECA allows students from area high schools to take courses at EMU for college and high school credit.
Carter said he was surprised by the number of people in attendance at the event. The Student
Center ballroom was filled with students. The line to enter the event stretched from wall to wall, and it extended from the ballroom all the way to Starbucks.
“The English 121 community is pretty big,” Carter said.
Nick Katke, freshman and simulation and gaming major, helped work on a project titled “Compopedia 2.0.”
“It’s Wikipedia by students, for students,” Katke said.
Katke said Compopedia is dedicated to topics related to English composition.
Mykela Hill, an EMU freshman, has a major in special education for the emotionally impaired. She also contributed to Compopedia.
“Students all over the university can add to or edit it,” Hill said.
Hill explained that their professor has done a similar project in the past, but their class insisted on creating their own Compopedia.
“Thus, Compopedia 2.0 was born,” Katke said.
Compopedia is hosted by Wikia. Hill wrote an entry on adjectives, and Katke wrote an entry on interrobangs. Interrobangs are the exclamation points and question marks placed together at the end of some sentences.
Professor Susan Stenlund teaches English 121 and 120. Her class collaborated on an assignment showcasing the Toulmin model of argumentation. Their topic was animal cloning.
Stenlund hopes her students take two things away from her class: “A deeper appreciation for the
Toulmin method and for the dynamic nature of writing.”
All students in English 121 are required to present at the CSW. Stenlund said that over 1,100 EMU students presented at the event.
