Students celebrate National Day of Writing

Writing in its many forms continues to play an important role in today’s world, professors celebrating National Day of Writing Tuesday said.

More than 100 Boston University students celebrated the National Day on Writing with a writer’s fair, writer’s workshops and coffee house readings at the George Sherman Union. BU professors led workshops on screenwriting, rap lyrics, family biographies, film reviews and Microsoft PowerPoint.

‘We’re celebrating the fact that writing is everywhere,’ College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program Director Joseph Bizup, who helped organize the writing celebrations, said. ‘People are writing now more than ever in history.’

He said he learned about the national celebration through the National Council of Teachers of English last spring. He then contacted College of Communication Writing Program Director Susan Blau and College of General Studies Division of the Rhetoric Chairman Matt Parfitt, who decided together to celebrate the day at BU.

‘ ‘Originally, we had planned to do something very modest, but the more we talked the more enthusiastic we became, and we decided to have a larger celebration,’ Bizup said.

Public Relations professor Cheryl Ann Lambert held a workshop called ‘How to Write a Family Biography,’ where she said she detailed the process of writing and self-publishing two novels.

‘I thought it was a great opportunity to share what I’ve done and to let students know some helpful tips,’ she said.

Lambert emphasized the importance of following a disciplined writing and interviewing schedule when composing a family biography.

‘Interviews require sacrifice and are sometimes difficult to schedule, but they must be done,’ she said. ‘It was a privilege and a pleasure to participate and I hope to get the opportunity to do so in the future.’

In Bizup’s workshop titled ‘Powerful PowerPoint,’ he showed students how to create slides that communicated their points effectively.’

‘In the corporate world, people live and die by their PowerPoint presentations,’ he said.’ ‘

CGS freshman Jenny Barrs said she attended the celebration for extra credit, but thought the ‘Powerful PowerPoint’ workshop was helpful.

‘ ‘I’m glad I went to this one because I found out what actually makes a good PowerPoint at the college level,’ she said.

Coffee House Readings provided an open-mic-typed forum for students to read personal favorite works of any genre, Bizup said. Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore hosted the readings.

He said the celebration overall was successful.

‘I think the event when very well,’ he said. ‘People seemed to be having fun in the GSU Link, and the workshops were well attended. I consider the day a success.’