Category: Prompts
Practice Essay for Constitutional Law
| February 11, 2012 | Posted by JerriCook under Bar Exam, Constitutional Law, Law School, Legal Issues, Prompts |
This fact pattern is based on the Zinniker case. Feel free to respond with your answers. We can compare notes. I’ll post mine as soon as I’m done working on it.
Frieda Farmer owns a small homestead in the State of West Consin. On her homestead, she has three milk-producing cows. Each day, she collects approximately 40 lbs of milk from each cow. Frieda has a USDA Grade-A shipping permit, and her cows are certified organic by the USDA. Freida has received awards for her commitment to sanitation, humane animal practices, and quality. For six months now, Freida has only been shipping the milk from two of her cows to the processor to be made into cheese. Some of the milk from the third is consumed by Freida and her family. The rest of the unpasteurized milk is sold to locals who come to the farm to pick it up fresh every morning. Freida doesn’t store the raw milk for customers at any time. (more…)
X Marks The Spot: Finding the Treasures In Your Writing
| January 6, 2011 | Posted by JerriCook under Freewriting, Prompts, The Writing Process, Writer's Block |
Your writing is a map to new treasures
In the documentary, What the Bleep Do We Know?, it’s postured that the Indians didn’t comprehend what the ships of the first settlers were because they couldn’t connect the image with any experience or prior thought. The ships were so alien in nature that they were effectively invisible. More succinctly put: they didn’t see what they weren’t looking for. Who knows if the story about the Indians not “seeing” the first sails of the first pilgrims arriving in the New World is true? It doesn’t matter. What matters is there’s a gem here for writers, and I promise you, where’s there’s one gem, there are troves more.
We all have a shared experience—every one of us has searched for something that was right under our nose, but the mental image we had of the object and what it actually looked like weren’t connected. Once we realized this and made the mental connection, we were able to quickly locate whatever it was we were searching for. When you write, you might think you know what you’re looking for, but keep an eye open for some sparkling, seemingly quirky idea that leads you off on a tangent. Your writing is a map and that tangent connects to a treasure that sits unrecognized right in front of you. (more…)
How To Use Prompts To Polish Your Writing
| December 9, 2010 | Posted by JerriCook under Prompts |
Writing prompts are short, concise scenarios that are designed to induce freewriting. Prompts are meant to lead you to the ideas you already have but haven’t discovered. The process is simple—read the prompt and start writing. Forget about form, punctuation, and grammar. You’re looking for an idea, not a finished product.
M. Klein and Henry W. Wynne received US patent #68445 in 1867 for an ink chamber and delivery system in the handle of the fountain pen.
Some people set a time limit. They write as much as they can for ten minutes, or whatever amount of time they choose, then stop. Others just write until they can’t write any more. Either way, you get to see what’s lying around in your head. This is called freewriting. Think of it as a process, like picking apples. When you’re done, you’ll have a bushel of fruit, but some of those apples will be perfect. They’ll stand out from the others. Like a bushel of fresh apples, the ideas that come from prompts will be many, but a few of them will be gems.
When you’re done with your freewriting, set it aside for a day or two and come back to it. You’ll find that the choicest ideas have ripened, and they are easy to pick out. Here are a couple of prompts to get you started:
You’ve just come home from a long day at work. As you go to the kitchen to get a bite to eat, you notice something strange on your kitchen table. It wasn’t there when you left. What is it, and why is it there?
- You’re outside on a chilly winter evening as the sun begins to set. In the dimming light, you see two young children skipping along. Who are they, and where are they going?
- You’re outside of an old mansion looking through the window. There’s a masquerade party going on inside. What kind of costumes are the guests wearing?
- You’ve been hired to write a sitcom. What’s it about?
Pick one and have some fun. If you want to share the results of your free writing, please do.
Writing prompts are short, concise scenarios that are designed to induce freewriting. Prompts are meant to lead you to the ideas you already have but haven’t discovered. The process is simple—read the prompt and start writing. Forget about form, punctuation, and grammar. You’re looking for an idea, not a finished product.
M. Klein and Henry W. Wynne received US patent #68445 in 1867 for an ink chamber and delivery system in the handle of the fountain pen.
Some people set a time limit. They write as much as they can for ten minutes, or whatever amount of time they choose, then stop. Others just write until they can’t write any more. Either way, you get to see what’s lying around in your head. This is called freewriting. Think of it as a process, like picking apples. When you’re done, you’ll have a bushel of fruit, but some of those apples will be perfect. They’ll stand out from the others. Like a bushel of fresh apples, the ideas that come from prompts will be many, but a few of them will be gems.
When you’re done with your freewriting, set it aside for a day or two and come back to it. You’ll find that the choicest ideas have ripened, and they are easy to pick out. Here are a couple of prompts to get you started:
You’ve just come home from a long day at work. As you go to the kitchen to get a bite to eat, you notice something strange on your kitchen table. It wasn’t there when you left. What is it, and why is it there?
- You’re outside on a chilly winter evening as the sun begins to set. In the dimming light, you see two young children skipping along. Who are they, and where are they going?
- You’re outside of an old mansion looking through the window. There’s a masquerade party going on inside. What kind of costumes are the guests wearing?
- You’ve been hired to write a sitcom. What’s it about?
Pick one and have some fun. If you want to share the results of your free writing, please do.
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