This document outlines the key purposes and modes of writing that will be covered in a creative writing course. It discusses writing to describe, inform, persuade, entertain, and reflect. It then describes different modes of writing like narratives, expository writing, poetry, persuasive writing, workplace writing, and multimedia writing. For each mode, it provides details on the elements and techniques involved. The document concludes by offering advice on finding writing ideas and maintaining writing portfolios and drafts.

1. You, the Writer: A Writing Game
Plan
Keena Day, M.A.
Creative Writing

2. Discussion: Why do YOU Write?
• List reasons why YOU write!
• Discuss what you LIKE to write.
• Jot down your personal feelings about writing
• Write several things that you want to
accomplish in this course.

3. Purposes for Writing
• To describe
• To inform
• To persuade
• To entertain
• To reflect

4. Purposes for Writing
• Writing that entertains gives the reader something to enjoy.
It includes colorful language to help your ideas come alive
on the page.
• Writing that provides interesting details and facts to hold
an audience’s attention. Sharing what you know lets your
audience learn about them, too. You can share by writing
to inform your audience.
• Writing that explains can answer “how to” questions. When
you write to explain, you tell a reader how to follow steps
and complete a task.

5. Purposes for Writing
• Persuasive writing helps a writer to share
opinions, and try to convince a reader to think, or
act a certain way. Opinions are statements of
what you believe. The writer always uses facts to
back up an opinion.
• Reflective writing tells how you see things around
you. Some writing shows how a writer feels and
thinks. These pieces use colorful words to create
pictures in the reader’s mind

6. Modes of Writing
• Story Narrative (Non-fiction/ Fiction)
• Expository Writing
• Poetry and Description
• Persuasive Writing
• Writing That Compares
• Workplace Writing
• Multimedia Writing

7. Narrative
• A good story entertains the audience. This
means that a reader stays interested from the
beginning to the end of the story. A favorite
character, a special setting, and surprising
events make a story fun to read and keep the
reader interested.
• These stories can be non-fictional or fictional.

8. Narrative
These are the elements a writer uses to create a story:
• Characters are the people in the story who carry out
the action.
• The plot tells what happens in the story and what the
characters do.
• Dialogue is the conversation between characters that
helps to make the story come to life.
• Setting shows the story’s time and place.
• Sequence of events is the order of how things
happen.

9. Narration
• A story often tells about a problem, and how
the characters solve it. Use imagination! A
story comes to life with vivid descriptions,
sensory images and original events.
• Non-fiction stories include personal
narratives, memoirs, diary writing, etc.
• Fictional stories include historical narratives.

10. Expository
Expository writing informs the reader. To make your report
stronger, use description to help:
• Others “see” your ideas. Share information that your
audience may not already know.
• Gather your facts from books, magazines, and the Internet.
• Make a plan! Organize facts and observations in an outline.
• Develop your main idea with vivid, unusual details.
• Write a clear beginning, interesting middle, and a strong
ending.
• Add interest to your report with photographs, drawings, a
chart or a graph

11. Persuasive Writing
• Good persuasive writing convinces a reader to
think or behave a certain way.
• This type of writing gives you a chance to
express your thoughts and opinions on a
topic. The most convincing arguments give
facts and reasons to back up the writer’s
position.

12. Types of Persuasive Writing
• Reviews – A good review by a critic can sway an
audience’s opinion about a book, movie, TV
show, or play.
• Advertisements – Do advertisements make you
want to buy things or attend special events? Try
to notice times when your opinion may be
swayed by a magazine ad or a TV commercial!
• Editorials – Newspaper editorials can reach a
large audience. They often show strong feelings
in articles about political events or human
interest stories.

13. Poetry and Description
• This kind of writing taps into sensory images
(imagery) and figurative language.
• These types of writing can vary in form .
Descriptive essays are the prose versions of
poetry to a certain extent.

14. Multimedia Writing
• This writing includes emails, resumes, website
creation, blogs, newsletters or even writing for
these media such as screenplay writing,
drama, monologues, etc.

15. Where Can You Find Ideas?
• Magazines, newspapers, periodicals
• Interviews
• Media: radio, t.v., internet
• Experiences
• Film
• Music
• Visual art
• Dreams and memories
• Discussion and brainstorming

16. How can you keep up with your
writing?
• All of your writing will be placed in a portfolio.
However, to keep track of the writings that
you do complete, a composition notebook and
folders to keep drafts in will help.

17. The Writing Process
• Pre-writing (free-writing, quickwrites
included)
• Drafting
• Revision
• Editing
• Publishing

18. Let’s Get Started!
• Brainstorm a list of topics you can write about
in ANY of the modes we just discuss.
• Quick-write on this topic for ten minutes.