Scope Document: Justification, Audience, Objectives and Actions

Justification
Florida State University is a multi-faceted institution with the interest of all its students at heart.
Because of the vast areas of study offered at FSU, students may not always realize the relevance that
writing has within their chosen fields, yet the demand for writing in and outside of all areas of interest
has been static. Due to the student population displaying a wide variety of majors, Editing, Writing and
Media (EWM) majors have decided to create a dialogue between themselves and First Year Composition
(FYC) students, of all subject areas, in order to show that regardless of a major that focuses on
technology, sciences, or even art, writing will always be necessary and encouraged. This dialogue
between the lower division students and the upper division EWM students is formally called the Writing
Initiative.

Audience
As previously noted, our audience will comprise of First Year Composition students. We asked a second
semester Freshman some questions about writing in order to better the Writing Initiatives dialogue and
her answers helped us to shape the project into a more comprehensive understanding of writing. As a
particular fan of short stories and fiction reading, such as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, the student
expressed limited interest in writing beyond performing the duties she felt would be unavoidably
pertinent in her own field, civil engineering.
Writing can be used for purposes such as business and research proposals, professional letters and
other forms of communication in the business world, advertisements, media, and for the making of
products in business and the creation of prototypes and planning for products and engineering, she
stated.
Despite the students understanding of how writing can be used in various fields, she still expressed a
fear of writing as something that needed to be done rather than something she particularly wanted to
do. She made a clear distinction between being a writer and simply performing the act of writing. For
her, the title of writer is reserved for authors held in high esteem in todays society, like J.K. Rowling and
J.R.R Tolkien. Given her response, the Writing Initiative aims to show young Composition students that
the line between a being writer and someone who occasionally writes does not have to be so defined.

Objectives
The Writing Initiative aims to give First Year Composition students a guide to understanding the
importance of writing both in conjunction with, and outside of, the academic realm. Once students

Scope Document: Justification, Audience, Objectives and Actions

become aware of how writing affects everyday lives just as much as it affects grades within a classroom,
there may be a more complex conversation. Through the Writing Initiative, upper level EWM majors aim
to broaden the knowledge of writing within the minds of lower level Composition students in order to
show that writing is not something to be feared or dreaded, but something to be passionate and excited
about.
Florida State University is a current participant in The National Day on Writing, which is an effort to
appreciate the works of famous authors, poets, and novelists, as well as smaller scale writers and their
works. The Writing Initiative here at Florida State intends to expand the awareness of the National Day
on Writing in an attempt to get more student involvement with the appreciation of written works from
peers and famous writers alike.
The Writing Initiative plans to catch student attention with a table at Market Wednesday, along with all
of the tables belonging to other organizations on campus. By placing a table in an area frequently
accessed by students, this will give a better indication as to how involved the majority of students would
like to be with their writing. Through different activities, as well as informational handouts, the table will
provide students with the tools necessary to become more involved in the writing community.
Various communities in Tallahassee aim to exhibit a love for writing. These communities, however,
rarely reach the attention of students outside of the English Department. The Writing Initiative will work
as a vehicle of communication between the writing community at large and the Composition students
that may not have been otherwise aware of the community. Through advertising of the Warehouse
Reading Series and the Williams Writing Workshop, along with other creative outlets for writing and
reading, the Writing Initiative will show First Year Composition students that the writing community is
not solely based on research essays and nonfiction articles, but is home to an array of artistic forms that
transcend genres. By advertising for a creative writing community students with no prior knowledge of
this niche of writing may find a shift in their interests, a situation the Writing Initiative aims to cultivate.

Actions
For the Writing Initiative, we will ask Undergraduate Editing, Writing, and Media majors in their
sophomore, junior, and senior years to answer the questions:
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How do you feel about writing? What does writing mean to you?

What is your favorite genre, style, or form of writing?

How does writing benefit you as a person? As a professional?

Scope Document: Justification, Audience, Objectives and Actions

How has writing evolved and changed with the new writing technologies? What are these

technologies?
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How is writing used in various fields? How is it applicable to all professions?

Why do you write?

We will Capture this interview on camera, via podcast, and/or with written submission (however the
particular student wishes to express themselves) and compile this collection in a multimedia website.
We will organize the information so that it is sorted by person, that way you can search for a person and
see their video alongside their written submission, or any combination thereof creating a singular entry
for that person.
Alongside their interview, we will ask them to voluntarily submit up to two pieces of creative writing to
be linked to their interview page. This piece will be of any style or genre that they choose, in order to
display both their ability as writers and the power of writing.
Each person will be treated as a separate, singular entry, and each entry will have a comments section
below it, making room for an actual conversation to occur. Without the comments section, the
collection of information will stand as a sprawling documentary of individuals to whom writing is
important. With the comment section, it will be taken beyond that into an organic and growing
conversation.
For presentation purposes, we will compile clips from the various audio and video clips, as well as
quotes from the creative writing submissions and of the conversations at hand. This will give us and any
stakeholders a snapshot view of what this project is doing. This compilation can be sent to First Year
Composition teachers to show in their classrooms. This will get them involved in the conversation, and
act as an advertisement for National Day on Writing.
We will set up a booth at Market Wednesday where we will have a pamphlet that outlines the goals of
the Writing Initiative, as well as basic information on why writing is important and how to get involved,
in order to inform people of our goals and persuade them to join the conversation. We will also have
Why I Write Narratives written by members of our class and other students to hand out.
Finally, we will use the Writing Initiative as a billboard for local groups devoted to writing. They will be
able to advertise their clubs and their scheduled events, both on our website and at our stand on
Market Wednesdays. In this way, the Writing Initiative will become a running list of events devoted to
the appreciation and practice of writing, as well as a singular concentrated source to access all of these
groups and learn about their events. Groups that we are looking to advertise on our site are the

Scope Document: Justification, Audience, Objectives and Actions

Williams Writing Workshop, The Warehouse Reading Series, the Tallahassee Writers Association, and
other similar local groups.