Hunting for stories

We used our first field exercise to scour Woodbrook, the deeply historical neighborhood in which the campus is located.

The walkabout/drive served primarily as a story-hunting exercise. We developed the reporter's skill for finding the profound in the seemingly mundane, and seeing the interesting, curious things in the world around us. We questioned a lot of what we would usually overlook and take for granted, and we returned to class with enough story ideas to keep an entire department of reporters busy for months.



You'll now have to apply that skill to your own community (those of you who actually live in Woodbrook got a free pass!). Find something beyond the cliched and the overdone. Find something new and exciting, something thought-provoking and fresh. Adhere to the guidelines that we've learned over the last few weeks, and copping a distinction should be easy.

The response to this exercise was heartening, and I'm going to try to figure out other ways for us to hit the road, constructively, later on in the semester.

Our next field assignment will be will be similarly devoid of PowerPoints and my droning voice. You'll hear more about it in the near future.


(I borrowed the photos in this post from former student Norman Chuckaree's Woodbrook Facebook group.)