Name of Assignment: Two Worlds
Subject: ENG104
Facilitator/Teacher: Brian Khone
Description of Work/Assignment: This assignment was to write a 3-5 page screenplay. The prompt was that a wealthy person drops their wallet in front of a homeless person, and the wealthy person is rude about it. We had to establish a setting, introduce the characters, and describe the world in a screenplay format.
Which 21st Century Skills do you feel this assignment addresses, and why?
The 21st-century skills that the screenplay addressed were thinking and problem-solving, communication, interpersonal, and information skills. Thinking and problem-solving skills were addressed through the literary analysis that I had to use every time I rewrote my work. Communication skills were used when I read the screenplay to the class, and interpersonal skills were used when I received and expanded on their feedback. Information skills were the skills I used the most because I was writing with a technology that I had never used or even heard of.
What are you most proud of from this assignment, and why?
I am most proud of my storyline. The prompt we got about the rich and poor man meeting struck me as a little overdone, and I wasn’t sure at first how to build it into something more original.
How did you develop and/or improve upon your 21st Century Skills with this assignment?
My information skills were exercised the most by using new technology, and I improved my interpersonal skills because I do not ask for critique very often in my work. Knowing that analysis of my work would be required was a little disarming but undisputedly helpful.
What was most difficult about completing this task?
The most difficult aspect of writing the screenplay was changing the way I look at writing. When a screenplay is read, the reader can ideally flip through the whole thing quickly and in one or two sittings. To make this possible, the screenwriter uses as few words as possible and tries to describe entire worlds and characters in just a couple of sentences. The grammar also changes, with past tense almost completely unacceptable. This was a big challenge for someone used to writing short stories.
How could you improve this work? If you could start over, what would you do differently?
If I re-wrote the screenplay, I would find a way to shorten the dialogue of my characters and spread the information more interestingly. The way it is now, they seem to be speaking in monologues every time they open their mouths. I also would have corrected the grammar to fit with what I know now. I would also go back and look for any redundancy in my word choices, which I included an example of below.
How does this relate to what you have learned in the past?
I thought screenplay writing was familiar to me because I wrote the start of a screenplay in creative writing, but it wasn’t as disciplined as this one. We only spent a couple of weeks on it and used Google Docs as opposed to Final Draft, so the unit was mainly focused on the storyline and hardly went over grammar at all.
How can you apply this to future learning?
Even if I don't write screenplays for a living, knowing how to write in screenplay format is incredibly helpful. It reminds me to use active verbs and cut out any words and sentences that don’t prove a point or add to the story, even in short fiction and poems.
Subject: ENG104
Facilitator/Teacher: Brian Khone
Description of Work/Assignment: This assignment was to write a 3-5 page screenplay. The prompt was that a wealthy person drops their wallet in front of a homeless person, and the wealthy person is rude about it. We had to establish a setting, introduce the characters, and describe the world in a screenplay format.
Which 21st Century Skills do you feel this assignment addresses, and why?
The 21st-century skills that the screenplay addressed were thinking and problem-solving, communication, interpersonal, and information skills. Thinking and problem-solving skills were addressed through the literary analysis that I had to use every time I rewrote my work. Communication skills were used when I read the screenplay to the class, and interpersonal skills were used when I received and expanded on their feedback. Information skills were the skills I used the most because I was writing with a technology that I had never used or even heard of.
What are you most proud of from this assignment, and why?
I am most proud of my storyline. The prompt we got about the rich and poor man meeting struck me as a little overdone, and I wasn’t sure at first how to build it into something more original.
How did you develop and/or improve upon your 21st Century Skills with this assignment?
My information skills were exercised the most by using new technology, and I improved my interpersonal skills because I do not ask for critique very often in my work. Knowing that analysis of my work would be required was a little disarming but undisputedly helpful.
What was most difficult about completing this task?
The most difficult aspect of writing the screenplay was changing the way I look at writing. When a screenplay is read, the reader can ideally flip through the whole thing quickly and in one or two sittings. To make this possible, the screenwriter uses as few words as possible and tries to describe entire worlds and characters in just a couple of sentences. The grammar also changes, with past tense almost completely unacceptable. This was a big challenge for someone used to writing short stories.
How could you improve this work? If you could start over, what would you do differently?
If I re-wrote the screenplay, I would find a way to shorten the dialogue of my characters and spread the information more interestingly. The way it is now, they seem to be speaking in monologues every time they open their mouths. I also would have corrected the grammar to fit with what I know now. I would also go back and look for any redundancy in my word choices, which I included an example of below.
How does this relate to what you have learned in the past?
I thought screenplay writing was familiar to me because I wrote the start of a screenplay in creative writing, but it wasn’t as disciplined as this one. We only spent a couple of weeks on it and used Google Docs as opposed to Final Draft, so the unit was mainly focused on the storyline and hardly went over grammar at all.
How can you apply this to future learning?
Even if I don't write screenplays for a living, knowing how to write in screenplay format is incredibly helpful. It reminds me to use active verbs and cut out any words and sentences that don’t prove a point or add to the story, even in short fiction and poems.