Do you ever notice when you look in the paper or turn on the five o'clock news it's always stories of things going badly? It's always violence, crime, scandals, and corruption. And while I think it's a good idea to be informed about world events and to know what's going on in your own town, I sometimes wish there was some humor in reporting, something to lighten the otherwise gloomy and dismal mood. This writing prompt asks you to help address this shortcoming by writing a spoof news story. You can make up your own story from scratch, or use a news item you find in the mainstream media, or use one of the spoof headlines suggested below.
For the last few years I've been reading the satirical news site The Onion (I'm sure some of you will be familiar with their high-quality, hard hitting investigative journalism). The writers on this website often take a story from the mainstream media and twist it into a joke, or sometimes they just flat out make up ridiculous stories and pass them off as news. Following this lead, here are a few headlines for news stories that never made the front page. You might use one of these as a prompt for writing if you're stuck for an idea.
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ALIEN SPACECRAFT GIVEN $250 PARKING TICKET
BALMATRON SAYS "I'M NOT PAYING"
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GLOBAL WARMING LINKED TO BURPING
BEER DRINKERS OF THE WORLD REACT WITH SHOCK
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STEPHEN HARPER SAYS CIGARETTES "ARE JUST FINE"
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NEOLITHIC MAN FOUND FROZEN IN GLACIER
REVIVED AFTER DEFROSTING
CAN'T GET ENOUGH HOT CHOCOLATE
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SCIENTIST DISCOVERS ULTIMATE SECRET IN FORTUNE COOKIE
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GERBIL SAVES MAN FROM SHARK ATTACK
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ZOMBIE OUTBREAK REPORTED IN TORONTO
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MCDONALD'S GOES VEGAN
COWS BREATHE SIGH OF RELIEF
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LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS FOUND NEAR GREENLAND
PRESIDENT: "WE WERE HERE ALL ALONG"
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ANIMALS ESCAPE FROM ZOO
LAST SEEN IN LAS VEGAS
REVIVED AFTER DEFROSTING
CAN'T GET ENOUGH HOT CHOCOLATE
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SCIENTIST DISCOVERS ULTIMATE SECRET IN FORTUNE COOKIE
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GERBIL SAVES MAN FROM SHARK ATTACK
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ZOMBIE OUTBREAK REPORTED IN TORONTO
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MCDONALD'S GOES VEGAN
COWS BREATHE SIGH OF RELIEF
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LOST ISLAND OF ATLANTIS FOUND NEAR GREENLAND
PRESIDENT: "WE WERE HERE ALL ALONG"
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ANIMALS ESCAPE FROM ZOO
LAST SEEN IN LAS VEGAS
Overview for Week 6
This week we are studying some unconventional forms of poetry, such as spoken word, sign-language poetry, and digital poetry. The "readings" for this week are available on this blog (scroll to the top and click the page tabs). Although there are no assigned readings from our text, this is a good opportunity to take a look at the sample essays and related sections on essay writing in the book, as well as the guides to essay writing linked on this blog. Of specific interest, for anyone seeking more information on essays, is the OWL Academic Writing resources. As always, if you have any questions about this week's activity, or any aspect of our course, please leave a comment on this post or send an email to my mun.ca address.
