The document discusses writing for young adults, including defining what constitutes a young adult between the ages of 12 to early 20s, common themes and issues relevant to that age group such as identity, relationships, and social media, and considerations for crafting an engaging text for young adult readers including voice and style.
10. YA Texts – Some Examples
• Eugenides, Jeffrey. The Virgin Suicides. Warner, 1993
• Rosoff, Meg. How I Live Now. Penguin, 2004
• Pullman, Philip. Northern Lights. Point Fiction (Ashton Scholastic),
1997
• Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. Picador, 2005
• Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
David Fickling, 2003
• Gwynne, Phillip. Deadly, Unna? 1998
• Tan, Shaun. The Arrival. 2006
• Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book. Pan Macmillan, 2008
11. Features of a Young Adult Text
• Young adult protagonist
• Often a coming-of-age story
• The reader/audience has to care about the
story and characters
• Issues relevant to age group
44. Publisher’s Wish List
• young adult appeal
• morally acceptable
• innovative
• characters you can’t forget
• original voice
• a fresh use of language
• a story that moves its reader
45. Voice
• Who is telling the story and why?
• First-person perspective (intimate, limited POV)
• Omniscient third-person (less personal, multiple
POV)
• Must be authentic
• Avoid clichés, stereotypes and contrivances
46. Style Considerations for Voice
• word choice • paragraph size
• sentence length • rhythm of sentences
• sentence structure • information given
• tense • colloquial language
• emotions • metaphor
• humour • lyrical language
• point of view • formal grammar,
• attitudes punctuation, spelling
49. Planning Exercise
• Who is the main character?
• What does the character desire?
• What gets in the way of achieving this?
• What tactics might the character use?
• Does the character succeed or fail?
• How is the character’s world changed as a
result of the struggle?
• How might our world be changed?
50.
51. New Media Literacies
• traditional literacy (print culture) + mass and
digital media literacy
• the ability to think across platforms
• social literacy
• community affiliation
• interactive
• collaborative
• Transmedia navigation involves the ability to
read and write across all available modes of
expression
52. New Media Literacies
• Kress (2003) stresses that modern literacy
requires the ability to express ideas across
a broad range of different systems of
representation and signification including
words, spoken or written; image, still and
moving; musical; 3D models etc
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the New Media
Age. New York: Routledge.
53. New Media Exercise
Today by The Smashing Pumpkins
•
Pink ribbon scars
• Today is the greatest That never forget
Day I ’ve ever known I’ve tried so hard
Can’t live for tomorrow To cleanse these regrets
My angel wings
Tomorrow’s much too long Were bruised and restrained
I burn my eyes out My belly stings
Before I get out
Today is
Today is
I wanted more Today is
Than life could ever grant The greatest day
Bored by the chore That I have ever known
Of saving face
I want to turn you on
I want to turn you round
Today is the greatest I want to turn you on
Day I have ever known I want to turn you
Can’t wait for tomorrow
Today is the greatest
I might not have that long Today is the greatest day
I’ll tear my heart out Today is the greatest day
Before I get out That I have ever known
54. New Media Exercise
Use these lyrics to write • Acceptance speech
3 different texts. • Personal narrative
• Newspaper/magazine
• Blog article
• MySpace page
• Parable
• Dialogue
• Diary entry
• Comic strip
• Speech • Photo essay
• Interview • Eulogy
• Letter • Glog
• Song lyric
• Poem How could you make them
interactive?
• memoir
55. New Media Exercise
Extension
Smashing Pumpkins Live in concert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZkdv7Hqdw&fe
ature=related
Smashing Pumpkins Video Clip YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6J28OdEKrI