“Touchstone Text” Unit
WRITING PROJECT OPTIONS (CHOOSE ONE)
a) “Fan Fiction”
This is for students who wish to create a new story using an author’s pre-existing characters and “world”.
- Work will be judged according to how well the student writer imitates the professional writer with regard to plot, tone, sentence structure, and characterization.
b) “Breaking New Ground”
This is for students who wish to explore new characters and worlds using the author’s writing characteristics.
- Work will be judged according to how well the student writer imitates the professional writer with regard to characterization, theme, style, and writing habits.
READING PROJECT OPTIONS (CHOOSE ONE)
a) “Author Profile”
This is for students who have read multiple books by the same author.
- In an author profile essay, the student will discuss the key author-craft elements of all of the books that the author has written, both the elements that are similar between texts and the elements that differ.
b) “Single Book Analysis”
This is for students who have read only one of the author’s books.
- In the single book analysis, the student will go deeper into the one book and use more detail and show more specific examples when explaining the author’s style of writing; focusing heavily on what the author intends to do and how the author does it.
c) “Compare/Contrast”
This is for students who have read multiple books of the same type but by different authors.
- In the compare/contrast essay, the student will focus on how different professional writers handle similar plots and characters. Students should take note of how the authors focus on different themes and offer different tones and perspectives.