Writing for Social change

1. Writing for Social change

2. “…publish, or democracy perishes." • Cornelia Wells

3. Photo from Google images Florence Nightingale

4. Photo from Google images Martin Luther King, Jr.

5. Social change entrepreneurship rarely happens without the contribution of social change texts that help the entrepreneur achieve her or his ends.

7. “Most of us don’t write much. We don’t have time. We can’t get started. We don’t think we have the tools. We don’t want to rock the boat—at least not right now….” • Louise Dunlap, Undoing the Silence

8. The Freewriting Tool undoes silence and helps you explore your experiences, ideas, and beliefs. It is a way to write quickly and freely, without judging yourself or evaluating what you write. The FreewritingTool

9. The Process Tool helps you work step by step, generating ideas, gathering information, organizing ideas, writing a rough draft, incubating the text, and revising it, instead of trying to write a polished draft in one sitting. The Process Tool

10. The Thinking Tool helps you think critically about ideas and organize them for maximum effectiveness. When you use this tool you use lists, conversations, grouping, the “funnel,” diagrams, metaphors, storytelling, and more to think and communicate powerfully. The Thinking Tool

11. The Audience Tool helps you write for maximum impact. Using this tool you will ask questions such as: Who are my audiences? What are their values, beliefs, and interests? How can I appeal to them? What reader expectations shape how I should write this genre for this particular public forum? The Audience Tool

12. The Feedback Tool helps a writer listen and respond to others in ways that stimulate the writer’s power to improve his or her own writing. This non-judgmental feedback helps us see if our message is coming across clearly and if our text is achieving its ends. The Feedback Tool

13. The Word-Power Tool helps you look at your writing through your reader’s eyes, cutting words where possible, connecting ideas so readers can follow your logic, and using high energy language. The Word-Power Tool

14. Putting principles to practice

15. Weekend U

16. What ideas, conversations, observations, or experiences have stood out to you thus far today? Write for four minutes, without stopping or correcting yourself. • What makes something you just wrote about so important? • Pose a question from the point of view of someone who will not agree with what you want to say and try to answer it. • Write down an illustration or a metaphor that might help to explain one of your thoughts. The Freewriting Tool

17. Expectations for Letters to the Editor • Keep it short (usually around 150 words) • Begin by making a clear connection to an article from the previous seven days, a recent event, or an ongoing issue of current interest • Address a contradiction (hint: put the word “but” in front of a key line that points out such a contradiction) • Contribute a new idea (a personal experience, statistic, or observation) • Offer a succinct sound bite (usually at the end) • Use a respectful, generous spirited tone Get it down! (Compose a draft.) The Process, Thinking, and Audience Tools

18. Gather in groups of four and read your letters. • What words and phrases stood out to you? • What message came through? • Pick one letter to share with the whole group (if time allows). The Feedback and Word Power Tools

19. The six tools described in this PowerPoint Program are taken from Undoing the Silence: Six Tools for Social Change Writing, by Louise Dunlap