There is a reading assignment and a writing project for

this part of the course. We will use My Beloved World as

an anchor and inspiration to create our own interactive
narratives. As we study Sotomayors life, we need to
think about her story itself, the reasons she is compelled
to tell it, and the way that she communicates to us. Justice
Sotomayor is very aware of herself as a public figure who
can inspire and influence. Lets take on that kind of role
for writing and communicating in our lives as well.

In this project, much like Sotomayor does, you need to
think critically about what you will share about your life,
why, and to what ends. As is frequently noted,
Sotomayor has shared more about her personal life than
is customary for a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. As she
explains, she intentionally wanted to re-shape and guide
the publics representation of her experiences. As you
can see, Sotomayor is strategic; she is not simply writing
a well-composed, lyrically rich autobiography. That is
certainly an important element of any storytelling.
However, Sotomayor has purposes beyond the showcasing of beautiful language and imagery. That will be the
kind of public text that you also need to create for the simple reason THAT THIS WILL BE PUBLIC.

In the past, many students have wanted to write about extraordinarily personal things and that will be
welcomed here. However, when it came down to the wire, they were too uncomfortable sharing the writing
openly and had to start over. Please understand, early on, that this is not a diary-entry assignment. It will be
read by others and not locked away. Think and act rhetorically.

Please do the reading assignment,
as indicated on the syllabus. Your
reading assignment and more
reading guidelines can be found at
this short link:
http://bit.ly/Sotomayor101. Please
make sure that you sink into all of
the texts available for you at the website. Remember, you are not just analyzing Sotomayors words and life;
you are looking at how and why she shares her life as a model for what you will do.

This project culminates with you
making a short video in the
tradition of the interactive movie
that NPR created about Sonia
Sotomayor, From the Bronx to the
Bench, (you should have watched
this video as part of your reading
assignment). The video is based
on seven, different vignettes from Sotomayors book: Childhood, Diabetes, Hard Times, Different Paths,
Education, Love, Judgements. We will use these seven vignettes as a guiding framework and create interactive
videos about our own lives.


ENG101 Creative Non-Fiction Project 2
There are three steps for this project. The final step will be the creation of a simple movie. We wont be doing
voiceovers in our video, like Sotomayor does (that is the work you will do with me in ENG 201), but you should
certainly add music.

We will complete the final movie together in the lab. If you miss the lab day, the demonstration will not be
repeated for you. If you decide that you do not need a demonstration and that you can do this on your own, no
extra time will be allotted for you (in the past, students have decided to skip the lab day; to date, each of those
students failed the assignment or lost many points because they could not finish alone so be warned: expect no
sympathy or special accommodations because you over-estimated your digital prowess).







Step One
Your
Three
Stories












Write
THREE 600-
word stories
Since we are not Supreme Court Justices YET, we are not going to write an entire book. We are
also not going to use seven vignettes to frame our interactive story. Instead, you are going to
write three vignettes. Each vignette should be 600 words and tell a story that illustrates a larger
social message about you or the situation you describe. Your seven options, based on the
seven vignettes Sotomayor offers in her photo movie, are listed below.

CHOOSE ANY 3 prompts below and write a 600-word (minimum) vignette for the prompt
(you should have 3 stories totaling 1800 words):
1) Describe a powerful memory of childhood: this memory should be one that, based on its
lodging in your memory today, shows up as a significant influence of or power for your life
now. Take us back to that memory, paint a picture of it, and then bring us forward so we
can see the impact.
2) Describe a health or emotional struggle you have overcome: this should be a struggle that
you are willing to describe in a way that empowers others with the same issue. It could be
something like Diabetes, like with Sotomayor, or overcoming shyness and non-confidence,
etc. Let us feel what you feel but also empower those in the same situation.
3) Describe a person who has impacted you significantly: this could be someone you know
or someone who you do not know. Just assume we dont know the person and describe
them in a way that shows their imprint on you.
4) Describe a loss in your life AND/OR an underdog who you will/have fought for:
notice how Sotomayor talks candidly about a cousin who died as a drug addict while also
humanizing him and celebrating him (she does not, like many students, talk about how
much smarter and better she is). Sotomayor does both things here: she describes a loss and
defends an underdog (someone who is marginalized, misrepresented, etc.)
5) Describe a success/achievement you have experienced in school: do not think of this
prompt as complimenting yourself. For Sotomayor, it was a gold star in elementary school
that marks her sense of a first, significant achievement. The point here is to really describe
the weight of this success for your life. It is not the significance of the award or the
accolade that matters but rather how it has shaped you.
6) Describe an important friend in your life: talk about a current friend or a previous friend
from another time place. Describe what you learned from him/her and what you learned
about yourself (please note: this is your one and only chance in this class to talk about
and/or show us your promafter that, NOT AGAIN. High school is officially OVUH!)
7) Describe your current goals and vision as a college student at JJay College: This vignette
asks you to talk about where and who you are, right here and today, at John Jay College.
Discuss what has surprised you so far. Or, share your passions and interests at this
moment and your plan for pursuing them.

REMINDER: CHOOSE THREE. Remember that these vignettes will be public texts. They
may not go viral, but they will be public nonetheless.


Step Two
The
Visual
Narrative



To move on to step two, you need your THREE VIGNETTES chosen and near to completion.
You need to know the major events, people, and turning points of your three stories.

Go back and watch the mini-movie that NPR created of Sonia Sotomayor
(http://apps.npr.org/sotomayor-family-photos/). Notice how each background has a set of
images that float into the screen. When the background changes, the vignette/theme/time-
frame changes too. You too are now going to create such a movie. This will be very simple in
terms of the technology: you will turn a powerpoint into a movie and upload it to youtube. More
complicated work than that is for ENG 201. The time-consuming part will be choosing the
images and ordering them to fit your stories, not the technology.

ENG101 Creative Non-Fiction Project 3



Collect Your
Visual
Artifacts

For each vignette, you need to do all of the following
AND complete the accompanying story board worksheet:
1) Choose three major photos that you will use (you can, of course, do more than that) for
EACH vignette. Make a folder on google drive for these images (all jpeg) or email them to
yourself. You will not have time in the lab to send photos from your phone to email! Do
that before you get there. Get yourself prepared beforehand.
2) Choose one background image for each vignette (this should be a jpeg also). You could
also make a collage of photos using an online program like Picasa, PosterMyWall, etc
(there wont be a class demonstration of any of these web 2.0 tools but you can visit my
office if you want help with digital collages. Similarly, if you do not have or do not know
what a jpeg is, please come see me.)
3) Choose a song for each vignette. Have an mp3 of each of your 3 chosen songs ready.
Email it to yourself or set up a google drive and upload these songs there.
4) Give each vignette a catchy title (My Life, My Experiences, etc are TOO simple)
5) Think deeply about the social or cultural issue that your vignette discusses or introduces.
Find an online article or website that illuminates that issue for each vignette. This project
will be required for your ePortfolio where you will be continually asked to weblink to
other intellectual sources (you cannot use Wikipedia, about.com, or youtube videos for
your weblinks).
6) Create a title for the entire project.

Please use JPEG images. If you do not have any images, then go to google images and do a
search. You will need to show the URL of EACH AND EVERY image that you retrieve.


Step Three
Putting
It All
Together
LAB DAY
Come to our lab session with all of 1-6 above. At the end of our lab session, you will have a
video ready for the world! Please email your youtube link AND your three written vignettes
to Professor Carmen: professorkynard@gmail.com on DEADLINE!

Please note that your final writing and video will be embedded to your ePortfolio. Keep the
photos in a folder because you will need them again in a week or so for the ePortfolio.


The Point-Spread
Please note that you will be graded on this project again since you are required to place it in your ePortfolio.
1) I gave each vignette an interesting title, a unique background, and three moving images.
2) My first vignette meets the 600-word requirement, opens in an interesting way, and has a message
and larger meaning.

3) My second vignette meets the 600-word requirement, opens in an interesting way, and has a
message and larger meaning.

4) My third vignette meets the 600-word requirement, opens in an interesting way, and has a message
and larger meaning.

5) I spent considerable energy and effort to make sure that my writing shows, not tells; tells interesting
stories, not just makes lists.

6) I copyedited my work such that there are few, if any, surface errors on this version of my work. I am
ready to make this writing public.

7) I indicated three, significant weblinks on my storyboard worksheet and completed all other parts of
the worksheet also.

8) I submitted my COMPLETED storyboard worksheet in class by the required deadline.
9) I wrote a 1-paragraph introduction to my video on youtube; my title for the project also appears on
youtube.

10) I uploaded my final video to youtube, emailed Carmen my youtube link and three essay-vignettes,
all by the required deadline.

Final Points
10 points: A
9 points: B+ 8 points: B
7 points: C 6 points: D