By MONICA FEAKES
STAFF WRITER
Rutgers professor Sara Jaffe spoke to English students on Monday, Nov. 9 about the different opportunities to expand creative writing skills at the university.
As a first year professor, Jaffe urged her creative writing class to branch out in the world of New Brunswick culture.
“There’s more to writing than the college format that is being taught to every student entering the University,” she said.
Jaffe, speaking to her creative writing class in the Writer’s House of Murray Hall said, “My goal is to get students to experience all of the things that the Writer’s House has to offer.” Both students and staff have benefited from the new renovations made in the basement of Murray Hall.
Jaffe described the new and improved Writer’s House, which was recently equipped with its own student lounge, interactive classrooms and high-end technology.
A junior in the writing class, Alyssa Focaraccio said, “At first, I couldn’t find where the class room was this semester. It’s a whole different world down here but the classes are really nice.”
Jaffe also discussed the importance of getting out into New Brunswick’s theater district and what’s available on campus. “There’s Zimmerli Art Museum right next door and George street houses a lot of respected theaters that the students should take advantage of,” Jaffe said.
A suggestion for an assignment that Jaffe made during class was for each student to attend some kind of event, a poetry reading or dramatic play and write a response on the reactions.
“It gives you guys and opportunity to go to events you wouldn’t normally attend and see if you like something better when it’s being performed as opposed to just reading it in class”, she told her creative writing students.
In the small round-table setting of the classroom, Jaffe asked each student what kind of creative writing was their favorite and to explain. “I think everyone has mixed responses because, from what you said, poetry and drama are a lot harder when read in class, whereas, it has more of an impact when being performed or read aloud,” she told the students.
Students were very involved in Jaffe’s discussion about the world outside of Expository Writing. “I hated expos, so it was really refreshing for the professor to break down what we’re doing and why we’re it’s important,” Focaraccio said.
“Using the things that the Writer’s House gives us is very helpful because I would never go out of my way to attend performances that most of the time I would never know about” Focaraccio said.
Professor Jaffe’s idea of creativity, she thinks, is what Rutgers needs. “College essay writing is only one of the many ways you, as students, should learn and practice because the creativity aspects of writing are the ones that are going to inspire you,” she said.
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