Amber Schmidt, “Six Closed Doors”

Amber Schmidt is being recognized for sophistication of craft and powerful voice. In a multimedia project that bridges the semesters, FASTrack students are challenged to consider what being American means to them by pushing past obvious patriotic clichés into the depth of the nation’s cultural fabric. This assignment preps students for the critical thinking that is essential to college writing and study. Schmidt structures her bridge project as a list, using “door” metaphors to juxtapose assumptions about American values versus her realities.

Commenting on what she values in writing, Schmidt notes:

Voice. That is what my freshman year at Ole Miss was all about. Voice in all aspects of my life: in writing, in school, in my own life. Everything that has happened this year has just been noise trying to get me to realize my own voice. Throughout every single paper this semester there has been one underlying theme in each of Mrs. B’s comments: voice- “you have nailed the voice of an academic essay (synthesis essay),” “you mix voice with academic work, making a causal argument both entertaining… and compelling (cause and effect argument),” “your tone fits your suggestions so well (mutlimodal website).” That consistency is what I have been most proud of in Writing 102. I have a strong personality and have always resented the fact that in writing I “had” to be so objective to the point that I sound like a robot. This class gave me a chance to write about subjects that not only mattered to the world in the grand scheme of things, but also things that mattered to me.

View “Six Closed Doors.”