Making the Everyday

Abstract

In January 2010 C-SAP sent out details of a two day creative writing workshop for social science students. This workshop was held in Sheffield in March 2010 and was repeated in July due to popular demand. Few of the students had any previous experience of creative writing. The guidance given was that of the ‘sociological imagination’ which underpins all social science disciplines. The list of student contributors shows which disciplines are represented. The workshop was intensive but was not directed to achieving outstanding poems. The two workshops gave students an opportunity to think abut how a sociological imagination might illuminate a topic or question they were interested in. Much of this is personal and the stimuli used included scents as well as ideas. The workshop moved away from ‘telling’ and ‘generalising’ to try and capture particulrities and specific experiences. Of course many experiences raise questions, emotion and require answers. Several poems here are set in terms of questions. The writers experiment with different approaches including the ballad form, the argument. The emphais on capturing the particularity of experience gives us one prose piece which shows how reflection leads in to observation. The workshop made a considerable impression on participants. It is a pleasure to thank Dr Elizabeth Barrett, Principal Lecturer in Education at Sheffield Hallam University for leading the workshops. Elizabeth is an established poet who is able to encourage and support novice writers experimenting with the unfamiliar and to respond to their enthusiasm. The poems have been organised under notion of ourselves and other selves, whether seen or reflected upon Most lent themselves to each category used here. I hope the reader will enjoy reorganising the poems and reflecting on them.