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Dulce Garcia
Roberta Wolfson
Writing 2
February 25, 2016
Being Creative as a Writer
For my Writing Project 3, I chose to create the genres of a recipe and a childrens book. I
wanted to be creative and think outside the box. The writing concept I wrote about was teaching
two kinds of thinking: first and second order thinking. This concept in class made me realize how
important is to be jot down any ideas and be creative before coming up with a concise wellwritten paper. This concept in class was not difficult to understand because many other readings
were connected that help me understand the concept even further. The reading I based this
project on was Peter Elbows Teaching two kinds of thinking, which also was somewhat
related to the readings Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lammot and Read like a writer by Mike
Bunn. Overall, throughout the process of Writing Project 3, where I got the chance to think like
an author and improve my writing skills, I learned how to be creative as a writer when it comes
to constructing two different genres that target two distinct audiences.
The steps I needed to take before beginning to write a childrens book and a recipe were
looking up how each genre should look and what conventions the author uses in order to serve as
a model. For my first open genre, a childrens book, I used the example, Come back, Cat,
illustrated by Joan Nodset. The first convention I noticed right away in this example was the
emphasis on the huge font title of the book, as well as the big image of an orange chubby cat.
This book is about a fun furry orange cat that seems to be way too playful. The owner of the car
seems to command the cat different things to do, for example come back cat, stay right there
(Nodset, 5) or come back cat, thats not yours. There are twenty pages in this book and each of

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them have enormous illustrations of an adorable orange cat playing around. Each page has three
to six words, making up a sentence. Since the audience targets a young generation, the sentences
are simple for children to comprehend. The phrase come back, cat! is repeated in almost all of
the twenty pages, which allow the reader not only to connect back to the title of the book itself,
but also emphasizes what the book is about (a cat not coming back to the owner). I used that
same technique in my childrens book by repeating the phrase when I grow up, I want to be a
writer, in order to emphasize the main purpose of the story, being a young kid wanting to
become a writer. When you read this book, the sentences have a sort of melody tone and a couple
of rhymes such as writer and whiter, which then again show conventions of a childs book
that engages the audience to feel entertained. Overall, my childrens book evidently highlights
the life of a young boy wanting to become a writer when he grows older. Creating entertaining
illustrations and a childrens vocabulary gave me the chance to increase my writing creativeness
as a person.
For my second genre, a recipe, I looked up different examples on allrecipes.com, a
cooking website, which was able to serve as a model. One of the examples I used was the recipe
of Strawberry Angel Food Dessert by a username called Tabkat. The conventions of a recipe
are evidently the title of the dish, a description, the ingredients and directions on how to make it;
all of these were well addressed into this model. The ingredients were typed in a list style,
making it easier for the audience to understand what specific things you will need to make the
dish. Using an example as a model helped me as a guide in order to create my own recipe with a
writing twist to it. After comparting the two genre examples, I was able to distinct the different
conventions each genre carries. This helped me out as a writer in order to comprehend what

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kinds of conventions a recipe and a childrens book need in order to attract, inform and entertain
their audiences.
In order to think like a writer, I had to use some concepts taught in my Writing 2 class
such as Shitty First Drafts, Thinking like a Writer and first and second order thinking from
Peter Elbows Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking. I chose these three readings to cite in both of
my open-genre pieces, because since my main purpose is to inform and entertain younger (in a
childrens book) and older (in a recipe) audiences, Anne Lamott, Peter Elbow and Mike Bunn all
provide advice and tips on how to become a better writer. I integrated these readings into my
childrens book by portraying them as characters. Mike Bunn was the protagonists teacher who
mentions first you need to read like a writer (Garcia, 8), after the little boy asked him how is it
possible to become a writer. The mother of the young boy is portrayed as Anne Lamott and tells
her son it is okay to have messy first drafts (Garcia, 12). Anne Lamotts piece is called Shitty
First Drafts, but since the book reaches a younger audience, I took into consideration that by
adding the word shitty would not be appropriate; therefore, I replaced it with the word
messy. Peter Elbow is also portrayed as a character (Peter, the neighbor) in pages 13 to 16.
Peter tells the little boy in page 13, First you need to be creative. Writing down ideas on a list
will keep you motivated but after writing down your thoughts, re-read you words (Garcia, 1316). With this quote, I showed the concept of first and second order thinking by Peter Elbow;
writing down ideas on a list, re-reading and editing your syntax, one is doing first and secondorder thinking. I decided to explain and not address these actual terms in the childrens book
because a young audience would not understand what these terms actually mean; the main
purpose of When I grow up, I want to be a writer, is to entertain a young audience with a little
boys dream of becoming a writer, not give little kids jargon on a text.

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In my second open-piece genre, a recipe, I integrated the same three readings of Lamott,
Elbow and Bunn because my main purpose in this recipe is to provide ingredients and directions
one needs to consider before, during and after writing a paper. I mentioned these three readings
in the ingredients and the directions too. Under the third step, I mentioned in that in order to get a
better understanding of the two kinds of thinking when writing a paper, one needs to read Peter
Elbows piece because it will help them understand what professionals see as first and second
order thinking. I also mentioned Anne Lammot in the fourth step, comparing first order thinking
to her quote of very few writers really know what they are doing until they have done it, which
then again showed a connection on similar concepts. In step five of the recipe I state, before
reading any of the articles above, make sure you read Mike Bunn's "How to read like a writer
(Garcia, 1). I integrated his concept of reading like a writer because I knew that this would help
the audience (older) locate what they believe are the best choices made by the authors in the
other two: Shitty first drafts and Teaching two kinds of thinking; it is recommended to consider
the effect of those choices on potential readers.
Throughout the process of Writing Project 3, not only did I get the chance to think like a
writer and was able to improve my writing skills, but I also learned how to be creative as a writer
when it comes to constructing two different genres that target two distinct audiences. I was able
to illustrate and come up with a childrens book that represented three different topics of my
writing course. By searching different examples of two kinds of genres, I learned how different
authors all use almost the same conventions in their own genre in order to portray a message or
make a point. I integrated the three class readings into both the childrens book and recipe, as
supporting evidence, in a way that will benefit my main topic as a whole.

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I am a little confused with your thesis. You stated that you learned how to think like
writer, but I dont think what your analysis explains it. Seems a little confusing.

Works Cited
Garcia, Dulce. Two kinds of thinking. Allrecipes. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Garcia, Dulce. When I grow up, I want to be a writer. 2016. Print.
Nodset, Joan L., and Steven Kellogg. Come Back, Cat!. New York: Harper Collins Childrens,
2008. Print.
TABKAT. Strawberry Angel Food Dessert Recipe. Allrecipes. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.