Facing the Ocean
We began this course with a video in which Neil Gaiman said that writing is like putting a note in a bottle. You throw that bottle into the ocean and hope maybe someone finds it, reads it, and sends something back to you. Now I’m offering you a chance to do what Gaiman suggests. I want you to write a note, put it in a bottle, throw it into the ocean, and see if it comes back.
Time Capsules
Your letter in the bottle will work like a time capsule. The idea of a time capsule is to preserve a record of today for people to look at years from now. You might have read about some time capsules that were created when we reached the year 2000. Time capsules often contain pictures and artifacts, such as clothing, jewelry, coins, and music. They also tend to include letters and written statements. One good example of a time capsule is the one the New York Times Magazine created to celebrate the 2000 millennium. This time capsule contains information on the most important historical events from the last 1000 years as well as sounds and pictures. You can read about this time capsule here:
Message in a Bottle
You’re going to create your own letter and put it in a digital bottle and send it into the future. Basically, you will be creating a digital time capsule. You get to decide most of what to write, though I’m going to direct you in a few specific ways. Your basic goal, though, is to write enough significant content to make it worth opening your letter in the future. You get to decide what to place into your bottle: You can write anything you like. But, since it’s a pretty small bottle, we can’t fit anything in there except words, although words are actually quite big, if you think about it. The only real requirement is that you write enough to make it worth receiving your letter back in the future. If you don’t write much or don’t say anything interesting, you future self is going to be very ticked off with your present self. So don’t let yourself down!
Your Bottle’s Contents
The interesting part of creating a time capsule is deciding what should go into it. The fun part is opening that time capsule back up many years from now and seeing what you put in it. Often, you might not even remember that you created the time capsule until the day to open it arrives. I’m going to give you a few guidelines for how to write your letter. Follow these guidelines as best you can, but it’s ok to deviate from them as long as you fill up your letter with lots of interesting writing. These guidelines are designed to help you create an interesting letter that you’ll enjoy reading 10 years from now. As you write, you might find it useful to include section headings for each part. Most letters are a few pages long by the time they are finished.
Because you have to write quite a bit for this task, I suggest that you work in Microsoft Word. Save your file temporarily onto the network drive using this filename: YourlastnameTimeCapsule (In my case I would save the file as PagnucciTimeCapsule). When you finish the work, copy all of your writinig into an email and send it to me. Do NOT send me the Microsoft Word file because we can pretty much guarantee that you won’t be able to open that file in 10 years time (knowing Microsoft, it probably won’t even be something we can open next year).
On Language
After decades of doing this assignment, Arwa Alshehri asked me a question I had never thought of before. She wondered if the letter could be written in a person’s native language, rather than in English. That was a wonderful question, an excellent example of a translingual writing pedagogy practice, and so I have incorporated it into this assignment. You are welcome to write your letter in your native language, with the one exception that I need your contact information section (see below) to be written in English.
On Privacy
Let me stress that I will NOT read the major contents of your letter! (You have to trust me on this, but most of you probably know how busy I am anyway, too busy to snoop. I have too much stuff to read as it is!) This means you can feel free to include personal information in your letter. Don’t reveal anything top secret, but put in information that matters to you. It is your personal information that will be of the most interest to you when you receive your letter in 10 years. So don’t short change yourself. If you don’t put enough personally valuable information into your letter, your future self will be highly disappointed when you receive it, believe me!
On the Issue of Trust
I want to really emphasize that as your teacher I will respect your privacy and guard your letter carefully. This is an important task, I believe, one that has a lot of future value for people. But the entire task only works if you can trust me. Since I realize that and want this task to be a success for your class and for future classes, I view your trust in the task as sacred and will do everything I can to honor that trust.
Primary Items to Include in Your Bottle
The first 4 items below are critical and everyone should include them. Make sure you write up these parts to help prevent your bottle from getting lost at sea! You should aim to spend about 10 minutes writing this initial part of your letter.
The Date
Record the date you finish writing up your letter.
Contact Information
This part is really important. Please write this part in English, and provide me with the following:
- Your full name
- Your “permanent” email address
- All the other email addresses you use
- A permanent mailing address (perhaps your parents’ address?)
I’m going to send your bottle back to you in 10 years time. I’ll start by trying to send your bottle to your “permanent” email address. If that changes, please let me know. If your main email address doesn’t work, I’ll try the backup addresses. If those don’t work, I’ll try to use your postal mailing address, so please give me a postal address that is not likely to change (perhaps your parents’ address). Of course I know most addresses are not very permanent, but I’ll just try as well as I can to get your bottle back to you. Of course, the ocean is wide and always changing. When you throw a bottle into it, you just have to hope for the best.
Self-Description
Write a paragraph or two describing yourself at this point in time. (You may write this part in English or your native language. It is your choice.) Include things like:
- your weight and height
- the type of clothing you wear
- the type of job you have
- etc.
Also say something about your personality: Are you a nice person, cheerful, outgoing, quiet, or what? How would your friends describe you?
Dissertation Plan
As a graduate student, the one thing that has to get put into your time capsule, at least after a fashion, is that most important of all documents, your dissertation. In this section, discuss your best current idea for your dissertation. Then write up a short time line for carrying that dissertation through to completion. (You may write this part in English or your native language. It is your choice.) It’s my sincerest hope that in 10 years time (notice how this conveniently exceeds the 7 year time to degree deadline!) your dissertation will be sitting proudly on your bookshelf underneath your framed diploma.
Secondary Items to Include in Your Bottle
The rest of the items below are interesting to include in your time capsule. You may write these parts in English or your native language. It is your choice. There are lots of items suggested here to give you plenty of options, but there are probably more items than you will have time to write. So, quickly skim over the list, then pick a few that interest you the most and have fun writing about them! And if you want to include something not on the list, you are welcome to do that too.
Remember, the more detailed writing you do now, the more interesting reading you’ll get to do 10 years from now. You should plan to spend about 15-45 minutes writing this secondary part of your letter.
Your Family
Our families drive a lot of us crazy. But still, there are few people as important to us. Write a little about your spouse, children, parents, grandparents, or any other relatives who matter to you. Record:
- what your relatives look like
- things they often say
- things they often do
- things that annoy you about them
- things you love about them
You might even write about some of the relatives you do not like—maybe things will have improved in 10 year’s time!
Your Friends
Spend a little time talking about the people who matter to you.
- Do you have a significant other?
- Who are you friends?
- What do you like about these people?
- Why are they important to you?
Record their full names, what they look like, and perhaps their addresses. Some friends will stay with you forever, but, sadly, in 10-years-time you might not even remember some of these people. So make a record of them now.
Your Interests
Write about the things you really like and try to explain why you like them so much:
- What do you like to do in your free time?
- What are your favorite television shows?
- What are your favorite movies?
- What kind of music do you listen to and how do you listen?
- What hobbies do you have?
- Do you exercise?
- What are your favorite foods and restaurants?
- What are your favorite books?
- What are your favorite sports teams?
Record what you like now, so later you can see how your tastes changed over time.
The Era You Live in Now
Record some information about the year you are living in now. This will help remind you about the historical time period when you created this time capsule. Include any information you think is important such as:
- the current president or leader of your country
- the state of your country’s economy as well as the state of the world economy
- major events happening in the news
- major issues and problems effecting the world
- the names of famous athletes and celebrities of the current time period
- What problems in the world most worry you?
- What scandals are in the headlines and what do you think of them?
- What are you doing to make the world a better place?
Your Hopes and Dreams
Think a bit about your future and then record some of your goals and aspirations:
- What kind of job do you hope to have in the future?
- How much money do you hope to be earning?
- Do you plan to get married or have children in the future? Is there someone special in your life now who you hope to still have in your life 10 years from now?
- What do you hope the world will be like in 10 year’s time?
I sincerely hope that lots of your dreams come true for you.
Stories to Remember & Things to Treasure
I hope you will include a few brief items in your time capsule that will remind you of things that really matter to you. You don’t have to write in super long detail, but include a little bit of information to help you remember. These things might include:
- good stories/memories from your days in the CAL Program
- a quote or saying you want to always remember
- a description of one or two of your possessions which are most important to you
- the one thing that makes life worth living
- your favorite place to visit
- anything else that is extremely important for you to remember
Seal Your Letter in Your Bottle and Throw It Into the Ocean!
Send your bottle via email to Dr. Pagnucci:
To: pagnucci@iup.edu
Subject: Bottle-Please toss back into the Internet ocean in Fall 2029
Body: Paste your letter into the body of your email. Do NOT send your letter as an attachment since that will be harder to keep track of and access 10 years from now.
Delete Your Bottle
Once I receive your bottle, I will send you a quick email confirming that I received it from you and that I have stored it safely away. This confirmation will be your verification that you successfully completed this task. Once you get your confirmation, delete your own copy of the letter. I know that will be hard since you will have poured a lot of your thoughts and feelings into your letter. But, the key to any time capsule is that it cannot be opened ahead of time. If you keep your letter on your computer, it will only be a temptation. More importantly, time capsules and bottles thrown into the ocean are valuable because there is always a chance that you might not get them back. You are putting things away for the future, and we are never sure what the future will hold—it’s part of the fun and also part of what makes it so important.
Your Bottle’s Journey
You will send your letter to yourself by digital bottle. You probably have heard these bottles called emails, but, ugh, who came up with that boring word. Digital bottle sounds soooo much cooler. Dr. Pagnucci will be the courier for your bottle. I will store your bottle for 10 years (luckily, digital bottles don’t take up a lot of space). I will then send your letter back to you by digital bottle. If that bottle comes back to me as undeliverable, I’ll try to send your letter to you by an alternate email address or by regular postal mail. This process isn’t perfect, but it has worked for most students I have had, and I have been doing this activity for many years now (I have lots of letters waiting to be delivered at specific dates in the future). If all else fails, send me an email in 10 years and ask to get your letter back. I will keep all the letters on file until each one is successfully delivered, so write me back when you receive yours. You can always get my current email address from my web page (which will probably be at IUP or search for me on the web).
The Power of Memory
So why do this activity as your final exam for English 833: Theories of Composition? It’s a chance for you to think about what why writing is so powerful. It’s also a chance for you to think about what is important to you right now and about how to preserve those things that are important. It’s also a way to communicate those values to yourself in 10 years time. We don’t get a lot of chances to teach ourselves things, but a time capsule can do that. And, in the future, it will be a way to research who you were in the past. This letter will become an artifact 10 years from now that will help you look back at this time in your life. Besides all of that, most of my students over the years have said this is a fun assignment to do. That’s probably good reason enough.
I love this assignment, have used it all collegiate levels, from introductory composition on up to doctoral seminars, and hope to write it up someday for submission to English Journal. In the meantime, if you ever need a good end of the semester final course assignment, you are welcome to use it, modifying it as you see fit. (I hope if you do ever use it, you’ll remember me when you do.)
Before you finish your message, I should tell you one thing. When you open your bottle in 10 years’ time, reading the message might make you a little sad as well as happy. Some of the things you recorded that mattered to you will be gone. Other things you will suddenly remember and wonder how you could have ever forgotten them. Hopefully there will be a lot of good memories waiting inside your bottle. It is my wish that, when you read your message, it brings back some very good stories to you from your days in the CAL Program.
I measure good writing assignments by weather or not students feel they are worth doing. The best writing assignments are ones where the writing really matters, which is why I have chosen to finish our course with this writing assignment. I believe that, if you write this message well, it will really matter to you, and you will want to get your bottle back in 10 years’ time.
Ciao,
Gian Pagnucci