CAMERON
FATTAHI
WRITER
Repurposing: Project Two
For project two, we were assigned the task of repurposing a piece of writing that we've already completed into something new that reaches a focused audience.
The project was not initially easy for me. I was bouncing between many ideas, including a teenage love story using Facebook messages, a science news article on fragile-X syndrome research (similar to autism), and an investigation into the loss of my father's native language. As I was deeply engrossed in the podcast Radiolab at the time, I had already decided that I wanted my final project to be a Radiolab podcast. After much deliberation I decided that the piece on my father would provide the best story for the podcast. To bridge the gap between my intended project two and the final podcast, I wrote an extended blog entry that resembles what can be found on Radiolab's "Read" page on their website. The piece was repurposed from a college supplmental essay in admiration of my father.
Though the story came from a college supplemental essay, the idea to focus on language (and in particular, the loss of native language) stemmed from an observation-turned-inquiry that I've held since childhood: I've noticed that whenever my dad speaks Farsi, the native language of Iran, to fellow Iranians, he always seems to intermix English words into conversation. He has been in the US since 1978, but spent all of his childhood in Iran. After years of observation, I'd pestered and teased him about it, but never had I thought to investigate its underlying causes and personal effects on my father.
The project begins with an explanation of the observation, followed by psychological theories on language attrition, and concludes with my father's own theory, brought on by his personal experiences.
Click the image on the left, or the title below, to view the The Language Forgotten: A Father's Tale.
The Making of Project Two provides a detailed explanation of the methods used to complete the project and a compilation of artifacts created throughout the making of the project, including an annotated bibliography and a proposal. Also contained in this piece is an explanation of my other candidate project ideas and the reasons I chose not to pursue them.
Click the image on the right, or the title below, to view the The Making of Project Two.
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