Creative Writing Commons^™

Stolen Toilet Paper, Danielle Schaf

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Stolen Toilet Paper is an argumentative creative nonfiction piece, that illuminates and illustrates an invisible narrative on this campus: that of being a low-income, first-generation college student. This thesis is composed of three vignettes—The Bridge to Academia, Falling between the Ivy, and Three Naked Mattresses—that articulate struggles that low-income, first-generation undergraduates encounter. The Bridge to Academia, exhibits the literacy needed to successfully navigate the terrain of academia. Falling Between the Ivy, highlights the stress of providing for one’s family, the lack of institutional support and resources for low-income students’ needs, and the impact that class has on academic performance. Three …

Women Breaking Ground: A Website Profiling Women Entrepreneurs In Syracuse, Jill Comoletti

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My Honors Capstone project is a website titled Women Breaking Ground (www.womenbreakingground.com). On my website, I published 10 feature-length profiles on women entrepreneurs in Syracuse. Each profile features photographs and an interactive map to show readers the location of the woman-owned business. This project is relevant because the number of women business owners in the United States is increasing; in fact, women are opening 1,200 new businesses every day. I hope that my project inspires even more women to pursue their passion and become entrepreneurs.

White Bread Girl: Real Life Chronicles Of A Twenty-Something, Rose Aschebrock

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Hi! Did you pick up this project book, see the title and immediately wonder, "What is a White Bread Girl anyway?"

Good question. I like you.

There are so many books aimed at the 20something category claiming to represent my generation and miserably failing.

Maybe I fall into a 20something minority category but I don’t enjoy eating pizza at 2am like Lena Dunham in her book Not That kind of Girl, I don’t like eating nothing and drinking everything like The Betches do in their book Nice is Just a Place in France and I’m not a fan of …

Strada: A City-Centric Digital Magazine On Florence, Italy, Gabriela Riccardi

Honors Capstone Projects - All

More than 45 American university and colleges run programs in Florence, Italy, translating to more than one student center per square mile of the city. And the young American presence is apparent in Firenze. Students fill the city center, flock together in coffee shops, flow in and out of markets and museums and discoteques. But from this stronghold springs an Florentine catering to Americanism: there are restaurants that will speak English rather than Italian, shops that will sell American labels from home, and piazzas that are bustling not with young Italians, but students from the States. It can be remarkably …

Revel Magazine, Leigh Miller

Honors Capstone Projects - All

REVEL Magazine is a fashion-and-beauty lifestyle magazine for undergraduate and post-graduate women. This is the May 2015 launch issue focusing on materials from the Spring/Summer 2015 Ready To Wear collections. REVEL was designed and created in Adobe InDesign (with aid from Adobe Photoshop) originally for print, but is circulated online via ISSUU, a digital media platform that allows for digital magazine viewing in a print-like format. It is additionally available via PDF for tablet devices.

REVEL Magazine’s goal is to approach the high-fashion world through a youthful, informed, creative, and critical eye; to reinterpret luxury designs for independent style; …

Macaronic, A Digital Travel Magazine About Chile, Leanna Garfield

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Macaronic, a digital travel and culture magazine, features stories about people and destinations across the world, with each issue spotlighting a new country. The first issue chronicles stories across Chile. As a digital native magazine, Macaronic encourages its users to connect with stories across borders. It appeals to curious millennials who strive for an authentic experience when they travel.

For this project, I traveled to ten different locations outside of Santiago to report stories from across the country, including Valparaíso, Concepción, Chiloé, and Patagonia. Macaronic includes four main “categories,” or sections: “Guides,” “People,” “Travels,” and “Culture.” It features a …

Tinkers: Robots, Makers, And The Changing Face Of 21st Century Diy, Linda Gorman

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Project URL: www.tinkers.lindaggorman.com

My capstone project takes the form of a website, accessible at the URL above. The site features nine different journalistic pieces reported and produced over the course of the past year, all centered on the themes of robotics and cutting-edge DIY communities. I worked in several different media, from traditional print to audio to infographics. Though this project officially falls under the category of magazine journalism, my capstone also had a heavy technical component associated with creating the website and writing scripts to collect and visualize data.

In terms of the content, I reported and wrote about …

Word On The Street: Examining What Characteristics Of A Street Paper And Its Host City Best Contribute To Success, Nicole Gorny

Honors Capstone Projects - All

By creating opportunities for microentrepreneurship, street papers have been tackling homelessness and poverty in U.S. cities since the late 1980s. Homeless or low-income vendors purchase these social justice-oriented publications for a fraction of the cover price, and then resell them on street corners for profit. By 2015 the self-help model had spread to 35 U.S. cities, according to the International Network of Street Papers. These cities range significantly in characteristics such as population size, climate, geographic location and political atmosphere.

Drawing on interviews with more than 20 editors, staff and vendors at North American street papers, I have identified five …

Elsie: A Screenplay, Eileen M. Spath

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Elsie is a 57 page, one-hour screenplay. A modern adaptation of a true story, Elsie tells the tale of Elsie Whitman, a young housewife unhappy in her marriage and looking for a way out. When her estranged sister arrives, she finally finds the strength to do the unthinkable.

Our story opens with the arrival of Elsie's sister, Marianne, and the departure of her husband, John. Alone in the house together, the sisters relationship grows complex. Marianne begins to see Peter, a young man with a mysterious past. However, when Elsie is wronged by John, she jumps into bed with Peter. …

How To Be Alice: A Feature-Length Screenplay With Production Package, Alison Joy

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This Capstone consists of a feature-length dramatic screenplay of 110 pages along with a production package including schedule and budget. The production documents, created using Movie Magic software, detail a shooting schedule of 21 days and a budget of $890,979.

The film centers on a successful magazine editor who loses her job and her fiancé in the same day. Professionally disgraced, financially stunted, and unexpectedly hearbroken, she is forced to take on a “How To” blogging gig to pay the bills while she gets back on her feet. She begrudgingly accepts mentorship from an eccentric older neighbor to help her …

180 Degrees Away, Megan Daniels

Honors Capstone Projects - All

180 Degrees Away is a novel that started as a capstone project for the honors department and further developed into a work that will later be submitted to literary agencies and publishing houses.

The novel tells the story of eighteen-year-old Ames Treadway, who has been nothing but a punching bag to his father for years. After walking in on a particularly horrifying event involving his father and younger sister, Layla, Ames nearly kills his father before taking his sister and running away. Layla, Ames, and three of Ames’ friends journey from their home in New Jersey to Nashville, where he …

Red Rope Magazine: A Sustainable And Creative Model For A Magazine For Chinese Students In The U.S., Kexin Zheng

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Last year, China surpassed India for the first time and became the leading country of origin of all international students studying in the United States. With the increasing number of students from China, American students are getting used to the amount of Chinese faces on campus, and the growing Chinese community has created a comfort zone for the newcomers to live a familiar life within their native language. However, the fundamental issue lies in the need for a stronger sense of empowerment.

Red Rope magazine, with red symbolizing happiness and rope symbolizing binding, will be the first general-interest magazine in …

A Mother's Love: A Screenplay, Marie Hankinson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

A Mother’s Love is a sixty-eight page feature-length dramatic screenplay. The story attempts to answer the following question: How far should a mother go to ensure her child’s overall happiness and acceptance in the world? In the screenplay, Emily is the mother of Aden, a child with autism. Aden’s autistic condition is about in the middle of the autistic spectrum. When a new doctor recommends putting Aden on an experimental treatment that promises to eliminate Aden’s autistic symptoms, Emily agrees to follow the program. Although the revolutionary treatment begins to radically ease Aden’s autistic symptoms, the drug comes with severe …

Suitcase Magazine, Victoria Wolk

Honors Capstone Projects - All

For my Honors Capstone Project, I chose to create an original magazine. Our campus has many publications, but there is no travel magazine for students to contribute to. I decided to create a campus travel magazine, one that would focus on trips in the general area of Syracuse. I want to be a magazine writer and editor in the future, so this project was a great way for me to gain experience in the field.

I asked friends to help with writing some of the articles, taking photographs, creating original artwork, and helping me to design and layout the magazine …

Prospects: An Original Tv Pilot, Kevin Slack

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My capstone project is a television pilot script about the trials and tribulations of a minor league baseball team’s front office. Following around the new general manager and his various colleagues and colorful characters around the ballpark, the show, tentatively titled Prospects, is meant to be optimistic and warm-hearted, but still with a bite of humor and cynicism.

For the composition of this piece, I initially used the free screenwriting software Celtx, as well as your standard tools of writing: pad and pen.

My goal for this project was to create a quality ensemble-driven show that, while centered around the …

The Jump Magazine, Victoria Troxler

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The Jump is an online life stage magazine for women, focused on the transition from college life to the real world. The magazine’s target audience is women ages 19 and 25 who have recently graduated from college or will soon graduate. These women are interested in a luxury lifestyle and current trends, but also value budgeting and their careers. They are also newcomers to real world. The Jump answers the questions about home décor, cooking, fashion, beauty, and budgeting in a simple way that is tailored to their stage in life.

Each department of The Jump – musings, home, eat, …

The Accused, Nathan Damon Hopper

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Exonerations are increasing, largely thanks to the advent of DNA evidence, which several prisoners’ rights advocacy groups, like the Innocence Project, have used to prove the innocence of the convicted. But returning home after spending years imprisoned for a wrongful conviction brings with it several types of challenges: psychological, financial, and simply personal.

Roy Brown, the main subject of this story (though there are several other important characters) is an incredibly intricate man. Before his 25-to-life sentence for the murder of a county social worker, he’d faced several other convictions for a slew of misbehavings and a general disregard for …

Journey: Students' Perspectives On Studying Abroad, Rachel Tjornehoj

Honors Capstone Projects - All

How can I share my entire study abroad experience in a short article? With all of the photos, stories, challenges, new experiences, comparisons and travels from a year abroad, it can’t be done. In a series of short articles, however, it is possible to catch a glimpse of all of the opportunities available when one decides to study abroad. For “Journey” magazine, I compiled stories from a variety of students’ study abroad experiences to show the diverse opportunities and possibilities available through study abroad. As more and more students study abroad and travel to new countries, the range of possibilities …

The Gatekeepers Of The Black Press, Sadé Khadijah Muhammad

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract Not Available

Medusa Magazine, Hannah Kristin Warren

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Medusa Magazine is a student-run campus publication, co-founded by the author of this project and Samantha Lifson, a 2011 graduate of Syracuse University. The idea for the magazine came together over the summer and fall of 2009, with Medusa gaining official status as a Recognized Student Organization in the spring of 2010. The first issue was printed in April of 2010, and we have published two issues per semester since.

The process of Medusa’s creation involved the drafting of our constitution as a student organization, numerous meetings with Bethany Piraino, our consultant within the Office of Student Activities, to ensure …

Penance: A Novel, Rachel Anne Weiser

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Penance is a fictional novel written both as an Honors Capstone project and as a work that will be further revised and eventually submitted for professional publication.

The novel is set in modern day, in the fictional southern city of Avington. Avington, like the rest of the world, is home to a group of terrifying creatures called the nephilim, a name derived from Hebrew, meaning “the fallen.” The nephilim are humans who once died and were reborn as undead creatures; because of their insatiable thirst for human life energy, they are considered demons with the faces of men. Despite the …

Nothing Is Free: A Screenplay, David Hetzron

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Film has been an invaluable part of American society for nearly a century. From having political significance, to solely entertaining purposes, this versatile medium has only garnered more and more cultural investment each year of its existence. While it may not always be a vital component to a completed project, it is within the script writing process that ideas, themes, and messages are negotiated and developed. The real meaning of a story is encoded within the words. The script can be considered provocative, emotional, informative, and may incite a unique effect for each of its readers. While no reader is …

"Chance" Screenplay, Simone Laroche

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My Capstone Thesis is a creative screenplay pursuing the complexities of predestination and our innate obsession to control fate. I became intrigued with the idea that our decisions or actions dictate outcomes we may have had the ability to prevent or perpetuate. I recently found it difficult to accept my misfortunes for ineptitude or lack of preparation. Instead I called it “fate” or “destiny” that circumstances were not meant to work in my favor. In hindsight I realized I had allowed my passivity to compensate for my lack of commitment and courage to take risks. Granted, I do believe regardless …

A Guide To Student Publications, Molly Gittell Gallagher

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract not Included

Crossroads: A Novella, Patricia Ann-Marie Abraham

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Crossroads is the herstory of Tahaj Marie, a woman-child who comes of age in Brooklyn, New York. The single daughter of a single mother, she rejects the pressures put forth by her strict, cold mother and defies her with a sexual relationship at 16 that leaves her pregnant and alone. Spending years raising her son Amir, and rekindling an unsuccessful relationship with his father leads her to the crossroads of her life. Despite the road blocks, she rebuilds herself to strive towards the woman she seeks to become. As a single mother who is Black, female, and disadvantaged, Tahaj Marie …

True You Magazine, Amanda Romaniello

Honors Capstone Projects - All

True You Magazine was created because of the turmoil and conflict that today’s media creates for young girls between the ages of 10 years old and 14 years old. Girls of this age are highly susceptible to influences of any media form, including magazines, television shows, and movies. In the magazine industry, there are many women’s and teen fashion and health magazines. Unfortunately, the majority of these publications lack healthy representation of female bodies. Some of these magazines also discuss and advise on topics, like sex or dieting, that girls in this young age range should not be reading.

Knowing …

Editing The Outcrowd, Alex Kish

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My capstone project is the completion of two issues of The Outcrowd, a student run lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and ally magazine at Syracuse University. I served as editor-in-chief of the publication from fall 2009 to spring 2010. As a magazine journalism major, my leadership position on t this campus magazine helped improve my editorial skills, and taught me to become a more effective leader. Both issues were published toward the end of both semesters and were distributed across Syracuse University’s campus.

My reflective essay discusses the editorial vision behind the publication. Since its creation, The Outcrowd has …

Blocked: Short Story Manuscript, Christopher Hazle-Cary

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Blocked is a manuscript of short stories designed to explore conceptions of selfhood as represented in the fictional story. In the manuscript, I investigate issues of performance and authority as they relate to how characters define themselves in relation to the other—both the other characters in the story as well as the socio-cultural structures they have come to inhabit.

The loss of authority is a theme that I explore throughout my work. I am interested in authority as another aspect of performance—another role that people play, a mask (or face) that they take on. It also relates directly to the …

Catch A Fire Catch Afire: An Understanding Of Distance And Its Meaning, Luciana Amodeo

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This project is a collection of my poetry written and edited during three years of study and living while at Syracuse University. It is the attempt of a young woman to widen a specific avenue of self-discovery while working on my talents and skills as a writer and poet. Catch a Fire Catch Afire: An Understanding of Distance and Its Meaning is my pursuit of deconstructing how I become aware of: distance from myself, distance from my loved ones, distance from God, distance from places and distances from where I am at any given point in my life. The process …

Four Short Stories About A Four Letter Word, Michelle Tan-Torres

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis falls under the creative category of the Honors Capstone Project and is a compilation of four short stories all written within the past year and a half. It draws from the author’s educational background of English Textual Studies and the screenwriting track within the Television/Radio/Film major. It combines the learned technical aspects of the English language from the former and the creative, story-telling techniques from the latter.

Though the author has always been an avid writer, both academically and leisurely, it wasn’t until the summer of 2007 after sophomore year of college that she became interested in short …