Writing tightly woven, clear, succinct, fluid future scenes

The following ideas are from Problem Solving Across the Curriculum and from the discussion of the future scene focus group in June during the governing council meeting.

1. The future scene is a description of the problem situation that should be solved. It should include:

------Who is involved in the problem?

------What is the problem?

------When and where does the problem occur?

------Why does the problem happen?

------How does it occur?

2. The FPSP topics are determined. As a writer you can narrow the topic area. Use the research and the topic themes. Use the ladder of abstraction move up and down the ladder with topic questions.

------Example ­ Water:

------ ------Ownership of a stream running between two properties

------ ------Inland Waterways

------ ------Bodies of freshwater

------ ------Water

------ ------Natural Resources

3. Topics that fall somewhere between very broad and very narrow work best for competition. Rather than starting out with a very narrow topic, allow students to narrow the topic if they choose. Students perform best when they are able to focus on manageable parts of a topic rather than struggling with very abstract, philosophical