Essay #2 Assignment

Paper #2:  Portrait of a person:  Writing about “someone else”

3-5 pp.

(Examples:  Brothers and Keepers, A Place to Stand (by Julie Lindquist), Nickel and Dimed)

Various approaches include:  a profile, an interview, a story of your interactions/relationship, or a retelling of the other person’s experience(s) through your words (and, potentially, her/his own).

Keep in mind the difficulty involved in maintaining accuracy in your depictions of others.  These are your fallible human perceptions of another human being.  Try to recapture the power of lived experience and/or the power of the human spirit/personality through the language that you choose to use.  For many writers this means slowing down the narration of the piece so that the reader can vicariously experience this person s/he doesn’t know.  Remember the subject at hand should be meaningful, prompting you to think about yourself, the person you are writing about, and the place you each hold in the world.  How have the experiences and contexts of this person’s life affected who s/he is?  The essay should explore, in a sustained way, the culture, influences, values, experiences, etc. that make this person who s/he is.   This piece might also capture the influence  this person has had upon you, but that should not be the center of the piece (refer to the texts we’ve read in class for an illustration of this). 

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Reminder

There will be no ENG105 classes on Monday and Tuesday, as I will be holding your writing conferences.

Again, this is only for my ENG105 classes. Please attend your other classes–it is not a school-wide cancellation.

Workshopping guidelines (in class)

1.  The writer will read a paragraph (any paragraph) from her/his essay.

2.  The writer will ask us for any specific feedback s/he might be looking for.  After that, a “cone of silence” goes over the writer–meaning s/he will silently listen and take notes, while the group gives feedback on her/his piece. 

3.  One person in the group will provide a summary of the piece.  Tell us what s/he thinks the piece is about. 

4.  Other members of the group can add onto this summary, and/or provide alternate readings/interpretations. 

5.  Going around the group, classmates will respond with the essay’s strengths–what worked well for them, what was memorable, etc.  Explain why you viewed this as working well/as a strength. 

6.  Going around the group, classmates will discuss areas that could be improved and/or elaborated upon.  Offer suggestions for how you might go about strengthening the piece.

7.  The “cone of silence” is lifted, and the writer is free to ask clarifying questions or simply thank the group for the feedback. 

 

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Responding to peer texts

Once you’ve received copies of your classmates’ papers, you will be reviewing them carefully and critically. Responding to the questions below, compose a response to each writer. You should also make marginal comments throughout the essay–pointing to areas that resonant with you, stand out to you, could use further exploration, need further development, etc. Plan to spend between fifteen and twenty minutes reading, reviewing, and responding to each essay.

Begin your repsonses with a brief summary of the piece.  Tell the writer what you think her/his piece is about.  Next, your responses should let your classmates know two specific strong points in their essay and/or things that struck you/stood out to you and why and one specific area that could be improved upon or that you might have questions about. Explain why and how you think the writing might be strengthened. We are focusing here on the essay as a whole, rather than more minor problems of editing (e.g. grammar/mechanics).

Questions to consider:

1. Do the title and introduction engage you and provide a context for the essay?

2. How well does the essay vividly present and reflect upon experience?

3. Are there any aspects of the experience that seem unclear or undeveloped? Does the piece need more “backstory”? If so, where?

4. Does the essay (a) connect this experience with a broader psychological or social issue (b) offer a clear perspective on the experience presented? Are there any secondary sources that you might suggest? If the writer has already integrated outside sources, comment on the way(s) in which the writer uses these source(s) in the essay: Does the connection between the source(s) and the experience/argument seem clear? Are quotations well selected and appropriate in length? (As a general rule, it is best to avoid long block quotes in short experiental essays).

5. Is the essay clearly organized so that you can follow the movement of thought? Are there any sections, paragraphs or sentences that would work better if reordered? Does the writer transition effectively within and between paragraphs and sections?

6. How effective is the conclusion in (a) dynamically closing the piece and/or (b) opening up reflection to broader issues?

7. Point out or comment on sentence level errors you’ve noticed.

In class we will do a “mock” workshop.

Two options for responding:

1. Utilize the “track changes” and “comments” feature of Word. Respond to your peers’ essay on the computer, within the word processing program. Save the document with your comments and e-mail back to the student and CC me a copy as well.

2. Print out the essay and respond in writing. Sign your name to the bottom of your final comments. Give this back to the writer–who will then turn this in with her/his final draft.

Workshop guidelines modified from:

Walsh, Andrea. Writing and Experience: Exploring Self in Society

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Writing-and-Humanistic-Studies/21W-731-1Spring2004/CourseHome/index.htm

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when it is your turn to be workshopped…

here is what you do:

First of all, if you are a
#1 — you will be having your first draft of paper #1 workshopped
#2 — you will be having your first draft of paper #2 workshopped
#3 — you will be having your first draft of paper #3 workshopped

By “workshopped” I mean that you will distribute to the class a copy of your draft via an e-mail attachment. Your peers will then respond to that draft–giving you feedback to aid in the revision process (guidelines on doing this will follow).

Using the class/group e-mail that I have sent you, attach a copy of your draft (

try to save it as an rtf document

) to the e-mail and select “reply all“. You can send the e-mail any time on the due date (as found on the syllabus/google calendar), but remember you must bring in hard copy to class on the due date. In fact, everyone, regardless of whether or not it is your turn to be workshopped, needs to have a hard copy of their draft in class on the due dates for these papers.

Section 35 (T/Th 9:25)

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Her old site was kirsten142.wordpress.com.  You can delete that one.

Essay #1 Assignment

Paper #1:  Autobiographical narrative essay
3-5 pages
(Examples of this type of narrative:  The Liar’s Club, Live From Death Row, Brothers and Keepers, “Love Letters”)
Write an essay about an event and/or series of events that have occurred in your life.  This piece should reflect on your experience(s) in order to connect with issues that speak to a wider audience.  In other words, even though it is a personal essay, it still needs to have exigency, significance, purpose.  Re-create this experience “in good faith.”  Stay “true” to your memory, true to remembered speaking styles (if using dialogue), true to you and the reader (and/or anyone else involved in or with the story).  Remember that the topic should be crucial (this is not a “what I did on my summer vacation” essay); always keep in mind your purpose.  Your goal is to make at least some reader(s) care.  In other words, your piece, though a story of sorts, must have a central idea, and your story is being used to illustrate that central idea.

Some possible ideas to draw upon include:
•    A particularly meaningful incident or event
•    A specific symbolic moment within a family’s history or personal relationship.
•    A meaningful artifact (photograph, family heirloom, sentimental object or keepsake).
•    A special or “sacred” place or meaningful journey.

Be vivid, detailed and descriptive in your prose; use dialogue when appropriate.

Note:  In this type of writing, it might be better to allow the ideas and perspectives (what we call the central idea, “argument,” or “thesis” in expository writing) to emerge from the experience, rather than fitting an experience to meet the demands of a preconceived idea.

Section 31 (MW 2:40 – 4:20)

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Live from Death Row

Pages/sections of the reading from Live from Death Row

pp 3-18 “Teetering on the Brink…”

pp 37-40 “Nightriders meet rage”

pp 50-52 “A Toxic Shock”

pp 97-99 “Jury of Peers?”

pp 103-05 “The Demand for Death” 

Remember: Flock makes it easy for you to link to articles on the web

As you are posting your first blog entries this week, remember that when you find the news/current event article online that you want to respond to/write about, you need only to highlight a portion of the text (that you will be referring to in your writing), right click, and choose blog this.  This will give the a text box to work in with a link to the article and your chosen quote in block quote formatting.  Now you only need to start composing your reponse, your thoughts, ideas, comments…you get the idea….