Good evening, and welcome back. I hope you are doing well.
What will the day bring? I ask myself this question each morning, and whether I am feeling dreadful or pretty darn good, I can never fully anticipate the answer. Life is never truly routine, never without a multitude of things to wonder and marvel at. John O'Donohue writes, "If you could imagine the most incredible story ever, it would be less incredible than the story of being here. And the ironic thing is, that story is not a story; it is true." It is exciting to watch the world unfold, to witness the grand parade of things that pass before the eye of consciousness, to note the details, large and small, as one image, one thought, one feeling quickly passes on to the next! We ride the waves, sometimes on a crest, sometimes in a trough, but always we are in the realm of consciousness. . . . For me, meaning is found in the striving to become more aware of the life within and around us. If we can avoid getting caught up in our thoughts, the weight of which can at times be enormous, then we can connect with ourselves and others in that other space out of which all things flow and to which all return, and perhaps there find a goodness otherwise hidden. Behind the mask of appearances, there is a source, a cosmic sea of sorts; and instead of thrashing about in the waves as if at any moment we might drown, we might perchance learn to swim in harmony with that sea. Whether you paint, draw, play an instrument, sing, dance . . . you know the freedom and spontaneity that one taps into at times. For me, painting and dancing are forms of play that take me away from the everyday, for I see things in the paint, feel drama in movement. Likewise, in writing we become, I believe, more conscious of what we feel, think, see, hear, and so on, for in our mind we look at things, turn them over, bring them close, take a step back, listen more intently . . . in short we find connections between thoughts and feelings and images that might have escaped us had we not stopped to contemplate the show.
Writing is for many people a very satisfying way of exploring where they have been and where they may be going, and the connections between. In Why I Write, Joan Didion says: "We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and screamed, forget who we were."
Narration, which is the organizational mode to be used in assignment #2, pulls together the basic elements of story: character, with whatever history and personality and motivation allow for insight into the action and experience at the heart of the story; plot, the arranged action/events/scenes that show how a certain conflict arises and develops ; setting, which brings a clear sense of time and place and the force they exert; narrative point of view, the perspective of the storyteller or narrator; and theme, the idea(s) put into play by all the elements together, whether of innocence, experience, youth, age, promise, loss, death . . . .
More Freewrites and Triggers for Digging:
* Find an old photograph of yourself. Describe in detail what you see and what you remember of the circumstances surrounding that moment. What has happened to the child, adolescent or person you were then and the one you are today? What lessons have been inscribed in those happenings? What do you know now that you didn't then?
* Draw a cartoon of your family. Make each member a character. Write a list of moments central to the life and circumstances that came with being one of this family. Freewrite on any that promise an interesting story and that show how you and your family got on, for better or for worse.
* Think back to your first day of school. What was it like? What lessons have stayed with you? Who is memorable, and why? Drop yourself into a scene and explore the ideas or themes that arise. How important are they today? Can you trace the influence of a certain individual or event on the thoughts, feelings or attitudes you have today?
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Short narratives may be structured chronologically, they may begin in the middle of things, or they work from the end back toward the beginnings of the events in focus; they may even of course move back and forth, as if showing how memory itself refuses to play in strict chronology. However you decide to structure your piece, it is a good idea to build into the fabric strong images in fairly simple, specific, concrete terms rather than with overly complicated, too general or abstract terms. You want to pull the reader through the window of the letters and words on the page into the sensuous, three-dimensional world of life as we see, hear, smell, touch, feel, and think about it.
Example:
Once on a Wednesday excursion when I was a little girl, my father bought me a beaded wire ball that I loved. At a touch, I could collapse the toy into a flat coil between my palms, or pop it open to make a hollow sphere. Rounded out, it resembled a tiny Earth, because its hinged wires traced the same pattern of intersecting circles that I had seen on the globe in my schoolroom–the thin black lines of latitude and longitude. The few colored beads slid along the wire paths haphazardly, like ships on the high seas.
Longitude, David Sobel
Another example, of the sight of a mustache: A truly terrifying sight, a thick orange hedge that sprouted and flourished between his nose and his upper lip and ran clear across his face from the middle of one cheek to the middle of the other. . . . [It] was curled most splendidly upwards all the way along as though it had had a permanent wave put into it or possible curling tongs in the mornings over a tiny flame. . . . .The only other way he could have achieved this effect, we boys decided, was by prolonged upward brushing with a hard toothbrush in front of the mirror every morning.
Special Effects: Heighten the effect of seeing by making familiar ground or territory unfamiliar or interesting by shifting perspective–the extreme close up, the distance shot, the fragmentary but evocative particular that puts the whole, be it a place, person, or thing, in a strong light. Use distinctive language in so far as possible, without making the whole too rich.
Names: Be mindful of the power of names to particularize and connote ideas and images. Huckleberry Finn, Scarlett O'Hara, Venus Williams; Kissimmee, Florida; Bountiful, Utah. The names of people, places, and things can be intriguing and interesting sources of irony and word play.
Dialogue: dialogue may help to advance the action, set a tone, illustrate character and key ideas or points. as a form of action (see essay handouts). It is a dramatic device and pulls readers into a virtual present.
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*What is a thesis? A thesis is a single sentence statement of the point you intend to describe, explain, illustrate, argue or prove. Where is the thesis to be found? Typically, by convention, teachers ask that it appear in the last line of the opening paragraph. It thus provides a focus and a clear direction and means of selection, for whatever does not in some way help to advance the thesis idea, may not belong in the essay at all. When you and your readers know what your point is, you and they can follow the logic of your development, the order and arrangement of supporting topics and personal commentary. It is a good idea to have a draft statement of your thesis in view so that you stay on point as you draft the essay. Build key words into the thesis statement to provide you and readers references to what lies ahead. A thesis controls to some extent what will appear in the essay and creates an obligation on your part to follow through on its promise, for it creates an expectation.
Samples:
Religion is no longer the uncontested center and ruler of human life because Protestantism, science, and capitalism have fundamentally altered our view of the world.
In their attempt to understand human nature, many novelists become excellent psychologists.
A good university education is one that is useful, fulfilling, and challenging.
Being a reporter means conducting interviews at odd hours and in strange places.
Refining the Draft Idea: Writing teachers and textbooks often refer to the angle or hook or slant as a way of luring readers to the subject article or book. Readers have different needs and tastes, of course, but there's nothing wrong with familiarizing yourself with the common types of bait that show up in titles or headlines and lead paragraphs. So here are a few.
*Adrenaline *Numbers
*Amazement *Promises
*Brand-New *Secrets
*Detailed *Sexy
*Funny *Superlative
*Location *Combination
*Money
*Newsy
Workshop: See if you can identify any used in the course of reading through today's New York Times or other source.
Ways of Beginning:
*Anecdotal or case history (to create a human interest appeal)
*Direct Address
*Factual
*Journalistic
*Mythic/Poetic
*Quotation
*Thematic
Summary Exercise (#3): summarize briefly the essay "The Uses of a Word," by Gloria Naylor ( in 250-300 words) Incorporate two direct quotations to support and illustrate. Follow the format guidelines set forth and illustrated on the handout passed out in class.
Select material for quotation on the following bases:
1) *the wording is particularly memorable, to the point, and not easily paraphrased
2) * the passage expresses an author’s or expert’s direct opinion that you want to emphasize
3) *the passage provides example of the range of perspective
4) *the passage provides a constrasting or opposing view
Format quotations in the following manner:
Brief quotations of no more than four lines should be worked into the text within the usual margins from left to right, and enclosed by quotation marks. Use a signal phrase or tagline to introduce them, followed by a colon or comma.
Longer passages should be set off in block format, indented and aligned 10 spaces from the left margin, with no quotation marks but those that may be internal to the passage itself.
Example from “An Ocean of Plastic”:
Kitt Doucette describes the threat of plastic to all marine life, and perhaps human life, too: “Even small organisms like jellyfish, lanternfish and zooplankton have started to ingest tiny bits of plastic. These species, the very foundation of the oceanic food web, are becoming saturated with plastic, which may be passed further up the food chain.” The fish we eat may contain the residues of these ingested plastic particles, and pose clear health risks. He explains, citing also the authority of a leading marine biologist:
[. . .] the chemical toxins concentrated in the [plastic] waste lodge themselves in the animals’ fatty tissues, accumulating at ever increasing levels the higher you go up the food chain. It isn’t clear yet if these chemicals are reaching humans, but PCB’s and DDT are know to disrupt reproduction in marine mammals. In humans they have been linked to liver damage, skin lesions, and cancer. “The possibility of more and more creatures ingesting plastics that contain concentrated pollutants is real and quite disturbing,” says Richard Thompson, a British marine biologist who has been studying microplastics for 20 years.
Use brackets [ ] around any material you add for the sake of clarity or any necessary
change to the original , such as a verb tense, a pronoun, or an ellipsis (to abbreviate the length of the passage). The source title, be it an article title in a magazine or newspaper or that of a website from which you have borrowed material, should be identified at the outset in your introduction or first use of the material. The year or date of such information should be recent, or otherwise noted.
change to the original , such as a verb tense, a pronoun, or an ellipsis (to abbreviate the length of the passage). The source title, be it an article title in a magazine or newspaper or that of a website from which you have borrowed material, should be identified at the outset in your introduction or first use of the material. The year or date of such information should be recent, or otherwise noted.
*MLA citations and works cited will not be necessary for initial assignments.
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Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
–Lewis Carroll's opening lines in "The Jabberwocky"
Before we go on to our next assignment, we'll practice the sentence, specifically, describing the basic structure, the additive or cumulative structure, and standard means of punctuating variations on the basic structure. Last week we reviewed saw that English syntax consists fundamentally of a grammatical subject, verb, and object. The subject is typically a noun or noun phrase or a verbal functioning as a noun. The verb is the base of the predicate and operates as a linking mechanism (no action: I am a teacher) or designates the action put in play by the subject, which we can think of as an actor or agent. The direct object is usually a noun or noun phrase following the verb and that receives or takes the action of the verb.
Bill struck a match. I lit the cigarette. We smoked it together.
What follows is a poem that expresses the relationship (sort of) between syntax elements:
One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.
An adjective walked by, with her dark beauty
The nouns were struck, moved, changed.
The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence.
– Kenneth Koch, "Permanently" (referenced in Stanley Fish's How to Write a Sentence)
Words exist in logical relationships with each other, and discovering those relationships will help you understand syntax better, and the sentences you create.
Not all verbs take an object, but for now we will play with the basic structure and build ever more layered sentences by adding predicate elements, modifying words, phrases, and clauses to the first simple sentence (independent clause), as in the following examples, in which the main clause is italicized:
A customer shot me a dirty look, long and low, as if I had in some way offended her deeply, though I could not but think myself innocent, and unjustly vilified.
In the following example, the main clause and the subordinate elements are laid out in outline:
1.The women whispered late into the night,
2. their voices rising and falling softly,
3. while I,
4. a mere six years old,
5. dreamed of a time when I, too, would have a world as rich as theirs seemed to me then.
We punctuate for two reasons: one, to order the pace of reading; two, to separate words, phrases, and clause into groups for the sake of clarity and readability and emphasis.
The period has been described as a stop sign; the comma a speed bump; the semi-colon a "rolling stop"; the parenthetical a detour; the colon a flashing yellow light indicating something's up ahead; and the dash as "a tree branch in the road"(Writing Tools, Roy Peters Clark). Punctuation rules have been standardized, but options and play remain. We'll review today beginning with the comma, a mark that indicates where one reading aloud would likely pause, and which sets off modifying words and phrases and clauses by asking to slow down and see the constituent units. For practice, I have a set of sentences to illustrate. The semi-colon works well to set off large blocks of text, particularly where commas are already at work; and to show the contrast between cause elements on either side in balanced and parallel sentence constructions.
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