Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching

ENG 1103: “Strawberry Spring” Follow-Up

Posted on by janemlucas
King, Stephen. “Strawberry Spring.” Night Shift. 1978. Anchor, 2011. pp. 268-82.

Tomorrow morning, before you begin work on your final essay and annotated bibliography, we will revisit Stephen King‘s “Strawberry Spring” and discuss the answers to your collaborative exercise on the story.

For that exercise, I asked you to determine whether you could identify any details that indicate why the narrator may have murdered any of his victims. Although there is no indication that the narrator knew Gale Cermann, Adelle Parkins, or Marsha Curran, he did know Ann Bray, which he reveals after he tells the readers that she was editor of the school newspaper: “In the hot, fierce bubblings of my freshman youth I had submitted a column idea to the paper and asked for a date–turned down on both counts” (275). Though the narrator’s rejection by Ann Bray could have motivated him to murder her, the fact that the other victims were virtual strangers to him indicates that the phenomenon of Strawberry Spring itself awakens his killer instinct

I also asked you to identify words and phrases that illustrate how the story is not only a horror story but also a commentary on war, the Vietnam War in particular, and the Vietnam era. I offered these examples as models:

  • King’s description of the snow sculpture “caricature of Lyndon Johnson” (269) signifies the derisive responses to the President’s Vietnam War policy.
  • The description of the snow sculpture “caricature of Lyndon Johnson” (King 269) signifies the derisive responses to the President’s Vietnam War policy.

Some of the words and phrases you may have identified include these:

  • Civil War cannons (269, 275, 282)
  • the dove “lost its frozen feathers” (269)
  • the fog (269, 270, 272, 277, 279, 280)
  • “who had been drafted” (273)
  • SDS (276), Students for a Democratic Society
  • quagmire (277)
  • “a series of draft protests and a sit-in” (281)
  • “well-known napalm manufacturer . . . holding interviews” (281)

I also asked you to try to identify the two literary allusions in King’s story. The first is an allusion to J.R.R. Tolkein‘s The Lord of the Rings trilogy: “You half expected to see Gollum or Frodo or Sam go hurrying past” (269). The second is an allusion to a poem by Carl Sandburg, titled–perhaps unsurprisingly–“The Fog” (272).

Pop Quiz

Rather than listing the answers to yesterday’s quiz, I have followed each question below with a note regarding where to find the answer. By finding the answers yourself, you will learn more than you would from simply reading them in a list.

  1. What did you learn about Stephen King from the author’s page that you read for today’s class? See the author’s page on King’s website.
  2. What is a primary source? See the class notes for March 12.
  3. Name one primary source that you have read for class. See the class notes for March 12.
  4. What is a secondary source? See the class notes for March 12.
  5. Name one secondary source that you have read for class. See the class notes for March 12.

Your quiz also included two bonus opportunities. For the answers to those questions, see the class notes for March 13.

Be sure to write notes in your journal on all of your readings, including the notes posted on my blog. Before each class begins, take out your journal and review your notes. That will increase your knowledge of what you read and ensure that you will earn high grades on your pop quizzes.

Next Up

At the beginning of tomorrow’s class, we will continue our discussion of “Strawberry Spring.” Afterward, you will have the remainder of the period to devote to your preliminary work for your final essay and annotated bibliography. Details TBA.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching

ENG 1103: Stephen King’s “Strawberry Spring”

Posted on by janemlucas
King, Stephen. “Strawberry Spring.” Night Shift. 1978. Anchor, 2011. pp. 228-82.

Today in class we will read Stephen King‘s short story “Strawberry Spring,” which was published in Ubris magazine in 1968 and included in King’s first short story collection, Night Shift (1978).

For the collaborative exercise that you will complete after we read the story, I will ask you to determine whether you can identify any details that indicate why the killer may have murdered any of his victims. Although there is no indication that he knew Gale Cerman, Adelle Parkins, or Marsha Curran, he did know Ann Bray.

I will also ask you to identify words and phrases that illustrate how the story is not only a horror story but also a commentary on war, the Vietnam War in particular, and the Vietnam era.

Lastly, I will ask you to try to identify the two literary allusions in King’s story. We will discuss your findings near the end of class today or at the beginning of class on Wednesday, and I will include the answers in tomorrow’s class notes.

Next Up

We will review “Strawberry Spring” at the beginning of Wednesday’s class, and you will have the remainder of the period to begin work on your final essay and annotated bibliography.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching

ENG 1103: Toponyms, Part I

Posted on by janemlucas

The first Scrabble post of the semester featured first names that are also common nouns, making them playable in Scrabble. Today’s post includes place names and words derived from places, or toponyms–more proper nouns that are playable in Scrabble because they’re also common nouns. Studying these words offers you additional opportunities to broaden your vocabulary and up your game.

  • afghan: a wool blanket
  • alamo: a cottonwood poplar tree
  • alaska: a heavy fabric
  • berlin: a type of carriage
  • bermudas: a variety of knee-length, wide-legged shorts
  • bohemia: a community of unconventional, usually artistic, people
  • bolivia: a soft fabric
  • bordeaux: a wine from the Bordeaux region
  • boston: a card game similar to whist
  • brazil: a type of tree found in Brazil used to make instrument bows (also brasil)
  • brit: a non-adult herring
  • cayman: a type of crocodile, also known as a spectacled crocodile (also caiman)
  • celt: a type of axe used during the New Stone Age
  • chile: a spicy pepper (also chili)
  • colorado: used to describe cigars of medium strength and color
  • congo: an eellike amphibian
  • cyprus: a thin fabric
  • dutch: referring to each person paying for him or herself
  • egyptian: a sans serif typeface
  • english: to cause a ball to spin
  • french: to slice food thinly
  • gambia: a flowering plant known as cat’s claw (also gambier, which is a small town in Ohio)
  • geneva: gin, or a liquor like gin
  • genoa: a type of jib (a triangular sail), also known as a jenny, first used by a Swedish sailor in Genoa
  • german: also known as the german cotillon, an elaborate nineteenth-century dance
  • greek: something not understood
  • guinea: a type of British coin minted from 1663 to 1813
  • holland: a linen fabric
  • japan: to gloss with black lacquer
  • java: coffee
  • jordan: a chamber pot
  • kashmir: cashmere
  • mecca: a destination for many people

What a Bonus a Z Makes

Because they knew that da (a father) and od (a hypothetical force) were playable words, the members of one of last Friday’s teams played dozers (ones who doze) in the upper right corner for a triple-word score. Because the z was played on the double-letter square, the team earned a total of eighty-four points for dozers (seventy-eight), da (three), and od (three).

Kudos

Six students took advantage of last Friday’s bonus assignment and posted comments on their classmates’ analyses.

  • Nick Beeker
  • Aidan Berlin
  • Jermaine Cain
  • Sofia Marin
  • Izzie McLawhorn
  • Dylan Virga

Kudos to Nick, Aidan, Jermaine, Sofia, Izzie, and Dylan. You can view their comments on the March 6 blog post.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

Coming Soon

In class on Monday, we will read and analyze “Strawberry Spring,” a short story by Stephen King. In preparation for our study, read the author’s page on his website.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Secondary Sources, Reporting, and Commentary . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

The four articles that served as the subjects for your group presentations are all secondary sources: texts that address information originally presented in primary sources. Primary sources include research studies and other original works, such as historical documents, essays, and fiction. Each of the essays, the short story, the letter, and the chapter that you read previously for class can serve as primary sources for your research. For example, David Sedaris‘s “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is a primary source for a study of Sedaris’s writing.

  • In “Blogs vs. Term Papers,” Matt Richtel reports on the findings of the National Survey of Student Engagement and a study of high school writing requirements conducted by William H. Fitzhugh, editor of The Concord Review, as well as the writing curricula of then-Duke University Professor Cathy Davidson and Stanford Professor Emerita Andrea Lunsford.
  • In “Writing by Hand is Better for Memory and Learning,” Charlotte Hu reports on research published in Frontiers in Psychology, conducted by Audrey van der Meer and Ruud van der Weel at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
  • In “A Break from Your Smartphone,” Allison Aubrey reports on research conducted by Noah Castelo, Kostadin Kushlev, Adrian F. Ward, Michael Esterman, and Peter B. Reiner, which was published in PNAS NEXUS, the journal of the National Academy of Science.

Although Maryanne Wolf’s “Skim Reading is the New Normal” cites research originally published in primary sources, she is not reporting on that research objectively. Instead, she argues that in light of researchers’ findings, “[w]e need to cultivate a new kind of brain: a ‘bi-literate’ reading brain capable of thought in either digital or traditional mediums” (par. 12). If you look at the heading on your copy of Wolf’s article, you will see the word opinion, which indicates that her article appeared in the opinion section of The Guardian‘s website and on the Op-Ed page of the physical paper.

Informed opinion pieces–such as Wolf’s, which draws on scholarly research–are suitable sources for your research, but it’s important to recognize the difference between reporting and commentary.

Great Britain’s The Guardian, which published Wolf’s article, and The New York Times, which published Richtel’s “Blogs vs. Term Papers,” are two of the most well-regarded newspapers of record, known for their accuracy and high-quality reporting. NPR (National Public Radio), which aired Aubrey’s “A Break from Your Smartphone,” is another premier news outlet. The magazine Scientific American, which published Hu’s “Writing by Hand is Better for Memory and Learning,” is yet another first-rate publication, one known for its authoritative and accessible coverage of science and technology news, written for a general audience.

AP Style vs. MLA Style

As you read the four articles that served as your presentation subjects, you probably noticed some differences among their styles and MLA (Modern Language Association) style, which you use for paper assignments in English 1103 and other courses in the humanities. Most news publications use AP (Associated Press) or their own in-house style book that shares many of AP’s rules. One of reason style rules are difficult to remember is the differences among the requirements. Here are some of the important distinctions between AP style and MLA:

  • In AP style, a sentence may begin with a quotation. In MLA style, a quotation must be introduced with a signal phrase. Otherwise, it is considered a dropped quotation.
  • AP style does not include parenthetical citations. In MLA style, quotations and paraphrases are followed by parenthetical citations–unless the sources are interviews or other nonprint sources.
  • In AP style, titles of publications are not enclosed in quotation marks or italicized. In MLA style, titles of short works are enclosed in quotation marks; titles of longer works are italicized (underlined in longhand).
  • Almost all numbers are expressed as figures in AP style. In MLA style, any number that can be expressed in one or two words is written as a word.
  • AP style omits the Oxford or serial comma, the comma before and in a series of three or more. Most publications other than newspapers use the Oxford or serial comma, and MLA advocates its use.
  • In AP style, an em dash is preceded and followed by a space. MLA style requires no space before or after an em dash.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Delivering Your Presentations, Observing Your Peers, and Reflecting

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning, in the first half of class, you and your classmates will deliver your group presentations. Keep in mind that when you are not presenting, you will still play a vital role in class as an audience member. Pay close attention to the other three presentations. Jot occasional notes in your journal, but don’t keep your head down for a substantial length of time. Making eye contact with the speakers and nodding your head are gestures that will convey your appreciation for your classmates’ efforts.

In the second half of class, we will look back at the four articles that served as your subjects, and you will compose reflections. Directions for your reflections are included below.

Directions

Compose a short piece of writing (two paragraphs, minimum) that reflects on your individual preparation and delivery of your portion of the presentation and your group’s presentation overall. Elements to address include the following:

  • The roles of your reading and writing: How did the processes of rereading the text and writing and rewriting your remarks contribute to the effectiveness of your delivery?
  • The introduction of your group members and opening remarks
  • The examination of points in the article
  • The conclusion
  • Poise, eye contact, and avoidance of filler words
  • The group’s cohesiveness

After you have reflected on your group’s presentation, compose an additional paragraph that addresses a presentation by one of the other groups. Choose the one that stands out the most to you. What element or elements of that presentation made it particularly effective and why?

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Continuing to Prepare . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

As you continue to prepare for your presentation, be mindful of the valuable roles that reading and writing play in the process. Although the final product is your group’s three-to-four-minute oral presentation, your work began with reading and writing: reading the article that serves as your subject, and writing the plan that you composed in class yesterday.

Have you thoroughly reread the article that serves as your subject? If not, turn back to the text itself at least two more times before Wednesday. Chances are, on a second or third reading, you will notice details you didn’t notice before, ones that you may want to add to your presentation.

In addition to recording key words on your notecard, write out your portion of the presentation in your journal. Though you will not be permitted to have your journal in hand during your presentation, the act of writing down your remarks and rewriting them will help you commit them to memory.

As you practice delivering your presentation, be sure to limit the time that you look down at your notecard and your copy of the reading. Your ability to limit those glances will be greater if you spend ample time rereading the text and writing and reviewing your remarks in your journal.

Robert Klara’s “Scrabble”

Yesterday, while you were planning your presentations, I distributed copies of Robert Klara’s article “Scrabble.” If you plan to focus on Scrabble for your final essay and annotated bibliography, Klara’s article will serve as your starting point.

Unlike the articles you read for your presentations, Klara’s does not report on research, though he does quote journalist Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players. Klara’s article also provides historical context.

If you choose Scrabble as the subject for your final essay and annotated bibliography, include among your sources at least one newspaper or magazine article that reports on Scrabble research, or include the original research itself, published as a peer-reviewed article, such as “The World of Competitive Scrabble: Novice and Expert Differences in Visuospatial and Verbal Abilities,” by Diane F. Halpern and Jonathan Wai, available through the HPU Libraries.

Next Up

In class tomorrow, you will deliver your group presentations. Afterward, in the second half of class, you will compose a short essay that reflects on both your own presentation and one by another group.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching

ENG 1103: Planning Your Group Presentations

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class, after your Scrabble debriefing, I will distribute your group presentation assignment, and you will have the remainder of the class period to devote to planning the short presentation that you will deliver in class on Wednesday. An additional copy of the assignment is included below.

As an exercise in collaboration and oral communication, you and three or four of your classmates will plan, rehearse, and deliver a concise presentation focusing on a reading that addresses one of the practices implemented in the course. If you were absent when copies of the articles were distributed (see the titles in the group assignments below), download and print copies from the Blackboard readings folder.

Presentation Assignment Directions

  1. Plan a presentation of three or four minutes, total, that addresses the most significant points covered in your group’s designated reading. (The lists of group assignments and designated readings are included below.)
  2. Include in your presentation the following elements: (1) an introduction that mentions each group member’s first and last name (each group member may introduce himself or herself, or the group may assign one member the responsibility of introducing everyone), the title and author, or authors, of the reading, and a brief overview of the text, (2) A close examination of two or more points in the reading, and (3)) A conclusion that provides closure without restating the introduction and that invites questions. One strategy to consider for your conclusion is to address the relevance of the practice (the subject of your reading) to your work in English 1103, your work in other courses, and/or your life outside of the classroom.
  3. Do not create a digital component, such as a PowerPoint or Google Slides show. You will not be permitted to use any digital devices during your presentation. Instead, you will rely only on a single three-by-five-inch index card with your notes and your paper copy of the reading.
  4. Aim for cohesion. Turning briefly to the previous speaker and addressing him or her by first name, repeating a word or idea of his or hers, and connecting it to your own remarks are ways to unify your presentation. If your presentation seems to be a series of individual talks rather than a single group presentation, it lacks cohesion.
  5. Every group member is not required to speak for the same length of time, but every member is required to deliver a portion of the presentation.

Directions for Rehearsing

  1. In preparation for rehearsing, write your notes on a single three-by-five-inch index card (one card per group member). If your initial notes are written in complete sentences, rewrite them to include only words and short phrases for your key points. If your notes are too detailed, you will risk relying too heavily on them and making minimal eye contact with the audience. Plan to make as much eye contact as possible, and be sure to make eye contact with people throughout the room rather than fixing your eyes on one or two people.
  2. Practice good posture. As you deliver your presentation, your ears should be directly above your shoulders. If you tend to shift your weight from one foot to the other, stand with your feet perpendicular to each other. If you do so, you will not be able to shift your weight from one foot to the other.
  3. Avoid filler words, such as uh, um, like, and you know. If you tend to use filler words, practice pausing at the points where you are likely to use them.
  4. Take turns delivering your portions of the presentation, and offer feedback to your group members. Offer both suggestions for improvement and words of encouragement.

Group Assignments

  • “Blogs vs. Term Papers”: Avery Clark, Madison Davis, Sofia Marin, Travis Pecararo
  • “Skim Reading is the New Normal”: Zach Dick, Nicole Marin, Tommy McHugh, Elise Claire Palmisano, Davis Smith
  • “Why Writing By Hand is Better for Memory and Learning”: Nick Beeker, Jermaine Cain, Izzie McLawhorn, Sierra Welch
  • “A Break from Your Smartphone Can Reboot Your Mood . . .”: Aidan Berlin, Marcus Gerhardt, Ethan Paterson, Dylan Virga

Grade Criteria

  • An A presentation includes all elements outlined in the directions for planning and rehearsing and demonstrates the group members’ poise and ability to avoid filler words.
  • A B presentation includes all elements outlined in the directions for planning and rehearsing but may be marred by group members’ lack of poise and/or inability to avoid filler words.
  • A C presentation includes most but not all elements outlined in the directions for planning and rehearsing and may also be marred by group members’ lack of poise and/or inability to avoid filler words.
  • A D presentation includes only some elements outlined in the directions for planning and rehearsing and may also be marred by group members’ lack of poise and/or inability to avoid filler words.
  • An F presentation includes few if any elements outlined in the directions for planning and rehearsing and may also be marred by group members’ lack of poise and/or inability to avoid filler words.

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, you will deliver your group presentations. Afterward, in the second half of class, you will compose a short essay that reflects on both your own presentation and one by another group, one that was notable for its strengths.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Looking Ahead . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

Group Presentations

On Monday, after your Scrabble debriefing, you will receive the assignment for the short group presentation you and three or four of your classmates will deliver on Wednesday, March 11. You will have the majority of Monday’s class period to devote to planning, and you will have the first ten minutes of Wednesday’s class for final preparations.

The subject of your presentation will be an article focusing on one of these aspects of English 1103:

  • Blogging
  • Limiting screen time
  • Reading printed texts (rather than reading online articles and ebooks)
  • Writing longhand

Although you and your group members will focus on only one of the four articles, all of you will read and annotate the other three in preparation for your classmates’ presentations.

If you decide to devote your final essay and annotated bibliography to one of the aspects of the course covered in the group presentations, the article focusing on that subject will serve as the starting point for your project.

Final Essay and Annotated Bibliography

Which aspect of the course or which of the writers we have studied are you interested in examining further? Your answer to that question will determine the subject of your final essay and annotated bibliography.

In preparation for beginning your research next week, review the list below and freewrite in your journal on the subjects that appeal to you most.

  • Donald Barthelme
  • Blogging
  • Tom Junod
  • Helen Keller
  • Limiting screen time
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Harper Lee
  • Michael Lewis
  • Reading printed texts (rather than reading online articles and ebooks)
  • Scrabble
  • David Sedaris
  • Writing longhand

If you choose to research one of the writers we have studied, keep in mind that your project will be an exploration of the author’s words, not his or her life. Your aim is not to write a biography, but instead a study of the writer’s craft.

Bonus Assignment

Directions

  1. Go to the class blog page, and click on the link for the blog of the classmate whose name precedes yours. If you are first on the list, go to the blog of the student whose name is last.
  2. If your designated classmate’s blog is not linked to the page, or his or her analysis is not published, choose another classmate’s blog. 
  3. Read the classmate’s analysis.
  4. Compose a one- or two-paragraph response (75 words, minimum) that includes both the classmate’s name and the title of his or her analysis. In your comment, address one or more of these elements: the title, the thesis, evidence to support the thesis and/other claims, organization, the conclusion, the image documenting part of the writing process away from the screen, the embedded link to a relevant website. Note that you will mention the classmate by name, but you will not refer to him or her in third person. In other words, you will not write, John’s examples of “The School”‘s incongruities effectively demonstrate Donald Barthelme’s postmodernist approach to storytelling. Instead, you will write, John, your examples of “The School”‘s incongruities effectively demonstrate Donald Barthelme’s postmodernist approach to storytelling.
  5. Recommended (not required): Draft your comment longhand in your journal.
  6. Type your response as a comment. You should see a leave comment/reply option at the top or bottom of the post. If you do not see that option, click the title of the blog post, and scroll down. You should then see leave comment/reply.
  7. Before you click leave comment/reply, copy your comment (on a PC, copy with control + c; on a Mac, copy with command + c).
  8. After you submit your comment on your classmate’s blog post, return to this post, and paste your comment as a reply (on a PC, paste with control + v; on a Mac, paste with command + v). This step is critical because your classmate may not approve your comment, which means it will not be visible on his or her blog post. To receive credit for the assignment, you must post your duplicate comment as a reply to this blog post, “ENG 1103: Looking Ahead.“ To submit your comment, click the title of the post, then scroll down to the bottom. There you will see the image of an airmail envelope with a box for your comment. Type your comment in the box and click Comment. Post your comment by the 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 12.

I will make your comments visible after the deadline.

Next Up

On Monday, you will begin planning your group presentations. For more details, see the first paragraph of this post. I will provide additional instructions in class.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Irritable Vowel Syndrome, Part II

Posted on by janemlucas

Last week, I published a blog post featuring playable four-letter words with three vowels. Knowing those words, and others with multiple vowels, proves useful when you’re faced with a rack of mostly, or all, vowels. Here’s a list of the remaining playable four-letter words with three vowels, beginning with the letters in the second half of the alphabet:

  • naoi: ancient temples (pl. of naos)
  • obia: form of sorcery practiced in the Caribbean (also obeah)
  • odea: concert halls (pl. of odeum)
  • ogee: an S-shaped molding
  • ohia: a Polynesian tree with bright flowers (also lehua)
  • olea: corrosive solutions (pl. of oleum)
  • olio: a miscellaneous collection
  • ouzo: a Turkish anise-flavored liquor
  • raia: a non-Muslim Turk (also rayah)
  • roue: a lecherous old man
  • toea: a currency in Papua, New Guinea
  • unai: a two-toed sloth (pl. unai; an ai is a three-toed sloth)
  • zoea: the larvae of some crustaceans

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

Coming Soon

On Monday, after your Scrabble debriefing, you will receive your group presentation assignment, and you will have the remainder of the period to plan and rehearse.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Reflecting on Your Analysis . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class, you will compose a reflective essay that documents the process of planning, drafting, and revising your analysis. Include at least one relevant quotation from Writing Analytically, introduced with a signal phrase and followed by a parenthetical citation. Questions to consider in your reflection include the following:  

Questions to Consider in Your Reflection

  • When you began transferring the words from your handwritten draft onto the screen of your laptop or tablet, what did you observe about the process?
  • What aspect of the writing seemed the most challenging? Choosing your topic? Deciding which text would serve as your subject? Determining your thesis? Identifying details to support your claims? Organizing the body of the essay? Composing the conclusion? Why did that aspect of the writing seem the most challenging?
  • Did the subject of your analysis change? If so, what was your original subject, and what did you change it to?
  • Did any of the sample analyses (“Wait Means Never,” “Princess of the Rock,” “The Strange Fruit of Sosnowiec”) prove helpful to you? If so, which one? How was it helpful?
  • What do you consider the strongest element of your analysis?
  • At what point in the process did you decide on a title? Did you change the title during the writing process? If so, what was the original title?
  • What image that documents part of your writing process away from the screen did you include in your blog post? Why did you choose that image?
  • What relevant website did you include an embedded link to in your blog post? Why did you choose that site?

Sample Works Cited Entries

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “Focus on Individual Words and Phrases.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 48-49. 

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “How Long?: Paragraphs, Readers, and Writers.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. p. 308. 

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “‘Interesting,’ ‘Revealing,’ ‘Strange’” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. p. 24. 

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “Seems to Be About X, But Could Also Be (Or is ‘Really’) About Y.’” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 104-7. 

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “What a Good Analytical Thesis Is and Does.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 241-42. 

Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. “Words Matter.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 49-50. 

Monday in class, I distributed copies of my study of a page of Art Spiegelman’s Maus, which I wrote as a model analysis in a previous semester. An additional copy, which complies with the guidelines of your analysis blog post, appears below.

The Strange Fruit of Sosnowiec

In his graphic memoir Maus, Art Spiegelman devotes a page to his father Vladek’s account of the hangings of four Jewish merchants in Sosnowiec, Poland. Vladek and his wife, Anja, learn from Anja’s father, Mr. Zylberberg, that the Nazis have arrested his friend Nahum Cohn and his son. With his head bowed in sorrow, Mr. Zylberberg says to Anja and Vladek, “The Germans intend to make an example of them!” (83). That image of Mr. Zylberberg speaking with Vladek and Anja overlies the larger panel that dominates the page, one that depicts the horror that Mr. Zylberberg anticipates: the murder of his friend Nahum Cohn, Cohn’s son, and two other Jewish merchants. That haunting panel and the smaller ones that frame it illustrate the complexity of Spiegelman’s seemingly simple composition. His rendering of the panels of the living in conjunction with the fragmented panels of the hanged merchants simultaneously conveys connection and separation: both the grieving survivors’ ties to the dead and the hanged men’s objectification at the hands of the Nazis.

The placement of the overlying panel not only hides part of the horror behind it, but it also connects Vladek’s father-in-law to one of the victims. Mr. Zylberberg’s head and torso appear directly above the suspended legs and feet of one of the hanged men, creating an image that merges the two.

Spiegelman further emphasizes the mourners’ identification with the hanged men by extending two of the nooses’ ropes upward to the smaller panel above them, linking the living to the dead. Additionally, Spiegelman underscores the link with Vladek’s line of narration at the bottom of the smaller panel: “I did much business with Cohn!” (83). The word with appears directly above the rope, punctuating the connection between both Nahum Cohn and his friend Mr. Zylberberg and Zylberberg’s son-in-law, Vladek.

While the panels of the hangings yoke the living to the dead, Spiegelman’s presentation of the hanged men in fragments also objectifies them. The final panels on the page depict only their shoes and part of their pant legs suspended above the onlookers, images that may evoke in some readers thoughts of the last remnants of the Jews who stepped barefoot into the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Whether the hanged men’s shoes call to mind those mountains of leather left behind by the Jews, the separation of their lower legs and feet from the rest of their bodies turns them into something less than human—not people, but mere parts. Thus, Spiegelman creates a picture of the hangings that illustrates both the mourners’ identification with the victims and the Nazis’ perception of the Jews as less than human.

Spiegelman’s transformation of the Nazi propaganda portrayals of Jews as rats remains an astounding achievement thirty-five years after the publication of the first volume of Maus. But seeing the hanged merchants in Modrzejowska Street in the midst of the George Floyd murder trial in Minneapolis and less than three months after the January 6 Capitol riot reminds readers that the panels of Spiegelman’s memoir have grown more prescient. The nooses evoke images of Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck, the January 6 chants to hang the Vice President, and a T-shirt glimpsed in the Capitol crowd, one with a Nazi eagle below the acronym 6MWE (Six Million Wasn’t Enough), a reference to the number of Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust. Our heads are bowed in sorrow with Mr. Zylberberg’s. The strange fruit of our past, both distant and recent, should seem far stranger.

Work Cited

Spiegelman, Art. Maus I. Pantheon, 1986. p. 83.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.