Monday in class you will plan and compose a short midterm reflective essay that documents your work in the first half of the semester, focusing on two or three assignments or aspects of the course that have contributed to your development as a writer and a student. Since you have already written a reflection devoted solely to your literacy narrative, your midterm reflection should focus primarily on other assignments or aspects of the course. One of the requirements of the assignment is incorporating a relevant quotation from one of the essays or chapters you have read or from Writing Analytically. Before Monday’s class, determine what phrase, clause, or sentence you will quote, and draft a sentence in your journal that introduces the quotation with a signal phrase and follows it with a parenthetical citation.

One option for integrating a quotation into your essay is to include a line from one of your readings and explain what that passage has taught you about writing.

Examples

• In the opening line of “Back Story,” Michael Lewis demonstrates that repetition can be an asset. With the words “[f]rom the snap of the ball to the snap of the first bone” (15), he repeats “snap” as a frame for the seconds leading up to Jo Theismannn’s career-ending injury. The first “snap,” the hike of the football, begins the sequence. The second “snap,” the fracture of Theismann’s tibia and fibula, ends it.
• The opening line of “Back Story,” demonstrates that repetition can be an asset. The two prepositional phrases “[f]rom the snap of the ball to the snap of the first bone” (Lewis 15), repeat “snap” as a frame for the seconds leading up to Jo Theismannn’s career-ending injury. The first “snap,” the exchange of the football, begins the sequence. The second “snap,” the fracture of Theismann’s tibia and fibula, ends it.

The two examples above are very similar. The first one names the author, so only the page number appears in the parenthetical citation. The second does not name the author, so his last name precedes the page number in the parenthetical citation. Note that omitting the author’s name from the passage shifts the emphasis from the writer’s actions (“he repeats ‘snap’”) to the words themselves (“prepositional phrases . . . repeat ‘snap’”).

Another option for integrating a quotation into your essay is to include a line from Writing Analytically that presents a concept that figures in your own reading or writing process.

Examples

• When I write a journal entry about an essay or chapter I have read for class, I sense that I have begun what Rosenwasser and Stephen term “a mental dialogue with it” (46).
• When I write a journal entry about an essay or chapter I have read for class, I sense that I have begun “a mental dialogue with it” (Rosenwasser and Stephen 46).

A variation on the previous option is integrating a quotation that serves as an epigraph in Writing Analytically. If you quote an epigraph, which is a quote at the beginning of a book or book section, intended to suggest its theme, you are presenting an indirect quotation.

Examples

• I realized that I needed to change the subject of my analysis when I began to feel like one of those writers who, in Vivian Gornick’s words, “are pulled around by motives they can neither identify accurately nor struggle to resolve” (qtd. in Rosenwasser and Stephen 163).
• I realized that I needed to change the subject of my analysis when I began to feel like one of those writers who “are pulled around by motives they can neither identify accurately nor struggle to resolve” (Gornick qtd. in Rosenwasser and Stephen 163).

The first example names the writer, Vivian Gornick, so the parenthetical citation does not include her name as the author who is quoted. The second example omits her name, so her last name precedes “qtd. in” (quoted in) and the textbook’s authors’ last names.

Works Cited

Lewis, Michael. Chapter One: “Back Story.” The Blind Side. 2006. Norton, 2009. pp. 15-23.

Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. “Becoming Conversant with a Reading.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. p. 46. 

—. “The Writer as Both Observer and Observed.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 163. 

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Constant Consonants

Learning nth (an unspecified number) and other all-consonant words enables you to continue a Scrabble game when you’re faced with a rack without vowels.

• brr: used to indicate that one is cold
• crwth: an ancient stringed instrument (pl. -s)
• cwm: a cirque (a deep, steepwalled basin on a mountain, pl. -s, prounounced to rhyme with “boom”)
• hm: used to express thoughtful consideration (also “hmm“)
• mm: used to express assent or satisfaction
• nth: describing an unspecified number in a series
• phpht: used as an expression of mild anger or annoyance (also “pht“)
• psst: used to attract someone’s attention
• sh: used to urge silence (also “shh” and “sha“)
• tsk: to utter an exclamation of annoyance (-ed, -ing, -s)
• tsktsk: to “tsk” (-ed, -ing, -s)

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Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.

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Coming Soon

In class on Monday, you will write your midterm reflection.