Category: English 1103

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Preparing for Your Midterm Reflection

Posted on by janemlucas

Monday in class you will plan and compose a 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 hike 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).

Works Cited

Lewis, Michael. “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. 46-55. 

Next Up

In class on Monday you will compose your midterm reflection. To prepare, choose a phrase, clause, or sentence from one of the course readings–one that is relevant to your work in the course–and draft in your journal a short passage that connects that quotation to your writing. That passage will serve as part of your reflection. 

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching

ENG 1103: Constant Consonants? Hmm

Posted on by janemlucas

Learning nth (an unspecified number) and other all-consonant words can enable you to continue the game when you are 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)

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, 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, you will compose a midterm reflection focusing on the assignments and aspects of the course that have contributed the most to your development as a writer and a student. Tomorrow’s post will serve as a guide for your preparations.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Beginning Your Analysis

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class, you will begin planning and drafting your analysis. You will receive a hard copy of the assignment in class. The instructions are also included below.

Directions for Planning and Drafting

  • Review the texts that you have read for class, and determine which one appeals to you most as a subject of analysis.
  • Identify one or more elements that contribute to its effectiveness.
  • Develop your analysis through a close examination of those elements.
  • Write in dark ink, preferably black. You are welcome to use both sides of the page.
  • Before you leave class today, staple your assignment handout on top of your draft and submit it to me. Next Wednesday I will return your draft with notes, and you will have the class period to begin revising and editing on your laptop or tablet.

Directions for Revising

The revision of your analysis should include the following:

  • A title that offers a window into your analysis
  • An introduction that presents a summary of the essay, essay excerpt, article excerpt, or chapter
  • A thesis statement, or main claim, that presents your take on text, based on your close study of it
  • Textual evidence that supports your claims
  • A minimum of one relevant quotation from the text, introduced with a signal phrase and followed by a parenthetical citation
  • A conclusion that revisits the thesis without restating it verbatim
  • A work cited entry 
  • A minimum of 600 words

Sample Works Cited Entries

Barthelme, Donald. “The School.” The Best American Short Stories 1975, edited by Martha Foley. Houghton Mifflin, 1975. pp. 8-11.

Junod, Tom. “The Falling Man.” Esquire, vol. 140, no. 3, Sept. 2003, pp. 176+. Gale Academic OneFile Select, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A106423422/EAIM?u=hpu_main&sid=bookmark-EAIM&xid=ce48797f.

Keller, Helen. “The Day Language Came into My Life.” https://janelucas.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/a0461-3.thedaylanguagecameintomylife_keller.pdf.

Lee, Harper. Chapter One. To Kill a Mockingbird. Lippincott, pp. 9-19.

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

Sedaris, David. “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” Me Talk Pretty One Day. Little Brown, 2000. pp. 166-73.

Think of your preliminary draft as your down draft; your aim in the early stage of the process is to get your ideas down on the page. You may need the process of drafting to discover what you think the essay, essay excerpt, article excerpt, or chapter means and how it makes its meaning.

Directions for Formatting and Posting Your Revision—See the Course Calendar for the Due Date and Hard Deadline

  1. Save your revised essay as a Microsoft Word file or PDF and submit it to Blackboard in compliance with MLA manuscript guidelines.
  2. Publish your revision as a blog post. In your post, omit the first-page information included in your file submitted to Blackboard (your name, course, section, instructor’s name, and date). Add to your blog post an image that documents some part of your writing process away from the screen, such as a photo of your reading notes or a page of your draft. Also add to your blog post an embedded link to a relevant website.

MLA Style

Look to my sample assignments on Blackboard as models of MLA style. For more information on MLA style, see the MLA Style Center and OWL sites linked to my blog and the August 29 blog post devoted to MLA style.

Parethetical Citations

In your analysis, you will include parenthetical citations for quotations and paraphrases. Since you are writing a textual analysis, I recommend quoting rather than paraphrasing because the writer’s particular word choices are vital to the text’s overall effect. If your subject is the “The Day Language Came into My Life” or “The Falling Man,” which are unpaginated, your parenthetical citations will include the abbreviation par. for paragraph, followed by the paragraph number. If your subject is any of the other four texts (“Me Talk Pretty One Day,” the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird, “The School,” or “Back Story,” your parenthetical citations will include the page number by itself.

Including the author’s last name as well is redundant because you have established in your introduction that your essay focuses solely on a work by him or her. When you write a paper in which you cite multiple sources, you will need to include the author’s last name in the parenthetical citation to clarify which of your sources you are citing.

Here are some examples of how to use parenthetical citations in your analysis:

For “Me Talk Pretty One Day”:

  • The nonsense words “meimslsxp” and “lgpdmurct” underscore his utter lack of comprehension in French class (167).

For “The Day Language Came into My Life”:

  • The line “‘like Aaron’s rod, with flowers’” alludes to Numbers 17.8 (par. 9).

For the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird:

  • In her recollection of the Radley house, Scout mentions that “[t]he remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard” (14).

For the excerpt from “The Falling Man”:

  • He notes that in contrast to the Falling Man, the others who jumped appeared “confused, as though trying to swim down the side of a mountain” (par. 1).

For “The School”:

  • With the words, “[I]s death that which gives meaning to life?” (10), the story shifts from realism to surrealism (10).

For “Back Story”:

  • He employs the “One Mississippi . . . Two Mississippi” count to mark the seconds leading up to Joe Theismann’s career-ending injury (15).

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Scrabble Dictionary and World Builder pages and 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: Field Notes

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday in class, we examined “Back Story,” the first chapter of Michael Lewis’ The Blind Side, which begins with Lewis’ depiction of the moments in the November 1985 Redskins-Giants football game leading up to the injury that ended quarterback Joe Theismann’s career:

“From the snap of the ball to the snap of the first bone is closer to four seconds than to five. One Mississippi: The quarterback of the Washington Redskins, Joe Theismann, turns and hands the ball to running back John Riggins. He watches Riggins run two steps forward, turn, and flip the ball back to him. It’s what most people know as a “flea-flicker,” but the Redskins call it a “throw-back special.” Two Mississippi: Theismann searches for a receiver but instead sees Harry Carson coming straight at him. It’s a running down—the start of the second quarter, first and 10 at midfield, with the score tied 7–7—and the New York Giants’ linebacker has been so completely suckered by the fake that he’s deep in the Redskins’ backfield. Carson thinks he’s come to tackle Riggins but Riggins is long gone, so Carson just keeps running, toward Theismann. Three Mississippi: Carson now sees that Theismann has the ball. Theismann notices Carson coming straight at him, and so he has time to avoid him. He steps up and to the side and Carson flies right on by and out of the play. The play is now 3.5 seconds old. Until this moment it has been defined by what the quarterback can see. Now it–and he–is at the mercy of what he can’t see” (15).

What Theismann cannot see is Lawrence Taylor. A second later, as Taylor sacks Theismann, Taylor’s knee drives straight into Theismann’s lower right leg, leading to the “snap of the first bone” that Lewis mentions in the first sentence. He hooks the reader by linking the beginning of the play, “the snap of the ball” to the gruesome “snap of the first bone” that will follow. Lewis develops the paragraph using the common one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi method of marking seconds to present the events leading up to the compound fracture that ends Theisman’s career.

Lewis doesn’t dramatize the injury itself because his interest lies instead in the blind side that led to it and subsequently elevated the status and salary of the left tackle, the player who protects the quarterback’s blind side. Rather than immediately continuing the action of the play he presents in the opening of the chapter, Lewis turns away from the 3.5-second moment to show how, in his words, “Lawrence Taylor altered the environment and forced opposing players and coaches to adapt” (17).

When you’re struggling to develop a piece of writing, reread the opening paragraph of The Blind Side. Study how Lewis dramatizes 3.5 seconds–yes, only 3.5 seconds–with 224 words.

Work Cited

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

“Seems to Be About X, But Could Also Be (or is ‘Really’) About Y”

Before tomorrow’s class, complete the X-Y journal exercise that I distributed on Monday. I will not collect your journals, but I may conduct a check of the exercises while you are drafting your analyses. The instructions for the assignment are included below.

Directions

  1. Review your reading handouts—”MeTalk Pretty One Day,” “The Day Language Came into Life,” the excerpt from the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird, the excerpt from “The Falling Man,” and “The School”—and repeat the “Seems to Be about X, But Could also Be (Or is ‘Really’) about Y” exercise that you completed with “Back Story.”
  2. Even if you think you have decided which text will be the subject of your analysis, compose an X/Y statement about at least two additional texts. One of those statements may pique your interest in a different piece of writing.
  3. After you have written at least three X/Y statements in your journal, compose a freewrite of one paragraph or more that expands on one of the X/Y contrasts.

Next Up

Tomorrow in class, you will begin planning and drafting your analysis, which will focus on one of the texts that we have studied, including David Sedaris’ “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” Helen Keller’s “The Day Language Came into My Life,” the excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Junod’s “The Falling Man,” and Michael Lewis’ “Back Story.”

  • If you have misplaced your copy of any of the readings or were absent the day that I distributed copies, download a copy from Blackboard and print it.
  • If you would like to analyze a larger section of the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird, download a copy of Chapter One from Blackboard and print it.
  • If you would like to analyze a larger section of “The Falling Man,” download a copy from the HPU Libraries site and print it. Directions for accessing the full text of “The Falling Man” are included in the September 11 class notes.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Introducing Michael Lewis

Posted on by janemlucas
Michael Lewis https://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/encounter/57066/

As an introduction to Michael Lewis, whose writing we will examine in class today, you read this overview of his publications. After you read it, you compose a one- or two-paragraph journal entry that addressed these questions: (1) Two of Lewis’ books on one subject have both been adapted for film. What is the subject, and what are the titles of the two books (and films)? (2) A third book of his, one devoted to a different subject, has also been adapted for film. What is the subject, and what is the title of the book (and film)?

As we read the first chapter of one of his books, consider what elements of his writing would attract filmmakers to his work. We will closely examine the opening of the chapter, paying special attention to its repetition of words and phrases. Later in class, we will read the remainder of the chapter and you will address in writing why Lewis may have chosen to delay the continuation of the action that he depicts in the opening paragraph.

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, you will begin planning and drafting your second major writing assignment, your analysis. The chapter of Michael Lewis’ writing that we examine in class today and the other texts we have studied thus far in English 1103–“Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “The Day Language Came into Life,” the excerpt from the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird,” the excerpt from “The Falling Man,” and “The School“–are among the pieces of writing that may serve as the subject of your upcoming analysis.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Two-Letter Words, Q-Z . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

Today’s blog post is the final installment in the series of posts devoted to playable two-letter words. Learning these two-letter words, as well as the other two-letter words in the alphabet, will enable you to see more options for play and increase the number of points you earn in a single turn.

  • qi: the central life force in Chinese culture (also ki)
  • re: a tone of the diatonic scale
  • sh: used to encourage silence
  • si: a tone of the diatonic scale (also ti)
  • so: a tone of the diatonic scale (also sol)
  • ta: an expression of thanks
  • ti: a tone of the diatonic scale
  • to: in the direction of
  • uh: used to express hesitation
  • um: used to express hesitation
  • un: one
  • up: to raise (-s, -ped, -ping)
  • us: a plural pronoun
  • ut: the musical tone C in the French solmization system, now replaced by do
  • we: a first-person plural pronoun
  • wo: woe
  • xi: a Greek letter
  • xu: a former monetary unit of Vietnam equal to one-hundreth of a dong (also sau, pl. xu)
  • ya: you
  • ye: you
  • yo: an expression used to attract attention
  • za: pizza

“‘Interesting,’ ‘Revealing,’ ‘Strange’” Exercise

If you have not completed the journal exercise that I assigned on Wednesday, be sure to do so before Monday’s class. The directions on the handout I distributed are included below.

Directions

  1. Review your reading handouts—”MeTalk Pretty One Day,” “The Day Language Came into Life,” the excerpt from the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird, and the excerpt from “The Falling Man”—and select the one that appeals to you most as a subject of analysis. If you think that you would prefer to write an analysis of “The School,” complete this exercise using a line from Barthelme’s story that’s different from the one that you used in your group assignment.
  2. Choose a line that could be described as interesting, revealing or strange, and compose a sentence that demonstrates what makes it so. Do not include the word interesting, revealing, or strange in your answer. Instead, show what the line achieves. Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase and follow it with a parenthetical citation.
  3. Below your sentences, write the header Work Cited and follow it with an MLA work cited entry for the text.

Sample Works Cited Entries

Bartheleme, Donald. “The School.” The Best American Short Stories 1975, edited by Martha Foley. Houghton Mifflin, 1975. pp. 8-11.

Junod, Tom. “The Falling Man.” Esquire, vol. 140, no. 3, Sept. 2003, pp. 176+. Gale Academic OneFileSelect, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A106423422/EAIM?u=hpu_main&sid=bookmark-EAIM&xid=ce48797f.

Keller, Helen. “The Day Language Came into My Life.” Square Space, https://janelucasdotcom. files.wordpress.com/2025/08/a0461-3.thedaylanguagecameintomylife_keller.pdf.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Lippincott, 1960. p. 12.

Sedaris, David. “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” Me Talk Pretty One Day. Little Brown, 2000. pp. 166-73.

Next Up

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

As an introduction to Michael Lewis, whose writing we will examine in class on Monday, read this overview of his publications. After you read it, compose a one- or two-paragraph journal entry that addresses these questions: (1) Lewis’ two books on one subject have both been adapted for film. What is the subject, and what are the titles of the two books (and films)? (2) A third book of his, one devoted to a different subject, has also been adapted for film. What is the subject, and what is the title of the book (and film)?

Coming Soon

In class on Wednesday, you will begin planning and drafting your second major writing assignment, your analysis. The chapter of Michael Lewis’ writing that we examine in class on Monday and the other texts we have studied thus far in English 1103–“Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “The Day Language Came into Life,” the excerpt from the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird,” the excerpt from “The Falling Man,” and “The School“–are among the pieces of writing that may serve as the subject of your upcoming analysis.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: “The School” Follow-Up

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday in class we examined Donald Barthelme’s “The School” as another potential subject for your analysis. In groups of three and four, you and your classmates considered these elements.

  • The narrator and the narrative voice
  • Conflict
  • A short passage that strikes you as interesting, revealing, or strange

The Narrator and the Narrative Voice

The words and phrases you and your classmates used to describe the narrator, Edgar, and his voice include “awkward,” “casual,” “detached,” “emotionless,” “lack[ing] empathy,” “mixing humor with unease,” “mono[tonus],” not “filter[ing] any of his thoughts.”

Do any of those descriptions seem at odds with the narrator’s words and actions? If so, what might account for that discrepancy?

Conflict

Most of the groups addressed the existential conflict of life versus death. The children want the plants and animals in their classroom to live. They want the Korean orphan, Kim, to live; they want their classmates and relatives to live, but the children are repeatedly faced with death.

A couple of the groups addressed Edgar’s internal conflicts. On group observed that he could not explain death to them because he was trying to protect their innocence. Another group noted that Edgar could not broach the subject of death because of his uncertainty as well as the absurdity of the circumstances: the unbelievably large number of deaths.

Another group pointed to the death of the trees–perhaps due to poor soil–as a particular instance of the existential conflict.

Interesting, Revealing, or Strange

Most of the groups noted the childrens’ request for Edgar to “please make love with Helen” (11) as a strange line. Other lines mentioned include “You know what I mean” (8), “As soon as I saw the puppy I thought, Oh Christ” (9), “And then there was this Korean Orphan” (9), and “is death that which gives meaning to life?” (10).

In this post, I am not including your sentences that demonstrate why those lines are interesting, revealing, or strange, but we will address some of those next Monday when we revisit Barthelme’s story. Remember that they are “triggers for analysis” (Rosenwasser and Stephen 24). That is why your journal assignment from yesterday asked you to repeat the interesting-revealing-strange exercise with the text you have tentatively chosen as the subject of your analysis.

Works Cited

Barthelme, Donald. “The School.” The Best American Short Stories 1975, edited by Martha Foley. Houghton Mifflin, 1975. pp. 8-11.

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

Next Up

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

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Donald Barthelme’s “The School”

Posted on by janemlucas
“The School,” originally published in The New Yorker magazine, was one of twenty-one stories chosen for the annual Best American Short Stories anthology in 1975.

This morning in class we will examine Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School,” and in groups of three or four you will address in writing some of the elements of the story that you might explore in an analysis. As I mentioned last week, the essays, article excerpts, and chapters that we have studied thus far are among the texts you may choose as the subject of your analysis, which you will begin drafting next week. “The School” is another text you may analyze.

The elements of Barthelme’s story that you will consider this morning are these:

  • The narrator and the narrative voice
  • Conflict
  • A short passage that strikes you as interesting, revealing, or strange

Whether you analyze Bartheleme’s story or one of our other readings, you will begin your first paragraph with a summary of the text. Remember that a summary is an objective synopsis of a text’s key points. It should be written in third person and present tense. For example, if you choose to analyze “The School,” you might summarize it this way:

Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School” recounts a series of classroom lessons that end with the deaths of plants and animals–deaths that serve as a prelude to the unexplained death of a Korean orphan, followed by the unexpected deaths of classmates and family members.

Notice that the summary above does not comment on the story in any way. What follows the summary will be the beginning of your commentary, or analysis, the thesis statement that offers your particular close reading, or interpretation, of the story. The passage below is the same as the one above, but at the end of it I have added a thesis statement in bold.

Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School” recounts a series of classroom lessons that end with the death of plants and animals–deaths that serve as a prelude to the unexplained death of a Korean orphan, followed by the unexpected deaths of classmates and family members. With conversational narration, accumulation of detail, and a shift in fictional mode, Barthelme deftly depicts the reality of the fleeting nature of life, even as the story itself veers from reality.

If were to continue to write the analysis that I began in the previous paragraph, I would follow that opening paragraph with body paragraphs that address each of the three story elements that I include in my thesis: (1) conversational narration, (2) accumulation of detail, and (3) shift in fictional mode.

Next Up

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

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Introducing Donald Barthelme

Posted on by janemlucas
By University of Houston [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

As an introduction to Donald Barthelme, whose fiction we will examine in class tomorrow, read this biographical sketch. After you read the sketch, compose a one- or two-paragraph journal entry that includes what you have learned about his writing style, and what you have learned about readers’ and critics’ mixed responses to his fiction.

Bonus Assignment Follow-Up

Thanks to those of you who took advantage of yesterday’s bonus assignment: Annaliese Abboud, Gi Amitrano, Cameron Anderson, Adrienne Brown, Kylie Bussell, Myra Chatwal, Reese Danback, Amanda Franco, Dorian Grosber, Garrett Hickey, Raven Houston, Jorja Mangeot, Mariana Pavajeau, Heloise Richer, Ellie Tejada, and Bailey Upchurch.

Each of the two literacy narratives listed below were named by more than one student as the narrative with the most effective title. Four students named “G is for Grandma“; two students named “Yo Soy Hockey.”

The ten listed below were each named by one student as the literacy narrative with the most effective title.

A title should be intriguing and revealing (as well as relevant), but a title that reveals too much robs the writing of its intrigue. With that in mind, review the titles above and ask yourself whether any of them reveal too much?

A Lesson in Less is More

In one of last Friday’s Scrabble games, the one pictured above, the members of team one realized that with the a in age, they could play the letters v, r, i, o, u, and s to spell various. (Note that the p was later added above age.) Playing six letters to form a three-syllable, seven-letter word is an appealing move, especially if it means ridding yourself of undesirable letters, such as v, i, and u–though a u is highly desirable if the q has not been played. However, playing various as team one played in the game above comes with a risk: the placement of the word set up team two to play on the triple-word square, which they did. By playing the four letters m, o, t, and e, team two scored a double-triple through parallel play, forming three words: mote (a tiny piece of substance), mu (a Greek letter), and os (a bone). Various, with its i on a triple letter square earned team one twelve points. The double-triple mote and mu with os earned team two thirty-two points. Team one earned an average of two points per letter played; team two earned an average of eight points per letter played, evidence that less is more.

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, we will read and discuss one of Donald Barthelme’s short stories. That story and the texts we have studied thus far in English 1103–“Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “The Day Language Came into Life,” the excerpt from the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird,” and the excerpt from “The Falling Man”–are among the pieces of writing that may serve as the subject of your upcoming analysis. Before you begin drafting that assignment on Wednesday, September 24, we will examine another text that may serve as your subject.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Literacy Narrative Peer Responses

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class you will compose a response to a classmate’s literacy narrative.

Directions

  1. Go to the class blog page, and click on the link for the blog of the of classmate whose name follows yours on the roster. If you are last on the list, go to the blog of the student whose name is first on the list.  
  2. If the student’s blog is not accessible, choose another student’s literacy narrative for your response.
  3. Read the classmate’s narrative and compose a handwritten response (75 words, minimum) that addresses one or more of these elements: the title, vivid details, scene and summary, dialogue, the image documenting part of the writing process away from the screen, the embedded link to a relevant website.
  4. Does the blog post include an image that documents part of the blogger’s writing process away from the screen? ____ (yes or no)
  5. Does the post include a relevant embedded link? _____ (yes or no)
  6. After you have composed your handwritten response, review the section of Writing Analytically devoted to basic writing errors, or BWEs (426-44), and correct any that you can identify in your blog response.
  7. Type your response as a comment for the blogger. You should see a leave comment/reply option at the top or bottom of the post. If you do not see that option, click on the title of the blog post, and scroll down. You should then see leave comment/reply.
  8. If you do not think that you will have time to type and post your handwritten comment before the end of class, take a picture of your handwritten response. That will enable you to submit your worksheet at the end of class and post your comment afterward.
  9. Submit this sheet at the end of class today. You will submit this paper copy of your comment because the blogger may not choose to make your comment visible. You will receive credit for this assignment only if you submit this sheet at the end of class today.
  10. If you complete this assignment before the end of class, devote the remainder of the period to one of the following: (1) reading and commenting on other classmates’ literacy narratives, (2) drafting a blog post based on one or more of your Scrabble debriefings, (2) reviewing your reading handouts and determining which one might serve as the subject of your upcoming analysis.

What makes a title effective? That’s an important question to consider since the title contains the first words of yours that a reader will encounter. First, it should be descriptive; it should evoke an image in the reader’s mind. It should also be relevant to your subject; it should convey something about the writing to follow. Lastly, it should be intriguing; it should create in the reader a desire to keep reading. With those traits in mind, review the titles of your classmates’ literacy listed below. Which of these is most effective and why?

  • “Adapting to a New System”
  • “Breaking Language Barriers: How I Gained Confidence in Myself”
  • “Calmáte: A Summer so Fast”
  • “Challenges You Face”
  • “Error to Success”
  • “Finding My Voice with Spanish”
  • “From Panic to Proficiency”
  • “From Stumbling to Strength”
  • “From Terror to Hero”
  • “Fruitful Smells of Learning”
  • “G is for Grandma”
  • “Growing as a Writer”
  • “Hooked on a Book”
  • “If You Read, You will Succeed”
  • “Inside Look into Dyslexia”
  • “The Importance of Life”
  • “An Involved Teacher”
  • “The Journey of the Greatest Story”
  • “Journey to Literacy”
  • “The Language Barrier”
  • “Learning Spanish”
  • “Learning to Write”
  • “Lessons from Mr. Brady”
  • “Looking Back on Reading and Writing Skills”
  • “Mindset in Motion”
  • “Morning, Morning!”
  • “My Battle with Reading”
  • “My Submergence into the Unknown Realm of Words”
  • “One, Two, Three, Four, Five Stars for You!”
  • “The Pen to Paper Routine”
  • “Pushing through the Brick Wall”
  • “Removing the Mask”
  • “Research Paper to Passion”
  • “Ti Amo: The Unknown Leads to Closure Through Language”
  • “Who is Most Important to You?”
  • “Yo Soy Hockey”

Bonus Assignment Opportunity

Directions

  1. Determine which of the titles you deem most effective.
  2. Compose a comment of one complete sentence or more that includes (1) the title enclosed in quotation marks, and (2) a brief explanation of its effectiveness.
  3. Post your comment as a reply to this blog entry no later than 5 p.m. today, Monday, September 15. (To post your comment, click on the post’s title, and scroll down to the bottom of the page. You will then see the image of an airmail envelope with a leave comment option.) 

I will approve your responses (make your comments visible) after the 5 p.m. deadline. Commenters will earn a bonus assignment credit in the course work/short assignments category.

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, we will read a short story by Donald Barthelme. As an introduction to him and his fiction, read this biographical sketch. After you read the sketch, compose a one- or two-paragraph journal entry that includes (1) what you have learned about his writing style, and (2) what you have learned about readers’ and critics’ mixed responses to his writing.