Category: Writing

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Donald Bartheleme’s “The School”

Posted on by janemlucas

Today in class, after I collect your worksheets for lesson four of Check, Please! 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. Among the elements of Barthelme’s story that you will considered are these:

  • the narrator and the narrative voice
  • conflict
  • narrative shift (Where does “The School” make an unexpected turn?)

Whether the subject of your analysis is Bartheleme’s story or one of our earlier 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 senseless 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 death of a Korean orphan, followed by the 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 I 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, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Literacy Narrative Peer Responses

Posted on by janemlucas
Rosenwaser, David and Jill Stephen. Chapter 12: “Nine Basic Writing Errors and How to Fix Them.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 421-55.

Yesterday in class you composed a blog comment in repsonse to one of your classmates’ literacy narratives. That assignment required you to either (1) identify and address one of the nine basic writing errors outlined in Writing Analytically, or (2) identify and address a particularly effective phrase, clause, or sentence.

In the sample comments that follow, I demonstrate my careful examination of the narratives through my use of concrete details.

Sample Comments

The final paragraph of your literacy narrative, includes an instance of BWE (Basic Writing Error) 8, Comma Errors, in the sentence, “For me to be a a good writer I really have to enjoy what I’m writing about” (par. 3). The omission of the required comma after “writer” is what the textbook authors label “Comma Missing After Introductory Phrase” (Rosenwasser and Stephen 440).

When you write, “my hands would break out in a sweat, my breathing would get shortened, and my knees would start to shake” (par. 18), you effectively convey your dread of public speaking, a dread you could express more succinctly with this revision: “my hands would sweat, my breathing would shortenen, and my knees would shake.”

Citations

Yesterday’s assignment required you to include a parenthetical citation for your quotation. It did not require you to include a work cited entry because the writing was a blog comment. If the assignment had been an essay, such as the reflection that you wrote last Wednesday, you would have been required to include a work cited entry, such as this:

Work Cited

Rosenwaser, David and Jill Stephen. Chapter 12: “Nine Basic Writing Errors and How to Fix Them.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 421-55.

Reviewing Chapter 12

Returning to the pages of Chapter 12 throughout the semester will help you better understand the errors that you make and will enable you to better proofread your writing and the writing of your classmates.

Bonus-Point Opportunity

Taking advantage of the following bonus-point opportunity will not only earn you five points toward your final Check, Please! assignment, it will also provide one of your classmates with additional feedback on his or her literacy narrative.

Directions

  1. Read your classmates’ literacy narratives on their blogs, and make brief notes on them in your journal.
  2. Determine which literacy narrative you think is the strongest. Think in terms of both form and content.
  3. Compose a comment that includes the writer’s first and last name, the section number, the title of the literacy narrative, and a specific detail that demonstrates the strength of the essay.
  4. Post your response as a comment on this blog post no later than 9 a.m. on Wednesday, September 25. (To post your comment, click on the posts’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 (make your comments visible) after the 9 a.m. deadline on September 25.

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, after you submit your worksheets for the fourth lesson of Check, Please!, we will examine Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School.” You do not need to print a copy of “The School”; you will receive a copy in class.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Field Notes and Peer Responses

Posted on by janemlucas

Today’s class will be devoted primarily to reading and responding to the blog post of one of your classmates’ literacy narratives. Elements you will consider in your response included these:

  • the title
  • vivid details
  • dialogue, the use of scene and/or summary

You should also identify one or more of the “Nine Basic Writing Errors” (see Writing Analytically, 423-44), and address that error in your response. If you cannot identify one, include a sentence in your response that quotes a sentence of your peer’s and explains what makes it effective.

Before you begin that assignment, we will examine the opening pages of “Back Story,” the first chapter of Michael Lewis‘s The Blind Side, which dramatizes 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 line of the chapter. 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 opening 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.

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

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, after you submit your worksheets for the fourth lesson of Check, Please!, we will examine Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School.” You do not need to print a copy of “The School”; you will receive a copy in class.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Reflecting on Your Literacy Narrative

Posted on by janemlucas

Today in class you will compose a short reflective essay that documents the processes of planning, drafting, and revising your literacy narrative. Questions to consider include the ones below. You don’t need to address all of the questions; focus on the ones whose answers reveal the most about your work.

Include in your reflection a minimum of one relevant quotation from the textbook, Writing Analytically. Introduce your quotation with a signal phrase and follow it with a parenthetical citation.

Examples:

The authors of Writing Analytically observe that “[o]ne goal of a writer’s notebook is to teach yourself through repeated practice that you are capable of finding things to write about” (Rosenwasser and Stephen 157).

In Writing Analytically, Rosenwasser and Stephen note, “to a significant extent, writing of all kinds tells a story—the story of how we have come to understand something” (162).

In the first example above, the authors’ last names appear in the parenthetical citation because they are not named in the signal phrase. In the second example, only the page number appears in the parenthetical citation because the authors are named in the signal phrase.

Sample Work Cited Entries:

Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. “On Keeping a Writer’s Notebook.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 157-58. 

Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. “Writing from Life: The Personal Essay.” Writing Analytically, 9th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2024. pp. 161-68. 

  • What aspect of the writing seemed the most challenging? Determining the focus of your narrative? Developing the story? Crafting the conclusion? Why did that aspect of the writing seem the most challenging?
  • Did you change the subject of your narrative? If so, what was the original subject? What did you change it to? Why?
  • Did you change the organization of the narrative? For example: Did you initially present the story chronologically, then begin in the present and move to flashback?
  • Did any of the sample essays we examined (“Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “The Day Language Came into My Life,” “A Bridge to Words”) prove helpful to you as a model? If so, how? (Offer one or more concrete details to support your claim.)
  • What do you consider the strongest element of your literacy narrative?
  • 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 photograph did you include in your blog that documents part of your writing process away from the screen? Why did you choose that particular image?
  • What relevant website did you link to your blog post. Why is that particular site relevant to your narrative?
  • In addition to metacognition, did any of the other habits of mind of successful college students play a significant role in your writing process? If so, which one? The other seven are curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence, responsibility, and flexibility.

Next Up

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

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Our Visit with Roy Peter Clark

Posted on by janemlucas
J.J. Pollender (left) asks a question of Roy Peter Clark (on screen).

Yesterday morning, you and your classmates in sections 19 and 20 hosted virtual visits with award-winning author and teacher Roy Peter Clark.

Clark, whose books include the popular Writing Tools, is a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute and is often referred to as America’s Writing Coach.

Among the topics Clark discussed were the importance of thinking of yourselves as writers, developing your writing with concrete details, and placing the most vital words at the beginning and the end of sentences.

Six students, three in each section, asked questions of Clark:

Section 19

  • Bailey Dawkins
  • Lexi Painter
  • J.J. Pollender

Section 20

  • Chase Eller
  • Stella Galindo Haas
  • Lydia Henderson
Roy Peter Clark (on screen) fields a question from Stella Galindo Haas (left).

The students questions included (1) When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? (2) How do you incorporate humor into writing? (3) How do you address writer’s block? and (4) Which of your own books on writing is your favorite?

Clark noted that at a very young age he was fascinated by words and loved reading and writing. Of incorporating humor into writing, he said that if the writer himself isn’t funny on the page, he should try citing the words of someone who is. To address writer’s block, he recommended setting low standards. Writers have difficulty beginning drafts because they want them to be better than first drafts can be. In response to the favorite-book question, Clark said Writing Tools, adding that he did not choose that as his favorite among his books, his readers did; it’s his most popular and best-selling book.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of beginning and ending sentences with the most vital words, Clark offered an example from Shakespeare’s MacBeth. After the suicide of MacBeth’s wife, Seyton, an attendant to MacBeth, tells his master, “The queen, my lord, is dead” (2.2.19). Clark said that Shakespeare might have instead written, “The queen is dead, my lord.” But ending with “dead” rather than “lord” makes for a more powereful line; what’s vital to the sentence is the announcement of the death, not that Seyton is announcing it to his master, MacBeth

The Zoom meetings came about after Clark conducted an online search of his name that yielded one of my blog posts devoted to one of his essays. After Clark reviewed my blog last May he emailed me. Clark wrote, “I have concluded that you are a remarkable teacher of writing.  Your students are lucky to have you.  I enjoy making the occasional cameo appearance via Zoom in classes where my work has been under discussion.  If I can ever be of help, just holler.”

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. Folger Shakespeare Library: The Tragedy of MacBeth. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, Simon and Schuster, 2013.

Thanks, to Bailey Dawkins, Lexi Painter, J.J. Pollender, Chase Eller, Stella Galindo, Haas, and Lydia Henderson for asking questions–and thanks to Madison Kline and Chase for photographing Roy Peter Clark’s virtual visit.

Next Up

At the beginning of class on Wednesday, you will submit your worksheet for the third lesson in the Check, Please! course. After that, you will compose a reflective essay on your literacy narrative.

Your reflective essay assignment requires you to include a minimum of one relevant quotation from our textbook, Writing Analytically. To prepare for that portion of the assignment, read the sections titled “Keeping a Writer’s Notebook” (157-58) and “Writing from the Life: The Personal Essay” (161-68). Make note in your journal of any phrases or sentences that speak to your experience of planning, drafting, and/or revising your literacy narrative. Remember to bring your textbook to class.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Introducing Roy Peter Clark

Posted on by janemlucas
https://roypeterclark.com/

At the beginning of Monday’s class, we will meet virtually with Roy Peter Clark, award-winning author and teacher of journalism at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. To prepare for Clark’s visit, read and annotate his article “The Power of the Pun, from Shakespeare to Walter Cronkite to Roy Peter Clark,” and compose a brief summary of the article in your journal.

As you read “The Power of the Pun,” consider these questions:

  • In the section of the article “A Career Launched by Word Play,” where does Clark shift from summary to scene?
  • In the next section, what example of layered language does he offer?
  • What observations about writing or strategies that he mentions might prove useful to you as you continue to revise your literacy narrative?

Extra-Credit Opportunity

Completing the following extra-credit assignment will earn you five bonus points for your third Check, Please! worksheet:

Directions

  • On a three-by-five note card, write your first and last name, course and section number, and Monday’s date. If you do not have three-by-five note cards, ask for one at the circulation desk at the library.
  • Below that information, write a question that you might ask Roy Peter Clark during his virtual visit. The question may be about your own writing, his writing or his career as a writer, or his work as a teacher of writing.
  • Be prepared to stand at the instructor’s station and ask Mr. Clark your question. He may have time to field only one or two questions, but you should be prepared to volunteer.
  • Submit your notecard at the end of the class period.

Next Up

On Monday, after our virtual visit with Roy Peter Clark, we will examine the sample literacy narrative “A Bridge to Words.” You do not need to print the file posted on Blackboard. You will receive a paper copy in class.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Revising Your Literacy Narrative

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning, after I collect your Check, Please! worksheets for lesson two, I will return your drafts, and you will have the remainder of the class period to begin revising your literacy narratives on your laptops. You will have an additional week to continue your revision work before you submit the assignment to Blackboard and publish it as a WordPress blog entry. The due date is next Wednesday, September 11 (before class). The hard deadline is Friday, September 13 (before class). Directions for submitting your literacy narrative are included on your assignment sheet and on the Blackboard submission site. I will also guide you through the submission process step by step in today’s class.

As you continue to revise your literacy narrative, consider visiting The Writing Center. If you do so, you will earn five bonus points for the assignment.

To schedule an appointment, visit https://highpoint.mywconline.com, email the Writing Center’s director, Professor Justin Cook, at jcook3@highpoint.edu, or scan the QR code below. To earn bonus points for your literacy narrative, consult with a Writing Center tutor no later than Thursday, September 12.

Next Up

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

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: A Second Look at Sedaris, a First Glimpse of Heller, and . . .

Posted on by janemlucas
Author David Sedaris in New York on August 3, 2018 / Robert Deutsch USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2018/08/03/david-sedaris-hates-word-awesome-but-loves-sequined-culottes-calypso-bookmark/900667002/

Today, along with returning to our study of Sedaris’s “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” we will examine “The Day Language Came into My Life,” the first pages of Chapter Four of Helen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life.

One of the aspects of Sedaris’s essay that you examined last Wednesday was his movement from summary to scene. The first of those occurs with these words of his teacher’s: “If you have not meimslsxp or lpgpdmurct by this time, then you should not be in this room” (167).

You also identified Sedaris’s hyperbole “front teeth the size of tombstones” (168), and his use of metaphors and similes, including these:

  • “not unlike Pa Kettle trapped backstage at a fashion show” (167).
  • “everybody into the language pool, sink or swim” (167).
  • “like a translation of one of those Playmate of the Month data sheets” (168).
Helen Keller, https://www.biography.com/activists/helen-keller

Together, Sedaris’s essay and Keller’s chapter excerpt demonstrate two vastly different ways to present a literacy narrative. “Me Talk Pretty One Day” offers a quirky look at the challenges of learning French from a sarcastic, soul-crushing instructor. Keller’s story poignantly recounts learning to make meaning through the sign language of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, learning that certain finger positions mean “water” for those who cannot hear it, and for others, like her, who can neither see nor hear it.

Works Cited

Keller, Helen. “The Day that Language Came into My Life.” The Story of My Life. https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/keller/life/life.html.

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

. . . Sample Student Essays

Today in class we will examine two literacy narratives written in a previous semester. After you read and annotate the essays, you and two or three of your classmates will collaboratively compose a short assessment of each narrative.

In each assessement, consider whether the essay focuses on one of the following options for topics:

  • a memory of a reading or writing assignment that you recall vividly  
  • someone who helped you learn to read or write
  • a writing-related school event that you found humorous or embarrassing
  • a particular type of writing that you found (or still find) especially difficult or challenging
  • a memento that represents an important moment in your development as a reader or writer

Also determine whether each essay fulfills the requirements listed below.

  • a well-told story
  • vivid detail
  • some indication of the narrative’s significance
  • a minimum of 600 words

After you have composed your assessment, you will review the grade criteria listed below, and assign a letter grade to each narrative.

  • An A literacy narrative complies with all of the assignment guidelines: it presents a well-told story, includes vivid details, and conveys the story’s significance in a way that demonstrates a depth of understanding. An A literacy narrative is also well organized and relatively free of surface errors.
  • A B literacy narrative complies with all of the assignment guidelines but may convey the significance of the story in a superficial way, may have issues with organization, or may be flawed by surface errors.
  • A C literacy narrative complies with most but not all of the assignment guidelines and may also be flawed by issues of organization and/or surface errors.
  • A D literacy narrative complies with only a few of the assignment guidelines and may also be flawed by issues of organization and/or surface errors.
  • An F literacy narrative fails to comply with most or all of the assignment guidelines and may also be flawed by substantial issues of organization and/or surface errors.

Next Up

On Wednesday you will continue work on your own literacy narratives. At the beginning of class, after I collect your second Check, Please! worksheets, I will return your rough drafts with my notes, and you will have the remainder of the class period to revise on your laptops. You will have an additional week to continue revising before posting your literacy narrative to Blackboard and to your WordPress blog. The due date is Wednesday, September 11 (before class); the hard deadline is Friday, September 13 (before class).

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Beginning Your Literacy Narrative

Posted on by janemlucas

Today in class, you will begin planning and drafting your first essay assignment, a literacy narrative, which is an account of a learning experience involving reading, writing, or learning to speak a language.

Begin by asking yourself some of these questions: How have you come to think about yourself as a reader or writer? What were some of your most formative experiences as a reader or writer? What are some of the do’s and don’ts you have learned about writing? How has what you have learned about reading or writing enhanced your confidence and skill in that role? You don’t need to respond to all of those questions. Try picking one or two as a starting point, then begin bringing one of those experiences to life.

Your aim is to recreate your experience on the page and then to reflect on its significance. Your focus may be any one of the following:

  • a memory of a reading or writing assignment that you recall vividly  
  • someone who helped you learn to read or write
  • a writing-related school event that you found humorous or embarrassing
  • a particular type of writing that you found (or still find) especially difficult or challenging
  • a memento that represents an important moment in your development as a reader or writer
  • learning to speak a second langauage

Detailed instructions are included in the assignment handout that you will receive in class today. An additional copy of the handout is posted on Blackboard in the essay assignments folder.

Next Up

Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, review the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website. Also review tomorrow’s Scrabble post.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: David Sedaris’s “Me Talk Pretty One Day”

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class, after we review some of your collaborative writing from last Wednesday, we will examine David Sedaris‘s essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” and you and three of your classmates will collaborate on an exercise that asks you to examine–and subsequently address in writing–these elements of his literacy narrative:

  • scene and summary–you will examine how and where Sedaris shifts from one to the other
  • hyperbole
  • metaphors and similes

Each of these elements can play an important role in a narrative, none more so than scene, which is vital to a story’s life. Without it, a narrative falls flat. With summary, a writer compresses time to offer an overview of events. Through scene, a writer lets time unfold in front of the readers’ eyes, which is what readers prefer. They are drawn into a narrative when they can see for themselves what is happening.

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, you will begin drafting your first major writing assignment longhand. The assignment, a literacy narrative, is an account of a learning experience involving reading, writing, or learning to speak a language. As part of your prewriting process, look back at “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and consider how you might incorporate into your own essay some of the same elements that David Sedaris includes in his.