Category: Writing

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: “A Bridge to Words” Follow-Up

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday in class, we examined the model literacy narrative “A Bridge to Words,” and you and two or three of your classmates collaboratively composed a piece of writing that addressed these elements of the essay:

  • Appositives
  • Scene
  • Figurative language
  • Gaps in memory/what the narrator doesn’t know
  • The story’s significance, how the writer conveys it subtly

The sections that follow focus on the elements listed above, ones you should aim to include as you continue to revise your own literacy narrative.

Appositives

Using an appositive–a group of words that renames or defines a noun or noun phrase–not only helps you develop your writing but also enables readers to better relate to your writing through the specifics that the appostives offer. Examine each of the four passages below, and note how each appositive expands on the ideas presented in the noun, the noun phrase, or the noun clause that precedes it.

  • Early in the essay, I write that “[m]y sister, who was three years older, had her very own news source, The Mini Page, a four-page miniature paper that arrived at our house as an insert in the Sunday edition (par. 2).
  • I incude another appositive to specify the gesture and the words of a family member: “I remember only the gesture and the words: someone handing me the Sunday comics and saying, “You can read part of the funny page, too. You can read Henry” (par. 3).
  • When I turn to an appositive again, I do so define a term that may be unfamiliar to some readers: “As the last word in the first line, ‘abhors’ serves as the lead-in to an enjambment: the continuation of a sentence or clause in a line break” (par. 7).
  • Lastly, I fashion an appostive in the conclusion to convey the significance of the memories I have recounted: “The former wakes and stretches out in my mind as a bridge to the latter: a spot in the world of words I’ve inhabited ever since” (par. 8).

Scene

With the words, “[f]inally, one Sunday,” I shift from summary to scene for the first time (par. 3). The previous paragraphs describe the reading ritual that occurred every Sunday.

Figurative Language

Instances of figurative language in the narrative include “as if covered by a shroud” (par. 1), “like links in a chain” (par. 7), and an extended metaphor in the conclusion, where I personify the comic strip Henry and The Golden Book of Fun and Nonsense, depicting them as slumbering in my brain:

“Perhaps rereading Art Spiegelman’s graphic memoir Maus with my students has aroused the wordless Henry and the word-filled Golden Book of Fun and Nonsense from the corner of my brain where they’ve slumbered. The former wakes and stretches out in my mind as a bridge to the latter: a spot in the world of words I’ve inhabited ever since” (par. 8).

Hillaire Belloc’s “Rebecca,” illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen

Gaps in the Writer’s Memory as Part of the Narrative

Twice in the essay, I use a strategy employed by Helen Keller in “The Day Language Came into My Life,” specificaly, I note what I cannot recollect. I first use that strategy when I write, “Whether it was one of my parents or my sister, I don’t know” (par. 3). I draw on it again when I write, “Why these particular early memories visit me now, I don’t know” (par. 8).

Conveying the Story’s Significance

As I noted in class, there are a number of ways that I convey the significance of my experience without stating explicitly that the events were noteworthy. The vivid details of the narrative demonstrate their importance. Those details that are vivid in my mind are subsequently lifelike on the page because their significance permeates them. Some groups offered as examples details about my sister, Jo, reading to me from The Golden Book of Fun and Nonsense. One group noted “the word ‘abhors’ . . . which appealed to me” (par. 7). Another group mentioned my “uncontrollable giggles” (par. 7).

As you revise, review these notes and incorporate some of these elements into your own literacy narrative.

Work Cited

Lucas, Jane. “ENG 1103: Model Literacy Narrative, ‘A Bridge to Words’ and Writing Analytically.” Jane Lucas, 8 September 2025, https://janelucas.com/2025/09/08/eng-1103-model-literacy-narrative-a-bridge-to-words-and-writing-analytically/.

Next Up

In class on Wednesday, you will compose a short reflective essay focusing on the process of planning, drafting, and revising your literacy narrative. If you are still in the process of completing your essay on Wednesday (since you have until Friday morning’s hard deadline to post it) your reflection will address your work in progress. Before tomorrow’s class, be sure to complete the short reading assignments in Writing Analytically as well as the accompanying planning exercise in your journal. The details are outlined in yesterday’s blog post.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Lessons in Summary, Scene, and Dialogue from Harper Lee

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday before you you began your revision work, we examined a page (pictured above) from Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. That page from the first chapter serves as a valuable model for three narrative elements: summary, scene, and dialogue–at least two of which will figure in your literacy narrative.

The first paragraph of the passage summarizes the characters’ circumstances, designating the “summertime boundaries” (12) within which the narrator, Jean Louise, “Scout,” Finch, and her older brother, Jem, may play outdoors. The short one-sentence paragraph that follows continues the summary, informing readers that the summer Scout has just summarized is the one in which Dill (Charles Baker Harris) first visits Maycomb, Alabama.

With the first words of the next paragraph, “[e]arly one morning,” Scout shifts from summary to scene (12). All of the remaining paragraphs except the final one continue the scene with dialogue. Scout returns to summary with the words “Dill was from Meridian” (12).

Note that Harper Lee begins a new paragraph whenever the speaker changes. Also note that every line of dialogue does not include a dialogue tag, such as “he said” or “she said.” If a passage of dialogue includes only two speakers, none of the paragraphs require dialogue tags after the speakers’ first lines because the start of a new paragraph signals to the reader that the other person is speaking. If a dialogue includes three or more speakers–such as Scout’s conversation with Jem and Dill–occasional tags are essential.

Lessons in Punctuation

The excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird also demonstrates how to use a variety of punctuation marks, including em dashes, hyphens, and commas.

  • Harper Lee uses em dashes to set off “Miss Rachel’s rat terrier was expecting” (12) from the rest of the sentence because it is nonessential. It adds details, but the sentence can function without them. An em dash is used before and after phrases that are nonessential. Note that there is no space before or after the dash, which is made with two strikes of the hyphen key.
  • Jem asks if Dill is “four-and-a-half”? Hyphens appear between those words because multiple-word numbers are hyphenated.
  • Near the end of the excerpt, “Mississippi” and “Miss Rachel” (12) are both set off by commas because those details are nonessential. Commas are used to set off single words and short phrases of nonessentials the way that em dashes are used to set off longer units of words.

Work Cited

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

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, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Revising Your Literacy Narrative

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning 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 10 (before class). The hard deadline is Friday, September 12 (before class). Directions for submitting your literacy narrative are included on your assignment sheet and on the Blackboard submission site. Next Monday, September 8, I will guide you through the submission processes step by step.

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 the Writing Center’s sign-up page, email the Writing Center’s director, Professor Justin Cook, at jcook3@highpoint.edu, or scan the QR code above. To earn bonus points for your literacy narrative, consult with a Writing Center tutor no later than Thursday, September 11.

I attached a Writing Notes handout to your introductory reflective writing exercises, one that I noted you should keep in your pocket portfolio and refer to when you are composing assignments. I have included an additional copy of that list below, followed by a second list of notes, which I have attached to the drafts of your literacy narratives.

Writing Notes

  • &: Do not use an ampersand (&) in place of the word and in formal writing.
  • Abbreviations should often be avoided in formal writing. Do not write vocab for vocabulary. On first reference, spell out Advanced Placement in the name of a course. In subsequent references, AP is acceptable.
  • A lot: Don’t use a lot a lot. There are a lot of better ways to express that idea, such as many, often, considerable, etc. If you use a lot in your writing, I will mark it with a d, which denotes diction or word choice.
  • Compound modifiers are linked with a hyphen. Write twelve-page paper, not twelve page paper.
  • English and the names of other languages are always capitalized. If you write English with a lower-case e, I will underscore the letter with three vertical lines. Those three lines are the proofreader’s mark that denotes the need for a capital letter.
  • Hopefully: I hope is a more direct expression of your wish and is preferrable in formal writing.
  • Numbers that can be expressed as one or two words are written as words, not figures, in MLA style, which is the style used in English courses as well as some other courses in the humanities. Write twenty-five, not 25.
  • Paragraphs: Business writing calls for block paragraphs, but your writing for English 1103 and many of your other classes will require you to indent the first lines of each paragraph five spaces or one-half inch.
  • Passive voice should often be avoided in formal writing. The subject should perform the action. Write we read several nineteenth-century novels, not several nineteenth-century novels were read.
  • Then/Than: Than is used in comparisons; then refers to a point in time.
  • Titles: In MLA style, the titles of book-length works are italicized. If you are writing longhand, the titles of book-length works are underlined. The titles of shorter works—such as essays, short stories, and poems—are enclosed in quotation marks.

Writing Notes, Part II

  • Apart: If you write apart when you mean a part, you have the written the opposite of what you intended. Apart is separate from; a part is a segment of a whole.
  • Appositive: an appositive phrase offers additional information about a word or phrase that precedes it. Consider this sentence: My journal, a worn, spiral-bound notebook with Snoopy on the cover, is near at hand most hours of the day. The words a worn, spiral-bound notebook with Snoopy on the cover are an appositive because they offer more information about the journal.
  • Center: The preposition that follows the verb center is on, not around. Centering around is impossible. Try to do it.
  • Commas are not the equivalent of periods. Consider the following pairs of independent clauses: (a) The test consisted of fifty questions. I thought it would never end. (b) The test consisted of fifty questions; I thought it would never end. (c) The test consisted of fifty questions, and I thought it would never end. A comma can join two independent clauses—as it does in example c—only if it is followed by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so, referred to as the acronym FANBOY). If you use a comma between two independent clauses without following it with a coordinating conjunction, you have created a comma splice.
  • Do: What specifically did you? (There is almost always a stronger verb than do.) Drafted, revised, edited, reviewed, studied, and memorized are all verbs that denote a particular action. Use action verbs whenever possible.
  • Modifiers: Place modifiers and modifying phrases as close as possible to the words they are meant to describe. Consider this sentence: As a four-year-old, my grandmother taught me to print the letters of the alphabet. In it, the person who is four is the grandmother, which makes no sense. (She cannot be a grandmother at four.) The sentence should be revised to read something like this: As a four-year-old, I learned from my grandmother how to print the letters of the alphabet.
  • That/Who: The relative pronoun who, not that, refers to people. (That refers to things.) Do not write He is the teacher that taught me to how to develop my writing. Instead, write He is the teacher who taught me to how to develop my writing.

No Duck-Rabbit Illusion* Here

Monday at 7 a.m., after I parked my car, I spotted the duck and rabbit in the picture above. It’s not unusual to see a rabbit on campus in the early-morning hours or a duck swimming in the reservoir of one of the fountains. But Hayworth Hall is nowhere near any of HPU’s water features. Seeing those two creatures so close to each other was a lovely surprise. If you haven’t seen a duck or a rabbit on campus, take an early-morning walk.

*The duck-rabbit illusion theory demonstrates how a single image can be perceived in two distinctly different ways, underscoring the ambiguity of perception. Do you see a duck or a rabbit in the image below?

https://wikimedia.org

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.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Takeaways from Keller and Sedaris . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday morning, after your quiz and Scrabble debriefing, we examined “The Day Language Came into My Life,” the fourth chapter of Helen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life. The details of her literacy narrative that we considered include these:

  • Keller draws on her sense of touch to render her world to us because she cannot see or hear. She writes of the warmth of the sun “on her upturned face” (par. 2) as she depicts herself waiting for the arrival of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan. Aim to use relevant sensory details in your own literacy narrative.
  • In the conclusion of her chapter, Keller writes, “I learned a great many words that day. I do not remember what they all were; but I do know that mother, father, sister, teacher were among them” (par. 9). In writing those words, Keller makes both what she doesn’t remember and what does remember part of her story. You may not remember all of the details of a memory from your childhood, but the details you do remember will render your narrative more vividly. And if there’s something you don’t remember, that uncertainty–as Keller demonstrates–can be on the page, too.
  • She spells out the words that her teacher spells for her by forming each letter one at a time in Keller’s hand. If you are writing about learning to spell words, let the reader see that on the page as Keller lets her reader see: “‘w-a-t-e-r’ is water” (par. 6).

In “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” David Sedaris does not spell out the French words he is learning to speak, but he does include nonsense words, such as meimslsxp (167) to convey his lack of understanding. If you are writing about learning a second language, consider following Sedaris’ lead and using nonsense words–not his but ones of your own making–to convey your initial confusion. Also try including one or more words of the language, itself. Remember than words you write that are not English words–nonsense words included–are italicized.

Work Cited

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

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

A Pair of Samples

As you prepare to revise your own literacy narrative, review the two samples that we examined in class. While the first, “Creativity is Key,” is admirable for its conversational voice, it lacks the structure and development it needs. It is not a story, it does not meet the minumum length requirement, and it is marred by errors of punctuation, mechanics, and style.

The second sample, “Giving a Speech: Worst Nightmare to Best Feeling” is a much better effort. The essay is a narrative, not simply a series of sentences, and the writer gracefully shifts from summary to scene. Note that a significant portion of the story is presented through scenes with diaogue.

The second part of the title, “Worst Nightmare to Best Feeling,” is an appositive, which is a phrase that offers additional information about the word or phrase that precedes it. Appositives are effective ways to develop your writing. You are welcome to include one in the title of your literacy narrative, but don’t fashion one that tells the reader too much. Your title should offer a window into your essay, but it should not be a spoiler.

Pop Quiz

Rather than listing the answers to the questions on 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. In “The Day Language Came into My Life,” Helen Keller recounts what happened on that day, three months before she turned seven. Name one detail from that day. See your copy of “The Day Language Came into My Life.”
  2. What is the style used for formatting files and documenting sources in papers for courses in English and many other courses in the humanities (philosophy, classics, religious studies, art history, and foreign languages)? See the August 29 class notes.
  3. The class notes “ENG 1103: Matters of Style” includes details about formatting papers in the style you will use for English 1103. Name one of those details. See the August 29 class notes.
  4. What is the topic of the most recent blog post devoted to Scrabble? Note that Scrabble is the subject, not the topic. The topic is something more specific. See the August 28 class notes.
  5. What have you learned about writing from the Writing Notes handout distributed on August 20 or from the annotations on your introductory reflection or on one of your group exercises? Briefly note the rule or guideline. See your Writing Notes handout, your introductory reflection, and your group exercises.

Your quiz also included a bonus opportunity. Possible answers for that bonus are found in the class notes for August 21, August 22, and August 28.

Next Up

Tomorrow you will continue work on your own literacy narratives. At the beginning of class, 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 10 (before class); the hard deadline is Friday, September 12 (before class).

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: A First Glimpse of Heller

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class, we will examine the literacy narrative that you read for today, “The Day Language Came into My Life,” which is the fourth chapter of Helen Keller’s autobiography The Story of My Life.

Together, Sedaris‘ essay and Keller’s chapter 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.

Sample Student Essays

After we study Keller’s chapter, 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
  • A title that offers a window into the essay

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

Literacy Narrative Grade Criteria

  • An A literacy narrative complies with all 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 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 assignment guidelines and may 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 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, 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 10 (before class); the hard deadline is Friday, September 12 (before class).

Posted in Theatre, Writing

Aboard the Orca

Posted on by janemlucas

or “We’re Going to Need a . . .”

On August 16, 17, and 23, audiences at the Winston-Salem Theatre Alliance’s Beall black box theatre found themselves aboard the Orca with Robert Shaw (Patrick Daley), Richard Dreyfuss (Kenan Stewart), and Roy Scheider (Robert Evans), waiting for the tech crew to repair the mechanical shark for the umpteenth time. The shark’s frequent malfunctions (animatronics are no match for saltwater)—a staple of behind-the-scenes accounts of Jaws—try the actors’ patience, none more so than Shaw’s. Like his character in the film, the eccentric shark hunter, Quint, Shaw is a quick-tempered alcoholic. His similarities to his character prompt Dreyfuss to remark that he isn’t sure where Shaw ends and Quint begins. Shaw exploits that blurred line, needling the neurotic Dreyfuss who hops about the Orca’s deck like a nervous rabbit, confessing his desire to meet the renowned playwright Harold Pinter.

Shaw, a masterful interpreter of Pinter’s work, cruelly misleads the naïve Dreyfuss, telling him that Pinter would love for Dreyfuss to call him in the morning and tell the playwright his own interpretations of his plays. When Shaw and Dreyfuss almost come to blows—as they do more than once—it’s Scheider who serves as mediator, his primary function in the play. Like his Jaws character, Police Chief Brody, he’s there to keep the peace. Neither Brody nor Dreyfuss is as deftly drawn as Shaw, undoubtedly because one of the play’s coauthors, Ian Shaw, began the project that became The Shark is Broken as a way of exploring the life of his father, who died three years after he brought Quint to life on screen. Ian was only nine years old.

Like his father, Ian became an actor, and like his father, he turned to writing, but the two pursuits do not compete for the younger Shaw’s attention as they did for his father’s. In The Shark is Broken, Shaw—recipient of the Hawthornden Prize for his second novel—laments that he has neglected his writing in favor of a Hollywood career, a choice he makes not for stardom but to support a family of (then) nine children. When Shaw recites Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29, his utterance of the desire for “this man’s art and that man’s scope” (7) speaks to his longing to write. Notably, he recites the sonnet as an antidote to Dreyfuss’ panic attack. Though Shaw has bullied the younger actor throughout the play, when Dreyfuss finds himself in crisis, Shaw speaks the words that calm him.

Photo by Neil Jester Photography https://neiljesterphotography.shootproof.com/ (L-R): Patrick Daley (Shaw), Kenan Stewart (Dreyfuss), and Robert Evans (Scheider) in the Winston-Salem Theatre Alliance production of The Shark is Broken.

Shaw’s own writing comes to the fore in two scenes that depict his signature monologue, the speech that recounts the horrific aftermath of the torpedoing of the U.S.S. Indianapolis after it delivered the atomic bomb to the island of Tinian. Many of the sailors who survived the ship’s attack by the Japanese were later ripped to pieces by sharks. In the film, the monologue traces Quint’s deep-seated hatred of sharks to its depths in the Western Pacific, where hundreds of his shipmates perished in a sea of blood. In the play, the monologue foregrounds Shaw’s own writing. Rehearsing the scene, Shaw balks at the screenwriters’ shoddy speech. Then, in frustration, he pens his own version, the one we have watched over and over as Hooper and Brody listen in awe.

The final scene of the play returns to the monologue, giving the audience a live performance of the lines they have watched Shaw utter countless times on screen, and the ones they have now watched the actor put on paper. I can hardly fathom the mega-meta quality of watching Ian Shaw in the first productions of The Shark is Broken—the younger Shaw performing the role of his father in a play that he, the son, cowrote, with Joseph Nixon, to depict his father portraying Quint . . . At a community theatre, the effect isn’t mega-meta, but it’s multi-layered, nevertheless. Audiences at Winston-Salem Theatre Alliance watched Triad actors Patrick Daley (Shaw), Kenan Stewart (Dreyfuss), and Robert Evans (Scheider) portraying Hollywood actors performing—or mostly waiting to perform—now-iconic roles. Call it a Chinese box or a hall of funhouse mirrors. Maybe we’re going to need a bigger metaphor.

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 29: ‘When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes.'” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45090/sonnet-29-when-in-disgrace-with-fortune-and-mens-eyes.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Matters of Style

Posted on by janemlucas
https://style.mla.org/

MLA (Modern Language Association) style, the standard format used for writing and documentation in the humanities, is the style that you will use for paper assignments in English 1103.

Formatting a paper in MLA style requires changing the font because Times New Roman, used in MLA papers, is not the default font in Microsoft Word. You will also need to create a running header that includes both your last name and the page number. If you do not know how to change a font or create a running header, this YouTube video on MLA page set-up will show you how.

For additional models of MLA style, see the sample essays posted on Blackboard and the MLA Style center’s sample essays, including this one by Holly Nelson, an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University.

Bonus Assignment

As practice in both revision and MLA formatting, complete the assignment below. Students who do so will earn a bonus assignment credit in the short assignments (course work) category.

Directions

  1. Revise the introductory reflective writing that you began in class on August 18. If your literacy narrative focuses on one of the classes that you wrote about in your reflection, do not include that class in your revision; the content of your bonus assignment should be markedly different from the content of your literacy narrative. You do not need to begin with a paragraph of summary followed by a paragraph of commentary. Those specifics were included in your reflective assignment so I could assess your understanding of the differences between the two and your ability to follow directions.
  2. Compose a revision of at least two-hundred and fifty words, and type it into a Microsoft Word document that you have formatted to comply with MLA style. If you are unsure of how to change the formatting in a file, revisit the second paragraph of this blog post.
  3. Print a copy of your file, and submit your paper copy at the beginning of class on Friday, September 5. You will not submit a copy online. Posting to Blackbaord and WordPress is a requirement for your three major writing assignments only. However, if you want to publish your bonus assignment as practice in using WordPress, you are welcome to do so.

Next Up

For class on Monday, you will read “The Day Language Came into My Life,” which is the fourth chapter of Helen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life. You do not need to print a copy; I distributed copies in class on Wednesday, August 27.

In addition to examining Keller’s chapter, we will review a couple of student literacy narratives written in previous semesters.

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 dos 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 or Meriam-Webster’s Scrabble Word Finder page and also review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble.

Posted in English 1103, Reading, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: A Second Look at Sedaris, “What’s in a Name” Follow-Up . . .

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/

One of the aspects of David Sedaris‘ essay that you examined yesterday was his movement from summary to scene and vice versa. 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” (par. 4). Sedaris alternates summary and scene throughout his essay. As you begin planning and drafting your own literacy narrative tomorrow in class–and as you continue to write–look back at “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and note how Sedaris uses summary and scene as building blocks.

You also identified Sedaris’ use of similes, metaphors, and hyperboles, including these:

  • David Sedaris employs a simile when he describes himself as “not unlike Pa Kettle trapped backstage at a fashion show” (par. 3).
  • Sedaris fashions a metaphor with the words “everybody into the language pool, sink or swim” (par. 4).
  • The essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day” features the hyperbole “front teeth the size of tombstones” (par. 7).
  • David Sedaris uses a simile when he writes that one classmate’s introduction sounds “like a translation of one of those Playmate of the Month data sheets” (par. 10).
  • The author of “Me Talk Pretty One Day” turns to hyperbole when writes, “The teacher killed some time accusing the Yugoslavian girl of masterminding a program of genocide” (par. 14).
  • Sedaris’ teacher insults him with a simile when she remarks, “”Everyday spent with you is like having a cesarean section'” (par. 27).

The bulleted sentences above follow the format that you should follow in your group exercises that require quotations. These are the specific guidelines to remember:

  • The answer should be a minimum of one sentence. It need not be a long sentence, but it should include concrete detail.
  • The sentence should not begin with a quotation. Though journalists, fiction writers, and memoirists sometimes begin sentences with quotations, in academic writing, quotations are introduced with signal phrases.
  • Do not foreground the paragraph or page number in a sentence. The most important feature of the sentence is the writer’s particular use of words. The page or paragraph number follows in the parenthetical citation.

Work Cited

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

“What’s in a Name” Follow-Up

Friday’s blog entry offered a bonus assignment credit to any student who posted a response that identified the classmates whose names are also common nouns, which makes them playable Scrabble words.

Kudos to Annaliese Abboud, Cameron Anderson, Haven Tucker, and Bailey Upchurch for correctly identifying playables names.

Below are the complete lists of the students in sections 8 and 18 with playable names. Their playable names appear in boldface type.

Section 8

  • Gi (a white garment worn in martial arts) Amitrano
  • Aly Deters (to discourage)
  • Calla (a tropical plant) Dickey* (a blouse front)
  • Amanda Franco (a monetary unit of Equatorial Guinea)
  • Chloe Freeman (a free person)
  • Raven (a large black bird) Houston
  • Campbell Nelson (a wrestling hold)

*Calla Dickey is no longer enrolled in section 8; she remains in the list because her first and last names offer opportunities for learning additional playable words.

Section 18

  • Adrienne and Kamauri Brown (a color created by mixing all three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue)
  • Grayson Crouch (to stoop)
  • Garrett Hickey (a scar, especially one caused by a love bite)
  • Heloise Richer (the comparative form of rich)
  • Haven (a shelter) Tucker (to tire)
  • Bailey (an outer castle wall) Upchurch

For their efforts, Annaliese, Cameron, Haven, and Bailey will receive a bonus assignment credit in the short assignments (course work) category

I may offer additional bonus assignments, so be on the lookout for those. Reading all of the notes that I post for you here, on my blog, will ensure that you don’t miss those opportunities.

Next Up

In class tomorrow, 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.

Posted in English 1103, Scrabble, Teaching, Writing

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

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class, after your Scrabble debriefing, we will examine David Sedaris‘ 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
  • Figurative language–you will identify examples of metaphors, similes, and hyperbole

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.

Figurative language is an expression not meant to be taken literally but instead stands for something related. Figures of speech make writing more vivid and can deepen a reader’s understanding of and connection to a piece of writing. In Imaginative Writing, novelist Janet Burroway observes, “Both metaphor and simile compare things that are both alike and different, and it is the tension between this likeness and difference that their literary power lies” (25).

Tomorrow’s blog post will list some of the examples of scene, summary, and figurative language that you identify in “Me Talk Pretty One Day.”

Work Cited

Burroway, Janet. Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft. Pearson, 2014.

Scrabble Debriefings

At the beginning of class every Monday, I will return your Scrabble score sheets from Friday, and you and your group members will participate in a Scrabble debriefing in which you will (1) review and discuss your game, and (2) individually compose journal entries on the game. Questions to address include but are not limited to the ones on the handout that I will distribute this morning in class. Those questions for consideration are also listed below.

  • Did you learn any new words from your teammate or from your opponents? If so, what were they?
  • What plays involved analyzing multiple options? Did your team opt not to make the highest-scoring play possible in order to either (1) block your opponent, or (2) keep letters that might enable you to score more points later?
  • Where did creative problem-solving figure in the game? If your team had a rack of all consonants or vowels–or mostly consonants or vowels–how were you able to advance the game by playing only one or two letters?
  • What was the largest number of words formed in a single play and what were they?
  • Scrabble, like writing, is a process of composing, only the board game involves composing smaller units, words rather than sentences and paragraphs. What parallels, if any, can you draw between your Scrabble play and your writing process?

You will have the opportunity to draw on the journal entries that you write during debriefings when you compose your midterm and final reflections for the course. If you choose Scrabble as the focus of your final essay and annotated bibliography, you may incorporate portions of your Scrabble debriefings into that assignment as well.

Scrabble Skibidi?

The picture below, which also appears in the August 21 post, demonstrates how a player, or team, can form multiple words through parallel play.

The second player’s, or team’s, four-word play in a single turn is viable because all of the letters that touch form playable words:

  • whoa: used to command an animal to stop
  • he: a male person
  • on: a function word to indicate position (on top of)
  • aa: a type of lava

The pictures below, from last Friday’s Wordplay Day, show several instances of incorrect play where letters that touch are nonwords.

Deletedh, dh, and ng are all nonwords; Tigel and Gio are not playable in Scrabble because they are proper nouns–specifically product brands–that are not also common nouns.

Jigv, du, oo, lf, ua, ttssc, and sheete are all nonwords.

Keep your eyes on the board when you and your opponents are playing words. If you are uncertain whether letters that touch form a playable word, don’t play it. And if you question the validity of a word that your opponents play, challenge the word immediately. A challenge must directly follow a questionable play.

And by the way, skibidi is not playable in Scrabble yet. It was recently added to the Cambridge Dictionary but will not be playable until it is added to The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.

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.