ESSAY I:  STORIES ABOUT COMMUNITY

Schedule

Date
Day 1
8/30

Homework Due

In-Class Work

Diagnostic Essay.  Introductions to each other and to the course.

Day 2
9/1
Read Tan's "Fish Cheeks," Angelou's "Champion of the World," Kingston's "Silence," and Peck's "Friends Seminary."  Write a response to all four, using them to think about what a community is comprised of.  Then pick one essay you admire as a writer and say what it is you admire.   (2 pages) Discussion of narrative essays from perpective as readers and as writers.  Work out expectations for class participation grade.
Day 3
9/8
First draft of Essay I due, with metatext.   E-mail me a copy by noon.  Bring printed version as well. Full-class workshop of draft, including exercise in revision.
Day 4
9/13
Begin revising based upon classwork and upon comments you received via e-mail.  Read Trillin's "It's Just Too Late" and respond as a reader and a writer.  By this I mean first simply respond as someone affected by the writing: What did it make you think about? Who is responsible for FaNee's death?  What issues about community or community and the individual came up? Second, respond as a writer.  That is, what do you think of the way Trillin wrote this piece? Here are some things you might notice:   The blank spaces between parts (why 5 parts? why THOSE 5 parts?) Where the essay moves quickly through time and where it slows down (why does he choose as he does?). Does Trillin create the illusion of objectivity?  How? Is he really objective? What is the effect of ending the essay with a series of questions and then the poem?  I offer these questions as stimulants to your writing, but you don't have to limit yourself to them. Read Trillin's "It's Just Too Late" and respond as a reader and a writer.  Catch up on previous reading if necessary.  Catch up on previous reading if necessary. Workshop essay in pairs and continue revising essay.  Discuss Trillin's essay.  Continue to develop criteria for a good narrative essay.
Day 5
9/15
Final draft of Essay I due, with previous draft (including my comments).  E-mail me a copy also. Begin Essay II.

Requirements
+    Autobiographical or biographical narrative which tells the story of a moment when you felt torn between two communities or a moment that captures your relationship to a particular community.
+    Make the essay work as a story; that is, build tension towards a climax, develop character, make the reader feel there
+    3 pages, double-spaced, following MLA format, with meta-text

Useful Concepts
During this first essay, you'll start articulating what process you go through to write.  Although each of us finds a somewhat different process there are many aspects of the writing process that we all go through, in one way or another.

For Essay I, you'll be focusing especially on the following:  collecting evidence, freewriting, brainstorming, idea as an act of discovery, clustering, organizing evidence to communicate an idea, drafting, revising, creating an effect, revision as expansion, metatext, title.   Each highlighted concept links you to a student example.