1. Journal-
Summarize the medium-length essay you think you might be writing. What's the purpose of it?
2. Orwell, Close reading.
3. Class reading. An opportunity.
4. What's happening? What's due when?
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Punctuation and Reading...
1. Journal-
Any possible topics for your CNF essay? Whacha thinkin?
2. Punctuation Discussion:
!
&
( )
[ ]
/
'
"
:
;
.
,
...(.)
?
Hyphen and Dashes
from OWL-
Dashes (—) can be used to indicate an interruption, particularly in transcribed speech:
The chemistry student began to say, “An organic solvent will only work with—” when her cell phone rang.
They can also be used as a substitute for “it is, “they are,” or similar expressions. In this way they function like colons, but are not used for lists of multiple items, and are used less frequently in formal writing situations:
Common Mistakes...
1. Fragment.
2. Comma Splice
3. Run on
4. Tense shift.
5. Verb tense agreement.
6. Parallelism.
7. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
8. Comma after introductory elements-
Reading. Short excerpts... or, if it's short, the whole.
Applause.
HW- Reading-- An example of a CNF short-- Orwell, A Hanging
Read as writer, and bring to class two tricks Orwell employs for discussion....
HW- Drafting.... When should it be due?
Any possible topics for your CNF essay? Whacha thinkin?
2. Punctuation Discussion:
!
&
( )
[ ]
/
'
"
:
;
.
,
...(.)
?
Hyphen and Dashes
from OWL-
Dashes (—) can be used to indicate an interruption, particularly in transcribed speech:
The chemistry student began to say, “An organic solvent will only work with—” when her cell phone rang.
They can also be used as a substitute for “it is, “they are,” or similar expressions. In this way they function like colons, but are not used for lists of multiple items, and are used less frequently in formal writing situations:
- There was only one person suited to the job—Mr. Lee.
- Mr. Lee is suited to the job—he has more experience than everybody else in the department—but he has been having some difficulties at home recently, and would probably not be available.
Common Mistakes...
1. Fragment.
2. Comma Splice
3. Run on
4. Tense shift.
5. Verb tense agreement.
6. Parallelism.
7. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
8. Comma after introductory elements-
Reading. Short excerpts... or, if it's short, the whole.
Applause.
HW- Reading-- An example of a CNF short-- Orwell, A Hanging
Read as writer, and bring to class two tricks Orwell employs for discussion....
HW- Drafting.... When should it be due?
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
CNF- Description... Notes and tips and reminders...
1. Journal-
Description practice. Describe an object that is important to you without saying what it is or what it's for.
2. Description discussion... DFW based. What are some of your favorite passages?
Be apprised, though, that the Main Eating Tent’s suppers come in Styrofoam trays, and the soft drinks are iceless and flat, and the coffee is convenience-store coffee in yet more Styrofoam, and the utensils are plastic (there are none of the special long skinny forks for pushing out the tail meat, though a few savvy diners bring their own). Nor do they give you near enough napkins, considering how messy lobster is to eat, especially when you’re squeezed onto benches alongside children of various ages and vastly different levels of fine-motor development—not to mention the people who’ve somehow smuggled in their own beer in enormous aisle-blocking coolers, or who all of a sudden produce their own plastic tablecloths and try to spread them over large portions of tables to try to reserve them (the tables) for their little groups. And so on. Any one example is no more than a petty inconvenience, of course, but the MLF turns out to be full of irksome little downers like this—see for instance the Main Stage’s headliner shows, where it turns out that you have to pay $20 extra for a folding chair if you want to sit down; or the North Tent’s mad scramble for the NyQuil-cup-size samples of finalists’ entries handed out after the Cooking Competition; or the much-touted Maine Sea Goddess pageant finals, which turn out to be excruciatingly long and to consist mainly of endless thanks and tributes to local sponsors. What the Maine Lobster Festival really is is a midlevel county fair with a culinary hook, and in this respect it’s not unlike Tidewater crab festivals, Midwest corn festivals, Texas chili festivals, etc., and shares with these venues the core paradox of all teeming commercial demotic events: It’s not for everyone.6 Nothing against the aforementioned euphoric Senior Editor, but I’d be surprised if she’d spent much time here in Harbor Park, watching people slap canal-zone mosquitoes as they eat deep-fried Twinkies and watch Professor Paddywhack, on six-foot stilts in a raincoat with plastic lobsters protruding from all directions on springs, terrify their children.
Most of us have been in supermarkets or restaurants that feature tanks of live lobster, from which you can pick out your supper while it watches you point.
If you’re tilting it from a container into the steaming kettle, the lobster will sometimes try to cling to the container’s sides or even to hook its claws over the kettle’s rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof. And worse is when the lobster’s fully immersed. Even if you cover the kettle and turn away, you can usually hear the cover rattling and clanking as the lobster tries to push it off. Or the creature’s claws scraping the sides of the kettle as it thrashes around. The lobster, in other words, behaves very much as you or I would behave if we were plunged into boiling water (with the obvious exception of screaming).15 A blunter way to say this is that the lobster acts as if it’s in terrible pain, causing some cooks to leave the kitchen altogether and to take one of those little lightweight plastic oven timers with them into another room and wait until the whole process is over.
3. Description tips, notes, tricks?
4. Quick shop....
5. HW- This is it. Let's bring our final draft, or at least our next one, to class on Thursday for presentation or one more workshop, if you'd rather.
6. HW- What should our next assignment be? My ideas....
Description practice. Describe an object that is important to you without saying what it is or what it's for.
2. Description discussion... DFW based. What are some of your favorite passages?
Be apprised, though, that the Main Eating Tent’s suppers come in Styrofoam trays, and the soft drinks are iceless and flat, and the coffee is convenience-store coffee in yet more Styrofoam, and the utensils are plastic (there are none of the special long skinny forks for pushing out the tail meat, though a few savvy diners bring their own). Nor do they give you near enough napkins, considering how messy lobster is to eat, especially when you’re squeezed onto benches alongside children of various ages and vastly different levels of fine-motor development—not to mention the people who’ve somehow smuggled in their own beer in enormous aisle-blocking coolers, or who all of a sudden produce their own plastic tablecloths and try to spread them over large portions of tables to try to reserve them (the tables) for their little groups. And so on. Any one example is no more than a petty inconvenience, of course, but the MLF turns out to be full of irksome little downers like this—see for instance the Main Stage’s headliner shows, where it turns out that you have to pay $20 extra for a folding chair if you want to sit down; or the North Tent’s mad scramble for the NyQuil-cup-size samples of finalists’ entries handed out after the Cooking Competition; or the much-touted Maine Sea Goddess pageant finals, which turn out to be excruciatingly long and to consist mainly of endless thanks and tributes to local sponsors. What the Maine Lobster Festival really is is a midlevel county fair with a culinary hook, and in this respect it’s not unlike Tidewater crab festivals, Midwest corn festivals, Texas chili festivals, etc., and shares with these venues the core paradox of all teeming commercial demotic events: It’s not for everyone.6 Nothing against the aforementioned euphoric Senior Editor, but I’d be surprised if she’d spent much time here in Harbor Park, watching people slap canal-zone mosquitoes as they eat deep-fried Twinkies and watch Professor Paddywhack, on six-foot stilts in a raincoat with plastic lobsters protruding from all directions on springs, terrify their children.
Most of us have been in supermarkets or restaurants that feature tanks of live lobster, from which you can pick out your supper while it watches you point.
If you’re tilting it from a container into the steaming kettle, the lobster will sometimes try to cling to the container’s sides or even to hook its claws over the kettle’s rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof. And worse is when the lobster’s fully immersed. Even if you cover the kettle and turn away, you can usually hear the cover rattling and clanking as the lobster tries to push it off. Or the creature’s claws scraping the sides of the kettle as it thrashes around. The lobster, in other words, behaves very much as you or I would behave if we were plunged into boiling water (with the obvious exception of screaming).15 A blunter way to say this is that the lobster acts as if it’s in terrible pain, causing some cooks to leave the kitchen altogether and to take one of those little lightweight plastic oven timers with them into another room and wait until the whole process is over.
3. Description tips, notes, tricks?
4. Quick shop....
5. HW- This is it. Let's bring our final draft, or at least our next one, to class on Thursday for presentation or one more workshop, if you'd rather.
6. HW- What should our next assignment be? My ideas....
Thursday, February 13, 2014
It's a workshop day... ! Let's do that, and then we'll see if we have time for discussion/journal-
HW- Bring the next draft of your CNF short.
HW- Read some CNF, here. It's David Foster Wallace, again, and while reading, highlight your favorite descriptive passages. Be ready to explain why they are your favorite!
HW- Bring the next draft of your CNF short.
HW- Read some CNF, here. It's David Foster Wallace, again, and while reading, highlight your favorite descriptive passages. Be ready to explain why they are your favorite!
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Workshop day!
Journal--
Ezra Pound, poet, modernist, claims writers (poets, actually, but it applies to us) should "make it new." What does he mean, and why would he claim this?
Reading discussion... Orwell-
Let's make a list of rules to break:
Workshopping.... Time and Time.
HW- Return with a revised version of your short.
Ezra Pound, poet, modernist, claims writers (poets, actually, but it applies to us) should "make it new." What does he mean, and why would he claim this?
Reading discussion... Orwell-
Let's make a list of rules to break:
Workshopping.... Time and Time.
HW- Return with a revised version of your short.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Working towards an idea...
1. Journal-
What are some ways that you invent ideas? How do you find the right place to write? Where do you write? What's your method, plan, or schedule?
2. DFW discussion...
3. Snarky Discussion...
4. In class invention- Free Write....
5. HW- Let's read some Orwell, writing advice, here.
6. HW- Don't forget to complete your CWNF short for workshopping on Tuesday.
What are some ways that you invent ideas? How do you find the right place to write? Where do you write? What's your method, plan, or schedule?
2. DFW discussion...
3. Snarky Discussion...
4. In class invention- Free Write....
5. HW- Let's read some Orwell, writing advice, here.
6. HW- Don't forget to complete your CWNF short for workshopping on Tuesday.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Deeper.
1. Journal-
Write about an emotionally charged 30 second moment of your life. Only 30 seconds. Start in media res and end before the end.
2. Book- Discussion and what's important.
3. Junior Johnson Yes!- Discussion.
3.5- Exercise one...
4. HW- Creative Non-Fiction Short-- Due Tuesday for Workshop.
5. HW- Reading and discussion for Thursday. Read some DFW- here.
6. HW- Snarky snarkers, discussion Thursday, here.
Write about an emotionally charged 30 second moment of your life. Only 30 seconds. Start in media res and end before the end.
2. Book- Discussion and what's important.
3. Junior Johnson Yes!- Discussion.
3.5- Exercise one...
4. HW- Creative Non-Fiction Short-- Due Tuesday for Workshop.
5. HW- Reading and discussion for Thursday. Read some DFW- here.
6. HW- Snarky snarkers, discussion Thursday, here.
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