Homework for 10/30

• Be sure to have read the short story that was assigned to you. If you were absent, there are copies of the stories available in the ERC, in my mailbox.
• "Pharmacy" Jackie, Maddy E., Ben, Sam
• "Redeployment" Josh, Sean, Alta
• "The Kugelmass Episode" Alice, Maddy L., Natalia, Claudia

Flash fiction piece is due on 10/28

• Be sure to bring peer review sheets and a rough draft!

Due in class on Monday 10/26

• Three copies of the rough draft of your flash fiction short story is due on Monday. Having three copies of the draft is a homework grade. If you were absent from class on Thursday, be sure to get in touch with your partner, and you can finish the story on googledocs.

Have a nice weekend!

For class on Monday, three copies of  your flash fiction story (a story under 1,000 words) is due.  The primary requirement is that the story  convey characterization through dialogue.

In order to proofread your short story, I've copied a resource on punctuating dialogue that you will find useful.


https://blog.udemy.com/english-conversation-dialogues/

Character Sketches Due

Final copies of the character sketch are due in class today. Please bring your completed peer review sheets as well.

Character Sketch assignment (3 copies) due in class Tuesday

THE CHARACTER SKETCH

 Descriptive Writing

 

 

When you write a character sketch, you are trying to introduce the reader to someone. You want the reader to have a strong mental image of the person, to know how the person talks, to know the person's characteristic ways of doing things, to know something about the person's value system. Character sketches only give snap shots of people; therefore, you should not try to write a history of the person.

A good way to write a character sketch is to tell a little story about one encounter. If you do that, you could describe a place briefly, hopefully a place that belongs to the person you are describing, focusing on things in the scene that are somehow representative of the person you are describing. Describe how the person is dressed. or facial expressions. From time to time, describe the person's gestures to put words into the person's mouth in direct quotations.

As you work on this sketch, you should decide what kind of emotional reaction you want the reader to have in relationship to this person. What kind of details can you select to create that emotional reaction? Avoid making broad characterizing statements; instead, let the details you give suggest general characteristics. Let the reader draw her own conclusions

Example Sketch

Eudora Welty’s Sketch of Miss Duling

 

Miss Duling dressed as plainly as a Pilgrim on a Thanksgiving poster we made in the schoolroom, in a longish black-and-white checked gingham dress, a bright thick wool sweater the red of a railroad lantern--she'd knitted it herself--black stockings and her narrow elegant feet in black hightop shoes with heels you could hear coming, rhythmical as a parade drum down the hall. Her silky black curly hair was drawn back out of curl, fastened by high combs, and knotted behind. She carried her spectacles on a gold chain hung around her neck. Her gaze was in general sweeping, then suddenly at the point of concentration upon you. With a swing of her bell that took her whole right arm and shoulder, she rang it, militant and impartial, from the head of the front steps of Davis School when it was time for us all to line up, girls on one side, boys on the other. We were to march past her into the school building, while the fourth-grader she nabbed played time on the piano, mostly to a tune we could have skipped to, but we didn't skip into Davis School.

 

Your Assignment

Write a character sketch. Avoid telling everything about the person, instead, select two or three outstanding traits to illustrate with incidents and examples. Use description to convey the impression. You may find it helpful to follow the pattern of the model by beginning with an incident showing the person performing a typical action. As you relate the incident, or soon afterward, give vital information about the subject - name, age, and occupation, for instance. Is it important that the reader see the person? If so, give details of physical appearance. After finishing the sketch, reread it to be sure that it creates a vivid impression, making any revisions that you feel will make it more effective

Paper Requirements:

Ø  Typed Size 12 Font, Standard Margins (1 inch all sides)

Ø  1 page

 

Light verse work on 10/6

• Today in class we peer reviewed our light verse. If you were absent, you need to take a peer review sheet (there is a copy below), bring it to the Academic Resource Center in the library and peer review it with a writing tutor.
• The final copy with peer review and draft and due in class on Thursday.

Creative Writing                                                                                Name

15 points

 

This piece of paper must be attached to the final copy. No final copy will be accepted without it.

 

Names of Members in my Revision Group:

 

 

Peer Review Discussion:

 

The “gems” my group found in my piece were:

 

1.  

 

 

2.  

 

 

 

3.  

 

 

 

 

My group discussed the following possibilities for revision of my piece:

 

4.  

 

 

5.   

 

 

6.   

 

 

Post Revision Reflection: Explain how you changed the piece and why. Be very specific about what were you trying of accomplish and what specific strategies you used to achieve your goal. Remember that revisions should be global and that this discussion should not include any proofreading corrections that you needed to make.