On Writing Short Stories

Day 21

English 75 Summer 2011 Day 21

1. Hand in Essay 2
1. O/R?

                                                               i.      Y=Intro and Conclusion=+3

                                                             ii.      N=No reading=+/-0

2. Essays back in about a week.
3. By next Thursday at the latest, which would give you the weekend to revise if this is the paper you choose to resubmit. (“Second Chance” essays due August 9^th)
1. Third Essay Assignment (Rough Draft due in a week, Final Draft due August 8^th)
1. Vonnegut on good stories.
2. Narrative rubric
3. Overall structure

                                                              i.      Known world/Departure/The Call/Separation

1.       Helpers?  Guardians?

                                                            ii.      The Unknown/Initiation/Journey

1.       Challenges and Temptations

2.       Abyss

3.       Revelation

                                                          iii.      Arrival

1.       Atonement

2.       Return with Gift

4. Checklist on structure.
5. Handout on structure—beginning and endings.
6. Characters

                                                               i.      Read

                                                             ii.      Checklist

                                                            iii.      Exercise—the kind of person who…

                                                           iv.      Exercise—How well do you know your characters?

                                                             v.      Exercise—Naming your characters.

3. Bonus points: Readings for Writers: Chapter 42, Narration—Due Monday. (+5 BP)
1. Read 613-621
2. For each reading (there are two), do

                                                               i.      Summarize and respond

                                                             ii.      Check your comprehension

                                                            iii.      Read Critically

Day 20

English 75 Summer 2011 Day 20

1. Essays due tomorrow.  Bring intro and conclusions, too, for reading in class.
1. Please, come on time and have your paper ready.
2. Hand in bonus points.
3. Points for Rubric—You decide.
4. Scoring Essay One.
5. Essay Two.
6. Break.
7. Works Cited.

                                                               i.      The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life

                                                             ii.      Reg Harris and Susan Thompson

                                                            iii.      Harris Communication

                                                           iv.      Napa, California

                                                             v.      Copyright 2005

8. Third Essay Assignment:
1. Overall structure

                                                               i.      Known world/Departure/The Call/Separation

1.       Helpers?  Guardians?

                                                             ii.      The Unknown/Initiation/Journey

1.       Challenges and Temptations

2.       Abyss

3.       Revelation

                                                            iii.      Arrival

1.       Atonement

2.       Return with Gift

2. Checklist on structure.
3. Handout on structure—beginning and endings.
4. Characters

                                                               i.      Read

                                                             ii.      Checklist

                                                            iii.      Exercise if there’s time.

5. Book

Homework for Third Essay

For Tomorrow:

Read Elements of Fiction 95-117
(Structure and Design + Creating Characters)

For Monday:
Writing Dialogue + Setting the Scene + Deciding on Point of View

(118-133)

Bonus Points Due Tomorrow

+ 5 BP

Real Writing Chapter 5: Writing Your Topic Sentence or Thesis Statement

Read 57-71
Do Practice 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and Chapter Review

Day 18

English 75 Summer 2011 Day 19

1. Volunteers for practice grading tomorrow?
2. Rough Drafts, Day 2—groups of four.
3. Number the paragraphs.
4. First person—talk through your process with your readers—where are you in the rough draft and what do you need help with?
5. Read the essay aloud—mark it as you go.
6. Complete Peer Editing Worksheet—including brief outline on the back.
7. Discuss as a group—with the author leading the others through the worksheet.
8. Repeat.

9. We’ll work on works cited and transitions this week.  But if you’re in a hurry:
1. Book

                                                               i.      The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life

                                                             ii.      Reg Harris and Susan Thompson

                                                            iii.      Harris Communication

                                                           iv.      Napa, California

                                                             v.      Copyright 2005

Day 18

English 75 Summer 2011 Day 18

1. What do we do about the very long essay?
2. Rough Drafts—groups of four.  Thick Skin.  Kind Honesty. (106)
3. Number the paragraphs.
4. First person—talk through your process with your readers—where are you in the rough draft and what do you need help with?
5. Read the essay aloud—mark it as you go.
6. Complete Peer Editing Worksheet—including brief outline on the back.
7. Discuss as a group—with the author leading the others through the worksheet.
8. Repeat.
9. Hand in copy of rough drafts.
10. We’ll work on works cited and transitions this week.  But if you’re in a hurry:
1. Book

                                                               i.      The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life

                                                             ii.      Reg Harris and Susan Thompson

                                                            iii.      Harris Communication

                                                           iv.      Napa, California

                                                             v.      Copyright 2005

                                                           vi.      The Call

                                                          vii.      The Threshold (with guardians, helpers and mentor)

                                                        viii.      The Challenges

                                                           ix.      The Abyss

                                                             x.      The Revelation

                                                           xi.      The Atonement

                                                          xii.      The Return (with a Gift).

2. NOTE: Some students have chosen to give all of the definitions up front-as a separate body paragraph just after the introduction.  Either way, the point is that the reader will not be familiar with the archetype and you’ll have to define each term so we can judge how well you fit the story into the definition.

Kite Runner Quotes

Lots of pages with quotes:
One
Two
Three

Amazon page here, too.

Dancing Boys of Afghanistan

Video here.

Documentary here.

News story here.

Questions for each other on Rough Draft

Post your comments, suggestions and questions here to get help from classmates.

Essay Help

Here's one site

This one's even more clear. (powerpoint)

Here's the "look inside" feature on Amazon

Day 17

English 75 Summer 2011 Day 17

1. The Call Refused: Minos Homework
2. TKR Chapter 25 Study Guide due.
3. Rough Drafts due Monday—we’ll work on works cited and transitions next week, too.  But if you’re in a hurry:
1. Book

                                                               i.      The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life

                                                             ii.      Reg Harris and Susan Thompson

                                                            iii.      Harris Communication

                                                           iv.      Napa, California

                                                             v.      Copyright 2005

4. Intros, Conclusions and titles.
1. Real Writing pg 95-96--Intros
2. 97-99—Conclusions
3. 99-100—Titles
5. Outline of entire essay
1. Introduction

                                                               i.      Hook

                                                             ii.      Name book and author

                                                            iii.      Brief summary of the plot *who/where.

                                                           iv.      Thesis statement

1.       The most basic would be either:

a.       TKR fits the hero’s journey archetype.

2.       A bit more advanced:

a.       Amir goes from X to Y (like thesis for Smoke Signals) by following the hero’s journey

3.       Or

a.       TKR fits the hero’s journey archetype, but has several distinct differences.

2. Body paragraphs should define the step of the journey and then show how TKR fits (or doesn’t fit) the definition.

                                                               i.      According to Harris and Thompson, the hero is “called to adventure”.  The hero, “may choose willingly to undertake the quest or she may be dragged into it unwillingly” (50).

                                                             ii.      In TKR we see this when Amir _____________ .

                                                            iii.      This fits the archetype because_______________.

                                                           iv.      Harris and Thomson also state, “The Call can take many forms...[for example] the initiate wants to save or restore honor—her own, her family’s, or her country’s” (50).

                                                             v.      For Amir, this means______________.

                                                           vi.      As you can see, the character of Amir fits the archetype’s first step.

3. Continue for the Eight Steps—Let’s walk through these and see if we can find quotes that apply to Amir’s journey (then you can use your page number notes from Tuesday or last week to match it up with the definition from Harris and Thompson).

                                                               i.      The Call

                                                             ii.      The Threshold (with guardians, helpers and mentor)

                                                            iii.      The Challenges

                                                           iv.      The Abyss

                                                             v.      The Revelation

                                                           vi.      The Atonement

                                                          vii.      The Return (with a Gift).

4. NOTE: Some students have chosen to give all of the definitions up front-as a separate body paragraph just after the introduction.  Either way, the point is that the reader will not be familiar with the archetype and you’ll have to define each term so we can judge how well you fit the story into the definition.

6. Rough Drafts due Monday.

Petraeus Ends Command

Yesterday in Kabul

Khaled Hosseini

On Colbert Report

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Khaled Hosseini
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Day 16

English 75 Summer 2011 Day 16

1. The Call Refused
1. Read aloud in class.
2. Minos as Homework.
2. TKR Illustrated:  An image, a quote (with page number) and a title for each scene.
1. The Call
2. The Threshold
3. The Revelation
4. The Abyss
5. The Final Battle
6. The Return
7. The Gift

3. Essay three: Your Hero’s Journey Narrative

1. Time

                                          i.    Year

                                         ii.    Season

                                        iii.    Month

                                       iv.    Day of Week

                                        v.    Time of Day

                                       vi.    General Era

2. Place (physical environment)

                                          i.    Country

                                         ii.    State

                                        iii.    City

                                       iv.    Landscape

                                        v.    Climate

                                       vi.    House

                                      vii.    Yard/Surroundings

4. Homework: Read TKR 25. Study Guide handed out tomorrow, due Wednesday.
5. Minos as Homework.
6. Rough Drafts due Monday.