Summer 2017, Post #11

First, read Tool 22 in Writing Tools and then Dinty W. Moore's "If Mr. Clean Had Been My Father" in Brief Encounters (p. 243), paying attention to how Moore knows when "to show" and when "to tell."

Then, write a sentence or two explaining how you can use the "ladder of abstraction" in a paragraph in your personal essay.

Summer 2017, Post #10

First, read "Tool 33" in Writing Tools and then Lia Purpura's "Brief Treatise Against Irony" in Brief Encounters.

Explain in a sentence or two how you could use purposeful repetition (as Purpura does by personifying "irony" as the opening line for most of her paragraphs) in your personal essay.

Summer 2019, Post #9

Read Tool 18 and Tool 19 in Roy Peter Clark's Writing Tools and then read Sven Birkerts's "One Long Sentence" (p. 38) and Bill Capossere's "Chess Piece" (p. 137) in Brief Encounters.

One aspect of successful writing is the writer's facility with syntax and line length; for this post, write two sentences that you could use in your personal essay.  Have one sentence be short, blunt, powerful, and emphatic.  Have the second sentence be longer, more complex, and more musical.  Be sure each sentence is grammatically and mechanically correct, and play close attention to your subjects and verbs.

Summer 2017, Post #8

The nine rhetorical modes are methods of presenting and structuring information.  For writers, managing these rhetorical modes ensures that both individual paragraphs and the essay as a whole are focused and coherent.  Here are the rhetorical modes in no particular order . . .

Description: this refers both to literal description (based on sensory imagery) and figurative description (based on association).  Thus, a description could provide visual details (literal description) and a simile (figurative description) in order to depict an object, idea, or scene.

Definition: elaborating the essential qualities of a thing.  For example, if I were to define "dog," I couldn't just say a "four-legged animal" since that would include cats and would exclude a dog that might be missing a leg.  Thus, writing an effective definition requires in-depth critical analysis.

Exemplification: providing examples to illustrate or "exemplify" a concept.

Cause/Effect: describing the causes or effects.  In practice, a writer could do either or both: in other words, a   writer could focus on the causes of an event, the effects of an event, or both the causes and effects of an event.

Division/Classification: breaking a concept down into categories (division) and then providing labels for each category (classification).  For example, a writer could discuss types of music (genres) and define the essential qualities of each genre.

Compare/Contrast: analyzing the similarities and differences between two topics.

Argument: making a claim and then supporting that claim with reasons and evidence.

Narration: telling a story in order to illustrate a point.

Process Analysis: detailing the steps involved in a process.  For example, a writer could discuss how to do something, or a writer could detail the steps leading up to a historical event.

There are two disclaimers:

1.  An essay does not need to use all nine rhetorical modes to be effective.
2.  These rhetorical modes work in conjunction with each other.  An effective definition may also describe and divide/classify.

For this post, read Harrison Candelaria Fletcher's "White" (p. 62), and pay attention to how he uses the various rhetorical modes.  

Then, read Tool 28 in Writing Tools in which Roy Peter Clark explores how to learn from contrast.

Finally, make (and post) a list of the rhetorical modes you plan to use in your personal essay; if you do this well, this list should function as a rough outline for your essay.

Summer 2017, Post #7

First, read Julian Barnes's "Grief" in Brief Encounters (p. 307).  In terms of its structure and strategy, this essay is notable for three reasons. First, Barnes titles his essay "Grief," but he never uses the word "grief" (or even "sadness") in the essay, nor does he use a generic pronoun "it" to stand in for "grief."  Rather, he lets his description stand alone. Second, Barnes explores and defines an emotion by manipulating his use of pronouns, moving from the plural "we" to the singular "I."  Third, he explores the emotion of grief by using the metaphor of observation and distance, first with the comparison to "aerial surveying" and then to "photographs of photographs."

For this post, think about an intense emotion that you have experienced at a pivotal moment in your life.  The emotion may be positive, negative, or some ambiguous combination of positive/negative.  Next, write one paragraph in which you describe/define that emotion without ever using the name of the emotion itself or using "it" to refer to the emotion.  Rather, let your description stand alone.  In this paragraph, manipulate your use of pronouns (shifting between two or more of the first-person singular "I" or plural "we," the second-person "you," and the third-person singular "he, she, it" or plural "they").  Finally, explore this emotion by using a metaphor to compare it to an object or experience that allows your reader to "see" or "get" the emotion through your description.

Summer 2017, Post #6

Tool 25 in Roy Peter Clark's Writing Tools explores how to use narrative effectively.  Choose one nonfiction essay in Brief Encounters, and explain how the author uses who, what, where, when, why, and how.  

Tool 24 in Writing Tools explores how to use a blueprint (or outline) effectively.  Choose one nonfiction essay in Brief Encounters (it can be the same essay as above or a different one), and make a blueprint that tracks the essay's structure and flow.

Summer 2017, Post #5

Post one question you have about the current essay on which you're working.