Assignment 12

One component of being a skilled writer is mastering all parts of the writing process, including planning.  Many beginning writers say they "just write," but would an architect grab a hammer and say "it'll all come together at the end"?  Would a doctor say "tell me where it hurts" and then have at it with a scalpel?  Would an artist say "give me some paint and come back in two hours"? 

Like any other craft or trade, writing is most effective when the writer has a plan.  The purpose of this blog assignment is to force you to formulate your plan for our last essay.

The following questions refer to topics covered in the  Personal Essay reading, so if the question confuses you, reread that file in Blackboard.

1. What tone will you take with your essay?
2. What narrative perspective will you use?  First-person? Second-person?  Third-person?  Will you switch between perspectives?  Why or why not?
3. What point-of-view will you use in your essay?
4. How much psychic distance will you create between you and your subject?
5. How will you weave story and idea?  In other words, how will you shift between summary and dramatic narrative?
6. How will you begin your essay?

7. How will you structure your essay's middle?
8. How will you end your essay?

Assignment 11: Rhetorical Modes

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.

Assignment 11 is to list the rhetorical modes you plan on using in your "Lost" essay and provide a brief explanation as to how you will develop those modes.

Assignment 10

For this blog post, choose one of the following questions to answer on your blog.


1. What does it mean to "lose it"?

2. How can a person be "lost in the supermarket"?

3. What does it mean to be "lost in the world"?

4.  What does it mean to say "I once was lost but now am found"?

5. What does it mean to lose one's religion?

6.  What does Chet Baker mean when he sings "Let's Get Lost"?  Here are the lyrics:

"Let's get lost, lost in each other's arms
Let's get lost, let them send out alarms
And though they'll think us rather rude
Let's tell the world we're in that crazy mood.
Let's defrost in a romantic mist
Let's get crossed off everybody's list
To celebrate this night we found each other, let's get lost"

7.  What does it mean to be "lost in translation"?

8. What does it mean to lose concentration?

9.  What does it mean to lose command (even if one is not a commander)?

10.  What is a lost highway?

11.  What does it mean to be a loser?

12.  What does it mean to lose one's mind?

13. What does it mean to lose someone?

Assignment 9: Effective Description

Hello All,

This assignment will help you with both the Profile and our last essay, the Personal Essay.

Description

“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”

--William Blake

Description is the art of illustrating through detail.

All description begins with perception, which itself originates in sensory detail; we perceive the world through our senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.  Using these five senses, effective writers employ sense imagery to describe all the glories and horrors of the physical world: visual imagery to depict what we can see, auditory imagery for what we can hear, tactile imagery for what we can touch, gustatory imagery for what we can taste, and olfactory imagery for what we can smell. 

Visual imagery rests on details we can see: colors, shapes, sizes, scale, and relationships.  

Auditory imagery relies on sound details, such as pitch, volume, tone, rhythm, and structure.

Tactile imagery rests on details like texture, temperature, and pliability.

Gustatory imagery uses the senses of the tongue: salty, sweet, sour, bitter. 

Olfactory imagery uses the same language as gustatory imagery—i.e., this rose smells sweet—but also depends on connotation and association.  For example, some varieties of coffee are described as “earthy,” an adjective with connotations of being natural and alive.

Unlike literal description—which relies upon tangible, physical qualities—figurative description relies upon mental associations and connotations.  The two most common types of figurative description are simile and metaphor.

A simile uses like or as to make a comparison between two unlike things whereas a metaphor compares two things by means of equating them.  The greater difference between simile and metaphor is in terms of scale; a simile is generally limited and specific whereas a metaphor is generally expansive and general.

For example, if I say that my wife sings like an angel, I am using a simile to describe one quality that my wife and an angel share: the beauty of their voices.  There is no other comparison being made.

However, if I say that my wife is an angel, I am using a metaphor to equate my wife and an angel: my wife is beautiful, has a great voice, is in touch with the divine, and so on.  Metaphors rely much more extensively on the reader’s imaginations to fill in the blanks with regard to the shared details while similes generally fill in those blanks for the reader.

When crafting similes a metaphors, writers should avoid clichés; the most effective metaphors and similes are the ones that catch our attention, that make us take a second look, that have a bit of what Freud calls the uncanny.

Here are five effective similes:

(for the full poem, visit The Academy of American Poets website: www.poets.org)

1.        “I pounced on every joy like a ferocious animal eager to strangle it.” (From “A Season in Hell” by Arthur Rimbaud)

2.       “Birds fly back and forth across the lawn looking for home.  As night drifts up like a little boat.” (From “After Reading Tu Fu, I Go Outside to the Dwarf Orchard” by Charles Wright)

3.       “The black treetops against the sky were like teeth on a saw” (From “Lost” by Stephen Dobyns)

4.      “I would touch your face as a disinterested scholar touches an original page” (From “The Lost Pilot” by James Tate)

5.       “A hand turned upward holds only a single, transparent question. Unanswerable, humming like bees, it rises, swarms, departs” (From “A Hand” by Jane Hirshfield)

Here are five effective metaphors:

1.        “The sun is a red blister coming up in your palm.” (From “A Red Palm” by Gary Soto)

2.       “You is a strewn shattered leaf I'd step on, he says.” (From “Abandonment under the Walnut Tree” by D.A. Powell)

3.       “The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.” (From “Proverbs of Hell” by William Blake)

4.      “A boat is a lever.”  (From the poem by the same name by Ralph Burns)

5.       “You were the wind and I the sea.” (From “After Love” by Sara Teasdale)

For Assignment 9, choose one of these similes or metaphors, and explain why the author may be making this specific figurative description/comparison.

Assignment 8

Hello All,

As you are now well-aware, the Profile essay requires a different writing style than the Academic Analysis.  Rather than being strictly formal, you may now be freer and more experimental with your prose.  Feel free to use first-person or second-person pronouns and contractions.  However, some "rules" remain: avoid using generic phrases like "a lot" or "thing."

Here are some additional readings to help you with your writing.

This article discusses effective verbs.
This article discusses effective descriptions and word choice.
This article discusses sentence construction.
This article discusses effective-sounding sentences.
This article discusses voice and tone.

Assignment #8 is to post your best sentence (so far) from the Profile essay to your blog.  This sentence should be excellent in terms of those five areas.

Assignment 7

Hello All,

One of the most important parts of the Profile essay is the dominant impression, which is the main idea or feeling you want to convey or evoke.  Sometimes the dominant impression is clear in the title of the essay itself; the title "Streets of Sorrow" describes Hollywood with a clear impression of melancholy or depression in a way that a title like "Streets of Stars" would not.

1.  What will be the subject of your profile essay?  What place will you profile?
2.  What will be the dominant impression your essay will evoke?
3.  What narrative perspective will you choose? 
First-person ("I" or "we")? The first-person perspective provides a sense of intimacy.
Second-person ("you")? The second-person perspective provides a sense of immediacy.
Third-person ("he," "she," "it," "they")?  The third-person perspective provides a sense of objectivity.
Each perspective is acceptable, but each perspective will shape the essay in a different way.  Regardless of the perspective you choose, be consistent.
Reread the "Profile" attachment on Blackboard for clarification with the next questions.
4.  What will be your "Beginning"?
5.  How will you structure your "Middle"?
6.  What will you use in your "Conclusion"?
7.  How will you use dialogue?
8.  What "Characters" will your essay feature?
9.  What "Illuminating Details and Anecdotes" will you use?
10.  How will you use all (or most of) the senses?  What visual images will you use?  What auditory images?  What tactile images?  What gustatory images (tastes)?  What olfactory images (smells)?
11. What verb tense will you use?  Past tense?  Present tense?

Assignment 6

Hello All,

For this blog, read (at least) one of the following profiles:

Streets of Sorrow (about Hollywood)
California Dreamin' (about Big Sur)
Desert Byways (about Death Valley)
Eliza Grace, the Mojave, and Me (about Death Valley)

Then, describe one writing technique the author does especially well.

Assignment 5

Hello All,

Post your thesis statement to your blog, and then take a look at your fellow classmates's thesis statements: offer them some constructive criticism.

Here's one more photograph, from Tehachapi.  Since I haven't titled any previous photographs, I'll give this one a name: "Ghost Train."

Assignment 4 Continued . . .

Hello All,

Watch this video before (or after, if need be) you read Kracauer's analysis . . .

The photographs are part of a project called "Back to the Future" by the Argentinian photographer Irina Werning. Not to get all sentimental on you, but this is a video that makes me both smile and cry.

Assignment #4

Hello All,

For this assignment, follow the usual procedure: analyze two quotes from Kracauer's "Photography," and post a photograph.  Here's one of my son from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.

Assignment #3

Hello All,

For this assignment, read Roland Barthes's "Rhetoric of the Image," which discusses how an image conveys meaning or a message.  As before, find two quotes you find interesting: explain what intrigues you with each quote.

Finally, post another photograph you've taken.  Here's one I took in Balch Park.  There's a bear in the upper right-hand corner . . . and the bear is not scared of us.

"The Image World"

Hello All,

Your second blog assignment is to read Susan Sontag's "The Image World" (which you can access through Blackboard in the Essay 1 tab). 

Once you've read the essay, find two quotes that you find intriguing.  Copy those quotes to your blog, and explain why you found them interesting.

Finally, post a photograph that you have taken.  The only qualification is that you need to have taken the photograph (it can be of anything).

The photograph I've posted is from a trip I took to Turkey.  The graffitti means "Live Primitively" or "Be Primitive" in Turkish.

Summer 2012 Blog Introductions

Hello All,

For this first assignment, create your blog, and post its URL (the web address of the blog itself) into the Comments box below this post.  Make your blog unique and reflective of your personality (don't just use "English Blog" as your title).  If you run into problems and/or get stuck, don't get frustrated: we'll walk you through the process during the orientation.

Take care!