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.
Essay: How to Banish Melancholy
ReplyDelete25)
Who--the reader, directly involving them in the actions of the narrative
What--Honestly? Gardening. Weird.
Where--Seems to me like a two story house in a suburban area
When--Five AM (really freaking early) on a morning after a month of rain
Why--Because it feels nice to go outside and -do- something after a month of being cooped up, even if it's just gardening
How--Get up, let the dogs out, enjoy the dogs as they run around the backyard, turn, and attack the nettles with all the passion and conviction of the Crusades, taking time to take care of yourself in between your fervor and release of pent-up energy.
24)
Waking up and setting
Background information
Going outside
Gardening
Relief
-Amber G.
Tool 25 Nonfiction Essay: Why I Travel by Pico Iyer
ReplyDeleteWho: A male writer, unnamed
What: Iyer discusses the terrors that the character faces during many different traveling experiences, but especially focuses on the fears of a single trip to Sri Lanka.
When: Various trips are mentioned, all of which take place at different times, but only one is dated with the year of 1930.
Where: The character mentions traveling to multiple locations such as: Sri Lanka, London, Bolivia, California, and Colombo.
Why: The man travels to all of these different places in order to get stories for his editor.
How: The author provides this information in a paragraph style order where he first discusses his previous trips and the terrors he has experienced on them before he goes on to tell the readers about his experience in Sri Lanka.
Tool 24 Nonfiction Essay Outline: Why I Travel by Pico Iyer
• Setting the tone of fear
• Detailed retellings of past traveling experiences that involved some form of a near death experience
• Introduction of the character’s feelings regarding Sri Lanka
• Encounter with Sri Lanka driver
• Driving the dangerous route in Sri Lanka
• Closing relief of surviving the experience
Paige Oliver
The Summer After by Tracy Daughtry
ReplyDeleteTool 25
Who: The mother of a dead son. She is a friend of the narrator
What: She loses her composure as she is fishing. This loss results in the mother avoiding her friend because she does not want to relive her public display of sadness.
Where: The Siletz river in Oregon
When: Months after the woman's son had died
Why: The shock she felt, when the fish took to her lure was a reminder of the shock she felt when her son died.
How: As she was trying to pull the fish out of the water, her friend attempted to help her. Her shock triggered an emotional outburst, and she told her friend to just let the fish go.
Tool 24
Dialogue which sets the tone of sadness
Description of the son's life and death
Setting description
Catching the fish and loss of composure
Results of the outburst
Essay: If Mr. Clean Had Been My Father (pg. 243).
ReplyDeleteTool 25:
Who – The writer (didn’t mention the name), who’s a married man.
What – Parent’s got divorced. The writer moved to an unappealing neighborhood. The smell of the new house (the smell of the Murphy Soap) made him vomit. Coincidentally, his dad uses Murphy’s oil products for his job. Prefer Mr. Clean because Mr. Clean’s features were everything that his father was not. Wish his dad was Mr. Clean.
A few years later, met the founder of Mr. Clean and found out he had a failed marriage too.
Fast-forward, he found his wife cleaning with Murphy Soap. Got nauseous and told the story to his wife. Recently the floor isn’t as clean, but the marriage is still working out.
Where - Did not know the location when he writes this (probably in his house where he lived with his wife).
His reminiscence took place at school, principal, Sister Mary Ellen’s office where he first heard about his parent’s divorced; the home on the Ninth Street, where he used to live; and the house four miles uptown, where he lived with his mother and his sister.
When – Takes place in the current time, four years ago (when he reminiscence his wife cleaning with Murphy Soap), and when he was age ten, in fifth grade (when his parents got divorced).
Why – Objects can trigger memories, which prompt to other memories. That’s why the writer is reminiscing one event after the other. But obviously, his parent’s divorce starts it all. Because of his parent’s divorce, he associates Murphy Soap to the divorce. Thus, the Murphy Soap is a bad juju for him since the Murphy Soap reminds him of his father and the divorce.
How – The writer is probably looking at the floor as he writes this, which tells him the memory of his wife cleaning the floor. The floor reminds him of the Murphy Soap. The potent smell of the Murphy Soap triggers his memory about his parent’s divorce and his bitter memories without a father figure growing up.
Obviously, his can’t prevent his parent’s divorce, but he can control his perspective. To him, the Murphy Soap has a bad vibe for him. The product associated with the unfulfilling role of his father, his parent’s divorce, and his life adjustment after his parent’s divorce.
Tool 24:
Parent’s divorce and Murphy Soap
Background information about the Murphy Soap
Mr. Clean is better than Murphy Soap
Meeting Mr. Clean: expectation vs reality
Associate current marriage to Murphy Soap
Jenny W.
Tool 25 – Star Light, Star Bright
ReplyDeleteWho: “I” (the author, Jane Brox)
What: The author is gazing at the starry night. She is contemplating about the different times in her life where she gazed at them and about how the stars seemed to influence different emotions every time.
Where: The driveway of the author’s home
When: Nighttime
Why: The author gets flashes of memories
How: Unable to see clearly in the night, the author looked for the moon to check its phase. The author then noticed the stars and began her introspection.
Tool 24 – Star Light, Star Bright
I. Forgetting details of the past but never forgetting a starlit night
II. Amidst the blackness of the night, only the stars illuminate the sky
III. Introspection on the grand beauty and loneliness of stars
IV. The imitation of a starry night visualized through the artificial light from a distant town
V. Artificial light versus stellar light
VI. Homage to the emotive night sky
Essay: Parent Pride (Scott Nadelson)
ReplyDeleteTool #25:
Who: "I" (the author) and Lady Luck (cat)
What: Lady Luck catching a mouse reminded the author of how when he was younger he was being bullied by a kid that what the same size as him. Even though the size, he challenged his aggressor such the mouse kept fighting for it's life.
Where: The author saw what was happening from inside the house, from a window looking out into the backyard.
When: When Lady Luck was six weeks old. The author flashbacks to when he was in grade school.
Why: Because the mouse being so little was challenging the cat even though of the size difference.
How: By putting up a fight, even after being hurt by the cat the mouse continued to wriggled around to get out of the situation.
Tool #24- Work from a plan
Lady Luck bouncing around the yard with mouse in the paws
Being bullied on the bus on the way home from school
Challenging bully to meet up at Zeek Field
Not letting anyone diminish his pride
Tool 25: Traffic by Jim Krusoe (pg 230)
ReplyDeleteWho: Author Jim Krusoe (I) and unnamed Father
What: Krusoe discusses the influence alcohol had on his father’s life. The author looks to make connections to the father’s excessive drinking and an accident in which he hit and killed a little boy. The author also equates this to be such a traumatic event in which the father continues to drink and loose his dogs to traffic accidents.
When: Initial event happening before or during World War II, the rest of the essay continues to examine the father’s life as the author grows older. Majority of essay is written in past tense without specific dates given other than the World War reference, able to assume events happened in the past.
Where: Location was not explicitly stated, author speaks of life in the neighborhood where he grew up. Majority of the essay is illustrated as in a local bar or in the childhood home of the author.
Why: Author surmises that his father’s excessive drinking is related to a car accident in which he killed a young boy and was subsequently found not guilty. The author theorizes his father felt so guilty over the incident that this is why his dogs would frequently get loose and he would watch as they were killed in traffic. The author's main purpose for the essay is to examine his father’s connection to alcohol and the dependence built in his life due to the excessive use.
How: The author creates the foundation for the impact of the hypothesis by establishing premises early on in the essay with faint connective properties. As the essay continues the connections gradually become deeper until the author’s main argument hit the readers with the last sentence of the essay. The author creates a lighthearted tone to a macabre genre by giving information sparingly until necessary and creating a slow building idea of who the father actually is as a person. The author does not explicitly state the father is a guilt ridden alcoholic but instead soliloquise the father’s inability to save his dogs as they continue to be hit and killed in traffic. This is sent to mirror the experience the little boy had with the father’s car and then the author’s own experiences with jumping in front of cars.
Tool 24: Traffic by Jim Krusoe (pg 230)
Father hit and killed a child
Father found not guilty
Author jumping in front of cars
Father was an Alcoholic
Father was drunk during accident
Stories with happy endings
Importance of Dogs in Father’s Life
Essay:Listen
ReplyDeleteTool 24
Who: Author and her sister.
What: Listening to the parents.
Where: Childhood of the author and anywhere she goes with her parents.
When: Whenever the children asked a question or questioned their parents.
Why: All actions matter.
How:Telling the author to do certain things on certain days and times.
Tool 25
Introducing parents and their views.
Explaining why the parents have such views.
Demonstration of how the parents applied their views.
How the author feels about these actions from a child's point of view.
Ends with the author now grown up and looking back at her parents ways.
Carlos Montejo
Tool 25) Essay: Listen by Geeta Kothari (page 29)
ReplyDeleteWho: The author and her sister
What: Listening to their parents
Where: The time when the author and her sister were children
When: When either the author or the sister asked a question or when they questioned their parents
Why: Every action mattered
How: Telling the author and her sister to do specific things on certain days and times
Tool 24) Traffic by Jim Frusoe (page 230)
I. Father had hit and killed a child
II. Father was found not guilty
III. Author would run out in front of cars
IV. Father was an alcoholic
V. Father had been drunk when he hit the boy
VI. The father, the author, and the authors son were dog lovers. Dogs held great importance in the father’s life.
Tool 25: Cheryl Merrill "Wildlife"
ReplyDeleteWho: Wilderness within ourselves
What: Listening
Where: Wilderness
Why: Because we are missing out on the world
How: Place yourself out of the center of your world, sit back and listen to everything else around
Tool 24: "Wildlife"
-Opens with the human journey, where we have, been, and what we have experienced, it has no end
-Transitions into process of being present and noticing details of wilderness animals we overlook
-Introduces Charles Darwin and his theory on zebra, contemplation on comes first...white stripes or black coat
-Ends with the message of placing ourselves outside center of the universe and stopping to listen
Nonfiction Essay: La Plata Perdida by Leslie Jamison
ReplyDeleteTool 25
Who: the author (Leslie Jamison) and you (the reader)
What: the author explains how will be your visit to the silver mines of Potosi. She explains step by step what are you going to experience and what are you going to realize.
Where: the famous silver mines of Cerro Rico in Potosi.
When: it does not specify but probably on summer.
Why: because you (the reader) want to listen from the miners how their lives are and how they feel about working in the mines.
How: the writer starts telling you how you have to travel to Potosi, then she suggests you take a guide and go to famous silver mines of Cerro Rico. There, you will experience the horrible conditions where miners work and what they have to do to survive. At the end, when you be out of the mine, you will realize that you look like the miners look like.
Tool 24
I. You go to the silver mines of Potosi.
II. Potosi looks like Bolivian towns; colorful and beautiful, but people do not look happy.
III. A guide takes you to the silver mines of Cerro Rico.
IV. Miners work on horrible conditions.
V. They are Catholics, but down there they believe on the Tio (Uncle Devil).
VI. You realize how sad miners’ lives are. They look like demons working underground. Most of them die at 40 years old, and after they die their sons have to take their jobs in the mines, because they do not have money to pay their way out.
VII. When you are out of the mines with your cheeks, neck, and lips black; you realize that you look as the miners look like, as a demon.
Alondra Moreno
Tool 25 :
ReplyDeleteEssay: Stranded (page 130)
Author: Jill Talbot
Who - Jill and Tracy
What- The author and a person named tracy got stranded
when- At night time
where - On the side of highway 82 outside of Brownfield, Texas
How- Jill’s back right tire of her white Nissan is flat
Tool 24
I. Getting stranded
II. Help
III. Worried about their safety
IV. Remembrance of the night they got stranded
-Kimberly Irineo-Donato
What Didn't Happen by Anika Fajardo
ReplyDeleteTool 25:
Who: The author and her parents.
What: Scenarios that might have occurred/did not occur.
Where: Colombia, South America and U.S.
When: The duration of her life.
Why: She had to live among both parents in the different countries. Her parents being separated caused her life to be different than if they had stayed together.
How: Her parent's separation caused different possibilities for her life because of the differences in culture. The moving between countries.
Tool 24:
I. Earthquake struck.
II. Mother returns to the states.
III. If parents remained together, separation within the home.
IV. Separation saved her from the earthquake.
V. Colombia made her an outsider.
VI. She was an outsider regardless of her home place.
VII. Her mother never chose to stay.
VIII. she was born in Colombia with a loving family.
Star Light, Star Bright by Jane Brox
ReplyDeleteTool #25
Who: Jane Brox uses first person "I'' to narrate the essay.
What: A woman moved to a city where she was beginning to forget the life she used to live.
Where: Inside her house looking out the window.
When: Nighttime
Why: The author is beginning to forget about the dark sky that used to scare her.
How: The author compares and contrasts the night sky she sees now to the night sky she used to see in the past.
Tool 24:
I. The nighttime sky from the past
II. The darkness of the sky at night
III. The feelings of fear from the dark sky
IV. The experience of the night sky before artificial light
V. Present town
VI. Comparison between human light and starlight
VII. Attempt to feel the night sky
Fats by Hilton Als
ReplyDeleteTool #25
Who: Fats Waller, an American Jazz pianist
What: The life of Fats Waller
Where: The Clouds and Harlem, New York
When: Waller's childhood, adulthood, and death
Why: The author writes about the positive influence Waller had on people's lives.
How: The author compares the positivity of Waller to the comfort of an uncle who sneaks you a $5 bill as a child.
Tool #24
I. Positivity
II. Father's disapproval
III. Living the luxury life as a musician
IV. The comfort of living a luxurious life
V. Death after fame
VI. Happiness after death
The Fan by Eduardo Galeano
ReplyDeleteTool 25
Who: The fan
What: Pilgrimage to the stadium
Where: The stadium
When: The day of the match on Sunday
Why: Because what people hold sacred may not be religion, but may be a team
How: Religious groups are similar to that of the fans which is comparable by their devotion to the team.
Tool 24
A description of the gathering of fans in the stadium every week
A sense of community with other fans
Celebration of the teams’ victory
The fan leaves with feelings of melancholy
A Phone Call with My Father by Paul Lisicky
ReplyDeleteTool #25
Who – Dad, Mom, and Son
What – Son and Dad recognizing mothers illness
Where – Parent’s house
When – After years of marriage
Why – Mother ailing memories
How –Son and dad talk, the subject of who they would like to meet in heaven come up.
Tool #24
Phone conversation about heaven
Remembrance of former and current self
Recognizing
Reassurance of future
-Gelynne Agustin