Prose: Telling a Story, Making a Point
1. Journal I (Prewriting)
2. Student Example of Journal I
3. Assignment for Telling a Story, Making a Point
4. About-the-Author Assignment
5. Readings for the Unit
6. Examples of Leads (Introductions)
7. Reflection Assignment
Journal I – EN 111 Composition I: Rhetorical Discourse
Instructor: Kim Chism Jasper • Avila University, Spring 2016
… I began remembering the neighbors from my country childhood who had lost jobs, the
discouraged men, the bruised women, the hungry kids begging food at school, patches on
their clothes, rain leaking through the roofs of their shacks, hurt leaking from their
voices. Instead of fretting over my own future, I sat on the train making notes about those
faces, recovering those voices, recalling stories from the Ohio Valley, describing people
and places I thought I had left forever, and in that way, ambushed by memory, I finally
write a few lines worth keeping.
–Scott Russell Sanders, Writing from the Center (emphasis added)
Instructions: Select three to six of the following prompts to address.
Length requirement: four double-spaced typed pages (MLA format)
Points Possible: Journal I: 20 points (five points per full page); MLA format: 5 points
Due date: Upload to Canvas prior to beginning of class, Sept. 1 and bring a hard copy
to class (-5)
Provide the numbers for the prompts you use; divide into paragraphs within prompts. (-5)
This journal is meant to help you spark memories and ideas that you may want to expand
for an upcoming writing assignment; such writing is an invention technique to help get
ideas down on paper. You are not expected to turn in complete essays; go where the
writing takes you, even if you get off topic … in fact, maybe especially if you get off
topic. Write as much or as little as you want/can on the topics, within the parameters
above (no less than three; no more than six).
1. Write a list of “firsts” (first car, first job, first scar, first kiss, first lie, first bicycle,
first doll, first time in a certain situation/setting, etc.) Write about one or more of
these “firsts,” using sensory details and telling how you felt about what happened.
2. Write about the places you live or have lived (physically and/or metaphorically). How
have you been shaped by the places you have lived or visited? These places can be
physical (the kitchen table) or metaphorical (your dreams as you paint), private or public.
3. Describe some of the memorabilia (possibly souvenirs) you have collected during the
years. What does your collection tell you about yourself? Consider looking at photos,
scrapbooks, ticket stubs, etc. to spark your memories.
4. What’s your style? Describe a memorable haircut or two. Or describe a pair of shoes
that changed your life (or a pair of shoes you wanted but didn’t get). Or describe an outfit
and the circumstances surrounding the wearing of it. Or write about a time you were
inappropriately dressed for an occasion.
5. What are some of your memories associated with elementary school, middle school
and/or high school? Provide some brief anecdotes. Do you notice any connections?
6. “What role do factors such as family, ethnic, or religious traditions play in your food
choices? If you find it hard to try foods from different cultures, why do you think that
is?” (p. 20 The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing 10th ed.) Explore the role of food in your life
and what it tells others about you and your culture. What is a meal/snack you remember
sharing with your family or friends? Why is it significant?
7. Describe three objects/possessions (real or imagined, concrete or abstract, realistic or
metaphorical) that capture your essence. (Adapted from Kit Gorrell)
8. The significance of objects can change over time. For instance, to a young girl, a
Barbie doll is a toy; to an older woman it might be a symbol of oppression and sexism.
What is an object whose meaning has changed for you? Explain. (Adapted from Kit
Gorrell)
9. Describe a presence in your house (childhood home/current place of residence)—a
person, a pet, a piece of furniture, an illness, a secret. Use all five senses. Be as detailed
as possible.
10. Write about a situation when someone made a biased judgment about you or acted
unfairly toward you because of your age, skin color, clothes you were wearing, gender,
your speech, where you live, how much money your family has, or some other reason.
11. Go back in your memory to when you were 10 years old (or choose another age). Go
back to the places where you lived and played. Start remembering who was there and
what it was like. Write about the people and that child who lived there: the child who still
lives within you. (p. 95 Writing and Being: Embracing Your Life through Creative
Journaling by G. Lynn Nelson)
12. “Recall a time when the emotional impact of an event that happened to someone else
was powerful enough to affect your behavior, decisions or actions for the day or longer.
Consider the lessons of your reactions.” (p. 25 The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing 10th ed.)
This could be something you have read about or seen.
13. Do you have a “family” story you always tell or one that is told to you? What is that
story? How and why is it important?
14. Write about a simple object that has significance for you. Describe the object and
explain its value and significance.
15. Write you own prompt. In this case, provide the prompt.
K.K.
Professor Jasper
English 111
4 Sept. 2014
Journal I Student Example
7. The best advice I’ve ever gotten, or certainly one of the top five tidbits of
knowledge passed upon me, came from my former boss and mentor, Jay Ray Arviso. I
wrote a small piece on him last week, but only skimmed the surface of his motivational
speaking skills. The kind of person that controlled the room as soon as he walked in. His
advice was typically handed down from his boss, fellow Navajo Tribe members, or more
likely Confucius. One that his boss always told him was the key to success. “The most
important key to success is waking up” It sounded simple when I first heard it, almost
stupid, but now it has multiple meanings. It’s true, you can’t accomplish much of
anything if you’re not conscious, but it’s also getting off your ass when you are awake,
making the harder decisions in life. Because we all know how the right decisions are
almost always the harder ones. Everyone’s heard wake up, and smell the roses, which I
believe has nothing to do with sleep or flowers. To me, it’s about opening your eyes to
new beginnings, while appreciating the simpler things in life. No, no, I’m sure of it.
Another thing he repeatedly said went completely against setting realistic goals.
“Fuck that!” he’d yell. Everyone always sets mediocre standards in their life because
they’re afraid of failure. Or they have no confidence or faith in themselves. “I’m a
realist,” he’d say in a condescending tone, “No, you’re a loser. If you shoot for the roof
you’ll land on your ass, but if you shoot for the moon, you’ll land on the roof.” Oh, and
how could I forget the fury that was unleashed whenever the word try, trying, tried, or
any variation of the word was even uttered near him? “I’ll try is an empty promise, I’m
trying is admitting defeat, and I tried is an
excuse…elbows and assholes.” He’d say. “Did you TRY to put your shoes on this
morning, or did you just do it?” I think he owes royalties to Nike, but it’s so true, don’t
hesitate, second guess, or have doubts. Set your goals beyond what realist think is
attainable and just do it. That’s something that has always resonated with me, and
hopefully always will.
4. I was born in the small town of Randolph, Nebraska. Current population is whopping
932, but was actually higher when I lived there. Inhabited by primarily Catholic
farmers… or is it farming Catholics? In any case, my entire family, mother’s side,
father’s side, all raised cattle, pig, corn, and soybean. Luckily, I moved when I was one,
before the daily chores got too intense. That didn’t stop my uncles from forcing me into
manual labor every year when I “visited” during summer break. I can still smell the cow
shit.
Phoenix, Arizona was where my ashamed, divorced, Catholic mother took my
siblings and me. Shortly after my father moved nearby in Glendale to be closer to us.
Though we didn’t see him much due to him working numerous minimum wage jobs just
to keep up with child support payments. I guess his skills learned on the farm didn’t lead
to anything lucrative in the big city. Other than hard work, which was proven when he
retired to a 40 acre ranch in Colorado, less than twenty years later by simply working a
butt load of overtime at the Home Depot and putting half of his paychecks into employee
stock options (thanks for the socks on Christmas and 20 bucks for my birthday)…I
digress.
At the age of six my mother came back from a “business trip.” Well, turned out,
she was in Las Vegas marrying a guy none of us even knew about. When she returned,
she introduced him, saying, “We just got married, and went to Fort Myers, Florida for our
honeymoon and oh yeah, we’re all moving to Fort Myers next week. Halfway through
the school year I went from a straight A student to failing first grade. You heard right, I
failed first grade. I don’t think it had as much to do with the stress of moving across the
country with some stranger as it did the difference in education levels between the two
states. This may be an exaggeration, but I strictly remember going from my A,B,C’s in
Phoenix to three and four letter words in Fort Myers. Only one four letter word, which
wasn’t in my vocabulary at the time, could describe the overwhelming feeling I had that
year. I enjoyed living in Florida, and to this day, when someone asks where I’m from, I
always respond with, “Florida, Go Gators!” My new step dad was a good provider. I
remember trips to Disney World, Bush Gardens, MGM, Universal Studios, etc. However
he wasn’t much of a role model in my eyes. He was a real estate agent that specialized in
the lower income housing. Basically, he was a slum lord, but a good provider. He and
my mother split after a few years. She later met a manic depressive, bipolar, pot head.
That relationship somehow lasted longer than all of her previous two combined. But I’m
supposed to be writing about where I lived...
Nearly 10 years after arriving to Florida, I moved back to Arizona, this time to
live with my father. It was the end of my freshman year in high school and this is NOT
an exaggeration: Going into my sophomore “English” class they were still teaching
grammar, punctuation, and spelling. My teachers actually wanted me to skip a year but I
guess I became fond of the maturity level of my younger classmates. Our English class
was more of a language class to
over 80% of my schools demographic, the way Spanish class was to less than 5% of my
school population. I think I’ll stop at that, my former residences get a little crazy after
high school.
I eventually graduated by the skin of my teeth. I have no idea how, I put no effort
into it. Well, maybe a little. I was a jack of all trades and a master of none. I played five
sports each school year, but only lettered in one. I was on the student council but rarely
attended meetings. And I worked two jobs in the hopes that my cheap father would at
least co-sign for my car insurance in the event that I could afford a car. However, back
then I was pretty half-assed at saving money too…Still am.
6. The pair of shoes that changed my life…Seriously!?!? Is this a metaphor for
something else or do students actually describe, in great lengths, how a pair of shoes
changed their lives? No, it’s got to be metaphor…right? Yes, like when I was first
issued a pair combat boots in the Air Force. That actually did change my life. Looking
back it seemed as though once they laced ever so tightly around my feet, leaving marks
on my ankles like shackles, they stayed on. And they wouldn’t be removed for over 10
years. More on my Air Force career later as I don’t want to put all my eggs in one
basket.
English 111 (Sections 01, 04) Composition I: Rhetorical Discourse
Telling A Story, Making a Point • Writing Assignment #1 • Spring 2016
What sticks to memory, often, are those odd little fragments that have no beginning and no end.
– Tim O’Brien, “Spin,” The Things They Carried
All due dates subject to change.
Invention Techniques:
• Journal Writing
• Finding the Kernel
• Focused Freewriting
• Brainstorming Titles
• Drafting (Discovery Drafts and Rough Draft)
Article/Essay Assignment (focusing on narrative – telling a story)
Tell a story from your memory (call it memoir or autobiography, if you like). The story
should be about an event or incident that will engage readers and that will help them see
the significance of the event. The story should have a point beyond just relating an
incident. This is where you (and your reader) might ask, “So what?” (All good writing
has a point.)
OR
Enlighten the reader by writing about the significance of an ordinary object. The story
should engage readers and help them see the significance of the object. The story should
have a point beyond just describing the object. This is where you (and your reader) might
ask, “So what?” (All good writing has a point.)
OR
Focus on a place or places that have played a role in making you the person you are.
Again, the story should engage readers and help them see the significance of the place(s).
The story should have a point besides just being a description. There is where you (and
your reader) might ask, “So what?” (All good writing has a point.)
For example, the essay may …
… reveal something about yourself/object/place that translates to the world at large
… share an “aha moment” that others can relate to or learn from
… provide a revelation or new insight for the reader
… show an ordinary incident/object/place in a way that is new to the reader
… illustrate the value of something simple
… cause the reader to consider something that often is overlooked
… develop an understanding of a larger concept/idea
You will write three Discovery Drafts (Down and Dirty) focusing on each of the above
sections. Then you will choose one of those writings to expand into the final paper.
About the Author and Introduction to the Piece; Upload a Selfie Too
Examples:
Richard Estrada was an associate editor of the Dallas Morning News editorial page and a
syndicated columnist whose essays appeared regularly in the Washington Post and other
major newspapers. In this essay, Estrada addresses the issue of whether sports teams
should use names and images associated with Native Americans. For him, the answer is
easy: The practice of using people as mascots is dehumanizing.
Sherman Alexie is a poet, fiction writer, and filmmaker known for witty and frank
explorations of the lives of contemporary Native Americans. A Spokane/Coeur d’Alene
Indian, Alexie was born in 1966 and grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in
Wellpinit, Washington. His book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was a
national Book Award winner. Alexie attended the tribal school on the Spokane
reservation through the seventh grade, when he decided to seek a better education at an
off-reservation all-white high school. As this account in “Indian Education” makes clear,
he was not firmly at home in either setting.
Jenée Desmond-Harris is a staff writer at Root, an online magazine dedicated to African
American news and culture. She writes about the intersection of race, politics, and culture
in a variety of formats. The following selection was published in Root in 2011. It
chronicles Desmond-Harris’s reaction to the murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur in a Las
Vegas drive-by shooting in 1996 and explores how the rapper helped her find her
identity.
A passionate teacher and enthusiastic proponent of performance poetry, Taylor Mali is
the only person to have won the national poetry slam championship three times. He
studied acting with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company at Oxford University
and received a fellowship to develop a one-man show based on his experiences as a poet
and a teacher. In his book What Learning Leaves, Mali writes about the world of teaching
with humor and compassion. He explores classroom life with honesty because he’s been
there. He lives in Flat Iron, New York, with his wife and dog.
Assignment:
Write a similar introduction for your Paper #1 assignment due Tuesday, Sept. 22.
This introduction should be written in third person and should include biographical
information and a short introduction to Paper #1 Telling a Story. You might consider
using the one-sentence summary about your paper’s focus. (5 points)
Readings and Texts:
In class: “Things That Make Hearts Break” by Tupac Shakur (poetry)
In class: “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac Shakur (poetry)
In class: “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes (poetry)
In class: “Not Knowing, in Aztlán” by Tino Villanueva (poetry)
In class: “Spiral Notebook” by Ted Kooser (poetry)
In class: “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy (poetry)
In class: Excerpt from The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA
novel/fiction)
Sept. 1: “Storytelling Your Way to a Better Job Or a Stronger Start-Up,” New York Times
Sept. 3: “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexie (episodic)
Sept. 3: “Tupac and My Non-Thug Life” by Jenée Desmond-Harris (memoir/nonfiction)
Sept. 8: “Give That Little Girl an Ice Cream Cone” by Michael Lewis
(argument/nonfiction)
Sept. 10: “I Hate My Purse” by Nora Ephron (essay/nonfiction)
Sept. 10: “The ‘F’ Word” by Firoozeh Dumas (personal essay/memoir)
Sept. 15: Chapter 8 “As a Result” Connecting the Parts, They Say, I Say
Additional: “The Right Sari” by Anjali Vaidya (essay/nonfiction)
Additional: “Where I Live” by Nora Ephron (essay/nonfiction)
Additional: “Spellnig Be” by S.J. (student example; episodic)
Additional: “What Are You?” by A.S. (student example; subheads)
To show writing with specifics:
Poem: “Otherwise” by Jane Kenyon
Poem: “On the Back Porch” by Dorianne Laux
Some lead paragraphs (beginnings) to consider:
1.
I pointed the gun at the ground and pulled the trigger. Nothing came out. So I pointed it at
his midsection and pulled again, thinking the gun was empty. No such luck. Two pellets released
simultaneously and hit him square in the stomach.
– Keith, grade 12
–This Time It’s Personal: Teaching Academic Writing Through Creative Nonfiction
by John S. O’Connor
2.
But this too is true: stories can save us. I’m forty-three years old, and a writer now, and
even still, right here, I keep dreaming Linda alive. And Ted Lavender, too, and Kiowa, and Curt
Lemon, and a slim young man I killed, and an old man sprawled beside a pigpen, and several
others, whose bodies I once lifted and dumped into a truck. They’re all dead. But in a story,
which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world.
–“The Lives of the Dead,” The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
3.
One year ago almost to the day, I asked my hairdresser to cut off 16 inches of my hair It
was a pre-emptive strike. A few days later I would admitted to the oncology unit at Mount Sinai
Hospital in Manhattan to undergo chemotherapy to treat leukemia. Everyone knows that chemo
takes your hair. I wanted to take control of what I could before the poison did its damage. But I
left the hair salon in tears, my braids in a plastic bag.
–“Finding My Cancer Style” by Suleika Jaouad
4.
Sepllnig Be
B-R-E-K-F-A-S-T, breakfast.
“No, that’s not right. You may sit down.”
So I sat down and started to cry. I had worked so hard for that spelling bee, but now all of
that hard work meant nothing. My friend Jamie was there to comfort me, so I knew everything
would be okay. Even so, Mrs. Sullivan has had it out for me ever since that day at recess. The kid
before me got the word ant.
Someone else went up to stand at the chopping block. “Your word is cots.”
–Shelby J., grade 12 (SHS)
The Nightmare of Nights
5.
“Are you OK, Arianna? Answer me! Are you ok?” That was the question I heard from
Ricky the moment the crash happened. I remember that moment too vividly. I was scared to
death, didn’t know what was happening. The most frightening part of this story is that the car
crash was the highlight of my night. It was truly a nightmare, and I couldn’t wake up from it.
–Arianna B. (AU 2014)
Paper #1 Reflection (10 points)
Thinking Critically About What You Have Learned
Part One: Working with Your Hard Copy (Printed Copy)
1. In the left margin, number the paragraphs in your paper.
2. Underline (with pen or pencil) some of the places you have pulled the reader through
and provided cohesiveness. Label these as to which cohesive devices you used. If you
want to provide a key, you may.
3. Highlight places where you have provided vivid and specific details. Highlight at
least two such examples in your paper. Choose the best examples.
4. Highlight the draft and/or the final copy where you have revised the paper. In the
margin, provide a written conversation, telling me what you have added, omitted,
revised, etc. and any other pertinent information. In other words, share your revision
process.
Part Two: Reflecting on the Process
On a separate sheet of paper, type answers to the reflection questions below; print and
turn in with the rest of your folder. Refer to paragraph numbers to provide specific
examples.
1. What are the strengths of your piece? (In other words, what did you do well?) Consider
writing about the areas from the checklist. Consider your revisions, etc.
2. What are the weaknesses? What do you wish had worked better? If you could start
over on the assignment, what would you do differently? (Perhaps you tried to accomplish
something, but it just didn’t work. Tell me about that.) Again, consider writing about
areas on the checklist.
3. What is a one-sentence summary of your paper’s focus/purpose?
4. Was there anything in particular that helped you in the writing of this paper? Consider
the readings, the journaling, the discovery drafts, the rough draft, handouts and notes
(leads, conclusions, cohesive devices, etc.), the peer comments, teacher comments on
draft(s), or anything you did outside the class assignments.
5. What did we do that seemed like a waste of time to you? Explain.
6. Is there anything else you or I could have done to improve the experience and final
product? What would you change/add if you were giving this assignment?
7. Are you pleased/satisfied with the paper? Explain.