A FEW GOOGLE DOCS reminders:
1. Only put full essay drafts in the ESSAYS section. Everything else goes under MISC.
2. For subsequent drafts of essays, keep the assignments grouped together. So, for example, if you have three drafts of the descriptive essay, make sure they're all next to each other with the latest draft at the top.
VERY IMPORTANT: Do NOT revise or omit the draft that has my comments on it, and don't resolve the comments. I need to see those (and the essay exactly as you wrote it) when I go to grade the next draft. So just copy, paste it above, and then revise that new draft. But leave the old one and the old comments, ALL the old ones. Yes, this will end up being a very long doc.
3. REVIEW MY COMMENTS in your writing even if you got full credit for that assignment. I'll often give full credit and still add instruction in the document.
4. Write everything in 1.15 spacing. I know you've learned that double spacing is the norm, but that's really only for papers that you're printing up or publishing. Because we're keeping everything in one doc, tighter spacing is better.
YOUR WORK FOR THE REST OF THIS WEEK:
1. Revise your 6 paragraphs from last week. If you got a 100/100 then you have nothing to revise.
2. Write ONE paragraph summarizing the four "Google docs reminders" points in red above. Come up with a clear topic sentence [highlight it, and remember it doesn't have to go at the top] and write your paragraph. Keep it succinct: 50 - 75 words should do it.
3. Read each essay below. Hopefully you can see that descriptive essays have a lot of purposes and that all of them go beyond description for description's sake. Whether it reflects, informs, or entertains, a descriptive essay should have a point!
A descriptive article by Annie Dillard. She's describing an activity that was an integral part of her childhood. Notice how she's doing a lot of reflecting as she describes. Description for its own sake makes for boring and pointless writing (unless of course your teacher asks you to do it as an exercise, like last week). The point for Dillard is the reflection. The mode she uses is description.
A descriptive essay by Flannery O'Connor. (make sure you go to the 2nd page). This is an excellent example of the descriptive mode with a lot of the author's voice coming through. She's describing life with peacocks, but you're learning a lot about what kind of person she is. You'll like Flannery (and probably peacocks) by the end.
A descriptive essay by yours truly. I'm not really describing lilacs, I'm describing the activity of seeing. It's reflective, but not in the childhood-reminiscing way of Dillard. It's reflective in the I-wonder-and-you-should-wonder-too sort of way. My point is to make you think, but my mode is description. This one is also printed at the back of LBGB if you'd rather have an old-fashioned book in your hand. It's on page 110. (By the way, the strange title refers to an old Walt Whitman poem about Abe Lincoln called "When Lilacs Last in the Doorway Bloom'd.")
4. For each of the essays above, write a short summary that includes...
I. the author's name
II. title of the essay
III. main points
IV. [50+ words] conclusion (What's the point? What does he or she want us to take from the writing?)
For example, here's one I wrote just now on the book of Romans:
"The book of Romans" by the apostle Paul is a letter to the Christians of Rome. Paul discusses such things as the universal problem of sin, justification by faith, new life in Christ, and the future of Israel. He concludes the letter with some practical ways of living out the Christian life."
Your summaries don't need to be any longer than that, but they must be at least 50+ words.
5. Write a descriptive essay on a thing (object, place, activity, idea, work of art, etc.) of significance in your life. (See below for help on finding a topic.) If you're not sure that your "thing" qualifies, run it by me. I'm flexible. I know the course description includes the option of writing about a person, but I changed my mind on that. Your thing cannot be a person. MOST of your writing in this draft should be in the descriptive mode (as opposed to the narrative mode where you're telling a story or recounting an event. There can be some of that, but the focus of the writing should be to describe. And remember, every essay must have a point. Describe away, but do it with a purpose. No one wants to read about your grandma's attic, unless there's a good point to it.
1. 800-word minimum (to get a sense of scale, the 4 essays you read are each in the 1000 to 2000 word range); this figure may go up depending on what happens with subsequent drafts. For example, I may ask you to add a paragraph or more detail or other support. I also may ask you to cut something, which would then require more be added. We'll see.
2. Organization. This too may change with revision, but you need to make a first attempt at intro, body, conclusion (beginning, middle, end). The essays you read each have these parts, though they may be hard to decipher because of the variety in paragraph and style.
We'll do a second draft of this essay next week.
2. free-write - force your hand (or fingers if you're typing) to write continually for five minutes about significant things in your world. This may feel foolish as you can think of nothing to write (but the rule is you HAVE to write) so you write, "I can't think of what to write" a hundred times. Stick with it. On the 101st time, something will click and you're off!
3. Look for categories to drop things into: hobbies, places, things in your bedroom, things your family likes to do, green things, circular things, whatever (the category is just a trick to get you into more "files" in the brain).
4. Draw a life map. Go through your years, one by one, and draw any "things" that you remember (you can always turn an event into a thing; for example, I had to do this assignment in college so I wrote about a memorable event from child by describing the airplane my grandpa owned. My point was reflection on the event of falling in love with flying, but the method was description of a thing)
5. If none of these work, ask your parents.
Due Friday at midnight.
YOUR WORK FOR THE REST OF THIS WEEK:
1. Revise your 6 paragraphs from last week. If you got a 100/100 then you have nothing to revise.
2. Write ONE paragraph summarizing the four "Google docs reminders" points in red above. Come up with a clear topic sentence [highlight it, and remember it doesn't have to go at the top] and write your paragraph. Keep it succinct: 50 - 75 words should do it.
3. Read each essay below. Hopefully you can see that descriptive essays have a lot of purposes and that all of them go beyond description for description's sake. Whether it reflects, informs, or entertains, a descriptive essay should have a point!
A descriptive article by Annie Dillard. She's describing an activity that was an integral part of her childhood. Notice how she's doing a lot of reflecting as she describes. Description for its own sake makes for boring and pointless writing (unless of course your teacher asks you to do it as an exercise, like last week). The point for Dillard is the reflection. The mode she uses is description.
A descriptive essay by Flannery O'Connor. (make sure you go to the 2nd page). This is an excellent example of the descriptive mode with a lot of the author's voice coming through. She's describing life with peacocks, but you're learning a lot about what kind of person she is. You'll like Flannery (and probably peacocks) by the end.
A descriptive essay by yours truly. I'm not really describing lilacs, I'm describing the activity of seeing. It's reflective, but not in the childhood-reminiscing way of Dillard. It's reflective in the I-wonder-and-you-should-wonder-too sort of way. My point is to make you think, but my mode is description. This one is also printed at the back of LBGB if you'd rather have an old-fashioned book in your hand. It's on page 110. (By the way, the strange title refers to an old Walt Whitman poem about Abe Lincoln called "When Lilacs Last in the Doorway Bloom'd.")
4. For each of the essays above, write a short summary that includes...
I. the author's name
II. title of the essay
III. main points
IV. [50+ words] conclusion (What's the point? What does he or she want us to take from the writing?)
For example, here's one I wrote just now on the book of Romans:
"The book of Romans" by the apostle Paul is a letter to the Christians of Rome. Paul discusses such things as the universal problem of sin, justification by faith, new life in Christ, and the future of Israel. He concludes the letter with some practical ways of living out the Christian life."
Your summaries don't need to be any longer than that, but they must be at least 50+ words.
5. Write a descriptive essay on a thing (object, place, activity, idea, work of art, etc.) of significance in your life. (See below for help on finding a topic.) If you're not sure that your "thing" qualifies, run it by me. I'm flexible. I know the course description includes the option of writing about a person, but I changed my mind on that. Your thing cannot be a person. MOST of your writing in this draft should be in the descriptive mode (as opposed to the narrative mode where you're telling a story or recounting an event. There can be some of that, but the focus of the writing should be to describe. And remember, every essay must have a point. Describe away, but do it with a purpose. No one wants to read about your grandma's attic, unless there's a good point to it.
This is a first draft, but it must meet these criteria:
1. 800-word minimum (to get a sense of scale, the 4 essays you read are each in the 1000 to 2000 word range); this figure may go up depending on what happens with subsequent drafts. For example, I may ask you to add a paragraph or more detail or other support. I also may ask you to cut something, which would then require more be added. We'll see.
2. Organization. This too may change with revision, but you need to make a first attempt at intro, body, conclusion (beginning, middle, end). The essays you read each have these parts, though they may be hard to decipher because of the variety in paragraph and style.
We'll do a second draft of this essay next week.
6. Little Black Grammar Book work...
a. Read the introduction and chapter 1 "Parts of Speech."
b. Summarize the introduction in one paragraph of 50+ words.
c. Define each of the 8 parts of speech (don't worry about the sub-categories [some parts of speech have lots of sub-categories]). Provide two short-sentence examples for each. You can use my examples as models, but as models only. Write your own.
d. Style & Usage: Explain the problem for each of these sections: Avoid Deadwood, Avoid Redundancy, Avoid Superfluity of Diction
e. Provide your own (correct) examples of these usage problems: all ready / already, __ and I / __ and me, more / most
For help in coming up with a topic, you might try one or more of these:
1. a brainstorm - take a few minutes to list every "thing" in your world you can think of; don't self-edit but write down even the silliest.2. free-write - force your hand (or fingers if you're typing) to write continually for five minutes about significant things in your world. This may feel foolish as you can think of nothing to write (but the rule is you HAVE to write) so you write, "I can't think of what to write" a hundred times. Stick with it. On the 101st time, something will click and you're off!
3. Look for categories to drop things into: hobbies, places, things in your bedroom, things your family likes to do, green things, circular things, whatever (the category is just a trick to get you into more "files" in the brain).
4. Draw a life map. Go through your years, one by one, and draw any "things" that you remember (you can always turn an event into a thing; for example, I had to do this assignment in college so I wrote about a memorable event from child by describing the airplane my grandpa owned. My point was reflection on the event of falling in love with flying, but the method was description of a thing)
5. If none of these work, ask your parents.
Due Friday at midnight.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK!
