WEEK 4

Good morning!

First, here's a reminder about the posting schedule:

• Post 1 - 9/2
• Post 2 - 9/9
• Post 3 - 9/16
• Post 4 - 9/23 (work will be due Friday 10/4)
•  No post on 9/30
• Post 5 - 10/7
• Post 6 - 10/14
• Post 7 - 10/21 (work will be due Friday 11/1)
• No post on 10/28
• Post 8 - 11/4
• Post 9 - 11/10
• Post 10 - 11/17

YOUR WORK...

1. Unless I scored your descriptive essay as a final draft (It would look like this: Descriptive Essay FD), revise it one more time.. 


2. Read this post on narration.


3. Read this introduction to the form. It suggests some pre-writing strategies and exercises, but these are NOT assignments. You're welcome to do them, but I'm not assigning them as work. I only need you to read it.

(You MUST do #2 and #3, which show you what narrative writing is, before you do #4 and #5, which have you doing your own narrative writing.)

Just like we did with the descriptive essay, we'll start the narrative essay by practicing with some paragraphs first. In the next post I'll assign the actual essay. After that the pace increases to (roughly) a new essay every week. 


4. Using events from your lit source, write your own 100+ word paragraph for each type of event below. 

a. a character's interaction with another character
b. an event where something bad happens
c. an event where something good happens
d. an everyday occurrence (something mundane like Luke purchasing a new droid or Mr. Darcy writing a letter, or Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy going on a stag hunt)

Obviously, these won't be experiential (at least not to you, for a character maybe), but they will be narrative. And if you would like to write in the first person and pretend they're your experiences, knock yourself out.


5. Write FOUR narrative paragraphs (100+ words each) based on FOUR DIFFERENT PERSONAL EXPERIENCES FROM YOUR OWN LIFE. TWO OF THESE MUST COVER NO MORE THAN AN HOUR OF TIME. The time span of the other two are up to you. 

One of these may end up being your essay topic, but don't worry yet -- you're not committing to anything. The idea here is to practice the form and if some brainstorming leads to an essay topic, great. If not, you can worry about that next post. *See the brainstorm list below for help with topics.

6.  LBGB... You get a week off from LBGB. You're welcome! 



That's an essay revision (maybe), some reading, and 8 paragraphs. Put the paragraphs in the "MISC" section of your google doc. 

As usual, everything is due by Friday @ 5:00.


* I borrowed the following list from a writing resource. You can come up with your own ideas or use these to get things rolling. If nothing else, reading through it will at least give you a sense of the unlimited range of possible material for narration.

1. 1 wedding or funeral
2. one minute of a football game (or other sporting event)
3. your first day at a new school
4. your first day at a new job
5. your last day on a job
6. a disastrous encounter with someone of the opposite gender
7. a moment of failure or success
8. an encounter that changed your life
9. an experience that led to renewed faith
10. a strange job interview
11. an experience that demonstrated how labor-saving devices can be more trouble than they're worth
12. an experience that left you disillusioned
13. an embarrassing experience
14. a frightening experience
15. a memorable journey
16. an encounter with someone or something you were afraid of
17. an occasion when you experienced rejection
18. your first visit to the country (or to a large city)
19. the breakup of a friendship
20. an experience that showed how we should be careful of what we wish for
21. a significant misunderstanding
22. a dangerous experience
23. an experience that showed how appearances can be deceiving
24. an account of a difficult decision that you had to make
25. an event that marked a turning point in your life
26. a historic event
27. a memorable encounter with someone in authority
28. an act of heroism or cowardice
29. an imaginary encounter with a real person
30. a rebellious act
31. a brush with greatness
32. a brush with death
33. a time that you took a stand on an important issue
34. an experience that altered your view of someone
35. a trip that you would like to take
36. a vacation trip from your childhood
37. your introduction to a hobby you now love to do
38. your first time away from home
39. two different versions of the same event
40. a traffic accident
41. a day when everything went right (or wrong)
42. an experience that made you laugh until you cried
43. the day you decided to change your life
44. the experience of being lost
45. an unexpected encounter
46. surviving a hurricane or a tornado (or other natural disaster)
47. an experience that taught you a lesson
48. an important discovery
49. an eyewitness account of an important event
50. an experience that helped you grow up

HAVE A GREAT TWO WEEKS!