Week 8

And the night shall be filled with music, And the cares that infest the day Shall fold their tents like the Arabs And as silently steal away. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Day Is Done Good day!  Today we will review the short essay assigned last week, in which you were to  discuss a news story or interesting item found in the news or circulating on the web.  You'll  have a little time to finish them and I'll walk around to help you should.  When we've done  reading and discussing some of the work, we'll move on to our next assignment, the personal  profile. You may work in pairs or small group for this piece. The idea is to create a portrait of one or  two of the individuals attending Ai and to bring out something of the shared student experience   and the individual nature of your subject(s).  As you are yourselves students here, you have that perspective and experience to aid you in the interview or dialogue, which is the first step to creating the student portrait. An alternative is to focus on someone outside the classroom for a portrait. The Character Profile or study requires you present a "portrait" of an individual.  It includes the  individual's background to some degree and a look into their current endeavors, activities, interests,  ideas and attitudes.  To put it together involves an interview of sorts,  a two-way exchange in which the pair members dialogue to come up with enough information and first-hand impressions to write  the piece. The purpose is to gather and then bring to readers a sense of the background, motivation,  and personality of the students pursuing specific degrees or interests here at AiFL.  It will be a chance  to exchange personal stories, interests and ideas with others.   The focus may be on academic matters  or personal.  The student's particulars should illustrate some central idea, your thesis.  Imagine the audience as students and others in the local community or any who would be interested to learn about the experiences, concerns, and interests of college students today.   Key will be eliciting from your  subject(s) detailed background experience and personal stories that reveal character and personality, and recording it all in such a way readers feel like they are meeting this student in person, seeing and hearing the student gesture and speak. Some questions to ask to get your subject's story include the following:      *What's this experience or period of your life really about? *What is the emotional truth of your life today? What matters?  *What do you feel good about, uncertain about? *How did you get to this point or place in life? *Describe a past or current struggle in some detail to show the kind of challenge you know best. *Who were the important people in your life? How did they influence or shape you? *What are your near and long term goals? -----------  Notes *Include a brief description of your meeting place, the setting of the interview. *Include notes on the subject's appearance, style, voice and gestures–the face-to-face impressions and image created by your subject.   *Use some quoted speech, something your subject has said that epitomizes or illustrates clearly his or her point of view. Q&A Form      There are two ways of structuring the piece.  One is to introduce the subject in an opening paragraph,  providing context and a lead-in that generates reader interest.  (See the introductory paragraph description  below for more details.)  Imagine a target audience of your peers or some other reader group.  Follow the  introductory paragraph with a transcript of the questions posed to your subject and the responses elicited.   Shape the dialogue so that the  questions and responses, from beginning to end, are expressive of the  subject's history, interests, and future prospects or concluding thoughts on this stage of life.  At the following URL you will see the format demonstrated:  http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1644040,00.html Essay Form       The second way of structuring the piece is to summarize much of what you learn from your subject, shape  the main story line around a theme, and illustrate the whole with a few well-chosen quotations from your subject.  The second way is the article or essay form, as described more fully below: In the introductory paragraph, the writer must say something of the personal impressions your subject makes  in a face-to-face meeting. We want readers to feel they are meeting this individual in person; of course the  impressions are those you have drawn in meeting and talking with your subject.   The body paragraph(s) will recount history  and current endeavors, any conflicts or issues the subject is adressing, and how they are being addressed.   The body material is meant to illustrate  the nature of the personality and character of the individual subject.  Again,  the pairs or groups will be talking and exchanging information in an informal flow of give and take as you establish rapport and commonalities and differences. You will take notes on each other, specific background information,  career goals, interests, concerns, etcetera, which later you will incorporate into the essay. You will unfold something  of the life of your subject to illustrate a point about students or student life today.  Your conclusion will bring the presentation back to the central idea, underscoring it, and providing final comments.  You may want to incorporate direct quotation of one or another remark your subject has made, as well, to give some  sense of the individual's actual speech or voice. Dialogue or direct quotation is a dramatic device and draws readers  into the presence of your subject. You may use present or past tense overall. Bringing a sense of the subject individual's physical presence is a means of creating interest and imaginative appeal. Description of hair, eyes, gestures, clothing,  in some brief but telling way will allow readers to actually "see" the subject person as they learn something of the story  he or she embodies in the role of student. The following is part of the opening paragraph of an article about Justin Bieber written by Vanessa Grigoriadias, and  published in Rollingstone(March3, 2011):    Today, I'm the luckiest girl in the world.  I'm flying to Atlanta to interview pop-culture crush, Justin Bieber.  He's only 16, it's true, but half of womankind is in love with him, like Kim Kardashian (who wanted to spend Valentine's Day with a life-size poster of him), Rihanna (who has tweeted about his six-pack) and Katy Perry (who once said, "I would tap that.  Yummy").  To the Biebers, Justing is the most adorable kid in the world.  I've watched his videos  at least a dozen times each, I own two of his three albums and I have him on my Twitter feed . . . . Assignment 7:  A 400-500 word portrait in words of a fellow student or an individual whose personality, character, or life merits a portrait.  Use visual description, dialogue, and narrative detail to bring your subject into clear view.   Title the piece.  Double-space the lines.  Due week 9.

Week 7

What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else. –Joseph Campbell
 

Good day to you all. I hope you had a nice weekend. Today I will pass back the many essays I collected last week (many very good ones).  We will review handouts, some grammar and punctuation practice.  Yeah!  Then we will have time to begin our next piece, the requirements of which I describe below.

Essay #6:  In 350-500 words address some topic of interest that you find recently in the news, be it a story, a video, an interesting or beautiful photograph, art work, recipe, fashion item, or new website (new to you).  You will want to describe the particulars of your subject. For example, a news story or report must be summarized to provide context; readers must be able to understand what you have read to understand the response or point you derive from it.  A photo, art piece, video, etcetera, must also be described in such a way that readers can well imagine what it looks like (you may also embed an image but still the written description is a thing apart) and the cultural or aesthetic appeal of it in light of your comments.  Give particulars of the source site so that readers could, if they wanted to, find their way to the story or item addressed in your essay.  You should imagine your audience our class and all others who appreciate being shown or told something that might otherwise have escaped their notice.  Therefore, choose a subject that really registers in some way so that your interest and humor and "passion" or heartfelt concern register too.


Now I'm no expert in art, but at the following link, on a page recently sent me by a friend, is the work of remarkable street artist: http://www.zimbio.com/Edgar+Mueller/articles/2/Edgar+Mueller+Amazing+3D+Sidewalk+Paintings


At the link that follows, you will find an essay example that more or less illustrates the essay you've been assigned:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-chavez/rolling-blackouts-silence_b_857252.html

Week 6

Good day. I hope you are feeling well, and that you enjoyed yourself over the  weekend.  Today we have several things to do:  review the summary work assigned last, review the essays describing a hypothetical change in your life circumstances and the use of conditional and subjunctive verb tense,  and address some matters of sentence construction and grammar. Finally, I will have you write a short essay in class on one of the topics listed below.. . . . . . .



Midterm essay:  compose a one-three paragraph essay of about 200-350 words. The main idea or topic sentence should be clear. Readers expect you to make a clear point and not to wonder if they have missed something.  If the main idea is stated directly (explicitly) in the essay,  underline it. If it is implicit (i.e. not stated anywhere but clearly implied from all you've written), write it below the finished essay. The bulk of the paragraph should develop the topic idea by means of description, specific details and examples, brief narration, commentary and observation (your thoughts on the matter), and so on.  Provide enough support to carry your point well.  The opening sentence should provide a smooth lead-in and/or statement of the essay's central idea (topic idea). The final sentences should be winding up the discussion to provide a sense of finish. 
Title the essay.



Here are the prompts for the essay, with the final one open to your own inclinations. Choose only one of the topics. Remember, you will have one major point to make and support, building the essay around this point (topic or thesis).
1. Lost–description and narration.
2. An unwelcome guest–description and narration.

3. A challenging subject–description and illustration.
4. A healthy diet–a definition.
5. Going out on a limb–the risks and rewards.
6. An inspiring person or idea.
7. A recent discovery.
8. Any topic you would like to explore in this one-paragraph essay.

I will collect the papers at the end of the class. Do not use the Internet for content in this essay.

Week 5

Everything speaks. –James Joyce Good day to you all. I hope you had a nice weekend.       Today we will review the summary piece assigned last week, particularly your use of quotations.  We will also look at the sentences you developed to illustrate ways of listing items.      We will focus as well on verb tense use, in ways I hope will make the proper tense  choice, simple past or present perfect, for example, clearer, including use of the  subjunctive and conditional verb tenses.       So today we can take some time to consolidate some of the skills and  principles of composition introduced thus far. Here's to a good day! Essay 4: In 350-500 words you are to explore a hypothetical scenario, that is, one that  never actually existed, in terms of its effects on your past, present, and future.  This essay will require you reference both the past, present, and future tense.   In doing so, you will necessarily use the subjunctive mood and conditional (modal) tense forms.   Imagine that you had been born under or into circumstances other than those you were born into; for example, a different place and/or historical era, a different family, a different body (or species),  and so on.  Describe what your childhood was actually like, and what it might have been like (under  the changed circumstances); what your present life might be like (as opposed to what is actually  happening);and what you imagine happening in your future, actually or hypothetically. Title the essay.  Proofread it to make sure you have a clear central idea and adequate support.  Edit your sentences for clarity of expression and grammatical correctness.      You might start in this way:  Had I been born an only child, instead of being born the fifth child  of six, I might have got more attention than I did.  I might have been spoiled!  My parents, particularly my mother, had little time and attention to spare, afterall . . . Review the class handout and verb tense sequencing here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/601/1/ and here:  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/539/07/