Reading and Writing from Literature
I. A Conversation Model of Writing and Reading 1. Why Don't You Let It Out Then? Three Writers A Conversation Model of Writing and Reading Activities for Writing Readings: Tillie Olsen, excerpt from Yonnondio: From the Thirties; Gary Soto, "Behind Grandma's House" 2. Making New Texts from Old: Intertextuality A Four-Step Process for Writing from Reading Applying the Four-Step Process Reading: Peter Sharpe, "Waiting for the Idiot to Go Away" Activities for Writing Readings: Ellen Goodman, "Live-In Myths"; Barbara Crooker, "Patty's Charcoal Drive-In"; Antoine de Saint-Exupery, excerpt from Night Flight Incident: "Humans and Other Animals" Picture: Grant Wood, American Gothic 3. Building a Reading Notebook: Ten Ideas for Writing from Reading Famous Writers at Work Using Reading as a Springboard for Writing Ten Ideas for Writing in a Reading Notebook Review List of the Ten Ideas for Writing Activities for Writing Readings: Elizabeth Bowen, "The Demon Lover"; Katharine Brush, "Birthday Party"; Sloan Wilson, excerpt from The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit; Cullen Murphy, "The Utmost Measures" 4. "Hurry Notes": Keeping a Commonplace Book What You Think Honor Your Thoughts by Writing Them Down Why Take Notes? Sample Published and Unpublished Notes Collecting Quotations Four Ways to Use Your Notes Activities for Writing 5. Writing in Diverse Forms: The Topic/Form Grid Activities for Writing II. Writing Essays About Literature 6. Ways of Planning: Thinking and Writing Recursively Putting Essays About Literature into Context Cultivating Recursive Habits of Thinking Writing Mini-Essays to Practice Concise Expression Sharing and Learning in a Small Group Techniques for Note Taking in Small Groups Finding a Topic: Rereading (and Writing from) the Writing You Have Already Done Turning Your Favorite Interest into a Workable Topic Developing a "Working Thesis" Planning Your Essay: Quick-Writing Planning Your Essay: Listing and Sequencing Getting Feedback from a Peer or a Small Group Activity for Writing Checklist of Activities for Planning an Essay About Literature 7. Ways of Drafting: Building a Barn in a Tornado Beginning with Limited Expectations Two Ways of Drafting From Throwaway Draft to Rough Draft Checklist of Activities for Drafting 8. Ways of Revising: Caring and Not Caring Putting Revision into Context Global and Local Revisions A Checklist of Questions for Looking Critically at Your Draft Postdraft Outlining Having Other People Outline Your Draft Getting Writer-Initiated Feedback Developing Your Essay with Illustrative Quotations and Examples Local Revision: Copyediting Your Text "Lightning" Revision: Reading Your Writing Aloud to a Peer or a Small Group Checklist of Activities for Revising 9. Writing Arguments What Is Argument? Argument Is Dialogic Analysis of a Sample Argument: Barbara Kingsolver, "The One-Eyed Monster, and Why I Don't Let Him In" Steps for Writing an Argument A Sample Essay, "Apocalypse in a Teacup: William Blake's 'The Clod and the Pebble'" 10. Writing Literature-Based Research Papers Introductory Remarks Keeping a Research Log Preresearch Steps to Narrow Your Focus and Save Time An Example of the Preresearch Process Identifying Useful Sources of Information Locating and Keeping Track of Sources Reading Efficiently: Consult the Table of Contents, Index, and Bibliography Citing Your Sources: Quoting, Summarizing, and Paraphrasing Incorporating Outside Sources into Your Essay 11. Documenting Research Essays Troy's Final Essay Excerpts from Troy's Log When You Need to Cite or Acknowledge a Source MLA Documentation Style Preparing Your List of Works Cited III. Creating a Writing Portfolio 12. Making the Works: Twelve Strategies for Revising 1. Start Over: Consult Chapter 3 2. Start Over: Rewrite Using a Topic/Form Grid 3. Use the "Checklist of Questions for Looking Critically at Your Draft" 4. Do a Postdraft Outline 5. Have Other People Outline Your Draft 6. Ask Yourself Other Questions Appropriate to the Draft 7. Get Writer-Initiated Feedback 8. "Lightning" Revision: Read Your Writing Aloud to a Peer or a Small Group 9. Break the Revision Task into Smaller Steps 10. Take Advantage of Small Bits of Time 11. Use Your Small Notepad or Commonplace Book 12. Try Various Miscellaneous Revision Strategies Checklist of Strategies for Revising Activities for Writing 13. Assembling Your Final Portfolio Writing an Introduction to Your Portfolio Choosing and Interpreting Your Sample Annotations Preparing a Selection of Your Favorite Shorter Notes Steps for Choosing and Revising a Favorite Longer Creative Text Local Revising: Copyediting Your Text Preparing a Preface to Your Longer Creative Selection(s) Preparing a Process Memorandum to Accompany Complete Process Work for One of Your Final Selections IV. An Introduction to the Major Genres 14. Short Stories Point of View Characters Dialogue Plot Theme and Setting 15. Poetry Major Types of Poetry Speaker and Situation Poetic Meter Rhyme and Sound Effects Diction and Syntax Figurative Language Symbolism 16. Essays Sample Essay: Judith Ortiz Cofer's "Primary Lessons" Persona and Voice Style and Language Theme Dialogue Story Citations of Other Texts; Allusions 17. Plays Setting Characters and Plot Dialogue 18. Notebooks and Journals An Ideal Democracy of Thoughts The Art of the Reflective Pause Cultivating the Private Life Make Your Own Walden Generic Ideas for Writing in Response to Published Notebooks and Journals Activities for Writing and Discussion V. An Introduction to Figurative Language 19. Figurative Language Metaphor Steps for Analyzing or "Unpacking" a Metaphor Metaphors of the Human Mind Simile Paradox Irony Verbal Irony Personification Metonymy and Synecdoche Symbolism Activities for Writing and Discussion VI. A Thematic Anthology of Readings 20. Gender and Relationships Short Stories Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour" Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, "The Other Wife" Doris Lessing, "A Woman on a Roof" Ray Bradbury, "[A Story About Love]" Claire Kemp, "Keeping Company" Raymond Carver, "Call If You Need Me" Poems Po-Chu-I, "Rejoicing at the Arrival of Ch'en Hsiung" William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 William Blake, "The Clod & the Pebble" Walt Whitman, "I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ" --, "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing" Christina Rossetti, "Margery" --, "In an Artist's Studio" Thomas Hardy, "At Tea" --, "In the Room of the Bride-Elect" --, "Outside the Window" Ezra Pound, "The River-merchant's Wife: A Letter" Robert Bly, "In Rainy September" Adrienne Rich, "Living in Sin" --, "Novella" Derek Walcott, "The Young Wife" Tomioka Taeko, "Just the Two of Us" Diane Wakoski, "Belly Dancer" Sharon Olds, "Sex Without Love" Liz Rosenberg, "In the End, We Are All Light" Nonfiction/Essays Francine du Plessix Gray, "On Friendship" Scott Russell Sanders, "Looking At Women" Plays Susan Glaspell, Trifles Terrence McNally, Andre's Mother Gender and Relationships: Additional Activities for Writing and Discussion Interchapter on Notebooks and Journals (I) The Notebook as "Pure" Poetry: Joseph Joubert 21. Families Short Stories Guy de Maupassant, "The Olive Grove" James Joyce, "Eveline" Tillie Olsen, "I Stand Here Ironing" Tobias Wolff, "The Rich Brother" Gloria Naylor, "Kiswana Browne" Poems William Carlos Williams, "The Last Words of My English Grandmother" Theodore Roethke, "My Papa's Waltz" Anna Swir, "I Wash the Shirt" --, "The Greatest Love" Gwendolyn Brooks, "Sadie and Maud" Charles Bukowski, "my old man" Donald Hall, "My Son My Executioner" A. K. Ramanujan, "Self-Portrait" Ted Kooser, "Father" Sharon Olds, "The Elder Sister" Linda Hogan, "Heritage" Yusef Komunyakaa, "My Father's Love Letters" Timothy Young, "The Thread of Sunlight" Deb Casey, "ZOOOOOOOM" Rita Dove, "Fifth Grade Autobiography" Sharon Hashimoto, "Eleven A.M. on My Day Off, My Sister Phones Desperate for a Babysitter" Debra Kang Dean, "Taproot" Nonfiction/Essays Joy Harjo, "The Place of Origins" Fenton Johnson, "The Limitless Heart" Barbara Kingsolver, "Letter to My Mother" Plays Joyce Carol Oates, Tone Clusters Milcha Sanchez-Scott, The Cuban Swimmer Families: Additional Activities for Writing and Discussion Interchapter on Notebooks and Journals (II) "The Stories of How We Lived": Joy Harjo 22. Experience and Identity Short Stories D. H. Lawrence, "The Rocking-Horse Winner" Katherine Mansfield, "Miss Brill" William Faulkner, "Barn Burning" Naguib Mahfouz, "Zaabalawi" Annette Sanford, "Nobody Listens When I Talk" Toni Cade Bambara, "The Lesson" Alice Walker, "The Flowers" Poems William Blake, "Proverbs of Hell" --, "The Tyger" William Wordsworth, "I wandered lonely as a cloud" Walt Whitman, "To You" --, "A Noiseless Patient Spider" Emily Dickinson, "Because I could not stop for Death" --, "One need not be a Chamber--to be Haunted--" --, "'Faith' is a fine invention" Thomas Hardy, "The Ruined Maid" Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Spring and Fall" Denise Levertov, "Contraband" Maya Angelou, "Seven Women's Blessed Assurance" Audre Lorde, "Hanging Fire" Mary Oliver, "The Black Snake" -- "Some Questions You Might Ask" Mark Rudman, "Chrome" Gary Soto, "Oranges" Nonfiction/Essays G. K. Chesteron, "A Defence of Humility" Maya Angelou, "Graduation" Edward Hoagland, "Learning to Eat Soup" Judith Ortiz Cofer, "Primary Lessons" Rebecca Solnit, "The Disembodiment of Everyday Life" Plays Eugene O'Neill, The Hairy Ape Woody Allen, Death Knocks Experience and Identity: Additional Activities for Writing and Discussion Interchapter on Notebooks and Journals (III) "Pen and Paper and a Breath of Air": Mary Oliver 23. Individual and Society Short Stories Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Birthmark" James Thurber, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" Ray Bradbury, "The Murderer" Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., "Harrison Bergeron" Flannery O'Connor, "Everything That Rises Must Converge" Alice Walker, "Nineteen Fifty-five" Poems Shams-ud-din Muhammad (Hafiz), "Elephant Wondering" --, "For Three Days" --, "What Should We Do About that Moon?" Walt Whitman, excerpts from "Song of Myself" --, "I Sing the Body Electric" Emily Dickinson, "Much Madness is divinest Sense" --, "The Soul selects her own Society" --, "Tell all the Truth but te...