We used Ch 1 from LatWp as a frame for talking about how to plan to write a paper about a short story. The chapter emphasizes the importance of scoping out your audience (who you are writing your paper for) and purpose (what are you supposed to do in this paper?) as elements in your planning process - so we conducted our discussion of Eveline in two parts.
Focusing on the text. First - you talked in groups to think about what was "in" the story: what happened (plot), setting, characters, structure, point of view, tone, the way language is used, themes, symbols, turning points, how the story felt - and so on. This kind of exploration focuses on what is "there" - and provides you with a grounding in the story itself so you can move to the next step where you interpret or infer what these elements of the story say - and then begin to make connections among the different elements (plot, setting, structure etc) so that you can develop a focus for an essay.
As you shared your observations about what you saw in the story - we noticed that you were moving toward interpretations - what those features of the story meant, and working toward synthesis = pulling a set of interpreations together to say what the story is about as a whole. Clearly analysis of the story (what you were working on) is not separate from interpretation, synthesis and evaluation (terms from the book). At the same time, the challenge is to make sure to stay grounded in what is actually there in the text long enough to provide yourself with enough information so that you can write rich, complex interpretations that lead to full, complex essays which do not reduce these works of literature to platitudes and chiches.
Focusing on the assignment. Next we talked about how to write an essay for a particular assignment. Clearly, what you choose to focus on in a text will depend on the demands of the particular writing task or assignment. To give you some practice, we looked at an assignment to write a precis - a sort of summary/response essay. The assignment shee is posted to the right. As we observed in class the precise has five elements, though when you write a precis, you do not necessarily present those elements in the order they are listed on the assignment sheet.
We looked back through the list of observations about what we saw going on in Eveline and talked through the planning process for writing a precis.
Planning process for writing a precis.
1. Brainstorming to find a focus: doing some writing to identify a focus for your essay. This writing might include: freewriting about what in the story interests you; listing what is in the story (this is the exercise we did together in class); clustering (as a way to think about relationships/connections among elements in the text); associating to some of the symbols, themes, events, characters and then doing some clustering, and so on (other invention strategies are listed in your book).
2. Going back to the text to pick out the particular passages, language, or features of the text you might use to write about your focus.
For example, one of the ideas that came up in class was how the story portrays the difference between deciding something with your head and "feeling" something. The story has two sections - one where E is reflecting (thinking) and one where she is acting/doing/being in the moment. Joyce portrays E standing and watching in the first section and as standing and being jostled by the crowd in the second section. In one section she is passive, in the other active => and although she is ambivalent/conflicted in both sections, she comes to different decisions/conclusions about what she "wants" to do in these two sections. Also, in the first section she thinks of her father, of her mother, of her work, In the second she feels "all the waters of all the oceans tumbling inside her" (that's from memory so it's not quite right - but you get the idea). Some selection of these features might be used to "summarize" what happens so I could make the point that Joyce illustrates the very human situation of wanting two different things from two different parts of your "self".
3. Finally, do some writing about how you will organize your material. Make a tentative map, for the order in which you will present the required elements for the precis AND for the order you will present the elements from the text. If you are unsure - you might put question marks, or maybe indicate more than one order.
This is brainstorming! The idea is to make a plan and try it out before you do the hard work of crafting your sentences in just the right words.
From what I gathered from talking to you in your groups you have lots of great ideas for planning a precis for this piece.
For next class:
Read: LatWP, Chapters 1 & 2
Write: Post your brainstorming for writing a precis for Eveline to your brainstomring
page for Short stories. Use the description of listed under "planning process for writing a precis" for direction (above).
This is NOT polished writing. It should include the ideas you will use - as well as ideas you have decided not to use - just mark your preferences! The purpose of this assignment is to give you practice planning papers - and to give you an experience getting (and giving) some feedback on your plans.
Good class today! If you have questions - send me an email. See you Thursday.
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