Week 3

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.

–Helen Keller

Good day! How was your weekend? Mine picked up with the wind on Saturday. Cool, windy weather after the long hot summers of south Florida makes me feel more alive and face-to-face with exciting, mysterious forces that come from far places; I practically see wind sweeping down from the northern latitudes, across vast expanses of prairie and high plains and forested mountains and hills and icy waters and through all the cities and towns and isolated outposts of human habitation, shaking everything up in a deliciously bracing way. Imagine all that the wind has touched before it lifts your hair or rustles the grass and leaves all around.

So I went for a long walk, to take the air, opening the windows and doors of my being as I did so. I walked a paved path, with others passing by at intervals, some on foot, some on bicycles, and I wondered at the journey we all take, that other journey, you know, that leads to a distant country, and that is filled with strange twists and turns, enough to bewilder us at times. I thought of a film I recently watched called Pan's Labyrinth (2006), directed by Guillermo del Toro. It is a beautiful film, a modern fairy tale about a young girl's struggle to make sense of multiple changes and certain threats and dangers. She discovers seemingly magical sources of power that take the form, in part, of fantastic creatures that live in a spooky, labyrinthine netherworld. There she is told she is the heiress to an ancient title, a Princess, in fact, and given certain tasks to "prove" herself fit. She must learn to trust herself throughout, for things are not simply what they seem, and her survival, and that of others, depends upon her knowing what is what, and thus making the right call.

The twists and turns and dark corners and curves of the labyrinth are a symbol of the human unconscious, a cryptic "force" whose messengers can guide us on our life's path; though we must rightly interpret and wisely use this force, for it can be dangerous. Pan is an ancient nature God, associated with fertility and spring, with shepherds and their flocks, and is often depicted playing a pipe. As I walked, I listened to the wind, felt it on my skin, and the solid ground under my feet. And though it is but fall, here in south Florida I heard in the wind the sound of his piping.

That's my weekend story. Tell yours! (free write)

Stories–narratives–we tell them endlessly. They are built into the fabric of our lives. Our very lives are the stories we tell about them. The meaning we make of existence comes clear in the stories we tell each other, and each is one of the untold gazillions accumulating over time. Each has a point or a purpose. Each involves events, actions, a conflict set in motion, consequences, perhaps the underlying motives and feelings of those involved, the lessons and insights gained through the experiences recounted.

A hundred thousand people were killed by the atomic bomb, and these six were among the survivors. They still wonder why they lived when so many others died. Each of them counts many small items of chance or volition–a step taken in time, a decision to go indoors, catching one streetcar instead of the next–that spared him. And now each knows that in the act of survival he lived a dozen lives and saw more death than he ever thought he would see. At the time, none of them knew anything.

John Hersey, Hiroshima

We imagine the action that took place in the event referenced above, but the writer does not show us the exploding bomb, the fire and smoke and devastation all around. The wails of the living, and the dying.

Narration does more than suggest, it shows action:

When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick–one never does when a shot goes home–but I heard the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd. In that instant, in too short a time, one would have thought, even for the bullet to go there, a mysterious, terrible change had come over the elephant. He neither stirred nor fell, but every line of his body had altered. He looked suddenly sticken, shrunken, immensely old, as though the frightful impact of the bullet had paralyzed him without knocking him down. At last, after what seemed a long time–it might have been five seconds, I dare say–he sagged flabbily to his knees. His mouth slobbered. An enormous senility seemed to have settled upon him. One could have imagined him thousands of years old. I fired again into the same spot. At the second shot he did not collapse but climbed with desperate slowness to his feet and stood weakly upright, with legs sagging and head drooping. I fired a third time. That was the shot that did for him. You could see the agony of it jolt his whole body and knock the last remnant of strength from his legs. But in falling he seemed for a moment to rise, for as his hind legs collapsed beneath him he seemed to tower upward like a huge rock toppling, his trunk reaching skywards like a tree. He trumpeted, for the first and only time. And then down he came, his belly towards me, with a crash that seemed to shake the ground even where I lay.

George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant"

Notice how Orwell works the elements of sight, sound, movement in space, and deep feeling into the account, revealing only at the last line he has been lying down, firing up at the huge animal whose final collapse reverberates in our imagination.

Most of our stories are of events not so unusual; they are of events more homely, domestic, ordinary. These events are no less potentially interesting and dramatic. An important strategy is to narrow your account down to the one or several key events and not to swamp the telling by including too much or anything that does not work to make your dramatic purpose clear, flowing, and forcefully delivered. Dialogue used sparingly may heighten the sense of immediacy and reality. It should reflect real conversation, minus whatever does not move the action forward or reveal character. Simple words and short sentences work best.

Graded exercise (#3) due week 4: Write a personal narrative about an experience that you and your audience will find entertaining or interesting. You should write a short introductory paragraph, a well-developed body paragraph or two, and a short concluding paragraph, for a total of about 350 words-500 words. The following is a list of suggestions:

*A now-I-know-better experience.

*An experience that shows something of what people are made of, or of what you are made.

*An experience that shows the power of love, anger, desire, fear, etcetera.

*An experience that brought about a significant change in you.

*An experience that reveals the kind of family you have.

*An encounter with a "stranger" you can't now forget.

Sentence Types: last week we looked at the simple and compound sentence types. To review look at the following and identify each as simple or compound:

1. Right here, right now, I would like to smoke a cigarette and take a long walk along the coast.

2. Every day the hot sun glistens on my back.

3. I am living in the moment.

4. On break I ran across the street, and in the process, Jennice called me.

5. Hannah went to the best hospital, and her friends visited her to keep her spirits up.

6. Nothing is worse than being stuck in bed, but attentive friends can make a huge difference in

such situations.

7. The lock was broken and glass lay glinting in the moonlight.

8. Come here, for I want to say something in private.

9. He appeared to listen, but I understood his mind was elsewhere.

10. The stores had all closed, so we window shopped.

A complex sentence has one independent (stand alone) clause (one subject-verb combo) and at least one dependent (can't stand alone except as a fragment) clause. Short examples follow here:

Because he could not be reached by phone, I drove to his house, anxious to see him.

Jimmi walked to work after he crashed his bike.

Unless you give me another chance, we can go no further.

John is a man who loves women more than anything in life.

Bring me the book that you have been hiding.

I cooked and cleaned as the storm raged on.

A compound-complex sentence has at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause:

Jimmi hated to be seen as a hypocrite, so he kept his mouth closed while the others freely confessed to backsliding.

If you are to write effectively, your sentences must be clear; words are wasted otherwise.

After the sun dropped below the horizon, and as the moon began her ascent, we set up camp, eager for a chance to relax and eat and talk; each was possessed by the sense of great adventures to come.

Week 2

Welcome back! It's Monday of week 2, and a pleasant, sunny, 87 degrees outside (and rising) here in Ft. Lauderdale. What will the day bring us each? And isn't it exciting to watch the world unfold, to witness the grand parade of things that pass before the eye of consciousness, noting the details, large and small, as one image, one thought, one feeling quickly passes on to the next! We ride the waves, sometimes on a crest, sometimes in a trough, but always we are in the watery mix, swimming in the primordial soup of life . . . part of the soup, indeed!

For me, the meaning of life is found in the striving to become more consciously aware of the life source within and around us. If we can avoid getting caught up in our thoughts, the weight of which can at times be crushing, if we can connect with ourselves and others from that other space out of which all things flow and to which all return, we find a goodness otherwise hidden. Behind the mask of appearances, there is a river bearing us all on our way to a sea, a cosmic sea, as it were; instead of thrashing about in the water as if at any moment we might drown, learning to swim in harmony with that river seems right, feels right and true and beautiful.

By writing we become, I believe, more conscious of what we see, for in the theater of our mind we look at things, turn them over, bring them close, take a step back . . . in short we find angles of view that might have escaped us had we not stopped to contemplate the show. Writing about anything, writing well that is, demands we find some perspective to put our subject in, a stance or idea to frame it. The frame or thesis tells a reader what to make of our subject. Say the subject–the raw material–is some event we can't shake from memory, whether from childhood, adolescence, or our adult life. Something happened and the memory of it has been shedding a certain light on the stage (screen?) that is there in our head. This subject (event, phenomenon, fact, instance, example, case–call it what you will) must be interpreted, its shape discovered, framed, its meaning revealed (in so far as we can grasp it).

A composition of even a single paragraph must organize itself around an idea, stated or implied, which is the thesis or topic idea. Here are some examples, with frame ideas in italic letters:

Everything is changing. . . . This is a prediction I can make with absolute certainty. As human beings, we are constantly in a state of change. Our bodies change every day. Our attitudes are constantly evolving. Something that we swore by five years ago is now almost impossible for us to imagine ourselves believing. The clothes we wore a few years back now look strange to us in old photographs. The things we take for granted as absolutes, impervious to change, are, in fact, constantly doing just that. Granite boulders become sand in time. Beaches erode and shape new shorelines. Our buildings become outdated and are replaced with modern structures that also will be torn down. Even those things which last thousands of years, such as the Pyramids and the Acropolis, also are changing. This simple insight is very important to grasp if you want to be a no-limit person, and are desirous of raising no-limit children. Everything you feel, think, see, and touch is constantly changing.

–Wayne Dyer, What Do You Really Want For Your Children?

Starting about one million years ago, the fossil record shows an accelerating growth of the human brain. It expanded at first at the rate of of one cubic inch of additional gray matter every hundred thousand years: then the growth rate doubled; it doubled again; and finally it doubled once more. Five hundred thousand years ago the rate of growth hit its peak. At that time, the brain was expanding at the phenomenal rate of ten cubic inches every hundred thousand years. No other organ in the history of life is known to have grown as fast.

–Robert Jastrow, Until the Sun Dies

What my mother never told me was how fast time passes in adult life. I remember, when I was little, thinking I would live to be at least as old as my grandmother, who was dynamic even at ninety-two, the age at which she died. Now I see those ninety-two years hurtling by me. And my mother never told me how much fun sex could be, or what a discovery it is. Of course, I'm of an age when mothers really didn't tell you much about anything. My mother never told me the facts of life.

–Joyce Susskind, "Surprises in a Woman's LIfe"

Some paragraphs, particularly ones descriptive or narrative, have no directly stated topic idea, but the idea is implied, the purpose of the paragraph clear. What is the implied topic idea in the following examples?

[Captain Robert Barclay] once went out at 5 in the morning to do a little grouse shooting. He walked at least 30 miles while he potted away, and then after dinner set out on a walk of 60 miles that he accomplished in 11 hours without a halt. Barclay did not sleep after this but went through the following day as if nothing had happened until the afternoon, when he walked 16 miles to a ball. He danced all night, and then in early morning walked home and spent a day partridge shooting. Finally he did get to bed–but only after a period of two nights and nearly three days had elapsed and he had walked 130 miles.

–John Lovesey, "A Myth Is as Good as a Mile"

After our meal we went for a stroll across the plateau. The day was already drawing to a close as we sat down upon a ledge of rock near the lip of the western precipice. From where we sat, as though perched high upon a cloud, we looked out into a gigantic void. Far below, the stream we had crossed that afternoon was a pencil-thin trickle of silver barely visible in the gloaming. Across it, on the other side, the red hill rose one upon another in gently folds, fading into the distance where the purple thumblike mountains of Adua and Yeha stretched against the sky like a twisting serpent. As we sat, the sun sank fast, and the heavens in the western sky began to glow. It was a coppery fire at first, the orange streaked with aquamarine; but rapidly the firmament expanded into an explosion of red and orange that burst across the sky sending tongues of flame through the feathery clouds to the very limits of the heavens. When the flames had reached their zenith, a great quantity of storks came flying from the south. They circled above us once, their slender bodies sleek and black against the orange sky. Then, gathering together, they flew off into the setting sun, leaving us alone in peace to contemplate. One of the monks who sat with us, hushed by the intensity of the moment, muttered a prayer. The sun died beyond the hills; and the fire vanished.

–Robert Dick-Read, Sanamu: Adventure in Search of African Art

In the old-time Pueblo world, beauty was manifested in behavior and in one's relationships with other living beings. Beauty was as much a feeling of harmony as it was a visual, aural, or sensual effect. The whole person had to be beautiful, not just the face or the body; faces and bodies could not be separated from hearts and souls. Health was foremost in achieving this sense of well-being and harmony; in the old-time Pueblo world, a person who did not look healthy inspired feelings of worry and anxiety, not feelings of well-being. A healthy person, of course, is in harmony with the world around her; she is at peace with herself too. Thus an unhappy person or spiteful person would not be considered beautiful.

--Leslie Marmon Silko, Essays

Notice that well written paragraphs develop adequately the subject; that is, there is sufficient detail and enough examples to make a persuasive case for the idea(s) expressed. Often, too, in descriptive and narrative writing you will notice the pattern of arrangement is either spatial (the eye moves from point A to B and on to C and D in clear, coherent direction) or chronological (time is tracked either from a beginning point on forward, or backward, or some mix of the past, present, and future). Sometimes both the spatial, as in description of a setting or scene, and the chronological, as in an account of actions in time, are at work. Look again at the examples above. How are they arranged?

Writing Assignment: Construct a single-paragraph essay (no more than a page is necessary) on an experience or event that reveals something about the person you are, or have been. Use first-person voice, the familiar "I" that we use in conversations about ourselves. We may get time to finish in class, but if not you will bring it to class week 3. At the bottom of the page, state what is the thesis or topic sentence of the paragraph. Bring this essay to class week 3. Make sure to double space the lines, to use 11 point type in Times font, and to indent the first paragraph (and all paragraph beginnings). Try for 150-200 words. Underline in text the explicit thesis idea or write at the bottom of the page the implicit thesis idea. Bring this essay to class week 3.

SENTENCE TYPES

Sentence Type 1: The simple sentence has one subject and one predicate, the base of which is always a verb or verb phrase. And in English, the subject usually comes up front, followed by the verb and any other predicate elements. This subject-verb combo is called a clause, an independent clause, because it expresses a grammatically complete, stand-alone thought.

Jesus wept. Nuts! (that is nuts, this is nuts, he is nuts, etc., where that, this, he are the subjects and "is" the verb, with "nuts" describing the situation or person, as an adjective or subject complement).

Style has meaning. Choices resonate. What is the subject in each of the two preceding sentences? Style and choices, of course. And the verbs? Has and resonate, of course.

And in the following?

The house is surrounded by razor wire.

He and I fight too often. We cannot be good for one another.

After spring sunset, mist rises from the river, spreading like a flood.

From a bough, floating down river, insect song.

He drove the car carefully, his shaggy hair whipped by the wind, his eyes hidden behind wraparound mirror shades, his mouth set in a grim smile, a .38 Police Special on the seat beside him, the corpse stuffed in the trunk.

They slept.–intransitive (takes no direct object of the verb)

The girl raised the flag.– transitive (the flag is the object of the verb)

Inverted order: Lovable he isn't. This I just don't understand.

Tall grow the pines on the hills.

A fly is in my soup. With expletive (which delays the subject): There is a fly in my soup.

Sentence type 2: The compound sentence has at least two independent subject and verb combinations or clauses, and no dependent clauses. Each independent clause is joined by means of some conjunction or punctuation that serves to join:

Autumn is a sad season, but I love it nonetheless.

Name the baby Huey, or I'll cut you out of my will.

The class was young, eager, and intelligent, and the teacher delighted in their presence.

The sky grew black, and the wind died; an ominous quiet hung over the whole city.

My mind is made up; however, I do want to discuss the decision with you.

Sentence Type 3: The complex sentence is composed of one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Many people believe that God does not exist.

Those who live in glass houses should not cast stones.

As I waited for the bus, the sun beat down all around me.

Because she said nothing, we assumed she wanted nothing.

Week 1

Welcome to The Art Institute, and to your first writing class here at the school. This class is designed for practice and instruction in writing short essay compositions. In it, you will discover some of the ways in which writing can help you to develop your creative capacities and understand better your particular kinds of knowledge and experience of the world. Writing is a process that will reveal to you what you know, and what you don't. The simple act of putting words on paper (and screen!) will open the spring of remembered people, places, events, and ideas that you carry inside. What is more, writing will reinforce your sense of what you can contribute to the lives of others, for all of us are seeking greater knowledge and understanding of the very large and often complicated world we live in, and all of us are in need of the perspective and experience contact with others can give us. Each of us brings something fresh and unique and lovable to the world. In giving expression to our thoughts, memories, dreams, desires–and in sharing them with others–we discover the many ways we have been shaped by life, and the connections we have with others.

Getting started is easier than you might think. The first step is to take the pressure off yourself. Forget rules, forget rules, forget rules. Comma? Semi-colon? Forget them for now. Restrictions can make anyone freeze up, and most of what anyone writes will be forgotten or lost or trashed at some point. Suspend your inner critic. Write for the sheer pleasure of it, the sense of discovery and surprise at how the mind works, and what you've got hidden inside. The following prompts and exercises are designed to help you get started. There is no purpose to them beyond getting words to flow from you, and having a little fun. You may well find something in what you write, something for keeps, something to shape and present to the class or others. But that part of the process, which involves making decisions, making decisions about what tokeep, what to toss, and how to order, shape and polish the stones if rough, all that comes later. The start of anything is often messy. And that is fine. So jump in the water. And get your hair wet!

Exercise 1: Write for two minutes on anything that comes to mind, no matter what it be. Pretend, if you must, you've been let loose in a grocery store and the more items you can pull down into your cart, the fewer you'll have to pay for later.

Ex. 2: Write for five minutes a mini sketch of yourself, right here, right now. Record the five senses–what you see around you (objects, colors, lights, people), what you imagine you look like, what you are feeling (nervous, relaxed, tired, hungry, etc.) what you hear (even to the voices in your head), what you smell.

Ex. 3: Word Prompts: respond to one or several of the following words for two or three minutes at a stretch.

lima beans

cherries

lips

goddess

stones

grass

the sea

music

Ex.4: Write a ten-word (or more) sentence. Now use each word as the first word in a new sentence.

Ex. 5: Peruse the headlines of today's LATimes. Pick one and make-up a one-paragraph article to go along with it. Now go back and read the real news.

Ex. 6: Imagine a situation, a young boy or girl neatly dressed (or shabbily dressed!) and being led by the hand of Father or Mother to the gates of the schoolhouse, on the first day of school. Include whatever conversation or dialogue occurs between the two people, characterized by great joy, or fear, concern, suspicion, love or desire, whatever comes to mind. Write it down.

For Homework: Sort through the material you wrote today in class. Select the best of it, here an artful or interesting sentence, and here a dramatic image or fresh thought. Arrange these cuttings or clippings together in a single paragraph that illustrates something you learned in today's writing work, arrange them in such a way that you could present the whole paragraph to the class as a discovery about the writing process, about yourself, or whatever the discovery may chance to be. Alternatively, develop an idea that came to mind in your work today and develop a single paragraph around the idea.

In addition, write a one-paragraph essay on the meaning of life. Yes, that's right, the meaning of life. I've given some handouts, excerpts from a book titled The Meaning of Life. These excerpts provide some examples of the way others have responded and may be helpful.

Bring these two one-paragraph essays of about 150 words each to class next week (saved electronically). As a group, we'll look at some of these individual pieces and comment on what each brings us.

Week 4

The places we remember from out of the past, or those we see right before us, or view from the perspective of one looking into the future, the real and imagined landscapes of our journeys, these are our subject today. What was it like to be there? What did we see? hear? touch? smell? taste? feel? Were we in a mansion, on a mountain, walking a boulevard or navigating narrow city streets? Were we in Morocco or Miami? Was our neighborhood a place where kids played in the street and dogs barked excitedly, where sometimes the flood waters rose to knee height and frogs and snakes made wild companions? Did folks sit on the porch, or did they live behind privacy gates and drive fancy cars? Can you describe your home of homes? And how does it compare to other homes, other places? What makes the place distinct? What gives it character? What kinds of life, what kinds of people and things and what jobs does one find there? If you consulted a map, what would the map reveal or tell?

Writing about place may take the form of a travel journal or memoir; or be a guide to those seeking to discover some part of the world from an armchair at home or in advance of making an actual visit. Often people write about the landscapes or cityscapes that they have come to love through long connection. We may become seemingly indifferent to where we live, no longer noticing the particulars, the everyday features and patterns. Sometimes we have to go away to start seeing the world around us. We are nonetheless surrounded by objects; the elemental trees, clouds, sky, rocks, rivers, and fields; and the constructed world of houses, classrooms, malls, towns, and roadways with all that lies beside.

Writing Assignment (#4): Writing about place means bringing to a reader's mind the particular aspects that define the essence of your subject place or setting. We stand on whatever ground, sit on whatever chair, stroll whatever paths or sidewalks, swim the river or climb that tree, eat those berries, smell those blossoms, marvel at the moon, swelter in the heat and the dust of late summer, or shiver in the icy blasts that make street corners formidable. In 350 words, conjure a precise and compelling portrait of a place you know well. Underline your thesis idea if it is stated, or type it out at the bottom of the page if it is implicit (clearly suggested but nowhere actually stated).

Title the essay. Double space the lines and tab indent for each paragraph.

Grammar Work: Verb conjugations, tense forms and usage.

Week 5

Week 5! Time is on the wing. Next week, that is week 6, we will have a short essay to do in class that will serve as the midterm exam. You will compose and finish the piece within class time, and you'll have a least one hour and a half to do so. Your midterm grade will appear in your online account a week or so later; the grade is only an indicator of current progress and serves to let you know where you stand as of midterm. I calculate this grade on the basis of work completed and the class essay done week 6. I expect you all to be there and to have submitted all outstanding work by that day.

Today's class will start with a freewriting aimed, ultimately, at generating material for an essay that is structured along the lines of what is called process analysis. How do bees find their way to the hive, how does photosynthesis work, how does one change a tire on a steeply ascending road, make a cheesecake or keep houseplants alive and happy? We all, to some degree, understand how things proceed, or the procedures by which things get done or made. We have followed directions and read instructions from a young age and we have learned how to do a thing or two ourselves; in fact, there are some skills we could actually teach: how to saddle a horse, how to sweep a floor, sew a hem, design an advertisement; and too there are certain experiences we could coach others through, having gone through them ourselves and learned a thing or two about healing, happiness, getting along, starting over–whatever the experience it always involves process. A few examples follow here:

Anyone can climb Kids playing in trees or on monkey bars know that climbing is a natural activity, but older people often have to relearn to trust their instincts. This isn't too hard, though. The ability to maintain self-control in difficult situations is the most important trait for a beginning climber to have. Panic is almost automatic when you run out of handholds 100 feet off the ground. The typical reaction is to freeze solid until you fall off. But with a little discipline,, rational thinking, and/or distraction tactics such as babbling to yourself, humming, or even screaming, fear can change to elation as you climb out of a tough spot.

from "Let's Get Vertical," by Beth Wald

One holds the knife as one holds the bow of a cello or a tulip– by the stem. Not palmed nor gripped nor grasped, but lightly, with the tips of the fingers. The knife is not for pressing. It is for drawing across the field of skin. Like a slender fish, it waits, yellow globules of fat. Even now, after so many times, I still marvel at its power–cold, gleaming, silent. More, I am still struck with a kind of dread that it is I in whose hand the blade travels, that my hand is its vehicle, that yet again this terrible steel-bellied thing and I have conspired for a most unnatural purpose, the laying open of the body of a human being.

from "The Knife," by Richard Seltzer

When a farmer calls in a cheetah capture, it is CCF's job to retrieve the animal from a field trap, gather biological information, and then relocate or release it. Normally the work is done in the field and not in a farmer's kitchen. Until last night, there had not been a call in a month–proof that that farmers are learning to co-exist with cheetahs rather than to shoot first and ask questions later.

from "Blur: Cheetahs. Ranchers. Hope.," by Susan Zimmerman

For centuries, it was assumed that honey bees simply visited flowers and collected the honey ready-made, bringing it back to the hive and storing it there. The truth of the matter is that honey making is an elaborate and complicated process. The first step is the collection of floral nectar from the gullets of colorful and fragrant blossoms. Floral nectar starts out as sugar water enriched with a few amino acids, proteins, lipids, phenolics, and other chemicals. While it sits in floral ponds, waiting to be sampled by pollinators, the nectar takes on the aroma of the flowers that produced it. Though the scent of the nectar itself is faint, the aromas are intensified once it is concentrated into honey. Excess water is driven off and the complex volatile oils and other chemicals from the flower are magnified, becoming part of the honey and adding to its appeal. Single-source honeys reveal their characteristic aromas best at room temperature, especially when drizzled across a warm piece of toast.

from Secrets of the Bee

Wear loose and comfortable clothing when working out. Because a warmed muscle is believed to be more flexible and pliant, you will often see people wearing sweat suits and woolen socks. You should also be sure to position yourself as comfortably as possible to reduce the tension and make the stretching more enjoyable.–from The Science of Stretching, by Michael Alter

Freewrite: Make a list of all the things you can do.

Free associate. Imagine the times and places and people these things you do have involved.

Choose one or two as a possible subject of description in process mode.

Assignment #5: In a step-by-step or stage-by stage description show the means by which some thing or another happens or gets done, made, or developed. Write 350 words, using an introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs. Title the essay. Double space the lines.

Grammar Practice: Review verb work and introduce pronoun use guidelines for practice.

Week 6

Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day–like writing a poem or saying a prayer. What matters is that one be for a time inwardly attentive.

–Anne Morrow Lindbergh, b.1906

Good morning. I hope you are feeling well, happy, and eager to get on with things. You had a long weekend, and I hope, too, that you enjoyed yourself.

Today we have several things to do. We will review verb tense use and go on to address some matters of pronoun use. We will also look at an article for the purposes of learning to summarize textual material. Finally, I will have you write a short essay in class on one of the topics listed below.

The following URL will provide content for a short exercise in summarizing a written text: http:/michaelpollan.com/write.php.

The idea of the exercise is simple: You report summarily on the contents of the article; that is, you will boil the article contents down to the main or thesis idea and the supporting topic ideas, and the few examples and details that can be fit into the piece. You will want to use one or two direct quotations, as well. The author is Michael Pollan, and the title article “Six Rules For Eating Wisely.”

You will introduce the piece by title and author and post date in a sentence that also leads into the subject matter. To summarize means to restate in condensed form the original contents. The length of a summary varies. For our purposes, between 170-200 words is sufficient. We'll go over the article together to make sure we understand what it says, and then proceed to restate in short form and in our own words the main ideas of the article. Analyze the article in terms of its major idea and supporting points and include these, as well as how the author starts develops, and finishes the piece. I don't want you to respond with an opinion in this exercise; just the facts, mam, as they say. Don't use "I" at all. Use third person: In an article appearing in the LATimes titled . . . David Sarno reports that . . . . In this way, briefly describe what the article has to say. Save your document for my commentary or review. I have a handout prepared to guide you on this exercise. The summary will be due in draft form next week.

Directions: Summarize in 200 words or so Michael Pollan’s article “Six Rules For Eating Wisely.” Use two to three quotations to illustrate and support your summary claims. Do not include your opinions of the material or his ideas. Access the article at michaelpollan.com under Writings; from there scroll down to the Time 2006 article. See handout for outline.

The second half of the class period is to be spent in composing a one-paragraph essay of about 200 words. The main idea or topic sentence should be clear. If it is stated directly in the essay I want you to underline it. If it is implicit (i.e. not stated anywhere but clearly implied from all you've written), I want you to write the topic sentence of the composition 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. 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 some sense of finish or conclusion.

Title the essay.

Here are the prompts for the essay, with the final one open to your own inclinations. Again, you will have one major point to make, follow one point, building the essay around this point (topic or thesis).

1. Walking Home–description and narration.

2. An unwelcome guest–description and narration.

3. A challenging moment–description and narration.

4. A healthy diet–what that means.

5. Going out on limb–the risks and rewards.

6. The beach or the mountains or . . . you fill in with the subject of your choice.

7. An inspiring person or idea.

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 7

Week 7, already! And next week is Thanksgiving! And then Christmas . . . we're almost there. Indeed, I spent a good part of the weekend looking at student essays, and I must say I was very pleased with the work you all have done thus far. If you should like clarification or any explanation of the midterm grade that appears this week, just ask and I'll be glad to help. The writing strengths shown thus far put us in a good position for the remaining weeks of the quarter. I'd like to finish some verb tense and agreement work, review sentence patterns and punctuation, and other uses of the parts of speech. As for assignments, as the syllabus indicates, I have in mind a film review of a recent work. To that end this week I'll have a film biopic of an eccentric animal rights activist named Timothy Treadwell. It will provide us an opportunity to write about a character whose life and work have provoked the admiration and scorn of many people, a man who resists easy judgement.

The plan then is for the first hour or so of class to be dedicated to the summary work from last week, and the grammar and punctuation review; and the last hour or so to the film and discussion of how to proceed in writing about it.

ENC0020/Week 7: Writing a film review or commentary requires you to introduce the film by title (in italic letters), release date, and director. The subject of the film or story line must be summarized briefly and your thesis, too, should appear early on or up front in the introductory paragraph. The thesis is your considered opinion, an idea that unifies the whole essay. The body paragraph(s) serve to provide the evidence and examples needed to support the thesis. The conclusion puts the finishing touch on the essay, and reminds readers of the significance of your subject and your claims.

Grizzly Man (2005), directed by Werner Herzog, is about a man named Timothy Treadwell, the “kind warrior,” who lived and died in defense, he believed, of his ideals. He strove to protect and to know familiarly the grizzly bears living in Katmai National Park, Alaska. He spent 12 summers there, living among the bears, photographing them, loving them in his way. He drew admirers and critics. For filmmaker Herzog, he appears a symbol of humanity’s conflicting feelings about nature and civilization.

Essay 6: Describe Tim Treadwell --his appearance, personality, aims, desires, and work. Tell what makes him remarkable, bringing him to life in the way the film does, whether as idealistic, brave, kind, funny, strange, angry, tormented, paranoid, scary, wise or unwise. Pick a few moments from the film to illustrate the man’s character in a balanced way, including if you like some of the opinions of those who appear in the film. Title the essay. Compose 350 words at a minimum.

Three paragraphs at least, 350 words, include film title and director’s name up front in the opening paragraph. Underline your thesis idea.

Week 8

What lies behind us and lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

Good day to you all. Hope you are well. Today we will watch the end of the biopic we began last week called Grizzly Man. I have planned to allow class time to finish also the composition assigned last week, which was to describe the film's depiction of Tim Treadwell, and the character of the man himself. We have, too, some grammar material to cover. If it appears everyone has done the essay assignment, and we have the time, I have planned a work that requires participation in small groups or pairs, discussion and question and response, and a short essay to follow that draws upon the group investigations.

A reminder: In two weeks we take the final, which is to be an in class essay of 350 words on a topic drawn from a list of topics. By week 1o, you should have submitted all rewrites or past due work, leaving nothing for week 11, except perhaps to retake the final should you not pass it week 10. There will be no rewrites or late work accepted after week 10.

Week 9

Greetings! I trust you enjoyed the long holiday weekend, and that the wind is behind you as we go into these last few weeks of classes.

Today we begin putting together an essay that requires you work with one or two others in the class. Each of you will put together a "portrait" of a classmate to exemplify the range of personal experience, background, dreams, and ambitions that have brought the student(s) thus far in their respective journeys. To get to know your subject you will spend some time "interviewing" him or her, recording your impressions of the subject's style, appearance, mannerisms, story, voice, and the specific comments he or she makes that reveal an essence or truth of your subject. 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 feelings are you working through? What do you feel good about, uncertain about?

Describe a past or current struggle in some detail to show the kind of challenge you know best.

How did you get to this point or place in life?

Who were the important people in your life? How did they influence or shape you?

What are your near and long term goals?

The essay is to be organized in the following way:

Paragraph one: the lead introduces your subject by name and by means of the dominant impressions your subject creates in terms of character, personality, and appearance. Use the first person POV, as you the writer are to conveyyour views here on the basis of face-to-face interactions and observations of your subject. State your thesis claim. Use the present tense to give an impression of the here and now

Body paragraph(s): the body moves from the lead in present tense view to the past, reconstructing some of the subjects relevant history (place of origin, schooling, early influences). Past tense verbs may predominate.

Body paragraph(s): the body moves back to the present, to your subject's current situation and story, including struggles, dreams, ambitions. Direct quotation allows the subject to speak directly to his or her struggles and/or successes.

Conclusion: Remarks on the character shown or exemplified in the story elements of the essay. The writer speaks to the subject's heartfelt experience in bringing the essay to a close. The conclusion may also, or alternatively, move to the future, to what lies ahead in the subject's immediate or near term future. Direct quotation here allows the subject to speak directly to his or her hopes and dreams. Tense used may be predominately present and future.

Alternate: You may use several classmates (including yourself) to construct an essay exemplifying a range of student experience and background here at AiFL. You will have to determine a focus and let each of your subject's weigh in the issue or focus. You will more briefly introduce and describe each student, as each is to be an element in this mosaic portrait. You may find yourself using comparison and contrast means of development at times.

If you are absent from class, find some suitable subject, a person whose life and/or work interests you and, with any luck, will interest your readers. Bring the essay to class next week.

Reminder: By next week you should have submitted all assignments you intend to submit. I accept no papers beyond week 10. Week 11 is reserved for final exam makeups or retakes.

Week 10

Then it was as if suddenly I saw the secret beauty of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in the eyes of the Divine. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.

–Thomas Merton

Welcome to class. As you know, the final exam, a 350 word, three-paragraph essay is scheduled for this week. Any students who miss class this week must make certain to come next week to make up the essay exam, or contact me to discuss some other accommodation. Next week also offers all who take the exam today a chance to retake it, if necessary.

I'm confident all can pass this exam. If you have been applying yourself throughout the quarter, you have done by now at least half a dozen formal assignments, and numerous practice and free-write exercises. We have practiced the form of the paragraph and multi-paragraph essay each week, along with basic sentence structures–the simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence types. We have reviewed the use of standard punctuation and grammar. We have modeled the primary modes of presenting information and organizing a paragraph or an essay–description, narration, illustration, and argument. We have discussed and practiced the necessity of having a thesis idea–the point that unifies and gives direction to the essay, the one central thing you want your essay to express. And we have practiced building paragraphs organized around a single clear topic idea, each paragraph serving, if part of a larger essay, to advance the thesis idea in one or another supporting way.

We can spend the first hour of class on review, and in preparing a checklist for the editing process to follow as you review your final draft. Thus will you have time to compose and a format to edit for the major errors that occur in grammar and punctuation.

The essay topics will be given in handout before the exam begins.

Note: Use of the Internet is not allowed during the exam.

See you in class, then.