Friday, 22 January

Karen Margolis gave a marvelous poetry writing lesson.

Look at the blog for the 21st for a review of important dates and expectations.

HOMEWORK:

For Monday bring your Memoir and Poem drafts. The period will be devoted to peer and teacher conferencing; revising; and proof reading.

Thursday, 21 January, 2010

Today in class writers read, discussed, and analyzed three poems written in the first person.

Writers took time to write a draft of a poem in the first person.

Up-coming due dates were reviewed.

Monday, January 25th: Spirals due (16 pages)

Tuesday, January 26th: Memoir due see yesterday's blog for the criteria.

Due on the final date for the period: One well crafted poem, and a self-evaluation of the poem.

The self evaluation should include the following:

A paragraph describing the origin of the poem. How did you get the ideal; how did you choose the format or style?

A couple or a few paragraphs explaining which poetry techniques were used, and how well the techniques were used. These paragraphs should be like paragraphs you would write when analyzing a poem by another author, and includes quotes as examples from your poem. (Note: one way to show where a line break happens when quoting a poem is to use a /.)

A conclusion. This might include a statement of what could be done better, or how you do things differently in the future. It might sing the praises of a very well crafted poem. It might make a comment on the authors relationship to poetry in general.

There should of course be an introduction to the entire piece.

Note: Saying your poem is good, because it shows emotion misses the whole point. If it does show emotion or feeling, it does so because of the choices the author makes. Explain what those choices were.

EXTRA CREDIT POSSIBILITIES

On Thursday, 28 January at 7:30 pm there will be a reading from the new WITS anthology at Powell's Books on Burnside. Students who attend will receive a small amount of extra credit, but since it is the night before the last final it might not be a good idea to go.

Tuesday, 2 February at 7:00 pm at Broadway Books on NE Broadway, all writers are invited to share a part of their memoir. Those who share will receive substantial extra credit. Those who attend to support those who read will receive modest extra credit.

WARNING

If your Restaurant Review is not turned in you may not immediately get credit on this semester's grade. It is getting to be so late, that you may get a failing mark on 1st semester and require a grade change. Get it in NOW!

Tuesday, 19 January, 2010: Karen Karbo

PLEASE BRING YOUR MEMOIR DRAFT AND DRAFTS OF ALL THE POEMS YOU HAVE WORKED ON TO CLASS ON THURSDAY.

The following are my notes from Karen's Teaching today:

1,000 carefully chosen word memoir due NEXT Tuesday, 26 January

5 Key Elements to Making Your Writing Good

Memoir is a made thing. That is, it is something crafted. The rough draft that you've done (or should have done) is the raw material, the foundation for your finished piece.

You need to check it for the following elements that will ensure it is made excellently. In other words, the following is a rubric for your final memoir.

The Beginning

The First Sentence:

(One writer said, "The first sentence of anything is an act of seduction."

Examples: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." One Hundred Years of Solitude; 1984; Anna Karenia; "I am invisible man." The Invisible Man; "The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door." short story by Fredrick Brown; "The King was pregnant." The Left Hand of Darkness.

The first sentence: intriguing. Some how the sentence gets the reader to ask a question.

The First Paragraph:

(Many of you started with a lot of description. This is heavy.)

Try instead In Medea Res That is Latin for: "In the middle of things." Go down a paragraph or two, and find where the action starts, and make THAT the beginning. Not packing the car for the family road trip; start with the bickering.

(The drive to explain in writing; perhaps it comes from the fact that adults teach us to write. And our impulse when confronted by adults is to explain. When we talk to friends, we show what happened--much more interesting.)

Include an interesting image.

The Ending:

Ending a piece is the hardest part of writing. You don't just stop. The ending is bringing the play in for the landing.

End at the moment of change or realization.

Come back to the interesting image from the beginning; this creates a sense of completion. (Full circle.) Revises for the criticism, "Can you give us another beat."

Throughout:

Use all five senses in description.

Remember back to the Christmas Shopping Prompt; think about the emotion you are trying to convey to your reader. Now, remember that you could convey an emotion in that Christmas piece without naming the emotion. You should the emotion. Go back, and make sure you are showing the emotion in your memoir.

PROOFREADING (Line Editing in the trade): Spellcheck is a friend, but it can't do it all on it's own.

Extra Credit: delete all of your adverbs. They weaken sentences. Ok, you can have one (1). Cut: totally; really; completely; really; actually. Yes, it is work, to go back and revise. But is the work that makes writing good. Take out the adverbs because they are "telling," not showing. E.g. "Get out of my room," Elaine screamed angrily. vs Grimacing, and red in the face, Elaine screamed, "Get out of my room."

Note: There is no need to say, "I remember...." It's memoir, we know it is based on memory already.