Readings and Assignments for the Week of October 24 - October 30, 2005

Tuesday, October 25, 2005:

No reading assignments for today's class.

Important!! Don't forget to be prepared to read two of your own poems for today's In-Class Open-Mic Reading Day! Please be prepared to provide brief introductions for your poems, and make sure to take your time reading/performing them.

Thursday, October 27, 2005:

No reading assignments for today's class.

Exciting, latebreaking news: Tiffany Midge will be coming to visit our class today!

Looking ahead to next week, here are the guidelines for your first Writerly Immersion Paper, due Tuesday, November 1, 2005:

Your paper should compare and contrast two separate poetry/literary readings or literary events.

Your paper should consider both the quality and style of the written work, as well as the quality and style of the performance itself.

Your paper should be a minimum of 750 words (approximately three tyewritten/word-processed pages).

You are welcome to use outside sources if you wish, but if you do, please maks sure to cite them appropriately, and provide a bibliography using MLA style.

Finally, here is this week's memoir prompt, for blog posts due on Sunday, October 30, 2005:

Write down a story that you tell people that didn't really happen the way you usually tell it. So many times we have a good story we embellish with exaggerations, switch events for the sake of timing or humor, all kinds of things. Come on, it's fun! But after you write down the story you tell everybody, tell the same story in its bare-bones, no-frills, true version. Think about the reasons why you twisted the facts around.

Readings and Assignments for the Week of October 17- October 23, 2005

Tuesday, October 18, 2005:

Please read Chapter 9 (Beyond the Rational) from Writing Poems.

Important!! Poem #3 -- Dramatic Monologue with Bibliography is due today! (See post below for guidelines).

Thursday, October 20, 2005;

Please read Chapter 12 (Becoming a Poet) from Writing Poems.

Important!! Please make sure to bring five copies of ANY one of the three poems you've written thus far to class for small-group workshopping today.

And here is this week's memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box for blog posts due on Sunday, October 23:

Write about the first time you went away from home alone. Was it a vacation? Was it for work? Were you looking for something? Were you running away? Do you see that excursion as a "hero's journey", or did you go kicking and screaming? How did it change you?

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Finally, here is a link for information on the VLP Short Story Contest, coming up on Saturday, October 22, 12:00-3:00 p.m., in McKusick Technology Computer Lab: http://www.usd.edu/~projlit/storycontest.cfm

And here is a link to the John R. Milton Writers' Conference, October 27-29, 2005. If you check the conference program/schedule link, you'll find that there are six readings free and open to the public that you can attend: http://www.usd.edu/engl/milton

Readings and Assignments for Week of October 10 - October 16, 2005

Tuesday, October 11, 2005:

Please read Chapter 10 (Finding the Poem) from Writing Poems

Thursday, October 13, 2005:

Please read Chapter 11 (Devising and Revising) from Writing Poems

Here is your memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box for blog posts due on Sunday, October 16, 2005:

Create a word portrait of yourself. Using as much descriptive language as possible, draw a picture of yourself, including physical attributes but also the things that have given your face character--what you inherited from your parents, what life and time have done to alter it.

Don't forget that your next assigned poem will be due on Tuesday, October 18, 2005. Here are the guidelines (which were also handed out and reviewed in class):

Write a dramatic monologue (a poem in the voice of someone other than yourself) that requires research:

The dramatic monologue should be in first person, representing a single person speaking to an implied listener.

The speaker in the monologue should be a person, as opposed to an inanimate object. They may be real or imagined, famous or anonymous, dead or alive, from history or fiction, etc.

The monologue should reveal the speaker’s personality and character through the course of the poem – perhaps by leading up to or right at the time of a significant event or moment in the situation of the speaker.

The monologue must establish the physical and/or historical setting of the speaker, as well as his or her particular dramatic situation.

The monologue should be at least 30 lines long to establish voice and character.

Please make sure that your poem is typed/word processed, and that you make sure to give your monologue a title.

Your monologue should also include a separate, typed/word processed bibliography that includes a minimum of six sources, appropriately cited in MLA format (two books, two newspaper/journal/magazine articles, and two internet sources--although you may use additional/different sources such as a video in place of one of the books, for example.)

* * *

Finally, here is a link for information on the VLP Short Story Contest, coming up on Saturday, October 22, 12:00-3:00 p.m., in McKusick Technology Computer Lab: http://www.usd.edu/~projlit/storycontest.cfm

And here is a link to the John R. Milton Writers' Conference, October 27-29, 2005. If you check the conference program/schedule link, you'll find that there are six readings free and open to the public that you can attend: http://www.usd.edu/engl/milton

Readings and Assignments for Week of October 3 - October 9, 2005

Tuesday, October 4, 2005:

Please read Chapter 4 (Building Character: Characterization, Part I) in Writing Fiction. (Please note that we're dipping into the fiction book for this reading, since we'll be using the same skills that fiction writers use to create character.)

Important!! Don't forget that a Hard Copy of Poem #2 (A Poem About a Family Member and/or Childhood Memory) is Due in Class Today! (Guidelines can be found in the previous week's post below.)

Important!! Don't forget to bring in your completed Take-Home Quizzes (passed out in class on Thursday) with you to turn in today as well!!

Thursday, October 6, 2005:

No readings today.

Important!! Please come in to class knowing ahead of time a voice/person from a different time/historical period that you'd like to research for your dramatic monologue. (It's not a problem if you change your mind later on, but on the other hand, we'll be doing research and bibliography in class today, so if you've figured out your character, then you can save yourself some time and effort by getting to work on your bibliography during class time.)

Important!! Make sure to bring your blue Harbrace handbook to class today!

And finally, here is this week's memoir promppt, for blog posts due on Sunday, October 9, 2005:

Describe a significant quarrel between yourself and a family member. What was the quarrel about? Was the quarrel ongoing over many years or an isolated incident? Did you resolve the difference or did it cause a complete break of relations? Was it violent? Do you regret the quarrel?