URI Writing 104 Summer Assignment

URI Writing 104 Summer Assignment

Due Date: The first day of class in August of 2017

The Memoir

Required Reading: See The Norton Field Guide to Writing Chapter 15, “Memoir.” Memoirs are written to explore the past. They focus on events and people and places that are important to you. There are two goals when writing a memoir: to capture an important moment and to convey something about its significance. The narrative you share might be something that happened to you or to someone you know (a sibling, cousin, or friend), where you observed the event and/or its outcome. Your narrative should depend on vivid details and must indicate the narrative’s significance – or why and how it matters.

Supplemental Reading Required:

· Memoir excerpt from Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

· Memoir “Lost Lives of Women” by Amy Tan

Assignment: After reading chapter 15 of The Norton Field Guide to Writing and the supplemental readings provided, students should respond to the following from the Common Application:

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores?

Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don’t feel obligated to do so. (The application won’t accept a response shorter than 250 words.)

2017-2018 Common Application Essay Prompts
1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. [No change]
2. The lessons we take fromobstacles we encountercan be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced achallenge, setback, or failure.How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? [Revised]
3. Reflect on a time when youquestionedor challenged a belief or idea. What prompted yourthinking? Whatwas the outcome? [Revised]
4. Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. [No change]
5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, orrealizationthatsparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.[Revised]
6.Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?[New]

7.Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.[New]

WRT 104: Writing To Inform and Explain

Memoir: Discovery Draft Workshop

Writer: Reader:

To the Writer: In the space provided below, detail any problems or uncertainties you see in your working draft? Ask the reader about particular passages in the draft so that you can get specific feedback. This part of the worksheet should be completed by the writer and brought to the first day of class.

To Reader: This part of the worksheet will be completed by a classmate within the first week of school. On the back of this page and a separate sheet if needed answer the following:

1) Please read your peer’s workshop draft and then thoughtfully answer the questions he/she has outlined for you above. Be as specific as you can with your feedback, reactions and/or suggestions.

2) What did you think when you first saw the title? Is it interesting, informative, appropriate? Will it attract other reader’s attention?

3) Does the beginning grab the reader’s attention? If so, how does it? Does it give enough information about the topic and offer necessary background information? How else might the piece begin?

4) Is the ending satisfying? What did it leave you thinking? How else might it end?

5) Does the writer’s purpose come across clearly? Are you able to see and understand the significance of the moment in the writer’s past? If the significance of the moment is not revealed clearly enough, what suggestions can you offer?

6) Is the memoir organized effectively? Does the moment of revelation appear in the best place?

7) Is the writing vivid and concrete in recreating particular scenes and moments from the past? Be sure to point to passages that are particularly vivid. Are there passages that are too vague, obscure or abstract? Do the narrative passages move along crisply or do they seem to drag?

4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 0
Focus of Writing / Sharp, distinct controlling point or theme with evident awareness of the narrative task. / Clear controlling point or theme with general awareness of the narrative task. / Vague evidence of a controlling point or theme with inconsistent awareness of the narrative task. / Little or no evidence of a controlling point or theme with minimal awareness of the narrative task / Essay is off prompt.
Engaging Opening Tactic / An effective, inviting, and interesting engaging opening tactic is utilized. / An adequate engaging opening tactic is utilized. / Engaging opening tactic is utilized, but is not effective in gaining the reader’s interest. / Engaging opening tactic is unclear or is uninviting to the reader. / No engaging opening tactic is utilized.
Content Development / Strong story line with illustrative details that addresses a complex idea or examines a complex experience. Thoroughly elaborated narrative sequence that employs narrative elements as appropriate. / Story line with details that addresses an idea or examines an experience. Sufficiently elaborated narrative sequence that employs narrative elements as appropriate. / Inconsistent story line that inadequately addresses an idea or examines an experience. Insufficiently elaborated narrative sequence that may employ narrative elements. / Insufficient story line that minimally addresses an idea or examines an experience. / There is no story line to this narrative.
Style of Writing / Precise control of language, literary devices, and sentence structures that creates a consistent and effective point of view and tone. Writer has effectively attempted to vary sentence beginnings. / Appropriate control of language, literary devices, and sentence structures that creates a consistent point of view and tone. Writer has attempted to vary sentence beginnings. / Limited control of language and sentence structures that creates interference with point of view and tone. Writer’s attempts to vary sentence beginnings are awkward. / Minimal control of language and sentence structures that creates an inconsistent point of view and tone. Writer has ineffectively varied his/her sentence beginnings. / No control of language and sentence structures. No evidence of rearranged sentences.
Use of Vivid Verbs / Writer effectively uses 5 or more vivid verbs, thereby enhancing the writer’s style. / Writer adequately uses 4-5 vivid verbs thereby making the writer’s style interesting. / Writer uses 3-5 vivid verbs. Verbs inadequately enhance the writer’s style. / Writer uses 1-2 vivid verbs. Verbs that are used minimally enhance the writer’s style. / There are no vivid verbs utilized in narrative.
Use of Sensory Details / The writer uses at least 5 examples of sensory details that are skillfully placed and relate to one or more of the senses. / The writer uses 4-5 examples of sensory details which are adequately placed and relate to one or more of the senses. / The writer uses 3-5 examples of sensory details which are sometimes inadequately placed and only relate to one of the senses and may interfere with flow of narrative. / The writer uses 1-2 examples of sensory details which, where placed, interfere with the flow of the narrative. Sensory details only relate to one of the senses. / There are no sensory details present in narrative.
Use of Conventions / Evident control of grammar, spelling, and sentence formation. / Sufficient control of grammar, spelling, and sentence formation. Few grammatical errors are present in the essay and do not interfere with reading. / Limited control of grammar, spelling, and sentence formation. Confused and inconsistent arrangement of sentences and fragments interferes with reading. / Minimal control of grammar, spelling, and sentence formation. Essay is difficult to read. / No essay has been submitted in order to assess mechanics.

Excerpt From:

Sedaris, David. “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” Me Talk Pretty One Day. New York: Little, Brown, 2000. 166-173.

At the age of forty-one, I am returning to school and have to think of myself as what my French textbook calls “a true debutant.” After paying my tuition, I was issued a student ID, which allows me a discounted entry fee at movie theaters, puppet shows, and Festyland, a far-flung amusement park that advertises with billboards picturing a cartoon stegosaurus sitting in a canoe and eating what appears to be a ham sandwich.

I’ve moved to Paris with hopes of learning the language. My school is an easy ten-minute walk from my apartment, and on the first day of class I arrived early, watching as the returning students greeted one another in the school lobby. Vacations were recounted, and questions were raised concerning mutual friends with names like Kang and Vlatnya. Regardless of their nationalities, everyone spoke what sounded to me like excellent French. Some accents were better than others, but the students exhibited an ease and confidence that I found intimidating. As an added discomfort, they were all young, attractive, and well-dressed, causing me to feel not unlike Pa Kettle trapped backstage after a fashion show.

The first day of class was nerve-racking because I knew I’d be expected to perform. That’s the way they do it here – it’s everybody into the language pool, sink or swim. The teacher marched in, deeply tanned from a recent vacation, and proceeded to rattle off a series of administrative announcements. I’ve spent quite a few summers in Normandy, and I took a month long French class before leaving New York. I’m not completely in the dark, yet I understood only half of what this woman was saying.

“If you have not meimslsxp or lgpdmurct by this time, then you should not be in this room. Has everyone apzkiubjxow? Everyone? Good, we shall begin.” She spread out her lesson plan and sighed, saying, “All right, then, who knows the alphabet?” It was startling because (a) I hadn’t been asked that question in a while and (b) I realized, while laughing, that I myself did not know the alphabet. They’re the same letters, but in France they’re pronounced differently. I know the shape of the alphabet but had no idea what it actually sounded like.

“Ahh.” The teacher went to the board and sketched the letter a. “Do we have anyone in the room whose first name commences with an ahh?”

Two Polish Annas raised their hands, and the teachers instructed them to present themselves by stating their names, nationalities, occupations, and a brief list of things they liked and disliked in this world. The first Anna hailed from an industrial town outside of Warsaw and had front teeth the size of tombstones. She worked as a seamstress, enjoyed quiet times with friends, and hated the mosquito.

“Oh, really,” the teacher said. “How very interesting. I thought that everyone loved the mosquito, but here, in front of all the world, you claim to detest him. How is it that we’ve been blessed with someone as unique and original as you? Tell us, please.”

The seamstress did not understand what was being said but knew that this was an occasion for shame. Her rabbity mouth huffed for breath, and she stared down at her lap as though the appropriate comeback were stitched somewhere alongside the zipper of her slacks.

The second Anna learned from the first and claimed to love sunshine and detest lies. It sounded like a translation of one of those Playmate of the Month data sheets, the answers always written in the same loopy handwriting: “Turn-ons: Mom’s famous five alarm chili! Turn offs: insecurity and guys who come on too strong!!!!”

The two Polish Annas surely had clear notions of what they loved and hated, but like the rest of us, they were limited in terms of vocabulary, and this made them appear less than sophisticated. The teacher forged on, and we learned that Carlos, the Argentine bandonion player, loved wine, music, and, in his words, “making sex with the womans of the world.” Next came a beautiful young Yugoslav who identified herself as an optimist, saying that she loved everything that life had to offer.

The teacher licked her lips, revealing a hint of the saucebox we would later come to know. She crouched low for her attack, placed her hands on the young woman’s desk, and leaned close, saying, “Oh yeah? And do you love your little war?”

While the optimist struggled to defend herself, I scrambled to think of an answer to what had obviously become a trick question. How often is one asked what he loves in this world? More to the point, how often is one asked and then publicly ridiculed for his answer? I recalled my mother, flushed with wine, pounding the table top one night, saying, “Love? I love a good steak cooked rare. I love my cat, and I love …” My sisters and I leaned forward, waiting to hear out names. “Tums,” our mother said. “I love Tums.”