A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Writing in Response to Reading
Read, read, read. Read everything—trash classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the mast. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.
—William Faulkner (1897-1962)
Rationale for Reading Logs: Research has found that reading and viewing are not passive activities. We do not quietly absorb information; instead we generate ideas in response to what we have read or viewed. We learn largely by observing, reading, writing, talking, and listening (Fulwiler and Young, Language Connections, 1982).
To Receive Credit for Reading Logs: As you read a chapter, you will write a response log by choosing a form from the list below and creating a response to a specific question. These logs are not formal essays; however, flow, fluency, clarity, and focus of thought in response to your reading is the priority. Total # of logs (I know you want to know) is 5—do not choose a form more than once. Don’t fall behind and try to do all of them at one sitting—you know you want to.
TWO LOGS ARE DUE October 12
The rest as you complete the book
Each log must be word processed, spell checked and dated. The log must be a minimum of one page and include at least one quote from the work (followed by the page number in parenthesis). You must also give your response log a title that introduces the subject or theme of your response.
Choose from the following forms:
1. A Character Analysis: Begin by introducing the character. Then trace the development of the character by examining how the character changes and evolves
2. Thematic Analysis: Discuss a theme. What is being said about relationships, family, parents and children, siblings, community, neighborhood, service, culture, human nature, or another element of life?
3. Point of View Analysis: Analyze the writer’s tone, attitude, or point of view in the work. What is his or her purpose in writing this work? What emotions is the writer trying to evoke in the reader? Is he or she successful? Analyze the writer’s tone and point of view.
4. Critique: Respond to something in the work that you do not like, disagree with or made you angry. You may want to point out inconsistencies, gaps, or flaws. Explain your reaction, noting specifics.
5. Scene or Passage Analysis: Focus on a particular passage or scene that evokes powerful feelings from you. What is it that elicited this reaction from you? Why is this scene or passage so significant to the work?
6. Analysis of a Quote, Conversation, or Dialogue: Explain the significance of a particular quote, conversation, monologue or dialogue from the work. Why does it have such an impact? What is its importance to the work? How does it apply or relate to your own personal experience?
7. Letter to a Character or Writer: Write a letter to a character or the writer expressing the thoughts, reactions, suggestions you have in response to the work. What do you like or dislike about the work? Ask questions that you need to have clarified.
8. Personal Connection: Explain how a quote, character, situation, relationship, or theme applies to or parallels your own personal experience.
9. Personal Narrative: A personal story or memory from your own experience of family history that you are reminded of when reading this piece. It may focus on a specific event, incident, time, a place, person or persons, or object from your past. Be sure to include vivid, specific, and clear detail to recreate the incident, event, time, etc. for your reader.
10. Poem: Write an original poem in response to the work that expresses a similar theme or point of view. The references and similarities to the original should be clear and specific.