Ms. GulittiName______
AP Lang/CompPeriod______
“Good Writing” Files
( from Robert H. Collins, SaintCeciliaAcademy, Nashville, TN)
Definition:
A “good writing” file is a compilation of sentences that you consider to be examples of effective writing. You will find these sentences in your day to day reading. Look around you; the world is full of effective writing. You can find such writing in textbooks, novels, in newspapers, in magazines—anywhere writers are engaged in the act of expressing ideas clearly and effectively.
Assignment:
This set of files will be due on ______only. The source for this assignment will beThe Great Gatsby. You must find three writing files from the novel. You are to choose your entries wisely and show originality in your selections. Choose from those excerpts that you have been tracing with your post-it notes. For example, you may find entries that reveal setting or character analysis of Gatsby, Nick, Tom, or Daisy. You could also trace the motif of carelessness and accidents, the delusional dreams of Gatsby, or something else that you may have taken note of on your post-it papers while reading the novel. I will read and respond briefly to your entries to determine a grade out of 30 points.
Purpose:
The writing file is designed to give you practice in two areas that are crucial in developing and improving your writing style. First, the file will give you practice in being a critical reader, a reader who reacts to a writer’s style as well as to a writer’s content. This will help you develop your own writing style.
Writing is the art of producing desired effects in readers. Good writers know not only what effect they want to produce, but how that effect can be achieved. Good readers understand not only what effect was produced but how it was produced. The more skillful you become as a reader, the more skillful you may become as a writer.
Second, the good writing file will give you practice in analyzing and explaining prose. If you can break a piece of writing down into its disparate parts, analyze how it works, and explain how it works to a reader, you demonstrate true understanding of that piece of writing.
One final benefit of the “Good Writing” File: writing is an imitative act. The sentences that you select and analyze—sentences that you have identified as being effective in some way or ways—give you lots of models to imitate.
Format:
1)Typeeach sentence that you find onto a separate piece of standard sized paper. Include the page reference from your copy of the novel. Underline or type in bold those words, phrases, and/or clauses that you intend to discuss in your entry. (see #2)
2)Underneath each typed entry, type your explanation as to why you feel that sentence is effective, focusing on style rather than content. You may include discussion of sentence style as well as figurative language and diction. Your explanation should be as full and as complete as possible, grammatically correct, and stylistic. Explain what effect the writer is after and how the writer achieves that effect. Be as specific as possible.
3)Look up words in a dictionary before you discuss them to make sure they mean what you think they mean. Check out the etymology (origin) of the word. You never know what you might discover. Explain your assertions by discussing exactly which words you like and why you like them. Don’t just write, “I like the word choice.” What effects do these words produce? What makes these words more effective than other words that might have essentially the same meaning?
Example: Look at the following example of an excerpt that would constitute as a “Good Writing File” that focuses on setting. We will study it together to create an entry that you may use as a model for your own assignment.
“We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-colored space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming whiteagainst the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding cake of the ceiling—and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.
The only completed stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.”
(page 12, The Great Gatsby)