READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK OF FEBRUARY 27 – MARCH 5, 2006

Tuesday, February 28, 2006:

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

Thursday, March 2, 2006:

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

Important!! I have decided to postpone the due date for your dramatic monologues until our first class meeting after spring break on Tuesday, March 14, 2006. Guidelines for the monologue can be found in the post below.

Here is your memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box for blog posts due on Sunday, March 5, 2006:

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.

Important!! Don’t forget that this Sunday will be the first weekend of spring break. If you are leaving town, or plan to be otherwise occupied, please make sure that you post your blogs early for the week ending Sunday, March 5, 2006.

There will be no required blogging for the week of spring break (ending Sunday, March 12, 2006), but you can, if you wish, write up to three extra credit blog posts (10 points apiece) on any topic of your choice. These extra credit spring break posts will be due no later than Sunday, March 12. Please make sure to label them as Extra Credit Spring Break Blog Posts

Have a Fabulous Spring Break!!

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK OF FEBRUARY 20-26, 2006

Tuesday, February 21, 2006:

Please read Chapter 7 (Tale, Teller, and Tone) from Writing Poems.

Important!! Poem #2 (Poem about a childhood memory and/or a family-related poem (see complete guidelines in post below)) is due in class today!!

Thursday, February 23, 2006:

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 to bring in your blue Harbrace book to class today!

Next, here is this week’s memoir prompt for blog posts due on Sunday, February 26, 2006:

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?


And finally, don't forget that your next assigned poem will be due on Thursday, March 2, 2006. 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.)

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK OF FEBRUARY 13-19, 2006:

Tuesday, February 14, 2006:

Please read Chapter 4 (Making the Line (II)) in Writing Poems.

Thursday, February 16, 2006:

Please read Chapter 5 (The Sound (and Look) of Sense) from Writing Poems.

And here's the memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box for blog posts due on Sunday, February 19:

Is there a piece of music that reminds you of a particular time and place in your life? In Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, there is a violinist named Vinteuil who plays a simple and not very interesting theme of music. But as the years go by, Marcel finds that even a mediocre piece of music can carry with it lots of memory. The music that may cause an outpouring of memories for you may be a Beethoven sonata or a silly pop song. Thin of one of these tunes and describe the memories that come to you.

Don't forget that Poem #2 (A Poem About Family and/or Childhood Memory) is due on Tuesday, February 21!! Here are the guidelines :

Please write a family-related poem and/or a poem of childhood memory.

The challenge of this assignment is to write a poem dealing with family and/or chilhood memory that completely avoids hackneyed language, cliche, and sentimentality.

The poem should incorporate concrete details and sensory images.

Be sensitive to the music of language, and carefully consider how sounds are determined by word choice, line length, line breaks, etc.

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

And finally, here's a link to the upcoming Vermillion Literary Project’s Poetry Festival (click on the menu links on the left side for information about the featured writers, festival schedule, etc.) that you might want to check out! (Don't forget that you can do write-ups of outside literary events to replace up to two absences and that you will need to attend a minimum of one outside literary event to write one of your Writerly Immersion Papers :

VLP 2006 Poetry Festival

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK OF FEBRUARY 6-12, 2006:

Tuesday, February 7, 2006:

Please read Chapter 3 (Making the line (I)) in Writing Poems

Important!! Don’t forget that Poem #1 (Image-Based Poem) will be due in class today! (See guidelines in post below as needed)

Thursday, February 9, 2006:

Class canceled today, as instructor will be out of town for a conference.

Here is your memoir prompt from for blog posts due on Sunday, February 12:

Recall your greatest accomplishment. Was it an award? Did you have a child? Was it something you were honored with publicly or was it a secret thing? Did you do it alone or with a group of people?

And finally, some additional reminders regarding blogging:

Don’t forget that you need to write three blog posts per week: (1) Memoir prompt; (2) Cleaned up/finished version of one of the in-class exercises from class; and (3) Process post discussing either the readings, your own writing process, or any of the ideas/terms/concepts we’ve been covering in the class.

There’s a slight chance that we might not have time to do an in-class writing exercise during our one class meeting on Tuesday this week. If that’s the case, then you may do a “freestyle” blog post on any subject of your choice in lieu of the in-class exercise for this week’s blog posts due on Sunday, February 12.