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.)