Course Recap for Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Reviews and Analysis

It is very easy to express love or hate for a piece of art.  It's a little bit harder to defend our love or hate for a piece of art.  A reviewer's goal is to express their opinion about a piece of work and let their readers know if the piece is worth their time.  A reviewer also has to keep in mind that their opinion will be compared against the opinions of others who may not agree with them.  They have to present the best argument for their interpretation of a piece.  Oftentimes, reviewers will analyze and look at the deeper meaning of a piece and its parts to find evidence for their opinion.

Most of us are pretty good at expressing our opinions.  The biggest challenge for this project will be providing analysis of the piece in order to support our opinions.  What is the piece saying?  What point does the piece make?  People rarely enjoy art that delivers messages they disagree with. This is where some of those old skills from former literature classes come into play.  What symbols are present in the piece?  What does the piece say about society?  Art is not created in a vacuum.  Cultural influences have a huge impact on the creators of art.  What societal influences do you think influenced the piece you are reviewing?

For Carrie, we came up with a few different messages from the film.  We looked at the symbols present and saw that there were a lot of symbols concerning purity, blood, and sexuality.  Then we looked to see what we thought the film was saying about those symbols.  We also looked at the characters and what the characters might have represented.  We determined that Carrie sent several messages.  Sexuality is evil.  Relentless bullying creates monsters.  Women are mean and manipulative and men are dumb and easily led by their sexuality.  And there are millions of other messages we could get from the piece if we tried.  Your goal for your own film is to pick an interesting theme for your film.  One that will draw people to it or discourage them from watching it. As long as you can back it up with evidence from the film, your opinion will be valid.

Homework

• Come to class Thursday with the film you want to write about and a potential theme you want to explore.  I suggest picking more than one film, just in case, your first choice doesn't work.

Course Recap for Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Carrie

We watched the first half of the movie, Carrie.  We will be reviewing and analyzing a movie as a class before we do it on our own to make sure we establish good ground rules and techniques for our own personal papers.  The types of questions and issues we discuss concerning Carrie, will be the type of questions or issues you want to look at for the film of your choosing.

Homework

• Read Carrie Movie Review by John Kenneth Muir and Pretty Bloody: Horror Movies and Stereotypes
• Friday's Blog Post Prompt: Your own personal review of Carrie.  Tell us how you feel about the film and why and address one message or theme the film sends and how you feel about it.

Course Recap for Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Tips for a Good Final Draft

1.  Make sure your central thesis is clear.  If either of your readers had a hard time distinguishing the the thesis or if the thesis they found is different from the one you intended, find ways to make it clearer.
2. The more specific you are in your narrative the better.  Even if your readers didn't point out areas where you could use more details or scenes you should expand, look for places yourself where you feel like you can add more.  Maybe there was a scene you wanted to expand but didn't have enough time to do it.  Add it now.
3.  Sometimes, however, less is more.  If there is any unnecessary information, cut it.  If your original draft was 5 pages, I'll be okay if it becomes a bit shorter if it is in the best interest of the story you're trying to tell.  Everything should tie back somehow to your central theme.
4.  Give your narrative a title.  And don't title it Personal Narrative.
5.  Actively work to make changes in your rough draft.  Do not just go and change a word here or there.  Revision means to take another look, to re-imagine, to look at it in a new light.  There is always some way we can make our work stronger, more interesting.  Take a chance.

Final Draft Due Friday, February 20, 2015 at midnight via Google Docs.

Course Recap for Thursday, February 5, 2015

Homework

• Check the Narrative Assignment Sheet underneath Class Documents.

Course Recap for Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Dialogue

We looked at Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, a deceptively simple story.  The story is told primarily through dialogue, and we looked at the dialogue to see how what the characters say help to us see the story. From the dialogue we learn details about the characters, about who they are, about their relationship (how it is now and how it used to be). We learn about the setting and the action is moved forward.  But most importantly we learn about the conflict of the story.  The majority of the dialogue provides us with conflict.  The man and the woman want different things from one another in order for one to get what they want the other person has to give up something.  There is no winning.

Conflict

Conflict is basically a character wanting something, and there being someone or something preventing them from getting what they want.  If there is no conflict, there is no story.  For your narrative, you will be the main character.  Think of times when you really wanted something and tried to get it and something prevented you from getting there.  This'll be a good jumping off point for your narrative.

Homework

• Read "The Unauthorized Biography of Me" by Sherman Alexie and "In the Fifties" by Leonard Michaels. Write a brief paragraph for each piece explaining what the thesis for the narratives are.  Why do the authors choose to highlight those events in their lives?  What do the events they choose to talk about have in common?  Upload this via Google Docs.