Please work on your entry for the Sokol writing contest. I must see your entry before you submit it. This is mandatory and for a major grade.
Due: Friday, January 13, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Semester Portfolio
Your semester portfolio will take place of your final exam in Performance Word and Text. It will be worth 25% of your grade in the class. Please take it seriously.
Remember: You may use work done in both classes for your portfolio. You want to exhibit the best work you have completed thus far.
• Poetry: Choose 3-5 poems that you think are most successful, creative, or show off your talent or progress as a writer.
• Fiction: Choose 1-3 stories that you think are most successful, creative, or show off your talent or progress as a writer.
• Script: Choose 1 script that you think is most successful, creative, or shows off your talent or progress as a writer.
• Other: Personal, Creative Writing, or English projects: Choose 1-3 projects you did for this semester for yourself, an English class, or for Creative Writing class.
2. Revise
• Nouns: Nouns should be specific and concrete; avoid blatant abstract or vague nouns always in your writing.
§ If you can’t hold it in your hand, touch it, smell it, taste it, hear it, then it’s not concrete. If you can’t see it or touch it, it’s not specific.
• Verbs: Verbs should be active.
§ Avoid excessive use of the verb TO BE. Instead, use strong active verbs
§ Do not shift tense. Make sure all your verbs are either in the past or present.
• Modifiers: Adjectives, prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections. These parts of speech help describe your characters, settings, and plot events.
§ Make sure your stories and poems describe the images you expect the reader to see. Don’t forget about WHERE your characters are or WHAT they are doing while they are talking or acting.
§ Adverbs should be used sparingly.
§ Try to avoid overusing conjunctions. This is a sure sign of a run-on sentence.
• Plot, character, setting, conflict, theme, dialogue, form: Find places in your stories and poems to expand your ideas. Complicate your plots, make them longer, more character driven, more descriptive. Use dialogue to develop your characters histories and backgrounds. Choose your words with care. Try to make a point. Remember your reader!
• Spell check and proofread your work! Reading your work out loud can help!
• It is sometimes helpful to get feedback from friends, teacher, or enemies about your writing.
Remember: this is a writing portfolio (and you have taken Grammar and Style), so you should check and correct any grammar or formatting errors in your work.
3. After you compile your portfolio, you need to write a 2-5 page typed reflection essay about your progress this far in your creative writing courses. In your essay, you should:
§ Talk about your strengths and weaknesses as a writer.
§ Talk about the reading we did and your skill at being a reader. What pieces did you most enjoy/which pieces were difficult for you? Why?
§ Talk about specific writing problems you have faced (and overcome.)
§ Talk about our classes– what parts did you most enjoy, which parts did you least enjoy? What might we be able to do to provide a better learning environment for you?
Hint: do not complain, but actively examine what you felt you did and learned in these classes. Complain to your family and friends, not your self-evaluation.
§ Make a goal. What would you like to work on in the next semester?
4. Finally, please grade yourself. What grade would you give YOURSELF as a writer this semester? Why? Defend your answer.
§ Talk about the work you include in your portfolio
What pieces did you most enjoy, which were difficult for you and why? Which pieces show off your talent? What did writing these pieces help you understand in writing§ The thing to remember about modifiers is that they are not necessary. Overusing them is a great mistake in writing! Be concise! § Do not write in the passive voice – let your subject do the action.
Your semester portfolio will take place of your final exam in Performance Word and Text. It will be worth 25% of your grade in the class. Please take it seriously.
Remember: You may use work done in both classes for your portfolio. You want to exhibit the best work you have completed thus far.
1. Choose
§ One way to make an abstract concept (like love or death or pain or sadness) concrete is by creating a metaphor or simile. (Ex. Love is a blind dove fluttering at your window)• Poetry: Choose 3-5 poems that you think are most successful, creative, or show off your talent or progress as a writer.
• Fiction: Choose 1-3 stories that you think are most successful, creative, or show off your talent or progress as a writer.
• Script: Choose 1 script that you think is most successful, creative, or shows off your talent or progress as a writer.
• Other: Personal, Creative Writing, or English projects: Choose 1-3 projects you did for this semester for yourself, an English class, or for Creative Writing class.
2. Revise
• Nouns: Nouns should be specific and concrete; avoid blatant abstract or vague nouns always in your writing.
§ If you can’t hold it in your hand, touch it, smell it, taste it, hear it, then it’s not concrete. If you can’t see it or touch it, it’s not specific.
• Verbs: Verbs should be active.
§ Avoid excessive use of the verb TO BE. Instead, use strong active verbs
§ Do not shift tense. Make sure all your verbs are either in the past or present.
• Modifiers: Adjectives, prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections. These parts of speech help describe your characters, settings, and plot events.
§ Make sure your stories and poems describe the images you expect the reader to see. Don’t forget about WHERE your characters are or WHAT they are doing while they are talking or acting.
§ Adverbs should be used sparingly.
§ Try to avoid overusing conjunctions. This is a sure sign of a run-on sentence.
• Plot, character, setting, conflict, theme, dialogue, form: Find places in your stories and poems to expand your ideas. Complicate your plots, make them longer, more character driven, more descriptive. Use dialogue to develop your characters histories and backgrounds. Choose your words with care. Try to make a point. Remember your reader!
• Spell check and proofread your work! Reading your work out loud can help!
• It is sometimes helpful to get feedback from friends, teacher, or enemies about your writing.
Remember: this is a writing portfolio (and you have taken Grammar and Style), so you should check and correct any grammar or formatting errors in your work.
3. After you compile your portfolio, you need to write a 2-5 page typed reflection essay about your progress this far in your creative writing courses. In your essay, you should:
§ Talk about your strengths and weaknesses as a writer.
§ Talk about the reading we did and your skill at being a reader. What pieces did you most enjoy/which pieces were difficult for you? Why?
§ Talk about specific writing problems you have faced (and overcome.)
§ Talk about our classes– what parts did you most enjoy, which parts did you least enjoy? What might we be able to do to provide a better learning environment for you?
Hint: do not complain, but actively examine what you felt you did and learned in these classes. Complain to your family and friends, not your self-evaluation.
§ Make a goal. What would you like to work on in the next semester?
4. Finally, please grade yourself. What grade would you give YOURSELF as a writer this semester? Why? Defend your answer.
§ Talk about the work you include in your portfolio
What pieces did you most enjoy, which were difficult for you and why? Which pieces show off your talent? What did writing these pieces help you understand in writing§ The thing to remember about modifiers is that they are not necessary. Overusing them is a great mistake in writing! Be concise! § Do not write in the passive voice – let your subject do the action.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Happy New Year!
You should spend 4th period putting the finishing touches on your stories, which are due Thursday at the end of class.
If you believe you are done, take the time to find a peer editor and look for ways to improve your story. Look back at the guidelines. Did you follow directions/meet all requirements, etc.?
Done? Continue preparations for your final exam. Check out grammar.com, look over your notes, etc.
Did you complete the reading assignment over break? If not, please catch up on your reading and continue the novel.
THIS IS NOT FREE TIME. Each of you has something you need to work on/catch up on.
You should spend 4th period putting the finishing touches on your stories, which are due Thursday at the end of class.
If you believe you are done, take the time to find a peer editor and look for ways to improve your story. Look back at the guidelines. Did you follow directions/meet all requirements, etc.?
Done? Continue preparations for your final exam. Check out grammar.com, look over your notes, etc.
Did you complete the reading assignment over break? If not, please catch up on your reading and continue the novel.
THIS IS NOT FREE TIME. Each of you has something you need to work on/catch up on.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
I have a very simple task for you to do today. The reason it is so simple is because I want you to take the extra time to get past due work completed!
Please complete one of the following poetry exercises today:
1. David Lehman wrote a poem called “The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke.” Pick a similarly everyday pair – butter and margarine, hot dogs and hamburgers, peanut butter & jelly, etc. Write a poem about the pair.
2. In the poem “Words”, Dana Gioia writes: “The world does not need words. It articulates itself/ in sunlight, leaves, and shadows.” Think of other things that don’t speak, and write a poem about how these things express themselves. How does an apple, or a spoon, or a house communicate, etc? What might it say? Why should we listen?
3. Write a poem where every line of the poem begins with the same word or the same letter.
Please complete one of the following poetry exercises today:
1. David Lehman wrote a poem called “The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke.” Pick a similarly everyday pair – butter and margarine, hot dogs and hamburgers, peanut butter & jelly, etc. Write a poem about the pair.
2. In the poem “Words”, Dana Gioia writes: “The world does not need words. It articulates itself/ in sunlight, leaves, and shadows.” Think of other things that don’t speak, and write a poem about how these things express themselves. How does an apple, or a spoon, or a house communicate, etc? What might it say? Why should we listen?
3. Write a poem where every line of the poem begins with the same word or the same letter.
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