Sensory Paragraph Asignment for Tues. 9.1

Go to a favorite (or interesting) place on campus (or in the city) and sit there for thirty minutes taking notes. Be sure to jot down details as they relate to all of your senses: sight, sound, touch, scent and even, if applicable, taste. Then take these notes and craft a description of this scene (100-150 words). This shouldn’t be a laundry list. Put us in the scene. In your description, be sure not to mention the location you are describing. In class you will listen to volunteers' descriptions aloud and we will try to guess the location. This assignment is meant to help you develop your narration skills, a set of tools you will use when drafting this first essay.

Here is something like what I want:

I pick up the telephone, listen to the dial tone, and then return it to its hanger. The Doobie Brothers song, “Blackwater,” plays on the jukebox. The coffee is bitter—too long on the burner. Here comes the lady who will ask, for the third time, “Honey, do you want a topper.” I hold my hand over the cup, feeling the condensation rise into it and force a smile. “No thanks.” She probably has six children, all of them boys. When leaving, I get my change and tip a whole dollar. Outside the sound of air brakes pepper the air. I smell oil.

In the Waiting Room, Elizabeth Bishop (Read for Tuesday, 9.1)

In Worcester, Massachusetts,

I went with Aunt Consuelo

to keep her dentist's appointment

and sat and waited for her

in the dentist's waiting room.

It was winter. It got dark

early. The waiting room

was full of grown-up people,

arctics and overcoats,

lamps and magazines.

My aunt was inside

what seemed like a long time

and while I waited I read

the National Geographic

(I could read) and carefully

studied the photographs:

the inside of a volcano,

black, and full of ashes;

then it was spilling over

in rivulets of fire.

Osa and Martin Johnson

dressed in riding breeches,

laced boots, and pith helmets.

A dead man slung on a pole

--"Long Pig," the caption said.

Babies with pointed heads

wound round and round with string;

black, naked women with necks

wound round and round with wire

like the necks of light bulbs.

Their breasts were horrifying.

I read it right straight through.

I was too shy to stop.

And then I looked at the cover:

the yellow margins, the date.

Suddenly, from inside,

came an oh! of pain

--Aunt Consuelo's voice--

not very loud or long.

I wasn't at all surprised;

even then I knew she was

a foolish, timid woman.

I might have been embarrassed,

but wasn't. What took me

completely by surprise

was that it was me:

my voice, in my mouth.

Without thinking at all

I was my foolish aunt,

I--we--were falling, falling,

our eyes glued to the cover

of the National Geographic,

February, 1918.

I said to myself: three days

and you'll be seven years old.

I was saying it to stop

the sensation of falling off

the round, turning world.

into cold, blue-black space.

But I felt: you are an I,

you are an Elizabeth,

you are one of them.

Why should you be one, too?

I scarcely dared to look

to see what it was I was.

I gave a sidelong glance

--I couldn't look any higher--

at shadowy gray knees,

trousers and skirts and boots

and different pairs of hands

lying under the lamps.

I knew that nothing stranger

had ever happened, that nothing

stranger could ever happen.

Why should I be my aunt,

or me, or anyone?

What similarities--

boots, hands, the family voice

I felt in my throat, or even

the National Geographic

and those awful hanging breasts--

held us all together

or made us all just one?

How--I didn't know any

word for it--how "unlikely". . .

How had I come to be here,

like them, and overhear

a cry of pain that could have

got loud and worse but hadn't?

The waiting room was bright

and too hot. It was sliding

beneath a big black wave,

another, and another.

Then I was back in it.

The War was on. Outside,

in Worcester, Massachusetts,

were night and slush and cold,

and it was still the fifth

of February, 1918.

Unit One Essay Prompt and Schedule

190 Essay One: An Artist’s Statement

Your first paper is a personal narrative, meaning you will be your own subject. However, I’m asking you to narrow your focus to discuss, specifically, how your career goals and artistic identity stem from events in your personal history. You will pose the reason or reasons why you’re an artist, graphic designer, etc., using your personal experiences to support your argument. When did you discover your talent? How did you know you wanted to pursue art as a career? Where are you from, and how has this place informed your creativity? Who (what?) are your influences?

            For this paper, I’ll be looking for a focused main idea, delivered in evocative prose that employs various storytelling techniques.  I also expect clean, well-constructed sentences that add up to paragraphs with ample transitions between ideas. We will look at examples of biography and autobiography that use imagery, metaphor, and other literary techniques in order to inform and guide the reader.

            One requirement is that you illustrate your statement by focusing on a scene. It might be tough, but try to find a moment from your past that has helped to determine, right now, who you are. Try to channel your story through this moment. This means: show, don’t tell. Once you’ve done this, think of a second moment. Then, maybe another. 

            Take this assignment seriously. Get started early. Your “First Draft” should actually be something like a third or fourth draft for you. Write with a sense purpose, a purpose you will likely find and refine along the way. I suggest looking over pages 2-31 in Rules for Writers for more on the writing process. 

Protocol:

3-4 Pages

1-inch margins

Double-spaced

12-pt. Times New Roman

Must have an evocative title (not placed in quotation marks)

Hard copies only (No e-mail attachments)

 

Unit One Reading Schedule

(This schedule will be adjusted as needed, including smaller assignments presented TBA on the class blog.) 

P on P=Poets on Painters              PT=Blog

 

9.1            Bishop, “Gregorio Valdes” 152-162 in P on P; “In the Waiting Room” posted on PT; Write Sensory Paragraph as described on PT           

9.3            Stein, “Pictures” 80-106 in P on P; O’Hara’s “Why I’m not a Painter” on PT

 

9.8            Screen American Splendor

9.10            Screen American Splendor

 

9.15            Read Student Essay (Handout) and Artist Statements on PT

9.17            Peer Review 

 

9.22            First Draft Due; Begin Unit Two

For Thursday

For Thursday (8.27), just take a second look at the syllabus... and be ready to write.  When you write this essay, be sure to use paragraphs. Try to think a bit before hand about how you want to organize the essay. Understand, though, that no one is expecting something overly-polished.  I suggest taking it seriously, but not stressing out. 

Syllabus

LA 190: Writing and the Arts

 

Instructor: Dr. Joshua Butts

Course: LA190 Writing and the Arts

Location: Loann Crane Center for Design 304

Office Hours: By appointment.

Email: jbutts@ccad.edu

 

Course Description: Writing and the Arts is a class that will hone your critical thinking and writing skills, while taking its matter from things that pertain directly to your course of study here at CCAD. By engaging in the arguments and issues pertinent to your artistic and professional lives, you will gain a more complex understanding of your work here, while a developing a practiced set of writing and communication skills relevant to diverse situations.

 

Texts:

Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.

McClatchy, J.D., Ed. Poets on Painters: Essays on the Art of Painting by Twentieth-Century

Poets. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1989.

Michael Bierut, William Drenttel and Steven Heller, Eds. Looking Closer Five: Critical Writing

on Graphic Design. New York: Allworth Press, 2006.

 

Supplemental materials will be distributed as handouts, and at the following link: http://thepicnictablefall2009.blogspot.com/.

 

 

Requirements:

The Writing Portfolio:

            4 Formal Essays (3-5 pages)             80%

Quizzes, Informal Writing:                         10%

General Participation (including

a conference):                                                10%

 

 

The Portfolio (80%):

The Portfolio will represent the bulk of your efforts and, consequentially, the bulk of your grade. 

All formal essays should be double-spaced in black 12 pt. Times New Roman. They should also be stapled. The first three formal essays will be revised extensively, not only to improve your grade, but to meet a basic requirement of the class: revision.

 

All good writing is a result of a writing process. The first three essays will require prewriting, peer review, a first draft (to receive a tentative grade), and a final draft. Your first drafts will

receive tentative grades—B-range, C-range, D-range, etc.  This grade represents where the unrevised essay stands in its early incarnation. When revising each essay consider carefully my comments; then, if you like, schedule an appointment with myself, or the Writing Center (sfix@ccad.edu). You are required to meet with me at least once, preferably in the first ten weeks.

 

At the end of the term, you will turn in a folder that includes your three revised essays, as well as the first drafts of those essays (with my comments). The final draft of the fourth essay will also be included. The fourth essay will be an opportunity to show what you have learned in the process of revising the first three essays. The Portfolio will be assessed in terms of the four individual essays, but also as a whole (in terms of your overall progress as a writer). 

Quizzes, Informal Writing (10%):

We will often have reading quizzes at the beginning of class sessions. Quizzes and informal writing (in-class and out-of-class) will be assessed on a check (1), check minus (1/2), zero (0) basis.  (I may request that out-of-class items sometimes be typed.)

 

Participation, Peer Review (10%): You will receive credit for general class participation. This means being attentive and participating in class discussion. Each essay will be read and commented on by a group of your peers. You will receive participation credit for bringing your essay to class (with appropriate copies) and for providing feedback to your peers.  If you show up late to this class on these days, you will not receive credit.

 

Attendance Policy:  It is CCAD policy that if you miss three classes, then you fail that particular class.  I’m inclined to be slightly more lenient: if you miss four classes, then, you fail this class. I don’t want, nor require, excuse slips, or prior notification for absences.  It is simple: don’t miss four classes. Also, don’t be chronically late, or continued tardiness will be considered an absence.

 

ADA Statement: If you have a documented cognitive, physical, or psychological disability, which includes learning disabilities (LD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), depression, anxiety, or mobility, as described by Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it is recommended that you contact Disability Services at 614-222-3292.  Disability Services will assist you in arranging appropriate accommodations with the instructor.

 

Course Schedule: The course will be organized in terms of four units.  Our smaller assignments will pertain to that unit’s particular formal essay. We will go over the first unit’s schedule and essay topic in our second class session.

 

 

Welcome to LA 190

Hey folks, welcome to the Picnic Table.  I will use this as a place to post additional readings, as well as images and video clips.  Most of these posts will be required reading (or viewing), though I will also use this as a space to post links to things that are related to our class discussions but aren't necessarily "required" reading (these posts will be marked FYI).  Though I will post all relevant materials to the blog by noon one day prior to our class session, check it regularly (or consider tracking the blog)--any readings listed on our schedule will be posted well in advance. If I need to make an urgent announcement (class cancelation, etc.), you will receive a notice to your CCAD e-mail.