A third element of ABC's narrative focuses on Jin and "how he manages—and doesn’t manage—to fit in [which] form[s] the heart of the novel. American Born Chinese’s ability to deal honestly with the pains of adolescent isolation make it so compellingly readable. Perhaps Gene Luen Yang’s occupation as a high-school teacher gives him the authenticity this novel uses so effectively, or perhaps he truly can tap into the angst and agita of the teenage years. Either way, it works so well that you can’t help but feel immediately moved and caught up in it."

In the next 45 minutes, I'd like you to consider what made this book so compelling for you.  In other words, what caught you up and moved you? 

If nothing appealed to you, you have two options:  1: LIE or 2: argue why you felt there was a lack of authenticity or readability. 

For class on Friday (In case you can't open the files on MyMC)

En001: Friday Make-up

Fall 2010

These two assignments are both due on Monday, September 27^th

Writing assignment

Directions:  First, do some research on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (fair warning:  this is a challenging text, so you might want to read some explanations of it as well).   Then, explain what the Allegory of the Cave suggests about knowledge AND explain how this has relevance to ABC.  This response should be 1-2 pages typed (double space and all that jazz, just like your essays). 

Chapters 2 and 3

1.     Jin retells a story in the beginning of chapter #2.  What does the story suggest about Jin and how he will react to the move?

2.     Page 29 has only three frames.  The last two are almost silent.  Why would the author choose to end the scene in this way?

3.     Why do Jin and Suzy avoid each other as much as possible?

4.     Why does Jin first want to beat up Wei Chen?  Why do they become friends?

5.     Write one detailed paragraph describing Chin-Kee in all his goofy glory!

Written response:  Compare OR contrast Danny and Jin (I’m thinking three paragraphs will work, intro, one body, conclusion).  

Starting anew

Today we started Unit #2.  It will focus on getting more comfortable with sentences and with the characters and ideas from ABC.

Today, we introducted (or prepared to introduce) CONJUNCTION

Conjunction Junction (click here for a ridiculously fun School House Rock out)

When you want to blend two simple sentences together into one sentence to show a realtionship between the ideas, you'll want to use coordination. 

Today was the best day.     Tomorrow will be even better.  (Notice how each simple sentence has a subject and a verb).
We can use a conjunction to help our reader see these ideas belong together: 

• Today was the best day, and tomorrow will be even better.  (Notice that each still maintains its subject and verb). 
• Notice that a comma was used to signal a change in normal, expected sentence structure. 

• And that a conjunction followed to express the relationship. 

Active v. Passive

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DennisJerz/ActivePassive.swf

Some structure and some style!

Today, we accomplished two big goals: Sentence Structure and Description

Sentence Structure: we built off of subjects and verbs and added the whole concept of "Completion of Thought" by looking at prepositional phrases.

Consider the following sentence:

• Irma travels to different countries on her vacations from school. 

Irma is the subject (who or what the sentence is about)
travels is the verb (the action the subject performs)
to different countries, on her vacations, and from school are the prep. phrases.  Notice how they start with a preposition and follow through to the object (thing being pointed to)

Description is our new mode of development that will help tell the narrative we have chosen in a more complete and accurate manner. 

check out the link...notice how description is being blended with the overall narrative?  Cool, huh?

Remember that description uses all 6 senses to help the writer re-create something for the reader to expereince (just like James re-created death for us)!

cartoon from narrative

http://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/fall-2010/portrait-cartoonist-woman

What's your story?

Today, we spent the majority of our time considering NARRATION.  Narration is a mode of development that allows writers to use stories in order to make their points.  There are a few important pieces to a really good narrative:

• PLOT (the actual story...what happens and stuff)
• CHARACTERS (who is involved...we want this part to be especially full of details and description)
• SETTING (where and when something goes down)

The other thing to think about is organization.  You mostly want to keep things in chronological order to help your readers figure out the time with little effort.  You can use transitions to help.

We also started working on sentence structure.  There are three pieces of information in ALL sentences:

• the SUBJECT (who or what the sentence is about)
• the VERB (shows action or condition/quality of being)
• a COMPLETE THOUGHT (just because that helps the reader)

Practice looking for the subject and verb in EG 374 practice #1 (PS-brownie points if you can figure out the pattern between subjects and verbs).

I'm not too sure about y'all, but I think zombies are pretty cool. However cool I think they are, I still realize that I must have a healthy respect for the undead and their uncanny ability to zone in on me and my ultimate demise. To prepare myself AND YOU, I think we should work on annotating as a way to read and prepare for writing....




Annotating=taking notes


BEFORE : note the title, author and what you think this will be about DURING : note confusing passages, vocab and write out connections and ?s AFTER reading : find the definitions and try to answer the questions


If you do all of this, yes, your reading time will SLLLLLOOOOWWW down, but you'll read on a deeper level, AND you'll have a treasure trove of IDEAS for writing essays.



Annotating is ONE way to brainstorm for an essay...what other ways do you know to brainstorm? How does brainstorming fit into the whole writing process? (EG Unit #1)




PS-for homework, you have TWO assignments, both due on Friday, Sept 3.
1.  REVISE your diagnostic essay (if you missed class, email me).  When you turn in your revision, please include the origninal draft as well as any other steps from the writing process that you took.
2.  ANNOTATE the Zombie reading (again, if you missed class, email me).  I will collect your annotations (on the handout) and give you credit for trying out this new process of reading (Oh, look, there's that "process" word again...must meant that reading is done in steps, just like writing). 




**email me at Lynn.Roessner-Ankney@montgomerycollege.edu

FIrst day!

Okay, you've got your syllabus and you're ready to go, right?  We've got a lot to cover this semester, so....


1.  make sure you buy your books and materials today.  We'll need them in class on Wednesday


2.  AND...if you get the chance, try out my email to make sure we have a good line of communication
Lynn.Roessner-Ankney@montgomerycollege.edu