Color of Water Writing Notebook Guidelines | ENG 0990, Assignments of English Language

Download Color of Water Writing Notebook Guidelines | ENG 0990 and more Assignments English Language in PDF only on Docsity! ENG 0990/10861 M-W Spring 2007 T. Miller Color of Water Writing Notebook Guidelines 50 PTS As part of your work in this class, I want you to maintain a separate, 80-page, college-ruled notebook which will contain 15 writing assignments that you will complete over the course of the semester based on our textbook, The Color of Water, by James McBride. You should start reading this book ASAP and begin making your entries as outlined on pages 3-4 of this handout. This writing notebook is designed to loosen up your approach to writing and to develop some writing muscle. It is also designed to help you develop ideas for your essay. Here’s how it works: You will have a list of topics to write about. The topics are all in some way related to the readings we will look at in this class. Your job will be to see what you can do with these topics. Possibilities are open-ended. My only warning here is to NOT think the topic is some kind of essay assignment. Each topic is just an excuse to write like heck. This is my challenge to you: Once you start writing, I do not want you to stop, or even lift your pen up off the page. I am quite serious about this. It is very important to develop your writing muscles, and this is a great way to do it, with no pressure---because I won’t grade these writings for anything other than completeness, and a real, serious effort to challenge your ability to sustain your writing for FIFTEEN MINUTES minimum (or 2 full pages minimum) WITHOUT STOPPING. I don’t care what you DO with the topics, either, except that I don’t want to see vulgarity or obscenities. I don’t want you to try to shock me or show how funny you are. That’s just a waste of time. Don’t try to impress me. I only want to see a serious, thoughtful, engaged attempt to build your thoughts on a given topic ---even if you cannot think of anything to write. KEEP THE PEN MOVING ON THE PAGE!! After you have written, “I can’t think of anything else to say,” two or three times in a row, believe me, your unconscious will come to your rescue and give you more to say, because even IT will be bored. If you do not give these topics your best shot, your writing will never loosen up and you’ll be as tight at the end of the semester as you no doubt are here at the start. Also, you will never become comfortable with large writing assignments, and you won’t know how to tap into your thoughts in a free-flowing way that can really produce amazing results if you let it happen. If you let the writing happen, you may be amazed at what comes out. If you let it happen, you may find that even though you started the writing, the writing may end up taking you along for the ride. If that happens, let it ride. Follow your pen. That’s the big goal, really--to get to the point where you can’t write fast enough to keep up with all the ideas... If you don’t give this assignment the time and effort it deserves, I’ll be able to tell immediately, and you will not receive all the points available for this assignment. Writing Notebook, Continued The assignment, again: 1 topic each week for 15 weeks. 15 minutes MINIMUM or 2 full pages of writing MINIMUM. Here are the rules: Do the topics in order. Write the topic at the top of the page Date each entry when you do it Do NOT write on the back side of a page Start a new topic on a new page. If your handwriting is really terrible, skip lines; otherwise, don’t. Remember: Think first for a few minutes about how to attack the topic. Then let it fly. This notebook is worth 50 points. I will call your writing notebook in twice during the semester. Each time, your notebook will be worth 25 points. For each hand in, grading will be as follows: 21-25 points--full, complete, really pushed your ideas, really challenged yourself to go further, to take it to a new level; all hand-ins accounted for; legible; all entries dated and titled; all entries started on a new page; no backsides of pages 17-20 points--full, complete, evidence of lots of effort, but not maximum effort—stopped short or didn’t pursue your ideas; legible; all entries dated and titled; all entries started on a new page; no backsides of pages 13-16 points—all topics completed, but not much evidence of real effort; not entirely legible; mostly clean but some sloppiness and carelessness; some busts 10-12 points--incomplete; not much evidence of real effort; sloppy; careless; undated entries 0-10 points—Incomplete or not handed in; rushed; not much effort