Welcome to the last week of our first Unit! Also the first week where you will be doing some of your own creative work (I'm so excited!). This blog post covers:
Your Mini-Character BiosRemember how on the first day of class I said that we would be writing a short story together? Well, this week is the week that we begin. It will be a semester-long project, and this week you will begin creating your main character by filling out Mini-Bios that look like this: Mini-Bio for Key Characters Name: Age: Birthplace: Marital Status: Children and their ages: General Appearance: Living arrangements: Occupation, including name of employer/school if applicable: Degree of skill at occupation: Character's feelings about his occupation: Family background (whatever you think is important): The inspiration for your characters can come from all over—people in your life, other characters you've encountered in books and movies, and of course, that character we all know the best, ourselves. Pretty sure Hemingway based his main character in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" on himself. I might have already told you guys this, but I'm working on the second draft of a historical novel. As I've been revisiting and rewriting ALL 80,000 WORDS OF MY MANUSCRIPT (1,000 words doesn't seem so bad in comparison, right?), one of the things I've realized is that a very important supporting character is kind of flat. So I've been working on developing him. Here's an example of his mini-bio: My Example Mini-Bio: Name: Edward Connors Age and Birthday: 24 years old, born February 12, 1931 Birthplace: Leeds, England Marital Status: single (wink, wink) Children and their ages: No kids, but he has two older brothers who work in construction in Leeds General Appearance: Tall, dark hair, kind of lanky, pointy nose, always raising his eyes and wrinkling his forehead Living arrangements: During the archeological excavation season, Edward lives in the rooms at the British Archeological Society in Athens and travels to various dig sites throughout Greece. During the off-season, he lives back home in his parents' flat in Leeds and does drafting work for the local construction companies, especially the one that employs the rest of his family. Occupation, including name of employer/school if applicable: Edward graduated with a first-class degree in Architecture from Oxford University, with a specialization in ancient structures and historical engineering techniques. On the archeological digs in Greece, he works as a site architect to draft out and reconstruct ancient buildings from ruins left behind. Degree of skill at occupation: He's good, but he's gotten as far as he has mostly because of his charm and charisma. Character's feelings about his occupation: Edward wants to secure funding to run his own excavations. He's very ambitious for both money and prestige, and he feels unfairly trapped by the stigma associated with his lower class origins. He's got a chip on his shoulder. Family background (whatever you think is important): His whole family speaks in a heavy North England accent that Edward rinsed from his own speech at Oxford. Sometimes, when he's really angry or emotional, his vowels get elongated and his regional accent comes out. Edward really, really hates it when this happens. Strategies for Developing your First DraftsSo, you have the first drafts of your character analysis essays done and dusted. Now you just need to graft 500 more meaningful words onto the structure you've already built. Here are some of the ways you could go about doing this:
Expectations for Peer EditingThis week, we'll be working with our peer editors for the first time. Here are some guidelines and expectations for this:
Please remember: It is a privilege to be able to read another writer's work. In my experience, I learn at least as much from thinking about other people's work as I do when I think about my own work. You just might find the answer to a question you have in your classmate's essay. After all, it's really just another model text you can learn from. Also remember: The purpose of these editing sessions are to help build content and word count. As peer editors, we are mostly looking for opportunities for the writer to expand, as opposed to places where they forgot to put a comma or something. Here are some ways that editors can begin helpful conversations about the essay:
Rubric for the Final Draft of your Character Analysis EssaysYou are going to be assessed again on the same four elements from your first draft, which were:
This way, if you got dinged on one these areas, you will have an opportunity to look at your work again and strengthen it. You will also be assessed on one additional criteria, which is:
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