Illumination
To begin today we will review the work and page notes of the last few weeks and the assignments due in the coming weeks. The quarter is fast coming to a close. Be mindful of the work that must be completed to pass this English class.
A quick recap of recent work:
Essay 3 (a summary of the posted article).
Essay 4 (a poetry explication of "Illumination").
Essay 5 (a short report stemming from the article"Oregon Father's Memorial Trek Across Country Ends in a Family's Second Tragedy," published in the NewYork Times) is due today. I'd like to look at a few, in fact, during class; by means of the shared drive the entire class may profit from the individual work you have composed.
Essay 6 (a local field report) is due week 9 for presentation (see last week's blog and the handouts distributed last week for complete review of what I am asking for).
Essay 7 (a short report with full MLA documentation) is due week 10, at the start of class.
Essay 8 (in-class final) will be assigned week 10 and due at the end of class week 10 or 11.
All of the assignments above are geared to writing that takes account of the creative work and research or reporting of others and that requires accuracy in representation and the use of textual evidence in support of claims, the sine qua non of academic writing.
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After reviewing the short reports of last week, we will write a short explication and response to a poem (250-350 words, essay 4). The aim is to describe what the poem is about, its theme, and how the writer makes it happen. The practice is in presenting the text clearly so that readers can understand it well without necessarily having read it for themselves. Description of the piece and the drawing of its meaning are key. You must identify the poem by author and title, present a conclusion about it (your thesis point), and then to the discussion of its contents and the images and ideas it puts into play in support of your thesis. You will use direct quotation to illustrate some of the text's important lines to support your reading of its contents.
The following paragraph illustrates in brief an "explication" or description and interpretation of a poem by Tony Hoagland called "The Best Moment of the Night." To explicate is to describe and explain the meaning of, here, a poetry piece. We will review what it means to summarize and paraphrase, and how and why we use direct quotations and source references in expository essays and reports. Then you will write a short essay on the poem identified below. The format is illustrated here:
In a poem by Tony Hoagland called “The Best Moment of the Night,” he writes about an informal dinner party. The human guests are gathered around a table and beneath it is a dog whose eager affection strikes a chord in the poet and creates a “moment” (line 1). The dog, “down near the base of the butcher-block table/ just as the party was getting started” (lines 2-3) makes him understand something about his own isolation. He seems lovelorn, and when that dog offers up its belly to be petted–“the vulnerable belly” (line 18)– he momentarily admires it, and is warmed by it, for the dog is still “panting, and alive, and seeking love”(line 19) in a way that he, as a human, can’t readily be or do in front of the gathered guests.
Essay (#4), to be completed in class: In short form (225-350 words) introduce, describe, and comment on the structure, development and theme(s) of the poem “Illumination,” by Eric Paul Shaffer. Use slashes to show lines breaks when quoting passages of three lines or less; use the block format for quotation of four or more successive lines. Include the MLA bibliographic information as it would appear on a Works Cited list at the bottom of the page.
Illumination by Eric Paul Shaffer
On those cold, clear winter mornings, I rise in the dark, and I sit
beneath a lamp with a pen and paper in a circle of light
barely bright enough for the work. The window beside me is black
and blank, and soon I’m staring only through the window of the page
at whatever I’m drawing from ink and concentration. Hours pass,
and, always when I least expect it, there’s a sudden tide of light
as the sun crests the mountain. When the first rays flood the fields,
the thin yellow curtain behind me brightens, and the room swells
with light. Everything is suddenly golden and illuminated,
and for just that one moment, I make the glorious and forgivable
mistake of thinking it has something to do with me.
More Practice
--------------Writing About Images
We experience the world through our senses and mind, reading the meaning of color, shape, sound, texture, form, composition in the images endlessly playing in our perceptual fields. The images that culture produces–photographs, films, commercials, drawings, paintings, cartoons, logos, graphics, etcetera–these may be “read” and elicit our response just as a written text might. What can one learn from visual representations? Can one analyze the particular messages or meaning conveyed, interpret the story told, point or theme illustrated? Indeed, whether we want to understand the documentary value or the aesthetic appeal of a particular image, or the social, political, or economic interests and attitudes that an image represents, close study of visual representations can be fun and insightful activity.
How do advertisers get us to buy? What makes a particular photograph resonate? What storylines or themes implicit in images make us pause? How to begin identifying or “reading” the source content?
The following guidelines should help you write cogently about visual representations:
Source, Purpose, Audience
*Identify the context of the image(s) or video; that is where and how it has been published and distributed or exhibited. To what end or purpose was it created, and by whom?
*What audience does the image address or appeal to? How so?
*What is the most prominent element or figure in the image? And the primary focal point?
*Identify the important objects and figures of foreground and background, consider the literal and expressive details of each, and their collective arrangement in the composition.
*What story or event is depicted or implied?
*What mood or emotion or idea(s) are put in motion by the use of light and dark, color, balance or lack thereof, the use of white space, graphic text or other elements, etcetera?
*To the extent the image persuades by feeling, mood, dramatic content, and so on, what is to be learned?
What do the uses of the image suggest about culture, politics, social life, art, history, the human condition?
Essay Practice (when we get the time): We will be writing about a single image or video piece, and its bearing on the larger issue(s) to which it speaks.
Some options we will consider are listed below. Keep track of titles, authors, photographers, and posting sites so that MLA documentation can be completed.
(1) The following URL affords a fairly extensive photo archive that we will use for class practice in presenting and interpreting visual images. You will choose one image for a short work of 350-500 words that describes the image and the idea(s) it serves to illustrate or the questions to which it gives rise, whether social, historical, political, philosophical, aesthetic, technological, existential . . . . You must have a point to make in addressing the image and support that point by means of reference to the image. You do not have to be an expert on the subject the image addresses or implies, but you should be able to identify something about its impact and merits to make an interesting short essay.
(2) Some online periodicals provide a fairly large number of the work of cartoonists, who offer perspectives on matters making the news, in politics, sports, environment, etc. Choose one from the daily offering or the archives, describe the image and any accompanyng text, the artist or author, and the story, matter, or issue it addresses. You can google key words associated with the pictured material, and find recent news reports that may enhance your understanding of what is being depicted. Humor is typically an important element in cartoon work and you may have fun presenting readers the material. Avoid selecting any piece you do not get. 350-500 words, titled, double-spaced lines.
You should include references to authors or relevant sources in text and at the bottom of the piece in the MLA format.
* The world of images obviously exceeds the postings above, and if you have some alternative image example, you may elect to work with it.
