Wednesday, October 8

Thanks for the great drafts! Every single one of you took on a strong topic - and you have good material you can use as a basis for a polished essay. Some of you might want to work on creating more detailed stories, some of you might work on cutting back on some detail - most of you could strengthen your essay by doing some thinking (freewriting, focusing) on the "concept" you are writing about. What thoughts do you want your reader to take from your essay? How can you circle deeper into your subject? If you ask -"so what" of your essay - what do you come up with? This assignment requires a focus on ideas or concepts - like Orwell's assessment of colonialism, Danticat's contemplation of the processes through which we become aware - and begin to judge.

In class we continued our discussion of "truth" and it seems we circled back to Lott's reflections on writers' responsibilities. And since there are no "creative nonfiction police" it is going to be a personal decision for each of you.

No class on Monday (have a good break). For Wednesday:

Blog 8: post the experience and the reflection for your 2nd essay + whatever writing you have and would like feedback on That second part is important - in a way it gives your classmates permission to write back to you - to offer comments. So put it out there.

Other than that - do some writing into your second essay. I have had conferences with most of you and we have talked about how to write more strongly into the requirements of the assignment - and you might take some of that with you as you start on your second draft. In class on Wednesday you will give some feedback to your classmates - and work on your drafts. The second draft will be due the following Monday (October 20).