Day 4

Wed. Nov. 2

• Share scenes from Short Cuts and Here Is New York

• Share scenes based on micro-poems

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Homework

➤ Rewrite a scene

Choose a scene from your Portrait of a Place essay, and rewrite it. Try to make it better by adding to it, or removing things from it, or changing the order in which you present the details in that scene. Don’t just cut-and-paste the sentences; write a new paragraph from scratch.

Copy the original scene, and the rewritten scene, onto a single Word document and upload it to the folder “Rewritten scenes from Place Essay” in our SharePoint folder.

➤ Readings

Read Yiyun Li’s “Orange Crush” and Rick Bragg’s “Savoring a Sweet Taste of Southern Summers.”

(Note that “Southern Summers” requires a VPN, and there are annotations, which I highly recommend you read. If you can’t view them, please consult the screenshots I’ll share in our WeChat group. If you hit the New York Times paywall, use the login I will share in our WeChat group as well.)

As you read, notice contrasts. Be ready to share some examples of contrasts next class.

➤ Be ready to share examples of concrete and abstract language

Don’t forget about this — next class, be ready to share your examples of concrete and abstract language from “Short Cuts” and “Here is New York.” (If you like, you can share examples of concrete and abstract language in “Orange Crush” and “Southern Summers” as well.)

Don’t worry about knowing exactly what “concrete” and “abstract” mean—we will talk about that next class. Just find examples based on your own understanding of what those words mean.

➤ Think of an object

Read the instructions for Essay 2: Essay on an Object.

Think of an object, larger than a thimble and smaller than a refrigerator, that you associate with the place you grew up or the culture of the place you consider “home,” however you define it. Be ready to tell us what it is next class (if we have time).