Day 9

Mon. Nov. 21

• Share aphorisms

• Share details from Uncle Pat

• Share details from “Mazie” and “The Man Who Eats”

---

Homework

➤ Read “Mazie” or “The Man Who Eats”

Read whichever of these you didn’t read last time. (If it’s Mazie, I recommend focusing on paragraphs 1-6 and 8-9.)

In this piece, look for one of each of these things as well. Come to next class ready to share an example of each of these for either “Mazie” or “The Man Who Eats.”

• Physical description of a character’s appearance

• A list of concrete objects

• An anecdote about a character (something they once did)

• A description of a character’s habits (something they always or often do or did)

• An aphorism / statement of that character’s worldview and values

• Something another character says about that character

• A description of the character acting in a scene (physical action)

• Quotation or dialogue that captures a character’s voice

➤ Read your classmates’ aphorisms

Read over your classmates’ new aphorisms on SharePoint (“Three new aphorisms”) and pick one that you find interesting: one that has multiple dimensions of meaning, one that tugs at your mind and invites you to ponder it again and again. Come to next class ready to share that aphorism and explain to us: 1) what you take it to mean; 2) why you picked it; and 3) what kind of person you think would believe this.

➤ Improve an aphorism

Pick either an aphorism you wrote or an aphorism a classmate wrote, and improve that aphorism. Make it more concise; make it sound better; make it clearer or more vivid in some way. Type the original AND your improved version of the aphorism in a Word document and upload it to the folder called “Improved aphorisms.”

Note: If you want, try improving more than one! Improve as many as you want. Put them all in the same Word document.

➤ Start working on your character essay

Your essay is due a week from today. It’s probably a good idea to get to work on it!