Day 3
Fri. Apr. 3
Practice observation on a Place essay
Practice observations on excerpts of Home definitions
“The Game of Details”
Homework
➤ Read the “home definition” excerpts and write observations
Write at least 5 things that you noticed about any of these—other than what I commented on in class. Upload your observations as a Word document to the Box folder.
➤ Write 2 scenes
1) Choose one of the “micro-poems” that you or you classmates “wrote” in class (pick your favorite!) and write a short scene (4-5 sentences or so) using the three details in that poem. You can keep the details in the same order, or change the order; it’s up to you.
2) Choose a scene from your Portrait of a Place essay, and rewrite it, changing the order in which you present the details in that scene. Don’t just cut-and-paste the sentences; write a new paragraph, presenting the details in a different order.
Upload your scenes to the Box folder. (Upload them as two separate documents, each in the folder where it belongs.)
➤ Reread Susan Orlean and E.B. White excerpts
Reread these pieces; if you only read one, read the other.
Choose your favorite scene from either of these two essays, and think about why you like it. What does the author include in the scene? What does the author not include in the scene? Why are the images (or other details) presented in the order that they are?
In addition, don’t forget your examples of abstract language and concrete language to share next class.
➤ (Optional reading in Chinese)
If you like, and if you’re able, read Eileen Chang’s 《公寓生活记趣》. This is also a “Portrait of a Place.” How is the way she writes about her apartment building similar and different from the way Joseph Mitchell writes about McSorley’s, and how Susan Orlean writes about her hair salon?
