5 page draft due Wednesday, April 4th (bring 3 copies)
The purpose of this draft is to begin to put together the disparate fragments, freewrites, exercises, and (possibly) your one-pager into something more cohesive. This draft should have a strong sense of voice, character(s) and place/setting. Omit or leave out your opinions and judgments. Let your writing lead readers to draw their own conclusions. This draft should be a rich extension of your main project and incorporate a lot (if not all) of our in-class writing. In other words, lots of new language. Piece it together the best you can, knowing that we’ll continue to think about order, shape, and movement. You might experiment with:
- Using white space between sections
- Writing a title for the different pieces
Necessary components of draft:1) A question, dilemma, tension, issue, or idea that the writer is thinking through, wrestling with.
2)) Strong and specific visual images (Remember Ondaatje’s use of the dream image from page 27 of the human pyramid.)
3) An element of Investigation:· Research to find the history of something central to what you’re writing about. A specific place or location? A local group? A pastime? An object? (See p. 74).
- Historical/cultural research: Find out what the news headlines, popular songs, movies, etc. were during a specific moment. Establish the cultural, historical context (See Ondaatje’s chapter “Honeymoon” on p. 37-38.)
- Interview someone connected to your topic. Include direct quotes and stories. (see bottom of page 25 and all of page 36).
- Describe with specific detail the lifestyle of the times without inserting your own opinions or judgments (see Ondaatje’s chapter called “Historical Relations” on p. 39-41.) How did people spend their time? Who were the main characters? What do people tell stories about? What’s remembered and talked about?
Optional components of this draft:4) Connecting to other texts:
- Intertextuality—use of another text in order to make a connection or commentary about yourself. See Ondaatje’s use of Jane Austen’s Persuasion on p. 22 or his connection to all the famous Englishmen driven crazy in the heat on pages 79-83
5) One simile or comparison
6) Use of present tense
7) Alternative point of view: either use third person to write about yourself or imagine the inner world of someone you’re writing about.
