Agenda: Week 4

Week 4: Drafting the Unit One Assignment

For Monday:

Texts:

• Read “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lourde.

Write:

• First, watch this slide show about emailing a professor, and then write me an email either:
  1. Asking me a question about Unit 1. This can be a question you have about the assignment or about your essay in particular or
  2. Explaining to me how your unit 1 education narrative is going.

For Wednesday:

Write:

1. Work on your own “shitty first draft”! Look at the material you’ve generated through brainstorming and freewriting, and use the process below to help you form your writing into a draft:
   1. First, answer the following questions:
      1. What have you decided to focus on for your education narrative? Why have you chosen to tell this particular story?
      2. What is the meaning/significance of your story? Why should people read it? Write this out in one sentence.
      3. In one word, how do you want people to feel when they are done reading your story? 
      4. Freewrite details you remember about the situation you are describing: include people, places, dialogue, feelings, thoughts, etc. that are in some way connected to your story.
   2. Second, review what you have so far and try to label the features of your narrative arc.
      1. Exposition/Inciting Incident (who, what, when, where  and how does your story begin?)
      2. Rising Action (you should include a lot of the story details here)
      3. Climax (the moment of most drama and significance)
      4. Falling Action (what happened after?)
      5. Resolution (what was the result of this experience? What is the significance?)
   3. On a new piece of paper (or a new screen) use all the writing and thinking you have done to draft your education narrative.
   4. Bring 2 printed out copies of your Unit 1 Draft; one for a peer review workshop, and one to hand in to me