Blog #6 Ratings

"On keeping a Notebook"


1) 4 - The essay was focused on the notebook and the benefits of keeping a notebook. 2) 3.5 - 3) 1 ;4)1 & 5)- This essay was very clear on the purpose the auther wrote it. It gave references on the benefits and libalities of keeping a notebook. The author was very straight forward and the title tells exactly what the essay is about.





"Superman and Me"


Subject at hand (4) - Literary devices (3.5) - Plot, Action, Character, Dialogue (4)


Circling (4.5) - Organization (4) - Presentation of Experience (5) - Innovation and Experimental


form (2) - This essay was one that I enjoyed because the author left you the reader with the feeling that anything is possible as long as you read. He inspiried me to read more.



Out There

1)4
2)2
3)3
4)2
5)4
6)2, I really did not understand why the man started chasing her on the highway. She did explain why she is "out there" because of her many issues going on in her life.
7)5, I did not see any errors and since this is a published piece I would not expect to see any.



Toward a define of Creative Non fiction

1)3, The author did give good examples of pieces of cnf.
2)4, the pattern was to esblish what should be in a cnf
3)4
4)5, the writer gave multi-perspectives with the different pieces of cnf
5)2.5 some reflection, but not alot.
6)3
7)5, saw no errors. This piece to me seemed like a learning piece. It's function is for the cnf to have a general ideal of what a cnf should look like.



Biography of a Dress

1)5, yes the details in this essay is great. I can see the yellow dress.
2)4.5, Her focal point was the photograph and she gave all aspects of the photo. The time it was taken, the reason it was taken, the labor that went into getting her their to take the photo.
3)4, It showed the layers of the photo. And after reading the deatils of the photo. I, the reader saw the investment in the photo.
4)3,
5)5, She used a lot of detailed, and that is what I enjoyed.
6)4
7)5, no errors


That men should not judge

1)5, very original
2)2.5,
3)4, It did develop my focus. Before I wanted family to remember what I did in my lifetime, but now my death and how my family observers me is now important.
4)3
5)2
6)2.5, I really enjoyed the essay because it gave me another way to see life or rather another way to see DEATH.
7)5, no errors


Shoot the Elephant

1)4
2)4
3)4.5, It made me think what do I do for me or what do I do because I was influenced.
4)3.5, Some what it was mostly his and some of the crowd.
5)3
6)4, What I did get is that the policeman hated his job and his life.
7)5, no errors


My father always said

1)5
2)5
3)4, I understand "In Rindheim, you just didn't do such things".
4)5, The movement was great. I like the history, struggle, and the love story.
5)5
6)5, It was logical and clear. And now that saying carried with it hstory, a feeling of pride, hope, and togethetness.
7)5, no errors


Alive
1)5
2)3.5
3)3, This essay shows that no matter how alert a person can be, "as long as you are alive, you are vulnerable just because you are alive.
4)2
5)3
6)3
7)5, no errors.


Westbury Place

1)4
2)4, The pattern to me was deeper and deeper until the author really saw her reality.
3)4
4)3
5)4, She, the writer, gave good details because I could feel her experience.
6)5, It was logical because after the fires she saw herself connect with her reality by now listening to what was going on in the hallway and her neighbor's apartment. She did not lock her self away in her "fantasy world" by the watching of General Hospital.
7)5, no errors.


Desent

1)5, I think the author shows that people do judge you on apperance. But she was brave enough to step in and defilate a bad situation.
2)3
3)4
4)3
5)3, The essay did start off slow and then it picked up and became interesting.
6)3
7)5, no errors.


Crossing the Border

1)4
2)4
3)5, I like that not only a culture difference, but language too.
4)4
5)4
6)4, It was a good essay because you see the conflict in "Crossing the Border". It was also crossing into a different culture.
7)5, no errors.




sue

Blog #5 Westbury Place

The focus of this essay is that the author really did not think that where her and her family lived was violent, but by looking at it from a wider lens, she realized that it was violent. Once the violence came into her home with the thief, snd the violence directly effect the family, they moved. The author saw her apartment as an "elevated castle" with violence not being able to touch her.

This structure is different from the essay ALIVE, because the author is starting specific (with self) and then widen the view. Once she saw the violence around her the "elevated house" began to descend.

The focal point was how she saw herself, her apartment, and the world around her.

Blog #5

ALIVE--
The structure of this essay started off vague as a person concerned with the serial killer in Baton Rouge and the feeling of elevated alertness that comes with that situation. The point of this essay is that you would think an ex-police officer would handle alertness very easily but this essay shows the author handled it like the average person. Also just being ALIVE makes a person vulnerable.

The structure is vague to specific. The essay started off with her knowing that a serial killer is lose in her home town(vague). Then with each paragraph the author gets so specific that she believes a man is staking her and this is because her sense of alertness is high.

Then it concludes with the sense that eventhough she was an ex-police officer, and her training she is still "vulnerable simply because I'm alive".

The center is alertness and the author is taken a life event and judging it as a whole.

Blog #4

From the CNF point, the form is circling deeper and deeper. Also this piece has presentation of experience. The center is "In Rindheim, we didn't do such things". The focus was her father who was a Rindheim jew. The piece by piece account of the Rindheim jews, which her father was one of. It told a story of different events and or experiences they went through and the last paragraph stated what was said in the first paragraph "In Rindheim, we didn't do such things" and in the last paragraph she understood what her father meant by that saying. And in each new paragraph the father showed his daughter how the Rindheims bonded together under trying circumstances (World War II), which supported the saying by giving his daughter a little history of the people in the village (Rindheim). In the last paragraph the writer stated "suddenly carried more weight, giving me a history and legitimacy that would have made me not mind, as much". The writer is saying that now she understands what her father meant when he said "In Rindheim, we didn't do such things".


The first paragraph tells the reader where the father and his family is presently, Queens Blvd, New York. The saying would come up when the daughter would become to "American". The father did not want her to forget her history.

The second paragraph was a trip back to the "old country". There was an old man asking "Aren't you a loewengart, maybe Julius or Arthur"? The old man remembers her father or one of his brothers. In this paragraph the reader also sees her father's fear when the old man invited them into his old house. The father did not want to enter. The reader also gets some history as to how many Rindheim Jews fled to America (250 people).


The third paragraph was her father not wanting to enter the Synagogue because of its history. The Synagogue was a place where the Rindheim Jew felt safe until it was torched and everything in flames. The father's memories was to painful for him to enter.


This fourth paragraph dealt with people in surrounding town which the father pointed out quickly "But these people wern't from Rindheim". The paragraph showed his prided in being a Rindheim.


The fifth paragraph dealt with the father and mother courtship, and that brought a smile from her mother. This was about her parents had fun "to hear more about my parents having fun.


The sixth paragraph dealt with paying respect to the dead. "It's how you pay tribute to the dead". The father is telling his daughter about the placement of the stones.


And the last paragraph deals with the saying "In Rindheim, we didn't do such things" and now the daugher has a much better understanding of what the father means.

The gaps symbolized the end of an event or thought and the begining of a new one with the focus being the experience of the Rindheim jew ( be it a group or an individual).

Blog #3

The two essays I read have similarities and differences with the previous essays. First, let us begin with the similarities. Both Orwell and Montaigne are both telling the essays from their point of view (1st person). Both allows the reader to dig deeper and investigate how they felt about race and death. They both developed their individual essay and gave us as readers a window into their souls. After reading Orwell, I probed myself to see how I felt about race. And I can identify with Orwell being the minority. Also I looked at my life and where I made a decision solely based on outside pressure. Now with Montaigne, I examined death and how I would handle it. As a reader both authors did their jobs. They made me reflect on my own feelings on race and death.

The differences between Orwell and Montaingne are many but I will just list a few. First Orwell used the elephant and whether or not you precieved it as harmful or harmless was all based on your cultural experience. I thought that was brilliant. Orwell also showed the ugly part of race by sharing his feelings about being a police officer, ill- education, and on his life in Burma. His focal point was the elephant. Orwell's words were more harsh and sharp, and that was very different from the previous essays we read.

Montaingne talked about death. What I liked was that he looked at life through death's eyes. Will you die "patiently and tranquilly" and that is how you judge the man. Not judging the man on his life and accomplishments but on how he dies. Montaingne also dealt with God, because back then religion was very important, and most, if not all, the people could not wait to meet God. This was different from the earlier essays because Montaingne's focal point was death and that was the test of a man not his accomplishments or the way he lived his life.


sue

Blog #2- Definition of creative nonfiction

After reading both readings (Lott, pg 270 and Kincaid, pg 209) a couple to times Creative nonfiction seems more clear to me. Lott's definition was a definition. His writings gave examples of others that wrote about creative nonfiction. I liked a few quotations, "Rather ,it is writing about oneself in relation to the subject at hand" (Lott, pg 271). And "relate to a chinese boxes that you keep opening, only to find a smaller one within" (Lott, pg 275). Both quotations tells or shows me that creative nonfiction is my experience in relation to the world. It is taking one part of my life and relating it to my surroundings. It is the chinese boxes that I keep opening and finding a deeper meaning of self. It is putting myself under a microscope and with kindness or judgement tell the reader what the microscope means to me. It is as Lott said "creative nonfiction is to understand, that is everything" (Lott, pg 277). And that is why I write, I write to understand myself in a situation. To get the greater meaning of my purpose in life. To be a better mother, and a better human being. Lott helped me understand creative nonfiction but more powerful he helped me clarify my writings. Lotts discussion gives me a more general ideal of what creative nonfiction is.


Kincaid, I just love. I read one of her writings in another english class "Jamaican Girl" and that was about a jamaican girl becoming a jamaican woman in the Caribbean, and what is expected of her. This writing"Biography of a Dress" was her experience in turning 2 years old. And to me it was an example of creative nonfiction. This essay added a personal account of a event in her life and compared it to what she knows now, if anything. She gave the event and went into great detail of that event, for example, about her yellow dress she wore to take her picture when she turned 2 years old. She described the color in such detail that anyone could picture that yellow dress as boiled cornmeal. Kincaid's details were very personal and specific.

Both discussions were on creative nonfiction. Lott's discussion was more general and Kincaid's discussion was very personal and specific. Both clarified to me what a creative nonfiction writing consists of.

first entry

Hi this is Sue

Non fiction creative is building on your reality. It is how you, the writer, use words to bring more power, more emotion to the text. It gives the reader an image of what the author wrote. For example, Jane walked down the street. This sentences has no emotion and does not give a clear visual for the reader. It should read - Jane floated down the street. Now the reader can picture the emotion of happiness or joy, and maybe a cloud or two. Just by the insert of a new word gives the sentence an emotion. The sentence with the word "floated" created a emotion that was not there with the word "walk".