The "Here's a Nobody" section
of Twilight focuses on the Rodney King beating and trial
itself. As you read these monologues, continue trying to find
a few key passages for each character introduced. I also ask that
you continue to think about and evaluate how Deveare Smith applies
her own approach to theatre and social issues (especially as she
articulates it in the "Introduction").
A concept from literary studies might
help you think about this play: dialog ism
Here is a definition of this term from
The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism:
In Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics
(1929) Mikhail Bakhtin argued that unlike Tolstoy's novels,
in which character's voices are subordinated to the single perspective
of the author, Dostoevsky's novels engage in dialogism or a
polyphonic interplay of various characters' voices. In a dialogic
work, no voice or world view is given superiority over others;
neither is that voice, which may be identified with the author's,
necessarily the most engaging or persuasive of all those in
the text. Dialogism as a term is a bit misleading, since a dialogic
text is not limited to only two voices. Rather, the force of
the term is in its reference to the exchange between voices,
much as in any dialogue. (81)
As you prepare for class, think about
how this concept describes Deveare Smith's Twilight.
top
First, as you work on your final draft,
check your email frequently. I probably will
send out further tips and guidance over this long break.
Send me a body paragraph:
If you submitted a draft, you have already received feedback from
me about your thesis and intro. If you wish, I will also critique
a body paragraph for you. In order to do that, I need you to paste
a body paragraph into the body of an email and send that to me.
I will reply within 48 hours (so please do this by Sunday).
For the revision and editing processes,
carefully follow the guidelines and instructions in SMG 278-283.
Read these pages BEFORE you begin revising and read them again
AFTER you have revised and before you begin editing. Remember,
the key here is to separate the revision and editing processes.
If you can separate them by a day or two, that will work best.
But even a few hours of separation is better than none.
Three important principles and practices
will help you achieve excellent "A" level college writing:1)
active voice, 2) concision, and 3) sentence variety. Although
we have not yet discussed these ideas in this class, you have
probably reviewed each of them to some degree in high school or
your 1A class. While I will be helping you explore these techniques
in class and in my comments on your final drafts, you can begin
study and reviewing these ideas by now by visiting these web links.
Active Voice
Concision
Sentence Variety
Of all of these links, the most essential,
the one I strongly and enthusiastically recommend that you read
is the
Nuts and Bolts guide on clarity.
Submitting Your Final Draft
Please bring a disk to class, you will
submit your final draft electronically to me from class AFTER
you have checked it one last time for formatting errors.
You will also submit your final draft
as a hardcopy in your portfolio. This copy you must print out
and put in your portfolio before coming to class.
When you come to class, your portfolio
should have the following in it:
- a hard copy of your final draft (in the front)
- a copy of the peer critique written about your
draft
- your draft
- your outline (print out your major_outline
file / see course notes for January
14)
- your invention activities (your major_invention
file / see course notes for January
9 and January
12)
- your journal entries (your major_journal file
/ see course notes for January
9)
- photocopies / printouts of pages used from
any of the sources in your "Works Cited" list. You
only need to photocopy or print out those pages that you quote,
paraphrase, summarize or otherwise specifically use in your
essay (make sure that you identify the source on the top of
the photocopied or printed out page).
Do not hesitate to use email to check
with me for help over the weekend.
