Final Blog Post/Fall 2013

Read Kirkhorn's essay and Sacco's comic strip, as well as the article linked below. Explain how Sacco exemplifies Kirkhorn's concept of a "virtuous journalist" -- or why he doesn't.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/04/books/joe-saccos-the-great-war-july-1-1916.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

Also, bring to class your own chosen example of a virtuous journalists and be prepared to discuss it. If you wish, you can include a link to his or her work with your blog response, which is due Tues., Dec. 3, at 4 p.m.

Here's my example:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/the-strip.html?_r=0#1

Submissions (Art & Fear, Part 2)

Read Part 2 of the book Art & Fear, then search the following Web sites for at least three publications to which to submit your story. Explain why these publications are a good fit for you. Your response is due by 4 p.m., Tues., Nov. 12.

 http://www.newpages.com/


http://www.thereviewreview.net/magazines/
http://www.everywritersresource.com/literarymagazines/

http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines

http://www.placesforwriters.com/


By the way, some of you are neglecting to complete the blog and, as a result, are compiling F's at an alarming rate. I encourage you to reconsider your conduct.

Inspiring Quotes About Writing (Courtesy of Mike Kelly)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/doree/quotes-about-writing

Dead Kennedys

Although written only five years apart and about similar events, the Breslin and Hamill stories feel vastly different. Identify one literary technique that, to your mind, contributes to this different feel and explain how it contributes. You might choose, for example, from point of view, narrative structure, choice of language, and so on. Please be as specific and complete as possible. Your response should be posted by  Tuesday,  Nov. 5, 4 p.m.

Art & Fear

What statement or observation in Part I of Art & Fear resonates with you? Why? Be as detailed as you can.


Please respond by Tuesday, Oct. 29, 4 p.m. Just to be clear, every non- or late response on this blog, results in a F. I have reiterated this many times, but to poor effect. I mention it again -- and I hope for the very last time -- because the need for discipline is emphasized in this book.

Kentucky Derby

http://brianb.freeshell.org/a/kddd.pdf

Would want to be a "gonzo" journalist? Why or why not? Due Tues, Oct 22, 4 pm

Take the Cannoli

What makes Vowell's writing in "Species on Species Abuse" funny? Language? Situation? Point of view?

Your response is due by 4 p.m., Tues., Oct. 15.

Herr Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeehkdQL_VE

Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/hub_fans_bid_kid_adieu_article.shtml

How does Updike manage to impart significance to something as trivial as a baseball game? That is, does he use a particular motif of images? Does he resort to the old reliable of sportswriters: statistics? Is it through exposition? Or some other device or devices?

Your response is due by 4 p.m. Tues., Oct. 8.

Journalism as Literature

http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2013/09/american-portraits-collage.html

What's Your Story?

Please describe the prospective subject of your literary journalism piece.

Keep in mind Henry James' criteria for judging a piece of writing: 1) What is the writer trying to achieve? 2) Did the writer achieve it? 3) Was it worth achieving? The last is also perhaps the most important.

Answer each of the categories in turn. For #2, answer "how" you're going to achieve it -- that is, your ideas for reporting and structuring the piece, what scenes it will include.

Try to be as specific as possible throughout.

Your response is due by 4 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Story Idea

Please describe the prospective subject of your literary journalism piece.

Keep in mind Henry James' criteria for judging a piece of writing: 1) What is the writer trying to achieve? 2) Did the writer achieve it? 3) Was it worth achieving? The last is also perhaps the most important.

Answer each of the categories in turn. For #2, answer "how" you're going to achieve it -- that is, your ideas for reporting and structuring the piece.

Try to be as specific as possible throughout.

Your response is due by 4 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 17.

Colorful Crane

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/These-Books-Can-Be-Judged-Positively-By-Their-Covers-220557391.html?c=y&page=1&navigation=thumb#IMAGES

Death of Rodriguez

The issue for a writer is how to close the gap, often yawning, between the writer's subject and the reader's experience. Give one example of how Richard Harding Davis creates reader admiration and/or sympathy for Rodriguez in his story. You should cite a specific image, description, etc., rather than make a general statement. Notice, too, how he leads us to feel quite the opposite about the Spaniards.

Please respond by 4 p.m., Sept. 10.

Writers on Writing (video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMACNQPrWDM

Crane-ium

Answer two of three of the following questions:

1)What seems to you "modern" about Stephen Crane's "When Man Falls, Crowd Gathers"? Voice? Style? Structure? Theme? Please elaborate.

2) Please follow the link below. How is its discussion or definition of "creative nonfiction" applicable to Crane's piece, "An Experiment in Misery"?

 http://billanddavescocktailhour.com/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-truth-in-nonfiction-but-were-afraid-to-ask-a-bad-advice-cartoon-essay/

3) Morris Markey's piece, "Drift," belongs to a subgenre referred to as "the procedural." To your mind, what characteristics of the piece make it an example of the genre? How does this help with or determine the structure/organization of the piece?


Remember, we're practicing good writing here, not just literary analysis. Your comments should be crisp and clear. Avoid generalizations, tortured syntax, and muddy language.

Your response is due Tuesday, Sept. 3, 4 p.m. No late responses will be accepted -- ever.

Btw, the "youth" in "Experiment. . ." is Crane, who did the "experiment" by impersonating a tramp. A prologue to the original article in the NY Press made that clear.

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

 His most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/16/arts/writers-writing-easy-adverbs-exclamation-points-especially-hooptedoodle.html

http://thestacks.deadspin.com/elmore-leonard-wrote-great-opening-lines-here-are-all-1178066970
 

Abe's Game of Jacks

http://books.google.com/books?id=6M8JAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=abe's+game+of+jacks&source=bl&ots=BmBWgE-OER&sig=e3wGyfe1u1XroPGwRvxk6BIauLk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hhwMUv3qJ-ri4AO0p4DwAQ&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=abe's%20game%20of%20jacks&f=false

Pre-Writing Rituals

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/2013/08/12/can-what-you-do-before-you-write-improve-your-actual-writing/

Archetonics

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/writers-as-architects/?hp&_r=0

Revisions

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/06/29/revising-your-writing-again-blame-modernists/WhoH6Ih2kat2RE9DZV3DjP/story.html

Walker Evans' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men Photos

http://memory.loc.gov/phpdata/pageturner.php?type=&agg=ppmsca&item=19407&seq=34

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g90OOOG2ZmE

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Please respond prior to class Monday, May 6!

Why, in your opinion, should journalism students read this excerpt from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee? What is something valuable they can learn from it?

Breslin/Hamill

Although written only five years apart and about similar events, the Breslin and Hamill stories feel vastly different. Identify one literary technique that, to your mind, contributes to this different feel and explain how it contributes. You might choose, for example, from point of view, narrative structure, choice of language, and so on. Please be as specific and complete as possible. Your response should be posted by Wednesday,  April 17, 4 p.m.

Questions Without Answers

If you had only one question you could ask me about writing or about the literary journalism we've read so far this semester, what would it be?

Your response is due Wed., April 10, by 4 p.m.

Hand Writing

http://www.wofford.edu/sharedworlds/handinhand.aspx

Twirling at Old Miss

What does baton twirling symbolize in Terry Southern's story? That is, it isn't actually or only a story about baton twirling, is it? Can you think of an activity today that might symbolize something similar?

Your response is due by 4 p.m. this Wednesday, April 3,.

RL Stevenson's Writing Advice

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/mar/20/robert-louis-stevenson-writing-essay

Herr Clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeehkdQL_VE

A Piece of Advice

Read the prose poem below. In your own words, what advice is Stephene Mallarme tendering to authors? How does it apply to your own work?
 

Please respond by Wednesday, March 20, 4 p.m.

 

 

 

FROM STEPHENE MALLARMÉ WITH LOVE

To name an object is to suppress three-quarters of it and be forced to share the rest with strangers. Don’t say what happened exactly or exactly how what happened felt. Rather, say “The black dog whined to be fed.” Make every poem you write a foreign city, where visitors can understand only an occasional word, just like you that time you took another Klonopin because you forgot you had already taken one.

 

 

 

On Revision

http://www.glimmertrain.com/b74luvaas.html

Why I Write

Read Orwell's essay "Why I Write," which is available online as well as in the class handout. Respond to it with comments on why you write. Is it for the same reasons Orwell cites? Your comments are due Wednesday, March 13, 4 p.m.

Story Idea/Target Publication

Please briefly describe the subject of your literary journalism piece  Keep in mind Henry James' criteria for judging a piece of writing: 1) What is the writer trying to achieve? 2) Did the writer achieve it? 3) Was it worth achieving? The last is also the most important.


Also, identify at least two publications (from the directories I showed in class) that you are considering submitting to.


Your response is due by 4 p.m., Wed., Feb. 28.

Didion on Los Angeles

http://www.bu.edu/agni/essays/print/2006/63-birkerts.html

Explain why or why not you think Didion's piece meets Birkerts' definition of "traction." Please respond by 4 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 20.

Please be advised that late responses receive an F.

"Drift"

Morris Markey's piece, "Drift," belongs to a subgenre referred to as "the procedural." To your mind, what characteristics of the piece make it an example of the genre? How does this help with or determine the structure/organization of the piece?

The piece has a noir-ish atmosphere. What is the connection of that atmosphere to the point or theme of the piece?

Remember, we're practicing good writing here, not just literary analysis. Your comments should be crisp and clear. Avoid generalizations, tortured syntax, and muddy language.

Your response is due by 4 p.m., Wed., Feb. 13.

Experiment in Misery

Please follow the link below. How is its discussion or definition of "creative nonfiction" applicable to Stephen Crane's piece, "An Experiment in Misery"?




http://billanddavescocktailhour.com/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-truth-in-nonfiction-but-were-afraid-to-ask-a-bad-advice-cartoon-essay/

Crane-ium

Please respond two of the following question:

1) What seems to you "modern" about Stephen Crane's "When Man Falls, Crowd Gathers"? Voice? Style? Structure? Theme? Please elaborate.

2) Please follow the link below. How is its discussion or definition of "creative nonfiction" applicable to Stephen Crane's piece, "An Experiment in Misery"?


http://billanddavescocktailhour.com/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-truth-in-nonfiction-but-were-afraid-to-ask-a-bad-advice-cartoon-essay/

3)

Due Tuesday, Sept. 3, by 4 p.m.

Welcome to Lit of J

http://www.slideshare.net/wjbriggs/25-writing-tips-from-25-great-writers?ref=http://episodicmag.blogspot.com/


Which piece of advice in the slide show above means the most to you? Why?

Tell me something I ought to know about you that will help me help you as a writer -- your aspirations, your fears and doubts,  etc.

Your comments should be as clear and complete as you can make them in a  blog post. Remember this is my introduction to your writing. Impress me. Or at least don't bore me. (Lesson #1: Boring readers is among the worst things you can do to them. What's the worst? Probably to unintentionally confuse them.)

Please respond no later than  Sunday at 4 p.m.