Unit 4 Agenda

Unit 4: Literary Journalism

Objectives:

  • Students will compose a literary journalism piece (6-8 pp.) that seeks to tell a story about a contemporary cultural phenomenon, trend, issue, or ideological shift, while continuing to mobilize tools of the craft of creative nonfiction and demonstrating attention to ethics, positionality, and awareness of their own ideological biases.
  • Students will read works of literary journalism and craft essays that instruct on and model techniques of research and writing appropriate to the field of literary journalism, as well as engage them in conversations about culture from a number of different angles across a range of issues, identities, and geographies.
  • Students will brainstorm effective strategies for conducting interviews and will conduct at least one interview (preferably more than one) with a source vital to their story.
  • Students will engage in brainstorming, writing, research, and revision exercises designed to help them research, interrogate, and make sense of their topics, forge connections in their evidence, arrange the pieces of the story into a narrative, build transitions, and deepen their perspectives and positions on the issue.
  • Students will examine the role of history, culture, and systems of power and privilege in shaping their overall approach to framing the essay, as well as more local choices regarding specific depictions and rhetorical choices.

Calendar (5 Weeks) Week 13-Week 17

Assignments: literary journalism piece (6-8 pp.) Due 1/11/2017; separate reflective essay (2 pp.) Due 1/12/2017

Week 13: What is literary journalism? / finding your material

 Mon. 12/05 Focus-Literary or New Journalism

Reading and Unpacking: Tell It Slant, review pp. 97-99 on “Literary or New Journalism”( What signifies literary journalism?); Tobias Wolff, “Last Shot,” 57-59 (In Short) ;Sarah Vowell, “What He Said There” (PDF)

Discuss: In Sarah Vowell’ “What He Said There”, how does the author seem to be “journalistically” reporting about Lincoln? How does she establish a sense of urgency or importance to the topic? How does she reveal her subjectivity on the topic? How does she portray Lincoln from a very specific perspective? What questions could she have used for her interviews and research to help her gather information? What do we know about Gettysburg, its past and present through this piece? How does the author connect with her subject?

Writing Prompt: Go to a neighborhood that is new to you. Describe it. Watch the people. Say what they look like and how they interact with one another. Remain anonymous. Make general observations based on what you see and hear ( e.g. if people on this block tend to be especially loud and shrill, why? Can you come up with a theory? Bring the story to you. Make it yours.

Perform the same exercise in third person. The story is still yours and you are still forming theories and suggesting possibilities but you do not speak as an “I”.

Homework:  Read one of the assigned essays- “Consider the Lobster” (PDF) by David Foster Wallace, “Yaeger” (PDF) by Tom Wolfe and “Invisible Man” (PDF) by Lawrence Otis Graham. Identify each author’s use of scene, exposition, description, dialogue, imagery, metaphor, lyricism in his essay.

Tue.  12/6 Focus- craft: scene, exposition, description, dialogue, imagery, metaphor, lyricism

Reading and Unpacking: Brian Doyle, “Leap” (PDF); The class is divided into three smaller groups in which students share observations about “Consider the Lobster” (PDF) by David Foster Wallace, “Yaeger” (PDF) by Tom Wolfe and “Invisible Man” (PDF) by Lawrence Otis Graham respectively. They will consider using the following pints for their discussion-

  • How does the author draw the reader in by establishing a sense of urgency or importance to the topic or create a sense of immediacy and interest for the reader?
  • How does the author use scene, exposition, description, dialogue, imagery, metaphor, lyricism to serve a specific purpose?
  • How does the author’s subjectivity and positionality come into play in writing this piece, if at all?
  • Is the author the central focus or a peripheral presence in the story? How do you know?
  • How does the author reveal his or her voice, shed a certain light on the subject and reveal something about his/her own character and ethos?

        Writing Prompt: If you were to write a biography of a person, who would that be? Why? Brainstorm a list of three individuals, historical, local, familiar, or known public figures about whom you have great interests in telling a story. Describe the reasons why you would like to write about the person and why your report of the person may be of interests to other readers. Is there any particular social issue involved? What might it be?

Homework: 1) Do some “quick and dirty “research to find out a little more about each character. Whose life stories are more accessible?  Who seems to strike a louder cord to your inner voice? 2) Read “Every Profile is an Epic Story” (PDF) by Tomas Alex Tizon, and Kelly Cherry, “A Note About Allen Tate,” 172-174  In Short) (a character sketch- How is the subject complicated through contradictions? How does the author look for the person’s pain to understand his/her? What does the subject want in the story? What’s his or her quest?  What’s so “epic” about the subject’s story? )

Wed.  12/7 Focus- Finding Good Topics

Reading and Unpacking: “Finding Good Topics: A Writer’s Questions” by Lane Degregory, (PDF)

Watch an interview of Lane Degregory about how to find story ideas.

Key points from the essay-

  1. Unfolding actions- something has to happen so the story can progress from one point to another
  2. Gain access- would you be able to interview people (or find details through research)?
  3. I can make something happen.
  4. Has something significant already happened? What are the effects? Are there any videos or pictures?
  5. Do I want to tell the story around one scene or five minutes or a whole day or perhaps follow (focus on) someone over a period of time?
  6. Do the characters experience epiphany? (What kind of realization do they have or lack at the end of the story?
  7. What’s the big idea? Thinking about universal truth frames your subject and move it from one specific story to a symbol that everyone can appreciate.

You have done some preliminary research on the subjects of your interests, use the criteria by Degregory, to help you decide which topic might be a better choice for the profile writing.

Writing Prompt: Think of a story that has already been written as news and write it from your own perspectives. Make sure it’s a story you are drawn to that, for you, poses unanswered questions, such as, How could this have happened? Talk to people, read articles, stories, or books that have already been written. Try to think of something that happened in a place you can actually visit.

Homework: Read “World on a Hilltop” by Adam Hochschild. Consider the strategies suggested by Degregory and identify corresponding details from “World on a Hilltop” to understand how the author may have use them to develop his story.

 Thur. 12/8 Focus-character sketches

Reading and Unpacking: “Every Profile is an Epic Story” (PDF) by Tomas Alex Tizon, and “World on a Hilltop” by Adam Hochschild (How is the subject complicated through contradictions? How does the author look for the person’s pain to understand his/her? What does the subject want in the story? What’s his or her quest?  What’s so “ epic” about the subject’s story? )

Writing Prompt: Based on the information you have collected about one of the characters, write a character sketch of the subject. Or you can select a person with whom you are very familiar and write a character sketch of the person using one of the techniques-

  1. As in Tobias Wolff’s “Last Shot,”( In Short 57-59, write about a person who is no longer alive but memories still hold dear to you. Mix the memories with your own imagination about the person.
  2. As in Kelly Cherry’ “A Note About Allen Tate,” (In Short 172-174), create a sketch of a teacher whose quirky behavior endures certain significance to you.
  3. In Ian Frazier’ “Crazy Horse,” (In Short 237-238), the author creates a sketch of a legendary character through research. Create a sketch based on a legendary character who mystifies you or whom you admire.

Here is an example of a character sketch-

“Painless”: Opening Paragraph

The girl who feels no pain was in the kitchen, stirring ramen noodles, when the spoon slipped from her hand and dropped into the pot of boiling water. It was a school night; the TV was on in the living room, and her mother was folding clothes on the couch. Without thinking, Ashlyn Blocker reached her right hand in to retrieve the spoon, then took her hand out of the water and stood looking at it under the oven light. She walked a few steps to the sink and ran cold water over all her faded white scars, then called to her mother, “I just put my fingers in!” Her mother, Tara Blocker, dropped the clothes and rushed to her daughter’s side. “Oh, my lord!” she said — after 13 years, that same old fear — and then she got some ice and gently pressed it against her daughter’s hand, relieved that the burn wasn’t worse.  (Excerpted from “The Hazards of Growing Up Painlessly” by Justin Heckert, originally published in the New York Times November 15, 2012)

Homework: 1) Continue with your research and narrow down your choice about the person you will spend more time researching and writing. 2) Read “Profiles” (PDF) by Jacqui Banaszynski 3) Read Alissa Quart, “When Girls Will Be Boys” (PDF)

 Fri.  12/9 Focus: Profiles, Range and Scope

Reading and Unpacking: Profiles” (PDF) by Jacqui Banaszynski; Identify three different types of profiles in Alissa Quart, “When Girls Will Be Boys” ( cradle-to-current, Niche profile and paragraph profile); identify passages that are niche or paragraph profiles

Key points from “Profiles”-

  • The writer must learn how to describe people and place: to locate characters, to describe them physically, to explain their motivations.
  • Profiles provide specificity
  • micro illustrates the macro
  • Stories that rise above the
  • Specificity stays at the bottom of the ladder of abstraction while themes at the top
  • Interviews are crucial, knowing what questions to ask to dig out the essence about the subject
  • Take the person to places she wouldn’t normally go
  • ask deep questions;Ask questions so layered, so deep, and so odd that they elicit unusual responses
  • Ask questions that require descriptive answers
  • follow abstract questions with concrete ones, to elicit specific anecdotes
  • Make some assumptions that require them to validate what you say, or to argue with you.
  • turn the subject into a storyteller
  • Immerse yourself in your interviews
  • Telling essential detail.
  • Moving in close. Then, you have to pull back
  • When you shift from reporting to writing, you must distance yourself from the characters, your allegiance must be with the reader.
  • The essential character could be a place, or a building, or a meeting or a festival.

Writing Prompt: According to Jacqui Banaszynski,  “A paragraph profile transforms a fairly flat story into one with real characters. That helps your readers move through the story, because names are no longer merely names. The paragraph profile reveals something about a person’s character that is germane to the broader story.” Select a character from your report – it could be the subject or a minor character and write a paragraph profile to reveal his or her character that is relevant or essential to the broader story.

Homework: 1) Continue with the paragraph profile writing; 2) Read Beverly Lowry, “The Shadow Knows” (PDF) ( Is the protagonist given the cradle-to current profile? If not, what is the focus of his profile? Are any of his children given paragraph profiles? How are his wife and father portrayed respectively?)

 Weeks 14-15: Researching, interviewing, and reporting

Mon.  12/12  Focus- Niche profile, research

Reading and Unpacking: Tell It Slant, Ch. 8, “Using Research to Expand Your Perspective,” 71-86(PDF); Beverly Lowry, “The Shadow Knows” (PDF) ; Mark Kramer, “Reporting for Narrative: Ten Tips” (PDF). Why and how do we use research to help us write a dynamic profile? In small groups of three, we will discuss ideas of research or reporting based on the assigned article. In Lowry’s “ The Shadow Knows”, which parts of the story is based on research? Which parts on reporting? How does she use research to frame her narrative or dig deeper into the story?

               Key Points from Mark Kramer’s “Reporting for Narrative: Ten Tips”-

  1. Characters move through experiences; the movement crosses the topical categories of any subject
  2. Characters take action over time and events unfold
  3. The author must gather all the topical information and all the actions.
  4. Before selecting a topic, think carefully about what will intrigue readers
  5. Once you have the reader’s attention, you can digress to give background information
  6. Keep readers’ mind hooked by inserting new questions on every page, like laying out small puzzles for the reader to solve while keeping the flow of the narrative
  7. Access is everything. For any story, you must have access to people at what Henry James called “ felt life level”, which means the level of informal comprehension that you have of your subject at the end of a day spent reporting
  8. Do your homework before interviewing your subject
  9. Find the unfolding action that will provide the narrative line
  10. Subject doesn’t mean topic, location, main character, it mans what the story is about or at a deeper level.
  11. You don’t have to follow chronological order. Your narrative should focus on your subject’s life.
  12. Find hints of character in the action
  13. Find the right scene details though careful sensory reporting
  14. To construct long ago events or any scene, ask your subject to help you.
  15. Pinpoint your subject’s emotional experience not your own.
  16. Rigorously research your story’s context. Narrative exists inside a social context, economic context, etc.
  17. Give necessary background information. Frame your story. Do just enough research to orient yourself, do most of your reporting.
  18. Late in the drafting process, crystallize the point of your story. Narrative writing is creating the right sequential intellectual and emotional experiences for readers. All the scenes, characterization and background must head toward a destination. The ending must by a pay off
  19. Very late in the writing process, refine the differences between your views and your subject’s views (you needn’t mask your view but make sure your readers can understand your subject’s perspectives.)
  20. Cherish the structural ideas and metaphors that come to you while you are reporting. Write notes to yourself about how to write your piece.

Writing Prompt: According to Jacqui Banaszynski , “the key to the niche profile is figuring out exactly Why a person is in the news and building on that.” In your narrative, select a subject and write a niche profile of him or her. You may start by describing an event or action that is startling to you about the subject in details (specifics) and spread out why and how by providing more background information of the event or the subject, more physical descriptions of the character, his/her emotional and physical experiences, your underlining questions that need to be answered through the subject’s experiences, some preliminary dialogues, etc. Try to reveal the “spirit of the place or character” though events.

Homework: 1) Read “The Salvation of Whiskey” by Courtney Hytower, (PDF / Student Essay) before continuing to work on the niche profile of one of the subjects of your narrative. 2) Read Isabel Wilkerson, “Interviewing: Accelerated Intimacy” (PDF) 3) Start reading “Gone Girl: The Extraordinary Resilience of Elizabeth Smart” by Margaret Talbot (PDF)

Tue.  12/13- Focus-Interview

Reading and Unpacking: Isabel Wilkerson, “Interviewing: Accelerated Intimacy” (PDF); “Gone Girl: The Extraordinary Resilience of Elizabeth Smart” by Margaret Talbot (PDF)

               Key ideas from “Interviewing: Accelerated Intimacy”-

  • Interview ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances
  • We can’t write the beautiful narrative stories unless we caught some things from the mouths of our sources
  • How to make our sources comfortable enough to tell us anything-
    • Define a natural relationship between you and the source
    • Ask many questions and be a great audience (nod, look straight into their eyes, laugh at their jokes etc.)
    • Consider interviews as guided conversations- make the interaction as enjoyable as possible
    • Interview is like pealing an onion- we need to make sure we don’t give up before the 7th phase
      • Introduction
      • Adjustment- feeling each other out
      • Moment of connection- give people a chance to get their thoughts together
      • Settling in- enjoy the interactions
      • Revelation- the source feels conformable enough to reveal something very deep and candid. Even when what the person says is important to her but not important to you. It suggests a turning point in the person’s sense of trust
      • Deceleration- you try to bring to closure. Close your notebook and stop taking notes.
      • Reinvigoration- the source feels to say almost anything and now make the very best revelation of the interview.
    • Don’t ever lead your sources. We must have tremendous humility as we interview and understand the enormity of what our sources are doing when they talk to us.
    • We have a tremendous responsibility and obligation to tell their stories accurately and in a fair and balance way. Your own sense of integrity, honesty ad empathy matters more than anything. Empathy is the balance to power. It is important to honor the people who allow themselves to be represented of something larger in our society.

Discussion questions based on “Gone Girl: The Extraordinary Resilience of Elizabeth Smart” by Margaret Talbot-

  • Which part of the narrative is research-based, reporting, or through interviews, respectively?
  • What kind of interview questions do you assume the author used to portray Elizabeth Smart?
  • What is the author’s attitude toward Smart and how do you know? What’s the subject’s attitude toward the issue? How do you know?

Writing Prompt: Go over your profile writing and determine what background information you will need to find through research so you can frame your narrative. You may also need certain contexts for the events you are describing. Find enough preliminary information about the subject through research so you can prepare interview questions that will help you dig deeper. Prepare a set of questions you will use to interview the subject. Bear in mind Wilkerson’s suggestions about interviews, “Define a natural relationship between you and the source; Ask many questions and be a great audience (nod, look straight into their eyes, laugh at their jokes etc.); Consider interviews as guided conversations- make the interaction as enjoyable as possible; Interview is like pealing an onion- we need to make sure we don’t give up before the 7th phase.”

Homework:  1) Continue preparing your interview questions and writing your profile essay; 2) Read Ariel Levy, “Either/Or: Sports, Sex, and the Case of Caster Semenya” (PDF)(Can you identify passages in the profile that are based on research, reporting or interviews respectively? What is the issue that the author really tackles? How does the author reveal her subjectivity? How does Levy make Semenya’s case carry universal meaning? Select a passage that implies either a specific craft or meaning and be prepared to share with the class for the next day’s discussion.

Wed.  12/14 Focus- Reporting and the narrative idea

Reading and Unpacking- “Either/Or: Sports, Sex, and the Case of Caster Semenya” by Ariel Levy (PDF). In Mark Kramer’s “Reporting for Narrative: Ten Tips”, he provides the following tips for reporting-1)Find the right scene details though careful sensory reporting; 2)To construct long ago events or any scene, ask your subject to help you; 3)Pinpoint your subject’s emotional experience not your own.  How does Levy’s reporting illustrate these ideas in her profile writing of Caster Semenya?

Key points in “The Narrative Idea” by David Halberstam (PDF)

  1. Once you have an idea, it just flows out. Taking an idea, a central point, and pursuing it, turning it into a story that tells something about the way we live today, is the essence of narrative journalism.( 11)
  2. The more time, the more interviews you can do, the greater the density of your work.
  3. Telling a good story demands a great conception, a great idea for why the story works- for what it is and how it connects to the human conditions…you must be able to point to something larger.
  4. The more reporting- the more anecdotes, perception, and wisdom on a subject, the better. Ask: who else should I see? The more reporting you do, the more authority your voice has. The more views of any subject that you get, the better.
  5. Research and examine a good story. Figure out what the reporter did and how s/he controls the story and why it worked.

Writing Prompt: Examine how Ariel Levy, in her essay “Either/Or: Sports, Sex, and the Case of Caster Semenya”, takes a central idea, “pursues it and turns it into a story tells something about the way we live today”. How does Levy control her story and has it worked? Why? Write a paragraph or two to describe a central idea you have had. In your writing, explain how the story you are reporting and writing is connected to the idea. If you don’t see the connection, what steps do you need to take ( more reporting of relevant event, action or the character, more interviews, more research ) so you can turn the idea into a story that represents the way we live or human conditions.

Homework: 1) Clearly articulate the central idea of your story. Add whatever you may need to turn the idea into a story. 2) Read “Getting Ready from Nickle and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich (PDF) and examine how she turns an idea about poverty into a story.

Thur.  12/15 Focus: the beginning

Reading and Unpacking: “Getting Ready from Nickle and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich (PDF) (How does she turn an idea about poverty into a story?); Deneen L. Brown, “To Begin the Beginning” (PDF)

Key points from “To Begin the Beginning”-

  • What’s the story about? What’s the theme? Where can I place a character quickly in a scene? How can I tempt the reader?
  • How can I allow a reader to enter the subject’s thoughts, show her feelings?
  • The beginning is where you can establish a relationship with the reader.
  • Beginning to read a story should feel life embarking on a journey, starting toward a destination.
  • The writer must decide what larger meaning the story represent and lead the reader to that.
  • If you had enough space to run with the full dialogue of your character, letting the truth of how people really speak, the truth what you saw?
  • Write our stories as natural story-tellers would. Don’t even stop for punctuation. Let the words fly.
  • Each sentence in your story should build on the one before, keeping the reader hooked.
  • Start the story with the tensest moment/pinpoint and then spread out. Start with a tight shot and then pan wide.
  • Begin with the specifics and then explain why.
  • The story should have a beginning, middle and end, so should each scene.
  • Create multidimensional stories and characters. Go deep.
  • “ Evoke the soul of a place” – Phil Dixson
  • “The story is in the dark. This is why inspiration is thought of as coming in flashes. Going into a narrative –into a narrative process- is a dark road. You can’t see your way ahead… The well of inspiration is a hole that leads downward. Go deep into the darkness to find the story”- Margaret Atwood.

               Writing Prompt: Examine the beginning paragraphs of a story written by Deneen Brown-

               Jessica Bradford knows five people who have been killed. It could happen to her, she says, so she has told her family that if she should get shot before her six-grade prom, she wants to be buried in her prom dress.

               Jessica is 11 years old. She has known since she was in fifth grade what she wanted to wear at her funeral, “I think my prom dress is going to be the prettiest dress of all,” Jessica said. “When I die, I want to be dressy for my family.”

               In the last five years, 224 children younger than 18 have been killed in the District of Columbia either as targets of shooting or as bystanders. The carnage has been taken in by children who live close to the gunfire, such as Jessica, and by some children revolved from it.

               As they’ve mastered Nintendo, double Dutch and long division, some children have sized up their surroundings and conclude that death is close at hand. SO, LIKE Jessica, they have begun planning their funeral.

Take some ideas from Deneen L. Brown’s “To Begin the Beginning” and start shaping the beginning of your narrative. “Begin with the specifics and then explain why; What’s the story about? What’s the theme? Where can I place a character quickly in a scene? How can I tempt the reader? How can I allow a reader to enter the subject’s thoughts, show her feelings? How do I use the beginning to establish a relationship with the reader? Beginning to read a story should feel life embarking on a journey, starting toward a destination.”

Homework: 1) Continue working on an effective beginning. 2) Read Kelley Benham,“Hearing Our Subjects’ Voices…” (PDF) 3) Read George Saunders, “Buddha Boy” (PDF).

Fri.  12/16 Focus- Subjects’ voice

Reading and unpacking- Kelley Benham, “Hearing Our Subjects’ Voices…” (PDF); “Buddha Boy” by George Saunders (PDF).

               Key points from “Hearing Our Subjects’ Voices…”-

  • Using quotations in a disciplined manner
  • Using strong quotes. The best quotes are not stand-alone quotes at all but dialogue
  • Dialogue is easiest for people to read than straight narrative because that’s how we listen to the world and how we communicate.
  • Dialogue opens up a bit of space on the page gives the story some breathing room
  • Give the subject’s voice through quotes or bits of dialogues
  • Drop the quotations marks and tighten it
  • Try to remain as close as possible to the spirit of the subject’s speech pattern. People’s voices are like found poetry- raw, uncrafted and imperfect. Still we do them the greatest justice when we choose carefully and get out of the way.

Discuss: In Saunders’ “ Buddha Boy”, how does the author make the reader “ hear” the Buddha boy’s  “ voice” even though Buddha boy never spoke a word? What other strategies does Saunders use to reveal the subject’s voice? His own?

Writing Prompt: In Benham’s ““Hearing Our Subjects’ Voices…”, Benham provides an example of a dialogue-

Kimberly: I made the mistake of mowing one time, like to have caused a divorce,”

Mike, to Kimberly: “ But tell her what speed setting you led it on the entire bloody time.”

Kimberly

Mike: “Slow”

Slow!

What does the short dialogue reveal about the characters and their relationship? How does the author succeed in using such a short dialogue to reveal something very deep about each character? Consider the quotes you will use in your profile. Can you use a dialogue instead? Will the dialogue be crucial to the development of your character or instrumental to the event? Create a new scene or work on an existing one and try to use dialogues to help the reader hear the subject’s voice.

Homework: 1) Continue working on adding dialogues to the scenes you have written. 2) Read Mark Bowden’s “Finders Keepers: The Story of Joey Coyle”( In Fact,189-225) ( How does Bowden use dialogues to portray his characters? How else does he succeed in introducing different types of characters to the reader?)

 Week 15 Developing narrative:

Mon.  12/19 Focus-when the writer is uncertain about the subject or topic

Reading and Unpacking– Mark Bowden’s “Finders Keepers: The Story of Joey Coyle” & “Narrative J School for People who Never Went” by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (PDF)

Discuss “Finders Keepers: The Story of Joey Coyle”-

  1. Why does the author describe the place (South Philly) first before his protagonist?
  2. How does Bowden use dialogues to portray his characters? How else does he succeed in introducing different types of characters to the reader?)

Key points from “Narrative J School for People who Never Went”-

  • The assignment is just a frame to get started. When I start a story, I often feel baffled. I ask myself and others such basic questions as: What is a “gang girl?” What do people mean when they say those words? What associations do they bring to mind?
  • When I begin reporting, I’m the thermometer for the story. I constantly gauge my reactions.
  • I made personal journal entries while also taking field notes or making tape recordings. I wrote about how I felt about the field work, who I liked, who I didn’t like, who annoyed me, who held my attention, and why.
  • I must draft scenes immediately. I do it right after reporting — ideally, as I’m typing my notes. Fleshing out my notes as soon as possible.
  • The initial reporting can be extremely difficult. I find that I hit a wall of despair because I am so much on the outside. I need to move closer to the inside, but I don’t know how to get there or even where it is. I always get through that phase.
  • By listening to what I decide to say, I discover which story line I’ most interested in. If I keep coming back to one person, that’s the one I choose. That conversation becomes an arrow pointing to where I should go.
  • I don’t have questions yet. I really just want to shadow you for a while.
  • People need time — lots of time. Most people, regardless of age or social class, are rarely listened to without interruption, asked questions, and responded to thoughtfully.
  • Imagine I’m making a movie of your life. I have to trail you around with a camera because I’m trying to show people nothing but your life. I have to see your bedroom, meet your friends, see how you are with your mom. I’m going to watch you, and I’m going to see it differently from the way you do. I’ll talk to other people about you. I’ll be here for a while, and then I’m going to disappear and write my story about your life. It won’t be the story of your life. It will be one tiny piece of what we’ve talked about. You will tell me one thousand things, and two of them will end up in the story.” Ethically and logistically, it is important that your subjects understand the dynamic as much as they can.
  • It is important for me to understand my own responses to situations, not because they are inherently interesting but because they create a map of my unfolding understanding.
  • It is important to know, in equal measure, what I might want to believe, what I resist, and what I’m excited to learn. The dead ends and blind spots offer terrific paths to narrative. My own confusion sometimes informs a narrative strategy.
  • To help understand my own responses, I try not to fill my mind with other people’s ideas. I don’t necessarily do background preparation before I begin reporting.
  • To stay quiet and listen.

Writing Prompt: In LeBranc’s essay, she provides advice for writers who have never attended journalism school and yet need to report their subjects journalistically? She streamlines ideas from picking a topic to determining the topic to when to start drafting scenes to how she should conduct interviews. Write a paragraph or two to explain what your own responses are to the events or situations described in your narrative as well as what you want to believe on the issue involved. Are there any “blind spot” or “dead end”? What are they? How can you unravel them? If you still feel on the outside, how can you move closer to the inside? Read the parts you have written, is there a particular person or subject you keep coming back to? Are there any dialogues between you and the subject? If not, how can you move forward to secure one? If yes, is the dialogue revealing about your subject? Do you need to go deeper through more interviews? What has your experience been like since the day you started the project? Have you been taking notes or writing journals to keep records of the development of the project?

Homework: 1) Continue probing into your narrative and use yourself as the “thermometer”. How far have you gone into the reporting and researching? What else needs to be done? Have you been writing scenes as you gather information about events and actions? 2) Read “Yaeger” by Tom Wolfe (PDF)

 Tue.  12/20 Focus-strategies

Reading and unpacking-Beverly Lowry, “Not the Killing But Why” (PDF); “ Yaeger” by Tom Wolfe

Key notes from “Not the Killing but Why”-

  • You go with what instinct tells you
  • You are in unknown territory. You marshal your wits, gather up your best imitation of nonchalance, turn the door handle, step in.
  • You are operating on instinct and the need to know
  • One foot in front of the other, let them( subjects) do the talking
  • On question may or may not lead to the next. You ask it anyway. Hope for the best, swing with the results, follow up with another. This will never change.
  • Imagination is perverse and the lively mind likes challenge, and stories based on event and facts.
  • Writing a story, you have to make the fictional technique work with the information you have gathered and the commentaries you have managed to come up with.

Discuss “ Yaeger”-

  • How does the essay begin with a profile of a typical captain of an aircraft, with specific emphasis on his voice, a particular drawl?
  • How is the protagonist, Chuck Yaeger, introduced?
  • How is Yaeger physically described? How does the physical portrayal of the subject serve a specific purpose?
  • How does the information about Yaeger’s background help reveal his character?
  • How does the niche profile of Yeager as a pilot during the WWII reveal deeply what kind of man and soldier he was, thus foreshadowing the events that were forthcoming?
  • Why is it necessary for the author to add a paragraph profile of Pancho Barnes?
  • Why is the scene of Yeager getting broken ribs after falling off a horse crucial to the development of the story?
  • How is the background information about supersonic airplanes integral to the development of the story as well as Yaeger’s character?
  • When Yaeger broke the sound barrier and became the fastest man on the earth, how did he communicate the breaking news with the engineer on the ground? How does the scene relate to the beginning of the story?
  • How does the story end? Did you anticipate such an ending? How does the ending clinch Yeager’s character as well as a period in the American history?
  • How does the author use dialogues? How does he describe Muroc by using sensory details and quirks of the landscape, such as Joshua tree? Why is the description of the place essential to the story?

Writing Prompt: Lowery advises, “You go with what instinct tells you”. Set up an interview with someone you don’t know but may be able to provide information about the person or event you are writing about. Explain why you want to talk to the person. The story you are after may be an event of some consequence or of little significance at all. Prepare questions. Do your homework. Be ready to explore new territory when unexpected news comes your way. Write a scene. Fit the interview into the story, using direct quotes only when they contribute to the story you are telling and move the story alone.

Homework: Continue writing the profile; Read Raffi Khatchadourian, “Transfiguration: How Dallas Wiens Found a New Face” with particular attention to the story’s structure.

Wed.  12/21 Focus-story structure

Reading and unpacking: “A Story Structure” by Jon Franklin, WTS, 109-111;, “Transfiguration: How Dallas Wiens Found a New Face” by Raffi Khatchadourian (pdf)

Key ideas from “ A Story Structure”-

  • All our lives are lives are narrative…story is something else: take select pats of a narrative, separately, then from everything else, and arranging them so that they have meaning. Meaning is intrinsic to storytelling.
  • We mistake meaning for opinion. Journalism has very little to do with meaning. …what made stories powerful…character and plot.
  • Anton Chekov defines a story by its points of change, or plot points. The first point of change, at the end of the beginning, is the character complication. It is the point when main characters runs into something that complicates his or her life ( not necessarily a conflict but something that forces the character to exert effort.
  • The key is to find the significant point of change.
  • “Points of Insight”, the moment when the story turns toward the resolution, when the main character ( and/or the reader) finally grasp the true nature of the problem and knows what must be done about it.
  • Good stories show how people survive.
  • All stories have three layers-
  1. The top layer is what actually happens- the narrative
  2. The next layer is how those events make the main character feel. If the writer succeeds in getting the reader to suspend disbelief and see through the character’s eyes, then the character’s and the reader’s feelings will be joined.
  3. There is another layer below the factual and the emotional. It’s the rhythm of the piece and evokes the universal theme: love endures, wisdom prevails, children mature, war destroys, prejudice perverts.
  • The rhythms are the most important to storytelling. Storytelling can be symphonic.
  • The narrative writers may choose to speak at three levels very consciously, but the effect on the reader is usually unconscious.
  • Rhythm exists in story from the sentence level right up to the sectional level.
  • We like stories because we think in stores; it is how we derive meaning from the world.
  • You know the narrative behind the piece of news. The human mind looks at the evidence- new information and past experience- and figures out scenario, forms the narrative. This is why structure reveals meaning and why we like stories that have structure.

               Discuss: Transfiguration: How Dallas Wiens Found a New Face” by Raffi Khatchadourian

  • How does the author structure the story? How does the structure reveal meanings that are beyond the story itself?

Writing Prompt: Review the story you have written so far. If you have had a strong beginning that immediately and clearly drives the reader to read on, then how is the body of your story? Are all scenes or events written in a chronological order? Try to switch scenes around and see the effect the change may bring. Are all scenes about the protagonist? Can you add some paragraph profiles about other people in the subject’s life? Did the events reveal how the character feels instead of your own feelings? Is there a clear trajectory where your story is going? What is it like? How can you connect the structure of the story with the universal theme of the story? (Consider the story structure in Tom Wolf’s “Yaeger”)

Homework: 1) Continue working on the story structure; 2).Review the narrative structure in “The Naked Citadel” by Susan Faludi (PDF)

Thur.  12/22 Focus- “Summary vs Dramatic Narrative”

Reading and Unpacking- “The Naked Citadel” by Susan Faludi; “Summary vs Dramatic Narrative” by Jack Hart (TTS 111)( An Interview)

Key points from ““Summary vs Dramatic Narrative”-

  • Most narrative pieces shift between summary and dramatic narrative. The summary (out of the story) provides the link between scenes, which are usually written in dramatic scenes (in the story).
  • Summary narrative: emphasis on the abstract, collapsed time, employment of direct quotes, topical organization, omniscient point of view, writer’s hovering over the scene, statement of outcome instead of process, high end on the ladder of abstraction, consisting of digression, backstory, and explication
  • Dramatic narrative: emphasis on concrete details, reader’s direct experiences of the event( actions are described as if they were happening at the moment), employment of dialogue, characters talking to one another, organization by scenes, specific point of view, clear narrative stance( writer is inside the scene), dealing with process and giving specific description, consisting of story’s main line of action

Discuss “The Naked Citadel” by Susan Faludi-

  • How does Faludi use summary narrative passages to link dramatic scenes? What effect does the shift have on the reader?
  • Select an example of summary narrative in the essay and identify the traits of the passage (emphasis on the abstract, collapsed time, employment of direct quotes, topical organization, omniscient point of view, writer’s hovering over the scene, statement of outcome instead of process, high end on the ladder of abstraction, consisting of digression, backstory, and explication)
  • Select an example of dramatic narrative and identify the traits within (emphasis on concrete details, reader’s direct experiences of the event( actions are described as if they were happening at the moment), employment of dialogue, characters talking to one another, organization by scenes, specific point of view, clear narrative stance( writer is inside the scene), dealing with process and giving specific description, consisting of story’s main line of action)

Writing Prompt: Review the profile you have written so far. Can you identify passages of summary narrative as well as dramatic narrative? If not, identify two dramatic scenes in your profile and create a summary narrative to link the two scenes. If you notice you have written too much of summary narrative, create a dramatic scene so you can justify the summary narrative you have written- the abstract ideas illustrated or supported by concrete details.

Homework: 1) Continue working on the summary and dramatic narrative. 2) Continue reading “The Naked Citadel” by Susan Faludi

 Fri.  12/23 Fous-  “Weaving Story and Idea”

Reading an Unpacking- “Weaving Story and Idea” by Nicholas Lemann( TTS 112); “The Naked Citadel” by Susan Faludi

               Key points of ““Weaving Story and Idea”-

  • Wolfe uses status details about dress and décor and accent, precise location on a socioeconomic map, scenes, character’s points of view, dialogue
  • Wolfe uses a master hypothesis to drive the entire work while proposing constructs and rubrics throughout the book that drives and shape the story
  • Well-rendered stories include some larger issues or implications.
  • To develop a strong idea track, the writer gains strong command of the material. Ambitious narrative journalists must do literature reviews.
  • Once the writer is fully familiar with the subject, the next step is analogous to matching up the sound track ( an idea plot- an ordered succession of arguments that move forward in sync with the narrative plot. In these places, the writer stops the narrative and signals the meaning or where the narrative is headed next) and the visual track (the movement of the characters through a series of dramatic events I memorable settings) while making a movie.
  • The more the writer thinks about the movement of the idea tack in the narrative while reporting, the less clunky the execution.
  • The “marriage moments” are places where the idea track and the narrative track intersect. Marriage moments rise when authority figures make decisions that shape the story’s direction. Marriage moments fasten the idea track more firmly to the narrative track.
  • The marriage of narrative and analysis is the fundamental project of journalism.

Discuss: According to Lemann, a CNF writer needs to create “an idea plot” or “idea track” (an ordered succession of arguments that move forward in sync with the narrative plot). He states, “In these places, the writer stops the narrative and signals the meaning or where the narrative is headed next”. Identify an example of such a “place “ in “The Naked Citadel”. Describe the “ idea plot” of the essay and a summary of the narrative. Are there any place where the idea track and the narrative track intersect, what Lemann calls “marriage moments”?

Writing Prompt: Write a page or two describing the “ idea plot” of you profile writing. Do the arguments move forward in sync with the narrative plot? Are there any “ marriage moments” in your narrative? If you believe the “marriage moments’ are necessary to bringing your story to a resolution, add the moment to your essay.

Homework: 1) Write an ending for your essay and bring a hard copy of the ending for the next class. 2) Evaluate eh ending of “The Naked Citadel”.

 Weeks 16-17: Revision

Tue.  1/3:  Focus- “ Ending”

Reading and unpacking: Bruce DeSilva, “Endings,” TTS, 116-121

Key points from “Endings”-

  • The ending is your final chance to nail the point of the story to the readers’ memory.
  • Your ending must do four things-
    • Signal to the reader the piece is over
    • Reinforce your central point
    • Resonate in your reader’s mind
    • Arrive on time
    • They offer a twist that readers don’t see coming but they nevertheless strikes them as exactly right.
  • Ways to reach an effective ending-
    • A vividly drawn scene
    • A memorable anecdote that clarifies the main point of the story
    • A telling detail that symbolizes something larger than itself or suggests how the story might more forward into the future
    • A compelling crafted conclusion in which t writer address the reader directly and says,” This is my point.”
    • Use symmetry ( end with an idea that echoes the beginning)
    • End with a quote
    • In narrative, the resolution of the problem is your ending. Once you arrive at it, find the nearest exit.
    • When you story is a narrative, write the ending first. Remember the ending is your destination.

Discussion-

Work in pairs to analyze and evaluate each example of an ending. How effective is it and does the ending move the meaning of the story to a universal level? Share with each other the ending you have written for your profile.

Example 1: ending of “What Price the News” by Ian Stewart-

Miles, David and I were naïve to hope our reporting could make people care about a little war in Africa. In fact, Freetown might never have made your daily newspaper had it not been for the death of one Western journalist when I am well enough? Yes. And most likely I’ll go back overseas. Will I risk my life for a story again? No, not even if the world cares the next time.

Example 2: ending of “A Town is Born” by Ted Anthony-

For now, they’re simply crafting their own community: negotiating workday squabbles, liking and disliking each other, dealing with constituents, hop scotching forward, and doing it themselves. Everything is theirs, even the mistakes. Big ideas on a small canvas, laws in action. People deciding together how they want life to be. The glorious mess that is American democracy. Alive and kicking, just off Interstate 40 on a plateau under the vast New Mexico sky.

Example 3: ending of “Mysterious Killer” by Matt Crenson and Joseph Verrengia

In the New York City neighborhood where it all began, barbecues and kiddies pools have been put away for the season, and many of the old tires have been carted away. But here and there, tires missed during the cleanup, or discarded since, lay in the grass, ready to become mosquito nurseries with the first spring rain.

Example 4: “In Case We Die” by Tim Sullivan and Raf Casert-

Now the boys’ letter rests inside dossier number 4593.123506/99 of the Belgian State Judiciary. And on anther continent in a public cemetery, two graves ten feet apart mark the end of the journey for two boy who had a message for the world. The small mounds of dirt in the Conakry graveyard are edged with rocks and rotting chunks of palm trees. Staked to each grave is a small metal marker. Both are blank.

Example 5: “ God and Country” by Richard Ostling and Julia Lieblich-

( Beginning) Long after the high school football game ended, Lisa Herdahl and Pat Mounce sat on wet bleachers talking intently under a shares umbrella. The two 36-year-old mother were discussing something they cared deeply about: the prayers broadcast over the intercom of their children’s school in the Pontotoc School District. Herdahl opposed the prayers and was taking the country’s school district to court. Mounce had organized the town to fight back.

(Ending) Americans disagree, and perhaps always will, over matters of church and state. But the debate is never over the fundamental right to religious freedom embodied in these 16 words from two centuries ago. What American argue about is how best to practice it. Unlike so many people throughout the world even today, Americans do not settle their religious differences with blood. They debate them in legislative chambers and mannered courtrooms, or even while sharing an umbrella.

Writing Prompt: DeSilva suggest that a good ending should do four things,

  • Signal to the reader the piece is over
  • Reinforce your central point
  • Resonate in your reader’s mind
  • Arrive on time (They offer a twist that readers don’t see coming but they nevertheless strikes them as exactly right).

Does your ending serve all four purposes? If the answer no, revise the ending accordingly. You may also model after one of the five examples proved in the lesson.

Homework: Revise the ending and work on completing the 1st draft of your essay by 1/4. Bring in a copy of the 1st draft essay to the class tomorrow for peer review.

Wed.  1/4:

Focus-Individual conferencing and peer review.

Homework: Complete the first draft.  You may consider incorporate some of your peer’s suggestions. Bring in two copies of your 1st draft for the revision workshop.

 Thur.  1/5 : Revision Workshop

Revision Guidelines

  • Efforts to provide a focused, complex, and nuanced treatment of the issue.
  • Aggressive, thorough, and innovative research; strong interviewing practices.
  • Use of research and the tools of CNF in crafting a coherent, interesting, and detailed narrative replete with description, characterization, quotes, and backstory.
  • Strong pact with the reader, as established through precise choice of language and tone, use of context to ground the reader, ethical treatment of subject matter, ethical representation of subjects, and a mature, in-depth, well-researched approach to the topic.
  • Thoughtful decisions about framing the essay, and strategic arrangement of material.
  • Efforts to raise important questions about one’s subject and to forge discoveries through moments of reflection and analysis.
  • Thorough proof-reading that demonstrates the writer’s complete control over sentence structure, word choice, use of verb tenses, point of view, and use of punctuation to make the reader “hear it” the way the writer imagines the essay sounding.
  • Thoughtfulness and care in composing critical reflection; explicit connections to course readings.

Students will work in groups of three for peer review and revision.

Homework: Revise your essay based on the workshopped ideas for revision. Continue working on the revision during the holiday break. You will need to exchange your essays with the same group members for the 3rd peer review.

Week 17

1/6 Fri.  Revision

Workshopping:

  • How did you forge discovery of your subject through moments of reflection, analysis, and insight into one’s own experience and into the larger relevant culture or subculture?
  • How did you provide a focused, complex, and nuanced treatment of a cultural issue?
  • Did you move your essay through both horizontal and vertical movements?
  • What helped you with making the decisions about framing your topic?
  • What images did you use to help arrange the material strategically?

               Time to work on revision individually or have one-on-one conference with the teacher.

Homework: Work to complete the essay. Consider using an appropriate form to suit the content. Focus on adding lyricism to your essay- imagery, figurative language, avoidance of cliché, word choice that is innovative and precise, attention to phrasing, the rhythm of your sentences. Be prepared to share your examples in the workshop. Print out a hard copy of your essay and bring it to the class.

 1/9 Revision

Workshopping:

  • Is your word choice innovative or again just cliché?
  • Do you often write short sentences or complete sentences? How about considering using fragments, short and long sentence to create a rhythm?
  • Is it possible to include a grippling detail to hook your reader?
  • Can you make clearer your position on the issue in the ending?
  • Have you given your subject a very nuanced treatment?

Workshopping: How successfully did you establish a pack with the reader? Consider the

  • tone, context, precise choice of language,
  • ethical treatment of subject matter, ethical representation of subjects, and
  • a mature, in-depth, well-researched approach to the topic.

Time to work on revision individually or have one-on-one conference with the teacher.

1/10 Tue. Workshopping: How descriptive and detailed are your scene and character portrayal?

  • Did you include strong detail rendered through interesting language and well-crafted scenes?
  • How vivid are the characterizations and place descriptions? Can the reader see what you see through the detailed descriptions?
  • Proofreading. Did you use…?
    • Variety of sentence structure to create rhythm and pacing and punctuation to make the reader “hear it” the way you imagine the essay sounding.
    • Precise word choice and verb tenses
    • Appropriate point of view to treat the topic ethically and fairly

    Homework:Based on the 1st peer review, revise your essay and we’ll work on the 2nd peer review in class tomorrow. Final draft of the essay is due 1/12/2017. 

 1/11 Wed. Critical Reflection of the Literary Journalism Unit

Objectives: Students will be able to evaluate their essay using the rubric provided.

Aim: How has the literary journalism piece taught me about the CNF?

Agenda

  1. Peer Evaluation
  2. Critical reflection

Teaching Points: Unit 4 Rubric

Activity 1: Use the rubric to evaluate your own essay.

Activity 2: Peer evaluation

Independent Practice: In pairs, use the questions below to help you reflect the  unit.

  • How did you choose your subject for this essay?
  • Discuss your experience as an interviewer. How did you come to the right questions?  Were there moments of frustration and/or breakthrough in trying to get your subject to open up to you in the ways you wanted?  Are there things you would do differently next time?
  • What kinds of additional background research did you do, and how did you come to realize what kinds of research would be necessary for this essay?
  • Discuss a few examples of moments when you found yourself inhabiting the role of reporter. What happened, and how did you inhabit this role?  What would you do differently next time?
  • Discuss a moment in the process of researching and writing this essay when your thinking took a sharp turn.
  • Describe your most significant discovery or intellectual breakthrough in researching/composing this essay.
  • What aspects of this project are you most proud of?
  • What are you still struggling with?
  • Discuss some quotes or key passages from our readings during Unit 4 that influenced your thinking about how to craft your profile piece, how to represent yourself as a speaking self in the essay, and how to arrange your material into the final draft

Homework: Reflection due on 1/13/2017.

Thur.  1/12 

  • Students share excerpts from their profile writing in class.
  • Share reflections.

Objectives: Students will be able to reflect on the literary journalism unit by sharing out excerpts of your essays and reflections.

Aim:  Why do we need to reflect ? What have we learned from the unit?

Do Now:  Check responses to Unit 4 prompts

Mini Lesson with Guided Practice

  • Share a passage from your essay and explain why you have selected this passage for the read- aloud. Provide productive feedback by jotting down your thoughts on post-its.
  • Discuss some quotes or key passages from our readings during Unit 4 that influenced your thinking about how to craft your profile piece, how to represent yourself as a speaking self in the essay, and how to arrange your material into the final draft

Independent Practice: 

In small groups of 3-4, discuss and share your responses based ont he following questions-

  • How did you choose your subject for this essay?
  • Discuss your experience as an interviewer. How did you come to the right questions?  Were there moments of frustration and/or breakthrough in trying to get your subject to open up to you in the ways you wanted?  Are there things you would do differently next time?
  • What kinds of additional background research did you do, and how did you come to realize what kinds of research would be necessary for this essay?
  • Discuss a few examples of moments when you found yourself inhabiting the role of reporter. What happened, and how did you inhabit this role?  What would you do differently next time?
  • Discuss a moment in the process of researching and writing this essay when your thinking took a sharp turn.
  • Describe your most significant discovery or intellectual breakthrough in researching/composing this essay.
  • What aspects of this project are you most proud of?

Exit Slip: What are you still struggling with?

Homework: Read Unit 5 assignment sheet and bring in one or two questions for discussion.

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