Writing Two (Lit 11)

Your next writing assignment will require you to do some research on a topic of your choice. Completing this assignment responsibly will help you with your senior project research paper when that time comes for you.

This research report will be pretty brief (the usual two pages of double-spaced 12pt Times New Roman), and you will need at least two reliable sources from which you get your information. If you are having a difficult time choosing reliable sources, check out the post titled Taking Research Notes, which will also instruct you on how to get necessary bibliographic information from your sources. When it is time to start writing, you should also review the post titled Citing Your Sources, which will show you how to give credit to the people from whom you collected your research. Students who choose to learn these skills with this piece of writing will have a much easier time when it is time to write your big research paper.

So? What do you research?

I would choose something in which you are interested, but know little about. Researching something about which you are already knowledgeable can be difficult.

Some ideas:

The history of public school in Athens, Ga

The requirements for starting a career in which you are interested

The history of a school you would like to attend

The development of your favorite sport or game

The origins of a law or policy with which you agree or disagree

The posibilities are endless, but you should discuss your topic with me before you start. I do not want you researching a topic that will make this assignment any more difficult than it needs to be.

Here are some examples that may help you out:

Amber Gaines -- Lizzie Borden
Todd Roberts -- How to Run for President
Tony Bolton -- Wilt Chamberlain
Victoria Slaboda -- Geisha (a great example of citations)

A Place on Earth by Wendell Berry p 215 - 328

I am enjoying this book more and more. I have read over 100 pages in the last few days.

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Berry has been concentrating more on Mat Feltner and another character named Old Jack. I like Old Jack more than most of the other characters in the book since he is so crude. He is too old to farm, so he lives in the town's hotel. The woman who runs the hotel is very proper, and Old Jack really gets on her last nerve. In one of the last sections I read, Old Jack missed his life as a farmer, so he plowed up the entire back yard of the hotel. There were nothing but weeds back there, but it still made her "strangling mad" as Berry put it.

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The character, Gideon, who's daughter drowned in the flood has disappeared. As far as anyone knows, he has wandered out into the wilderness, and they do not know when he will return. Mat is also dealing with the loss of his son, who is still listed as "missing" in World War II. The news of president Franklin Roosevelt's death also reaches the citizens of Port William in the last few pages I read. While all this loss is going on, spring is breaking across the region, and everyone is scurrying to get their farms plowed and their tobacco planted. This is especially hard for Mat since his son is gone. Many people in the town are pulling together to help Ida, Gideon's wife, get their farm in working order.

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With the onset of spring, Berry is showing how throughout all the loss the characters are going through, the earth is soothing them by renewing herself each spring. This is not lost on the characters, either. They being farmers are very keen to the earth and her messages.

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I expect the last 175 pages or so of this book to go even faster than the last.

Writing Three (Spring Semester Option)

You will receive three grades for each of your writings (rough draft, editing, final draft. This should give you the best opportunity to produce the best work. You should have your rough draft completed at the beginning of class on March 1, 2007.

Your next piece of writing should focus on your post Classic City High School goals. You should describe the type of career, further education, or whatever you plan to do after you graduate as well as the reasons why you think you would be well qualified for your choice.

If done properly, this piece of writing could turn into a cover letter for a resume, a college application essay, or other pieces of writing employers and schools ask of applicants.

Your rough draft should be two pages of typed double-spaced Times New Roman text. Please let me know if you need help getting started.

A Place on Earth by Wendell Berry p 102-214

This book is getting a little easier to read, but it is still going slowly. The first hundred pages were about just one day in the character's lives, and now I am on page 215, and it is only chapter four. Berry is getting more detailed about a few of the characters that I believe will be the focus of the rest of the novel: Mat, whose son is missing in action in World War II; Jayber Crow, the town's barber; one of my favorite characters, Uncle Stanly, who is the gravedigger and dirty old man of the town, and a new character named Gideon.

Gideon was introduced as the man who works a section of Mat's cousin's farm. Confusing, huh? Anyhow, the entire third chapter three was about Gideon and his search for his daughter who was snatched away in a flood before his eyes. After she gets washed away, he searches through the mud and the flooded valley for her for five days straight, only sleeping for an hour or two when it was entirely necessary. This chapter also chronicles Gideon's wife's actions while he is gone. It was a depressing chapter indeed.

I am enjoying this book because I am a fan of realism. Berry is very good at giving plenty of details so readers can feel what farming life in Kentucky in 1945 was like.

Excellent Work!

The first quarter has been a quick one, hasn't it? I hope the next one goes just as fast so it will be spring break -- although spring break is going to happen before winter is officially over.

You all have been working very hard, and I want to commend everyone on their efforts.

Some work does stand head and shoulders above the rest though:

Analytical Writing -- Kayla Fortson -- Rhythm and Blues
Analytical Writing -- Andrea Coleman -- Reggae

Analytical Writing -- Caleb Pope -- Emo Subculture

Analytical Writing -- Jeff Green -- The Magic of Athens

The Anglo-Saxons -- Scott Graham, Brian Langham, John Kelley, JaLisa Brown, Kevin Jones

The Puritans -- Jesseca Favors

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK

EVERYONE!