Re: if you only had 75 minutes

[Nick Carbone <nickc@english.umass.edu>]

I've done something along these lines.  I've given students a short piece
of fiction and asked them to analyze it as a piece of rhetoric.  So the
look for where in the story there's narration, comparison
(metaphors/similes), contrasts, analysis (an author giving omniscient info
on a character sometimes fits this bill), and so on.  

Then we set that aside for the moment. I next ask students to write a
brief anecdote about something humorous, or frightening, or adventurous
that happened to them.

I ask them then to write a description of something in the room--a penny
in their pocket, a pen, a desk--first 'factually', then evocatively.

So after these brief pieces, and you can do more or less to fit, but each
burst only takes ten or so minutes, I ask them to tell the me the
difference that would be made using these in fiction or non-fiction,
keeping in mind how they read the story, and keeping in mind whether there
was any exaggeration in their anecdotes. The discussion is usually very
fun.

I've also done an assignment where I've brought in a bag of onions and
asked students to cut them up, and then to write as detailed a description
of the onion and its parts as they can, without defining detailed.  After
they've had 20-30 minutes to work on it.  I collect all the onions and
onion bits, and then instruct them to write a one page essay that, using
only the details in the description, compares the onion to their
mother--emphasizing that compare means looking for what they have in
common.

Both of these are variations on ideas I'd heard about happening in Fiction
and Poetry Workshops.  I've also had fun adopting some of the exercises
from John Gardner's _the Art of Fiction_ to first year comp.

Nick Carbone, Writing Instructor
Marlboro College
Marlboro, VT 05344
nickc@marlboro.edu, but coming to you via nickc@english.umass.edu