Re: if you only had 75 minutes

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

Hi Will,
	I've got a copy of Booth's book, have had it for years, picked up
as an undergrad. at a used bookstore.  I've never gotten around to reading
it though.  However, as I wrote about the excerise, and as I've used it,
it occurred to me that I should read it because I stumbled into the
exercise from thinking about the title, "The Rhetoric of Fiction."
	I've also reverse taught those rhetorical elements by
asking students to read classmates' essays and to identify the same
things: comparisons, contrasts, narratives, and so on.  I remember my
first year writing course at the Univ. of Hartford in 1977, where we did a
paper for each type.  I thought all papers had to be one or the other for
years, and didn't want my students to walk away with that
misunderstanding. Sure they could be, but they don't have to be.  Besides,
students are pleasantly surprised to see how much they do that is already
'classical,' to hint at Corbett's title.

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