Some Sample Assignments for English 310--Advanced Composition

Write a self-introduction. (You'll read it in class.) Say something about yourself.
I'll give you up to 15 points for content. (Say something. Say it clearly.) I'll give you up to 10 points for being relaxed. (No heavy ponderous stuff. No harrumphing.) And I'll give you up to seven points for a clean manuscript free from crummy spelling, sentence messes, and ugly shape.
Manuscript form: Put your name, date, paper # across the top in one line (top margin = .5 inch.) Use some sort of title. Double space. Use nothing larger than 12 pitch Times Roman.
[Would you like to see Hashimoto's self- introduction?]
[How about Mary McClane's self introduction?]
[How about Matt Deegan's political statement?]
[How about Zora Neale Hurston's self- introduction?
Write something in which you include a disclaimer. Disclaimers are admissions of limitations, denials of actions or visions, clarifications of directions, hedges and qualifications. Disclaimers are often defensive in nature--admissions that the work reported needs more information, small statements that keep others from categorizing or pigeon-holing you too quickly or otherwise making unfair judgments about what you're saying. Sometimes, these disclaimers are offensive--they say something not to defend, but to suggest more or put on the table what you can't exactly put on the table, to say something that you can immediately take back.
(Want some examples of disclaimers?
Writing is all about bluffing--bluffing to improve status, bluffing to hide mysteries, bluffing to improve image . . . For Monday, write at least one page that includes decent, well-thought-out bluffs.
(Want to see some examples of bluffs?
Do something with names, namings--long lists of names as names. Feel names, let them settle into people's minds. Load readers down with the poetry of names, the visions of exotic thoughts, the flavorings of labels for things that only you know something about. (And, in the process, gain authority, credibility, respectability, whatever.)
Would you like to see Diethard Pabel's name paper?
For this assignment, write something about something using a sidekick. What is a sidekick . . . Well, in their simplest forms, sidekicks are people (or things) who (that) tag along with you--Sometimes you talk to them; sometimes they talk to you; sometimes you talk through them; sometimes they set up straw persons you can ridicule; sometimes they just hang around and say things you don't want to say yourself; sometimes they stand or sit right next to you so you can have somebody to talk to or at or around. There are several typical sidekicks. I've included here a few. For your task, think how you might use a sidekick. Don't, simply, carry on a meaningless conversation with someone else (a sidekick isn't there just to ramble and fill up space); try to make a point, use your sidekick to develop an issue, clarify something, take the blame. And try not to make the sidekick the focus of your piece. Your sidekick helps you make a point, but he/she/it isn't the point itself. In that sense, writing about your grandma doesn't make your grandma a sidekick. But if she follows you out to the garage and tells you secrets about your mother and father, she could be a sidekick. (Note (and this is important): You don't have to build the entire piece around a sidekick. The sidekick can appear at an important moment and disappear when you don't need him/her/it any longer. Your sidekick can appear in a dream or hover someplace in the back of your mind as a conscience or a devil. Your sidekick can speak like an oracle or a false oracle. You can travel a long way to get to your sidekick. You can carry your sidekick in your briefcase or computer.)
This is a "more or less open assignment." (In fact all the rest of the assignments for this class will be "more or less open assignments," so keep this sheet for the rest of the semester.) More or less open assignments are more or less open, subject to the following rules:
- Write about something you care about, know something about, need to talk about. (I don't want papers about stupid subjects: How I found out that dogs have fleas; how come I like the Christ symbolism in Chaucer; the significance of nothing in Waiting for Godot; why I care about life now that orals are over . . .)
- Don't do the same old thing over and over again. Don't get predictable.
- Don't tell stories unless you've got a point to make with your story and your story is the only way you can nail down your point, illustrate your point. (Don't tell little stories with implied motives, vague sentiments about life going on, everything having a time or season, or whatever. Don't get bogged down in rich, sensuous description unless you have more to offer than rich, sensuous description. Don't, simply try to entertain readers with your great story-telling narrative technique.
- Like I say, (let me say again) try to make a point. If you are experimenting with a particular technique, a particular style, write me a note and include samples of what you're trying to do.

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