EWRT1A-09: grades submitted

The grades have been submitted. I don't know when they'll be available for you to see. The whole system is getting shut down tonight at 5, so you might not be able to view them until next week.

Regardless of grades, I think everyone's writing improved a lot this quarter. There were some really nice essay 3s. And the in-class essays for the final were much better structured and supported than the in-class essays for the midterm. So carry what you learned forward. Twelve weeks isn't much and the class was designed to give you a lot of ideas that you can continue to explore on your own as you keep writing. And if at any time in the future you have a question that you think I could answer, you know my e-mail address.

EWRT1A-09: final

Again, the final is tomorrow, March 27th from 11:30 - 1:30 in our normal classroom. Please bring your copy of Fun Home, paper, and a pen. And get plenty of sleep.

And eat your vegetables.

old reading responses and Fun Home criticisms

Remember to bring reading responses 8 and 9 (if you did them) on Monday. Don't rewrite them; just turn in the originals again. You won't be given new points for them or anything, but I have a plan for them.

Also, on Monday I want to go through the answers to the questions we went over last Wednesday at the end of class. Also, I want to address some of the criticisms leveled at Fun Home. Here are the three most common ones I've seen:

• The literary references in Fun Home are distracting and add nothing to the narrative. In fact, they only seem to be there as a way to make the "comic book" seem more respectable.
• The pictures don't do much in Fun Home. There is really no reason for the book to be a graphic novel. It would have worked just as well as a text-only autobiography.
• In Fun Home, Alison Bechdel confirms negative homosexual stereotypes. For instance, the story portrays the stereotype that all gay men are interested in young boys. It also implies the old idea that lesbianism and feminism are one and the same.

MLA citation for Tweets

The Modern Language Association decides the rules for how to cite a text. Any text. It has just released the rules for how to cite a Tweet.

EWRT1A-09: Grammar Review 5

Here's grammar review 5. Only five sentences this time.

EWRT1A-09: final time

I received an e-mail about our final time, though it's a little confusing. The person wrote: "If your class meets at 9 a.m., go ahead and follow the 9:30 'Regular Start Time' on the finals week schedule chart." Well, our class doesn't start at 9, but I assume that if we start at 11 then we should use the 11:30 time on the finals schedule. If that's true, then our final is 11:30-1:30 on Tuesday March 27th.

EWRT1A-09: first draft of essay 3

The first draft of essay 3 is due next time. Get as complete as you can with it, even though we haven't finished Fun Home. I want to be able to see what your ideas are and if you are analyzing the book correctly. Here are a few things to think about:

• The tips for writing about literature on page 30 of our reader are really good.
• Our reader also has a lot about how to quote effectively. See pages 31-37.
• Remember: analysis, not summary. When writing about literature, analysis means to take apart, to look for patterns. That means you need to get outside the order the texts are presented in.
• Focus on analyzing the texts themselves, not the outside world. How does what you have noticed about the text add to your understanding of the text? Yes, the ideas and themes in the texts relate to the real world, but your goal is to analyze the texts themselves. All your evidence should come from the texts.
• Synthesis.  Don’t just analyze the texts separately- show connection(s). Your thesis should unify both texts. In terms of structure, consider point-by-point or subject-by-subject. In either case, make the connections explicit.

EWRT1A-09: reading response 9

Reading Response 9
Keeping in mind what you have read of Fun Home so far, respond to one of the prompts below. Please use specific evidence from the book to support your response.

    •    Compare and contrast how Alison Bechdel’s father uses books in his life to how Bechdel as a young college student does. How do books relate to their identities? To their sexual identities?

    •    What assets does Alison Bechdel have that help support her coming out as a lesbian? What are her obstacles?

    •    On page 85, Bechdel claims that her father prefers “fiction to reality.” How does this relate to the fact that Bechdel uses so many other stories– Daedalus and Icarus, Camus, The Great Gatsby, etc.– to understand her father?

    •    On page 104, Bechdel mentions the Stonewall Riots. Do some research about this. Why is it significant that Bechdel and her father are in New York just weeks after the Stonewall Riots?

    •    Respond to one of the prompts from Reading Response 8, but incorporate evidence from chapters 3-4.

    •    Choose your own focus for analysis.

EWRT1A-09: grammar review 4 and essay 3

Here is grammar review 4.

And don't forget that the first draft of essay 3 will be due next week already. So be sure to start thinking about it this weekend. If you lost the prompts for it, here.

EWRT1A-09: reading response 8

Reading Response 8
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home chapters 1-2
Choose one. Please use specific evidence in your response.

• On page 15, Bechdel illustrates some of the ways she and her father are different. Despite the differences, how are she and her father similar? Consider characteristics of behavior and/or appearance.

• What elements contribute to Bechdel believing that her father’s death was a suicide? Do you agree that these elements warrant her conclusion?

• Where does Bechdel admit to the limits of her memory and understanding? Do these admissions weaken the narrative or do they serve some purpose? Explain.

• Choose a scene from the book and compare the narration with the monstration. What relationship do these share? In other words, what do the images show in comparison to what the words explain and how do the two work together in the scene to create meaning? Consider using McCloud.

EWRT1A-09: Fun Home Reading Questions

Fun Home  –  Reading Questions.
Use these questions to help focus your reading.

1. In what ways are Bechdel and her father different? In what ways are they alike?

2. Bechdel believes that her father committed suicide. Why? What does she think the motivation for him was? Why is this significant for her?

3. What role do books play in Bechdel’s relationship with her father? What role do they play in her own self discovery?

4. Can you find an image in the text that sums up Bechdel’s relationship with her father? Is its placement in the story significant?

5. In what ways is Bechdel’s father able to support her? How does he do so?

6. Why does Bechdel allude to so many literary texts? How do they relate to her parents? To herself?

7. At times Bechdel seems to judge her father, but at other times she seems to resist judging him. Find instances of both in the text. Does this show a limitation in her understanding?

8. What do you think the purpose of creating Fun Home was for Bechdel?

9. In what ways are the telling (the narration) different from what is in the showing (the monstration)? Think of McCloud’s categories. Also consider that the narration is an adult Bechdel looking back and the monstration is often a young Alison experiencing things for the first time.

10. Is Alison Bechdel a reliable narrator? What does she believe that others in the book may not believe? What biases might she have?