Rules, Rules, Rules
Prof. Myrna Monllor
BWP
Rules of Writing
Errors are rhetorical; that is, they are a matter of
the writer’s authority and purpose, the readers’
expectations, and the context in which the piece is
written and read.
Gallagher, Chris W. and Amy Lee. Teaching
Writing that Matters: Tools and Projects that
Motivate Adolescent Writers. Scholastic, 2008.
p. 32
Intruder in the Dust
by William Faulkner
• For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he
wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two oclock on that July
afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the
guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already
loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and
his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill
waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't
happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but
there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those
circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and
Armstead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that,
we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't
need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time
with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania,
Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with
desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made
two years ago....
a pretty a day by e e cummings
a pretty a day
(and every fades)
is here and away
(but born are maids
to flower an hour
in all, all)
some jerry so very
(and nellie and fan)
some handsomest harry
(and sally and nan
they tremble and cower
so pale:pale)
o yes to flower
until so blithe
a doer a wooer
some limber and lithe
some very fine mower
a tall; tall
for betty was born
to never say nay
but lucy could learn
and lily could pray
and fewer were shyer
than doll. doll
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you
Why are you beset with
Gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like
teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Girl Interrupted by Susana Kaysen
Push by Sapphire
Rhetorical Awareness
Activity 1
Write 3 different 200 word
descriptions of yourself:
1. To introduce yourself
to the class
2. For a journal that is
publishing one of your
articles
3. For a Facebook or
other social network
page
Re-Visioning Possibilities
• Change the point of
view of the text
• Change the genre of the
text
• Change the audience.
• Change from narration
to dialogue or
description
Response Strategies
• Summarize or restate
• Glossing (selecting words or phrases from the
text that condense its meaning)
• Respond
• Point (What seems most important here is…
What is missing is…)
• Extend/Add (You can also apply this to…)
Response Strategies
• Encourage
• Suggest ( You should move this to …)
• Solicit (Could you add details
about…information …)
• Connect (This relates to …)
• Evaluate
• Argue (Another way to look at this is)
• Question
The role of a writer is not to say what we all
can say, but what we are unable to say. Anaïs
Nin
I would hurl words into this darkness and wait
for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter
how faintly, I would send other words to tell,
to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger
for life that gnaws in us all. Richard Wright,
American Hunger, 1977