10.23.08 | In Cold Blood [day8]
Schedule:
Goal[s]:
1. Attendance & Questions?
 Analyze ways in which
2. CollectIt
blurring line between fact
3. Support paragraphs and
and fiction influences
the paper at large.
experiences as well as
4. Workshop outlines.
theories of immersion.
5. Discussion
6. HW – write and submit
 Brainstorm areas of
paper 1; finish 3 goposts;
interest
in
preparation
for
read Hemingway;
paper writing.
presenters’ posts.
USING COLLECTIT
7 Support Techniques.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Personal experience.
Statistics.
Emotion.
Detail.
Supporting opinion [secondary source].
Logic.
Examples.
Paragraph elements.
• There is no ideal order, but a paragraph should
accomplish the following goals:
– State the purpose/point/objective of the paragraph,
including an explanation of how it relates to the
paper’s claim.
– Provide evidence for in support of the objective,
usually in the form of quotation.
– Set the quotation in context of the story and your
argument as a whole.
– Hit the point home.
– Transition to the next paragraph.
Quotation Sandwich.
• The meat needs to be supported by bread. [again, all
these elements, but not necessarily in this order]
– Set up the quote by telling us where it comes from in the
book and why you are drawing our attention there [as
opposed to anywhere else]
– Give the quotation
– Tell us what it says. Literally, just how do you read it. You
can’t trust the reader will read it exactly as you have if you
just drop it in there. Tell us how to look at it.
– Explain what it is we are supposed to be seeing and why
we should be looking at it. This is the “so what?” Answer
beforehand your reader’s question of why they had to
spend time reading all that.
Which brings us back to stakes.
• Remember that a lot of the work of your papers
is putting observations into a larger discussion.
• When you identify the stakes of the claim you are
making for discussion of immersion, you want to
highlight how each paragraph relates to those
stakes.
• The work you do with these texts is, to some
extent, only as good as how you present it.
– That doesn’t mean be theatrical.
– Rather, the simplest observations are made great by
showing why they are important.
The 5-Paragraph
Essay
You may have written papers in this format before. It
is very popular in secondary education because it is a
very flexible structure. However, no professional
writes in 5P format.
While we may start with this base, a good goal to
have is to move past this form into a more open
structure you can adapt to fit your argument and
supports. This is achieved by concentrating
TRANSITIONS.
The 5P tends to think of paragraphs in isolation. The
way to get out of that form is to write in a way that
they are interrelated, building on each other to get
further than the individual points.
We do not have much time to work on transitions
now, but I wanted to bring it up for you to think about
as you are putting your papers together. Do your
points build or are they isolated? Have you explained
a relation between them that extends beyond your
grouping them together here?
• Intro.
– Thesis.
•
•
•
•
Support P 1
Support P 2
Support P 3
Conclusion
– Restated thesis.
Workshopping
• Hopefully people brought more fleshed out
claims and even outlines today.
• Get into small groups and help each other
improve your outlines.
– Does the outline include all the elements cited today?
[topic, evidence, explanation, transition] If not, can
you help the outliner fill those elements in?
– Are the topics clear, related to the claim, related to
each other?
– Does it progress logically? Convincingly?
Discussion
1. What do you
remember from
reading about the
Clutters? Details?
Impressions?
Emotions? Make a
list.
2. Go back to the text
and compare what
you remember
with what is there.
3. Any significant
observations?
4. For immersion?
•
•
On page 287 Mrs. Hickock becomes upset and is
lead out of the courtroom by “…a woman
reporter, the only one present.” We then get a
page and a half of what she said. I made an
assumption that the female reporter is Harper
Lee. As I read this section I found myself imagining
the actress who portrayed her in the film Capote.
There have been two films adaptations of the
book as well as two films about Capote writing the
book. Have you seen any of them? Did this effect
how you imagined the events? What about the
book itself?
Way back on p. 165 Dewey frightens his wife when
he shows her pictures of Perry and Dick. She says
“Think of those eyes. Coming towards you.” These
same eyes appear on the front and back cover of
all copies of the book. Did this influence your
immersion? Did the picture on the cover influence
how you pictured Holcome? How much does you
prior knowledge or preconceived notions affect
your ability to immerse yourself in the text?