Sleep Much?

Today was a sick and sleepy class, but you stuck with it! Go home and rest while you enjoy the KU game tonight. We only have one more week to get through before Spring Break--hang in there!

We talked about Schoolhouse Rock and I felt old. We enjoyed the verb video at the beginning of class and are officially closing the chapter on verbs.

I handed out a schedule for the rest of the semester.  Unfortunately, I'm composing this post at school and don't have digital copy of the handout to paste in here.  If you were absent, please see me for a copy when you return to class.

We discussed the freewrites from last week about our favorite place and related them to Chapter 21 in the text book on the topic of description.  Your assignment for Friday is to go through your freewrite and decide which details are really relevant to your favorite place and the impression you want to communicate, and then type this up.

I am not interested in reading a list of details that describe your favorite place, but details that would support your feelings about that place.

For example, Jennifer and Dustyn's favorite place was the lake.  Rather than say: There are trees and people fishing and sometimes the sun is shining and other times it rains, etc.  Focus on a specific location at the lake.  Dustyn could say: Sitting on the dock with a beer is the most relaxing place for me.  To be even more specific, he could tell what kind of beer. Bottle or can? Are you sitting on a towel or a chair? Is it sunny? Are you alone? Is it quiet or do you hear birds or boats?  Think of your physical senses.  At the end of reading your piece, I want the details to help me understand why this is your favorite place.  This is called creating a dominant impression.

While you should consider all of the senses, in such a short piece you will probably only focus on one or two.  This isn't an exhaustive essay, but something that could be developed into a paragraph and maybe later an essay in your next level writing class.

Try to have fun with this.  It's your favorite place!  Enjoy sharing it with us!

If you start working on this and need any help, don't hesitate to ask.
See you on Friday in ATB 132!