As you work on moving from rough drafts to final drafts, we’d like to remind you about these tutoring resources available to you. In addition to office hours and working with your peers, they can be a great way to get individualized feedback on your writing, at any stage during the writing process.
Before you turn in your rough drafts in your Writing Folders, take a few minutes to write a brief letter to us with answers to the following questions (on the back of your essay or a separate sheet of paper if need be):
- What did you set out to analyze in these first 2-3 pages (your thesis and body paragraphs)?
- What do you still need to analyze, and what do you anticipate adding to your paper to do so?
- What do you think went well?
- What do you most need feedback on?
(We’ll address these in our written feedback to you. You’ll then expand your essay into a more final version for in-class peer review next Tuesday, 3/10, and then finally turn in a final version to us next Thursday, 3/12.)
Today in our discussion of My Brilliant Friend, we’ll focus on the continuation of the dissolving margins/smarginatura episode, which takes place in Chapter 22 (beginning on page 172). We’ll break into small groups, and each group will collectively brainstorm on a different aspect of the episode. Using this Google doc, make observations about key moments, track important quotes, and be sure to focus on what formal details are important and how they affect readers. Here are the groups:
- Setting the scene: Chapter 20
- Setting the scene: Chapter 21
- Gender dynamics
- Violence
- Bodies and senses (e.g. sight, smell, etc.)
We’ll take 10 minutes in groups, and then each group will report back on key findings.
Next week, we’ll be screening an episode from the HBO series adaptation of My Brilliant Friend that includes this scene, so let’s keep this discussion in mind!
Then, we’ll read a sample analytical essay on Toni Morrison’’s Beloved (written by a student here at Cal!) and talk about backwards outlining as a useful tool for editing a draft of a paper using this handout.
We’ll do the following, first all together for the intro paragraph, and then we’ll work in small groups, one group per body paragraph using this chart, accessible as a collaborative Google doc.
- Identify a key observation that appears in the paragraph and then note it down. Note that this should be a straightforward aspect of the text that the writer noticed (e.g., the word “form-ing” is divided across pages). Perhaps you didn’t notice it when you were reading, but there’s no way to disagree with this observation. You don’t need to note down all the observations, just one important one: pick one key observation that grounds the paragraph.
- Identify the main claim of the paragraph, and then write it down in your own words below. Note that this should be an argumentative claim that someone could agree/disagree with, rather than summary (e.g. not “talks about the episode with the other woman,” but rather “the episode with the other woman demonstrates/ultimately proves/etc. …”). This claim should be an interpretation based on the key observation.
- In the process, you can also note down any questions you still have that you’d want the writer to address.
We’ll close by talking about what the possible next steps would be when using backwards outlining as a tool for editing an essay.
Homework:
- Read My Brilliant Friend: pages 209-270
- *Trigger warning: Chapter 35 (pg. 231f.): sexual assault
- Post on bcourses > Discussions > My Brilliant Friend
- Write a brief and cohesive paragraph (~200-250 words) about the following: Pick one scene, episode, or moment from Ferrante’s My Brilliant friend that we have not discussed as a class and that you find particularly interesting, strange, or revealing. First, make observations about content: what’s happening, and why is this scene important within the events of the novel as a whole? Then, make observations about form: how is this moment being conveyed, and what formal details most stand out? Finally, wrap up your paragraph with a claim (or claims) about how you see content and form interacting. Be sure to quote from the text (and include page numbers) as you write.
- Work on complete draft of your Analytical Essay 1 (4-5 pages) for peer review (next Tuesday, 3/10)
Translating Women 