7 Narration & Description. Narration & Description Background.

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7 Narration & Description Modes of Discourse Patterns of Development Organizational Strategies

Transcript of 7 Narration & Description. Narration & Description Background.

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7Narration & Description

Modes of Discourse

Patterns of Development

Organizational Strategies

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Narration & DescriptionBackground

Narration – telling a story to make a point

Description – evoking the senses to create a picture

BEST when used together for writing a detailed account of some memorable experience

First trip alone

Last-minute political victory

Picnic in some special place

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Narration & DescriptionPurpose

Introduce or illustrate a complicated subject

Often used to support some other strategy such as causal analysis or argument

Analyze an issue or theme

Example: new awareness of patriotism because of travel in a foreign country

Narrative purpose (what happened) and descriptive purpose (what it felt like) linked to other purposes

Could explain what caused new awareness (why it happened) or to argue that everyone needs such awareness (why everyone should reach the same conclusions)

Report actions and describe feelings

Autobiography, history, fiction (most common)

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Narration & DescriptionAudience

Consider

How much do I tell my audience? (narration)

Personal experience – few people will know it before you tell it

Add or delete material to fit occasion

How much do I show my audience? (description)

Unusual subject – include a lot of info, especially if it’s technical

New images & insights that create a fresh vision of the subject

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Narration & DescriptionStrategies

Beginning

Experiences and an essay about the experience are NOT the same

Memory will be disorganized and poorly defined

Experience to essay

Locate the central conflict

Between writer & himself

Between writer & others

Between writer & environment

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Narration & DescriptionStrategies (cont’d)

After identifying the conflict

Arrange action so readers know

How conflict started

How it developed, and

How it was resolved.

Types of arrangement (choose pattern according to purpose)

Simple chronological order (1, 2, 3, 4, …)

Angelou’s “My Name is Margaret” – describes an evolution of events leading up to the broken china

Start in the middle or near the end (4, … 1, 2, 3)

Williams’ “The Village Watchman” – describes impact of social stigma

PLOT

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Narration & DescriptionStrategies (cont’d)

After identifying the conflict & deciding the plot sequence

Establish pace – the speed at which the writer recounts events

Quick – omit details, compress time, summarize experience

Slow & careful – include every detail, expand on time, present the situation as a fully realized scene

Select details – make scenes and summaries effective

Special details that satisfy the needs of readers and further your purpose

Objective or technical to help reader understand

Subjective or impressionistic to appeal to readers’ senses

Figurative image or create dominant impression

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Narration & DescriptionStrategies (cont’d)

In order to identify the conflict, decide the plot sequence, vary the pace, and select details

Determine point of view

“I” OR “he” or “she”

Choose position – how close do you want to be to the action in time and space

Involved in action

View it as an observer

Tell as events are happening or many years after they’ve taken place

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Narration & DescriptionPoints to Remember

1. Focus your narrative on the “story” in your story – that is, focus on the conflict that defines the plot.

2. Vary the pace of your narrative so that you can summarize some events quickly and render others as fully realized scenes.

3. Supply evocative details to help your readers experience the dramatic development of your narrative.

4. Establish a consistent point of view so that your readers know how you have positioned yourself in your story.

5. Represent the events in your narrative so that your story makes its point.

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In this excerpt from her graphic novel Persepolis: The Story of a childhood (2003), Marjane Satrapi recounts the reaction of young schoolgirls to the law requiring them to wear “the veil.”

Some argue that the veil debases and even erases female identity. Others argue that it provides women with safety and secret power. How do the characters in Satrapi’s narrative feel about this regulation?

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Read Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria”

Purpose

Why does Cofer introduce the conflict between custom and chromosomes? How does this confl ict help explain the concept of stereotype?

How does this narrative help accomplish Cofer’s “personal goal in her public life?”

Audience

In what ways does Cofere use the references to Maria and Evita to identify her audience?

How does she use the example of the piropos to educate her audience?

Strategies

How does Cofere use the details of Career Day to explain how a cultural stereotype is perpetuated?

How does she manipulate point of view at her “first public poetry reading” to illustrate how she intends to change that stereotype?