English

REMEMBERING AN EVENT Write a few sentences indicating how useful it is for you to outline the story in this way. Describe another way of outlining the story if you think that it would be more useful. Vivid Description of People Writers of remembered event essays typically describe people sparingly, using just a few choice […]

ANALYZING WRITING STRATEGIES Exposition: Background information is presented, the scene set, and characters introduced. Rising Action: The basic conflict is set off by an inciting incident, arousing curiosity and suspense, and possibly leading to other conflicts and complications. Climax: The emotional high point, often a turning point marking a change for good or ill,is reached.

ELLIS / WHEN THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN 31 emotional intimacy. You may choose to talk about a relationship that has not become intimate, perhaps because of embarrassment, lack of trust, fear of being rejected, or the need to control. Don’t feel constrained to share details; just de- scribe the kinds of things you feel

CONSIDERING TOPICS FOR YOUR OWN ESSAY 1 2 READINGS When the Walls Came Tumbling Down TREY ELLIS Ayear before his death, my dad was forced to come out to me. I thought he was in Paris for a vacation. Instead, he was there for treatment with AZT, which in 1986 was experimental and not yet

Basic Features DILLARD / AN AMERICAN CHILDHOOD 27 how writers use naming and detailing to create vivid images, look closely at Dillard’s description of an iceball: I started making an iceball — a [ perfect ] iceball, from [ perfectly white] snow, [ perfectly spherical], and [squeezed perfectly translucent] so no snow remained all the

A Well-Told Story To construct an action sequence in writing, Dillard combines two narrating strate- gies: specific narrative actions and prepositional phrases. Specific narrative actions show people moving and gesturing through the use of action verbs (for example, “He ran after us, and we ran away from him. . . . we were running for

MAKING CONNECTIONS: ACTING FEARLESSLY At the beginning of the essay, Dillard tells about being taught by the neighborhood boys the joy of playing football, particularly the “all or nothing” of flinging yourself “fearlessly” (par. 1). With other students in your class, discuss an occasion when you had an op- portunity to fling yourself fearlessly into

How well does this ending work? AN AMERICAN CHILDHOOD Annie Dillard Some boys taught me to play football. This was fine sport. You thought up a new strategy for every play and whispered it to the others. You went out for a pass, fooling everyone. Best, you got to throw yourself mightily at someone’s running

How does the dialogue in pars. 21–24 add to the drama? – ing storytelling and describing with remembering thoughts and feelings in par. 35? thoughts. The humiliation at that moment was overwhelming. I felt like Hester Prynne being put on public display for everyone to ridicule. That short walk through the mall seemed to take