Brevity
publishes well-known and emerging writers working in the extremely brief (750
words or less [sic]) essay form. We
have featured work from two Pulitzer prize finalists, numerous NEA fellows,
Pushcart winners, Best American authors, and writers from India, Egypt,
Ireland, Spain, Malaysia,
and Japan.
We have also published many previously unpublished authors, and take a special
joy in helping to launch a new literary career.
That’s what the editors at Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Fiction have to say about
their online literary journal.
Here’s your assignment: Write a concise personal essay (750
words or fewer) about a significant relationship in your life. It could be a
relationship with a person, a group, a place, an object, or something else. In
writing your essay, consider using the literary elements that we have
investigated, particularly voice, organization, storytelling, description, and
reflection. All of these elements should contribute to characterizing the
relationship and to thematic development. (Use the class readings as models.)
A complete first draft is due on Tuesday, September 30.
Here's a link to the grading rubric.
Note from Friday, September 26: Today in class we discussed and gave great personal examples of how we might embed vivid, suggestive, and revealing details in our personal essays.We also discussed and gave examples of how these details can work together to create a story. And, finally, we talked about the importance of reflecting on the stories and details to draw out their complex, nuanced significance: what do the stories and details reveal about us and the relationship we're focusing on?
Here's what we didn't get to on Friday that I hoped we would:
I was hoping we'd have time to look at the first chapter of Fun Home and at the creative nonfiction we read in Brevity and discuss how these personal narrative essays (or mini-memoirs) use the title, narrative voice, storytelling elements, detail, reflection, and organization to develop a complex, nuanced theme.
So, if you're feeling stuck, you might take a look at the voice, style, organization, storytelling, details, and other strategies in your favorite narrative essays. Ask yourself, How can I use these strategies to tell my own story and convey my own understanding of myself and a relationship?
And below you'll find the self-assessment / peer-assessment questions that we'll use to guide our revisions on Tuesday (9/30).
What makes a personal essay successful?
Below are some prompts that will help you with the self-assessment and peer-assessment of your draft. Start with a self-assessment due Wednesday, October 1.
What's the best way to do this?
1. Use the color coding on the website to highlight words, phrases, sentences in your essay that address the prompts: Title, Voice and style (“a living voice”), Storytelling/anecdote/vignette, Details, Reflection, Organization.
To highlight in Google Docs click on the A to the right of the B I U near the top of the page. After clicking select "highlight." (Or, similarly mark up your paper draft.)
2. Click on the "Comments" button in the upper right corner. To respond to questions about title, voice, storytelling, details, reflection, and organization. You don't have to answer all the questions but you want to do an awesome job being thoughtful, reflective, and specific about the questions you do answer. (Or, similarly comment on your paper draft.)
It's a good idea to start each comment with the area(s) you are addressing; for example: Storytelling and Reflection--I think I did a good job making my story about the first time I came to Gloucester vivid but I'd like some feedback on how I could do a better job reflecting on exactly how the experience affected me and, in many ways, changed my life. Or, here's another example: Organization/Reflection--I like the ending that I've written; it puts closure on the story, but I'm wondering if I need more reflection in the end. Have I done a good enough job drawing out the significance of the story I've told?
Title
Give a sense of the relationship between the title and the essay.
Explain how it is either explicit (stating something about the essay directly) or suggestive (implying a more symbolic and/or playful relationship with the essay).
Voice and style (“a living voice”)
Describe the voice and style of the essay.
Mark or write down places where the voice and style is particularly apparent and effective.
Explain how the voice and style suit the topic and themes.
Are there any dead metaphors or clichés? ("At the end of the day..." "When all is said and done...") Or phrases that might be clichés? Where? (Note: Playing with clichés, using them ironically, or bringing them back to life can be an effective technique, but this is hard to do.)
Are there any immature language patterns? (“In this essay I will…”) Where?
Does the essay show signs of “verbal nuance”? Where? What words seem very precise and suggestive? What words might be reconsidered and sharpened?
Describe the tone. How do you know? Does the tone suit the topic and themes?
Storytelling/anecdote/vignette
Where do you see evidence of storytelling?
Where is the storytelling vivid? Where might it be more vivid?
Where does it create tension or drama? Where might the tension or drama be heightened?
Where is the storytelling suggesting something about the relationship? What is suggested?
Details: emotional detail, physical description (imagery) of people and places, precise names for people and things, dialogue
Where do you see vivid, precise detail that suggests something about the relationship (or that characterizes the relationship)?
Where could the detail be sharper, more suggestive?
Has the writer helped the reader experience her/his world? Where?
Reflection: what does it all mean? why does it matter?
Where are the compelling insights into the relationship?
Are they implied? Where? Are they stated? Where?
What theme or themes seem to emerge from the essay?
Organization
Describe the organization and how it contributes to the essay’s effectiveness.
Is the organization straightforward? Inventive? Explain.
Is the opening effective in relation to the purpose?
Is the end effective in relation to the purpose?
The final draft is due Friday, October 3 by pumpkin time.
Here's a link to the grading rubric.
Note from Friday, September 26: Today in class we discussed and gave great personal examples of how we might embed vivid, suggestive, and revealing details in our personal essays.We also discussed and gave examples of how these details can work together to create a story. And, finally, we talked about the importance of reflecting on the stories and details to draw out their complex, nuanced significance: what do the stories and details reveal about us and the relationship we're focusing on?
Here's what we didn't get to on Friday that I hoped we would:
I was hoping we'd have time to look at the first chapter of Fun Home and at the creative nonfiction we read in Brevity and discuss how these personal narrative essays (or mini-memoirs) use the title, narrative voice, storytelling elements, detail, reflection, and organization to develop a complex, nuanced theme.
So, if you're feeling stuck, you might take a look at the voice, style, organization, storytelling, details, and other strategies in your favorite narrative essays. Ask yourself, How can I use these strategies to tell my own story and convey my own understanding of myself and a relationship?
And below you'll find the self-assessment / peer-assessment questions that we'll use to guide our revisions on Tuesday (9/30).
What makes a personal essay successful?
- Title (explicit? suggestive? symbolic? ironic?)
- Voice and style (“a living voice” that uses “verbal nuance” and shows “self-awareness”)
- Detail: (create detail that is vivid and suggestive: emotional detail; physical description of people (characters), places, and objects; literal and figurative imagery; dialogue; the exact name of people, places, things)
- Storytelling (compelling, suggestive events with “tension”)
- Reflection (“constructing meaning” with “unreconciled tension,” “complexity” and “self-awareness”)
- Organization (chronological, episodic, spatial, circular, etc.)
Below are some prompts that will help you with the self-assessment and peer-assessment of your draft. Start with a self-assessment due Wednesday, October 1.
What's the best way to do this?
1. Use the color coding on the website to highlight words, phrases, sentences in your essay that address the prompts: Title, Voice and style (“a living voice”), Storytelling/anecdote/vignette, Details, Reflection, Organization.
To highlight in Google Docs click on the A to the right of the B I U near the top of the page. After clicking select "highlight." (Or, similarly mark up your paper draft.)
2. Click on the "Comments" button in the upper right corner. To respond to questions about title, voice, storytelling, details, reflection, and organization. You don't have to answer all the questions but you want to do an awesome job being thoughtful, reflective, and specific about the questions you do answer. (Or, similarly comment on your paper draft.)
It's a good idea to start each comment with the area(s) you are addressing; for example: Storytelling and Reflection--I think I did a good job making my story about the first time I came to Gloucester vivid but I'd like some feedback on how I could do a better job reflecting on exactly how the experience affected me and, in many ways, changed my life. Or, here's another example: Organization/Reflection--I like the ending that I've written; it puts closure on the story, but I'm wondering if I need more reflection in the end. Have I done a good enough job drawing out the significance of the story I've told?
Title
Give a sense of the relationship between the title and the essay.
Explain how it is either explicit (stating something about the essay directly) or suggestive (implying a more symbolic and/or playful relationship with the essay).
Voice and style (“a living voice”)
Describe the voice and style of the essay.
Mark or write down places where the voice and style is particularly apparent and effective.
Explain how the voice and style suit the topic and themes.
Are there any dead metaphors or clichés? ("At the end of the day..." "When all is said and done...") Or phrases that might be clichés? Where? (Note: Playing with clichés, using them ironically, or bringing them back to life can be an effective technique, but this is hard to do.)
Are there any immature language patterns? (“In this essay I will…”) Where?
Does the essay show signs of “verbal nuance”? Where? What words seem very precise and suggestive? What words might be reconsidered and sharpened?
Describe the tone. How do you know? Does the tone suit the topic and themes?
Storytelling/anecdote/vignette
Where do you see evidence of storytelling?
Where is the storytelling vivid? Where might it be more vivid?
Where does it create tension or drama? Where might the tension or drama be heightened?
Where is the storytelling suggesting something about the relationship? What is suggested?
Details: emotional detail, physical description (imagery) of people and places, precise names for people and things, dialogue
Where do you see vivid, precise detail that suggests something about the relationship (or that characterizes the relationship)?
Where could the detail be sharper, more suggestive?
Has the writer helped the reader experience her/his world? Where?
Reflection: what does it all mean? why does it matter?
Where are the compelling insights into the relationship?
Are they implied? Where? Are they stated? Where?
What theme or themes seem to emerge from the essay?
Organization
Describe the organization and how it contributes to the essay’s effectiveness.
Is the organization straightforward? Inventive? Explain.
Is the opening effective in relation to the purpose?
Is the end effective in relation to the purpose?
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