The Short Story

We've approached short stories this semester to accomplish a few goals:

1. To practice active reading strategies that support the creation of meaning.

2. To understand and practice how active reading relates to and creates sound passage analysis.

3. To know what a short story is and how to approach it as a reader.

We'll be reading the following stories:

"A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell (1917)

"Revelation" by Flannery O'Connor

"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner

Below, in the Drive link, please find each period's active reading or rendered text pdf of "A Jury of Her Peers" - our class practice examples. These files are shared with anyone activating this link.

Follow this link to the Google Drive Folder containing the files.

Please access this link for your collaborative evidence gathering around "Revelation".

Here is the "Revelation" example of the BIG Theme/Point/Evidence/Analysis that was explained in class. Your group is responsible for creating a 4 sentence cluster like this on the Google doc we've shared in class. Be sure all group names are on the doc with this writing. It is Due before Monday 7:30 AM.

Theme Statement/BIG Claim/Thesis:

In “Revelation,” Flannery O’Connor graces us with the biblical epiphany of Mrs. Turpin that reminds us that our prideful nature is something to keep in check as it may complicate our salvation in the eyes of a forgiving God through characterization, setting, and motif.

An Example Claim, Data, Warrant Structure-

Small Claim/Point: (WHAT)

O’Connor’s relentless characterization of Ruby Turpin as a judgmental racist sets up her prideful nature and what can result from it.

Data/Evidence: (HOW)

Mrs. Turpin sees most of the people in the waiting room as “vacant and white-trashy” and “worse than niggers any day” while seeing herself as “neat[,] clean”, and “respectable”(O’Connor 194-95).

Warrant /Analysis: (WHY)

Consistently referring to others through their race as “niggers” and also defining others as less than herself through class criticism’s like “white-trashy” defines the readers opinion of Mrs. Turpin’s character as judgmental and ironically sets up her own prideful nature – a failure of humanity warned against by God.

Writing is no easy task! Creating a short story will take time and effort. The following websites may be useful in helping you create your story.

Assignment parameters

1. Keep it short. 3 pages max. is a good target, but please don't go over 5!

2. Develop a solid foundation - plausible characters, plausible setting, plausible conflict, then think about an ironic twist.

3. Have a creative title that provides a clue to the story in some way.

4. Do not use the "..and I woke up to find..." scenario. It's a weak way out of the writer's bind.

5. See the 10 Commandments of creative writing (Thanks Mr. Speyer!)

Websites

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/shortstory/

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/03/kurt-vonnegut-on-writing-stories/

http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?v=nmVcIhnvSx8

http://www.write101.com/shortstory.htm

http://writeitsideways.com/10-resources-to-help-you-write-a-great-short-story/

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Short-Story