Today students read and offered critique on their partners' rough draft of the interview narrative/profile. They checked the drafts for creative headlines, intriguing leads/hooks, correctly punctuated direct quotes, and overall correct grammar and spelling. We also discussed the final draft format.
Furthermore, we embarked on our journey to learning about voice in literature and the elements of voice in literature. First we played a game where students had to identify the band by listening to one of the band's more obscure songs. Most were able to identify songs of bands such as Green Day, The Beatles, The White Stripes,Marvin Gaye, The Jackson Five, Cake, and even John Coltrane. The Grateful Dead and Mahler had them stumped. The purpose of this game was to initiate students into the idea that in the same way a band has a distinctive sound, writers have a distinctive voice. While bands establish their unique sound through the lead singer's voice, instrumentation, tempo, and keys, a writer establishes her voice through a distinctive use of language. Elements of that language include diction, syntax, imagery, and tone. When a reader can understand the voice of the writer, he/she will be more sophisticated and critical interpreters and analyzers of that writer's message.
DEFINITIONS FROM CLASS TODAY:
VOICE: A writer’s distinctive use of language
DICTION: word choice intended to convey a certain effect
SYNTAX: the arrangement of words and the order of grammatical elements in a sentence
IMAGERY: words or phrases the writer uses to represent people, objects, actions, feelings, and ideas descriptively.
types of imagery: visual, gustatory, auditory, olfactory, tactile
TONE: the writer’s attitude toward the subject he/she is writing about
HOMEWORK: Interview narrative/profile final draft due tomorrow.
