Essay on "Regional Narrative Ideas &Bull; a New York"

Quoted Instructions for "Regional Narrative Ideas &Bull; a New York" Assignment:

I need a (6) six-page essay on the American Literature course.

There are six successive exercises that need to be answered and which lead up to writing the regional narrative essay for EXERCISE 6.4C .

Please follow the direction for exercises accurately.

Exercise 6.1A: Regional Narrative

Directions: After you finish this lesson, you*****'ll write a fictional narrative in a regional style in your journal. Your textbook defines regionalism on page 1199, as *****"Literature that emphasizes a specific geographic setting and that reproduces the speech, behavior, and attitudes of the people who live in that region.*****"

Remember that a narrative is simply a story, in this case, fiction. The narrative should have some regional character, but you are not required to write in a dialect. (In fact, if you consider using a dialect, be sure that you*****'re perfectly comfortable writing in that particular style. Dialect can be hard to execute!)

In addition to dialect, you can give your narrative a regional feel by: the use of actual places and geography for a particular region; focusing on concerns central to a particular region, or even with small details like regional foods, religious observances, or other cultural patterns. If you choose not to use a dialect, you can still create regional dialogue by using regional phrases or speech patterns and rhythms.

One of the interesting aspects of regional writing is that it*****'s distinctly personal -- not only is it about a particular region, but it*****'s one person*****'s interpretation and experience of that region. Regional writing by a person who deeply loves a region will differ from writing about the same region by a person whose feelings are conflicted.

For the narrative exercise, you*****'ll write fiction. It can be made up entirely or inspired by an autobiographical incident. Before you begin the reading for this section, brainstorm ideas for your narrative and regional details you might use. You may want to do this exercise in two parts, perhaps spending a few minutes writing down narrative ideas in one column of a chart and then jotting down regional details you might include in each one in a second column.

Or you might want to brainstorm the narrative ideas first and then brainstorm regional details you could use in any of the ideas you thought of. Here*****'s an example of ideas and regional details I might use to write a narrative about the Northeastern part of Pennsylvania, where I grew up.

Narrative Ideas

*****¢ A high school girl struggles with her growing distance from the Catholic tradition she*****s been raised in.

*****¢ A high school boy makes a friend with minority student ***** one of the few in his high school ***** and has to confront the racist views of his family.

*****¢ Two friends meet for lunch. One left their small hometown to attend college and moved to the West Coast for a job after graduation; the other stayed home to go to college, married a local man, and got a job in a local business.

Regional Details

*****¢ Emphasis on religion and traditional practices of Catholicism.

*****¢ Strong ties to extended families.

*****¢ Regional foods ***** pierogies, Texas wieners, Crystal Club soda.

*****¢ Four distinct seasons of the year including ***** Fall leaves and Winter snows.

You should list at least three possible topics and three regional details.

Exercise 6.2A: Pre-Writing: Character Inventory

Directions: When you finish section 4 of this lesson, you*****'ll write a fictional narrative in a regional style in your journal. In the previous pre-writing exercise you brainstormed about situations and regional details. Now look over your list and choose the situation you want to write about.

For this exercise, create a character inventory for the main character in your narrative. Be sure to include regional details in your inventory as well.

(Remember that a character inventory is a list of information about the character you*****'ll write about. You don*****'t necessarily include all of the information in the narrative, instead it*****'s meant to solidify the character in your mind. Some examples of information you may want to include are: the type of car the character drives, what the character dreams about and what would be in his or her nightmares, how the character prefers to celebrate his or her birthday, what channels are programmed into the character*****'s car radio or home stereo.) You should include at least ten pieces of information.

Exercise 6.3A: Pre-Writing: Try It Out

Directions: When you finish section 4 of this lesson, you*****'ll write a fictional narrative in a regional style in your journal. In the previous pre-writing exercises you*****'ve brainstormed situations and focused on the main character. Now you*****'ll have a chance to try out your regional style.

It*****'s sometimes my experience that thinking about writing in a particular style is easy, but actually executing that style is hard. You may find after this exercise that you*****'d like to do some research into other regional texts before tackling the complete narrative.

Think of a short scene you might include in your narrative, one that would include some regionalism, whether in the dialogue, setting, or situation, and do a quick draft of it.

Try to get the feel for what you want your final piece to sound like and how much regional detail you*****'ll include. If you find that you*****'re struggling with this, you may want to check out work by some authors who wrote in a regional style, including: Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck, Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, and Flannery O*****'Connor. Your textbook includes work by many of those authors. Your scene should be at least one paragraph long.

Exercise 6.4A: Pre-Writing: Revising Your Scene

Directions: When you finish this section, you*****'ll write a regional narrative in your journal. In a previous pre-writing exercise (6.3A), you wrote a short scene you might include in your narrative. Look back at that scene and read it out loud to yourself or an audience.

Write notes and have your audience (if you choose) give comments. Can you find things you*****'d like to change? Does the dialogue need to be rewritten to sound more natural? Take a few minutes to revise the scene until you*****'re satisfied that you*****'ve captured the regional tone you*****'re looking for.

Exercise 6.4C: Regional Narrative

Directions: It*****'s time to sit down and write your regional narrative. Remember that a narrative is a story. For this exercise you should write a fictional story (although it may have autobiographical elements -- a lot of fiction does) that includes some regional content.

You can recheck the definition of regionalism in your textbook on page 1199 if you*****'re having trouble. It should be at least FIVE paragraphs long.

Although this particular narrative exercise is not in your textbook, you can find information about how to write an autobiographical narrative on pages 130 - 132. Some of that information may be helpful to you.

You have also done pre-writing during the course of this lesson that should have helped you to choose a story topic and start a draft of one scene. You should also have a number of ideas for regional detail to include.

Once you*****'re satisfied with your pre-writing, you can continue with the drafting and revising stages. Again, you may find the information in your textbook helpful. Here are some additional notes.

For a fictional narrative, you*****'ll want to establish an interesting opening that will hook your reader. You*****'ll also want to keep the pacing fairly active and be sure to use vivid language to help your readers get into the story.

Remember that when you are including regional detail, it should be authentic, but it doesn*****'t need to be actually *****"true.*****" You can change the place names and other facts in any way that you think will boost their effectiveness in your story.

Use dialect perfectly or sparingly. If you*****'re having trouble getting the cadence of the dialect or can*****'t keep the spelling straight, cut back and just use a few carefully chosen bits to give readers the general feel.

Here are some evaluation criteria you may find helpful. You can use them yourself or let a reader give you feedback with these points in mind.

A good regional narrative:

*****¢ Tells a coherent story.

*****¢ Uses vivid imagery to provide sensory details and bring the story alive.

*****¢ Provides enough regional detail to give a sense of the place and the people who live there.

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