Important Feedback Note:
This assignment is one of the few exceptions to the two-day, no-penalty late policy. This assignment must be submitted on time if you want to receive feedback from your professor.
This first draft must be complete–all four parts submitted and the minimum length requirement met.
The assignment is worth 10 points but when you submit the final version, it will be worth 100 points.
Background Information:
I am sure there is a single story told about each of you. You are an American student and therefore think you are entitled; you are Asian and therefore very successful in math; you are a man and therefore only think of sex; I am blonde and therefore a ditz; or as with Jamaica Kinkaid’s “Girl,” you are a female and therefore a slut.
For this week of the characterization unit, I want you to explore your own character.
Consider where you came from as well as the figures who have influenced your behavior, your values, your beliefs, your actions, and your self.
Your Assignment:
There are four parts to this assignment–two creative works and two analyses of the two creative works.
If you want your professor’s feedback on this, you must submit the work on time and the work must be complete.
Your Assignment in Four Parts
Part One: Girl/Boy/Neither
Instructions: Read Jamaica Kinkaid’s “Girl,”
Write your own Girl, Boy, or Neither piece: capture the character of a person who reprimands you. Think of different instructions you have been given throughout your life, especially in your formative years, perhaps even still being instructed. If you have never been reprimanded in the way of Kincaid’s “Girl,” perhaps focus on the voice of one who has instructed you.
Be sure to capture the tone of the piece as you hear it. Just as with Kincaid’s reprimanding tone!
For instance, Kincaid’s tone is one of admonishment and chastising. Her narrator’s words are harsh, stereotypical, and warning.
Did you notice the girl in “Girl” speaks out briefly in the short work? Her words are given in italics. Be sure to write in your own brief responses, italicizing those words. There should be little in the italicized voice as the main voice overpowers “Girl.”
Length Requirement:
Minimum 250 words
Format
Please, submit all four parts in one Microsoft Word document (watch the video in Formatting in MLA).
Part Two: Reflection
Instructions: In a single paragraph, describe what it was like for you to take on the voice of power–the main voice–in writing Part One: Girl/Boy/Neither.
Length Requirement:
Minimum 50 words
Format
Please, submit all four parts in one Microsoft Word document.
Part Three: Who Am I? Think Again
Instructions:
Think of what Patel and Rau say in their TedTalk, “Who am I? Think again.”
Who are you?
In a single paragraph, you are going to “turn the table” as they say. You are now allowing the minor voice from Part One: Girl/Boy/Neither to speak back to the voice of power.
Write this in whatever tone you wish, whatever tone fits who you are as you speak back to the voice who spoke at you in your Journal Girl/Boy.
Write it in whatever way you want, but ask yourself how you wish to be perceived when speaking to your person.
Length:
Minimum 250 words
Format: Please, submit all four parts in one Microsoft Word document.
Part Four: Reflection
Instructions:
In a paragraph, describe how it felt for you to respond to the voice of power in writing Part Three: Who Am I? Think Again.
Length:
Minimum 50 words
Format:
Please, submit all four parts in one Microsoft Word document.
