Workshopping our essays this week made me think about the decisions we make about how to organize the information in our drafts. This will differ, to some extent, between essays that are more expository than narrative. The organizing principle in largely expository essays (think pieces) may be based on a logic related to reasoning: This is the idea or concept I want to explore and I'll narrate to you where my thinking leads from the questions I pose. I'm thinking, for example, about Emery's essay on what she calls "liminality." The default organizing principle for largely narrative essays is chronology: This happened, then this happened, then this happened. Here time governs. We disrupt chronology only for good reasons: we select events not because they follow each other but they carry meanings that are related. We start in the middle of a story rather the beginning because it establishes the dilemma, question, or idea we're interested in. We jumble things up to create dramatic tension, beginning with action that makes us wonder "How did this happen?":
This seems all rather complicated, and I wonder whether the simplest way to begin thinking about structure is to think about how we choose to begin. From a beginning, everything else arranges itself. This week, I'd love to hear from some of you about how you made the decision about where to begin your draft narrative essays, and more generally, what you consider when choosing what material to open with. As you think about your draft this week, can you imagine other beginnings than the ones you chose? Why?
ENGL 204 NON-FICTION BLOG 9-18-14
ReplyDeleteThe Beginning
I think for this narrative essay I was fortunate enough to have an event that really means something to me occurred almost on cue. I believe that on how you begin such an essay can be tricky yet fun all the same. This can take place with starting off telling right off the bat, showing the scene that would develop the atmosphere of the story, or maybe even a time lapse like starting at the end or close to it and then have the events come to life. I think the last one is the most difficult but it is the one that I am going to attempt in the future, not quite ready yet. With that being said, sometimes diving in right in is the best way to move pass the goose bumps.
I am pleased with the way my essay started off partly because it was a personal journal entry and the other is that I am comfortable telling right from the get go. This trait I plan on changing a bit as my writing progresses and as this course moves on. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to my classmates essays and seeing and hearing their styles. Everyone's is different and I feel I am getting to know people albeit one page at a time.