Breakthrough Writer

1A Lesson Plan for “The Missing Person” by Tobias Wolff

Part One: Lexicon

1.    Sloth posing as a Christian 19
2.    Jerry the mountebank
3.    Mendacity, the art of lying
4.    Duplicity, the art of being two-faced
5.    Obsequiousness, the art of butt-kissing
6.    Sobriquet, nickname, “Slim” 31
7.    Jerry’s B.S. is intoxicating and contagious 32, 33
8.    Certain lies are indomitable juggernauts 35 and 49 (can’t put the genie back in the bottle)
9.    Sagacity; Leo’s thoughts show wisdom on page 43.
10.    Serendipitous

Part Two: Types of Irony

1.    Plot Irony: A reversal that results in the opposite of our expectations like a car death after wearing seatbelt. This is one of the most common forms of irony.
2.    Serendipitous Irony: The more we deviate from our original plan, the better the outcome.
3.    Faustian Irony: The more we think we’re rising and succeeding in life, the more we are actually falling as we become crushed under the weight of our own vanity, which blinds us and leaves us vulnerable to failure.
4.    Idle Irony: The better our life becomes the more we are compelled by boredom to sabotage our happiness. In other words people often cause problems that don’t really exist. And soon they create very real problems out of nothing.   
5.    Pathological Irony: Man shoots foot off to get rid of a wart.
6.    Sarcastic Irony: Saying one thing and meaning an other.
7.    Satanic Irony: A greedy man enjoys a long, healthy life while his innocent victims die cruel deaths and their lives are short. This type of irony refutes notions of justice.
8.    Narcissistic Irony: searchers for the self lose their selves while people who don’t think about their selves find their selves. Someone goes into therapy and becomes even crazier. Or the example of Stalingrad in which the selfish die and the helpful live.
9.    Jungian Irony: The more extreme we develop a facet of our personality the more extreme we develop its opposite. The macho man is also becoming more and more of a baby.
10.    Materialistic Irony: You buy an expensive fur coat but the weather is forever hot so you can’t wear it like the old lady in Buenos Aires.
11.    Short-sighted irony: You workout to impress a girl but she’s turned off by big muscles. You were looking at what you want, not at what she wants. A woman overdressed and wears too much make-up and men are terrified of her.
12.    Ironic Irony: You try to be ironic because you think it’s cool but you come across as a fake and as a poser.
13.    Corruptive Irony: The more we get our hands dirty in the mess of life, the more pure we become; the more we stay away from the filth, the more contaminated we become by our lack of involvement, which is a form of narcissism. This is the major theme of the story “The Missing Person.” Leo finds love and redemption while working as a hustler in Las Vegas. “It’s all right. I’m here.” These are the final words and show that he’s not the missing person anymore.

Part Three. Third Option: In paragraph 1, write an extended definition of irony.  Then write a research paper in which you analyze the role of irony in the story "The Missing Person." How does irony inform the story's major theme? A sample thesis might look like this: Tobias Wolff employs several forms of irony in “The Missing Person” to assert his theme of "finding the lost self." These types of irony include ___________________, ____________________, ______________________, __________________________, and _______________________.

1A Summer 2008 Syllabus and Writing Assignments

McMahon Summer 2008 Syllabus English 1A
e-mail: jmcmahon@elcamino.edu
Website for students: http://herculodge.typepad.com/breakthrough_writer/

This course is designed to strengthen students’ ability to read with understanding and discernment, to discuss assigned readings intelligently, and to write clearly. Emphasis will be on writing essays in which each paragraph relates to a controlling idea, has an introduction and a conclusion, and contains primary and secondary support. College-level reading material will be assigned to provide the stimulus for class discussion and writing assignments, including a required research paper.

Student Learning Objectives:

1. Compose a clear introductory paragraph relevant to the topic.
2. Compose a clearly defined thesis statement that limits and focuses the topic of the essay.
3. Organize information to be used in the development of one's own thesis.
4. Write logically developed, organized paragraphs that support the controlling idea or thesis.
5. Develop and use varied sentence patterns effectively.
6.  Use transitional words, phrases, and sentences to provide for coherence between and within paragraphs.
7. Choose and effectively use a rhetorical strategy appropriate to the topic.
8. Develop a conclusion that effectively closes the essay.
9. Paraphrase and summarize referenced material.
10. Incorporate direct quotes into one’s own exposition.
11. Use MLA documentation guidelines.
12. Avoid plagiarism.
13.Write an out-of-class writing task and find multiple sources related to a particular topic, write a research report, which shows the ability to support a thesis using analysis, to synthesize and integrate materials effectively from a variety of sources, and to cite sources in MLA format (including a works cited page). The report is organized, technically correct in paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling and word use, and demonstrates thoughtful treatment of the topic.

Required Texts: Acting Out Culture by James S. Miller; The Overcoat by Gogol; Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker. (MLA rules on pages 414-455)

Grading:

Four Research Papers 250 maximum points, 1,000 total

Late Papers: Reduce one full grade ; no late papers accepted once new set of essays is due.
Research Papers should be approximately 1,000 words, 12 font, Times New Roman, page numbers, name, and essay title in upper right hand corner (headers in Microsoft View) and Works Cited should have minimum 3 sources and spacing using MLA format.

Revisions: You may revise one paper for 10-30 pts. depending on the quality of the rewrite. Revision must be turned in one week after original due date.

Attendance Policy: For 16-week semesters, students may be dropped after missing 6 classes for whatever reason, including medical. For Summer and Winter sessions, students may be dropped after missing 4 classes for whatever reason, including medical.

Reading and Writing Schedule

June 16 Intro
June 17 380 Cyberspace
June 18 358 Desertion
June 19 419 Supermax
June 23 Essay 1 Due
June 24 Essay 1 Due
June 25 450 Baby Genius Industry
June 26 197-203; 204-216 Eating as Sin and Competition
June 30 217 Eating and Self-Esteem
July 1 Organic
July 2 Consultations: Bring thesis and mapping statements
July 3 Holiday
July 7 Essay 2 Due
July 8 Essay 2 Due
July 9 114 Identity Marketing
July 10 109 Torture
July 14 Essay 3 Due
July 15 Essay 3 Due
July 16 144-146; 150-155 Webcams and Exhibitionism
July 17 28 Materialism and Transformation
July 21 The Overcoat by Gogol
July 22 Consultations: Bring thesis and mapping statements
July 23 Essay 4 Due
July 24 Essay 4 Due

Essay Guidelines (points deducted for not following these instructions):

1. Essays should be typed, double-spaced, 5 pages, and use 12 font Times New Roman.
2. Essays should have headers in the upper right hand corner on every page.
3. Essays should have a minimum of 3 sources on an MLA Works Cited Page.
4. Essays should have a thesis paragraph with a STRONG THESIS  4 or 5 MAPPING STATEMENTS OR MAPPING COMPONENTS.
5. When you list your mapping statements or components, be sure to use CORRECT PARALLEL STRUCTURE.
5. Essays should be stapled in the upper left hand corner and should be free of food stains and such.
6. Ribbon should be fresh.
7. All your essays are research papers, which means about 80% is your writing and about 20% is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized from your research sources.
8. Paragraphs should be "meaty," a good 130-150 words.
9. You must use a variety of EFFECTIVE TRANSITIONS  between paragraphs.
10. You must attribute your sources in order to AVOID PLAGIARISM.
11. You must turn in your paper on time to avoid losing 30 points.
12. You cannot "rewrite" a paper if you're simply incorporating my corrections. So be sure to proofread your essay.
13. Essays are worth a maximum of 240 points. The preliminary assignment, thesis with Works Cited, is 10 points. The grand total point in the class is 1,000.
14. The 5-page essay outlines below are merely suggestions. You can structure your essay however you see fit.

Writing Options for Essay 1

Option 1: “Love and War in Cyberspace” 380. 5-page outline: In the first 2 pages, analyze the causes of social dysfunction described in the essay. Then in about 3 pages, use research to show how the apartment complex is a microcosm for an emerging social dysfunction in our Age of Information. As such the thesis would like this: The apartment complex is a microcosm for an emerging social dysfunction emerging in our Information Age, which consists of __________________, ___________________, ___________________, and _______________________. You would flesh out the mapping components for the essay's last 3 pages.

Option 2: See Writing #5 on page 367 in which you refute Dobie’s harsh criticisms of the military’s policies. 5-page outline: In 1 page, summarize Dobie's essay. Then write a thesis: Dobie's argument is misguided because ________________, ___________________, __________________, and _____________________. In about 4 pages, flesh out your mapping components.

Option 3: See Writing #4 on page 427 in which you argue for or against the supermax’s most severe forms of punishment. 5-page outline: In about 1 page, summarize Abramsky's essay. Then write a thesis: The supermax's most severe forms of punishment are/are not [choose one] justified because ____________________, __________________, ___________________, and ________________________. In about 4 pages, flesh out your mapping components.

Writing Options for Essay 2

Option 1: See Writing #1 on page 471 in which you critique the baby genius industry. 5-page outline: In 1 page, summarize Quart's essay. Then write a thesis. The so-called baby genius industry is wrought with all sorts of neuroses and pathologies, the most salient being ________________, _______________, __________________, and _____________________. Then in about 4 pages, flesh out your mapping components.

Option 2: See Writing #6 on page 203 in which you compare and contrast the ways Prose and Jason Fagone (204) address our cultural obsession with overeating. 5-page outline: Summarize Prose's essay in a page and do the same for Fagone. Then write a thesis: While Prose exposes our food obsession in terms of __________________, ____________________, and ___________________, Fagone takes an opposing angle by showing that our food obsession ________________________, _________________, and _________________. Your final 3 pages would flesh out these 6 mapping components.

Option 3: See Writing #6 on page 216 in which you compare and contrast the ways Fagone and Caroline Knapp (217) connect eating to larger cultural phenomena. 5-page outline: Use the same format as in Option 2.

Option 4: See Writing #6 on page 231 in which you compare the shame of eating as it is analyzed in Knapp’s and Prose’s (197) essays. 5-page outline: Summarize both Knapp's and Prose's essays for a page each. Then write a thesis: Both essays show that the power of shame informs our eating obsessions by ___________________, _____________________, _____________________, and _______________________. Your last 3 pages would flesh out these mapping components.

Option 5: In the context of Michael Pollan’s essay “Big Organic” (174), analyze the fraud and deception the food industry uses to market foods that are allegedly “organic” and “natural.” 5-page outline: In 2 pages, summarize Pollan's major points. Then write a thesis. As my research and Michael Pollan's essay show, the idea of "organic" is a marketing fraud evidenced by _________________, _____________________, ___________________, and ______________________. Your last 3 pages would flesh out these mapping components.

Writing Options for Essay 3

Option 1: See Writing #4 on page 113 in which you write an extended definition of “happy violence.” 5-page outline: In 1 page, summarize the major points of Cusac's essay. Then write a thesis: Happy Violence, as we see in Cusac's essay and the research examples I will provide, can be characterized by ________________, _______________, _______________, and _________________. Your final 4 pages will flesh out these mapping components.

Option 2: See Writing #6 on page 113 in which you compare the ideas of Cusac and Naomi Klein (114) in the context of the way the entertainment media inculcates us with often harmful effects. 5-page outline: Summarize Klein and Cusac, a page each. Then write a thesis: Both writers show that the entertainment media inculcates us with _____________, ______________, and ________________, which results in _________________, _______________, and ___________________. Your final 3 pages would flesh out these mapping components.

Option 3: See Writing #5 on page 122 in which you argue if marketing campaigns are cynical or play more positive social roles. 5-page outline: Show the arguments that support the idea that marketing campaigns play positive social roles in 1 page. Then show the arguments that they are cynical and manipulative in 1 page. Then write a thesis: Marketing campaigns are cynical and manipulative/or play positive social roles [choose only one position] because of _______________, _________________, __________________, and ____________________. Your last 3 pages will flesh out your mapping components.

Writing Options for Essay 4

Option 1: See Writing #6 on page 147 in which you compare the motives behind self-exhibitionism as it is analyzed by Levy and Brooke A. Knight (150). In a page each, summarize the major points in Levy and Knight. Then write a thesis: Self-exhibitionism is the result of __________________, ______________________, ____________________, and __________________________. Your last 3 pages will flesh out your mapping components.

Option 2: See Writing #6 on page 157 in which you analyze the “camgirls” in the context of Ariel Levy’s essay (144) and Knight’s essay. 5-page outline: In a page each, summarize the major points of Levy and Knight. Then write a thesis: In the context of Knight, we can see that the "camgirls" emerge in a society that __________________, ___________________, ____________________, and ___________________. Your last 3 pages will flesh out your mapping components.

Option 3: Analyze Gogol’s “The Overcoat” in the context of James Twitchell’s essay (28), which argues that consumerism has a great transformative power: “We live through things. We create ourselves through things. And we change ourselves by changing our things.” 5-page outline: In a page each, summarize Gogol's story and Twitchell's essay. Then write a thesis: "The Overcoat" is a salient example of Twitchell's assertion that consumerism "has a great transformative power" evidenced by _____________________, ________________________, _________________________, and ________________________. Your final 3 pages will flesh out your mapping components.

1C Suggested Essay Counterargument Structure

Here is the point by point structure that I would use if I were a student taking McMahon's English 1C class and I was assigned the counterargument essay. This structure comfortably generates a 5-page essay, which is a good length for Essay #3.

Paragraph 1: I would summarize the major points of the essay I am writing about.

Paragraph 2: I would write my thesis. I would not worry about my mapping statements here since they will develop as I counter-argue the objections.

Paragraphs 3 and 4: Objection #1 to my thesis followed by my counterargument #1.

Paragraphs 5 and 6: Objection #2 followed by my counterargument #2.

Paragraphs 7 and 8: Objection #3 followed by my counterargument #3.

Paragraphs 9 and 10: Objection #4 followed by my counterargument #4.

Paragraph 11:  A brief paragraph--a restatement of my thesis. 

1A Lesson Plan: "The Rich Brother"

Part One: Explain the title “Back in the World”

Part Two. Lexicon

1.    Decrepitude (weakened, broken down, the condition of both brothers)
2.    hubris
3.    braggadocio
4.    culpability
5.    symbiosis
6.    passive-aggressive
7.    scapegoat
8.    sibling rivalry
9.    stagnation
10.    status quo
11.    spite—an impulse for revenge that hurts you more than the person you hate.
12.    Insanity— doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. (Albert Einstein)
13.    centrifugal
14.    centripetal

(Student activity: Find the flaws in both characters)

Part Three. Pete’s 6 Moral Flaws

1.    He worships money, seeing it as a solution for everything.
2.    He suffers from a brand of obnoxious smug pride rooted in his wealth. (“Grow up and get a Mercedes.”) In fact, Pete is not rich at all as evidenced by the story’s ironic title “The Rich Brother.” Pete in fact is anything but “rich.” He is impoverished by his condition of helplessness and moral decrepitude. Pete covers his flaws with a pose of hubris and braggadocio.
3.    He sees things only at face value without digging deeper because he is afraid of what he will find.
4.    He is afraid to confront his culpability for the past, namely, his role in hating on his brother Donald through his rivalry and blind ambition.
5.    Pete is a liar to his brother and to himself. For example on page 197 he lies about his dreams, claiming he only dreams about sex and money when in fact he is haunted by guilt for the sins he once committed against Donald. On 199 and 200 we find that Pete tried to kill his brother after an operation because he was jealous of the way his mother doted on Donald. Ironically, now it’s Pete who dotes on Donald and in doing so he assures that he keeps Donald crippled, which is to his advantage, or so he seeks.
6.    He is afraid to confront his current role as Donald’s “mother,” which is ironic since he in a way attempted to steal Donald’s mother from him. In other words, Pete is dependent on Donald being dependent on him. What we have here, then, are two brothers trapped in a snake grip of hatred from which they can never let go. In psychology this is called “symbiosis.”

Part Four. Donald’s 6 Moral Flaws.

1.    Driven by spite and cowardice, Donald sabotages his own life in order to make Pete bail him out again and again and again. This is Donald’s cowardly and passive-aggressive way of punishing Pete for what he did to him during childhood. Donald embodies the saying, “Bite my nose to spite your face.”
2.    He uses religion to judge others while ignoring his own egregious flaws. In other words, Donald is a pompous ass.
3.    Donald is stuck in a life of stagnation though he deludes himself with clichés that he is “breaking his pattern” (192)
4.    Donald is stuck on a sense of lugubrious identity known as “victimization.” He is both overcome by spite and self-pity. As a result of seeing himself as a victim, he has reached a point of no return in which he is both undateable and unemployable.
5.    As long as Donald can scapegoat Pete for all his problems, he never has to grow up and take accountability for his own actions.
6.    Donald is big on generosity but only with his brother’s money, not his own.

Part Five. The 7 Qualities of Symbiosis

1.    Two weak people merge to hide and reinforce their flaws.
2.    Two people become mutually dependent on the other in order to stop changing, growing, maturing, and fulfilling their potential.
3.    Two people use each other as a crutch and an excuse for their stagnation in life.
4.    One person gets stronger and stronger or so he thinks while the other gets weaker and weaker. In truth, both get weaker and weaker because bother are more and more dependent on the other.
5.    Two people stay together, not because of love, but because of weakness, hatred, and fear.
6.    In a symbiosis, both people are blind or fail to admit how dependent they are on the other. On page 201 we see that Pete has a dream about Donald in which Pete is blind.
7.    To use a psychological cliché, both parties of the symbiosis are called “enablers,” that is they perpetuate each other’s dysfunctions.

Part Six. Who is undergoing the “Back in the World” journey and why?

Pete is going through the journey of facing his culpability in continuing to cripple his brother. As a child he resorted to violence. Now he is killing his brother by being like the doting mother, an enabler.

Pete is a centrifugal character while Donald is incurably centripetal.

Part Seven. Pete, _________, and ___________ experience “Back in the World Moments,” which can be generally defined as waking up to the reality that you have been denying, to your detriment, for an intractable duration. This waking up consists of ____________________, ___________________________, _______________________, and ________________________________.

1.    confronting your convenient ignorance or naïveté
2.    confronting your own culpability in your demise
3.    accepting that the world does not conform to your wants; rather you must often conform to what the world demands of you. 
4.    being so radically changed by your waking up that you can and will no longer tolerate the status quo