English 1010

1. English 1010 Concrete and Significant Detail

2. Details • Concrete • Significant We must be able to see it and make a judgment about it. The window is green – concrete but not significant The windowsill was shedding flakes of fungus-green paint – the provides a concrete image we can see and it allows us as readers to make a judgment

3. Small Groups • Five senses recognition • Fold a piece of paper so that it has five columns • Write a sense at the top of each one • List how the subject of this excerpt describes his experience through each sense • What did he: smell, taste, touch, see, hear

4. He could have written: I was quite poor, and I was not used to seeing such a profusion of food, so that although I was very afraid there might be someone in the room and that I might be caught stealing, I couldn’t resist taking the risk. Tell how we know each of the above facts through the descriptions in the story. For example: We could tell he was poor because the passage states…

5. Read Cisneros’ “Linoleum Roses” • Underline the concrete and significant details in this piece. • For each detail write what you think it suggests (what the author is trying to communicate) about the characters, the setting, or the situation • Let’s do the first one together.

6. On a clean piece of paper, paraphrase what is suggested in the last paragraph about the character and her situation.

7. Make a list of the details used in the last paragraph.

8. Compare the number of words used to list the details to the number of words needed to paraphrase the meanings. • On the same piece of paper, describe the difference.

9. Change the Details • Try changing some seemingly minor details in this story to see how the significance changes. • From example, what makes a marshmallow salesman a better choice for this story then a class ring salesman or a yearbook photographer?