World Literature

1. World Literature Thursday, October 13, 2011

2. Today’s Targets • Writing effective attention grabbers/introductions • Developing style and voice in writing

3. Today’s Activities • Warm-up • Writing effective introductions • Have revised pre-write checked if I have not already done so. • Draft introduction—Due at the beginning of the period

4. Warm-up • Imagine that you have a chance to speak before the school administration (audience). Write a quick speech about something that you want to change (purpose). • Work on using strong voice and personality while also targeting your audience. • Be prepared to share. Purpose: Develop voice and style appropriate to audience and purpose in your writing.

5. Attention Grabber Ideas • Question: Make sure it is not a yes/no question • Shocking fact: For a topic like this, consider a shocking fact from the crime. • Story or description: • For defense--Consider describing Mary as a sympathetic character, a caring wife and expectant mother or Patrick as a mean husband who does not appreciate his wife. • For prosecution—Consider describing Mary as a clingy wife and Patrick as a tired, hard working police officer

6. Example of intro and outline My dear jury.  Mary Malone deserves your pity, not your judgment. She has been shown by a competent psychiatrist to have obsessive compulsive disorder, abandonment issues and a clear case of pregnancy induced psychosis.  For the sake of her child she needs medical help and so you must find her innocent by virtue of insanity. • OCD - obsessive behavior, putting on makeup before going to the store, insisting the police officers eat and drink • Abandonment - upset Patrick was leaving her, worried about fate of her own baby more than her guilt • Pregnancy induced psychosis - talking to herself as she entered the house, giggling • Thanks to Jennifer Macchiarella for this suggestion.

7. Example of introduction for “The Landlady” Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, for over a month now, you have heard testimony from police, from parents of the three young victims, and from forensic and psychological experts. You have been subjected to horrifying images of the stuffed and posed victims. You have also sat facing the defendant and have probably thought that someone who appears so warm and welcoming could hardly kill three young men in their prime like Billy Weaver, Gregory Temple, and Christopher Mulholland, let alone mutilate their bodies in the way that she did. While the landlady in Bath may seem like a sweet though slightly odd, middle-aged woman, don’t be fooled by her smile and calm demeanor. Without a doubt, she is a vicious serial killer who drew young men in to her bed and breakfast with the appeal of cheap rent and then poisoned, dissected, and stuffed them. Regardless of the defense’s argument that she is not mentally competent, the evidence presented has clearly shown that she lured the young men in with an intent to kill, that she committed these heinous crimes with full awareness of her actions, and that she put them on display as a grotesque demonstration of her taxidermy skill, not as a sign of insanity. It is therefore imperative that you, as a jury, insure that she be prosecuted and punished to the full weight of the law.

8. HOMEWORK • Have introduction written by the beginning of class tomorrow • Make sure that pre-write is really solid