COMMUNITY RHETORICS:
Writing from the Inside

Part Three

Due: Thursday, October 10 (not graded)

(Revision will be due Thursday, October 17)

 

For the first writing exercise you were asked to consider Mary Louise Pratt's essay "Arts of the Contact Zone" and then to narrate and describe a contact zone that you had observed or experienced. In the second writing exercise you were asked first to explain this encounter in the contact zone first in light of your own beliefs and values, then to analyze it in light of the broader social or cultural values that this incident suggested. In a full draft of your Contact Zone Essay, it is time to begin knitting together these parts into a whole that both you and your reader can understand on multiple levels &endash; personal, social, and intellectual. Your draft should not only give your reader something to think about, but also something to experience and to feel.

In the various parts of this assignment -- as you narrated this encounter in the contact zone and interpreted its personal and broader implications -- you probably unearthed a number of intriguing ideas. One of your most important jobs in the essay you are about to draft is to identify, explore, and bring into careful focus one particularly compelling idea that your experience with or in the contact zone has stimulated you to think about.

As one way of accomplishing this, consider this contact zone moment (or moments) in relation to the reading that you have been doing for this class thus far. In your draft, relate the experience of your contact zone and the ways in which you interpret it to at least two of the first four essays that you have read for class, including Mary Pratt's "Arts of the Contact Zone," June Jordan's "Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan," Gloria Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," and/or Richard Rodriguez' "The Achievement of Desire." Think about these essays not only in literal but also in implicit terms. One of these four essays that seems particularly interesting to you may not seem to relate explicitly to your contact zone scenario, but think about the larger implications of the piece. Think about difference and power and trying to find new ways to work within an old paradigm.

As you begin to explore a central idea in the draft of your essay, remember that you have access to lots of kinds of "evidence" to help you to explain, illustrate, and support your thoughts about your contact zone: your contact zone narrative, other experiences and examples from your past as well as other people's, your own process of thought, and especially relevant concepts, incidents, and/or quotations from the readings.

A five-paragraph essay approach is not likely to work at all well with this assignment. Instead, think about how to structure and organize your essay to maximize the impact that you would like to have on your reader, to bring your point home in the most effective way. You do not have to begin your essay with a description of the contact zone "moment," although for many of you, this will be an effective way to set up the essay. Describe the interaction to whatever extent you think necessary to establish the idea you want to discuss. Nor are you required to treat analysis of the contact zone scenario at any set length or in any particular way. The topic of this essay and your approach to the idea you want to discuss will lead you to decide where and how the moment will fit in.

In constructing your draft, it is fine to cut and paste in parts of your writing in the earlier exercises, but be aware that you will probably also have to edit out some early material, and you will certainly have to generate new writing in order to connect and relate excerpts from your earlier writings.

Please submit all of the parts of the exercises as well as the draft of the essay on Tuesday, October 8. In your essay, when you quote, quote accurately and use quotation marks correctly; clearly cite references to texts with parenthetical citations when you quote or paraphrase. Remember to include a works cited page, accounting for all texts that you cite &endash; in quotation, paraphrase, or summary -- in your essay. See Hacker's Pocket Style Manual for correct MLA form.

Please bring two copies of your draft to class on Thursday, October 10 &endash; one for me and one for your peer review partner. You will meet with me and your peer review partner on Thursday or Friday, October 10 or 11, for a peer review conference in order to discuss your and your partner's drafts. Written peer reviews (see the peer review form) are due at conference. The revision of this essay will be due in class on Thursday, October 17.

One last note: Don't forget to have fun with this! Don't lose the personal voice that you established in the earlier exercises. Integrate it! You have plenty of room to be creative and analytical at the same time.