Claim before the essay

• We are looking for a place (a word/phrase/line) in the text

• We are conversing with:

  • The author of the text

  • The readers of the text

    • People who might be interested in the topic

    • Culturally neutral pre-writing questions--- who is the author writing to?

  • The readers of our writing

    • Don’t write to me!

    • Culturally neutral pre-writing questions

    • Decide who we’re writing to before we get started!

  • Fascinates

    • Amaze

    • Something very interesting

  • Shocks

    • Surprises you very much

    • Sometimes good, sometimes bad

    • Can be a violation of your morals, and deeply offensive

    • Can just be a ‘holy crap! That happened!’ moment

  • Perplexes

    • Makes you very confused/puzzled

    • Don’t agree with--can’t quite figure out how everything fits together/doesn’t make sense

    • Maybe someone is lying and you can’t figure out why they would say such a thing

    • When I don’t know much about the subject, and the author gets into detail about it

    • When the author intentionally uses difficult words/writes in an old fashioned way

    • When the author goes off topic and it’s hard to see how things are connected

    • Something odd that doesn’t seem to belong

    • Ideas/stuff from unrelated cultures

  • Gap

    • Space between things-- something that should be there is missing

    • When someone goes off topic, why are they doing so?

    • Some explanation of things is missing in the text that is necessary to understand another part

• • • • Sometimes we consider it worth it to track down this information and start a whole new hobby or area of inquiry in our lives

  • Tension

    • Stretched tight, mental or emotional strain

    • The author is too tight in their definition/opinion and doesn’t make space for other ways of dealing with things

    • The author only entertains their own narrow worldview

    • The author is overly negative and doesn’t consider the positive

    • Sometimes someone is trying to keep everything in line to show us a specific perspective or message, but that wasn’t the right choice and so not everything fits together quite right.

  • Ambiguity

    • unclear or inexact because a choice between alternatives has not been made.

    • open to more than one interpretation; having a double meaning.

    • We have to make a choice

    • Call the author out on not making a choice

    • Discuss why the author may have resisted making a choice

    • Explain what we found ambiguous- and what we can learn from that ambiguity

  • Difficulty

    • Struggle- for meaning, for context, for specific answers, cultural differences and how hard they can be to understand

    • Style of writing

    • Find a place you didn’t understand and…

      • First, point out the difficulty

      • Say what you do understand

      • Say what you don’t understand

      • Fill in what you don’t understand

      • Be curious about everything

Interesting place:

“Least Force Necessary”- the Wall of Shame (this was punishment for people who used more than the least force necessary, a memorial to their stupidity)

“Implications of Doves”-- Sundown

Similarities--- difficult to write about, but if we can find adequate implications, then we can still make this work!

How we should treat animals--- both agree that we should treat animals well

Both authors think like animals think

Both also anthropomorphize

Gaps----

Sympathy- “Implications of Doves”- he treats the suffering mourning doves with sympathy, but not the magpies that attack it. He should be equal and balanced in his treatment of animals. They’re just doing what is natural to them. “Least Force Necessary”- the author claims to treat all animals the same way, but then even though he doesn’t kill the bear, he still uses his pepper spray. But he obviously is writing from a place of great feeling for the bear--- is he so careful around other animals? Why not talk about them too? 3

Emotional reactions- shock, perplex, fascinate

Shock:“Least Force Necessary”- staring down a rushing bear, standing your ground, and keeping your head. The man’s decision to protect the mourning doves over three days- what’s the connection? The dead, mutilated mourning dove- the magpies kill him gruesomely, and don’t even eat him. Nature? Torture?

Fascinate: “Least Force Necessary”- the man loves the bear so much to get a tattoo of its paw print. “Implications of Doves”- he watches the mourning doves so closely! They both through their words show us that they love animals deeply. But when faced with the animals that they love, one protects the animal, one protects himself. What’s the difference, and what does that say about their words and their ideas and how well they work? Predator vs prey? Treating animals like humans? Useful animals and pets- which is which?