Learning Journal Activity -- Open Letter
This
week's writing prompt asks you to compose a letter to someone or
something. You don't necessarily have to send the letter, and it doesn't
have to be written to anyone you know. In fact, you might have
some fun writing a letter to an inanimate object, or to your favorite
artist, or your least favorite politician.
One example of open letters you will probably be familiar with are letters to the editor, as found in most major newspapers. You might also be interested to have a look at a blog site called The Open Letters Blog.
Some of the letters on this site are addressed to Martha Stewart,
toilet paper, the state of Arizona, and many others. Of course, these
kinds of letters don't necessarily have to be funny, and sometimes a
letter is the best way to express the thoughts and feelings you may have
about something serious or an important issue of the day.
Assigned Readings and Overview for Week 8
This
week, we will be reading and discussing two stories, Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" (172) and Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls" (149). This is the beginning of our unit on short fiction, and so this is a good time to do a refresher on some of the important literary terminology for fiction (see assigned sections for week 8 on the course schedule). Although all of the stories we are studying are relatively short, these stories are more time-demanding than poems, and you should make sure to read the stories in advance of in-class discussions.
