PERSONAL ESSAYS: IT MEANS MORE- AND NOT JUST TO ME

For tomorrow, please bring in a text that means a great deal to you. This might be a traditional piece of writing: a book, short story, poem, song lyrics, or other written piece. It might be another form of text: a piece of art, a movie, or a recipe.

The key here is that the piece you choose has significant and complex meaning within it that might be missed by a casual “reader.” In other words, someone has to look with critical eyes to get the real meaning of your text.

This meaning should be in the text and not in your associations with the text. In other words, the meaning is not due to the time when you encountered the text or how you felt about the text or who gave you the text. The meaning is a function of the text itself and not outside the text (in your experiences with it). This is about a meaningful text, not a text that appeared at a meaning moment.

Please bring this text to class. If it is a written text, bring a copy. If it is a piece of artwork, bring a photo. If it is a movie or song, bring a digital version that could be played (a CD or DVD). Have the text in a form where you could demonstrate to others how to see the meaning.

Have this in class TOMORROW!

Part 2: Think about the text you selected to bring in today.  Decode it. Write a brief analysis of it that clearly shows where the meaning lays and how you found it. Explain why others might miss this meaning. Describe the “reading” skills you used to find the significance in this text. Use several examples from the text to demonstrate both these skills and the significance.

Your response should be approximately one to two pages typed, double spaced. Please bring in a paper copy and e-mail an electronic copy to dhirsch@dist113.org .

Due: Monday, August 29th