Sample Short Exercises, ENGL 4070

Generally speaking, these should be no more than 2 double-spaced pages in length (approx. 500 words).

For examples of these and other short exercises from previous classes, see the Pubs Page.

• "Breaking the Frame": Find a picture (photo, ad, illustration, postcard, drawing, art reproduction etc.) small enough to bring to class. This picture should be of from 1 - 3 people, none of them you, and at least one of them significantly different from you in some respect -- gender, ethnicity, age (at least 10-15 years). Speaking in the voice and from the perspective of this not-you character, tell what's going on in the picture.
• "Blue Eyes": 1) List every cliché you can think of in connection with blue eyes (e.g. as blue as the sky). 2) Write a fresh, vivid paragraph describing blue eyes.

• The "Jingle" exercise: Take a brief poem, prayer, advertising jingle, children's chant, etc., and weave a story around it, along the lines of Sandra Cisneros's "Hips."

• "Boy": a mirror of Kincaid's "Girl." The messages a boy receives growing up in the culture in which you were raised. Match the length, structure and rhythms of the original as closely as you can. (Hint: read Kincaid's story aloud before you write.)

• "Stranger in a Strange Land": Describe a place that is likely to be familiar to most readers -- a supermarket, a bathroom, a movie theater -- through the eyes of someone to whom the very concept of such a place is alien. Put yourself inside the mind of Rip Van Winkle, or of someone who's dropped in from another planet, or of a recent arrival from a country with a much different culture, or ...

• "E-Prime": Write a scene without using any form of the verb "to be."

• Write a scene that conveys strong emotional impact. Limit yourself to no more than 10 modifiers, excluding articles.