Short Exercises, ENGL 6070

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.

1/9 - The "Jingle" exercise. Take a brief poem, prayer, advertising jingle, children's chant, etc., and weave a story around it, along the lines of Alice Walker's "Roselily" or Sandra Cisneros's "Hips."

1/16 - Write a scene that conveys strong emotional impact. Limit yourself to no more than 10 modifiers, excluding articles.

1/23 - Mirror exercise. Model TBA.

1/30 " - 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 ...

2/6 - Write a short scene in which 2 people are in conflict over an object. Let the object take on symbolic significance. It may have the same significance to the two people, or a different significance to each.

2/13 - Mirror excercise. Model TBA.

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