Lesson 3.08: Claude McKay and James Weldon Johnson

Complete 3.08 McKay and Johnson. When you are finished, submit your completed work to the 3.08 McKay and Johnson Dropbox.

Even in such structured poems, McKay and Johnson included the experiences of their lives in their works.  Emotions and concerns fill these poems.  Keep this in mind as you continue work on your own personal narratives.  Simply providing the events is not enough.  Are you clearly including the emotions felt during these events?  The joy?  The sorrow?  The anger?  As you prepare to work on your next draft for your essay, consider the idea of including any emotions and concerns that are relevant to your story.  However, be careful; avoid the trap of saying, “I felt angry when I heard the news.”  Instead, show your emotions through careful word choice as you describe your reactions and thoughts.

You will produce one more draft of your personal narrative before creating the final draft.  As you review your previous drafts of your essay, consider the following guidelines:

• Do you set out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance?
• Do you establish one or more point(s) of view?
• Do you introduce the narrator and/or characters?
• Do you create a smooth progression of experiences or events?
• Do you use dialogue?
• Do you use pacing of events?
• Do you use relevant descriptions?
• Do you develop your experience, events, and/or characters?
• Do you build toward a particular tone and outcome?
• Do you use precise language to convey a vivid picture of the experience, events, setting, and characters?
• Do you provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of your narrative?

Keep these guidelines in mind as you continue the writing process because these guidelines are the primary areas in which your essay will be graded.

Make revisions to your personal narrative based on the above guidelines and the feedback you have received.  Then, submit your polished rough draft to the 3.08 Polished Rough Draft Discussion thread.  Finally, work with your previous partner(s) by addressing any changes and improvements you notice in your peer’s essay.