Period 7:
Please complete TASK #3 (your edited 300 word article) and turn in WITH YOUR EDITED COPY! (I need to see how your partner helped you edit your work...!)
TASK #4: When attention is called, please get together in your reading group and do the following in-class activity:
Please complete TASK #3 (your edited 300 word article) and turn in WITH YOUR EDITED COPY! (I need to see how your partner helped you edit your work...!)
TASK #4: When attention is called, please get together in your reading group and do the following in-class activity:
1. Each group member will take 1 chapter he/she read from the book. Try to spread this out so that all chapters that have been read are represented.
2. Using the five W's, identify the five elements/information in that chapter: who is the chapter about, what happens in the chapter, where does the chapter take place, when does the chapter take place within the reported story, and possible reasons why (what does the author give the reader as way of explanation of events in the story for that chapter?)
3. Turn in your answers either by the end of class (possible) or at least next class (probable). Complete this task #4 for homework.
If you are done before your group gathers for TASK #4, please work on your chosen novel ?'s (see below) instead.
Period 8:
Objective: (of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.
Subjective: based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
New Journalism: a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960's & 1970's that uses literary techniques deemed unconventional for journalism reporting because they affect a story's objectivity. New Journalism is traditionally written more subjectively (with bias or commentary from the author), although it includes facts and accounts of eyewitnesses more traditional with news journalism.
News Article: writing that discusses current or recent news of either general interest or on a specific topic. News articles are traditionally written objectively (without bias) and include facts and accounts of eyewitnesses to the happening event.
It has been over fifty years since the publication of In Cold Blood, Truman Capote’s “immaculately factual” novel that set off a still simmering controversy about whether the tactics of journalism and novel-writing can be merged into so-called “non-fictional” narrative. Capote claimed an original status for his book -- and In Cold Blood became the centerpiece for the “New Journalism” movement of the 1960s and 1970s. However, as successful as Capote was with his “non-fictional novel,” his historical perspective was a limited one.
Since the early eighteenth century days of novelist and newspaper editor Daniel Defoe, the relationship of the fields of journalism and literature has been interwoven and often tension-filled. For more than a century after Defoe, fact and fiction were often inseparable in journalism, but that changed as the industrialized press of the late 1800s adopted rigid formulas for fact finding and reporting. Since the commercialization of newspapers, many literary writers with a background in journalism, from Mark Twain and Willa Cather and Ernest Hemingway to Capote and Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson, have wrestled with the restrictions imposed by the methods of the news organizations where they worked. And they typically came to believe that they could explore the deeper truths of reality through fiction or “artistic” non-fiction in a way that was not possible in conventional journalism.
In 1973, Wolfe, who along with Capote is often credited for launching the “New Journalism” movement, claimed that modern novelists had abandoned realism and opened the field to the practitioners of “New Journalism.” This form of non-fictional writing about the real world – which Wolfe said had superseded the fictional novel in literary importance – spurned the writing formulas of traditional journalism and employed the narrative devices of fiction to convey social truths and a deeper human reality.
TASK: Chosen New Journalism Novels Test
Alone (without your group), please answer the following 5 questions for your book. This assignment will be due Wednesday, May 8. You should have completed your reading by this time. Use your time in the lab today during 8th period to either read or start answering these questions. Answers should be thoughtful and use textual evidence. Note: there are many parts to each question. Make sure you answer ALL parts of the question posed.
In Cold Blood ?'s:
- A journalist should always remain objective in reporting a story. Does the fact that Capote likely altered some of the dialogue and characterization in the book affect its merit as an example of the nonfiction novel? Does it affect your enjoyment of the work? How does his book differ in style from a newspaper article or feature? Give examples from the text to support your answer. What would this story have looked like if it had appeared as a journalistic article in the New York Times or a local newspaper like The City or The Democrat & Chronicle?
- If the murder victims weren't as white, prosperous, or well-liked as the Clutter family, do you think Capote would have written this book? Give reasons (using the text to support your answers) why it is important for writers and reporters to represent race, gender, culture, or class objectively?
- Examine the writing/narrative techniques in this book. What's the effect on the reader of the author's technique of alternating between stories of the killers and the stories of the rest of the characters? What does this add or detract from the narrative of the story? What techniques does the author use to make this a nonfiction novel rather than just a history or work of journalism? How is this choice of narrative an effective one for Capote to make?
- Even though we know immediately that the Clutters were murdered, the author doesn't give us the eyewitness details until 264 pages in. What's up with that? How does this book not follow the traditional inverted pyramid used in journalism? Is this tactic better or worse (does it strengthen or weaken the book) and why? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
- Would the story have been told differently if the author hadn't been an outsider to Kansas? If you lived in a small town where there were killers presumed to be on the loose, would you stick around? How is this novel a "romantic" view of small town American life? What scenes or passages conjure this romantic image? Given this viewpoint, how does this create conflict or irony with the violent murder? Use textual evidence to support your answer.
The Other Wes Moore ?'s:
1. During their youth, both Wes' spent most of their time in crime-ridden Baltimore and the Bronx. How important was that environment in shaping their stories and personalities? (Give examples from the text to support your answer). How does the author's own experience and upbringing create subjectivity in the book--remember that journalists aim to remain objective? What parts of the book are objective and which are subjective? Support your answer with the text.
2. Moore states that people often live up to the expectations projected on them. Is this true? If someone you care for expects you to succeed--or fail--will you? where does personal accountability come into play? Additionally, a reader's expectations of a news article or story may color or reaffirm their own biases. How might this book represent urban life in a negative light? Do you feel the book is an accurate depiction of life in an urban setting? Use textual support in your answer.
3. Discuss the writing/narrative structure and techniques used in the book. What's the effect on the reader of the author's technique of alternative personal narrative with that of the other Wes? What does this juxtaposition add or detract from the narrative of the story? What techniques does the author use to make this a nonfiction novel rather than just a history or work of journalism? How is this choice of narrative an effective one for Moore to make?
4. How does this book not follow the traditional inverted pyramid used in journalism? Is this tactic better or worse (does it strengthen or weaken the book) and why? Use examples from the text to support your answer. How does the book differ in style from a newspaper article or feature in the way it is structured (for ex. it has 3 parts...why does the author divide his book in this manner?)
5. Moore says "the chilling truth is that Wes's story could have been mine." Would the story have been told differently if the author had been an outsider: a stranger to Baltimore or from another State or from a rural setting or as a different gender? If you grew up like the other Wes how would you have made different choices? How is this novel pragmatic (useful) in "teaching" the reader about how to avoid tragic problems due to our environment or situation. For example, comment on the importance of family support, financial support, or education as ways to address America's crime and violence problem.
HOMEWORK: Keep reading your chosen novel. As you read, answer the ?'s. These will count as a test score for the book. Make sure you support your answers with enough textual evidence to convince me that you read carefully and have considered important points made in these novels.
