Anosh Irani ,

The Parcel" by Anosh Irani , "Admission Requirements" by Phoebe Wang, "Hope Makes" Love by Trevor Cole, and "Yiddish for Pirates" by Gary Barwin Reading Wiki A. Reading Wiki Value: 20% (10% per term) Each reading wiki entry comprises a response to the reading of that week and may include ideas from lectures and/or authors’ comments. Your writing may be informal but the content must be analytic; that is, you should focus on an issue/question/theme in the work. Aim to interpret, break down, dig deeper into your focus. Without losing your focus, you might relate it to your own experience in a way that helps you better understand the text and – perhaps - your own life. You may choose to do a longer (minimum 500 words) single entry for a text, or two shorter (250-300) ones for a single text/author. Your reading wiki is a site for thinking about “reading for meaning”; what you are really doing here is using writing as a form of inquiry. If you do a thoughtful job, your wiki will be a source of questions to ask the authors when they come, and, cumulatively, a record of your learning and rich source of ideas for the final exam. Remember - there is no single ‘right’ answer - there are many interpretation and many possible meanings. All of our readings are concerned with what it means to be human: what makes us tick? how do we behave? why? what drives us? As a result, each book investigates a number of issues/questions/concerns. To get started, here are some writing ‘prompts’: 1. Take a stab at articulating the question/problem/issue you think that the author is trying to work out. Then try to figure out how that q/p/i affects the characters in the narrative, or how is this trio (q/p/i) explored in specific poems. 2. Choose a narrative passage or a poem you want to examine closely and respond closely. (This involves using specific examples, phrases and interpreting their possible meaning(s).) If you’re not sure where to start, here is a list of things to consider – but, don’t forget, the list is endless, so feel free to add your own considerations. The more you think about a text and its meaning, the more ideas it will suggest to you – since this is one of the earmarks of good literature: • What are the central conflicts? • What is significant about them? • Is the character someone you like or not? What do you think the author is getting at be creating characters like this? How do you think the author wants you to understand the character(s)? Does character interaction or behaviour help you to better understand the idea you think the author is getting at by writing the story, the poem? • How is the novel structured – interrupted, not interrupted, sequential or jumbled in time and place? What does this suggest in terms of the story/poem? • Ask yourself questions about voice and tone – how does the voice (in which the story is told) suggest meaning? What tone does the story/poem take? How do these two contribute to meaning? If the text is poetry, you may want to consider: • Is there anything specific about the poet’s use of language you wish to observe? For example, vocabulary, rhythms, the way the text is placed on the page? • How does an individual poem make you feel? What does it make you think about? Why? Grading: You must have at least one entry per text; fewer will result in grade penalty. As noted above, you may choose to do one lengthy (at least 500 words) per text, or two shorter ones (250-300). Your entries will be read for strength of analysis, insight and creativity, and correct expression. Your grade will be located under the Comments tab of the top page of your Wiki. Instructors may add comments on individual entries as well. Technical advice: it is preferable that you write your entry in Word and then upload it to the wiki because you can edit more easily in Word and have the benefit of spell check, etc. When you upload be sure to use the function that strips Word of its formatting. Instructions on the wiki are in the first section of Moodle.