Here are the details:
You write three paragraphs of 125 to 150 words.
Five topic choices.
Quotations required (minimum one; no more than 15 words total)
English-only dictionary is allowed.
All papers handed in by 11:30
Bring a copy of the story with you to class.
In order to be fair to everyone, I've decided that I will "forgive" one assignment this term. If you did not do the first blog homework, you are forgiven! What it means is that I will enter no mark and will not count it towards the final evaluation.
Every student can do this once a term. Those of you who have not missed an assignment can save your "forgiven" assignment for a time when you are busy. This applies only to individual assignments and not to group assignments, however.
Blackberry Picking at Jericho
Every summer I gather blackberries, make delicious jam then, best of all, slice cheese onto bread and slather them in jam made from berries picked only a few hours before.
My wife and I go—usually in late August, but this year on the 8th of September—and pick as many berries as our pinpricked hands can stand. Blackberries are armoured with prickles and thorns, so I always have many scratches on my arms and legs.
“You want to go to Jericho?” I suggest, meaning Jericho Park, one of Vancouver’s finest, a park that includes a large patch of wild blackberries on its northern edge.
We drive across the city, remarking on the highly overgrown boulevards up and down King Edward Avenue. Vancouver looks shabbier than usual. It’s late summer, grasses brown, wasps a bother at picnics, the crisp chill in the air heralding autumn breezes still to come. Parking is easy along Fourth Avenue since we’re not heading to the beach. Instead, we march into the woods.
On the way, we see a family walking home, buckets empty. We continue. Under the forest canopy it is wet from Monday’s rain. I begin to fear that the berries will be moldy or nonexistent.
The blackberries have had a hard year. Half their normal height, standing barely a meter above the ground, the plants hide the best berries under dark green leaves, their glowing purple like the garnets on the fingers of a king. Most years, I’m teetering like some crazy leaning tower of Pisa, standing too high on my aluminum ladder, reaching for the plumpest berry, all the while raked by thorns and, nastiest of all, by tiny prickles nearest to where each purple black berry grows.
We start picking. The traffic noise is distant; a fall wind swirls through the poplars. My hands turn purple as more berries fill the plastic yogurt container hung round my neck. I eat one, maybe two. The berries are too few this year to waste; besides, I want to make jam or maybe even a pie, the best pie of summer, the blackberry, topped with a dollop of whipping cream.
But there are not enough for pie, even after one hour of picking, the hot late summer sun burning the backs of our necks, our t-shirts sticking to our backs. Jam will do, emerging from our freezer on some dreary, mist-filled February day, bringing back memories of this afternoon. We make two batches, taking turns stirring stirring stirring the bowls of berries. Loaded into jars, we have 13, the unlucky one half eaten in a day.
Picking blackberries in summer, gathering them together, then stirring them in a bowl of freezer jam for a few minutes, the smell of ripe berries wafting up, mixed with the apple-sweet smell of the pectin, is a favourite summer ritual, one I hope to continue as long as I am able.
—Draft Four (484 words) You can see a document that shows my final changes here.
This is where you can ask for any help you might need as you work on your final draft for the essay. Use the comments link below the message. Be sure that your question is of general interest; otherwise, use my email to correspond with me directly.
Here it is:
Think of a summer ritual (remember the definition given in my first post) and respond to these questions from your handout.
What summer ritual do you participate in? Why do you repeat this ritual? What purpose does it hold for you? For others whom you know? For society in general? Use concrete examples in the same manner as Ray Bradbury. Write no more than 125 words in paragraph form.
Save your answer as a comment to this message. See the link below. Be sure to login first!
Here's a copy of the reading by Ray Bradbury, "Summer Rituals."
If you have questions or comments to make, use the comment link under this post. This is not a homework assignment, but will count towards my extra marks for participation (awarded before your final mark is calculated).
Quality of submissions count. Good questions are welcome.
This is your blog. It provides a fun and interesting way for us to meet the Ministry of Education requirement that we "employ a variety of effective processes and strategies, including the use of electronic technology, to generate, gather, and organize information and ideas."
This week, we will examine our rituals, with an emphasis on the ones associated with summer. We will write a 500-word descriptive essay on one of our summer rituals as the final evaluation in the unit. Remember the meaning of a ritual: "a customarily repeated act that expresses a system of values." This "system of values" is what we refer to as a culture.
On Saturday, I will post questions for us to answer about rituals in our lives. Your work here will be marked out of ten and count as an out-of-class mark. This work will help us all to generate good ideas for our essays.
Next week, I'll introduce the essay topic in class and show "Blackberries at Jericho," my sample essay, (first and second draft) to the class. My third (and fourth, not yet written) drafts will be published later in the week and over the weekend.
This year's Writing 12 class will participate in the exercise and, with their help, will publish a few of the best student essays at their online newspaper, The Pearson Buzz.
Put your answers as comments to this post. Please complete before class begins on Friday.
