2. AGENDA
Presentation: Terms
Discussion:
• In-class writing on Identity
• Personal Passing Experience
• Being Judged by Concrete Identifiers
Lecture: Writing Strategies for in-class essay #1:
• Basic Features of a Personal Narrative
In-Class Writing
• A Well-Told Story
• A Vivid Presentation of Places and People
• An Indication of the Event’s Significance

3. TERMS
1. Bias: A preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits
impartial judgment; an unfair act or policy stemming from
prejudice.
2. Culture: Behavior
patterns, arts, beliefs, language, institutions, and all other
products of human work and thought.
3. Difference: A characteristic that distinguishes one person from
another or from an assumed norm, or the state of being
distinguished by such characteristics. Social justice issues
such as racism, classism, sexism, and heterosexism usually
center on the negative perception of difference by the dominant
group. Viewed positively, difference can be a catalyst for
equity, recognition of interdependence, and a source of
personal power.

4. 4. Discrimination: Treatment or consideration based on class or
category rather than individual merit; partiality or prejudice.
5. Diversity: The quality of being diverse; a respect in which
things differ; variety.
6. Equality: The state or quality of treating everyone in an equal
manner.
7. Ethnicity: A perception of being alike, a sense of peoplehood
by virtue of sharing a common ancestry (real or
fictitious), values, and behavior.

5. 8. Fluid Identity: The concept that identity is not rigid but can and
does change. This idea is often used in terms of
gender, sexuality, and race, as well as other factors of identity.
This concept is fundamentally contrary to binary systems. People
who feel their identity is fluid often believe that rigid categories are
oppressive and incapable of accurately describing their
experience and identities.
9. Oppression: Arbitrary and cruel use of power; using severe or
unjust force or authority. An unjust situation where, systematically
and over a long period of time, one group denies another group
access to the resources of society.
Race, gender, class, sexuality, nation, age, ethnicity, disability
status, and religion constitute major forms of oppression.

6. 10. Passing: Historically, passing has been defined in terms of racial
passing. It refers to a deception that allows a person to take advantage
of certain roles or opportunities from which he or she might be barred in
the absence of this posed identity. The most common racial passer, of
course, was the African American who lacked those characteristics
typical of his race. These mixed race people had physical appearances
that allowed them to be perceived and treated as if they where white.
But passing is not limited to African Americans assuming white roles in
society; it is not even limited to a racial basis. People pass in a variety of
ways and for a variety of reasons—from Blacks who pass for white, to
Jews who pass as Gentiles, to gays who pass for straight, for women
who pass for men—and the opposite of all of these. Reverse
passing, though less prevalent, also exists in multiple forms.

7. How do we express our own identities?
How much do we reveal about ourselves
and when do we do so?
How do we decide?
What does society expect from us in
terms of revealing who we are?

8. Blog Shot #1 Write a paragraph or two
describing a time when you were unfairly
judged on concrete identity
characteristics. OR
Write a paragraph or two describing a
time when you passed as someone or
something you were not. The passing
can be either purposeful or inadvertent.

9. IN- CLASS ESSAY #1: BASIC FEATURES OF A
PERSONAL NARRATIVE:
•A Well-Told Story
•A Vivid Presentation of Places and Peopl
•An Indication of the Event’s Significance

10. In- Class Essay Prompt #1: The Narrative
• This essay exam will be next Monday
• You can use a one page outline from which to write.
• You will have approximately 90 minutes
• Bring paper, pens or pencils, and your outline
In a narrative essay of 500-750 words, respond to one of the
following prompts:
1. Tell about an experience when you were unfairly judged based on
concrete identity characteristics.
2. Tell about an experience when you passed as someone or
something you were not. The passing can be either purposeful or
inadvertent.

11. A WELL-TOLD STORY
Choose an interesting story
Shape it into an exciting or memorable experience
• Arouse curiosity, build suspense, and conclude action with the climax
Begin at the beginning
• Write an introduction that sets the stage for your tale
• Prepare your readers to understand the significance of your event.
Develop your story in the body paragraphs
• Use action verbs and verbal phrases (the –ing or to form of a verb: laughing, to laugh)
• She drew the shades; I took my position; nudging her aside, I passed the crowd;
• Use temporal transitions to cue readers and move the narrative through time.
• Just after; when; still; no longer; after a few days; for a week or so; before long; one
afternoon

12. WHAT STORY WILL YOU USE?
Where and when did it happen?
Make a quick narrative ladder:
• Setting
• Rising action
• Climax
• resolution

13. THE GOAL: CREATE A VIVID PRESENTATION OF PLACES
Recreate the time and place of the event
• Ground readers in specifics:
• When? Christmas morning; one day in late fall, Saturday night
• Where? At a 7-11 in San Jose, at my Aunt Helen’s Easter party, In the back alley of a club
in Sunnyvale
Name specific objects
• White, spherical snowball
• City clothes
• Translucent skin
• Dirty sidewalk
Use similes and metaphors to draw comparisons
• Simile: The car rumbled like an approaching storm.
• Metaphor: I wanted to slingshot myself into the future. (compares himself to a stone)

14. THE STRATEGY: LISTING KEY PLACES
Make a list of all the places where the event
occurred, skipping some space after each entry
on your list.
In the space after each entry on your list, make
some notes describing each place. What do you
see (except people for now)? What objects
stand out? Are thy large or small, green or
brown, square or oblong? What sounds do you
hear? Do you detect any smells? Does any taste
come to mind? Any textures?

15. THE GOAL: MAKE A VIVID PRESENTATION OF PEOPLE
Descriptive details of behaviors or actions
• She stuck her hand in the bag and picked up the poor, little
dead squirrel.
• He drew his hands through his long, greasy hair
A bit of dialogue
• “Poor dear,” she murmured
• “Get out of my house,” he screamed
Detail the person’s appearance
• A thin woman: all action
• He wore dress clothes: a black suit and tie

16. THE STRATEGY: RECALLING KEY PEOPLE
List the people who played more than a causal
role in the event
Describe a key person: Write a brief description of
a person other than yourself who played a
major role in the event. Name and detail a few
distinctive physical features or items of dress.
Describe in a few phrases this person’s way of
moving and gesturing

17. THE STRATEGY CONTINUED: USE DIALOGUE TO
CONVEY IMMEDIACY AND DRAMA
Reconstruct one important conversation
• Try to remember any especially memorable
comments, any unusual choice of words, or any
telling remarks that you made or were made to
you.
• Try to partially re-create the conversation so
that readers will be able to imagine what was
going on and how your language and the other
person’s language reveal who you were and
your relationship.

18. THE GOAL: INDICATE THE EVENT’S SIGNIFICANCE
Show that the event was important
• Dramatize the even so readers can understand your
feelings about it.
• Show scenes from your point of view so readers can
identify with you.
Tell us that the event was important
• Tell how you felt at the time of the experience
• Tell how you feel about it now, in reflection.

19. THE STRATEGY: RECALL REMEMBERED FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS
• What were your expectations before the event?
• What was your first reaction to the event as it was happening and right after
it ended?
• How did you show your feelings? What did you say?
• What did you want the people involved to think of you? Why did you care
what they thought of you?
• What did you think of yourself at the time?
• How long did these initial feelings last?
• What were the immediate consequences of the event for you personally?
Pause now to reread what you have written. Then write another sentence or two
about the event’s significance to you at the time it occurred.

20. THE STRATEGY CONTINUED: EXPLORE YOUR PRESENT PERSPECTIVE
• Looking back, how do you feel about this event? If you understand it
differently now than you did then, what is the difference?
• What do your actions at the time of the event say about the kind of person
you were then? How would you respond to the same event if it occurred
today?
• Can looking at the event historically or culturally help explain what
happened? For example, did you upset racial, gender, or religious
expectations? Did you feel torn between identities or cultures? Did you feel
out of place?
• Do you see now that there was a conflict underlying the event? For
example, were you struggling with contradictory desires? Did you feel
pressured by others? Were you desires and rights in conflict with someone
else’s? Was the event about power or responsibility?
Pause to reflect on what you have written about your present perspective. Then
write another sentence or two, commenting on the event’s significance as
you look back on it

21. GOAL: FORMULATING A TENTATIVE THESIS
Readers do not expect you to begin your narrative essay
with the kind of explicit thesis statement typical of
argumentative or explanatory writing. If you do decide to
tell readers explicitly why the event was meaningful or
significant, you will most likely do so as you tell the
story, by commenting on or evaluating what
happened, instead of announcing the significance at the
beginning. Keep in mind that you are not obliged to tell
readers the significance, but you must show it through
the way you tell the story.

22. STRATEGY: REVIEW THE EVENT’S SIGNIFICANCE
Review what you wrote for reflecting on the
event’s significance, and add another two or
three sentences, not summarizing what you
already have written, but extending your
insights into the significance of the event, what
it meant to you at the time, and what it means
now. These sentences must necessarily be
speculative and tentative because you may not
fully understand the event’s significance in your
life.

23. THE GOAL: WRITING A GOOD INTRODUCTION
The Strategy:
Arouse readers’ curiosity
• Begin with a surprising announcement?
• Establish the setting and situation?
Get readers to identify with you
• Tell them a few things about yourself?
• Begin in the middle of the action or a funny
or important dialogue?

24. THE GOAL: WRITING A GOOD CONCLUSION
The Strategy:
Conclude with reflections on the meaning of the
experience? (avoid tagging on a moral)
Should you be philosophical? Satirical? Self critical?
To underscore the event’s continuing significance, can you
show that the conflict was never fully resolved?
Could you contrast your remembered and current feelings
and thoughts?
Should you frame the essay by echoing something from the
beginning to give readers a sense of closure?

25. FRAMING
Framing is a narrative device that echoes the beginning in
the ending. The reader will then think of the beginning
while reading the ending.
For example, I might begin my essay in the car on the way to
an event. Here, I would set the stage for my reader to
understand where I was going and what I was doing.
Then, I could end my essay on the car ride back home; at
this time, I would reflect on the incident, adding some
discussion of the significance of the event.
Take a few minutes to consider how you might begin and
end your story using framing.

26. HOMEWORK
Finish your in-class writing and post it
• This will likely be your outline, your strategies, your
thoughts and reflections, and your thesis. For some
people it will be more; for others less.
Study the terms we discussed in class.
Blog Shot #2: In one paragraph, imagine the benefits of
passing. In a second paragraph, imagine the possible
consequences of passing. Consider passing in multiple
manifestations: age, race, sex, sexual
orientation, ability/disability, occupation, class status. Do
they share common benefits and consequences?