CREATIVE NONFICTION IN FRESHMAN COMPOSITION: CAPTIONING A PHOTOGRAPH

chrissine anna cairns

central mighigan university

INVENTION

Q. Why teach students to caption a photograph?

A. Photographs trigger reflection. I thought asking writers to use their memory and emotion to decide what is essential and significant about their subject, without simultaneously being influenced or persuaded by that subject, might:

¨ Foster confidence.

¨ Produce more creative and sophisticated prose.

¨ Invite more thoughtful reflection.

CREATION

Help! The students have never heard of Creative Nonfiction, and I have no models. How and when should I teach this? Will they get it? How will I grade it?

¨ Introducing the Assignment: lesson, prewriting

¨ Generating Conversation: talking about writing and revision--sample essays

¨ Providing Practice and Play: journal prompts

¨ Keeping it Real: features for evaluation--cnf features

¨ Offering a Challenge: cnf design options

Introducing the Assignment: lesson

Select a personal photograph and write a 3-4 page “caption” of it. Your caption will be a response combining descriptive features from the photo as well from your personal experience in order to develop your reflections. *View the complete assignment sheet at www.chrissinecairns.com.

Prewriting Prompts

GENERALIZE ABOUT IT: Consider what you remember from the day the photo was taken, or what you have heard about that day or experience. What does it suggest about people in general or about the society in which you live?

GIVE EXAMPLES OF IT: Illustrate your experience with specific examples or anecdotes. What does the photo tell you or another viewer? Think of what might help your classmates understand the ideas you have about the photograph—what examples from your experience would best convey your ideas.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST IT: Look at the photo from a perspective of then and now, or through someone else’s eyes. Explore the similarities and differences.

ANALYZE IT: Take apart your subject. Look at the interactions between the people and/or objects in the photo? How are dynamics of the relationships shown or not shown?

Generating Conversation: talking about captioning a photograph: Sample Essays:

Joyce Carol Oates, “Caption,” Civilization (February/March 1997):96.

Mark O’Donnell, “Caption,” Civilization (June/July 1997): 96

Both essays exemplify captioning a photograph and social and historical contexts

Providing Practice and Play: Journal prompts

Musical Reflections: While you listen to each song write whatever memories or fragments of memories come to mind—whatever each song makes you think about.

Consider the following if you get stuck: Where does the song take you? Who does it remind you of? If you never listened to it, who did? What were you doing when you heard the song?

What was the world doing? What kind of environment might you hear the song?

Reflect on whatever the song triggers whether it’s related to the music or not.

Context: There’s a new illustrated magazine on the market that invites amateur photographs that depict people. Every month the magazine features a different theme: Music, Art, Science/Discovery, Society/Stereotypes/Disease (AIDS, Guns, Homophobia, Racism (and all the “isms”), Gambling, Drugs…) Culture (Food, Language, Fashion…), Media (News, Commercial, Entertainment), Travel, Transportation, Education, Nature, Politics, Sports…the list is endless.

What issue would you submit your photo to and why? That is, how could your photo be symbolic or representative of that theme or context?

Keeping it Real (Do-able): features for evaluation--cnf features

Features of an Essay

¨ Thesis—main idea, the significance of your subject

¨ Intro, Body, Conclusion – or Head, Heart and Legs to make it more dimensional.

The head gets the readers attention; it’s thoughtful

The heart keeps the readers interest; it’s emotional

The legs take the reader someplace new; it’s the journey

¨ Focus

¨ Organization

¨ Clarity of language

¨ Development of ideas

¨ Cleverness/Imagination/Description

¨ Truth

¨ Shows: Anecdotes (Illustrations), Allusions, Analogies, Authorities (quotes)

¨ Tells: Assertions, Narration, Directive clues

Specific to the Photo Caption essay:

¨ Reference to photo using description; it’s your “trigger”; it should help you stay focused

¨ Reflection about photo--speculation about it, viewing it from a new perspective. While the exercise will cause you to revisit the past, it also entails that you reconstruct it with a new perspective.

¨ Context—universal theme or idea in which to situate the subject of the photo.

Generating Conversation: talking about crafting features: Sample Essays:

Jerry Rockwood, “Life Intrudes,” Reading Critically Writing Well. Axelrod and Cooper. 1999.

Revision Workshop Cycle One: *View “Cycle One” guide at www.chrissinecairns.com

Offering a Challenge: cnf design options

Journal: Turning a Photo into a Collage: To give a voice to the various images and feelings triggered by your photograph, try prewriting in segments. Write on one memory then skip a line and start another, thereby turning your photo into a collage. This will help you locate the anecdotes and reflections you most want to include in your essay, or it will serve as prewriting for a segmented essay.

Sample

An English fellow started a butterfly-breeding farm in Costa Rica. Did you know that Costa Rica has more varieties of butterflies than the whole continent of Africa? That’s one of the tidbits of Butterfly trivia I learned on my tour of the Butterfly Farm.

In second grade my 3-D rendition of how a “caterpillar goes into a cocoon and comes out a butterfly” won third place in the science fair. I’ve since learned that butterflies don’t form cocoons. Moth’s do. Butterflies form chrysalis. I saw a mosaic of chrysalis pinned to cork at the farm. They were dead.

http://www.chrissinecairns.com

A former boyfriend of mine once gave me a dead butterfly. He told me that he was at a stoplight on his motorcycle when he found it. He pulled it from the pocket of his leather jacket and said it reminded him of me. “But I’m not dead” I told him. In my dreams, I can even fly.

Student/Teacher Conferences

Generating Conversation: talking about design and segmentation: Samples

Chrissine Cairns. “Futile and the Faithful.” (1998).

Sample of a Creative Nonfiction Essay that captions a photograph

First Year Writing Student. “Last Dance.” (2000).

Sample of Creative Nonfiction Segmented Essay that captions a photograph

Susan Allen Toth. “Going to the Movies.” The Fourth Genre. Allyn & B acon 1999: 226-228.

Sample of Segments--how to begin and end them compared to paragraph transitions.

Revision Workshop Cycle Two: Editing *View guide at www.chrissinecairns.com

DISCOVERY

Q: How did they do?

A: Engagement: Writer Survey Results at the end of Fall Semester 2000 (45 surveyed)

80% “most engaging assignment of semester”

15% “engagement comparable to other assignments”

5% “least engaging assignment of semester”

Writer Survey Results: Spring 2001(50 surveyed)

36% “Very Engaged” 62% “Moderately Engaged” 2% “Not Very Engaged”

A: Risk & Confidence: Writer Survey Results: mid semester, Spring 2001(50 surveyed)

45 students said they “took a stylistic risk and tried something new.” Some of the

examples given were:

“Segments,” “different grammar techniques,” “questions,” “spatial organization,” “I began with the end and ended with the beginning,” “anecdotes,” “metaphors,” “fitting two stories into one,” “worked with dialogue,” “show not tell,” “I used more proof/quotes,” “repetition, questioning/answering,” “I tried connecting my photo to a theme,” “I threw flashbacks into my paragraphs”

A: Reflection: Writer Survey Results: mid semester, Spring 2001(50 surveyed)

“It made me think harder”; “I really had to think”; “I liked that I could think and express my feelings”; “I liked that it made me remember and reflect”; “I could let my thoughts flow”; “I liked how the picture helped us write the paper”; “Thinking about my subject while I was writing, brought back memories”; “I liked sharing personal stories”; “It was hard to include reflective ideas within the stories I told”; “I liked being able to share fun times with readers”; “My favorite part about this assignment was remembering all I had forgotten”; “Reflecting with a non-blaming, non-judgmental approach showed me how far I had come”; “I discovered more in depth what my sister was all about”; “I showed how camping affected my family relations”; “I liked seeing how much I and the others in the picture have changed”; “I put my ponderings into the essay, and I’ve never done that before.”

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