Assignment 1 ALW101 Assignment 1 — ALW101: Sketching with Words ‘This is a hasty way of putting it, but for the moment I am trying to outline a fabricator’s way of reading, the kind of reading that...

Assignment 1 ALW101
Assignment 1 — ALW101: Sketching with Words

‘This is a hasty way of putting it, but for the moment I am
trying to outline a fa
icator’s way of reading, the kind of
eading that drastically alters one’s understanding of
writing.’

Monique Wittig, ‘The Literary Workshop’ (an excerpt), p XXXXXXXXXX, GLQ, 13:4
(2007) — italics added
Before you begin this assignment, read Mark Crick’s piece from the Unit Readings (Week 1), where he
plays on the style of Irvine Welsh in ‘Rich Chocolate Cake’. Here Crick—using the humorous form of a
cookbook entry—emulates Welsh’s notorious literary style known from novels such as Trainspotting, The
Acid House and Filth. Crick transposes a recognisable style from Welsh to write about his own content
(and his theme parameter is that it has to be about food/cooking to fit into his book concept). You will
do something similar in this assignment, although you WON’T make a little story, which Crick does do;
and your piece is in relation to theme parameters set out below (underlined).
Now, the assignment instructions:
Compose 2 x [original sketch 200w max + short statement 60w max] = total
for assignment 520w max — see Unit Guide for Marking Criteria

READINGS (read all & then select two (2) only):
David Foster Wallace: (opening of) The Pale King (2011)
Alan Warner: (first chapter of) The Sopranos (1998)
Yukio Mishima: (opening of) Spring Snow (1969)
Don DeLillo: (opening of) Underworld (1997)
SKETCH (200w) will be in ‘relation to’ / ‘in emulation of ‘ a piece chosen from above list, and the
theme parameters for each of your choices are (underlined):
• for Foster Wallace: a piece that describes a landscape that you know well. For best results for
this assignment (we really mean it!), you should compose the work while looking at the landscape
itself. GO THERE. Or use a photo, if necessary.
• for Alan Warner: a piece that depicts a group or crowd scene at an educational institution (such
as a student cafe at Deakin, the main walk/thoroughfare on campus, the uni tram
us stop, or
your old school canteen or locker room). Again, for better results, try to have an actual scene in
front of you. MUCH easier...
• for Yukio Mishima: a piece that focuses on watching a parade, a ceremony, a procession, a
wedding/funeral — from the point of view of someone who is not the centre of attention. Use
you-tube to find videos, if that helps. Remember, just a portrait. Nothing needs to happen.
• for Don DeLillo: a piece that sketches a portrait — up close and personal — of someone you
know or have been able to observe (be discreet!). Go out on Saturday night to a gig; take a ride
on public transport; or observe someone in public or domestic space and sketch them in words.
Make use of some of DeLillo’s stylistic devices and/or rhythms.
THE SHORT STATEMENT (60w max):
Very succinctly, note one technique you observed in the original author’s work and of which you made
use in your own piece. Don’t wo
y about using the exact technical term for it (we can learn those later). Describe
what you think the ‘trick’ or technique is (based on your own reading/how you experienced it). Hopefully
it’s something you haven’t noticed before, and now you have a new piece of writer’s craft. We will
practise composing these in seminars/online forums during the first weeks.
This assignment wants four things from you:
i. to have read the unit readings listed above, and afterwards to select two of them that you think
you could work with based on the theme parameters;
ii. while you’re reading, to home in on the sections in those readings that ‘set a scene’ or sketch a
portrait of place or people, just before the story launches, and read them again really closely—
highlight them, talk about them in seminars;
iii. to emulate (or riff off) the style of the original author in your own piece; you choose the
particular content but within the theme parameters;
iv. to pick up on a small craft element or writing technique in those sections, to use it and, in your
‘statement’, to say something simple about using it.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT EMULATION:
One way to get into the swing of emulating (a technique used by MANY serious writers, as a kind of
writing warm-up, or a way of engaging when creative juices aren’t quite flowing yet...) is to copy out by
hand sections of the work. Just that. Just write out what they wrote. It does something very interesting...
MARKING INFO—this assignment is worth 10% of overall unit mark:
• *as a general rule at university, word count requirements allow for a 10% margin either way (+ or
-). This means, for this assignment, you are fine if you write a word length from 450 to 550
overall. Outside of this you risk being penalised for not meeting or for exceeding word count.
• The two sections of the assignment will be marked overall/together out of 10 (not individually).
There will be time in seminars (or for Cloud students in the Forums) with peers to discuss
strengths and weaknesses of each piece. Please submit in ONE DOCUMENT (that means 4
its: piece + statement & piece + statement, all saved as one file.) Thank you.
• You can only receive a maximum of 5/10 for the assignment if you fail to include a statement
for either piece, no matter how great your pieces are in themselves.
• State at the top of each section the piece/exercise you are choosing. “Wallace” or “Mishima” &c.
See the RUBRIC for this assignment, also in this folder. It can guide you but it shouldn’t dominate
you or your process. Ideally use these instructions to create the work first, before using the ru
ic.
Creative Writing can get a bit uptight if you begin it with a ru
ic in mind. Please edit it for
submission with the ru
ic lightly in mind.

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
WARNING
This material has been reproduced and communicated to you by or on behalf of
Deakin University in accordance with section 113P of the Copyright Act 1968 (Act).
The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any furthe
eproduction or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright
protection under the Act.
Do not remove this notice
Course of Study:
(ALW101) Writer's Toolkit: Craft and Creativity
Title of work:
The Pale King (2012)
Section:
Excerpt from "The Pale King" pp. 3--4
Autho
editor of work:
Wallace, David Foste
Author of section:
DF Wallace
Name of Publisher:
Penguin Books Australia
§1
Past the flannel plains and blacktop graphs and skylines of canted
ust, and past the tobacco-
own river overhung with weeping trees
and coins of sunlight through them on the water downriver, to the
place beyond the wind
eak, where untilled fields simmer shrilly in
the A.M. heat: shattercane, lamb's-quarter, cutgrass, saw
ier, nut-
grass, jimsonweed, wild mint, dandelion, foxtail, muscadine, spine-
ca
age, goldenrod, creeping charlie, butter-print, nightshade,
agweed, wild oat, vetch, butcher grass, invaginate volunteer beans,
all heads gently nodding in a morning
eeze like a mother's soft
hand on your cheek. An a
ow of starlings fired from the wind
eak's
thatch. The glitter of dew that stays where it is and steams all day. A
sunflower, four more, one bowed, and horses in the distance stand-
ing rigid and still as toys. All nodding. Electric sounds of insects at
their business. Ale-colored sunshine and pale sky and whorls of cir-
us so high they cast no shadow. Insects all business all the time.
Quartz and chert and schist and chondrite iron scabs in granite.
Very old land. Look around you. The horizon trembling, shapeless.
We are all ofus
others.
Some crows come overhead then, three or four, not a murder, on
the wing, silent with intent, com-bound for the pasture's wire beyond
3
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
which one horse smells at the other's behind, the lead horse's tail
obligingly lifted. Your shoes'
and incised in the dew. An alfalfa
eeze. Socks' bu
s. Dry scratching inside a culvert. Rusted wire and
tilted posts more a symbol of restraint than a fence per se. NO HUNT-
ING. The shush of the interstate off past the wind
eak. The pasture's
crows standing at angles, turning up patties to get at the worms
underneath, the shapes of the worms incised in the overturned dung
and baked by the sun all day until hardened, there to stay, tiny vacant
lines in rows and inset curls that do not close because head never
quite touches tail. Reaci these.
4

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
WARNING
This material has been reproduced and communicated to you by or on behalf of
Deakin University in accordance with section 113P of the Copyright Act 1968 (Act).
The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any furthe
eproduction or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright
protection under the Act.
Do not remove this notice
Course of Study:
(ALW101) Writer's Toolkit: Craft and Creativity
Title of work:
Spring snow (1972)
Section:
Spring snow pp. 3--27
Autho
editor of work:
Mishima, Yukio; Gallagher, Michael.
Author of section:
Y Mishima
Name of Publisher:
Secker & Wa
urg

Sketching with Words Ru
ic
2020 Sketching with Words Ru
ic

Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
Demonstrate
engagement with the
writing
ief contained in
the Assignment
instructions (see Unit
Guide & Assignment
Sheets in resources),
within the stipulated
word limits.
You have demonstrated
attentive and
professional engagement
with the writing
ief
contained in the
Assignment instructions,
within stipulated word
limits.
You have demonstrated
consistent and/or sincere
engagement with the
writing
ief contained in
the Assignment
instructions, within
stipulated word limits.
You have demonstrated
sufficient engagement
with the writing
ief
contained in the
Assignment instructions,
within stipulated word
limits.
You have demonstrated
some but inconsistent
engagement with the
writing
ief contained in