Start as close to the end as possible.
We Are Storytellers
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
What’s the Headline?
Spring is in the air . . .
Spring Break is a good time to reflect on how the first half of the semester has gone and project new practices to improve our performance in the second half.
If this were spring, the break would be next week. So, for us . . .
Perhaps you promised yourself you were going to buckle down and catch up on missed assignments by the midpoint of the semester. If so, that time has come. Follow the link to the Mandatory Conferences chart and make an appointment for your Thesis Progress chat if we haven’t conferenced twice. If you’re confined to a hospital bed (or lounging on the beach PRETENDING it’s Spring Break), remember, conferences can happen anywhere.
More Help with Definitions/Claims
My Ultrasound Was Rape
The Coin with Two Heads
Personalized Help with Definitions
The “Causal” Unit
Why the Challenger Exploded
Portfolio Task: Causal Argument
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Counterintuitive Spring 2024 
Start as close to the end as possible. It helps the reader to prioritize their time and so they won’t doubt what their being taught or told.
Sentences are there so the reader continues to read.
The Challenger exploded due to several issues with the craft, and the negligence by NASA for not exploring those issues
Thatpersonoverthere
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OK, TPOT.
Looks like you were there.
2/3
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-Talked about the difference between a bad introduction and a good introduction, it doesn’t always have to be long or wordy, it just has to eat the point across the right way in the correct format. Whenever someone reads your story or tries to understand it they are always distracted by the popups on the screen if your story is not interesting to them. So make your story interesting and narrow down the goal to keep the reader interested and wanting more.
-Every sentence should grab the reader’s attention and the first sentence should make them continue to the next one and then onto the next and to the last sentence and by then successfully writing a good story.
-The headline should always grab the attention of the readers, that’s very important. If the headline can’t do that most of the readers will not be interested and put your story aside.
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Thanks, TheGamer.
Attendance noted.
2/3
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A good introduction is like a song.
“Start as close to the end as possible”
You risk wasting the precious time of your readers. The longer you take to get to your point you will lose readers.
Name your terms, and your attitude, “I refuse”
If kids are going online, seeing hate speech, and committing suicide that is a good introduction. It catches the attention of your readers.
You need to respect the time of your readers, you need to grab their attention faster, and hold their attention through every sentence. The job of the first sentence is to get them to read the second sentence.
It is entirely artificial that we break up the essay into definition and causal, it starts with definition and leads into casual.
Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible.
Don’t write without a deadline, your thesis has a human cost. Figure out what your story is worth in human value.
Horizon fills with dark clouds→ imminent storm threatens village, the second one has more human value there is a character to it.
You need to figure out who the subject of the story, because that will be the subject of your sentence.
Causal argument: March 10
Conferences: March 21
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This is worth 4:
4/3
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– A Bad introduction is a wordy and unclear way of telling your reader what you’re going to talk about. A good introduction is a short, narrow, straight-to-the-point text to grab your reader’s attention.
– Quote: “Start as close to the end as possible” People are taught that a good introduction starts with a funnel of build-up that spirals down and eventually gets to the point. It’s a waste of time stringing someone along with a stretched-out intro. The longer you take to get to the point, the more readers you lose. Grab the reader’s attention, leave no doubt, and imply that you will not let the reader’s attention go. Your goal is to separate the essential information from the extraneous!
– We are storytellers: Don’t start with defining the background details of your topic, get straight to the point! You’re not writing 1,000 words to define the history or backstory of what you’re writing about. The point of the first sentence is to grab the reader’s attention and get them to the second sentence! The point of the 1,000 words is to get the readers to the end.
– Write to pleaser just one person “the ideal reader”. Give information to your readers as soon as possible, readers should have a complete understanding of what’s happening, where, and why, so that you can burn the rest and to hell with the rest.
– What’s the Headline? : Don’t write without a headline, the thesis has a human cost or price. You have to make the writing worth putting time and resources into, if the human significance is unclear, your writing will be insignificant. Don’t mind if your hypothesis proves to be true, just provide the conversation. If you want to write a good story, find the subject, and once that is discovered, that should be the point of your sentence.
– Why the Challenger exploded: It was possible to launch a plane-like aircraft that could be stirred by astronauts and landed on a normal airplane strip. However, it exploded because the cold weather mattered and the width of the horses. So causal arguments are never as simple as what happened today and what was caused today.
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Some days you just nail it, NatureChild!
(Although, if I hadn’t attended class I’d be completely mystified by “the cold weather mattered and the width of the horses.”) 🙂
5/3
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-Try to do your introduction in two sentences or less. Try not to waste your words and do not put your feelings into the introduction. The longer you take to get to your point the quicker and more readers you will lose. Do not waste any time and grab your reader’s attention.
-We are storytellers, make your intro interesting so the readers do not get bored and look at the side bar.
-Grab the reader’s attention and make your reader get to its 1000th word.
-Give the readers as much detail as you can as quick as possible
-Do not write without a Headline
-Your thesis does not need to be found right, when reporting news because you are just telling that something is happening and you should pay attention. Then if it is wrong or found incorrect then you can just report on the next.
-You have to figure out what the story is and then find the subject of the story.
-Causal argument does not need information from today; it can be from years or centuries back. Make sure the details that you acquire are accurate
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Your Note makes clear that I really confused you on this part, RavensFan:
If I’d been speaking more clearly (perhaps less quickly), you’d have understood that I mean “subject” to mean both 1) the primary actor in your story, and 2) the grammar subject of your sentence.
And if THAT is clear, then you’ll understand now that I meant:
3/3
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-For a good introduction, try to be a songwriter. You have to get the reader to be engaged and want to read your piece. Do not waste words, and get to the point.
-Start as close to the end as possible. The quote done by David Mamet discusses this point further. You have to make your introduction as quick as possible in terms of getting to the point, or else you could lose readers. Name your terms, name your attitude, and know what your point is.
-We are storytellers, so we have to tell it but make it engaging, especially in the hypothesis.
-For our writing, we have to respect our readers’ time, and make them want to read until the end.
-You have to get your reader to make it sentence by sentence to the last one-thousand word.
-Reveal the character, or advance the action. It starts with the definition/categorical, and then leads into the casual.
-Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. Write to please just one person. The author has to make the scene known, so they have an understanding of what you are writing about.
-Do not write without a headline. Our thesis has a human cost. Say what needs to be said, and then wrap it up. We have to figure out what our story is worth in human lives.
-There are different types of causation statements. Some include, precipitating cause, contributing cause, immediate cause and remote cause. Some causal claims can be immediate.
-Causal arguments are due Sunday the 10th by midnight
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The two examples you’ve cited here make different points, Username:
“Start as close to the end as possible” means “start your essay as if you were most of the way back home from a round-trip.” In 1000 words, we don’t have time to narrate how we packed the car two days before we headed out.
“Make your point as quickly and as early as you can” means “Make your point as quickly and as early as you can!”
4/3
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Bad introductions are wordy and contain a lot of unnecessary language. Good introductions get straight to the point, are clear, and don’t waste time.
The sooner we make it clear to the audience that we have something to say that they care about the more we are better off.
Start as close to the end as possible. If we start to funnel our information in our writing our audience can become disinterested.
Write to please just one person.
Don’t write without a headline. Say what you need to say and then shut up. Our thesis has a human cost.
Human lives are the only story.
Although spring break is coming up work is still important to get done.
Causal arguments are never simple. The reasoning can go back multiple generations.
Our causal argument is due Sunday, March 10th.
Local causes aren’t always the cause. What is the precipitating cause?
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I’m glad you’ve already thinking about Types of Causes, ILoveMyDog.
4/3
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-Quote:In 3,000 words, there is no room for extraneous words. The essential should be the only words used. It is so limited extraneous words would take up too much space. The concentration should be narrowed to the goal and essential words.
-Good introduction/bad introduction: A good introduction includes a small amount of words that are useful to an argument. A bad introduction can be a lot of words used as filler and a waste. The good introduction is a better choice as there will be more words left for later in the argument when needed and those filler words can be turned into much better useful words. The longer it takes to get to the point, the more the writer will lose the audience.
-We are storytellers: Use the time of the audience wisely, the argument should not make them feel as if they wasted their time and stop reading the argument. It needs to be compelling enough they keep reading. The author should give the audience a character to root for in every story. A character to root for can make the audience continue reading because they want to see if the character succeeds or fails. Every character should want to do something and every sentence should reveal a character or advance action. If the action is at a stall and there is no new character the readers may get bored and want to stop reading. Start as close to the end as possible. Make the worst happen. Make awful things happen to the lead characters to make the reader root for them even more. The more they root for the character, the more they want to see them get a good ending which will make them keep reading. Write to one person. Give you readers as much information as soon as possible. A reader should have a complete understanding of what is going on that they could finish the story themselves. When a reader doesn’t know what is going, it can cause them to stop reading because they are confused and this can make them no longer interested in the argument. To write a sentence, the subject of the story must first be figured out. The subject of the story should be the subject of the sentence.
-What’s the headline: Don’t write without a headline. Say what needs to be said and shut up. Figure out what the story is worth in human lives. If that is not able to be figured out, there is no point in writing the argument.
-Spring is in the air: Schedule a conference about Thesis progress. Due Thursday, March 21.
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Very thorough, EaglesFan. I don’t think I personally needed the rewrites of Vonnegut’s rules, but it probably helped you process and remember them to paraphrase them here. That’s one legitimate use of Note-taking, especially for students who remember by rephrasing.
4/3
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1. Good Introduction:
– Keep it short and interesting to keep readers hooked.
– Start with the best part to grab their attention quickly.
2. Headlines:
– Make headlines catchy and focus on people to get readers interested.
– Work together to create headlines that people will want to read.
3. Progress and Thesis:
– Look back on how you’ve done so far and plan to do better.
– Check on your thesis progress and attend meetings by March 21.
4. Writing Impact:
– Understand how your writing affects people’s lives and write accordingly.
5. Understanding Cause:
– Figure out why things happen and explain it simply.
6. Avoiding Distractions:
– Stay focused on people and don’t get sidetracked by other things.
7. Deadlines:
– Respect deadlines because your work matters to others.
8. Collaboration:
– Work together with others to create good writing.
9. Subject:
– Identify who or what your story is about to write better.
10. Dates:
– Finish your causal argument by March 10 and attend meetings by March 21.
Types of Causation Statements:
– Immediate Cause:The main reason something happens right away.
– Remote Cause: A reason from a long time ago that still affects things today.
– Precipitating Cause: A sudden change that allows a deeper reason to take effect.
– Contributing Cause: When multiple reasons add up to make something happen.
Correlation vs. Causation: Sometimes things seem related, but they’re not the real reason something happens. For example: -parking.
Headline Suggestions:
1. “Village Faces Threat from Coming Storm: Lives in Danger.”
2. “People Safe as Deadly Storm Spares Village”
– Comparison:
– The first headline talks about the storm and the danger it brings to people.
– The second headline focuses on people being safe after the storm passes.
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Thank you for leaving your Headline drafts here, Snowman. I think they’re the first I’ve seen in Notes. I like that the Village is Threatened because it moves the storm to the back and focuses on the Village.
1. “Village Faces Threat from Coming Storm: Lives in Danger.”
—However, it doesn’t focus on the people the way “Villagers” would. And “facing” isn’t as active as “bracing,” so an editor might suggest:
“Villagers Brace for Dangerous Storm”
Want to similarly revise the second headline and boost your 4 to 5?
2. “People Safe as Deadly Storm Spares Village”
Grade 4/3
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As quickly as possible, place 2 characters into drama. Get into the conflict of your thesis right away.
Delving into history will make readers despondent. As a writer, I’m a storyteller, not merely a mechanism of regurgitating information.
Grab the attention of the reader fast, and sentence by sentence hold their attention until the end of the paper.
Every sentence should do one of two things: reveal character or events.
Write to please one person.
Give information as soon as possible. It’s a blatant myth to ‘hold back’ information. There’s no suspense in writing a paper.
It doesn’t matter how quickly you tell your readers where you’re going to end up.
Don’t write without a headline.
Every essay has a human cost. Human lives are the story (not mattresses, not petrochemicals, but humans).
You don’t need your hypothesis to be true or false. The news is something. In the presence or absence of a storm, one can still make a story about a storm.
A good sentence requires the subject of a story.
Causal arguments aren’t as simple as what happens today.
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Someone wise must have said this:
Maybe it was you. 🙂
4/3
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AGENDA NOTES 3/6/24
The situational claim and the proposal argument worked much better for the good introduction compared to the bad introduction also because of how friendly sounding it is
Start as close to the end as possible. Essays are a funnel that narrows down the universe.
When you’re faced with a reading opportunity you are viewed with celebrities and stories that could be competing with you.
The longer you take to make a point it will become much more difficult to get readers
Grab your reader’s attention , because the journey outside is new
Baseball is a story with consequences and conflict that players are trying to surpass the other in
If a kid is bullied sand commited suicide is a powerful story to get an audience
Kirk Monagen is the “ best writer ever “ that used a typewriter
Don’t make the audience feel that their time was wasted
The goal of the first sentence is to read to the second sentence , you could do this all the way until the end of the story
If you can not keep them engaged you have failed
Professor Hodges watches GLOW on Netflix
Give the readers as much understanding as possible
Say what needs to be said and SHUT UP
Your thesis has a human cost
Use the story should be the subject of your sentence
2nd headline more important because people are more impactful than homes
Whatever you invest in your paper professor hodges will invest back
Gravity makes the car go down the hill into the water
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I love that the takeaway from my brilliant storytelling lecture is that “Professor Hodges watches GLOW on Netflix.”
Still laughing about that one. 🙂
4/3
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Bad introductions just use more words and waste time, rather than having a good introduction where someone could be intrigued with less words
Start as close to the end as possible. Usually told to ease into telling the story, starting from the beginning but it is better to start from the end because it will not waste their time.
There is always something that seems more interesting, so you want to grasp the reader’s full attention.
We are storytellers, the point is to grasp attention with a story.
Use the time of the reader where they will feel that their time is not wasted
Readers should have a complete understanding where they can finish the story themselves
Whatever the subject of the story is should be in the sentence
Figure out the story first to be able to tell the story throughout a sentence
Make sure there is always something happening to the character in order to have the reader intrigued androoting for someone.
I am writing to one person not a group
Make sure to stay on top of work, do not let myself fall behind.
Casual arguments are not simple
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Of course, to follow most of those rules/guidelines/commands, your essay first have to have characters you can boss around. Don’t forget to populate your essay immediately with people who deserve our attention for 1000 words.
4/3
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– Quote: Empathizes with the importance and difficulty that an introduction carries in itself. Introductions are of utmost importance as they have the responsibility of drawing the reader’s attention, providing context brief enough to give the reader an idea of what will be discussed in the rest of the paper, establishing the tone with which the writer will narrate or explore a specific topic, among others. This makes the introduction a very important and conversely difficult step.
– Headlines: The statement “Human lives are the only story. Make them the subject of your arguments and sentences” emphasizes the importance of focusing on human experiences, narratives, and stories when presenting arguments or constructing sentences. Basically, it suggests the importance of foregrounding the richness and depth of the human experience. Instead of discussing abstract concepts or concepts unrelated to human existence, our arguments should encourage people to base their arguments and sentences on tangible and relatable stories of human life.
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Those are two sweet little essays you’ve written there, ILoveBees. 🙂
4/3
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Good introductions- get right to the point, don’t use excess, like a songwriter
Intros start with everything and then funnel down
Goal of the first sentence is to get reader to read the second, goal of the second is to to get them to read third, etc
Give your reader as much info as possible, screw suspense
It’s a myth that you can give all of the info away in the intro, give info and it grabs their attention
The headline should be the subject of the story, it should grab the reader’s attention
Causal arguments can be tricky- there can be immediate causes but then also causes that go way back and eventually led to said effect.
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You missed a word, Temporal:
3/3
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Bad introduction vs good introduction
– One is wordy and has no clear meaning, the other is short and clear.
David Mamet quote “The journey out always seems longer than the journey back. It is new, and demands our furious concentration as we look for signs, for the characteristic, for the shortcut. On the return we are better able to separate the essential from the extraneous; our concentration has been narrowed to the goal.”
– I did not understand this quote or how it related to the overall lesson.
Start as close to the end as possible
– You should tell your audience what the story is about so you don’t waste their time. – You hook your audience with the mystery of how the events leading to the end unfolded.
Write to please just one person.
What’s the headline
– Between the two headlines Hundreds of homes destroyed and thousands of villagers homeless, the second one is the better headline because it focuses on a more important subject (Human lives rather than houses).
Causal argument
– Things can have multiple causes, for your causal argument you want to find the central underlying cause.
General thoughts
I got some information out of this lecture, but overall I didn’t understand the different lessons or how they were related to one another.
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“I did not understand this quote or how it related to the overall lesson”:
—Let me try.
—If you can, when describing your journey to your thesis, please begin at the end of your round-trip from home, as close to the end of your story as possible.
—For an essay about the difficulties of eradicating polio, begin with a volunteer healthcare worker holding a drop of vaccine above a helpless and trusting child’s tongue, wondering to herself: “Will this be the dose that cripples a child?”
—You’re “almost home” with that opening, and starting at the end of the story didn’t deprive the narrative of suspense. It created suspense for the backstory.
—NOW you can go back to the beginning of your journey and tell us how you started packing the car two days before your departure, and why, and we’ll care.
—Is that useful?
4/3
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•Respect the reader’s time: Ensure the reader feels engaged and interested throughout the story.
•Make every sentence count: Each sentence should show something about the characters or push the story forward.
•Start near the end: Begin the story close to the main event or climax.
•Challenge the characters: Put your characters through tough situations to show their strengths and weaknesses
•Write for a specific audience: Focus on specific a particular reader rather than trying to please everyone
Clarity: Give readers the information needed upfront instead of relying on suspense
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