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ENG 101 -- Class Notes 
Session 2
Thu. 3/10
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MORE COURSE INTRO. (’CONTEXT’)

**2 World’s Fairs: Dubai Expo 2020 / The 1939-40 New York World’s Fair (~15 min.)

https://www.1939nyworldsfair.com

https://virtualexpodubai.com/

***

**"The Writing Process" (~15 min.) and Design Thinking Today

**Fiction vs. Nonfiction & The Personal Essay (~10 min.)

**Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" (Intro. 10 min.)

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(Reading Time 15 min. + 25 min. reading questions + 15 min. discussion)

Our first 'personal essay' on 'living between two cultures.'

Personal vs. Impersonal Kinds of Writing

NONFICTION

Personal							Impersonal
1st person account of an illness          Clinical study
more personal 					1000s / millions  MY STORY!						objective / scientific
subjective / very personal
less reliable / scientific			more reliable / scientific
social media post / tweet
n = 1							n = 10000
memoir							scholarly essays
autobiography					journalism
personal essay!

Amy Tan (Shirley Lim & 
     Taneisha Grant, next week)

Personal experience used to comment on the wider world.

For Essay #1, you will be writing on ONE of the 3 personal essays from the beginning of the course.
So by reading each essay and answering the reading questions, you are doing the ‘pre-writing’ for this essay (part of the ‘Writing Process’ today)

FICTION 
short stories 
novels
graphic novels

Later in the course, we’ll cover a few short stories on WORK and a chapter from a novel on The 1939-40 New York World’s Fair…
(This will prepare you for ENG 102 -- Writing Through Literature, the 2nd part of Composition at LaGuardia -- and many other colleges...)

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Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” (Course Pack, pp. 9 - 14)

https://bit.ly/3jWurEC 

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READ AMY TAN’S ESSAY (pp. 9 - 13) in the Course Pack (15 min.)

Questions explained (10 min.)

Work through these questions for 25 min. 

We will discuss some of the answers from the class (10 min.)

1) 1 or 2 incidents (based on personal experience!) that seem original or effective?
*While at the bank and shopping, Amy Tan’s mother gets disrepected because of her non-standard English (Tan 10).

Lost CAT scan (Tan 11).

Stockbroker and the lost check (Tan 12).

*She didn’t get respect or service in businesses (Tan 10)
**CAT scan is misplaced (Tan 11). Amy Tan speaks to the doctor, and the scan is found.

**Stockbroker doesn’t give her mother the right answer. Amy Tan steps and speaks up for her mother and gets the money.

**Amy speaks on the phone for her mother -- even if it’s just a call, the way you speak can change the way people treat you….

**Sample of her mother's way of speaking -- describing the wedding -- 1st person dialogue

2) What is Amy Tan’s main argument?  Explain it.
*Main argument is about ‘different’ English -- and how people are treated….

*The mother was judged by the way she spoke.

**SAT tests measure IQ, but they doen’t measure creativity with words (like Tan and her mother!)

*Not to be judgmental -- She argues that people are treated differently based on the way they speak, but we shouldn't do that.

*Stereotype of Asian-American students in STEM careers.

**Standardized tests don't reflect your creativity.

3) What evidence does Tan give to show she grew as a writer? (Even bestselling authors can work on their writing.)
*Started with nonfiction onto to fictional stories.

Changed her language (very formal) -- became more personal -- based on her mother’s voice. 

*She wrote a bestselling book The Joy Luck.
She used her mother’s voice.

At first she wrote over-formal sentences.
*She grew because she was able to write a novel that was understandable to her mother.
**Being able to write fiction starting from her mother!!!
The Joy Luck Club captured her mother's voice!

4) Does Amy Tan generalize (= apply her experience to a wider problem/issue) fairly?  What is the tone (= emotional flavor) of the ending? Also, is Tan’s mother’s English really ‘broken’ or ‘fractured’? Why or why not?

The author writes, “So easy to read” (Tan 15). In this quote, the author means ???? 

She wrote in the way her mother could understand it -- because she borrowed the way her mother speak.

*She was optimistic about her writing -- her mother’s voice was captured in her fiction. 
**She did apply the issue fairly. 

Although Tan’s mother doesn’t speak Standard English, her way of speaking is simple, creative, imaginative, imagery, in a voice of real person…. 

*Tan generalized fairly because we can apply her story to other families.

**She spoke on the issue and didn't hide her mother's voice....

***Her mother's English isn't really 'broken.' It's more creative than 'Standard English.'

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  NEXT TIME -- TUE. 3/15
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1) Read Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, “Two Lives,” posted online (Course Pack, pp. 15-18)

2) Discussion Board Post for Week 1 – Welcome Post is DUE Tue. 3/15 (11:59 pm). 

forums101.lagcconline.com