I was assigned a non-fiction book for an English project. I hate non-fiction.
What would you recommend, following this type of assignment (see below), as a book?
I would like to read something about like war or a destructive/oppressive government or whatever. I find that stuff interesting
Any ideas?
Book Project #3 2008-2009
Testimonials: (From the book Bridging English, 2nd Ed. Milner and Milner, Chapter 7 Assaying Nonfiction)
Testimonials are defined as “edited oral narratives collected from people who by their circumstances cannot write about their own experience firsthand” (Carey-Webb 44). Many of these narratives are of African-American slaves, Native Americans, Holocaust victims, survivors of natural catastrophes, airplane crashes survivors/witnesses, shipwrecks survivors/witnesses, big business/company ignorance, eyewitness experiences etc. (For example, Piers Paul Read’s account of the Uruguayan airplane crash in which 16 or 46 passengers, most of a rugby team, survived. This was recounted in the film Alive: The Story of Andes Survivors, with interviews of survivors, families, and friends.)
First step: Find a book in the library or on your own and write a one paragraph “blurb” on the books contents and turn in for approval. The paragraph is due within one week of this assignment on ____________________________.
Second Step: read the book and analyze according to the elements of fictional literature . . . these are your notes you take as you read and will be turned in as part of the final grade. They may be handwritten. Please date and title each section of notes.
Character – Did you like the subject? Could you identify with the subject? Did you know enough to understand and predict how he or she met difficulty? What details help helped you empathize most? Minor character influences?
Setting – Was the setting important to the action? What details showed this? How did the details affect your reaction to the story?
Plot – Did the narrative hold your attention? How did the writer create interest and suspense? Was it predictable? Surprising? Was your interest in the testimonial itself or on what actually happened?
Point of View – What was the affect on the story? Would you react differently if it had been told by an objective observer?
Significance – Did the story seem worth telling? Does it add to your understanding of human experience? What ideas came to you as you read? Recommend it or not?
Assignment: Included (and to be turned in as part of your grade) with your notes on the reading, write an essay that responds to the following questions.
What would you consider to be the most difficult crisis the subject describes?
What do you think you would have done in such a situation? Would you have acted differently?
What is the greatest fear you have ever known or the greatest crisis you have ever faced?
Is it easy for you to accept help from others? Would you accept help in a crisis?
With whom would you like to face a crisis in your own life? Why?
Do you admire or censure how the subject acted in his or her crisis?
What is your worst nightmare?