This document provides an agenda and materials for an English writing class. The agenda includes presentations on literary terms and an author lecture on Langston Hughes. It outlines a discussion of racial passing using two of Hughes' works and a lecture on summarizing and paraphrasing poetry. It also lists terms and their definitions that will be on an upcoming exam.

1. Class 4: EWRT 1B

2. AGENDA
Presentation: Terms
Teams and Points
Author Lecture: Langston Hughes
QHQ Discussion: Racial Passing: "Passing" and
"Passing‖
Lecture: Writing a Summary and Paraphrasing Poetry
In-class writing: Summary; paraphrase

3. Terms Exam #1: Class 6
 19. Characterization: the creation of the image of imaginary
persons in drama, narrative poetry, the novel, and the short
story. Characterization generates plot and is revealed by
actions, speech, thoughts, physical appearance, and the
other characters’ thoughts or words about him.
 20. Dialogue: is a conversation, or a literary work in the form
of a conversation, that is often used to reveal characters and
to advance the plot. Also, it is the lines spoken by a character
in a play, essay, story, or novel.
 21. Epistle: a letter, especially a formal or didactic one;
written communication. Also (usually initial capital letter ) one
of the apostolic letters in the new testament or ( often initial
capital letter ) an extract, usually from one of the Epistles of
the New Testament, forming part of the Eucharistic service in
certain churches.

4. 22. Irony: a dryly humorous or lightly sarcastic figure of speech in which the
literal meaning of a word or statement is the opposite of that intended. In
literature, it is the technique of indicating an intention or attitude opposed to
what is actually stated. Often, only the context of the statement leads the
reader to understand it is ironic. Irony makes use of
hyperbole, sarcasm, satire, and understatement.
There are four types of irony:
• Verbal irony as defined by Cicero: ―Irony is the saying of one thing and
meaning another,‖ or Socrates: ‖when one adopts another’s point of view
in order to reveal that person’s weaknesses and eventually to ridicule
him.‖
• Situational irony, such as when a pickpocket gets his own pockets picked
• Dramatic irony, such as when Oedipus unwittingly kills his own father
• Rhetorical irony, such as that of the innocent narrator in Twain’s
Huckleberry Finn

5. 23. Literal: pertaining to a letter of the alphabet. More typically, it
means ―based on what is actually written or expressed.‖ A literal
interpretation gives an exact rendering— word for word— taking
words in their usual or primary sense. It is also used to describe
thinking which is unimaginative or matter of fact.
24. Literature: writings in which expression and form, in
connection with ideas and concerns of universal and apparently
permanent interest, are essential features. While applied to any
kind of printed material, such as circulars, leaflets, and
handbills, there are some who feel it is more correctly reserved for
prose and verse of acknowledged excellence, such as George
Eliot’s works. The term connotes superior qualities.
25. Paraphrase: (also called rewording) – the restatement of a
passage giving the meaning in another form. This usually involves
expanding the original text so as to make it clear.

6. 2. The teams will remain the same through
the discussion, reading, and workshops of
one essay.
3. You must change at least 50% of your team
after each essay is completed.
4. You may never be on a team with the same
person more than twice.
5. You may never have a new team comprised
of more than 50% of any prior team.
1. We will often use teams to
earn participation points.
Your teams can be made
up of 3 or 4 people.

7. Points will be earned
for correct answers to
questions, meaningful
contributions to the
discussion, and the
willingness to share
your work. Each team
will track their own
points, but cheating
leads to death (or loss
of 25 participation
points).
Answers, comments,
and questions must
be posed in a
manner that
promotes learning.
Those who speak
out of turn or with
maliciousness will
not receive points for
their teams.

8. At the end of each class,
you will turn in a point
sheet with the names of
everyone in your group
and your accumulated
points for the day.
It is your responsibility
to make the sheet, track
the points, and turn it in.
Sit near your team
members in class to
facilitate ease of group
discussions

9. Essay #2
Teams
 Get into groups of
three or four. (1-2
minutes)
 If you can’t find a
group, please raise
your hand.
 Once your group is
established, choose
one person to be the
keeper of the points.
 Write down members’
names
 Turn in your sheet at
the end of the class
period.

10. In your groups: 5 minutes
Discuss the reading for today.
Review the QHQs that you
wrote.

11. LANGSTON
HUGHES 1902-
1967
One of the founders of the
cultural movement known as
the Harlem Renaissance.
What do you know about Langston Hughes?

12. Few authors of the twentieth century are more significant than
Langston Hughes. He is assured his status by his many
contributions to literature.
• The length of his career: 1921-1967
• The variety of his output: articles, poems, short
stories, dramas, novels, and history texts.
• His influence on three generations of African American
writers: from the Harlem Renaissance through the Civil
Rights Movement
• His concern for the ―ordinary‖ African American: The
subject of his work
• His introduction of the jazz idiom: the quality of black
colloquial speech and the rhythms of jazz and the blues.

13. During his long career Hughes was harshly criticized
by blacks and whites. Because he left no single
masterwork, such as Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
(1952) or Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940), and
because he consciously wrote in the common idiom
of the people, academic interest in him grew only
slowly. The importance of his influence on several
generations of African American authors
is, however, indisputable and widely acknowledged.

14. QHQ Discussion: Racial
Passing: "Passing" and
"Passing‖

15. ―Passing‖ The Short Story
 Q. Why does [Jack] want to pass as a white man?
 Q: Does Jack refute his ethnic identity out of fear or selfishness?
 Q: Is Jack a coward for accepting the white life and dissociating with his family in
public?
 Q: What are the feelings that Hughes conveys during the writing of this letter?
 Q) Why does Jack starts off saying that he felt like a dog in his first sentence of the
letter?
 Q] Is Jack really sorry for his family?
 Q: Has Jack’s progressive deception contributed to him to believing he’s
something he’s actually not? Setting ambition aside, is being black something
he doesn’t want to embrace?
 Q) Hughes says ―why think about race any more? I’m glad I don’t have to.‖ What
made him come to this conclusion and why is he not even thinking about the
oppression of his own people?
 Q: Why does Jack express his love of being white, yet is resentful to his
father for giving his white family all the good things in life?
 Q: Why does Jack not realize that he is becoming like his father– rejecting his
family?

16. Q: How can Jack stand there and listen to his boss and other whites
make fun of his race and abuse his own people?
Q: given the circumstances his people are enduring at that given time,
isn’t the rejection of blood necessary in pursuit of the money to be
successful and live the American dream?
Q. Why would [Jack] not want anything to do with his children if they
were born dark-skinned?
Q: What will happen if Jack is caught with a ―colored‖ son or daughter of a
child from his white girlfriend when he tries to deny it?
Q: Since Jack is trying so hard to pass as a white person, would it be
wrong for him to hide his true ethnicity from his girlfriend? If they were
to get married would it be morally wrong for him to lie to her and let her
believe that he’s white?
Q: If both important women in his life, his mother and his girl, are find with
the opposite race, then why does Jack feel the need to hide each woman
from one another?
Q: Is Jack really free?

17. Consequences
 Q. How does Jack not realize that he is turning exactly into what he might’ve
had to deal with were his skin darker?
 Q: Does jack know he has become his own enemy?
 Q: Is Jack losing his identity by ignoring/pushing a part of who he is away?
 Q: Has Jack ever contemplated a scenario where his façade is exposed and
potentially loses all the goodies that his pretend racial identity achieved?
 Q; Is his job so important to him that he’s going to let them continue like
that, and is he going to ignore his mother and siblings and find an excuse not
to talk to them?
 Q: why can’t jack see that by passing for white, he has neglected his own
siblings?
 Q: Why doesn’t Jack understand why Gladys and Charlie are not happy about his
passing?
 Q: How might Jack respond to being if things were flipped and his brother was the
one who passed as white?
 Q: What will happen if Jack’s secret is ever discovered?

18. Q. How does the mom actually feel with the decision that Jack
has made to ignore her and the family and what is she
thinking/feeling when Jack describes his girl friend as blonde
and blue-eyed?
Q. Looking at it from the other side, how does his mother
feel, knowing she gave Jack her blessing, yet when she sees
him in the street, he doesn’t say a word to her?
Did [Jack’s mother] tell him to pass so he could continue his
education and fight oppression from behind a desk, where
almost all important decisions are made?
Q: Can Jack’s mother handle all the pain that she caused for
herself just to give her son a better life?
Jack’s Poor Mother

19. What does this mean?
Q. Jack makes the comment that he is going to
―live white‖ in comparison to live life as a white
man. What does Jack mean by the phrase ―live
white‖?
Q: What do you think Jack meant when he said
―I’m free, Ma I’m free!‖?
Q: Why does Jack call his girlfriend ―weakness‖ in
the last paragraph?

20.  Q: Why does identity matter? How can people stop ―passing?‖
 Q) I wonder if this situation ever truly arose?
 Q: Does this happen today in 2013? Are people today willing to deny their
background to be treated as a part of the majority race?
 Q Is it really worth being a part of the dominant culture if it means
giving up your roots, who you are, your family, and your morals?
 Q: The weight of playing race charades is heavy, is it really worth to lose
ones identity in the process?
 Q. What must it feel like to deny one’s own family in order to succeed?
Broader Inquiries about social policy,
perspective, and choice.

21. On sunny summer Sunday afternoons in Harlem
when the air is one interminable ball game
and grandma cannot get her gospel hymns
from the Saints of God in Christ
on account of the Dodgers on the radio,
on sunny Sunday afternoons
when the kids look all new
and far too clean to stay that way,
and Harlem has its
washed-and-ironed-and-cleaned-best out,
the ones who’ve crossed the line
to live downtown
miss you,
Harlem of the bitter dream
since their dream has
come true.
―Passing‖By Langston Hughes

22.  Q. Who is writing the poem and what are they saying?
 Q: What does it mean when Harlem has people that are
―washed-and-ironed-and cleaned-best out?‖
 Q. What does Hughes mean by ―the ones who’ve crossed the
line to live downtown‖ ?
 What is the line that people crossed when they moved downtown?
 What is it that people lost when they crossed the line that could not
replace in their current location?
 Q: Does Langston Hughes feel as though the people who’ve
crossed are truly better off (now that they are living the
―dream‖)?
 Q. Why are the dodgers an interruption of ―grandma’s‖ gospel
hymns?
 Q: What does passing really mean in this poem?
―Passing‖: The Poem

23. Paraphrase and Summary
Writing strategies that cannot be ignored

24. How to Paraphrase
 A Paraphrase is a restatement of a passage giving the meaning in another
form. This usually involves expanding the original text so as to make it clear.
 A paraphrase will have none of the beauty or effectiveness of the original. It
merely aims, in its prosy way, to spell out the literal meaning. It will not
substitute for the original, then, but will help us appreciate the compactness
and complexity of many poems.
 Write in prose, not verse (in prose the lines go all the way to right margin).
The line breaks of the original are irrelevant in paraphrasing.
 Write modern prose, rearranging word order and sentence structure as
necessary. As far as possible, within the limits of commonsense, avoid using
the words of the original. Finding new words to express the meaning is a test
of what you are understanding.
 Write coherent syntax, imitating that of the original if you can do so with
ease, otherwise breaking it down into easier sentence forms.
 Write in the same grammatical person and tense as the original. If the original
is in the first person, as many poems are, so must the paraphrase be.

25. Expand what is condensed.
Spell out explicitly what the original implies or conveys by
hints. It follows that a paraphrase will normally be longer than
the original.
Spell out explicitly all the possible meanings if the original is
ambiguous (saying two or more things at once), as many
poems are.
Use square brackets to mark off any additional elements you
find it necessary to insert for the coherence of the meaning.
The brackets will show that these bits are editorial --
contributed by you for the sake of clarity but not strictly "said"
in the original. An example might be some implied transitional
phrase or even an implied thought that occurs to the speaker
causing a change in tone or feeling.

26. I, Too, Sing America
by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America.
 Paraphrased Text
I am an American.
Although the color of my skin may be
different from yours, I am like the rest of
my fellowmen. Now I am separated from
whites, but I [and my people] are gaining
strength.
Soon, I [we] will join the rest of
America, and my [our] rights will assure us
that we are not excluded from the fruits of
the country.
My darker complexion makes me no less
beautiful than everybody else, which should
make whites feel sorry for treating me like
less than the average individual.
I am like the rest of you.

27.  On sunny summer Sunday afternoons in Harlem
 when the air is one interminable ball game
 and grandma cannot get her gospel hymns
 from the Saints of God in Christ
 on account of the Dodgers on the radio,
 on sunny Sunday afternoons
 when the kids look all new
 and far too clean to stay that way,
 and Harlem has its
 washed-and-ironed-and-cleaned-best out,
 the ones who’ve crossed the line
 to live downtown
 miss you,
 Harlem of the bitter dream
 since their dream has
 come true.
―Passing‖By Langston Hughes
Take a few minutes
to paraphrase this
poem

28. The Summary
A summary is condensed version of a larger
reading. A summary is not a rewrite of the
original piece and does not have to be long
nor should it be long. To write a summary, use
your own words to briefly express the main
idea and relevant details of the piece you have
read. Your purpose in writing the summary is
to give the basic ideas of the original
reading. What was it about and what did the
author want to communicate?

29. While reading the original work, take note of what or
who is the focus and ask the usual questions that
reporters use: Who? What? When? Where? Why?
How? Using these questions to examine what you are
reading can help you to write the summary.
Always read the introductory paragraph thoughtfully
and look for a thesis statement. Finding the thesis
statement is like finding a key to a locked
door. Frequently, however, the thesis, or central idea, is
implied or suggested. Thus, you will have to work
harder to figure out what the author wants readers to
understand. Use any hints that may shed light on the
meaning of the piece: pay attention to the title and any
headings and to the opening and closing lines of
paragraphs.

30. In writing the summary, let your reader know the piece that you are
summarizing. Identify the title, author and source of the piece. You may want
to use this formula:
In "Title of the Piece" (source and date of piece), author shows/offers/suggests
that: central idea of the piece.
Remember:
• Do not rewrite the original piece.
• Keep your summary short.
• Use your own wording.
• Refer to the central and main ideas of the
original piece.
• Read with who, what, when, where, why and
how questions in mind.

31. In the short story ―The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,‖ author
James Thurber humorously presents a character who
fantasizes about himself as a hero enduring incredibly
challenging circumstances. In his real life, Walter Mitty lives an
ordinary, plain life; he is a husband under the control of an
overbearing, critical wife. Thurber uses lively dialogue to give
readers an understanding of Mitty's character. The story takes
place over a period of about twenty minutes; during this brief
time, Mitty drives his wife to the hairdresser and runs errands
that his wife has given him while he waits for her. In between
his worrying that he is not doing what she wants him to do, he
daydreams about himself as a great surgeon, brilliant repair
technician, expert marksman, and brave military captain. This
story shows that fantasy is often a good alternative to reality.
Here is a sample summary:

32. ―Passing‖
the Short Story
By Langston Hughes
Start your summary of the story

33. 1. Reading: Kennedy "Racial Passing" Posted under
"Secondary Sources.‖
2. Studying: Terms: Exam in Class 6
3. Post #5: Post summary of "Passing" and
paraphrase of "Passing."
4. Post #6: Discuss one story from Kennedy's article
that particularly spoke to you. How did it influence
you in your thinking about passing?
HOMEWORK