This project will take place over the next few weeks. Using Dante's model (a hierarchy and divine retribution), you will create a contemporary Inferno for sinners who have existed since Dante's time. All of your sinners, including your guide, must be deceased. Your guide will be a flawed human being, but likable. Your narrator should like him/her and so should your reader.
- Your guide should possess wisdom and compassion.
- Your sinners can be taken from history or they can be fictional "stock" characters--or a combination of both.
- Your setting is open to interpretation, but it must make sense. There are better parts for the milder sins and worse parts for the stronger sins.
- There will be five levels and each level will contain a category of sin and its own setting and characters.
- You should have a strong opening--logical and according to Dante's style--a good "hook."
- Individual stories have clear beginnings, middles, and ends.
- Ends of stories transition into next story.
- The work comes together as a whole.
- Each story is also capable of standing alone.
- Character development: includes strong dialog and movement.
- The story shows rather than tells. Elements of the story--character development, the environment, can be sensed.
- Setting the scene--makes sense in terms of punishment. Setting is vivid; it can be perceived in terms of the senses.
- The writer uses similes or metaphors. The writer uses at least two Biblical or classical allusion (in the entire piece).
- Voice: Narrator and guide have consistent and believable voices
- Follows Dante's paradigm
- Is factually correct (if using real people--and you are using at least one); is believable if using stock characters.
- Sinners and guide must be deceased.
- Narrator must be currently living.
- It must be correct in terms of mechanics--spelling, usage, punctuation, and sentence structure.
- As always, diction is important. It's not about using the biggest word, but the best.
- It does not, I repeat, DOES NOT, END IN WAKING UP FROM A DREAM!
This project will be worth three test grades:
1. Process--includes research, outline, and at least two edited rough drafts
2. Final product as a whole
3. Best individual story (selected by you).
Here are some questions students had about the project last year. Maybe you have some of the same questions now:
1. Is there a guideline to the length of the paper? Approximately what length is appropriate for each story / level?
It should probably be at least five pages because each canto should be at least a page--typed and double-spaced--if you are to accomplish what you need to accomplish in the rubric provided.On the average, cantos are a page to a page-and-a-half-long, though they may be as much as two pages. Try to keep it under that.
Each canto has to include similes and/or metaphors, (and at least two cantos must include a mythical allusion) and simple but descriptive language, and dialog. Getting a whole page is actually easy when you include dialog, which you must do.
Each time a character speak, he/she gets his/her own paragraph. For example:
"Where do you think you are going," asked a vaguely familiar woman in a navy blue dress.
"You and I have business to attend to, and on this very day."
"I was just touring the city," I said, pointing to the Planet Hollywood just ahead.
"I am your tour guide," said the woman.
"I don't recall employing a guide," I said.
Do you see how each time a different speaker spoke, she got her own paragraph? Note too, that I usually just said "said." You don't need to dress up "said" too often. And avoid "stated" altogether. We rarely state things, especially when speaking in the vernacular. Besides, I hate the word because it is so often used and misused.
By the way, I never started with: A vaguely familiar woman said, "Where do you think you are going? You and I have business to attend to, and on this very day."
Pointing to the Planet Hollywood just ahead, I said, "I was just touring the city."
Note the difference in the rhythms. If I put I said or She said before the quote itself, it tends to interrupt the rhythm of the piece. Unless you are writing in poetry, then avoid it altogether.
2. Can the Inferno take place in the future? No. And all characters except the narrator must be dead.
3. Can it be an art project with a summary? No. I want you to learn how to write. I want you to learn by showing me, not telling me. This project employs techniques that writers use. By employing them, you will be able to identify them and all or most of your future English teachers will thank me. Some already have. :)
4. Can more than one person use the same or a similar theme? Yes. But each work must be original to that student. While you will be peer-editing each other's work, it will be your own work. If two people submit the same work, I will consider it plagiarism. This is individual work. You will pledge it, just as you would pledge a test. By the way, I reserve the right to "Google" or check phrases for plagiarism in other ways, say "Lexus-Nexus."
5. If you are using unfamiliar words (say, a dialect or slang), should they be explained? Yes. Footnotes are a good way.
6. Avoid placing your Infernos in works written by other authors. There is too much of a chance of copyright infringement.
7. When in doubt about anything, ask the teacher.
This project will be worth three test grades:
1. Process--includes research, outline, and at least two edited rough drafts
2. Final product as a whole
3. Best individual story (selected by you).
Here are some questions students had about the project last year. Maybe you have some of the same questions now:
1. Is there a guideline to the length of the paper? Approximately what length is appropriate for each story / level?
It should probably be at least five pages because each canto should be at least a page--typed and double-spaced--if you are to accomplish what you need to accomplish in the rubric provided.On the average, cantos are a page to a page-and-a-half-long, though they may be as much as two pages. Try to keep it under that.
Each canto has to include similes and/or metaphors, (and at least two cantos must include a mythical allusion) and simple but descriptive language, and dialog. Getting a whole page is actually easy when you include dialog, which you must do.
Each time a character speaks, he/she gets his/her own paragraph. For example:
"Where do you think you are going," asked a vaguely familiar woman in a navy blue dress.
"You and I have business to attend to, and on this very day." She nodded in the direction of the tube station.
"I was just touring the city," I said, pointing to the Planet Hollywood just ahead.
"I am your tour guide," said the woman.
"I don't recall employing a guide," I said.
Do you see how each time a different speaker spoke, she got her own paragraph? Note too, that I usually just said "said." You don't need to dress up "said" too often. And avoid "stated" altogether. We rarely state things, especially when speaking in the vernacular. Besides, I hate the word because it is so often used and misused.
By the way, I never started with: A vaguely familiar woman said, "Where do you think you are going? You and I have business to attend to, and on this very day."
Pointing to the Planet Hollywood just ahead, I said, "I was just touring the city."
Note the difference in the rhythms. If I put I said or She said before the quote itself, it tends to interrupt the rhythm of the piece. Unless you are writing in poetry, then avoid it altogether.
2. Can the Inferno take place in the future? No. And all characters except the narrator must be dead.
3. Can it be an art project with a summary? No. I want you to learn how to write. I want you to learn by showing me, not telling me. This project employs techniques that writers use. By employing them, you will be able to identify them and all or most of your future English teachers will thank me. Some already have. :)
4. Can more than one person use the same or a similar theme? Yes. But each work must be original to that student. While you will be peer-editing each other's work, it will be your own work. If two people submit the same work, I will consider it plagiarism. This is individual work. You will pledge it, just as you would pledge a test. By the way, I reserve the right to "Google" or check phrases for plagiarism in other ways, say "Lexus-Nexus."
5. If you are using unfamiliar words (say, a dialect or slang), should they be explained? Yes. Footnotes are a good way.
6. Avoid placing your Infernos in works written by other authors. There is too much of a chance of copyright infringement.
7. When in doubt about anything, ask the teacher.
