Writing Assignment #5

"If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn't realize the teacher was saying, 'Make it shine. It's worth it.' Now I see revision as a beautiful word of hope. It's a new vision of something. It means you don't have to be perfect the first time." Naomi Shihab Nye

"Writing is not like painting where you add. It is not what you put on the canvas that the reader sees. Writing is more like a sculpture where you remove, you eliminate in order to make the work visible. Even those pages you remove somehow remain." Elie Wiesel

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." Anton Chekhov

Writing assignment #5 is to edit and revise and nurture Writing Assignment #4. Include any new experiences of leaving and returning.

For example, many of you went to Venice this weekend. Rewrite your assignment with Venice as another point of departure and return. Does Venice enrich last week's assignment? Do you feel differently now that you have experienced another side of Italy?

Tell us about Venice. What was carnival? What did you expect the city to be before you left, and what were the realities of the city--a city that has been called "the masque of Italy" (Byron) and what "Leonardo da Vinci called the reflection in the mirror 'the true painting.' In this case, all of Venice is a painting--which is how it exists in memory. Memory turns the wheel again. In memory Venice is always magic" (ITALIAN DAYS 92).

And, always, consider Rome and the topics of the course. How then does Rome seem to you now that you have returned again?

Finally, care about your writing. It shows.

Grazie.