Sentence structure discussion
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
After studying the sentence structure information linked below this assignment in Module One (on the Modules page), post an essay analyzing and discussing Amy Tan’s use sentence structures found in her story “Fish Cheeks,” which is posted at the bottom of these instructions.
Do NOT give a recap of Tan’s story. Instead, you are to analyze and evaluate her use of the four basic sentence structures you’ll read about in the links below this assignment (on the Modules Page).
You will not be able to read other students’ posts until you have written your own. That is intentional on my part. It is important that you work through the analysis yourself first, then later review and consider what your classmates wrote. Actually, reviewing your peers’ analysis is an essential part of your learning for each of these discussion assignments.
As you plan what you want to write, consider these questions:
Did the author tend to favor any particular structures?
Did she depart from them?
What effects do her choices make on the story . . . things like readability, pacing, or something else?
There’s no wrong answer, just your analysis of what you observed. However, you must support the statements you make. You could give specific examples in some places and broad observations in others, but you must provide concrete support for each of your points.
Follow a star outline, described earlier in this module, when planning your post, and attach a scanned .pdf copy of your star outline to your post.
Remember to post a word count at the end of your post. This essay should be 400-500 words long.
No later than Sunday evening, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts to further explore the ideas and organization behind what they have written.
As always, your replies to classmates should be in the “two stars and a wish” format. You should post a word count at the end of each of your responses, and each response should be 100-150 words long. Note again, that the analysis and evaluation skills required for your replies are a significant part of your learning process, so note that these two responses are a significant part of your grade.
Respond to classmates who have zero or one response so that feedback is spread evenly. When responding to your classmates, be sure to take a look at their attached outlines!
Points Possible:
Complete and meaningful responses to two peers, 3 pts
Mechanics and organization, 3 pts
Content as assigned, 3 pts
Star Outline, 1 pt
Points will be deducted each day for any late work.
“Fish Cheeks”
Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister’s son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister’s family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived — the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and their family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. “Amy, your favorite,” he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. “It’s a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied,” explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me. “You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.”
And even though I didn’t agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening’s dinner It wasn’t until many years later — long after 1 had gotten over my crush on Robert — that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
