We’ll be spending the bulk of our time together discussing the stories that are written in this class. That being said, each story will need an introduction to help us start our conversations each week. Everyone will have to do two introductions, and when you do an introduction for a story, you don’t have to write a critique for that particular story (although critiques for other stories for discussion that day are still in order). An introduction takes the form of a brief (only a couple of minutes), oral presentation that attempts to do the following:

1. Define the formal identity of the story to be discussed including:

a) Major characters and places in the story we should take notice of.

b) Point of view: the POV, omniscience, and (un)reliability

c) Style of Voice: diction, narrative distance, literal vs. figurative

d) Structure: The shape of the plot, the relation of scene to summary, time, number of sections, and so forth. You can be brief.

e) Traditions or genre with which the story might be plausibly compared: realism, naturalism, satire, historical fiction, magical realism, myth, fairy tale, confession, parable, mystery, etc.

2. A brief plot summary. Try to capture the major plot points in the story—minute details are not necessary. Focus on what happened in the current story.

3. Present us with a series (at least three) of the most pressing questions that apply to this particular story.

This is not an evaluation of performance, but an objective description of the work at hand. The goal of an introduction is not necessarily to critique, but to locate the right questions to ask in order to figure out how best to talk about the story, and to help stimulate a conversation in which we as a class can critique identify the identity of the story for critique. Good questions will imply all that which succeed in the manuscript as well as that which fails. Make sure to keep your questions neutral and/or objective. I won’t pretend that reading a story isn’t a subjective experience, but we need objective questions to help us conduct an honest conversation about each story. Honest conversation is the goal here—not mindless praise or condemnation. And although only one writer will be assigned to introduce a story, the introduction is a model of what we all should be considering before we sit down to write a critique.

Hints: Cover all the categories above, but emphasize those that seem most important to the story in question. Make sure to capture the larger motions and shape of the story (for example, “this story is thirty-two pages, broken into three sections of roughly equal length, and out of chronological order”). Make sure to make your questions specific to the story in question. Bring two copies of your introduction and questions for discussion—one for me and one for the writer.