Prose Reflection

Although it is unlikely that novels will ever be produced as a classroom assignment, I believe that the novel is nonetheless an important tool to show students as an exemplar piece of prose. Unlike other subject areas, the writing of prose fits naturally into the English classroom. My example of prose, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, can be used effectively in demonstrating to students how to properly use writing conventions and how to write a narrative in general. In terms of writing conventions, Gatsby, as with any other text, can be used in demonstrating the proper use of grammar, punctuation, narrative structure and how to properly format and use dialogue.


For example, in my first practicum, students were asked to write an additional chapter to the classroom novel once we had completed reading it. Since they had a limited amount of space to wrap up the details of storylines from the novel, I suggested that they use dialogue in order to drive their imagined plot. However, none of them had ever written dialogue before. That class was dedicated to writing outlines, and by tomorrow's class I had put together a brief lesson on how to format dialogue using Gatsby as well as other resources. Specifically, I selected two paragraphs from the text. The first was a conversation between Tom and Wilson. This dialogue was used as my exemplar and we discussed how we as readers are able to differentiate who is speaking in the way that Fitzgerald uses tags (i.e. "Wilson said") and how some are left out because we are able to follow the exchange between the two without tags at times. The second conversation was between Nick and Jordan. However, in this instance, I showed the conversation without proper formatting, so that the entire conversation appeared in a single paragraph. I asked the students to indicate how many characters were involved in the conversation and then to differentiate who was speaking throughout. They obviously found this process difficult, so I showed them my exemplar again in order for them to understand why formatting dialogue properly was so important. Suddenly, it clicked. When a different character is speaking, we must start that dialogue on a new line! We worked to break up the dialogue properly then, using each example, I asked students to tell me what they learned about each character through the dialogue. This discussion proved vital, as students were better able to understand that, when dialogue is being used properly, it is helping further the story by developing plot or character.


Showing a text like Gatsby, whether that be the complete text or various excerpts, is important, in my opinion, because it demonstrates to students that words should not be wasted in writing. That is, every detail of the text helps drive the story; details about setting or character are important in furthering the plot. I think this is important for students to understand. In doing so, they can remain focused on developing their main ideas rather than be distracted by the need to over do it. Moreover, this concept should be applied to any type of writing done in the English classroom. These improved writing skills will help students in other classes too, since this practice of focusing on what's most important can be transferred to note taking or even answering exam questions.