Finally—writing itself. I believe that writing is a process intended to establish a relationship between writer and reader. It is not a process in a vacuum. Except for certain poets who “live in the zodiac of their own wit,” and schizophrenics in all walks of life who carry on conversations with themselves by themselves, all writers assume a reader, an audience. In a sense, writing represents a dramatic act.
Therefore, in teaching writing the author-reader dyad must never be forgotten. In fact, it should be placed in the foreground whenever we require students to put a pen to paper. Correctness, grammar, rules for spelling and punctuation are means to the goal of clear communication, and should be treated as such. If they become the end of writing instruction and assert the primacy of a “correct” product, they subvert the very reason for writing by severing the essential connection between writer and audience. In an age when people rely less on written discourse than oral and visual modes, it is essential to reestablish the importance of the process of communication. Otherwise writing will become lifeless and irrelevant to its practitioners.
More pragmatically, it will mean little or nothing to a generation of students raised on TV and comics. We may be able to teach some of them how to manipulate prose mechanically, with luck even according to the rules. But we will not be able to teach them how to think on the page, or to care about what they write.
If, however, grammatical correctness and syntactical rules take the backseat in the teaching of writing, students can begin to discover their own personal voice, a voice that can change depending on whom it addresses. As in day-to-day conversation, we write differently depending on our audience. Thank-you notes to grandparents sound more intimate than abstracts for curricula units.
Letters are an ideal medium for the practice of writing, since they immediately imply a
specific
audience. Assignments can still take the form of arguments, descriptions, comparisons and contrasts. But they will not focus primarily on the structure of the assignment, but the question, “For whom am I writing this?” or “With whom am I trying to communicate?” Content clarity and exposition can be discussed in terms of “Does this communicate to the reader, the recipient of the message?” rather than, “Does this follow grammatical rules?”
Without the reader, the significant other, writing becomes a solipsistic exercise, a technique, devoid of intensity and care, and the sense of what it means to be human at the most basic level—to share and communicate. We must turn students on
first
to writing. They must experience the rewards before they can commit themselves to the rigor and the tedious, painful portions of the process.
Instead of a Definite Schedule
—
I like to think of this curriculum unit as a centipede with a body of mail and its many feet planted in various related fields. Or, like Ptolemy’s universe, as celestial spheres revolving in epicircles around the earth and its postal history. Or, as an alphabet stew, which mixes up letter writing and reading, thickened with junk mail, spiced with code and cipher puzzles, colored with invisible ink, and certified with a Stamp of approval.
For me the main virtue of the unit lies in its flexibility and wide range of inter-related topics, unified by letters, mail history, and communication.
It allows for a thorough integrating of a number of disciplines:
-
—Letters can be read as background for particular historical periods, figures, events.
-
—Or they can be used to generate discussions about particular questions in social studies.
-
—In writing they provide models for prose style, organization of thoughts, ideas, and feelings, as well as approaches to particular issues. Reading and writing letters facilitates a fruitful interaction which breaks down the traditional separation of those two skills.
-
—Cryptology combines mathematic and language (since most codes and ciphers rely on number substitution for letters, and on arithmetical manipulation).
I intend to teach the history of the mail service twice, first as a general history of communications and postal development, and then again, as a history of cryptology. Although they go hand in hand, there are several benefits in separating them:.
-
—It allows for clearer exposition initially. There is much to be understood about communication networks independently of the cloak-and-dagger stuff. (Terrain, carriers, etc.)
-
—The overall chronology of postal development can provide a useful context for a discussion of intelligence gathering and the accompanying history of cryptology.
-
—The history of the mails can emphasize geographical and demographic issues; the history of codes can stress political developments.
-
—Treating the same historical periods from two very different perspectives can give students a beginning understanding of how historical events are interconnected (the rise of city states in the Renaissance—the increase in diplomatic traffic—the spread of mail routes—the need for codes). Covering the same ground at two different times makes it possible to demonstrate the connections, instead of presenting the material all at once as a complicated tapestry.
I hope to saturate the classroom environment with letters, to concentrate on the reading and writing of letters, and on the history of mail services, including as many off-shoots as possible as an occasional change of pace.
Sample Lessons and Assignments
A.
General Outline for Reading and Analyzing Letters
:
-
(Should be modified, depending on the particular letter.)
-
(Can be done orally or in written form.)
-
Who wrote the letter?
-
When was it written?
-
Who was the recipient?
-
Why was the letter written? (Pick out some phrases from the letter that show why.)
-
What can you tell from the letter about the writer? (Is the writer male/female, young/old, a government official, a military leader, happy, impatient, desperate, cool, sad?)
-
If the writer is a person of historical importance, do some research about his/her historical role, situation, time.
-
What is the relationship between the sender of the letter and the receiver? (Wife-husband, father-son, sisters, friends, enemies, President-citizen. Give some examples from the letter that indicate the relationship—salutation, intimate or formal phrases.)
-
How does the sender feel about the addressee? (Give some examples from the letter that make this clear.)
-
Make a list of the contents of the letter. (Description of the weather, account of how the writer feels at that point, account of what happened to him the day before. Often a letter contains more than one issue.)
-
How would you classify the letter in one or two words? (Love, Prison, Business)
-
What is the tone of the letter? (angry, sarcastic, witty, depressed) [This is a slightly different question from ‘How does the sender feel about the addressee?’ since it asks the student to focus on the language rather than the writer.]
-
Are there any phrases that the writer likes to use?
-
Are there any phrases that sound odd to you? How would
you
say them?
-
What did you think of the letter? The writer? Why?
-
Would you like to receive such a letter? Explain. Why/why not?
-
Would you want to send such a letter to someone? Why/why not?
-
How would
you
answer the letter? (Jot down some phrases and ideas)
-
—A possible writing assignment:
-
____
Have students reply to the letter with a letter of their own. (Either with their own reaction, or trying to imagine what the original recipient might have said.)
-
____
For more advanced writers: Have them reply, trying to imitate
the
style
of the original writer.
-
—Students could work in small groups (of 4 or 5 each), reading the letter out loud, discussing and analyzing it together. Dividing up the questions, they could complete the written analysis as a group effort.
-
—Another possible group project:
-
____
Each group receives 2 or 3 letters with a similar theme: Group I: Love Letters; Group II: War Letters; Group III: Letters about Death.
-
____
The students must analyze the letters for similarities and differences. (A sheet of questions helps them focus their ideas and be as specific as possible.)
-
____
They might draw some general conclusions about how people from different ages respond to similar situations—do human beings really change all that much over time?
-
____
This might also be a good way to introduce students to Style.
-
____
I would expect to do this particular exercise late in the course,
after
students have become familiar with analyzing individual letters.
B.
Cryptology
:
Imagine you’re sitting in a dungeon, awaiting execution for treason. The jailor unlocks the oak door and hands you a note from your servant. He’s read it with suspicion, but has decided there’s nothing unusual about it. You know better. There’s a message hidden, and, if you can discover it, you may be saved.
Worthie Sir John—Hope, that is the beste comfort of the afflicted, cannot much, I fear me, help you now. That I would saye to you, is this only: if ever I may be able to repaye that I do owe you, stand not upon asking me. ‘Tis not such I can do: but what I can do, bee you very sure I wille. I knowe that, if death comes, if ordinary men fear it, it frightens not you, accounting it for high honour, to have such a rewarde of your loyalty. Pray yet that you may be spared this bitter, cup. I fear not that you will grudge any sufferings; only if by submission you can turn them away, ‘tis the part of a wise man. Tell me, as if you can, to do for you any thinge that you woulde have done. The general goes back on Wednesday. Resting as your servant to command.
R.T.
(from Bernice Kohn—see Bibliography: “E”—Cryptology)
In the actual case, the French count asked to go to the chapel for a last prayer. When his guards came for him there, they discovered that he had vanished into the proverbial “thin air.”
Hint: The punctuation is important!
Obviously the jailor was no cryptanalyst, or he would have smelled a rat because of the labored syntax, the odd punctuation (the comma before “cup”), and the curious spelling )“bee”): also the unnecessary “as” in the phrase “fell me,
as
if you can.”
During WW I the U.S. telegraph monitors “sniffed” out the following press cables, sent by the Germans. Their “funny sound” gave them away:
PRESIDENT’S EMBARGO RULING SHOULD HAVE IMMEDIATE NOTICE. GRAVE SITUATION AFFECTING INTERNATIONAL LAW. STATEMENT FORESHADOWS RUIN OF MANY NEUTRALS. YELLOW JOURNALS UNIFYING NATIONAL EXCITEMENT IMMENSELY.
The first letter of each word spells out the message.
Just to be sure, the Germans sent a second message, disguised appropriately as the second letter of each word:
APPARENTLY NEUTRAL’S PROTEST IS THOROUGHLY DISCOUNTED AND IGNORED. ISMAN HARD HIT. BLOCKADE ISSUE AFFECTS PRETEXT FOR EMBARGO ON BYPRODUCTS, EJECTING SUETS AND VEGETABLE OILS.
In the rescue note to “Worthie Sir John” the third letter after each punctuation mark makes up the hidden message.
-
—Students might try to hide messages by making up a plausible plain (surface) text. Other students could try to decipher them.
-
—Another method involves pricking pinholes above or below the letters in a newspaper article to spell out the message. The Germans used this means of hiding their communiques as late as WW II, dotting the appropriate letters with secret ink.
C.
Writing Assignments
:
-
—The students read a short story, and write a letter to one of the characters, praising or criticizing his/her behavior.
-
—Write a letter that will seduce the guy/girl of your dreams.
-
—Write letters to:
-
____
favorite movie stars politicians
-
____
famous athletes upon their victories and/or defeats
-
____
Santa Claus
-
____
a dead relative, sharing the things you didn’t when he/she was alive
-
____
an unborn brother or sister, describing what he/she can expect coming into this world
—Write: a suicide letter
|
(The trick here is to specify
|
|
a convincing lie
|
either the recipient, or the
|
|
a letter of apology
|
topic)
|
|
an angry letter
|
|
a letter to the editor
|
|
a letter when you have only 30 minutes left to live
|
-
—Write a Group Letter: Students sit in a large circle. Each puts the name of an addressee at the top of a sheet of paper. Then, with every word the letter passes to the next person, going clock- or counterclockwise, until it returns to the original sender, who signs it.
-
____
This exercise tends to elicit a cornucopia of 4-letter words from many students. If you’re comfortable with it, that can lead to a good discussion about obscenities—their function, what they hide, what they attack.
-
—Write 3 letters about the same difficult subject (an abortion, an accident, an argument with your parents) to 3 different people—your girl/boy friend, your grandparents, your minister.
Or, write about a happy event (a party, a day at the circus, your first date) to your parents, your best friend, and/or John Travolta.
Reading Material for Students
The following selection represents only a small sample. I have picked according to my own interests and concerns, with an eye toward what might appeal to teenagers. Except for a very few, these letters are all quite short (1-2pp).
Love Letters:
For unadulterated, out-and-out passion there is little that can top the examples below:
-
—the Napoleon-Josephine correspondence (1796-1810).
-
—Jean-Jaques Rousseau to the Countess Sophie D’Houdetot (June 1757) for some real tortured longing.
-
—Mary Wollstonecraft to Captain Gilbert Imlay (Nov. 1795) after he had abandoned her.
-
—John Keats to Fanny Brawne (1820) while he was suffering from tuberculosis.
-
—Franz Liszt to Countess D’Agoult (1850) with whom he had three children and a stormy ten year relationship.
-
—James Joyce to Nora Barnacle (Nov.-Dec. 1909), probably the most delicious, pornographic interchange between two separated lovers in the history of letters.
-
—Gabriele D’Annunzio, the Italian Futurist poet, to an unidentified lady (March 1920).
Some counter-examples of stabler, married relationships, abounding with warmth, affection, humor, and mutual support, even in periods of disagreement:
-
—the letters of John and Abigail Adams (1764-John’s tenure as 2nd president of the U.S.).
-
—Jane Welsh Carlyle to Thomas Carlyle (June 1846) writing about the misunderstandings his birthday greetings caused.
-
—the Lord Nelson-Lady Hamilton correspondence, especially the letter he sent her before the Battle of Trafalgar, which he won, while losing his life (Oct. 19, 1805).
-
—Samuel Clemens to Mrs. Olivia Clemens (1880) who continued to cherish her.
Finally, some examples of love gone awry, or being carried on with more than sheer emotion:
-
—the correspondence of Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn, beginning while Henry is still married, and ending on a pitiful note, with Ann pleading for her life when Henry had tired of her (1536).
-
—Samuel Johnson at 73 offering sour congratulations to his erstwhile friend, Hester Thrale, on her marriage.
-
—DuBarry to M. Duval, laying out the economic groundrules of their relationship in no uncertain terms (April 1761).
Letters to Children:
-
—Martin Luther to his son Hans describes the Garden of Eden (1533). None of the sternness we’ve come to expect from Lutheranism.
-
—Longfellow describes his three daughters to a young friend of theirs (Aug. 1859).
-
—Hawthorne sends a “kiss” to his little daughter Rose.
-
—Benjamin Franklin in a letter to his daughter explains why he prefers the turkey to the eagle for America’s emblem (Jan. 1784).
-
—Balzac, vacationing on the coast, misses his son, and tells him so.
-
—Lewis Carroll to a small friend describes a strange illness that overcame him as a result of her absence, and the stranger cure the doctor prescribed.
Letters from Prison:
-
—Madame Roland to Leonard Buzot (June 1793). A future victim of the Terror writes with love, courage, and unshaken ideals.
-
—The letters of Sacco and Vanzetti (1921-1928) to each other and to friends and supporters are among the most moving documents in human communication.
Sacco’s letters are particularly interesting for the change in his written English as he applied himself to learning the language more systematically. Curiously, his passion and strength are unmistakable, regardless of his verbal skill. Vanzetti, who read and studied furiously during his seven year imprisonment, never gives up. He writes with a raw, angular eloquence of his feelings, ideas, hopes.
-
—Gramsci’s letters to his family and friends radiate with the inner strength of a man with a “pessimistic mind,” and an “optimistic wi11.” He writes of the boredom of Mussolini’s prisons; but his quick, analytical temper never lets him rest or despair for long. (1928-1936).
-
—Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963) defends his tactics of non-violent confrontation, his willingness to “break laws,” and the effect of his presence in Birmingham. This is a relatively long letter, but the prose is clear and straightforward.
-
—Eldrige Cleaver’s letters from Folsom Prison describe his daily routine, his delinquent past, his awakening to the positive nature of his blackness. This leads to an angry, yet eloquent indictment of racist America (1965). Some sections of these letters may be syntactically difficult for poor and intermediate readers.
War Letters:
-
—Aurelian, Emperor of Rome, orders Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra to surrender, and she defies him. A brief, spirited exchange (3rd Century A.D.).
-
—Joan of Arc before the Battle of Orleans demands that the British surrender (1429).
-
—George Washington writes to the Continental Congress about the terrible winter at Valley Forge, and the unpardonable lack of supplies (Dec. 23, 1777).
-
—Toussaint L’Overture commands ruthless warfare against the French soldiers in Haiti (1802).
-
—A.R.P. Arden to his wife (Oct. 13, 1940) describes the terror of the bombing of London during WW II.
-
—Anonymous soldiers of the 6th German Army, surrounded by Russian forces at Stalingrad, write their last letters home. Their anguish, anger, despair, and almost certain knowledge of doom give these messages a special quality. They are among the most heart-rending documents from the front lines of any war (1942).
-
—Ho Chi Minh exhorts his countrymen to liberate Vietnam while France and Japan are otherwise occupied during WW II (1941).
Letters of Death:
-
—Agrippina, Nero’s mother, pleads to her Emperor-Son for her own life (1st century A.D.).
-
—Sir Walter Raleigh to his wife on the eve of his (supposed) execution (1603).
-
—Dostoyevsky to his brother Mikhail (Dec. 1849) describes what it felt like a minute before he was to be executed.
-
—John Brown’s farewell letter to his family the night before he is executed (Nov. 1859).
-
—Abraham Lincoln “consoles” Mrs. Lydia Bixby on the loss of 5 sons in the Civil War (Nov. 1864).
-
—Robert Falcon Scott’s last letters from the Antarctic: To
the Public
, accounting for the failure of the polar expedition, and
To My Widow
. Grim, detached, the last of the British heroes (March 1912).
-
—Virginia Woolf writing to her husband Leonard on the morning of her suicide (March 1941).
-
—Che Guevara’s letter of farewell to his parents (publ. 1967).
Miscellaneous Letters:
-
—Pliny the Younger to Tacitus on the eruption of Vesuvius, which buried the city of Pompeii (79 A.D.).
-
—Henry IV of Germany lambasts Pope Gregory VIII and tells him, “Get thee down to everlasting damnation”—in our words, “Go to hell” (Jan. 1076).
-
—Baber, first of the “Mogul” Emperors, describes the failure of an attempt to poison him in a letter to a friend (Dec. 1526).
-
—Benjamin Franklin breaks off a longtime friendship with William Strahan, a member of the British Parliament, over issues concerning the American colonies (1775).
-
—Benjamin Banneker to Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, one of the first examples of a Black man’s legal, non-violent protest against racism and slavery.
-
—Bill Nye, an original American wit, becomes Postmaster of Laramie, Wyoming, and offers his “humble” services to the Postmaster General Frank Hatten (Aug. 1882). This letter has a marvelous style, grandiose and humorous at the same time.
-
—Joseph Conrad, feeling suicidal, writes a letter of despair to Edward Garnett (Aug. 1898). An eloquent, painful letter from someone in the throes of writer’s cramp.