Linguistic Approaches to Literature - Assignment 7 James Madison University

Instructions: This assignment should be done after you do the reading for our next class. It involves a small amount of creativity, but it's primarily about paying attention to sound patterns, especially meter, and it starts with a little extra practice with "cloze" tests. [This assignment will be marked only as an acceptable or unacceptable effort.]

1. Write a sentence (roughly 8 to 12 syllables long) that contains one word in it that stands out as an unusual choice in that context. The word could be just a synonym for a more common word in that context, or an antonym, or something even more unexpected (but preferably, if you can think of one, a word you think could still be meaningful...) Then create a cloze test for your sentence, using a blank in place of the unusual word choice. Ask at least two friends what they word first comes to mind for them to fill in that blank. Write down their responses. Then show them your full sentence. Does your word surprise them? What do they think is the point of your actual word choice?
2. Now paraphrase the sentence you wrote above (changing sentences structure and/or various words, but keeping basically the same meaning), but make this new sentence stick to a metrical pattern described in our reading. What pattern is your sentence? Ask a friend to first read the sentence to himself/herself and then read it aloud to you. Does it sound like your friend is matching your intended meter?