O’Brien, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” (Sweetheart.pdf )
1. Read Tim O’Brien’s “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.”
2. Visit the PBS website about the NEA’s program called Operation Homecoming. This program encourages returning veterans to record their experiences when they come home from war. The website includes links to memoirs in the form of journals, letters, video diaries, animated clips, poetry, essays, etc.
Explore these creations as you listen to, watch, and read these memoirs
Look for the bar on the right called “Read Authors’ Writings”
Read the ten brief memoirs and poems and find one that seems to have a couple of interesting similarities or differences with O’Brien’s story
Look for just two or three similarities or differences so you have time and space to explore them in some detail
3. Write 5-6 paragraphs with an introduction including a thesis, 3-5 body paragraphs with topic sentences, and a brief conclusion (400-500 words total) telling us about a few important similarities or differences that interest you.
Start writing first to find your thoughts through brainstorming, listing, or mapping
Write a couple of body paragraphs to discover what you have to say
Write an introduction that ends with a clear thesis that previews your coming points
Revise your writing so that it supports the thesis (or revise the thesis so that it sets up the body paragraphs)
Use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph that introduces the topic of the paragraph and refers back to the thesis
4. Use MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries. Follow this example for the online memoir:
McCary, John. “To the Fallen.” Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.
PBS. Apr. 2007. Web. 29 July 2010. [ change the second date to the date you accessed the website]
NOTE: Works Cited entries should be alphabetized, double-spaced, and indented with a hanging indent (in Word 2007, follow paragraph–>special–>hanging).
