Storybook: Introduction - Indian Epics

In the past couple of weeks, you have done a lot of brainstorming about your Storybook project. Now you are ready to write the first draft of your Introduction. This week, you will write your draft and send it to me; I will reply with comments via email. Then, next week, you will revise the Introduction and publish it online.

Writing and Proofreading. Please note that the Introduction you turn in for this assignment needs to be proofread carefully. So, before you get started on this assignment, go back to the proofreading assignment from back in Week 1, the story about the mouse-bride. Did that indicate some writing areas you need to work on? If so, make sure you review any problem areas, do some more proofreading practice and/or visit the Writing Center to get some extra help before you turn in this Introduction assignment. Most important of all: please follow a proofreading strategy that will be effective for you. Here are some detailed notes about different ways to proofread.

STEP ONE: Get out the email I sent you earlier for your Week 3 assignment and read it again. Look for the specific comments marked with ==> in the email, and also make sure you read the general comments at the top of the email. There may be specific suggestions there for items you need to be sure to include in your Introduction.

STEP TWO: Research your topic (30 minutes minimum). You need to spend at least 30 minutes during some additional research on your topic. Just what kind of research you do will depend on your topic and how much research you have already done so far. You might end up doing some reading online at Wikipedia (a very good source for material related to the epics), and you can also make use of the Reading Guides at the class website; just page through the guides for Buck's Ramayana, Narayana's Mahabharata and Buck's Mahabharata to get a preview of the contents of those books (use the yellow arrow to advance page by page through the Guides). If you are not sure how to do research on your topic, contact me for some advice BEFORE you proceed with this assignment.

STEP THREE: Target two stories. When you are done reading, you should have targeted two stories that you are pretty sure you want to include in your Storybook. You can change your mind later if you want - but in order to proceed with this assignment, you need to have two stories selected. Your Storybook will ultimately contain four stories, and if you feel to choose tentatively all four stories now, please do that. You will find the Introduction much easier to write by having your story choices already in mind! If you are going to use the Mahabharata, definitely scan through the Reading Guides for Narayan's Mahabharata and Buck's Mahabharata and see if you can at least tentatively choose the stories that might best fit your topic.

STEP FOUR: Decide on your storytelling strategy. Based on the brainstorming assignment you did last week, you need to have a plan in mind for how you will tell the stories in your Storybook. If you have come up with a totally new idea that was not included in the brainstorming assignment you did for Week 3, check with me first to make sure your new strategy is going to work.

STEP FIVE: Write your Introduction. You need to tell us about your topic, as well as introducing us to the characters and/or setting and/or stories that you will tell - just what information you include in the Introduction depends on your overall storytelling plan. Whatever you do, do NOT give plot summaries of your stories; you need to save the plot for the stories. What you are doing here is introducing us to something - to your topic, to your main characters, to the setting, to the main ideas you want us to take away from the project, etc. It really is up to you just what the focus of your introduction should be. This part of your Introduction needs to be 400-800 words long. You should prepare this document as you would a formal paper, making sure you spellcheck your work and proofread carefully. You need to format the Introduction in paragraphs, with each paragraph containing one main idea, with clear transitions from paragraph to paragraph.

Be creative! Yes, you can be creative with the Introduction - just because it contains information, it doesn't have to be written in impersonal academic prose. For example, you can choose to write the Introduction already in the voice of the storyteller you will be using! If your stories are going to be told by the god Vishnu himself, you could also have the god Vishnu present the Introduction to the project in his own words. You can also look at some previous Storybook projects to see the different approaches students have used: Indian Epics Storybooks.

OPTIONAL: Start your frametale. If you have a frametale, an overarching story or set or characters that will "frame" all the stories in your Storybook, you can choose to start it here, in the Introduction. You can introduce us to the setting of your frametale, to the characters - and you can even get the action going. It all depends on what frametale you have chosen. If you choose to include part of the frametale in the Introduction, please do not exceed 1000 words total for the Introduction.

When you are done, cut-and-paste the Introduction  into an email, and send the Introduction to the instructor, with the Subject Line Indian Epics Storybook Introduction.