Writing Situation
ENC 1102 English Composition II summer 2014
Student Name: _____________________________ ID ______________ Date: __________
Assignment # 12. Chapter 42. Writing about a story.
Short Story: A Sound of Thunder Author: Ray Bradbury
1. Writing Situation
The plot of a story is the sequence of events that leads to the story’s resolution. In Ray Bradbury’s story, “A Sound of Thunder,” a simple change of sequence (a butterfly’s death) changes history.
Writing Directions
Write a narrative in which you change one event or action in Bradbury’s story and describe the sequence of events that follows.
Keep the following key traits in mind as you compose your narrative:
Key Traits
Ideas
· Traces the events that follow a change in the original story
· Uses dialogue and vivid description to present the new plot
Organization
· Presents events in chronological order
· Uses transitions to clarify the relationship between ideas
Voice
· Maintains the voice and tone of the original story
Word Choice
· Uses precise, apt and descriptive language to create a new version of story.
Sentence Fluency
· Varies sentence structure and length to create interest and flow
Conventions
· Follows standard written English conventions
Sequence of Events (plot)
1. Eckels signs up for a time-travel safari.
2. Eckels and the other men travel in the time machine.
3. They go back in time to 60 million years before, arriving in a jungle.
4. Eckels is warned not to step off the Path before they head out on the safari.
5. Eckels and the other men exit the Time Machine and begin walking along the Path.
6. They spot the Tyrannosaurus rex.
7. Eckels decides he can’t go through with killing the animal, and he starts walking.
8. The dinosaur runs toward them.
9. The men shoot at the dinosaur, and Eckels unknowingly walks off the Path.
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10. Eckels begins to walk through the jungle in a daze, wandering farther and farther from the
others.
11. When he snaps out of the daze, Eckels discovers he is lost.
