Blog Template - SUMMATIVE
Ensure you review the assignment and success criteria
Your template can be in jot notes
Title of your blog post. Make it creative and original.
It should NOT be the title of your short story.
Introduction - provide an opening that addresses
your initial thoughts of the story (this is essentially
the reason why you’re writing the blog)
Middle: Short Story Elements
❏ Discuss one of the basic elements. How
does it appear in the story? Why is it
important? Provide a quotation from the story
and discuss how the quotation supports the
chosen element.
❏ Discuss syntax. Provide a quotation from the
story and discuss how the quotation helps
advance theme, character, or setting.
❏ Discuss diction. Provide a quotation from the
story and discuss how the quotation helps
advance theme, character, or setting.
❏ Discuss an advanced element. How does it
appear in the story? Why is it important?
Provide a quotation from the story and
discuss how the quotation supports the
chosen element.
❏ Identify a non-dominant perspective from
the story. What insight could we gain by
The Game Changes You
After finishing the short story “Rules of The Game”, I loved
how realistic it is in terms of pushing people away to achieve
success.
It really captured the element of the sacrifices you have to
make to become the best of the best.
It was interesting to see the journey of a girl who had no idea
what a pawn was at first, to almost reaching the prowess of a
chess grandmaster.
One basic story element in “Rules of the Game” would be
conflict. This is essential to driving the story forward and
creates tension. An example of the conflict would be
Character vs Self,
Quotation: "We not concerning this girl. This girl not have
concerning for us."
Waverly dedication to succeed at chess creates this
boundary between her and the family. She starts to care less
about what currently happens and gets drawn towards only
planning her next move in chess.
The quotation supports the chosen element conflict because
the mother realizes that she shouldn’t show concern for her
daughter if she doesn’t even show concern for them.
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Syntax Quotation: My mother named me after the street
hearing more from this perspective? Why is it that we lived on: Waverly Place Jong, my official name for
important to understand non-dominant important American documents.
perspectives too?

This sentence lists a form of syntax using the following

punctuation to clarify what the previous sentence meant. It
shows the mothers lack of creativity and care for her
children. After all, she named her newborn child after a
street.
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Diction Quotation: “Pungent leaves for his ailing customers.”

This sentence has two examples of diction located in it, the

first being the word “Pungent” to describe the strong smell of
the leaves bringing more emphasis to the odor that emitted
from the leaves.

The second word choice would be “ailing” to describe the

sick and poor condition that the customers are currently in.
It brings more emphasis to the unwell customers in the store.
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One advanced story element would be the symbolism which

adds depth to the story. An example of this would be:

Quotation: "In my head, I saw a chessboard with sixty-four

black and white squares. Opposite me was my opponent, two
angry black slits. She wore a triumphant smile. "Strongest
wind cannot be seen," she said."

The symbolism is applied to the chess pieces and shows the

significance of the two sides. The opposite “me” actually
represented her internal battle with her mother. Evidence of

Middle: Connection/Question/Feelings CHOOSE
TWO OF THESE
❏ Make a text-to-self connection to the short
story. Explain your connection - how are the
two things alike or different?
❏ Make a text-to-text connection to the short
story. Explain your connection - how are the
two things alike or different?
❏ Make a text-to-world connection to the short
story. Explain your connection - how are the
two things alike or different?
this would be the black slits and the quote "Strongest wind
cannot be seen,".
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---
Non-dominant perspective:
Vincent’s perspective would be an interesting addition to
add to the already complex story of a girl becoming a chess
prodigy.
I would love to see Vincent's perspective on watching how
fast his sister grew in the game of chess. From trying to teach
them the basic rules of chess to them becoming a one of a
kind prodigy, Vincent's perspective would be fascinating.
Non-dominant perspectives are extremely important to the
story because they provide more insight onto an issue and
show their reasoning behind what they do.
Text-to-self:
I can relate to the Meimei connection of always having her
mother brag about her achievements in front of people.
For example, when I became a lifeguard my parents made
sure that my occupation is what represented me because
they know the difficulty that comes along having to earn the
medal.
Me and her share the connection of being dehumanized due
to the accomplishments we have earned training blood,
sweat and tears off to even gain.
Text-to-world:
You can bring multiple connections from this book to the
world but the primary one I would like to disclose is not to
push away your family to earn results.
Meimei pushed her family away to study and learn all about

Conclusion: wrap it up
❏ Review what was discussed
❏ End with a question or prompt to elicit a
response from the audience
What 3 images/visuals will you choose? Describe
them or include them here. You must include them
throughout your blog and not just at the end.
chess, she started out learning from old men on the streets
about how to disclose chess openings and eventually made
good relationships.
This resulted in her yelling at her mother, never going back to
the spots where she played chess with the old guys, never
returning to the playground, and not having a full stomach.
In conclusion, “The Rules of the Game” is a powerful story
that explores the sacrifices, tensions and transformations
that come with the pursuit of achieving success. The
narrative is made with multiple complex components like
conflict, symbolism, diction and syntax. The addition of
non-dominant perspectives adds depth to the story. While
considering our dream aspirations in life, we should be
reminded of the importance of our relationships and the
costs of achieving success.
Have you ever experienced conflicts with friends or family
regarding your dedication to a particular activity?
Reasons: Book cover:

Thinking of it as the opening to the blog showing off the

cover of the book often gives me time to kind of assume
what the book could be based on. Although you
shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, I left it there to leave
some interpretation for my audience.

San Francisco Chinatown

I wanted to add another extra element to my blog so I

decided to include the setting through an image. As the
story took place in San Francisco Chinatown, it was
pretty crazy thinking about how a fictional chess
prodigy would be born here.

Throughout, integrate at least two hyperlinks to
take your reader to further learning beyond your
blog.
Anything else to include?
Family:
Throughout this blog I really tried to emphasize the
importance of family over success and how you
shouldn’t break ties with the strongest relationship that
keeps you going. I added a family playing a game
showing the possibility of what Waverly could have
been if she didn’t always focus on her next move and
acknowledged the importance of her family.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7763.The_Joy
_Luck_Club
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/29/survey-prioritizing
-family-over-career-could-be-good-for-your-salary.htm
l#:~:text=If%20you're%20living%20for,in%20every%2
0area%20of%20life.
A con that I would love to include about the book would
be the ending. The short story was fantastic showing
the perspective of the girl's progress through the game
of chess. But an element of a story I disliked greatly was
the ending as it didn’t fully close off the story. I felt like
it should have at least showed how she changed
through the event of embarrassing herself and running
away from her mom. As the story focuses on the pursuit
of success and how you must make sacrifices to get
there. But the one element you shouldn’t sacrifice is his
family.