Sophomores: We studied some specific kinds of leads and conclusions. You are to use some of these techniques when you write your memory pieces of your mother. I am posting them below my freshmen info. Other specifics for that assignment include:
1. Typed draft due next block period.
2. 1000 words minimum.
3. Include a quote from someone else about your mom.
4. Use a 1 sentence paragraph at some point in your piece.
5. Show don't tell: write small.
6. Title is crucial.
Due for Friday is up through page 533 - finish everything but "The Eyes in the Trees." The final for the book is Friday. Here is what you might get assigned:
The Poisonwood Bible Final Exam
Examine to what extent the five main characters from The Poisonwood Bible move through the four stages of the hero. Your essay should have a clear lead and conclusion, a clear thesis statement, and be free of grammatical errors. Be sure to reference specific passages from the text to support your assertions. When finished, craft a compelling title for your piece.
The Poisonwood Bible Final Exam
Symbolism is an important literary device used by Barbara Kingsolver in The Poisonwood Bible. Focus on, analyze, and explain any or all of the following symbols from the novel: birds (especially in Adah’s entries, as well as Methusela), the garden, wives, or Africa itself. Your essay should have a clear lead and conclusion, a clear thesis statement, and be free of grammatical errors. Be sure to reference specific passages from the text to support your assertions. When finished, craft a compelling title for your piece.
The Poisonwood Bible Final Exam
Reread Chapter One from The Kite Runner. How does that chapter – particularly the first
paragraph – relate to the characters from The Poisonwood Bible, Orleanna in particular? What common theme do these two books share? Your essay should have a clear lead and conclusion, a clear thesis statement, and be free of grammatical errors. Be sure to reference specific passages from the text to support your assertions. When finished, craft a compelling title for your piece.
Freshmen: We worked on a main character questionnaire for your capstone fiction piece. You must include this with your final product. See a friend for the notes if you missed.
Sophomore Notes:
Experiment with Essay Leads and Conclusions
Some leads to try…
Anecdote: A brief story that captures the essence of the issue or situation.
It’s 3 AM, and the stillness of the White House night is shattered by the ringing of the red phone. President John McCain, rousing himself from a deep sleep, turns on the light and picks up the receiver. A US Embassy in a Middle Eastern country, he is told, has been blown up, and al-Qaida is taking credit.
McCain takes a deep breath. “Character counts, my friend,” he says. “Bomb Iran. Bomb, bomb Iran.”
-Harold Meyerson, “Would You Sleep Well With John McCain Answering the Red Phone?”
Quote: A voice not your own that speaks to or exemplifies the issue.
“This is the new face of hunger,” said Josetta Sheeran, director of the World Food Program, launching an appeal for an extra $500 million so it could continue to supply food aid to 73 million hungry people this year. “People are simply being priced out of food markets… We have never before had a situation where aggressive rises in food prices keep pricing our operations out of our reach.”
-Gwynne Dyer, “Warming and Biofuels: Here Comes a Food Catastrophe”
Announcement: The writer takes a strong stand on an issue.
The national outpouring after the Littleton shootings ahs forced us to confront something we have suspected for a long time: The American high school is obsolete and should be abolished.
In the last month, high school students present and past have come forward with stories about cliques and the artificial intensity of a world defined by insiders and outsides, in which the insiders hold sway because of superficial definitions of attractiveness, popularity and sports prowess.
-Leon Botstein, “High School, and Institution Whose Time Has Passed”
Background: The writer gives a brief history of the issue or situation.
When I was in the fourth grade, I moved from a small Lutheran school of 100 to a larger public elementary school. Lincoln Elementary. Wow. Lincoln was a big school, full of a thousand different attitudes about everything from eating lunch to how to treat a new kid. It was a tough time for me, my first year, and more than anything, I wanted to belong.
Many things were difficult: the move my family had just made, trying to make new friends, settling into a new home, accepting a new stepfather. I remember crying a lot. I remember my parents fighting. They were having a difficult time with their marriage… Despite all this, the thing that I remember most about the fourth grade is Tiffany Stephenson.
-Bjorn Skogquist, “Tiffany Stephenson - An Apology”
News: The writer gives the reader the who-what-when-where-why of a situation or issue.
Ninety percent of American smokers started as teenagers. There are several reasons for this scary statistic: peer pressure, parents who smoke, and, most significantly, because of the billions of dollars spent by the tobacco industry on ads that target kids.
-Jack Sherman, “Stop the Tobacco Companies from Targeting Kids”
Some conclusions to try…
Anecdote: A brief story that captures the essence of the issue or situation.
Admonition or instruction: The writer tells the reader to take a particular action.
What forward-looking communities see is a chance to to get in on the power production boom, not as consumers of dirty, increasingly expensive coal-fired power, but as produces of their own clean power.
There is a solar silver lining in our present environmental mess. It’s a chance to reinvent ourselves. Let’s do it right this time.
-Ed Firmage, Jr. “Revolutionary Solar Technology is Set to Transform Energy Generation.”
Prediction: The writer comments on how the situation might be different.
Somehow, we have to make our children understand that they are intelligent, competent people, capable of doing whatever they put their minds to and making it in the American mainstream, not just in the black subculture.
What we seem to be doing, instead, is raising up yet another generation of young blacks who will be failures - by definition.
-William Raspberry, “The Handicap of Definition”
Quote: A voice not your own that speaks to or exemplifies the issue.
Well, it’s off my chest; and it feels good.
I will no longer make excuses for my musical tastes. Not when millions are being made by performers exhorting listeners to “put your hands in the air and wave ‘em like you just don’t care.”
Compare that with the haunting refrain of Reba Mc.Entire’s “I Think His Name Was John,” a song about a woman, a one-night’s stand and AIDS: “She lays all alone and cries herself to sleep/ ’Cause she let a stranger kill her hopes and her dreams/ And in the end when she was barely hanging on/ All she could say is she thinks his name was John.”
-Lena Williams, “A Black Fan of Country Music Finally Tells All”
Echo: The ending links back to the beginning - an idea, an image, or a word or phrase.
Strong, punched statement: The writer concludes with strong stance, perhaps a one sentence paragraph.
Cohabiting does not necessarily equal the tragic end of a relationship, but couples who do marry after living together have high rates of separation and divorce. The lack of commitment in such a relationship plays a large role in the scenario. If a couple wishes to have a successful marriage, they should show their commitment to each other from the beginning. If they trust each other enough not to cohabit before marriage, their marriage already has a higher probability of success.
-Denise Leight ”Playing House”
No comments:
Post a Comment