English 105Friday, May 13, 2011

Melissa Gunby

Emergency Evacuation Procedures

• Take only personal items: purses, wallets, car keys, identification

• Leave in an orderly fashion• Exit route: down the front stairs and out

into the main parking lot• Stay with the instructor• NO CELL PHONE USE

Free-Write

• Please write for ten minutes, beginning with the phrase: – Collapsing under a canopy of green…I lay

back on the grass under the weight of my traveling pack. What light filtered through the dense green overhang was thick and mottled and dust motes danced across my vision as I rested. My canteen was nearly empty and my feet were tired, blisters beginning to raise on my heels from the newness of my boots, not yet broken in. It was warm on the forest floor, despite the overhang of tangled branches that provided shade from the bright summer sun. Around me, wild life chittered and chirped. Birds sang and monkeys chattered as they chased each other through the tree branches.

Peer Review

• Please follow the directions on the handout for today

• If you do not have your draft, please read the essay “The Munchausen Mystery” on page 257 and answer the questions that follow on page 259.

CHAPTER 8The reading-Writing Connection

Why Read?

• Singers listen to vocalists they admire.• Tennis players re-watch championship

matches.• Medical students observe surgical

procedures.• Long story short, we read to become

better writers.

How can reading well help me become a better writer?

• Understanding the opinions expressed in essays may spark ideas of your own

• Discovering ways others have organized and expressed ideas should help you form your own strategies

• Ultimately, analyzing the prose of others will make you more aware of the writing process itself.

Becoming an Analytical Reader

• Preview the essay• Read the essay• Summarize the essay

Previewing

• Biographical data• Title• Footnotes/endnotes• images

Read

• Read the essay carefully• Try to define unfamiliar words from their

context – how they are used in the sentence to try to figure out their meanings

• Take notes – write down what you’re thinking as you read

Summarize

• When you’ve finished reading, summarize each paragraph. Try to find the main idea for each paragraph and decide the supporting ideas and put them into your own words without adding opinion or interpretation

• After your summary, identify the writer’s thesis statement or overall main idea.

CLASS DISCUSSION: “SALVATION”

CHAPTER 5: DRAFTING AND REVISING:

Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking

• There is no good writing, only rewriting– James Thurber

• When I say writing, O, believe me, it is rewriting that I have chiefly in mind.– Robert Louis

Stevenson

What is revision?

• A thinking process

When Does Revision Happen?

• Throughout the writing process• Revise as you sort your ideas• Revise as you focus your thesis

statement• It happens before drafting, during

drafting, between parts of drafts, and at the end.

Myths of revision

• Revision is not Autopsy• Revision is not editing or proofreading• Revision is not punishment or busy work

Revision as part of the writing process

• Remember: no part of your draft is permanent or sacred. Things will change the more you work on any given assignment.

• Also remember: no one ever produces a brilliant, perfect, first draft

Revision Process: Higher and Lower Order Concerns

• Higher order concerns– Things that impact the way a reader

understands your essay.• Lower order concerns

– Small things that are distracting but don’t necessarily impede understanding

Higher Order Concerns

– Purpose– Thesis – Audience– Ideas– Evidence– Organization– Clarity and Style

Lower Order Concerns

• Grammar• Spelling• Punctuation• mechanics

Editing Tips and Tricks

• Read out loud• Get someone to read to you• Learn what your common errors are• Try to avoid problem areas

– Its/it’s, your/you’re, there/their/they’re– There= here= place– Their = heir = Prince William = people

Proofread

• Remember: Word can only tell you the word is spelled correctly; it cannot tell you if you have the right word– “I whore those shoes until they fell apart.”

CLASS DISCUSSION“The Maker’s Eye”

DESCRIPTION

• For your “Interview a Subject” essay, you chose a person, living or dead, real or fictional, to interview and write a profile of them.

• For the next assignment, you will work with the same person, but focus your essay on describing this person: giving your reader not only a visual image of your subject through writing, but also of their personality.

• Take a few minutes and write down a description of the vehicle that brought you to school today. Do not include make and model.

• Orange• Hatchback• Scratches on rear bumper• Black bra• “feel your boobies” bumper sticker• Project Linus window cling• Woodland Community College parking permit on review mirror• Solano College parking permit on windshield• Box of snacks on back seat

What’s your purpose?

Objective• The eighteen-year old

boy was 6’1” and weighed 155 pounds.

Subjective• The young boy was as

tall and scrawny as a birch tree in winter.

• Use clear specific details• Select only appropriate details• Make your descriptions vivid• Remember your audience• Avoid erratic organization• Remember to stay in one point of view

(don’t jump from 1st to 3rd)

Activity

• Before we go to the computer lab for the last hour of class, we’re going to do an activity focusing on description.

• You have twenty minutes to go anywhere in the building (without disrupting classes) or outside (not leaving the office park), and choose a subject to describe.

• Try to use both objective and subjective language.