Long Observation/Description Draft #1

Today you practice more analytical thinking.

Revise = to re-see.

#1  Read and React:  use ! and ?

#2  Analyze:  Are the details clear?  Do I understand and "see" the scene?

Synthesize:  Does it all add up to make the point?

Evaluate:  What works well?  What needs to be improved?

Copy the above in your daybook.  Then you will fill out the blue "Writer's Sheet" (handout).  I'll pass around 2 "Reader's Sheets" that will be filled out about your draft.  When we're done, all these sheets will go home with you, and you will revise your draft into Draft #2.

Homework:

1.  Make changes/additions to your draft.  Draft #2 typed is due Tuesday. How will you save it? On Tuesday Draft 2 must be accessible electronically in the computer lab. BACK UP A FLASH DRIVE!

2.  Read Farley Mowat's "Observing Wolves" (handout) and answer the questions in your daybook.

3. TWFTD:  "rough" in the OED --see yesterday's post.

Writing and the OED

The OED and "punk."

Homework:

1.  Bring a hard copy of your Draft #1 Observation/Description to class.

2.  TWFTD: "punk" from the OED.  You must choose a quote used in the OED, give the year only (not the source, unless you wish to), and give the definition that matches that quote.

Why Is English So Hard To Spell?

All classes meet in room 210.

Consider the words knight, night, through, though, bough, cough, rough, come, give, gone.

Take a short pretest about the history of English.  Look at this chart.

What does England look like in the year 0?  -ish? Well, this is already 2,000 years old.

Old English spoken for us.

Anglo-Saxon art

Anglo-Saxons vs. Vikings  which leads us to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

After Norman castles we come to Middle English. Okay, times change.

Fold your handout and put it in your daybook.

Homework:

1.  Friday the first draft of your observation paper is due.  It can be either hand-written or typed and PRINTED OUT BEFORE CLASS.  See the blue assignment sheet for length suggestions.

2. Tomorrow (Thursday) there will be SOME time to work on your draft, but there will be some other work as well.

3. TWFTD:  punk.  What can you find for the origin of the word?

Audience Awareness Short Essay

Once again, here is the prompt:

Write a short essay ( 5+ paragraphs) that explores the importance of analyzing or considering the audience for any written assignment. Use specific examples to support your points. Any kind (genre) of writing can be used as an example. But your first step is to come up with a thesis statement which makes clear your viewpoint on this topic.

Type this up using the MLA format, including double-spaced lines.  If it is two pages long, that's fine.  There is no length requirement other than 5 paragraphs. Examples are key!

For example, from my online class: There have been several other instances where I have given directions to my children to complete a task,  like I gave my eight year old a poster and I told him "Go hang this on the wall." I walked in the dining room and saw the poster hanging on the wall and I asked him "Why did you hang this on this wall?" He said "Mom, you didn't say which wall, you just said hang it on the wall so I picked a wall and hung it up." While I meant the wall in his room but my directions were not specific, so he completed the task based on the information he was given. It was hilarious.

Print and hand in before class tomorrow.

Homework:

1.  Be observing and taking notes for your observation paper.

2.  TWFTD: disconcerting

The Short Essay

What are you observing?

Editing practice: The kids were already to go.

A large amount of students ate a large amount of food. 

If you put your every day hat on everyday, you are a boring dresser.

Remember Section 23 in the Everyday Writer? Look up every day and everyday and write a sentence using each of them . Do the same with amount and number and all ready and already.


We look at the short (five paragraph) essay as a way to analyze/synthesize/evaluate information. See handout.




Then we look at Everyday Writer pages 58-59.


Now for a prompt:

Look over the quotes and writing you have put in your daybook since the first day of class.  Think about the examples of directions you looked at, and the directions you wrote.

Write a short essay ( 5+ paragraphs) that explores/explains/describes the importance of considering/analyzing the audience for any written assignment. Use specific examples to support your points. Any kind (genre) of writing can be used as an example to support your point.


Homework:
1. Fill at least one page in your daybook brainstorming about the prompt. You may write out an entire essay if you wish. In class tomorrow you will type and print your essay to hand in.

2. TWFTD:  fanatic