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Fall 2012 True Stories Manual June 18
Fall 2012 True Stories Manual June 18
TRUE STORIES
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
COURSE OUTLINE GUIDE TO THE MEANING OF EDITING SQUIGGLES WRITING SAMPLE ORAL PRESENTATION ADVICE FOR ORAL PRESENTATIONS GIVING SPECIFIC DETAILS ORAL PRESENTATION ASSIGNMENT
LIST OF TRUE STORIES BOOKS
3 7 10 13 14 17 24 28 31 33
47 48 49 51 53 57 60 61 65 67 75 77 79 81 84 88 92 95 99 103 107 109 111 113 115 117 119 129 134 138 139 143
HOW TO READ A NON-FICTION TEXT RHETORIC = THE ART OF PERSUASION WRITING AN ANALYSIS OF A NON-FICTION TEXT RHETORICAL TECHNIQUES AND DEVICES EXERCISE IN RECOGNISING TECHNIQUES AND DEVICES INFORMAL WRITING ASSIGNMENT USING TECHNIQUES AND DEVICES MORE ABOUT IRONY IRONY RECORD IMAGERY IMAGERY RECORD
PERSONAL ESSAY TEXTS
FINDING A NATIONALITY THAT FITS, BY ISABEL THE MONSTER, BY DEEMS TAYLOR VINCENT THE CANYON, BY EDWARD ABBEYPLAYING FOR KEEPS, BY BETH PLAYING FOR KEEPS BY BETH KEPHART IF YOU DROP A STONE . . . , BY HUGH MACLENNAN I FELL IN LOVE OR MY HORMONES AWAKENED, BY JUDITH ORTIZ COFER SHORTER, SLOWER, WEAKER: AND THATS A GOOD THING, BY JAY TEITEL
STRUCTURE OF AN ESSAY ANALYZING A NON-FICTION TEXT GROUP WORK ON ANALYZING TECHNIQUES AND DEVICES IN A NON-FICTION TEXT ASSIGNMENT FOR THE INTRODUCTION TO ESSAY ANALYZING A NON-FICTION TEXT GRADE SHEET FOR INTRODUCTION TO AN ESSAY ANALYZING A NON-FICTION TEXT DRAFT INSTRUCTIONS FOR AN ESSAY ANALYZING A NON-FICTION TEXT OUTLINE FOR AN ESSAY ANALYZING A NON-FICTION TEXT GRADE SHEET FOR DRAFT OF AN ESSAY ANALYZING A NON-FICTION TEXT GUIDELINES FOR ACCURATE MLA QUOTATION QUOTING FROM ELECTRONIC AND INTERNET SOURCES CLOZE ON GUIDELINES FOR ACCURATE QUOTATION APPEARANCE OF AN MLA FORMAT ESSAY ASSIGNMENT FOR REVISED DRAFT OF AN ESSAY ANALYZING A NON-FICTION TEXT GRADE SHEET FOR A REVISEDDRAFT OF AN ESSAY ANLYZING A NON-FICTION TEXT
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GOLDEN RULES FOR WRITING A GOOD ANALYSIS OF A WORK OF LITERATURE WRITING A WORKING THESIS THE MAIN COMPONENTS OF AN ESSAY ANALYZING A NON-FICTION BOOK ASSIGNMENT FOR AN ESSAY ANALYZING A TRUE STORIES NON-FICTION BOOK STUDENT-TEACHER INTERVIEW ON ESSAY ANALYZING A TRUE STORIES NON-FICTION BOOK OUTLINE FOR AN ESSAY ANALYZING A NON-FICTION BOOK USING SOURCES TO BACK UP IDEAS IN AN ESSAY AVOIDING PLAGIARISM GRADE SHEET FOR ESSAY ANALYZING A TRUE STORIES NON-FICTION BOOK
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If you email me on Mio, or at [email protected], I will reply as soon as possible, except maybe on weekends. However, it is difficult for the teacher to sum up a 2-hour class if you have missed it. If you are regularly absent, do not ask the teacher to bring you up to date on class news: this is not an on-line course. Please do not email the teacher asking about what you missed or what assignments are due. Instead, find out from other students. Emails to the teacher about routine information that can be obtained from any student will not be answered. You may email the instructor about specific questions that apply to your individual work. The teacher will not reply to rude or angry emails, as she prefers to deal with students who have problems in person during office hours. Please use proper English grammar and punctuation in course-related e-correspondence. If you make a special arrangement with the teacher, e.g. about handing in a late assignment, please confirm the details by email to avoid confusion, and to make sure we have the details in writing.
OFFICE: 3D16 OFFICE HOURS: Tuesday 12 3 p.m. Friday 12 1 p.m. TELEPHONE: 514-931-8731 # 1307
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During office hours the teacher will be waiting for students to come to discuss course work and any matter of interest. If your schedule prevents you from coming during these office hours, you may make an appointment for another time. Sometimes it may be necessary to change these office hours; in this case students will be told in advance about the new time.
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The objective of this course is to enable students t apply a critical approach to literary genres. Students will learn to recognize literary genres and conventions. Students will also learn to situate a work within its literary and historical contexts and to analyze a representative work. On successful completion of this course, students will be able to produce a 1000-word analytical essay with the aid of reference material. This essay will demonstrate a knowledge of formal characteristics and literary and rhetorical devices. This essay will also demonstrate use of appropriate terminology and thorough revision of form and content.
A student graduating from an English 102 course: In reading recognizes formal characteristics of one or more literary genres understands the literal meaning of the text studied recognizes and appreciates the significance of stylistic and rhetorical features in the works studied perceives and appreciates the significance of historical and cultural context to the works studied In writing can formulate and develop a thesis statement that pertains to some formal aspect of a literary work (e.g., analysis of character, plot, language or patterns of language, etc.) can develop a critical analysis that is distinct from a personal reaction or plot summary can locate supporting evidence within the literary work, present it clearly and logically, and explain how the evidence supports the thesis can maintain unity and coherence throughout the essay can write relatively clear and error-free sentences
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Competency 4EA1: To apply a critical approach to literary genres. The following elements of the competency will be fully addressed: 1. To distinguish genres of literary texts. 2. To recognize the use of literary conventions within a specific genre. 3. To situate a work within its historical and literary period. 4. To explicate a discourse representative of a literary genre. 5. To edit the discourse. Specifically, students will know how: To analyze how authors work within the formal conventions of non-fiction to produce works of art To evaluate the authenticity of of non-fictional accounts To recognize the creative and narrative qualities of non-fiction. To write critical essays evaluating writers' work and discussing such literary techniques and devices closely related to non-fiction, like comparisoncontrast, persuasion, allusion, analogy etc.
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To write a structured academic essay To give specific support for arguments using quotations from, and paraphrases of, texts To revise writing and eliminate common writing errors To quote and reference accurately and write a Work(s) Cited page. Lectures, quizzes, reading questions, group activities, oral presentations and class discussions will be used to help students become thoroughly acquainted with the texts and backgrounds.
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6. LAPTOPS
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Dont use laptops or other electronic devices in this class. Phones should not be on your desk; if the teacher sees your phone out, she will confiscate it until the end of the class. Do not send or receive texts, as learning requires all your attention. The aforementioned rules are particularly important to follow during the writing of in-class essays, when consulting outside sources is considered plagiarism. To check meanings or spelling, or to find synonyms. use a printed dictionary.
7. TAKING NOTES
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If you are in this class, you must copy down the TIPS for good writing given at the beginning of the class. You are advised to develop the skill of taking detailed notes in this class. Even though much of the important material is in the Class Manual, you will miss many bits of information if you do not write them down in your own handwriting.
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1. 2.
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True Stories, Manual for Students of Paula Mc Cafferty, available in the Dawson Bookstore, containing samples of reality fiction and creative non-fiction essays, as well as important course information, and assignments. Wright, Richard. Black Boy. One other non-fiction book - Each student will be asked to read one book, written in English, in addition to the course readings, either a work of fiction based on a real situation, or a non-fiction text. The student will write the final essay for the course, focusing on stylistic aspects of the work they have chosen. For the essay, the student must show that he or she has read the book from start to finish. Optionally, some students may choose to do their oral presentation on the book they have chosen. Before students decide to adopt a book, they need to submit their choice to be approved by the teacher. Buying a book is not always required; a long-term loaned text (from a library?) can be used. Remember that this book will be needed for the final essay of the course, and, for some students, for the Oral presentation. Students can, for example, choose a biography, a story based on personal experiences, a sports memoir, a collection of letters, a diary or journal. Students are asked to avoid overworked texts, like the ones studied in elementary or high school. A magazine article or a short essay is not long enough for this exercise. You will meet with the teacher to discuss your final essay on this book before writing it.
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9. READING
Students in this course will be asked to read texts in and out of class. You cannot pass the course if you do not do the required reading.
Students will write three formal essays. Essays are written in class, and also typed on computer. Outlines for Essays may be prepared outside of class. Essays are judged according to evaluation grids which are in the Manual, so you will have a chance to build on your strengths and work on improving your writing skills individually. Before handing in an essay assignment, check the appropriate Grade sheet in the class Manual to see what competencies will be graded.
There will be several informal writing assignments of about 300 words each. These writing samples are given a general mark, with special emphasis on content - what you have to say -, and less on grammar, and spelling, provided that you write in fairly understandable English.
To make sure that students are keeping up with the assigned readings, short quizzes will be given, usually at the beginning of class. Reading questions will also be assigned to allow for close text reading.
You will be given instructions on how to give effective oral presentations. The time limit for each presentation and any subsequent questions from other students will be 15 minutes. TIME YOUR ORAL. Students will be judged on their oral skills by other members of the class, and grades will be given individually. There will also be a short Group Oral on Black Boy, by Richard Wright.
A minimum grade of 60% is required to pass the course. The grades for this course will be distributed as follows: Formal essay # 1 Introduction Formal essay 1000 words: first draft Formal essay - 1000 words: Reviseddraft 5% 15% 20%
End-of semester essay - 750 words Informal writing assignments (averaged) Oral presentation to the class on a True Story book Class quizzes and Reading questions (averaged) Group presentation on Black Boy Student-teacher Interview about True Stories final essay
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"80% of success is just showing up." -- Woody Allen Everyone has the right to a safe and non-violent environment. Students are obliged to conduct themselves as stated in the Student Code of Conduct and in the ISEP section on the roles and responsibilities of students. (ISEP Section II-D) This teacher gives and expects respect. When the teacher is talking, unless you are called on to participate or want to ask a question, you should never be talking to someone else. Talking distracts the teacher and dilutes the quality of the instruction that is given to other attentive participants in class. You will be asked politely to stop taking. Should anyone be foolish enough to continue conversing while the teacher is speaking will be asked to take the conversation elsewhere. MISSING CLASSES AND COMING TO CLASS LATE Students should refer to the Institutional Student Evaluation Policy (ISEP section III-C) regarding attendance.
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If you want to succeed in this course, you must attend all classes. Attendance is taken at the start of every class. Do not schedule non-emergency doctors, dentists or driving test appointments during class time. Work schedules or the demands of other courses cannot be used as an excuse for not fulfilling the requirements of this English course. Anyone who misses 6 classes will be asked to discuss his or her commitment to the course with the teacher. Coming late is not encouraged as it disrupts the class, and shows a lack of serious interest on the part of the offending student. But if you are late, please come to class anyway. Part of a class is better than no class. If you come in late, sign your name on the late sheet. The class lasts 1 hour and 45 minutes. Please do not walk out of class; if you have to leave early, be polite and let the teacher know. Never leave class when a student is in the middle of an oral presentation. And, if you are outside the classroom, do not even think of walking in until the student giving an oral is finished. DOING ALL ASSIGNMENTS Students have to do all assignments. You are expected to do three hours of homework per week for this course. It is very important that you keep all your assignments until the course is over. HANDING ASSIGNMENTS IN ON TIME Late assignments are not acceptable. Missing a class does not give students an excuse for failing to hand in work on time Late work will be accepted ONLY IF YOU INFORM THE TEACHER BY EMAIL ON LEA, BY TELEPHONE OR IN PERSON AND IF YOU HAVE A LEGITIMATE EXCUSE. Do not assume that you may submit late assignments without any explanation. If you hand in a late assignment, keep a copy, and make sure you leave it at the teacher's office: 3D16, with your name and the teachers name clearly written. In the unusual case where late work is accepted, the latest for submitting such work is one week after the original due date. Do not fall behind, as assignments are returned promptly to students, and then the class moves on. WRITING IN-CLASS ESSAYS APPROXIMATELY 6 CLASSES WILL BE USED FOR THE WRITING OF IN-CLASS ESSAYS. STUDENTS MUST BE PRESENT FOR THESE CLASSES, SINCE THESE ESSAYS MAY NOT BE WRITTEN AT HOME. (Any essay written at home will be graded at half the value.) Tentative due dates for Essays are in the schedule below. You will be given firm dates as the semester proceeds. For essays written in class, your assignment is due by the end of the last class devoted to essay-writing. It is important that students prepare for the writing of in-class essays and fill in outlines at home, since there will be no extensions of in-class writing time. Essays will be written by hand in Exam booklets. Some essays may be typed later, and you will be asked to hand in both the handwritten and the typed versions. The typed essay must be a faithful copy of what you have written by hand. However, you may make minor changes. It is not acceptable for a student to type an in-class essay without first writing a handwritten version, as doing so would mean the student had an
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advantage over other writers. If, for some reason, you do not type a version of an in-class essay, the handwritten sample will be used for grading. The first two essays are formative and they will be edited in a way that will allow you to work on your strengths and improve on your weaknesses. The last essay will be summative, and the number of errors will be a factor in the grade you receive.
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GIVING THE TEACHER ADVANCE NOTICE OF MISSING CLASS FOR INTENSIVE COURSES OR RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS If a student is attending an intensive course, the student must inform the teacher, within the first two weeks of class, of the specific dates of any anticipated absences. Students who intend to observe religious holidays must inform their teachers in writing as prescribed in the ISEP Policy on Religious Observances (ISEP Section III-D) within the first two weeks of each semester of their intent to observe the holiday so that alternative arrangements convenient to both the student and the teacher can be made at the earliest opportunity. This written notice must be given even when the exact date of the holiday will not be known until later. Students who make such arrangements will not be required to attend classes or take examinations on the designated days, nor be penalized for their absence.
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The teacher will do everything possible to help students make up for the material you miss. If you do not tell the teacher that you will be absent from class for religious reasons, you will not get this special treatment. You are responsible for completing all assignments you miss and handing them in at the teachers office on the days that you are in school, even if you have no English class on those days. CLASS MANUAL Do not come to class without your Manual and any required text. If you occasionally do not have a Manual, it is your responsibility to ask another student to let you share. Do not sit in class wasting your time. If you regularly fail to bring your Manual or follow along, the teacher will suggest that you should spend your time elsewhere.
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17. TENTATIVE SCHEDULE TENTATIVE MEANS APPROXIMATE. YOU WILL BE GIVEN EXACT DATES AS THE COURSE PROGRESSES.
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WE 1. EK
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13 14. 15.
TOPICS
Introduction Oral presentation instructions Conventions of True Story writing Techniques of non-fiction The Personal Essay Main Components of an Essay Meaning of Correction Squiggles Guidelines for MLA quotation Black Boy: Section 1 Black Boy: Section 2 Black Boy: Sections 3 and 4 Group orals on Black Boy Interviews for final essay Quiz Quiz
ASSIGNMENTS
In-class Writing Sample Sign-up for Oral presentation
Writing of Introduction of Essay # 1 Writing of draft of Essay on: 1000 words in class Writing of RevisedDraft of Essay: Typed in MLA style: 1000 words Reading questions Reading questions Reading questions
Writing of Final Essay: 750 words, in class on book chosen by student Self-evaluation
This course outline has been prepared in conformity with the institutional Student Evaluation Policy (I.S.E.P.), which is designed to promote equitable and effective evaluation of student learning and is therefore a crucial policy to read and understand. The policy describes the rights and obligations of students, faculty, departments, programs, and the College administration with regard to evaluation in all your courses, including grade reviews and resolution of academic grievance. ISEP is available on the Dawson website.
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If you see a circle round an error, or if the error is underlined on your grade sheet, it means you really have to work on this error: e.g. R/O If you have two errors in the same place, there will be 2 notations separated by a forward slash: e.g. ts/sp (this means you have shifted tense, and you have a spelling error.)
ERROR
agr art awk awk ss C CX Cap X c cp ct DS ex evidence? f fam fn X + h, -h IX It mod O p// page? agreement problem - e.g. between subject and verb problem with articles (a, an, the) = add or omit article
awkward you are not saying what you really mean This awkward sentence does not quite work
Capitalize initial letter. Do not capitalize initial letter Do not capitalize every letter, just initial letter clich = find another way to say this incomplete comparison (e.g. better than what?) Do not use contraction Double space your writing for editing expression problem = this is not good English You need to quote or give an example from the text or another source to prove your point fragment, not a sentence, verb or subject missing too familiar or slang = use formal language Do not use authors first name Add, remove hyphen Do not use the first person (I, me, my) Use italics for title of a book, magazine, newspaper, film etc. misplaced or dangling modifier Omit = leave this out parallelism error Put in the page number (+ author, if necessary) for direct quotation, or paraphrased information
use word in plural, not singular pronoun reference or pronoun shift poor style = do not refer to your essay, point, or thesis in your essay Do not refer to the authors words as, this quote. Instead say, these words. problem possessive Add quotation marks wrong use of quotation marks; remove them Check that your quotation reproduces the author's words accurately Quote directly; it is not clear what you are referring to here redundancy = you are saying the same thing twice in slightly different words run-on sentence same word or phrase repeated = omit or find new word(s) Use word in singular, not plural Sentence is too long; divide it up Major problem with sentence structure. Rewrite Check spelling shift in verb tense = keep to all present or all past. **The first few incorrect tense shifts are marked ts, then following verbs in wrong tense are crossed out like this: went Do not underline wrong verb tense/ wrong verb form Word does not exist in English wrong choice of word not exactly the right meaning Change word order wrong part of speech wrong word Do not address the reader as, you Word should be divided into two words Add word(s) you have left out
ww you X
?? #
What do you mean? I don't understand number problem Leave out unnecessary punctuation - comma, period, semi-colon, colon, question mark, exclamation point Add punctuation comma, period, semi-colon, colon, question mark, exclamation point Underlining, italics, exclamation point, capitalization not needed to emphasize your point Take a new paragraph, no need for a new paragraph Indent five spaces for paragraph
-, -. -; -: -? -!
+, +. +; +: +?* ! +
, No
)X ]X
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This first piece of writing for the Literary Genres course is to be used as a writing sample. You will judge your own paper at the end of the course. You will then be able to see what you have learned from the course.
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Read the text, Snapshot of a Dog, and write an essay of 400 words, double-spaced on the following topic: The Main Idea of Snapshot of a Dog 1. State a main idea expressed by James Thurber in Snapshot of a Dog. 2. Discuss the success of the author's use of techniques and devices (for example, imagery, irony, description, persuasion, comparison-contrast, generalization and examples, exaggeration, analogy, anecdote, humor, figurative language), to express this idea.
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SNAPSHOT OF A DOG
By James Thurber
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I ran across a dim photograph of him the other day. He's been dead 25 years. His name was Rex (my two brothers and I named him) and he was a bull terrier. "An American bull terrier," we used to say, proudly; none of your English bulls. He had one brindle eye that sometimes made him look like a clown and sometimes reminded you of a politician with derby hat and cigar. The rest of him was white except for a brindle saddle and a brindle stocking on a hind leg. Nevertheless, there was a nobility about him. He was big and muscular and beautifully made. He never lost his dignity even when trying to accomplish the extravagant tasks my brother and I used to set for him. 12
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One of these was the bringing of a ten-foot wooden rail into the yard through the back gate. We would throw it out into the alley and tell him to get it. Rex was as powerful as a wrestler, and he would catch the rail at the balance, lift it clear of the ground, and trot with great confidence toward the gate. Of course, the gate being only four feet wide, he couldn't bring the rail in broadside. He found that out when he got a few terrific jolts, but he wouldn't give up. He finally figured out how to do it, by dragging the rail, holding onto one end, growling. He got a great, wagging satisfaction out of his work. He was a tremendous fighter, but he never started fights. He never went for a dog's throat but for one of its ears (that teaches a dog a lesson), and he would get his grip, close his eyes, and hold on. He could hold on for hours. His longest fight lasted from dusk to almost pitch-dark, one Sunday. It was fought with a large, snarly nondescript belonging to a large colored man. When Rex finally got his ear grip, the brief whirlwind of snarling turned to screeching. It was frightening to listen to and to watch. A negro boldly picked the dogs up, swung them around his head, and finally let them fly like a hammer in a hammer throw, but although they landed ten feet away, with a great plump, Rex still held on. Working their way to the middle of the car tracks, two or three streetcars were held up by the fight. A motorman tried to pry Rex's jaws open with a switch rod; somebody lighted a stick and held it to Rex's tail but he paid no attention. Rex's joy of battle, when battle was joined, was almost tranquil. He had a kind of pleasant expression during fights, his eyes closed in what would have seemed to be sleep had it not been for the turmoil of the struggle. The Fire Department finally had to be sent for and a powerful stream of water turned on the dogs for several moments before Rex finally let go. The story of that Homeric fight got all around town, and some of our relatives considered it a blot on the family name. They insisted we get rid of Rex, but nobody could have made us give him up. We would have left town with him first. It would have been different, perhaps, if he had ever looked for trouble. But he had a gentle disposition. He never bit a person in the ten strenuous years that he lived, nor ever growled at anyone except prowlers. Swimming was his favorite recreation. The first time he ever saw a body of water, he trotted nervously along the steep bank for a while, fell to barking wildly, and finally plunged in from a height of eight feet or more. I shall always remember that shining, virgin dive. Then he swam upstream and back just for the pleasure of it, like a man. It was fun to see him battle upstream against a stiff current, growling every foot of the way. He had as much fun in the water as any person I have ever known. You didn't have to throw a stick into the water to get him to go in. Of course, he would bring back a stick if you did throw one in. He would have brought back a piano if you had thrown one in. That reminds me of the night he went a-roving in the light of the moon and brought back a small chest of drawers he had found somewhere--how far from the house nobody ever knew. There were no drawers in the chest when he got it home, and it wasn't a good one--just an old cheap piece abandoned on a trash heap. Still it was something he wanted, probably because it presented a nice problem in transportation. We first knew about his achievement when, deep in the night, we heard sounds as if two or three people were trying to tear the house down. We came downstairs and turned on the porch light. Rex was on the top step, trying to pull the thing up, but it had caught and he was just holding his own. I suppose he would have held his own until dawn if we hadn't helped him. Next day we carted the chest miles away and threw it out. If we had thrown it out nearby, he would have brought it home again, as a small token of his integrity in such matters. 13
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There was in his world no such thing as the impossible. Even death couldn't beat him down. He died, it is true, but only, as one of his admirers said, after "straight-arming the death angel" for more than an hour. Late one afternoon he wandered home, too slowly and uncertainly to be the Rex that had trotted briskly homeward up our avenue for ten years. I think we all knew when he came through the gate that he was dying. He had apparently taken a terrible beating, probably from the owner of some dog he had got into a fight with. His head and body were scarred, and some of the brass studs of his heavy collar were sprung loose. He licked at our hands and, staggering, fell, but got up again. We could see that he was looking for someone. One of his three masters was not home. He did not get home for an hour. During that hour the bull terrier fought against death as he had fought against the cold, strong current of the creek. When the person he was waiting for did come through the gate, whistling, ceasing to whistle, Rex walked a few wobbly paces toward him, touched his hand with his muzzle, and fell down again. This time he didn't get up. http://www.game-dog.com/showthread.php?t=29714&mode=hybrid
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ORAL PRESENTATION
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People cannot absorb a huge amount of material in one sitting. Just give one main idea, with good points to back it up.
Avoid obvious political topics that will antagonize members of your audience, or make them feel uncomfortable. This English class is not a political forum.
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6. SHOW CONFIDENCE
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We all have nervous tics, like blinking our eyes frequently or keeping our head down these are signs of anxiety. If youre afraid, channel your fear into positive energy. If youre not a little bit nervous, you wont be a good speaker. You dont actually have to be confident. You just have to look confident.
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7. TAKE CHARGE
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Remember you have center stage for the few minutes you are presenting. Dont start talking until everyone is quiet and taking notice of you as they should be. The best presentations are made when the speaker is standing up, but many students prefer to sit. Dont swing your feet or do anything that will distract your listeners from the important stuff you are telling them. You must also work on getting rid of stress and being relaxed before your classmates. They are going to be in the same position as you, so consider them as a sympathetic audience. If you try to make your speech into a conversation you will tune into the audience instead of to yourself. Be open to interacting and having fun with your audience.
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Take advantage of the dramatic pause when saying something particularly important. It gives people time to prepare for an important thought. If the pause is after the thought, it gives time for the idea to sink in. Sometimes the space between words is as important as the words themselves.
You may have many words to say but there is no oral presentation worse than one that is a simple reading of a written text. If you want to read, make sure you pause between sentences, and look at the class. Also, hold the paper out in front in such a way that you are looking forward, and your voice is projected.
Audiences want the speaker to succeed. Minor glitches can occur. The audience will forgive mistakes if you fix them immediately. If you lose your place, quickly find it and at the end no one will remember that it happened. If you read something wrong, just say, I think I read that wrong. Let me try that again.
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If you are using visual aids make sure that your audience will all be able to see what you are showing them and that it is relevant to what you are saying. Never talk about something the whole class cannot see. Photographs and artwork that you pass round the class often distract people from what you are saying. With computer programs, check that Dawson equipment can open your files.
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7. Who are the people in this scene? How many are there? Does the group contain only males, only females, or a mixture of the two? 8. What is a nice dinner? 9. What is a beautiful night? 10. How warm is not too cold? 11. What sounds did the people hear? 12. How many bugs are not too many? What kind of bugs were they? 13. How long did the people talk and about what, and what decision did they make? Compare the following paragraphs, and decide how they differ:
FIRST VERSION
In the early morning, I am easily annoyed by my roommate. I have to shut the ice-covered windows. A white tornado of dandruff swirls around the room. A mass of smoke from cigarettes hovers near the door. No wonder I find my roommate annoying.
SPECIFIC VERSION
In the early morning, I am easily annoyed by my roommate. I have to shut the ice-covered windows that John, my roommate, insists on opening every night, even during the winter. A white tornado swirling around the room shows me that his dandruff problem is still in full force. A mass of smoke from Johns pack-aday habit hovers near the door. No wonder I find my roommate annoying.
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FIRST VERSION
He opened the cage, and an animal came out.
SPECIFIC VERSION
He unlatched the cage, and an armadillo emerged.
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Rewrite the following vague, imprecise statements, adding specific details so that each creates a clear picture in the readers mind. Do not write a scenario. Just describe each scene by adding more specific details.
Professor Green has two On weekdays, Professor Green drives a rusty, faded blue Pinto cars. that sounds like a cement mixer as it chugs by in a cloud of oily fumes; on weekends, however, he glides around town in his sleek red Porsche. a.
FIRST VERSION
I felt ill.
SPECIFIC VERSION
(Describe your symptoms.)
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b.
FIRST VERSION
That house is attractive
SPECIFIC VERSION
(Give your reader a picture of the house by giving specific details of what it looks like.)
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FIRST VERSION
We had a good lunch.
SPECIFIC VERSION
(Give specific details of what you had.)
d.
FIRST VERSION
My room is a mess.
SPECIFIC VERSION
(Give clear details of the mess.)
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EXERCISE 2
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Name _______________________________________________________________________ a.
FIRST VERSION
Even close neighbors can be annoying.
SPECIFIC VERSIONS
(Give at least three specific examples of things neighbors do to be annoying. Use examples from your own experience.) A.
B.
C.
b.
FIRST VERSION
SPECIFIC VERSIONS
Students at Cegep have a lot (Give three specific examples of what you have to suffer as a to put up with. college student) A.
B.
C.
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c.
FIRST VERSION
SPECIFIC VERSIONS
Movie stars often have (Give three specific details of actual difficulties movie stars difficulty sustaining stable may have. Use exact names if you like.) relationships A.
B.
C.
d.
FIRST VERSION
Technology is making our lives better.
SPECIFIC VERSIONS
(Write three examples of gadgets or electronic advances that make our lives better, and tell us specifically how these technical advances have helped people.) A.
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INTRODUCTION
Start: give subject of the presentation. Dividing the presentation into 3(?) parts: Part 1 will deal with. . . .
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BODY
Talk about Part 1. Then, Part 2.
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Present Part 3.
CONCLUSION
Sum up your presentation, and ask if there are any questions.
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MINIMUM TIME EACH STUDENT SHOULD PRESENT: 5 MINUTES TOTAL TIME FOR 2 STUDENTS INCLUDING ANY VIDEOS, POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, QUESTIONS FROM THE CLASS AND GRADING: 15 MINUTES
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Choose one of the following 3 options, and read and follow the instructions for each option carefully.
The advantage of choosing this option is that it you may be able to use some of the same material for your end-of-semester essay. The disadvantage is that you would have to read your book early in the semester, if your oral is scheduled then. Make an oral presentation on the non-fiction book, outside the course readings, that you are going to use for the last class essay. The book must be written in English. Buying a book is not always required; a long-term borrowed text (from a library?) can be used. Remember, though, that you will need the book twice - once for the Oral presentation, and once for your end-of-semester essay. You could choose a biography, a story based on personal experiences, a sports memoir, a collection of letters, a diary or journal. Avoid overworked texts, like the ones studied frequently in elementary or high school. A magazine article or an essay is not long enough for this exercise. The oral presentation should not be just a retelling of the story of the book; use the suggested categories to comment on the story.
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1 . 2 . 3 .
Give the title, the authors name and the first date of publication. Give a brief synopsis of what the book is about. Do not spoil the book by giving away the ending. People in class listening to you may want to read the book for themselves. The oral must not be just a retelling of the story of the book. Divide your oral into sections 2, 3 or 4. Announce your sections as you begin your oral.
Choose from the following suggested sections, but not necessarily in the order below: for each section, if possible, read out a few specific short passages, or quotations, and better still, put them on PowerPoint or Word and project them for the class to see. Give your audience a clear idea of what is in the book. a. Background facts and the time period of the book that you have researched b. One or more reasons why you chose the book - is it as a result of personal interest, or because someone told you about it , or what? Say why you relate to it personally. Is it an experiences that a family member or someone you know has gone through? Why does seem well written or worth reading? c. New things you learned in the book 3 or 4 typical examples. It is a very good idea to read a vey short passage or passages from the text to give your listeners an idea of what the book is like maybe put some extracts on screen for the class to see. d. Particularly interesting or surprising parts of the book 3 or 4 examples - You could read a vey short passage or passages from the text maybe put them on screen for the class to see. e. 3 or 4 specific illustrations of how the time, place and situation described in the book is different from our life in Montreal now f. Details of how this book has changed or deepened your picture of the person or situation that is described 3 or 4 concrete examples g. Information about whether the experiences recounted in this book appear to be typical of what would be expected 3 or 4 specific examples h. Evidence to show whether this account seems real enough to be regarded as a truthful representation of reality -unless the life of the author is relevant to the book, do not spend much time on biographical details. This Oral presentation does not require you to get involved in deep independent research on a topic. When there are gross errors in a so-called factual narrative, it is enough for you to base an analysis on your own judgment. The web is also a good source to check inaccuracies in a text that claims authenticity. i. Opinions of critics about the book 3 or 4 examples. Do not just quote from the blurbs on the back cover; instead go to the internet, and try to use criticisms that are a few sentences long. Choose opinions of established literary critics, from newspapers and magazines, like The New York Times, for example, rather than informal blurbs from individuals. Put the authors name in the internet search, so you will be dealing with criticisms of the book, and not a movie version. A bad critique is often interesting. You could add details of any award nominations the book has got, or any prizes it has won; how popular is the work; how many copies have been sold; was it on any best-seller list and for how long; has it been made into a movie? is it translated into other languages? j. It is acceptable to introduce and present a clip of a tie-in, like a documentary or YouTube video, or movie on your topic, for example (but NO TRAILERS; no spoiling of the ending, and no life stories of the actors). You need to show your audience that you have read the text, not just seen the movie. It would be good if you compared the movie and book versions of the story. k. Life lessons from the book for you personally, or for society in general l. New developments: things that happened since the book was published m Any other aspect connected with the book that you want to talk about
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. 610 Discuss each of the sections you have chosen, following the same order you used in your introduction. Finish off your oral with a question, or a call to action etc. After you present the book to the class, ask if anyone has questions about it.
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Make an oral presentation about a true story tell the story to the class. But just telling the story by itself is not enough for this presentation. You must use the suggestions below to comment on the story. Choose a story about something that happened to you or to a member of your family or a friend. You could also talk about something that happened to people you do not know something in the news, or from the internet, for example. Try to tell a story that is unusual enough to capture the attention of your classmates. A story that teaches a life lesson is often interesting. The oral should be presented in the following way: 1. 2. Give the details of the people involved; perhaps indicate how you heard the story. Divide your oral into sections 2, 3 or 4. Announce your sections as you begin your oral.
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Choose from the following suggested sections, but not necessarily in the order below: for each section, give clear, specific details and put photographs, documents on PowerPoint or Word, and project them for the class to see. a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. k. l. j.
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The story itself One or more reasons why you chose the story - maybe why it relates to you personally, or deals with experiences that a family member or someone you know has gone through; or the reasons why it seems interesting to you Background facts and the time period of the story Particularly interesting or surprising aspects of the story 3 or 4 examples 3 or 4 specific illustrations of how the time, place and situation of the story is different from our life in Montreal now Details of how this story has changed or deepened your picture of the person or situation that is described 3 or 4 concrete examples Information about what happened after the period of the story if you dont know this from personal experience, maybe you can research it on the internet Information about whether the experiences of the people in the story appear to be typical of what would be expected 3 or 4 specific examples Evidence to show that this account is a truthful representation of reality A photograph, document or video, con nected to your story Life lessons you learned from hearing (or living) the experiences of the story. Later developments: things that happened after the time of the story Any other aspect you want to talk about
Discuss each of the sections you have chosen, following the same order you used in your introduction. Finish off your oral with a question, or a call to action etc. After you present the story to the class, ask if your listeners have any questions about it.
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Make an oral presentation on a documentary film that deals with a certain situation, individual, or milieu, with a social or political significance. The documentary should be at least 45 minutes - 1 hour long. Your presentation should not just be the story of the film; use the suggestions below to comment on the documentary you choose. The oral should be presented in the following way: 1. Give the title, the directors name if appropriate, and the date of release. 2. Give a brief synopsis of what the documentary is about. The oral must not be just a retelling of the story of the movie. 3. Divide your oral into sections 2, 3 or 4. Announce your sections as you begin your oral.
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Choose from the following suggested sections, but not necessarily in the order below: for each section, give clear, specific details and use still photographs or short clips from the film or video, or related documents on PowerPoint or Word. NO TRAILERS, please. Give your audience a clear idea of what is in the movie. Background facts that you have researched and the time period of the movie One or more reasons why you chose the movie - maybe why it relates to you personally, or talks about experiences that a family member or someone you know has gone through; or the reasons why it seems particularly well made or relevant c. New things you learned from the movie 3 or 4 typical examples d. Particularly interesting or surprising parts of the movie 3 or 4 examples e. Details of how movie has changed or deepened your picture of the person or situation that is described 3 or 4 concrete examples f. 3 or 4 specific illustrations of how the time, place and situation described in the video is different from our life in Montreal now g. Information about whether the experiences recounted in this video appear to be typical of what would be expected 3 or 4 specific examples h. Evidence to show whether this account seems real enough to be regarded as a truthful representation of reality - This Oral presentation does not require you to get involved in deep independent research on a topic. When there are gross errors in a so-called factual narrative, it is enough for you to base an analysis on your own judgment. The web is also a good source to check inaccuracies in a text that claims authenticity. i. Public reactions to the movie, or opinions of critics about the movie 3 or 4 examples. Try to use criticisms that are a few sentences long. Choose opinions of established literary critics, from newspapers and magazines, like The New York Times, for example, rather than informal blurbs from individuals. A bad critique is often interesting. You could add details of any award nominations the movie has got, or any prizes it has won; how popular it is j. Life lessons from the movie about the topic for you personally or for society k. Later developments that occurred after the movie came out j. Any other aspect you want to talk about Discuss each of the sections you have chosen, following the same order you used in your introduction. Finish off your oral with a question, or a call to action etc. After you present the movie, ask the class if anyone has any questions about it. a. b.
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Add to this list as the semester progresses. City of God, Dominique Lapierre Angelas Ashes, Frank McCourt Montreals Irish Mafia DArcy OConnor Papillon, Henri Charriere Love Thy Neighbor, Peter Maass Miracle in the Andes, Nando Parrado Sex on the Moon, Ben Mezrich A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard The Family that Nobody Wanted, Helen Doss
Dont Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, Tim Allen
The Game, Ken Dryden Pistol: The Pete Maravich Story, Mark Kriegel My Friend Leonard, James Frey A Child Called It, David Pelzer
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TOTAL TIME FOR BOTH STUDENTS INCLUDING ANY VIDEOS, POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, QUESTIONS FROM THE CLASS AND GRADING: 15 MINUTES
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
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or press the W key for a white screen. 20. Read out what is on each slide to the listeners. 21. Include some slides that answer questions that you expect to be asked after the presentation. 22. Use a template to make your presentation look different. 23. Limit the words on each slide to 15 words maximum. 24. Make sure font size is big enough so that the audience can read it even from the back of the room minimum 28 or 32 point, with titles 36 to 44 point. 25. Use clip-art rather than photos. 26. Show the audiences things that illustrate what you are saying. 27. If you are finished discussing a slide, switch the display off, or replace it with wallpaper.
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Brown, Christy. My Left Foot. London: Vintage, 1998. 112-114. Total # of pages 184..ISBN: 0749391774 = (3pp.)
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They all laughed at that-the idea of a woman building a house! Next day mother rose particularly early, got breakfast ready very fast, sent the six younger children off to school and got through all the household work during the morning so that she could have the whole afternoon free. Lunch-time came and went as usual. Mother didn't say a word of what was in her head to anyone. At about four o'clock that afternoon I suddenly noticed that mother was spending a lot of time in the back of the house. Then I became aware of peculiar sounds coming from the back garden. Very curious, I managed to stumble to the pantry window. I looked out. There was mother, on her knees on the grass, a bucket of cement on one side of her and a jug of water on the other. She held a trowel in her right hand. She was looking proudly at the line of blocks she had already set out before her. That evening when she had served dinner and tea, she went quietly back to her work in the back garden. A few minutes later, father, happening to go into the yard for something saw her. He stood stock still, then slowly he approached the growing wall. He touched it with his foot. "What's this?" he asked. "What do you think you're doing? Mother looked up. "I'm building Christy's house," she said, setting in another block. Father said nothing for a minute or so, he just watched... Then he looked a bit closer. Then his hand went out; he pulled it back. He walked to the other end of the line of blocks. His upper lip twitched a bit; he paused. At last he said, "Look-it. You're doing it all wrong woman. Where's your foundation?" "I knew I was forgetting something," mother answered rather crossly. The five bricklayers stood and looked at each other. 40
"C'mon," said father as mother disappeared into the house. "Let's start."
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So they built my little house in the back garden. The work went through many vicissitudes and it looked at one time as though it would never be finished. The thing that held us up most of all was money. Mother's stock had been used up quickly and we seemed to come to a standstill. Father asked me one day what it looked like with only the four walls built and concrete foundation put in. "Like an unfinished symphony," I said. Then mother managed to scrape together another few pounds and the-work was resumed again. They appointed me foreman over them, and from time to time I pointed. out to them what way I'd like certain parts of it built and where I wanted the fire-place, the window and the door. There were many debates between father and the four boys on technical points which I didn't understand, though I'd try to look very learned as I listened to them. After some months the roof was put on and the ceiling backed up. Then the funds ran low again and operation house ceased. Later things brightened up. They got to work on the floor and hearthstone, and next they put in the window frames and the door. The chimney was already up, of course, so that at least we could have a fire in it, if nothing else. Slowly, by degrees, the place began to take shape; the window panes were in, the walls wereplastered and even a wooden skirting ran around the floor. As far as the actual building of it was concerned it was finished.
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Brown, Christy. Down all the Days. New Your: Stein and Day, 1970. 48-50. ISBN: 812813073. Total # pages 271 = (3 pp).
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'Wheres me curse-of-God dinner, woman?' asked Father, jerking out of a momentary slumber and struggling upright on the chair. 'It's in front of you, sure,' Mother told him. Father looked at it with a sort of bilious leer. 'This?' he said, poking at it with a rigid index finger. 'This freezing mess? You call this a dinner? Get off your arse and get me a proper meal and me after slaving all day for you and your shower of shitty orphans!' Mother, sensing the increasing ugliness of his mood, put aside her sewing and stood up uncertainly. 'But it's what you like,' she said, fingers toying nervously with a button of her blouse. Its what you always ask for on a Thursday cabbage and potatoes and a pigs' check and a few feet. Father pulled himself up, holding on to the table and glaring at her with sudden hate. 'And you know what I want, don't you?' he said, the spittle seeping out of the comers of his mouth. 'You always knew what I wanted, didn't you?' he said, lumbering towards her, taut-fingered hands groping at her blouse, yanking buttons off. 'This - and this - and this!' he muttered, pushing her into the corner. 'Don't . . . the boy!' cried Mother in fright, her fingers gripping her torn blouse as she crouched against the wall. 'Let him see!' roared Father, staggering on his feet, raising his voice higher as the baby began to wail once more. 'Let them all see how you saddled me with your litter of bastards! There's probably another one in the bag as it is! You didn't crack till you had me tied hand and foot with a dozen shitty little effers!' 'They were all born decent,' said Mother, struggling to elude him. 'They were all born proper in the sight of God!' 'In the sight of my bleeding cock, YOU mean!' Father roared, flinging out a hand to save himself from falling, holding on to her with the other, shaking her up and down. 'Think yourself a martyr, don't you? Think you're bearing it all for the glory of God! You wouldn't know what it felt like to enjoy it, would you?' 'For God's sake-the boy!' gasped Mother, clutching the dresser for support as he shook her with his loose casual strength. 'You married beneath yourself, remember!' rasped Father, quivering with a sort of helpless rage. 'I wasn't good enough for you! Dorset Street wasnt good enough for the barons of Smithfield! You had to go without all your finery when you married me-your lace shifts and petticoats and hand-embroidered drawers!' 'Take your dinner-please,' Mother pleaded, worn out, struggling free and stumbling away from him, wiping the specks of blood from her lip with the back of her hand. 'Take your dinner in peace, like any Christian man.' 'This is what I think of your slop!' Father shouted, zig-zagging back to the table. The plate of cabbage and potatoes came flying through the air, just missing Mother's head as she ducked instinctively, crashing against the wall behind her, the vegetables clinging to the wallpaper, leaving great greenish stains. The table was upended and went over with a deafening 42
bang; the baby squealed in terror, as the clock fell and smashed on to the hearthstone. Father slipped and slithered crazily over the floor littered with meat and steaming globs of cabbage-, he fell on to his knees, cursing, then started to vomit up without warning, the slimy bileful contents of his drink sodden stomach spewing in a brown murky jet over Mother's slippered feet.
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Hambleton, Georgina Louise. Christy Brown The Life that Inspired My Left Foot. Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2007. 167, 169, 188, 189, 190 Total pages: 238. ISBN: 9781845962807. = (5 pp.).
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Mary went back to London, and, as she said to Davies in 1989, she realised she missed him. She discussed the idea of marrying Christy with her friends there, most of whom told her they thought it was a terrible plan. Others said maybe it could work, but even they doubted if she would be able to give up her old lifestyle. Marrying Christy meant making a commitment, and not just a matrimonial one but a huge physical and mental one. He needed caring for all the time, as Bridget had done and now Ann did. If Mary got married to Christy, she would have to make sure he was fed and bathed and that his drinking did not spiral out of control. His disability combined with his personality and his addiction meant Mary would have to work at least twice as hard as most people do in a marriage. She thought about her options and decided what to do. Three weeks after he had proposed to her, she wrote to Christy and told him she wanted to marry him. .... On 5 October 1972, at 1.30 p.m., Christy Brown and Mary Carr were married in a registry office on Kildare Street in Dublin. They had a luncheon reception on the coast, at the Sutton House Hotel in County Dublin. There was a head table for the bride and groom and several tables laid out for the guests. Gay Byrne sat with Patricia Sheehan and Kevin McClory; Ulick O'Connor, Richard Harris and all Christy's brothers and sisters who were then alive (Paddy, Mona, Ann Sein, Eamonn, Francis and Jim) attended. Pearson says, 'The wedding day was phenomenal, it was a beautiful day. The sun was out, everyone was lying on the lawn outside Sutton House. I think it [Christy and Mary's marriage] lasted much longer than anyone thought it was going to last.' 44
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However, the wedding was also a difficult affair, he recalls: 'It was all very tight, very tense, everybody was ... thinking there was gonna be a row'. O'Connor remembers, 'He [Noel Pearson] organised the family generally. I remember Christy was in a chair and her ladyship was up front, not really behaving herself. I must say, I gave my congratulations to Christy but he complained bitterly about her already having gone off and had a lesbian affair in London and that sort of stuff - well, "bitterly" is the wrong word, he just said she'd done it, but obviously he was upset.' He was alone except for Mary and, by all accounts, she was not as able to help him as she should have been. .... On 15 February 1981, seven months before he died, Christy went missing. None of his friends or family in Dublin could locate him. In fact, his 'disappearance' was the result of the move to England he had not informed anyone close to him of the change. Dr. Sheehan was so desperate to get in touch with Christy, she used all the contacts she had in the medical field in Ireland to try to find out where he was. She received the following reply: Dear Patsy, I spoke to Jack O'Connor the RMS of St Finian's Hospital this morning. Christy Brown was a patient in the hospital recently, but was taken out by his wife six weeks ago. They have no idea where he is now. I imagine the wife is hiding him somewhere. Good luck with your hunt for him. .... On 6 September 1981, Christy and Mary shared dinner in their small cottage in Somerset. After drinking a bottle of red wine and some brandy and taking several painkillers, Christy ate his dinner of lamb chops and potatoes. He had to be fed with great care and watched closely as he swallowed his food. Sometimes food would get stuck in his throat and would have to be massaged down to prevent him from choking. On this occasion, this did not happen for some reason and he choked to death. He was forty-nine years old. After the inquest, the coroner announced a verdict of death by misadventure. Only three months before, Christy had choked while Mary was feeding him. Ann was furious. She had lived with and cared for Christy for four years in the home they had shared in Rathcoole and she knew how easily food could get trapped in his throat if he was not watched carefully. Mary would later claim that she had turned her back for only a few' minutes while she was feeding Christy, but Ann would contend that this was exactly how he could die so quickly. The letters Christy wrote to family and friends in the months before his death, as well as interviews with various writers and artists who knew Mary well suggest that she herself had a serious drinking problem. Numerous interviews mention her proclivity for taking off for long weekends, which she would spend with lovers (mostly female). Christy would be left to call for his driver to accompany him out and stay with him and care for him, or to ask friends to stay with him' During Mary and Christy's last months in County Kerry, the local doctor in Ballyheigue phoned Ann in Dublin to tell her that he had seen Christy and that he was 'in a very bad way'. He said not only that the couple's drinking had been. out of control for some time but also that Christy was often covered in bruises 45
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and he believed Mary had inflicted them. But Christy had made his choice and told only a few friends and fellow artists how he missed Dublin and was saddened by Mary's behaviour. Yet he never left her and we have to assume that he never wanted to. It seems, though, that the relationship slowly eroded his soul, destroying his art and then him.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
jocelyn noveck new york - Does the author of a
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contract, with readers to be true to the facts? Even if those facts are intensely personal?
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Many have been asking that 955 question since James Frey was accused this week of embellishing important parts of his best-selling (and Oprahendorsed) memoir, A Million 960 Little Pieces, a searing account of his battle with substance abuse. One of them is Heather Lafortezza. The 39-year-old 965 mother from Chappaqua, N. Y, just read the book for a session of her book club, a monthly gathering of 14 friends. 970 'As you're reading it, you really feel like you know him, and you become emotionally invested in him," Lafortezza said. So, 975 when she read about the alleged fabrications in the book, "I felt kind of duped," she said. A book, she said, should be "either fiction or non-fiction." 980 Frey has stood by his book in the face of allegations made by the Smoking Gun (www. thesmokinggun.com) that he wildly exaggerates his past and distorts events. His publishers, 985 Doubleday and Vintage Anchor, said on Tuesday that "recent accusations against him notwithstanding, the power of the overall reading experience is such that the book remains a deeply inspiring and redemptive story for millions of readers." That position infuriates Mary Karr, author of the famous 1995 memoir The Liar's Club. 990 "With 3 million books in print, that's a very convenient stance
for Doubleday to take," Karr said. Assuming the allegations are correct, she said, Frey has "the moral credibility of a sea mollusc" for fabricating his 995 work. A memoir, Karr said, is exceedingly difficult to write, even when you think you have all your facts straight. "You're 1000 a solitary voice, telling a life story as truthfully as you can," she said. "Even when you think (your memories) are true, you have to peck and push and 1005 nudge yourself," she said. "Is that right? Could it have really happened that way?" Karr's view was echoed by Nicholas Christopher, an author of 14 books and a writing 1010 professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts. "When you write a memoir, I think you're making a covenant 1015 with the reader," Christopher said. "You're on the honour system."
"Yes, we do that sometimes it's called a novel," he said. Sometimes, memoir writers will begin their books with a disclaimer, saying that some events have been distorted or changed. (Frey did not.) Even that is a cop-out, Christopher said. "How does the reader know which parts are true? It's just a game." He and others interviewed expressed concern for addicts who may have read the book for guidance or as an inspiration for their own struggles. When Oprah Winfrey chose the 2003 book for her book club last fall, propelling it up the bestseller lists, it was because it told a harrowing tale of recovery A number of organizations devoted to helping addicts recover have recommended it as important reading. One of them is the AddictionRecovery Guide, a website set up by Dr. Lucy Waletzky as a public resource after her son's death five years ago from substance abuse. The site's message board was humming this week after the allegations against Frey. "Well, I think we let an addict dupe us," wrote one woman under the name Amy S. "I hope someone sues so I can get my $20 back." Another reader, though, saw the book's value despite the allegations. "It doesn't matter to me if it was all lies or not," wrote "Ashley"
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"It doesn't matter 1025 to me if it was all lies or not." "Ashley," a reader
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"I read it, I loved it. It meant something to me. Would you read it if it was boring? NO. Would you read if it he talked about the boring days where he just sat around and smoked cigarettes? NO."
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JAMES FREY CERTAINLY ISN'T THE FIRST AUTHOR TO TWIST THE FACTS FOR A SO-CALLED HIGHER PURPOSE, BUT IN THIS AGE OF HIGH-SPEED. PREVARICATION, WHERE LIES THE TRUTH?
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UPPOSING SOMEONE SAID TO you, "Let me tell you the story of my life - only don't believe a word I say" our share of fabulists. Integrity-challenged Without offering to buy the first 1090 writing is not confined to the land of ET. Barround. Would you be inclined to num and George W Bush. Take fake-aboriginal listen? memoirist Grey Owl, for example. What if the person asked you to hand over $21 Born in England in 1888, his real name for his book, a memoir about recovering from was Archibald Stansfeld Belaney. But he passed addiction that's so blatantly fraudulent you don't himself off as a half-Apache spokesperson for 1095 believe even the first paragraph? native people. A noted orator as well as an Yes, we're zeroing in on James Frey, the author, he became an animal-loving tree-hugger latest in a long line of literary hoaxers. And, sad long before it was fashionable to spurn fur. He is to say, one of the most successful. Forget his now recognized as the father of all Canadian hangdog look as Oprah Winfrey scolded him for conservationists. There's no denying that he was 1100 deceiving her. Frey's A Million Little Pieces has also a liar, a bigamist, a notorious boozer. But already sold more than 3.5 million copies. The Grey Owl, whose true identity was not fully man is weeping all the way to the bank. revealed until after his death, found posthumous Here's an excerpt from his recent redemption through his "greater purpose" as a apology: "A Million Little Pieces is about 1105 naturalist. my memories of my time in a drug and alcohol Another prairie author, Long Lance treatment center. As has been accurately Sylvester Clark Long), who claimed to be a revealed by two journalists at an Internet Web plains Indian, was actually born, of mixed- race site, and subsequently acknowledged by me, parentage, in North Carolina in 1890. He came during the process of writing the book, I 1110 to Canada in 1915 and fought overseas in World embellished many details about my past War I with the Canadian troops. In 1922, his experiences, and altered others in order to serve three-year tenure as a reporter at the Calgary what I felt was the greater purpose of the book. I Herald ended abruptly when he tossed a fake sincerely apologize to those readers who have bomb into a city council meeting. His factbeen disappointed by my actions." 1115 challenged autobiography, Long Lance, was
The phrase worth noting here is "the greater purpose of the book." Literary liars traditionally cite a higher purpose to their prevarications. Even in Canada Yes, we have
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published in 1928. The next year he starred in the film Silent Enemy In 1932, he died in 1165 California from a bullet to the head. The legend of Long Lance, the war hero who gave voice to the plight of his adopted people, overshadows his misdemeanors. A recently exposed American native 1170 impersonator might not be so lucky. Just a couple of days after Frey got his dressing-down from Winfrey, the LA Weekly's Matthew Fleischer broke what was quickly dubbed the Navahoax story. 1175 An author named Nasdijj who claimed to be the son of an alcoholic Navajo woman and a white cowboy, and who wrote three memoirs steeped in native culture, including Geronimo's Bones: A Memoir of My Brother and Me (2004), 1180 was fingered as a white imposter named Tim Barrus. His previous writing credits included gay leather novels of the pornographic kind. Once exposed, Barrus pleaded noble causes, pointing to the "real scandals" of racism, 1185 poverty, disease and the war in Iraq. His books, after all had dealt in a humane and touching way with AIDS and FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome). Unlike Frey, who avoids complex sentences, leans on the "I" word and repeats 1190 repeatedly, Nasdijj was much-praised as a writer. This led to another complication. In 2004, Nasdijj (Barrus) accepted PEN/Beyond Margins award given annually to five writers of colour. Now, native leaders want him to give it back. 1195 And rightly so. But race appropriation isn't always nefarious. John Howard Griffin's wearing of another skin colour facilitated his research into racism for his inspiring book Black Like Me. 1200 All this said to put the Frey/Winfrey scandal into perspective Frey was only impersonating a tougher, more hardluck version of himself, for the sake of selling a manuscript. And he did use his real name (I think.) 1205 In contrast, George Eliot posed as a man in order to get published, although she didn't call her novels non-fiction. On the flip side, the supposedly female Algerian author Yasmina 1210 Khadra (The Swallows of Kabul) is actually a man named Mohammed Moulessehoul.
Furthermore, Frey wasn't pretending to have discovered the Hitler Diaries or Shakespeare's letters to Anne Hathaway or denying the Holocaust. (Been done.) Also, he didn't slander anyone but himself The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, a fictitious 19th-century memoir of a nun who supposedly escaped the depravities of a Montreal convent, was circulated widely in Canada and the U.S. as anti-Catholic hate literature. Intent counts. When Montreal poet David Solway "discovered" a non-existent Greek poet named Andreas Karavis back in 1999, he was up to mischief for its own sake. No harm done, except to his own reputation. Maybe that's why Winfrey, after tongue-lashing her con man, left her book club label on the book. A Million Little Pieces belongs on the same shelf as Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, an "unauthorized autobiography" by Chuck Barris, in which the author claims to have been a hit man for the CIA in the 1960s. Like Barris, Frey has a film industry background. Reason enough to take them both with a grain of salt. Since when has anyone taken a Hollywood celebrity bio as gospel? Here's the real scandal. Through Frey, we have discovered that agents advise authors to rethink their novels as "memoirs" in order to sell them at a better price, and that most publishers don't fact-check memoirs. Fortunately many readers now have access to the Internet and expose websites like The Smoking Gun, which blew the whistle on Frey But so does every anonymous prevaricator with a laptop. If Wikipedia can be duped, as was recently proven, where lies the truth in cyberspace? PS: Jerry Stahl's satire of A Million Little Pieces, which appeared Jan. 25 in the LA Weekly, is priceless. I laughed until I cried. Check it out on the LA Weekly website: (www.laweekly.com/index.php7option=com_la wcontent&task=view&id=12467&It emid=9).
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Use this efficient reading method for English class, and for all the texts you have to read for your courses.
1, Check how long the article is. 2. Look at clues to what the article is about like pictures, headings, diagrams. 3. Read the first sentence (and the last sentence). 4. Make up a question you would like to find the answer for in the text. Read to find the answer to the question you asked. 5. Start reading as much of the article as you can. Stop when you cannot understand anything. 6. Go back to the beginning of the article and start reading again. This time, the article will be easier to understand because you have read it already. 7. Use context clues to guess the meanings of words you dont know.
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The science of successful communication of ideas, known as rhetoric, dates back to the times of Ancient Greece and Rome. Since reading and writing were not widespread in this period, even among educated citizens, rhetoric first developed in relation to public speaking. In public speeches, people accused of crimes needed to defend themselves; members of the government needed to persuade others of their proposed policies and laws; and people with common beliefs and values needed to be brought together. These three forms of talk, all having their origins in the agora or public place where citizens came to meet and talk were tasks of argument and persuasion. Most of classical rhetorics guidelines are applicable to the forums of democratic government. Today our courts, legislatures and parliaments are similar to classical models.
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In a classroom, writing an analysis involves an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of an author's writing. A formal analysis is not like a newspaper critique of a movie or a book; it follows rules about structure and suitable language. This does not mean that there is no place for personal input. You express your opinion about how the author writes, but within a formal framework.
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1. An analysis discusses any main idea of the author's. Do not write an analysis that is just a summary or a paraphrase of what author says. 2. An analysis examines how the author uses writing techniques to persuade readers of his or her point of view. You do not have to discuss all the techniques and devices we will be dealing with in this section of the course; most essays only need three points. Two, four or five points are also possible. In order to write a analysis, you have to: a) state what you see as the authors main idea, and b) formulate a thesis about how the author writes. Mention techniques and devices the author uses to convince his or her readers. The idea of an analysis is that you pick out the author's main idea, and discuss the method of writing to express that idea.
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Pathos = LOGOS
The Greek word "logos" means word or language or reason, and it is the root from which our word "logic" came as well as words like geology or biology. We can use the English word "logic" to identify logos. When used in an essay or article, logos means persuasion through reason.
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The best question to ask regarding this method of persuasion is "Do the authors arguments make sense?"
ETHOS
The Greek word "ethos" is the root for our word "ethics." for ethos ore probably "character," or "trust."
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Part of this trust or ethos also comes from the fact that we can be confident in the writer because he or she is knowledgeable about the topic, or is an expert in the field he or she is discussing. The key question to ask when considering ethos is "do I trust this writer?"
PATHOS
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"Pathos" in Greek, means suffering, but the best word we can substitute is probably "emotion." Pathos is concerned with the emotional responses of the audience to the writing. The key question here is "How is the author trying to move his readers by appealing to their emotions?"
When you write a critique of a text, you should talk about the techniques and devices the author uses to get his message across. The following are some of the most commonly used.
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1. NARRATIVE
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2. DESCRIPTION
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3. EXPOSITION
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4. PERSUASION
5. COMPARISON-CONTRAST
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7. EXAMPLES
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8. LOGOS
9. ETHOS
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10. PATHOS
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12. ANALOGY
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13. IRONY
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15. ALLUSION
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16. ANECDOTE
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19. ENUMERATION
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OTHER DEVICES
Roberts, John, John Scarry, and Sandra Scarry. The Canadian Writers Workplace. Toronto:Harcourt Brace, 1998. 152-153, 161-162, 172173, 181, 194, 199, 213-214. Total Pages: 392. ISBN: 0-7747-3564-3. (= 11 pp.)
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In the following passages, identify the non-fiction techniques and devices the writer is following. Sometimes you may find more than one technique in a paragraph. Chose from the following options: Narrative, description, exposition, persuasion, comparison, generalization and examples, logos, ethos, pathos, exaggeration, analogy, irony, rhetorical question, allusion, anecdote, humor, repetition, enumeration, figurative language, appeal to authority, imagery. 1. I hate to be late. So, when I began my new job, I was determined to be on time for my first day. I awoke early, had a leisurely breakfast, and gave myself lots of time to get through the traffic. I entered my new office building and sat down at my new desk a good fifteen minutes before starting time. My boss noticed me, smiled, and came over to my desk. Im glad youre early, she said. In fact, youre a week early. You start next Monday.
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Techniques __________________________________________
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2. Female infants speak sooner, have larger vocabularies, and rarely demonstrate speech defects. Stuttering, for instance occurs almost exclusively among boys. Girls exceed boys in language abilities, and this early linguistic bias often prevails throughout life. Girls read sooner, learn foreign languages more easily and, as a result, are more likely to enter occupations involving language mastery. Boys, in contrast, show and early visual superiority. They are also clumsier, performing poorly at something like arranging a row of beads, but excel at other activities calling on total body co-ordination. Their attentional mechanisms are also different. A boy will react to an inanimate object as quickly as he will to a person. A male baby will often ignore the mother and babble to a blinking light, fixate on a geometric figure, and, at a later point, manipulate it and attempt to take it apart. Techniques ______________________________________
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3. In every society, social norms define a variety of relationships among people, and some of these relationships are socially recognized as family or kinship ties. A family is a socially defined set of relationships between at least two people who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption. We can think of a family as including several possible relationships, the most common being between husband and wife, between parents and children, and between people who are related to each other by birth (siblings, for example) or by marriage (a woman and her mother-in-law, perhaps). Family relationships are often defined by custom, such as the relationship between an infant and godparents, or by law, such as the adoption of a child. Techniques ______________________________________
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4. I remember the turmoil of mornings in our house. My brothers and sisters rushed about upstairs and down trying to get ready for school. Mom would repeatedly tell them to hurry up. Molly would usually scream down from her bedroom, "What am I going to do? I don't have any clean underwear!" Amy, often in tears, sat at the kitchen table still in her pajamas trying to do her math. Paul paced back and forth in front of the mirror angrily combing his unruly hair which stuck up in all directions while Roland threatened to punch him if he didn't find the pen he had borrowed the night before. Mother was stuffing sandwiches into bags while she sighed, "I'm afraid there isn't anything for dessert today." No one heard her. When they had finally gone, I was left in complete silence while my mother slumped on a chair at the kitchen table. She paid no attention to me. Techniques _____________________________________
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5. Genealogy, or the art of tracing your family history, has become a popular hobby. How far back can you trace your family? To begin the genealogical process, first speak to all members of your family to find out what they know about the family's history. Then, consult whatever birth certificates, marriage licenses, and death certificates may be available. If these documents aren't in the family any longer, they may be obtained for a price from the proper authorities if you know where the event took place and the approximate date of the event. You may be able to obtain help from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from parish registers, or from back issues of newspapers. However, once your obvious sources dry up, you may need help from a professional genealogist to continue your search. Techniques ______________________________________
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6. Hear it! The crunching smash of twenty-four bottles of beer, all splintering against each other as I misdeal on the packing machine. Smell the stink of warm beer pouring over my clothes, washing over the sour sweat of my body. I can feel the unheard curse as I toss the wet, mangled carton down the rollers for some poor bastard to sort out. And back to the mother-eating machine where the bottles are already starting to pile up on the conveyor belt. The ten-second-delay bell starts ringing. The jangling vibrations echo in my skull, and the foreman comes running over, screaming incoherently. How the hell can I hear him over the roar of four acres of machinery, and the teethjarring rattle of 25 000 bottles, all clinking against each other as they ride down the hundred yards of clanking metal conveyor belts? Techniques ______________________________________ 7. Canadians have always been great inventors, and while some of their inventions have contributed to civilization, others have faded into obscurity. On one hand, Canadians have invented the chain saw, the paint roller, the power mower, Pablum, the zipper, the snowmobile, the Jolly Jumper, and the pop-up carrying handle for beer cases. On the other hand, Canadians have also come up with such ingenious ideas as the cast-iron airship, the reverse cooking stove, a mechanical skirt lifter (to keep womens dresses clean while crossing muddy streets), and a medical patent to cure all common ailments with carrots. Whatever else, Canadians are creative! Techniques ________________________________________
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Writing topics: Choose one of the following and write 300 words on the topic. Make sure you use the suggested technique.
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1. Tell about a time when your world seemed to have turned upside down. Consider what others can learn from your story. Write the article for an appropriate magazine of your choice. (Narrative) 2. For a newspaper, cover a local event of some importance, such as a demonstration, a rock concert, or a sports event. (Narrative)
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3. Describe a person in his or her environment. For example, describe a businessperson in the office, or a nurse in a hospital. (Description)
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4. Describe a section of town that should be rehabilitated e.g. St. Catherine between Atwater and Fort. (Description) 5. There are many injustices in todays world. Discuss one injustice, and your proposed course of action to remedy the injustice. (Persuasion)
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6. Canada is a society of laws, yet many of those laws are considered misguided, unenforced and poorly administered. Discuss a law you think should be changed, and explain your views to your local Member of Parliament. (Persuasion) 7. Identify a college problem that needs to be addressed. In an essay to the appropriate administrator, present your arguments concerning this issue. (Persuasion) 8. Outline the ideas of a member of another generation about his or her to the values and traditions in Canadian life. Compare and contrast your own views with this other persons to present to the members of this class. (Comparison-contrast)
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9. As a travel agent, compare or contrast two vacation spots or two regions of the country for publication in a local newspaper. (Comparison-contrast)
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The essential element of irony is that it involves something opposite: somebody deliberately drawing attention to a point by saying the opposite of what he or she really means, or something happening that is the exact reverse of what a person would normally expect
TYPES OF IRONY
Literary Irony (your teachers phrase), sometimes, called Verbal irony: A writer means something different than, often the opposite of, what he or she says. In your teachers view, this is real irony because it is a definite attempt by an author to use a technique to express and idea, as opposed to the next type of irony described here, which involves things that happen. Examples of literary irony: A hardworking student says, I cant wait to start writing these three essays. During a bus strike, a commuter says, My walk home was only twenty-three blocks. Situational Irony: Situational Irony exists when the end result of a situation is the opposite of what was expected to happen.
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Example: It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife. from Alanis Morissettes song, Isnt it Ironic? Though this song has been criticized for giving examples of situations that are not strictly ironic, it is worth consideration by anyone trying to grasp the concept of irony. Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly .... He waited his whole damn life to take that flight And as the plane crashed down he thought, "Well isn't this nice. . . ."
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1. Oh, great! Its raining and I forgot my umbrella. 2. I failed the test because I did not study. 3. Daves blood pressure medication gave him a heart attack. 4. The box of airdropped humanitarian aid landed on the refugee and killed him.
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6. I missed the job interview because I overslept. 7. Thank you for this ticket, Officer. You just made my day. 8. Three celebrities died in three separate plane crashes yesterday. 9. I heard that sun block causes cancer.
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http://www.buzzle.com/articles/irony-in-literature.html
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IRONY RECORD
Your name ___________________________________________________________________ To generate material to write about irony, fill in the table below.
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EXAMPLE OF IRONY
Quote directly, or give examples as evidence. Write the page numbers in brackets to show where you found the information in the text. DO NOT WRITE p. or pg. BEFORE THE PAGE NUMBER.
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Can you think of a main idea for the non-fiction text that links to the irony you have pointed out? Write the main idea here: The main idea is that _________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________________
IMAGERY
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An image is a single vivid description. A series or pattern of descriptions several images is referred to as imagery. Imagery is like description except that description involves detailed information, whereas, a talented author uses imagery to give the reader an insight into the feelings and emotions that something awakes. Authors use the tools of words and language to produce inventive pictures which give the reader a real taste of what something is like. We often think of imagery in relation to poetry, but well-placed imagery can add significance to stories and non-fiction. So a description of a rose would be that it is a flower on the thorny bush, with many possible colors and sometimes a sweet smell.
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William Blake, using imagery talks about a rose in a different way: O Rose, thou art sick! The Invisible worm, In the howling storm,
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Has found out thy bed Of Crimson joy; And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.
RECOGNIZING IMAGERY
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Imagery is often referred to as appealing to the senses of sight, smell, hearing etc., but it can be any description that goes beyond the norm. In the novel, A Long Long Way, Sebastian Barry talks about war: IMAGE WHAT IS THE AUTHOR DESCRIBING, OR WHAT IS BEING COMPARED TO WHAT? Barry is using the idea of a door locking behind a person to convey the idea of a soldiers inevitable and involuntary propulsion towards the violence of battle. IS THIS AN EXAMPLE OF METAPHOR, SIMILE OR PERSONIFICATION? Simile
As [the soldiers] approached the war, it was as if they went through a series of doors, each one opened briefly and then locked fast behind them (21). At the front, as a man sings, each soldier thinks of the sense of youth . . . being submerged in a killing sea from which no one might emerge, bathed in the acid blood of bomb or bullet (130). The breeze rustled through the small woodlands, and in the trees hung the paper bodies of lost men, the patterns of their expended souls (141).
The soldiers think of their youth disappearing in the war, as if in a bath of acid blood.
Metaphor
[The bodies of dead soldiers] might be rotting animals thrown out at the back of a slaughterhouse, . . .(174).
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In the examples above we see another refinement in the definition of the word, imagery, which occurs when, instead of just describing something, an author goes a step further and compares it to something else. The things compared are often very different yet they are united in a clever and surprising way by an author who shows something they have in common. 3 common types of imagery that uses comparison are:
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IMAGERY
SIMILES, METAPHORS AND PERSONIFICATION
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In the following exercise, please do not just reproduce the authors words as your answer: explain the images using different vocabulary.
The apparition of these faces in the crowd; petals on a wet, black bough. (a bough is a branch of a tree) This is an example of imagery because the faces are compared to ______________________
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b. Her face was quiet and a curious look was in her eyes, eyes like the timeless eyes of a statue. This is an example of imagery because the expression and face are compared to
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____________________________________________________________________________
Here is a definition of the word IMAGERY. Complete it by filling in the missing words:
____________________________________________________________________________.
SIMILES
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Each of these quotations contains a simile: a. The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry Of bugles going by. In this simile, ___________________________ is/are being compared to ________________
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b. A new electric fence, Its five barbed wires tight Like a steel-stringed banjo.
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METAPHORS
a. She sweeps with many-colored brooms, And leaves the shreds behind;
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Oh, housewife in the evening west, Come back and dust the pond!
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b. I am a sword, Sharper than a tongue Nobody can defeat me, Because I am a sword, I can not be hurt by what people say.
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This is an example of imagery because the person writing says he or she is ________________
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A METAPHOR is a ________________________ made between two essentially different things by identifying one with the other.
PERSONIFICATION
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One kind of special metaphor or simile is called personification. a. The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city
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on silent haunches and then moves on. In this example of personification, ______________________________ is/are being compared to ___________________________________________________________________ b. Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. * *(two battlefields)
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Shovel them under and let me work -I am the grass; I cover all. .... Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years and the passengers ask the conductor:
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What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass. Let me work. In this example of personification, ___________________________ is/are being compared to
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__________________________________ PERSONIFICATION is a comparison where __________________________________ qualities are given to _________________________________________ things.
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This pyramid integrates the theoretical concepts related to the term, imagery:
IMAGERY RECORD
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Name_________________________________________________________________________ ______ All discussion of imagery should talk about: what the image is - quotations with examples of the words and phrases used,
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what is being described, or, if appropriate, what is being compared to what, or, if appropriate, whether the example is metaphor, simile or personification To generate material to write about imagery in an essay, fill in the table below.
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Can you think of a main idea for the book that links to the imagery you have pointed out? Write the main idea here: The main idea is that __________________________________________________________
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Vincent, Isabel. "Finding a Nationality That Fits." In Pens of Many Colours: A Canadian Reader, edited by Eva C. Karpinski and Ian Lea. Montreal: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Canada Inc., 1993. (First published in The Globe and Mail, 3 December 1990.)
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We started to become Canadian the day my mother got her first pair of pants. They were gray-green gabardine with a high waist, and came wrapped in tissue paper in an Eaton's box. My mother reluctantly modelled them for my brother and me, all the while declaring that she couldn't imagine ever feeling comfortable with the stretchy cloth hugging her hips. Portuguese women didn't wear pants, only the canadianas dared wear anything so revealing. But in the same breath she'd rationalize that she spent too much money not to wear them, and besides they'd probably be warm in winter. That was in 1975, a few years after my family had made the big break and moved from the poor immigrant enclave of Kensington Market to the more upscale neighbourhoods of North York, where pockets of European immigrants were just beginning to emerge. We were pioneers in a way. My father had been among the first wave of Portuguese immigrants to Canada in the early fifties, working a bleak stretch of railroad near Port Arthurnow Thunder Bay, Ont.to earn enough money for my mother's passage across the Atlantic. My mother arrived sea-sick in Halifax in 1955, and took a slow train to Toronto, where she joined my father in a roach-infested flat on Nassau Avenue in the market. My mother still speaks of those early sacrificios: living in a cold climate with cockroaches and mutely shopping for groceries, pointing out items to a local shopkeeper because she couldn't speak English. Her language skills were so tenuous that she once interpreted a greeting from an Orthodox Jew who lived in the neighbourhood as an offer to buy my brother. In those days, Toronto police used to disperse small crowds of Portuguese men who lingered too long outside cafes. Despite a burgeoning group of immigrants, there were few Portuguese speakers, even in the market. But by 1975, the market became a Saturday-morning diversion for us, a place to shop for salted cod and fresh vegetables. To the hearty Portuguese immigrants who still worked in the factories and construction yards, and rented windowless basements in the market, we were on our way up. After all, there were very few Portuguese families north of Eglinton Avenue. Although we lived in a mostly Jewish and Italian neighbourhood, we were finally becoming Canadian. Or so I thought.
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I learned English in my first year of school. Multiculturalism was just beginning and hyphenated Canadians were beginning to flourish. I played with Italian-Canadians, Lithuanian-Canadians and Chinese-Canadians, but at that time nobodyespecially suburban 7-year-oldsseemed able to pronounce "Portuguese-Canadian," so I told people I was Greek; it was easier to say. My brother went even further, changing his name to something faintly AngloSaxon, so his teachers and classmates wouldn't get tongue-tied around those sloshy Portuguese vowels and embarrass him. It seemed a very practical idea at the time, and I reluctantly followed suit. But we still had problems, and didn't seem to belong. We never quite fit into the emerging Portuguese community, growing up around the parish of St. Mary's Church and the Toronto branch of the popular Benfica soccer club on Queen Street West. We were strangely aloof with our compatriots, most of whom had emigrated from the Azores, and whose guttural form of Portuguese we had difficulty understanding. My brother and I balked at heritage-language classes and remained passive spectators at the annual religious processions. But if we had trouble dealing with our peers in downtown Toronto, in North York we were not much better off. My mother and aunts spoke disparagingly of the canadianas, Canadian women who (they were sure) knew nothing about how to keep a clean house or cook a decent meal. My mother taught me how to cook and sew, and she and my aunts teased my brother, saying someday he'd marry a canadiana and would end up doing all his own housework. For all her predictions, my mother was delighted to find out that she had been wrong. My brother, a physician, did marry a Canadian, but he doesn't do much of the housework. These days, my mother's biggest problem is pronouncing the name of her new grandson, Matthew Loughlin MacLean Vincent. As I grew older I developed anostalgia for my Lusitanian past, and tried desperately to reintegrate into the community. But I soon grew to hate the hypocrisy of some of my compatriots, most of whom were immigrants who chose to spend several years working in Canada, only to retire to the Portuguese country-side and build their palatial retreats with the fat pensions they collected from the Canadian government. Like my father, who learned English quickly and severed ties with his homeland, I became a staunch Canadian. I could sing The Maple Leaf Forever before I was 10, and spent my childhood years in French immersion. I became so good at masking my heritage that a few years ago when I applied for a job at a Toronto newspaper I was turned down because I was perceived as being too Anglo-Saxon. "If you were ethnic, I'm sure they would have hired you on the spot," the wife of the papers's managing editor told me a year later. But for most of my life being Portuguese seemed to me a liability. And then my mother bought that important first pair of pants. For a while it seemed that my life had changed. I was proud of my mother: she was becoming like all the other mothers in the neighbourhood.
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But my excitement was short-lived. A few days later, she decided they just wouldn't do. She carefully wrapped them back up in the tissue paper, placed them in the cardboard Eaton's box, and returned them to the store.
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Taylor, Deems. "The Monster." In Edge of Awareness, edited by N. Hoopes and R. Peck, 121-125. New York: Dell, 1966.
THE MONSTER
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DEEMS TAYLOR
He was an undersized little man, with a head too big for his bodya sickly little man. His nerves were bad. He had skin trouble. It was agony for him to wear anything next to his skin coarser than silk. And he had delusions of grandeur. He was a monster of conceit. Never for one minute did he look at the world or at people, except in relation to himself. He was not only the most important person in the world, to himself; in his own eyes he was the only person who existed. He believed himself to be one of the greatest dramatists in the world, one of the greatest thinkers, and one of the greatest composers. To hear him talk he was Shakespeare, and Beethoven, and Plato, rolled into one. And you would have had no difficulty in hearing him talk. He was one of the most exhausting conversationalists that ever lived. An evening with him was an evening spent in listening to a monologue. Sometimes he was brilliant; sometimes he was maddeningly tiresome. But whether he was being brilliant or dull, he had one sole topic of conversation: himself. What he thought and what he did. He had a mania for being in the right. The slightest hint of disagreement, from anyone, on the most trivial point, was enough to set him off on a harangue that might last for hours, in which he proved himself right in so many ways, and with such exhausting volubility, that in the end his hearer, stunned and deafened, would agree with him, for the sake of peace. It never occurred to him that he and his doing were not of the most intense and fascinating interest to anyone with whom he came in contact. He had theories about almost any subject under the sun, including vegetarianism, the drama, politics, and music; and in support of these theories he wrote pamphlets, letters, books . . . thousands upon thousands of words, hundreds and hundreds of pages. He not only wrote these things, and published them usually at somebody else's expensebut he would sit and read them aloud, for hours, to his friends and his family. He wrote operas; and no sooner did he have the synopsis of a story, but he would inviteor rather summona crowd of his friends to his house and read it aloud to them. Not for criticism. For applause. When the complete poem was written, the friends had to
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come again, and hear that read aloud. Then he would publish the poem, sometimes years before the music that went with it was written. He played the piano like a composer, in the worst sense of what that implies, and he would sit down at the piano before parties that included some of the finest pianists of his time, and play for them, by the hour, his own music, needless to say. He had a composer's voice. And he would invite eminent vocalists to his house, and sing them his operas, taking all the parts. He had the emotional stability of a six-year-old child. When he felt out of sorts, he would rave and stamp, or sink into suicidal gloom and talk darkly of going to the East to end his days as a Buddhist monk. Ten minutes later, when something pleased him, he would rush out of doors and run around the garden, or jump up and down on the sofa, or stand on his head. He could begrief-stricken over the death of a pet dog, and he could be callous and heartless to a degree that would have made a Roman emperor shudder. He was almost innocent of any sense of responsibility. Not only did he seem incapable of supporting himself, but it never occurred to him that he was under any obligation to do so. He was convinced that the world owed him a living. In support of this belief, he borrowed money from everybody who was good for a loanmen, women, friends, or strangers. He wrote begging letters by the score, sometimes groveling without shame, at others loftily offering his intended benefactor the privilege of contributing to his support, and being mortally offended if the recipient declined the honor. I have found no record of his ever paying or repaying money to anyone who did not have a legal claim upon it. What money he could lay his hands on he spent like an Indian rajah. The mere prospect of a performance of one of his operas was enough to set him running up bills amounting to ten times the amount of his prospective royalties. On an income that would reduce a more scrupulous man to doing his own laundry, he would keep two servants. Without enough money in his pocket to pay his rent, he would have the walls and ceiling of his study lined with pink silk. No one will ever knowcertainly he never knewhow much money he owed. We do know that his greatest benefactor gave him 6,000 dollars to pay the most pressing of his debts in one city, and a year later had to give him 16,000 dollars to enable him to live in another city without being thrown into jail for debt. He was equally unscrupulous in other ways. An endless procession of women marches through his life. His first wife spent twenty years enduring and forgiving his infidelities. His second wife had been the wife of his most devoted friend and admirer, from whom he stole her. And even while he was trying to persuade her to leave her first husband he was writing to a friend to inquire whether he could suggest some wealthy womanany wealthy woman whom he could marry for her money.
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He was completely selfish in his other personal relationships. His liking for his friends was measured solely by the completeness of their devotion to him, or by their usefulness to him, whether financial or artistic. The minute they failed himeven by so much as refusing a dinner invitationor began to lessen in usefulness, he cast them off without a second thought. At the end of his life he had exactly one friend left whom he had known even in middle age. He had a genius for making enemies. He would insult a man who disagreed with him about the weather. He would pull endless wires in order to meet some man who admired his work, and was able and anxious to be of use to him and would proceed to make a mortal enemy of him with some idiotic and wholly uncalled-for exhibition of arrogance and bad manners. A character in one of his operas was a caricature of one of the most powerful music critics of his day. Not content with burlesquing him, he invited the critic to his house and read him the libretto aloud in front of his friends.
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The name of this monster was Richard Wagner.1 Everything that I have said about him you can find on recordin newspapers, in police reports, in the testimony of people who knew him, in his own letters, between the lines of his autobiography. And the curious thing about this record is that it doesn't matter in the least. Because this undersized, sickly, disagreeable, fascinating little man was right all the time. The joke was on us. He was one of the world's great dramatists; he was a great thinker; he was one of the most stupendous musical geniuses that, up to now, the world has ever seen. The world did owe him a living. People couldn't know those things at the time, I suppose; and yet to us, who know his music, it does seem as though they should have known. What if he did talk about himself all the time? If he talked about himself for twenty-four hours every day for the span of his life he would not have uttered half the number of words that other men have spoken and written about him since his death. When you consider what he wrote thirteen operas and music dramas, eleven of them still holding the stage, eight of them unquestionably worth ranking among the world's great musicodramatic masterpieceswhen you listen to what he wrote, the debts and heartaches that people had to endure from him don't seem much of a price. Eduard Hanslick, the critic whom he caricatured in Die Meistersinger and who hated him ever after, now lives only because he was caricatured in Die Meistersinger. The women whose hearts he broke are long since dead; and the man who could never love anyone but himself has made them deathless atonement, I think, with Tristan und Isolde. Think of the luxury with which for a time, at least, fate rewarded Napoleon, the man who ruined France and looted Europe; and then perhaps you will agree that a few thousand dollars' worth of debts were not too heavy a price to pay for the Ring trilogy. What if he was faithless to his friends and to his wives? He had one mistress to whom he was faithful to the day of his death: music. Not for a single moment did he ever compromise with what he believed, with what he dreamed. There is not a line of his music that could have been conceived by a little mind. Even when he is dull, or downright bad, he is dull in the grand manner. There is a greatness about his worst mistakes. Listening to his music, one does not forgive him for what he may or may not have been. It is not a matter of forgiveness. It is a matter of being dumb with wonder that his poor brain and body didn't burst under the torment of the demon of creative energy that lived inside him, struggling, clawing, scratching to be released; tearing, shrieking at him to write the music that was in him. The miracle is that what he did in the little space of seventy years could have been done at all, even by a great genius. Is it any wonder that he had no time to be a man?
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Abbey, Edward. "The Canyon." In Writing from Life: Collecting and Connecting, edited by Phyllis Ballata, 196-199. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1997.
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THE CANYON
EDWARD ABBEY
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Most of my wandering in the desert I've done alone. Not so much from choice as from necessity I generally prefer to go into places where no one else wants to go. I find that in contemplating the natural world my pleasure is greater if there are not too many others contemplating it with me, at the same time. However, there are special hazards in traveling alone. Your chances of dying, in case of sickness or accident, are much improved, simply because there is no one around to go for help. Exploring a side canyon off Havasu Canyon one day, I was unable to resist the temptation to climb up out of it onto what corresponds in that region to the Tonto Bench. Late in the afternoon I realized that I would not have enough time to get back to my camp before dark, unless I could find a much shorter route than the one by which I had come. I looked for a shortcut. Nearby was another little side canyon which appeared to lead down into Havasu Canyon. It was a steep, shadowy, extremely narrow defile with the usual meandering course and overhanging walls; from where I stood, near its head, I could not tell if the route was feasible all the way down to the floor of the main canyon. I had no rope with meonly my walking stick. But I was hungry and thirsty, as always. I started down. For a while everything went well. The floor of the little canyon began as a bed of dry sand, scattered with rocks. Farther down a few boulders were wedged between the walls; I climbed over and under them. Then the canyon took on the slickrock charactersmooth, sheer, slippery sandstone carved by erosion into a series of scoops and potholes which got bigger as I descended. In some of these basins there was a little water left over from the last flood, warm and fetid water under an oily-looking scum, condensed by prolonged evaporation to a sort of broth, rich in dead and dying organisms. My canteen was empty and I was very thirsty but I felt that I could wait. I came to a lip on the canyon floor which overhung by twelve feet the largest so far of these stagnant pools. On each side rose the canyon walls, roughly perpendicular. There was no way to continue except by dropping into the pool. I hesitated. Beyond this point there could hardly be any returning, yet the main canyon was still not visible below. Obviously the only sensible thing to do was to turn back. I edged over the lip of stone and dropped feet first into the water. Deeper than I expected. The warm, thick fluid came up and closed over my head as my feet touched the muck at the bottom. I had to swim to the farther side. And here I found myself on the verge of another drop-off, with one more huge bowl of green soup below.
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This drop-off was about the same height as the one before, but not overhanging. It resembled a children's playground slide, concave and S-curved, only steeper, wider, with a vertical pitch in the middle. It did not lead directly into the water but ended in a series of steplike ledges above the pool. Beyond the pool lay another edge, another dropoff into an unknown depth. Again I paused, and for a much longer time. But I no longer had the option of turning around and going back. I eased myself into the chute and let go of everything except my faithful stick. I hit rock bottom hard, but without any physical injury. I swam the stinking pond dog-paddle style, pushing the heavy scum away from my face, and crawled out on the far side to see what my fate was going to be. Fatal. Death by starvation, slow and tedious. For I was looking straight down an overhanging cliff to a rubble pile of broken rocks eighty feet below. After the first wave of utter panic had passed I began to try to think. First of all I was not going to die immediately, unless another flash flood came down the gorge; there was the pond of stagnant water on hand to save me from thirst and a man can live, they say, for thirty days or more without food. My sun-bleached bones, dramatically sprawled at the bottom of the chasm, would provide the diversion of the picturesque for future wanderersif any man ever came this way again. My second thought was to scream for help, although I knew very well there could be no other human being within miles. I even tried it but the sound of that anxious shout, cut short in the dead air within the canyon walls, was so inhuman, so detached as it seemed from myself, that it terrified me and I didn't attempt it again. I thought of tearing my clothes into strips and plaiting a rope. But what was I wearing? boots, socks, a pair of old and ragged blue jeans, a flimsy T-shirt, an ancient and rotten sombrero of straw. Not a chance of weaving such a wardrobe into a rope eighty feet long, or even twenty feet long. How about a signal fire? There was nothing to burn but my clothes; not a tree, not a shrub, not even a weed grew in this stony cul-de-sac. Even if I burned my clothing the chances of the smoke being seen by some Hualapai Indian high on the south rim were very small; and if he did see the smoke, what then? He'd shrug his shoulders, sigh, and take another pull from his Tokay bottle. Furthermore, without clothes, the sun would soon bake me to death. There was only one thing I could do. I had a tiny notebook in my hip pocket and a stub of pencil. When these dried out I could at least record my final thoughts. I would have plenty of time to write not only my epitaph but my own elegy. But not yet. There were a few loose stones scattered about the edge of the pool. Taking the biggest first, I swam with it back to the foot of the slickrock chute and placed it there. One by one I brought the others and made a shaky little pile about two feet high leaning against the chute. Hopeless, of course, but there was nothing else to do. I stood on the top of the pile and stretched upward, straining my arms to their utmost limit and groped with fingers and fingernails for a hold on
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something firm. There was nothing. I crept back down. I began to cry. It was easy. All alone, I didn't have to be brave. Through the tears I noticed my old walking stick lying nearby. I took it and stood it on the most solid stone in the pile, behind the two topmost stones. I took off my boots, tied them together and hung them around my neck, on my back. I got up on the little pile again and lifted one leg and set my big toe on the top of the stick. This could never work. Slowly and painfully, leaning as much of my weight as I could against the sandstone slide, I applied more and more pressure to the stick, pushing my body upward until I was again stretched out full length above it. Again I felt about for a fingerhold. There was none. The chute was smooth as polished marble. No, not quite that smooth. This was sandstone, soft and porous, not marble, and between it and my wet body and wet clothing a certain friction was created. In addition, the stick had enabled me to reach a high section of the S-curved chute, where the angle was more favorable. I discovered that I could move upward, inch by inch, through adhesion and with the help of the leveling tendency of the curve. I gave an extra little push with my big toethe stones collapsed below, the stick clattered downand crawled rather like a snail or slug, oozing slime, up over the rounded summit of the slide. The next obstacle, the overhanging spout twelve feet above a deep plunge pool, looked impossible. It was impossible, but with the blind faith of despair I slogged into the water and swam underneath the crop-off and floundered around for a while, scrabbling at the slippery rock until my nerves and tiring muscles convinced my numbed brain that this was not the way. I swam back to solid ground and lay down to rest and die in comfort. Far above I could see the sky, an irregular strip of blue between the dark, hard-edged canyon walls that seemed to lean toward each other as they towered above me. Across that narrow opening a small white cloud was passing, so lovely and precious and delicate and forever inaccessible that it broke the heart and made me weep like a woman, like a child. In all my life I had never seen anything so beautiful. The walls that rose on either side of the drop-off were literally perpendicular. Eroded by weathering, however, and not by the corrosion of rushing floodwater, they had a rough surface, chipped, broken, cracked. Where the walls joined the face of the overhang they formed almost a square comer, with a number of minute
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crevices and inch-wide shelves on either side. It might, after all, be possible. What did I have to lose? When I had regained some measure of nerve and steadiness I got up off my back and tried the wall beside the pond, clinging to the rock with bare toes and fingertips and inching my way crabwise toward the comer. The water-soaked, heavy boots dangling from my neck, swinging back and forth with my every movement, threw me off balance and I fell into the pool. I swam out to the bank, unslung the boots and threw them up over the drop-off, out of sight. They'd be there if I ever needed them again. Once more I attached myself to the wall, tenderly, sensitively, like a limpet, and very slowly, very cautiously, worked my way into the comer. Here I was able to climb upward, a few centimeters at a time, by bracing myself against the opposite sides and finding sufficient niches for fingers and toes. As I neared the top and the overhang became noticeable I prepared for a slip, planning to push myself away from the rock so as to fall into the center of the pool where the water was deepest. But it wasn't necessary. Somehow, with a skill and tenacity I could never have found in myself under ordinary circumstances, I managed to creep straight up that gloomy cliff and over the brink of the drop-off and into the flower of safety. My boots were floating under the surface of the little puddle above. As I poured the stinking water out of them and pulled them on and laced them up I discovered myself bawling again for the third time in three hours, the hot delicious tears of victory. And up above the cloud repliedthunder. I emerged from that treacherous little canyon at sundown, with an enormous fire in the western sky and lightning overhead. Through sweet twilight and the sudden dazzling flare of lightning I hiked back along the Tonto Bench, bellowing the Ode to Joy. Long before I reached the place where I could descend safely to the main canyon and my camp, however, darkness set in, the clouds opened their bays and the rain poured down. I took shelter under a ledge in a shallow cave about three feet high hardly room to sit up in. Others had been here before: the dusty floor of the little hole was littered with the droppings of birds, rats, jackrabbits and coyotes. There were also a few long gray pieces of scat with a curious twist at one tip cougar? I didn't care. I had some matches with me, sealed in paraffin (the prudent explorer); I scraped together the handiest twigs and animal droppings and built a little fire and waited for the rain to stop.
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It didn't stop. The rain came down for hours in alternate waves of storm and drizzle and I very soon had burnt up all the fuel within reach. No matter. I stretched out in the coyote den, pillowed my head on my arm and suffered through the long long night, wet, cold, aching, hungry, wretched, dreaming claustrophobic nightmares. It was one of the happiest nights of my life.
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Kephart, Beth. "Playing for Keeps." The Best American Sports Writing 2001. Ed. Bud Collins. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 350-354.
BETH KEPHART
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The wind had come up out of nowhere; it felt like the sea at our backs. Tucked into our caps and hoods, we stood intractably against it, our arms knotted across our chests, our eyes in a liquid burn, our feet just this side of the thin white line. The kids were like leaves that had been blown out on the fieldred and green nylon shirts tugging them, it seemed, in so many directions. The ball floated and skittered like a molecule, and then it fell down, hard, to earth, to be punished by so many muddy cleats. There was wind and ball and twenty-two rippling shirts, a referee whose whistle's blows were muted. Anything at all could have happened, anything, and that day it really did. The red team was our team, the Cosmos; they had not been winning much. The littlest kid was our ten-year-old son, still learning soccer, playing for keeps. The community was the kind of community that is formed when perfect little strangers don identical synthetic shirts, and their parents, every Saturday, do a ragged sideline dance. Coyne on, Cosmos, we were screaming, stamping our feet. Take it down the side! Exhorting. Center it. Pleading. Come on and shoot! Cosmos, shoot! Ahh. Despair. Next time. Hope. Next time, guys. Nice try. The wind blowing our voices back over our own hunched shoulders, the kids way far out there, on their own. "Jeremy's in as striker,"1 I told my 'husband what he already knew. Bill nodded, quietly. A gust came up, and so we blew inconsequentially on our hands. Bob was our man that day, filling in for Coach Said. He was tense around the eyes the way he gets, and he was proficient with his clipboard, making his share of coachly notes. "Jeremy's in as striker,"1 I pointed out when the wind blew Bob my way. "Yes, he is," Bob said. "Thats where I put him." And men Bob was blown down the line even farther, entreating the kids to clear the ball from the
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Cosmos box, which they somehow miraculously did. Sigh of relief. It was still zero-zero, nil-nil. The Cosmos had more than a chance. Jeremy was strong, he was focused; his jaw was set. He was staying in his zone, taking some passes and sending others off, his intentions good, his black hair sheening, his eyes two catalytic burners. Striker, I was thinking. Striker. Like Ronaldo, Yorke, Owen, Shearer, Bierhoff. Like Pele, for goodness sake. Just like Pele.2 I was getting flashbacks to Jeremy's first game, two years ago. To a time when all we wanted, because it was all he wanted, was for him to get out there and put his foot on the ball. For him to have a uniform, a team, the sense that he belonged, hands held out to high-five his, oranges to snack on between halves. I was flashing back to those who said that it couldn't be donethat his feet wouldn't cooperate, that he was too gende, that he'd started too lateand I was also in the present, studying the field, hailing the Cosmos, our bright hopes in red. It was still zero-zero, ten minutes in. "We've got a chance," I said to Bill, and the wind blew his head up and down. I want to get this right, but it's impossible, see? The air was harsh and cold, so many daggers. The ball kept skittering, sailing, disappearing, returning, smashing the earth at every angle. Collin was looping it like a rope above the green team's head. The other Collin, the Cosmos star, was gracefully weaving. Dillon was punching the ball with his sturdy right boot, and Peter wasn't letting anyone past. "Jeremy's right in there," I said to my husband. "Yes, he is," my husband said. His eyes were leaking. And the ball was going up and down, and there were geese screaming goose thoughts from the heavens above, and we parents were doing a jig on the sidelines because, like I've mentioned, it was cold. "There's no score," I told Coach Bob, and he nodded his agreement, checked his clipboard, scratched his jaw, yelled out his counsel. It was one of the best games the Cosmos had had all season long, and now they were on the offensive, keeping the ball at the opposite end of the field, where the green team, the Piranhas, were backing up toward their keeper. Jeremy by then had had so many touches on the ball that Iand this is glorylost count. 2 Famous professional soccer players
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Brandon was pumping his elbows and flying, and Brendan was arcing his throw-ins downfield, and the two blond Dans were marking their men, their eyes narrowed into determined slits, their untied shoelaces flopping and zinging. Some juice you didn't even know existed starts to flow when your child's the show and you're the witness. Every bit of whatever personal worry you brought to the game that day gets trampled and banished, eradicated. It's as if the wind blasts the minutiae free, so that all that matters is your child and his something record, playing out their hearts against the greens. Every block, cutback, pass, dribble, every modest header, is a triumph, an achievement, a strike against the lousy odds of this complicated world. Our kids transcend us from the moment they are born. They live their own dreams. They play soccer. Lord, the wind was strong that day, a roiling, heady surf. Lord, it was cold; my throat was hoarse. The game was already twenty minutes along, and still there was no score; it was a deadlock, an all-out battle. The Cosmos were playing their Bob-given positions, and Jeremy was out there as strikerup near the goal, in open space, waiting and wanting that molecule to fall. It came from Kevin. It sprang high from Kevin's boot toward the gaggle of geese and then loped noiselessly down. Bounce. Bounce. It was in the box for sure, but a green defender trapped it, swung his foot back, tried to clear it, and nevertheless, our son was therestopping and turning and placing that muddied ball into the farthest left snip of the net It was hard to see it all from where I was standing. Hard to know what to look at, how to hold it, how to freeze it for all time. The ball was in the net, in the tangle of strings, and the Piranhas looked disheartened, and Jeremy had turned and he was running. Head down, shoulders forward, a single index finger raised high to die sky, to the geese who'd gone delirious, to anybody anywhere who had ever doubted our only child's brave desire. Jeremy stole one glance at us before the Cosmos swarmed to him, before all those palms hit his own palm raw and the referee was yelling the score.
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I have never done a single thing with my whole life that stands as grand as Jeremy's first real soccer goal. I never will. I have never hugged my husband any harder, never seen the man I married beam like that all incandescent light "I can retire now," I heard Bill saying. "Oh God," I heard myself. "Oh God, oh God." And Coach Bob had lost the tenseness near his eyes, and he was laughing, simply laughing, saying he knew our boy'd come through. "You're the best," I was screaming to Jeremy. "The very best!" But the wind just rifled my feeble words back, and Jeremy didn't need them, because he knew. He was lined up now where he was supposed to be, and the whistle blew, and the game got started again. The rest of the hour, then, was about the big D,3 about protecting that iffy one-point lead. It was about Ben in the cage, oh mighty Bentall as a Grecian pillar, indentured to a soft buzz cut, protected around the eyes by plastic goggles. Ben, the giant in the Cosmos net, his goalie shirt stretched tight across the shoulders. He had never played as well as he was playing that day, and now the pressure was on, and Big Ben knew it. Big Ben kept putting his big hand down, snuffing out the balls that were coming at him now, kicking them way downfield, and not to the center. The Piranhas weren't giving up; there was no way they would lose to the Cosmos. They kept coming back, they kept coming back again, they dominated the second half: gutsy, offensive. But Big Ben was there to shut them out, and Patrick and Peter, and Brennan and Brandon, and the Collins and the Dans, and Dillon and Kevin and Jeremy, all of them in their red flapping shirts, holding on and holding tough, protecting Jeremy's goal, while Bob made coachly notes upon his clipboard and the rest of us parents screamed and prayed. What do you say about a day like that one, about perfect strangers who become best friends, if only for an hour? About a group of kids who pull it all together, never stop trusting one another, form a wall against a bruised and bruising ball? About a team in red that holds its lonely lead until the whistle finally brings the game to closure? About being there when your kid scores a goal in a game few thought he'd ever play? What do you say? What do you say when your heart is so much bigger than this page and your blessings so great that you can't count them? How do you tell your only child that you're higher than
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the geese and rarer than the sky, when language itself won't cooperate? "Jeremy and Ben," the kids were saying, chanting, hailing the team's biggest player and its smallest, the two who had sprung from the margins to the center of the world. "Jeremy and Ben. We won the game, guys. We won. The Cosmos did it." And then the ragtag Cosmos kids were lining up for final ceremonies, bidding the green shirts goodbye. They were pulling Jeremy and Ben, the morning's heroes, to the front of the pack. "Jeremy," I asked in the Jeep going home, when the hubbub was already trickling through to memory. "What happened out there? And how did it feel? And did you know that this day would be yours?" "I was where I was supposed to be, Mom," is all my windblown kid had to say. "Tucking the ball into the back of "It was awesome/' I said. "Just amazing. Just awesome. Dad and me we're not going to ever forget it." "Yeah," Jeremy said. "Well. And did you see Ben, how he played? How he didn't let a single goal go past him?" "We saw that," I said. "Jeremy, the whole team played great." "Yes, they did," Jeremy said. "A whole team effort"
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"So how should we celebrate?" I wanted to know. "Tell me anything you want, and I'll go get it." "Carrot cake would be nice," Jeremy said after a while. "Carrot cake, Cornish hen, some chips, some Coke for lunch."
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MacLennan, Hugh. "If You Drop a Stone . . . " In The Harbrace Reader for Canadians, edited by J. Buckley, 201205. Toronto: Harcourt, 2001.
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If you drop a stone into the ocean the impact is as great as if you drop it into a farmer's pond. The difference is that the ocean doesn't seem to care. It swallows the stone and rolls on. But the pond, if the stone is large enough, breaks into waves and ripples that cover its surface and are audible in every cranny along its banks. So it is with life in a metropolis and life in a small town. It takes a colossal event to affect a city. After the bombing of Hamburg in which eighty thousand people were killed, the city was functioning within a few days. Grief did not paralyse it because, to the survivors, most of the casualties were people they had never met. But a single murder can convulse a small town for the reason that in such a community people care who lives and who dies. They care because they know each other. All knowledge is relative to our capacity to grasp its details, and no matter what the communists and industrial organizers may say, no man can think humanly if he thinks in terms of masses. In the small town, and not in the metropolis, human life is understood in fundamental terms. Because I grew up in a smallish town, this idea struck me with the force of a shock the first time I saw a play in London about London life. I marvelled how any audience could believe in it. Apparently, I thought, Londoners don't know each other and the playwright has taken advantage of their ignorance. A play as superficial as this, I said to myself when I left the theatre, could never succeed in Halifax. My youthful reaction was naive, but it was not stupid. I did not know then, as I have learned since, that practically no creative ideas have ever originated in a megalopolis. The prelude to creation, as every parent knows, is intimacy. I had come straight to London from an intimate town, and what we knew about each other in that town could have kept a Balzac3 supplied with material for life. Small-town gossip may be notorious, but by no means all of it is malicious. It has one virtue which its metropolitan imitators, the newspapers, cannot claim. Most of it has personal significance for the people who listen to it. We knew in our town, for example, and we knew in detail, how our wealthiest citizens had made their money. Although we did not know a neurosis from a psychosis, we understood, and made allowances for, the family conditions which caused one man to be aggressive and another subservient, one woman to be charming and another to be a shrew. We had 3 Honore de Balzac, French novelist
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a sixth sense which the more intelligent city-dwellers lacka sense of time. We knew that a family, like Rome, is not built in a day. We would look at one family and remember hearing about the grandfather, now dead, who used to sit in his galluses4 on a stool outside the livery stable chewing a straw and occasionally reaching up with the thumb of his left hand to scratch his head. It had been a matter of interested speculation whether he scratched because he was nervous or because he was lousy. The father, still with us, was a middle-aged man doing fairly well in a hardware business. He never scratched his head, but it was noticed that he had a curious habit of stopping suddenly while walking down the street to lift the right leg of his trousers and scratch the back of his calf. As the hardware merchant was certainly not lousy, this gesture was assumed to he hereditary; as such, it cleared the grandfather's reputation from all suspicion of uncleanliness. The merchant's son raised the family one notch higher. He went to college, did well, and now was laying the foundations of a solid career in the administration in Ottawa. Perhaps he might even rise to cabinet rank and make us all proud, for rumour had it that the Prime Minister's eye was on him. Incidentally, he was never seen to scratch himself at all. This kind of small-town knowledge may seem petty, but the sum of it is vast. Through a multitude of intimate details people come to know the best and the worst about each other, and concealment of character is impossible over a lifetime. A ruthless or a cunning man can ride roughshod over his neighbours and cop most of the money in the place. In every small town there are always a few who try this, and at least one who succeeds. They make bad bargains, for they spend the rest of their days knowing exactly what their neighbours think and
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say about them. In the small town, since everyone knows the sins of everyone else, each man must live as best he can with the knowledge that his faults and weaknesses are part of the lore of the whole community. That is what I mean by saying that in a small town people know life as it really is. That is 2490 why Halifax or Peterborough has a better chance of producing a Balzac than London or New York, and why a little place like Bermuda, where the stakes are really high, could produce a second Shakespeare if some Bermudian had the genius and the nerve to write as Shakespeare did. But for the past two hundred years the small towns have failed in what 2495 should be their mission, which is the illumination of life. Only to a very small extent has their unrivalled knowledge of life been used for artistic purposes. They have given the world nearly all its famous writers and artists, but the moment their gifted children are ready to produce they are compelled to leave home and emigrate to the city. "Appearances must be maintained," a 2500 small-town friend said to me not long ago; "otherwise life couldn't go on." But to maintain appearances is the one thing no creative artist can ever do. If he tries, his work shows as much liveliness and veracity as the average obituary column. So, for freedom's sake, he moves to the big city and there he tends 4 suspenders
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to stay. That is why for the past two hundred years art has always been associated in people's minds with the life of the metropolis. But the metropolisLondon, Paris, New York, Romedoes not nurture art. It merely gives the immigrant artist or writer freedom to paint or write as he pleases. And it exacts a bitter price for this freedom, the loss of the smalltown intimacy from which all life-knowledge derives. That is why so many writers over the past two hundred years have done their best work before they were forty. In their early years in the big city, they availed themselves of the freedom it offered to be themselves. They wrote, generally, of the life they had lived in their native regions. But as they grew older they inevitably consumed their vital material, and in middle age they tended to run dry. The metropolis which was now their home failed to provide them with the life-giving material they required. The very freedom the big city grants is based on a kind of indifference to the individual, an indifference that springs from ignorance. The city has no real gossip. In the city a man is a name or a career, a unit in a factory or the occupant of an office desk. There is no universal folk-memory of the grandfather who scratched his head or the son who hoisted his trouser to scratch the back of his leg. The emotional upheavals which shatter families are swallowed up by the city as the ocean swallowed the Titanic, and to the onlooking artist they seem almost as meaningless as traffic accidents because he cannot possibly know, much less feel, the forces which caused them. When modern writers attempt to use metropolitan life as the material for tragedy their work is usually cold and dry. This has been especially notable in the English-speaking centres of London and New York. It is true that Dickens was a Londoner; it is equally true that he saw only the surface of things. As for New York, in the whole of American literature not a single great book has been based on its life. How could it be? In New York, who cares who commits suicide? The crowds massed in the street to see if the stranger will jump from the skyscraper window are not interested in the man, because they do not know him. They are interested only in the spectacle. In New York, who cares who cheats whom? Or who survives through endurance? Or who, by a denial of himself, wins spiritual greatness? This does not imply that New York is less noble than a small town. It merely implies that in terms of art it is too large for any individual artist to handle. Far different was the situation in the days when no cities were immense and a few small or medium-sized towns were the life-centres of a whole people. Ancient Athens at the height of her glory had a voting list somewhat smaller than that of modern Halifax. But she had a spirit which Halifax and all modern smallish towns entirely lackshe preferred excitement to caution and greatness to respectability. She invented tragic and comic drama, the art of history, and the democratic method of government. All these stupendous inventions arose out of her own experience. The characters in her great comedies were living Athenian citizens, and when Socrates was satirized in The Clouds by Aristophanes he rose in the theatre so that everyone would know that he was enjoying the play, too. Plato's Republic had its origin in a dinner party which assembled after a late afternoon walk just as casually as Joe Smith gets together his cronies for a poker game by the simple expedient
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of walking the length of the main street from the barber shop to the Maple Leaf Hotel. It has always been the samewithout intimacy, there can be no creation. Republican Rome was a relatively small town. Florence, Genoa, Venice, and Pisa, in the days of their glory, were about a quarter the size of Ottawa. In Shakespeare's London everyone who mattered knew everyone else, and we can be pretty certain that the characters who live in Shakespeare's plays were modelled on people the playwright knew personally or had heard about from the intimate gossip of others who did. But these wonderful small towns had one thing in common besides the intimate knowledge of life which all small towns share. It never occurred to them that their knowledge should berepressed "in order that life might go on." There was no conspiracy of silence when it came to writing books and plays. The citizens were not afraid of gossip. In such communities a man like Mackenzie King could never have become Prime Minister, nor would a generation of public servants have admired his theory that a leader should veil his thoughts in the stuffiest language possible lest the public become sufficiently interested to make an effort to find out what he was talking about. It seems to me, thinking along these lines, that the cultural future of Canada is opposed only by fear of what the neighbours will say. For Canada, by and large, is still a nation of small towns. Toronto, for all its sprawling size, has a small-town psychology. So, when it comes down to it, does Montreal; in this city we still have a great deal of the intimate small-town knowledge of life which New York and London lack. It has made us shrewder than we realize. We know, for example, that our present material prosperity does not mean, in itself, that we are a great country. We know intuitively that we will become great only when we translate our force and knowledge into spiritual and artistic terms. Then, and only then, will it matter to mankind whether Canada has existed or not.
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Cofer, Judith Ortiz. "I Fell in Love, or My Hormones Awakened." Literature for Composition: Essays, Fiction. Poetry and Drama. 4th ed. Ed.
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I fell in love, or my hormones awakened from their long slumber in my body, and suddenly the goal of my days was focused on one thing: to catch a glimpse of my secret love. And it had to remain secret, because I had, of 2595course, in the great tradition of tragic romance, chosen to love a boy who was totally out of my reach. He was not Puerto Rican; he was Italian and rich. He was also an older man. He was a senior at the high school when I came in as a freshman. I first saw him in the hall, leaning casually on a wall that was the border line between girlside and boyside for underclassmen. He looked 2600extraordinarily like a young Marlon Brandodown to the ironic little smile. The total of what I knew about the boy who starred in every one of my awkward fantasies was this: that he was the nephew of the man who owned the supermarket on my block; that he often had parties at his parents' beautiful home in the suburbs which I would hear about; that this family had 2605money (which came to our school in many ways)and this fact made my knees weak: and that he worked at the store near my apartment building on weekends and in the summer. My mother could not understand why I became so eager to be the one sent 2610out on her endless errands. I pounced on every opportunity from Friday to late Saturday afternoon to go after eggs, cigarettes, milk (I tried to drink as much of it as possible, although I hated the stuff)the staple items that she would order from the "American" store.
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Week after week I wandered up and down the aisles, taking furtive glances at the stock room in the back, breathlessly hoping to see my prince. Not that I had a plan. I felt like a pilgrim waiting for a glimpse of Mecca. I did not expect him to notice me. It was sweet agony.
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One day I did see him. Dressed in a white outfit like a surgeon: white pants and shirt, white cap, and (gross sight, but not to my love-glazed eyes) bloodsmeared butcher's apron. He was helping to drag a side of beef into the freezer storage area of the store. I must have stood there like an idiot, 2625because I remember that he did see me, he even spoke to me! I could have died. I think he said, "Excuse me," and smiled vaguely in my direction. After that, I willed occasions to go to the supermarket. I watched my mother's pack of cigarettes empty ever so slowly. I wanted her to smoke
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fast. I drank milk and forced it on my brother (although a second glass for him had to be bought with my share of Fig Newton cookies which we both liked, but were restricted to one row each). I gave my cookies up for love, and watched my mother smoke her L & M's with so little enthusiasm that I thought (God, no!) that she might be cutting down on her smoking or maybe 2635even giving up the habit. At this crucial time! I thought I had kept my lonely romance a secret. Often I cried hot tears on my pillow for the things that kept us apart. In my mind there was no doubt that he would never notice me (and that is why I felt free to stare at himI 2640was invisible). He could not see me because I was a skinny Puerto Rican girl, a freshman who did not belong to any group he associated with. At the end of the year I found out that I had not been invisible. I learned one little lesson about human natureadulation leaves a scent, one that we 2645are all equipped to recognize, and no matter how insignificant the source, we seek it. In June the nuns at our school would always arrange for some cultural extravaganza. In my freshman year it was a Roman banquet. We had been 2650studying Greek drama (as a prelude to church historyit was at a fast clip that we galloped through Sophocles and Euripedes toward the early Christian martyrs), and our young, energetic Sister Agnes was in the mood for spectacle. She ordered the entire student body (it was a small group of under 300 students) to have our mothers make us togas out of sheets. She handed 2655out a pattern on mimeo pages fresh out of the machine. I remember the intense smell of the alcohol on the sheets of paper, and how almost everyone in the auditorium brought theirs to their noses and inhaled deeply mimeographed handouts were the school-day buzz that the new Xerox generation of kids is missing out on. Then, as the last couple of weeks of 2660school dragged on, the city of Paterson becoming a concrete oven, and us wilting in our uncomfortable uniforms, we labored like frantic Roman slaves to build a splendid banquet hall in our small auditorium. Sister Agnes wanted a raised dais where the host and hostess would be regally enthroned. She had already chosen our Senator and Lady from among our ranks. The Lady was to be a beautiful new student named Sophia, a recent Polish immigrant, whose English was still practically unintelligible, but whose features, classically perfect without a trace of makeup, enthralled us. Everyone talked about her gold hair cascading past her waist, and her voice 2670which could carry a note right up to heaven in choir. The nuns wanted her for God. They kept saying that she had vocation. We just looked at her in awe, and the boys seemed afraid of her. She just smiled and did as she was told. I don't know what she thought of it all. The main privilege of beauty is that others will do almost everything for you, including thinking.
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Her partner was to be our best basketball player, a tall, red-haired senior whose family sent its many offspring to our school. Together, Sophia and her senator looked like the best combination of immigrant genes our community could produce. It did not occur to me to ask then whether anything but their 113
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beauty qualified them for the starring roles in our production. I had the highest average in the church history class, but I was given the part of one of many "Roman Citizens." I was to sit in front of the plastic fruit and recite a greeting in Latin along with the rest of the school when our hosts came into the hall and took their places on their throne.
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On the night of our banquet, my father escorted me in my toga to the door of our school. I felt foolish in my awkwardly draped sheet (blouse and skirt required underneath). My mother had no great skill as a seamstress. The best she could do was hem a skirt or a pair of pants. That night I would have 2690traded her for a peasant woman with a golden needle. I saw other Roman ladies emerging from their parents' cars looking authentic in sheets of material that folded over their bodies like the garments on a statue by Michaelangelo. How did they do it? How was it that I always got it just slightly wrong, and worse, I believed that other people were just too polite to 2695mention it. "The poor little Puerto Rican girl," I could hear them thinking. But in reality, I must have been my worst critic, self-conscious as I was. Soon, we were all sitting at our circle of tables joined together around the dais. Sophia glittered like a golden statue. Her smile was beatific: a perfect, 2700silent Roman lady. Her "senator" looked uncomfortable, glancing around at his buddies, perhaps waiting for the ridicule that he would surely get in the locker room later. The nuns in their black habits stood in the background watching us. What were they supposed to be, the Fates? Nubian slaves? The dancing girls did their modest little dance to tinny music from their finger 2705cymbals, then the speeches were made. Then the grape juice "wine" was raised in a toast to the Roman Empire we all knew would fall within the week before finals anyway. All during the program I had been in a state of controlled hysteria. My love sat across the room from me looking supremely bored. I watched his every move, taking him in gluttonously. I relished the shadow of his eyelashes on his ruddy cheeks, his pouty lips smirking sarcastically at the ridiculous sight of our little play. Once he slumped down on his chair and our sergeant-at-arms nun came over and tapped him sharply on his shoulder. He 2715drew himself up slowly, with disdain. I loved his rebellious spirit. I believed myself still invisible to him in my "nothing" status as I looked up on my beloved. But toward the end of the evening, as we stood chanting our farewells in Latin, he looked straight across the room and into my eyes! How did I survive the killing power of those dark pupils? I trembled in a new way. I 2720was not coldI was burning! Yet I shook from the inside out, feeling lightheaded, dizzy.
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The room began to empty, and I headed for the girls' lavatory. I wanted to relish the miracle in silence. I did not think for a minute that anything more 2725would follow. I was satisfied with the enormous favor of a look from my beloved. I took my time, knowing that my father would be waiting outside for me, impatient, perhaps glowing in the dark in his phosphorescent white Navy uniform. The others would ride home. I would walk home with my father, both of us in costume. I wanted as few witnesses as possible. When I could no
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hear the crowds in the hallway, I emerged from the bathroom, still under the spell of those mesmerizing eyes.
The lights had been turned off in the hallway and all I could see was the lighted stairwell, at the bottom of which a nun would be stationed. My father 2735would be waiting just outside. I nearly screamed when I felt someone grab me by the waist. But my mouth was quickly covered by someone else's mouth. I was being kissed. My first kiss and I could not even tell who it was. I pulled away to see that face not two inches away from mine. It was he. He smiled down at me. Did I have a silly expression on my face? My glasses felt 2740crooked on my nose. I was unable to move or to speak. More gently, he lifted my chin and touched his lips to mine. This time I did not forget to enjoy it. Then, like the phantom lover that he was, he walked away into the darkened corridor and disappeared. I don't know how long I stood there. My body was changing right there in the hallway of a Catholic school. My cells were tuning up like musicians in an orchestra, and my heart was a chorus. It was an opera I was composing, and I wanted to stand very still and just listen. But, of course, I heard my father's voice talking to the nun. I was in trouble if he had had to ask about me. I 2750hurried down the stairs making up a story on the way about feeling sick. That would explain my flushed face and it would buy me a little privacy when I got home.
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The next day Father announced at the breakfast table that he was leaving a six month tour of Europe with the Navy in a few weeks and that at the end of the school year my mother, my brother and I would be sent to Puerto Rico to stay for half a year at Mama's (my mother's mother) house. I was devastated. This was the usual routine for us. We had always gone to Mama's to stay 2760when Father was away for long periods. But this year it was different for me. I was in love, and . .. my heart knocked against my bony chest at this thought. . . he loved me too? I broke into sobs and left the table.
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In the next week I discovered the inexorable truth about parents. They can 2765actually carry on with their plans right through tears, threats, and the awful spectacle of a teenager's broken heart. My father left me to my mother who impassively packed while I explained over and over that I was at a crucial time in my studies and that if I left my entire life would be ruined. All she would say was "You are an intelligent girl, you'll catch up." Her head was 2770filled with visions of casa5 and family reunions, long gossip sessions with her mama and sisters. What did she care that I was losing my one chance at true love?
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In the meantime I tried desperately to see him. I thought he would look for too. But the few times I saw him in the hallway, he was always rushing away. It would be long weeks of confusion and pain before I realized that the kiss was nothing but a little trophy for his ego. He had no interest in me other 5 home
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than as his adorer. He was flattered by my silent worship of him, and he had bestowed a kiss on me to please himself, and to fan the flames. I learned a 2780lesson about the battle of the sexes then that I have never forgotten: the object is not always to win, but most times simply to keep your opponent (synonymous at times with "the loved one") guessing. But this is too cynical a view to sustain in the face of that overwhelming of emotion that is first love. And in thinking back about my own experience with it, I can be objective only to the point where I recall how sweet the anguish was, how caught up in the moment I felt, and how every nerve in my body was involved in this salute to life. Later, much later, after what seemed like an eternity of dragging the weight of unrequited love 2790around with me, I learned to make myself visible and to relish the little battles required to win the greatest prize of all. And much later, I read and understood Camus'6 statement about the subject that concerns both adolescent and philosopher alike: if love were easy, life would be too simple.
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Teitel, Jay. "Shorter, Slower, Weaker: And That's a Good Thing." Canadian Content. 6th ed. Ed Nell Waldman and Sarah Norton. Toronto: Nelson, 2007. 27-32.
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faithful recreation of the old grainy kinetypes of NHL games from the thirties and forties. I was watching a memory.
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At which point one of the more boisterous anachronisms got a penalty for slashing. A helmet was pulled off in chagrin, and I saw exactly who the creators of this lost and perfect game were: women.
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A quick glance through recent issues of Sports Illustrated, or TSN's weekend listings, is enough to suggest that there is a small but unprecedented explosion in the popularity of women's sports, both amateur and professional. Part of this movement is probably linked to an increased female fan-base (women are buying more cars than ever, for instance, and car companies traditionally sponsor sports events), but just as significant is the phenomenon I witnessed that afternoon three years ago on my TV screen: what you might call the Law of the Intersecting Gender Gap. . . . Men have outgrown many of the traditional sports, while women have been growing into them. For anyone who's spent a couple of introspective hours watching TV sports lately, the evidence is tangible. While it's undeniable that male athletes today have elevated the skill level in most of the popular sportsfootball, basketball, hockey, tennis, golf, even track and field to a dazzling level, in virtually all these sports the same male players have outstripped in size and speed the confines of the standard playing spaces that define their games. Whether it's on rinks, fields, or courts, they just don't seem to fit any more. Pro football, with 250-pound guided missiles capable of running four-second forty-yard dashes on a 100-yard postage stamp of a field, has turned into a kind of mesomorphic pinball; NHL hockey, as much a game of space as speed, is too often more of the same. NBA basketball, half the time a breathtaking nightly highlight package, for the other half is a pituitary, one-dimensional jamboree, with as many field goals being released above the rim as below, with jump shots clanging off rims, and two guys playing one-on-one the rest of the game. In men's golf, prodigal Ubermensclien8 like Tiger Woods have made the notion of par fives, and even fours, obsolete with 350-yard drives, and in tennis the 120mile serve-and-volley game has turned the sport into a live-action Super Mario game that ends every seven seconds. At the same time the female version of every one of the abovementioned sports has quietly become an oasis of form. Women's hockey is even more fun to watch now than it was [before bodychecking was outlawed]; women's tennis features long rallies and good net play; the women's golf tour continues to boast better putters and fine short-iron players, if less monstrous drivers; and as far as roundball goes, the legendary John Wooden, coach of ten NCAA men's champion teams at UCLA, recently noted that "Some of the best pure basketball I see lately is being played by women." There seems to be a 8 supermen
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confluence between playing surface and game in women's sports that is harmonious and satisfying. The men amaze you, you jump out of your chair crying "All right!" at the same time knowing that something is half wrong. The women let you sink back into the sofa with a quieter delight, and reach for the chips. They have the space to play; you have the space to watch. If this yearning seems nostalgic, it's no accident. The fact is that nearly all modern sports were either invented or codified into their present-day form at the same time [just over 100 years ago]. More critically, they were designed to be played by men at the turn of the century. And it turns out that men 100 years ago were closer to the women athletes of today, in both size and performance, than they were remotely close to their modern male counterparts. In women's sports today we see not only the original sports recreated, but the original athletes. Basketball is a classic example. The average height of the [1990s] Toronto Raptors, an "average" NBA team, [was] 6'6" about nine inches taller than the average for the male population at large. In 1898, though, just seven years after the transplanted Canadian James Naismith nailed his peach baskets ten feet above the floor at a Springfield, Massachusetts, Y, the average height of the Buffalo Germans, one of the first pro teams, was only marginally taller than the lay-population average of the day. "From 1898 to 1915," notes Bill Himmelman, President/Owner of Sports Nostalgia Research in New Jersey and league historian for the NBA, "the 'big men1 on pro teams, the centres, were anywhere from 6' to 6'3". The first exceptional big man, John Wehdelken of Columbia University, was all of 6'2". The guards of the day, defensive specialists, were in the 5'10" range, while the forwards, the speedy shooters, were about 5'7"." Assuming equal distribution among the players, the average height of a team like the Buffalo Germans would have been in the 5'11" range precisely the average height of the women playing in one of today's new professional leagues, the ABL. But maybe more important than the numerical match was the style of the turn-of-the-century game. "The set-shot was the big weapon then, a 24-40 foot shot, compared to a 21-foot three-point shot today," adds Bill Himmelman, "and the only way a short guy could get it off was to back up on the taller players. Your forwards were your best shooters and your best drivers. Coaches actually avoided recruiting tall players; height was considered a handicap, it was thought to make you uncoordinated. As far as dunking went, coaches wouldn't let you do it; it was considered an absolute sham." No dunking, precision outside shooting, an emphasis on the fast break, a foul shooting percentage consistently higher than the NBA's all these are hallmarks of topflight women's basketball today. Again, the individual manoeuvres aren't
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nearly as awe-inspiring as in the NBA, but the gestalt9 is a whole level higher. The acting's less prodigious, but the story's better . . . . The pattern in hockey is the same. Although size statistics don't exist from 1893, the year Baron Stanley of Preston donated a cup to the winners of collegiate hockey in Canada (rink size had been standardized by McGill University students about fifteen years earlier), they are available from 1940. In an NHL guide from that year, the first two pages alone list eighteen players under 510" in height, including seven at 57" and four at 5'6", with an average weight of 166 lbs (compared to the 6'1", 198-pound average in the NHL today). Using historical growth rates, it's reasonable to posit a men's pro hockey team at the turn of the century with an average height in the 5'6" range, and an average weight of about 150 lbs. The averages for the first six position players on the 1996/97 Canadian Women's National Hockey team list? 5'6 1/2" 150 lbs. It could be argued that such coincidences still deal mainly with size, and size doesn't necessarily translate to performance. A 150pound man, for instance, will probably be stronger and faster than a 150-pound woman. (Tiger Woods, at 160 pounds, regularly outdrives not only 160-pound women but 260-pound men.) But it's in the one sport where we have hard historical comparative performance records that the similarity between today's female athletes and males at the dawn of the century is at its eeriest. It turns out that nearly every major track and field record held by women today is almost identical to the records held by men seventy to ninety years ago.... Aside from a couple of intriguing future speculations in about 2085 someone's great-granddaughter should be matching Donovan Bailey's current record time in the 100 metres the most important implication of all the above is philosophical as opposed to logistic. The match between today's women and yesterday's men is significant because it gives us a seat at an unexpected remake of a "golden age" of athletics, when sport was less about spectacle and entertainment and more about the game itself. The argument one large camp of veteran sports fans will make in response, that if men's sports were so proportionally deficient today they wouldn't also be so unprecedentedly popular, is as flawed as any cultural argument from popularity. Droves of people go to see pro wrestling and [bad] movies is that convincing proof of their quality? No, the radical, "dated" notion is that there might be an ideal in sport that actually diverges from the TV ratings. No one denies that male pro sports can be exciting (with the possible exception of NFL football, which without the point spread would be like watching paint dry), but they are a new universe unto themselves that lacks the satisfaction of the conventions, the old verities of shapeliness. 9 An integrated set of elements of experiences perceived as a whole that is more than the sum of its parts
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As far as shapeliness of "fit" goes, for that matter, the solution for men's sports seems obvious: if the shoe crimps, stretch it. If mal athletes have outgrown the physical spaces they play on, enlarge the spaces. Only a combination of greed (having fewer exorbitantly priced seats to sell) and timidity (having to listen to Don Cherry10 bray) has prevented the NHL from widening its rinks fifteen feet to Olympic size, and returning the game to its skill players, halting the clutch and grab movement in mid-hook. If the Canadian Football League can produce a superior game with inferior players by`dint of a field ten yards longer and fifteen yards wider than the NFL gridiron, how much more superior would the American game be if it stretched its boundaries? As for basketball, if James Naismith had known that a 77" Romanian redwood named Gheorghe Muresan would someday bestride his wooden court, would he not have raised the basket a foot or so? But juggling dimensions is only half the fix, one that on its own evades the deeper lesson that women's sports have to teach us. In a socio-economic coincidence as unerring as the physical one, women athletes today, particularly team sport athletes, are crossing precisely the same threshold between amateurism and professionalism their male counterparts did at the turn of the century. Love of the game is far more likely to be burning in them than love of money or fame, because the latter simply aren't there. Women's pro leagues are in their infancy; big crowds are still largely wishful thinking. Unless they're tennis players or golfers, most female athletes can only dream about six-figure salaries, let alone the millions doled out regularly to journeyman male athletes. As a result they're still refreshingly free of the arrogance that permeates so many pro male locker-rooms these days . . . . Aside from their physical gifts, the ways and means of women athletes tend to be modest. Which is to say, like ours. And this is the most delicate message of women's sports today: it isn't necessary that our athletic heroes have our physical limitations, but it helps if their aspirations are scaled close enough to ours that the rhythm of our dreams coincides. Size in this context may be just a handy metaphor. In their rudeness, their ego, the unseemly magnitude of their contracts, and their substitution of contempt for sportsmanship, a large percentage of male pro athletes today have become not just physical but emotional misfits. They have nurst not just the dimensions of sport, but its spirit. Conversely, in their relative sincerity, their humility, their lack of effect, their newness to professionalism in many cases, women athletes go a long way towards restoring the balance. This too may change, but for the moment they have about them a forgotten scent of something eternally ancient and eternally new, a sense of proportion, and old-fashioned pass ion for the game well-played.
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Normally an academic essay has a thesis and three points, and follows the structure of introduction, body and conclusion. An analysis of another work includes the main idea of that work.
INTRODUCTION
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The introductory paragraph should be SHORT- about three sentences. The introduction of an essay is like a table of contents. It mentions everything that will be in the essay. Do not discuss your topic here - just introduce it. 1. OPENING REMARK = ATTENTION GRABBER Most students like to open with a sentence to GET THEIR READER INTERESTED, but you do not have to write one. Dont write several general statements. Get to the point of your essay.
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Write the main idea expressed by the author of the text you are discussing. To make sure you are writing an idea, use the word, THAT. . . .
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EXAMPLE In the memoir, Black Boy, the author, Richard Wright, suggests that racism destroys a persons self-worth.
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3. STUDENTS THESIS Write a sentence listing the techniques and devices used by the author to express the main idea.
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Use key words as signposts. You will repeat these words in each section in the body of the essay to tell the reader which point you are discussing.
STUDENT THESIS
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Technique or device 1
Technique or device 2
Technique or device 3
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EXAMPLE The author effectively expresses his views on the evil of racism by using irony and comparison, and by giving many examples.
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TO SUM UP
INTRODUCTION 1 paragraph
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The suggested number of techniques is 3. But students can discuss 2 or even 4 without losing grades. 1 paragraph 1. Opening comment keep it short
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2. The authors main idea 3. Your thesis: a reference to the rhetorical techniques or literary devices you plan to discuss. Use key word(s) for: Technique or device # 1
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BODY SECTIONS There can be several paragraphs for different aspects of the same section
Show how the literary devices or rhetorical techniques help the author to express the main idea, using examples from the text to prove your points. Put your points in the same order as in the introduction. Make sure you have enough examples in the writers text to back up each of your points. Dont use the same supporting details for different points. 1 or more paragraphs per section 1. In the first sentence of the first body paragraph of your essay, repeat the recognizable key word(s) for literary technique #1 that you mentioned in the introduction in a full sentence. Then give evidence to prove your point. Use quotations or paraphrase the authors words.
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CONCLUSION 1 paragraph
Sum up your essay. This is the place to restate your thesis in slightly different words. In the introduction you set out to prove something was true. Now you remind the reader of what you were trying to prove, so the reader can make a judgment in light of all the evidence you have presented. Change the wording you used in the introduction for the main idea and your thesis, or your essay will seem repetitive. If you like, you could review the main points you used as evidence for your thesis. Do not contradict the main body of the paper in the conclusion. The conclusion is not the place to introduce new ideas - it should just sum up what you have written. The conclusion is your last chance to make your thesis understood.
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Most students like to end the concluding paragraph with a general closing statement, about the future, or the topic in general. 1 paragraph 1. Restatement of the authors main idea in slightly different words than in the Introduction. 2. If you want, a restatement of the student thesis = main techniques 3. Optionally, a final sentence to finish off your essay
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Person A:
You are in charge of the Introduction: State the author's main idea. Choose 3 techniques or devices that your group will discuss: # 1, # 2, # 3.
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Person B:
You are responsible for presenting technique # 1, with examples
Person C:
You are responsible for presenting technique # 2, with examples.
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Person D:
You are responsible for presenting technique # 3, with examples.
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125
30
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The Canyon, by Edward Abbey Playing for Keeps, by Beth Kephart If You Drop a Stone . . . , by Hugh MacLennan I Fell in Love or My Hormones Awakened, by Judith Ortiz Cofer Shorter, Slower, Weaker: And Thats a Good Thing, by Jay Teitel
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Pick out the main idea of the essay you choose, and show how the author expresses this idea effectively using 3(?)* three techniques and devices. Choose from the following techniques and devices: narrative, description, exposition, persuasion, comparison, generalization and examples, logos, ethos, pathos, exaggeration, analogy, irony, rhetorical question, allusion, anecdote, humor, repetition, enumeration, figurative language, appeal to authority, imagery, or any other device you are familiar with. * You do not have to write about 3 techniques. You may choose to write about 2 or 4, without losing grades. Do not choose a technique if there is only one example in the text. To write a good essay, you should give 2-3 examples of an authors use of a technique or device. This introduction will be written in class. You may not use an introduction written at home, but you may use the following: A copy of the class Manual
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A dictionary to check spelling and meanings The Outline for an Analysis of a Non-fiction Text
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M+
M-
COMMENTS
NAME____________________________
GRADE ON 5 _______________________
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Before handing in your Introduction, check the categories that will be graded, and make sure that your paper has all the required elements.
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Write the draft of an essay of 1000 words analyzing one of these personal essays: The Canyon, by Edward Abbey Playing for Keeps, by Beth Kephart If You Drop a Stone . . . , by Hugh MacLennan I Fell in Love or My Hormones Awakened, by Judith Ortiz Cofer
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Shorter, Slower, Weaker: And Thats a Good Thing, by Jay Teitel Begin by giving your essay a title try to choose something interesting that will engage your reader, not something like, An Analysis of the Main idea of The Canyon. Use a title that sums up the content of the essay. Write your title using correct capitalization. Rewrite your introduction, making the corrections the teacher has suggested. Then write the body sections of your essay, repeating the key word(s) you used in the introduction to identify each point, and giving evidence from the text for your points. Use at least 3 quotations from the essay as evidence for your points. Use the page numbers of the Manual for parenthetical references.
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Finally, write a conclusion summing up your thesis and the content of your essay. This draft will be written in class. You may not bring a prepared essay to class, but you may use the following: The corrected version of your introduction The class Manual
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A dictionary to check spelling and meanings The Outline for an Analysis of a Non-fiction Text
Write a good legible copy of your essay, double-spaced in an exam booklet. If you use pencil, make sure your writing is dark, and easy to read. Write on one side of the paper only, please.
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Before handing in your Draft, consult the appropriate grade sheet. Check the categories that will be graded, and make sure that your paper has all the required elements. Remember: Do not choose a technique if there is only one example in the text. To write a good essay, you should give 2-3 examples of an authors use of a technique or device.
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AUTHOR In the essay, ____________________________, (Write title), the author, S MAIN ________________, (Write authors name) expresses the main idea that IDEA _______________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ______ ________________________________________________________. (Write the main idea). YOUR THESIS The author expresses the main idea effectively/ successfully/ convincingly (choose one word) by using ____________________________________, _____________________________, and ______________________________ (Write key words of techniques and devices you will discuss, # 1, # 2, # 3). You may write about 2 or 4 techniques also.
TECHNIQU The author effectively gets his (her) point across using E#2 ______________________________ (Write in technique # 2 = key word). GIVE 2 3 EXAMPLES OF HOW THE AUTHOR USES THIS TECHNIQUE = QUOTATIONS, REFERENCES TO PARTS OF THE TEXT (Just write notes here.)
TECHNIQU The author uses ____________________________________ (Write in technique # 3 E#3 = Key word) to make his (her) case. GIVE 2 3 EXAMPLES OF HOW THE AUTHOR USES THIS TECHNIQUE = QUOTATIONS, REFERENCES TO PARTS OF THE TEXT (Just write notes here.)
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CONCLUSION = 1 PARAGRAPH
This model is a suggestion you can vary the pattern if you find the wording in this example too repetitive. AUTHORS MAIN IDEA AGAIN The authors main idea, that ______________________________________________________ ___________________________________, (Repeat authors main idea in slightly different words from the introduction) is expressed using __________________________________, ________________________________, and _____________________________________. (Remind the reader of the techniques you have discussed, changing the wording slightly).
Last sentence to wrap up your essay a sentence about the topic in general, or about the future (You can write this later at the end of your essay.)
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DO NOT USE ANY OUTSIDE SOURCES FOR THIS ESSAY PLEASE HAND IN A GRADE SHEET WITH YOUR ESSAY
7. Discussion of technique # 3, using key word(s), plus specific evidence from the text (If you only have 2 points, this grade will be an average on # 1 and # 2.) 8. Conclusion to sum up essay 9. Good paragraphing 10. Correct formal essay style: no use of first, second person; repetition; redundancy; contractions; incomplete comparisons; familiar language; poor style; clichs 11. Good vocabulary and expression: no 12. Correct spelling, punctuation and mechanics: capitalization, numbers, italics for titles etc. 13. Good grammar 14. Correct sentence structures at 15. Use of least 3 relevant quotations to 16. Bonus: Double-spaced essay handed in Essays that are noticeably less than1000 words will not get full marks.
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Grade on 15
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There are many, many rules and variations for this stuff; there is a handbook put out by the MLA with the rules laid out, and there are pages about it in practically every English handbook, like The Little, Brown Essential Handbook, 123-137. There are also many guides to MLA on the Internet, like the Owl at Perdue University.
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Every time you quote the words of an author, you must include a PARENTHETICAL REFERENCE.
This means that you make a brief reference in brackets to identify the location of the borrowed information -- the name of the author and the page number(s) where you found the quotation in a book, or the name of the website - or the address if the site has no title.
For a book, you must put the author's name and the page number in brackets. So, if you quoted something from page 25 of The Butcher Boy, by Patrick McCabe, you might write, (McCabe 25)
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(25) If it is obvious from your sentence who the writer is, there is no need to repeat the authors name:
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IS THERE A COMMA BETWEEN THE AUTHORS NAME AND THE PAGE NUMBER?
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No, there is no comma between the authors name and the page number.
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The question mark or the exclamation mark is part of the quote and so they stay, and you also have to add your own period after the brackets. For example,
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In both parenthetical references and in the Work(s) Cited page, the normal rules for writing titles apply. So, use italics for book titles, plays, newspapers, magazines, TV programs, movies, and CDs. Place double quotation marks around: short stories, articles inside a newspaper or magazine, essays, short poems, or an episode of a TV show. DO NOT WRITE awkward things like, "The above quote proves that . . . ." The person who is quoting is you. The author WRITES. Instead say, "These words show that . . . .
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If you copy out a quotation wrongly, with a spelling error, or a word left out, or a word not capitalized, you are suggesting that the author made that mistake. So, quote accurately. Reproduce the spelling and punctuation correctly.
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Charles Dickens wrote of the eighteenth century, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" (56).
Avoid long quotations if your reader has already read the text you are writing about. Long quotes of more than four typed lines are used when the person reading your essay has not read a text, and you want to reproduce a long passage.
Direct quotations give exact words taken from a text: Alan F. Westin says, We have clearly passed the era in which it is correct or right to say that there is no right to privacy for employees (321).
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WHAT IS AN INDIRECT QUOTATION? An indirect quotation gives the same information in the students words:
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Alan F. Westin says we have passed the time when it was acceptable to say that employees had no right to privacy (321).
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One critic of the penal system maintains that we may be able to learn more about prisons from the psychology of the prison officials than from that of the prisoners (Mitford 9).
A quotation should NEVER STAND ALONE. To avoid this, introduce the quotation and/or analyze its meaning. Heres an example of what not to write:
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The book ends with,Mrs. Cullinan was right about one thing. My name wasnt Mary (111). It would be much better to say:
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Maya Angelou ends her wonderful story of how she is mistreated when she is a servant in an ironic and humorous way: Mrs. Cullinan was right about one thing. My name wasnt Mary (111). Or:
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Mrs. Cullinan was right about one thing. My name wasnt Mary (111). In this statement, Maya Angelou makes fun of Mrs. Cullinans annoying habit of calling her by the wrong name.
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According to Woody Allen, the famous comedian, success comes mainly from "showing up" (123). b.) If the quoted material starts with a capital letter in the original text, and is a continuation of your sentence, there is a natural pause, so use a comma or a colon before the quotation:
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Woody Allen, the famous comedian, once said, "Success depends on just showing up" (123). c.) If you have finished your own sentence, and then you want to quote the author's words, put a colon to link the quotation to what you have just said:
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Woody Allen had very definite views about the importance of being present for important occasions: "Success depends on just showing up" (123).
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WHAT HAPPENS IF I WANT TO QUOTE WORDS THE AUTHOR HAS ALREADY PUT IN QUOTATION MARKS?
When quoting material that is already in quotation marks, like dialog, for example, use double quotes outside and single quotes inside:
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You use 3 quotation marks. In other words, if the writer uses double quotes for dialog, he or she loses one set of quotation marks when you put the dialog into a quotation: The character, Mrs. Maloney, says, I wont do it (Byrne 99).
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WHAT IS AN ELLIPSIS?
An ellipsis is written like this: SPACE PERIOD SPACE PERIOD SPACE PERIOD SPACE
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Ellipsis = three periods with a space before and after each period to indicate words left out Generally, you do not need to use an ellipsis if you are obviously quoting a few words:
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"One or two of them may turn on an impulse and look back at the tower (Shields 71).
But you only want to talk about the idea of turning to look at the tower. Thus you get:
"One or two of them may turn . . . and look back at the tower (Shields 71).
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If you start a quoting the middle of a sentence, that is, if you leave out the beginning of a quoted sentence, you need to begin with an ellipsis:
The author writes that there is . . . a glow about Lazlo, like a motionless blur of dazzling energy. (McGarry Morris 212).
If you leave out the end of a sentence, or you omit a sentence, you have to use four periods.
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Rivers notes, Andrew Jackson read twenty newspapers. . . . There were fifty-seven journalists on the government payroll (7).
But when adding a parenthetical reference, as you usually do in an essay, use a regular ellipsis for the end of the sentence, and add a period after the brackets: Tuchman writes, Medical thinking stressed air as the communicator of disease . . . (101-102).
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You can capitalize words, add words, or make any changes you need, so long as you use square brackets to show you are changing the original. Square brackets can also be used to change or add words to make a quotation clear.
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If the original text reads: The young boy stared at the snowdrop for hours and listened to the radio."
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but you want to tell your reader the name of the character who you are talking about, you could write: Because he is left all alone in the world after his father dies, "[Francie] stared at the snowdrop for hours and listened to the radio" (McCabe 140).
WHEN YOU CHANGE A WORD IN A QUOTATION USING SQUARE BRACKETS, YOU LEAVE OUT THE WORD YOU ARE REPLACING.
So, in the example above, the words,The young boy, are removed, and the word,
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IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR STUDENTS TO USE SQUARE BRACKETS IN THE LAST ESSAY OF THIS COURSE.
When you write an essay about the True Stories book that you do your oral on at the end of the semester, you will be writing about a book the teacher may not be familiar with. So you probably need to use square brackets in your quotations to explain who is talking and what the situation is.
At the end of your paper you list the work or works you have cited with full details, like the title, the author, the publisher, and the place and date of the publication. Dont label your Work Cited as Bibliography or References.
The Work Cited section is on a new page. The title - Work Cited - is centered. Like the rest of the essay, the Work Cited section is doublespaced. If you are just talking about one book or source, you write Work Cited. If you have more than one source, you write the title, Works Cited.
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The first line of the citation is not indented; the subsequent lines are indented, that is, moved five spaces from the left margin. A book would appear this way in the Work Cited section:
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Work Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. London: OUP, 1976. Print.
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(Notice that my spacing on screen may not be the same as in the Manual, because the font is bigger.) What this entry contains: 1. Author(s) in alphabetical order by last name, followed by a comma, then first name, followed by a period. 2. Title of book in italics + a period. 3. Place of publication + colon: 4. Name of publisher + comma, (it can be abbreviated) 5. Year of publication + period. 6. The medium Print, Web etc.
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the parenthetical reference should be: (Felluga) If your Work(s) Cited entry reads: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. the parenthetical reference should be: (The Purdue OWL Family of Sites)
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"How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow.com. eHow, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2009.
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_______________________________________________________________ The material in this article has been adapted from: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 6 June 2012. [http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/].
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WHAT TO PUT
1 Author and/or editor names (if available) Name of article (if available)
EXAMPLE
Munroe, Harold J.
3 4.
Use n.p. if no publisher name The Writing Lab and OWL is available and n.d. if no at Purdue and Purdue U., publishing date is given. Put a 2011. n.p. comma between the name of the publisher and the date, and a period at the end. Put a period after. Put a period after. 122-130. Web.
5. 6.
7.
Your date of access. (= Put a period after. necessary because web postings are often updated, and information available on one date may no longer be available later.) URL?? MLA no longer requires the use of URLs in MLA citations because Web addresses change often and because documents sometimes appear on multiple databases. But if you want to, or if some teachers require you to, you can add the URL. Put URL in square brackets. Break URLs only after slashes. Click on the URL and remove hyperlink on a URL if you want it to print darkly. Put a period after the URL brackets.
23 Apr. 2011.
8.
A Any
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W will
What we are interested in here is the spirit. By giving a reference for your web source, you are showing that you have found some really good information, and you want to put it into your essay, without being blamed for cheating. You should learn to do correct citations from the Internet, so you can then use the information you get there regularly and legally.
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Example of the source for the information in this part of the Manual:
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The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. [http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/11/].
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Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. S. H. Butcher. The Internet Classics Archive. Web Atomic and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.
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"How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow.com. eHow, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2012.
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In this class we follow the regulations for quotation and attribution of sources for English literature essays, laid down by the (1) ___________ _____________________ ______________________________. We observe MLA rules.
You must put the authors name and the page number in brackets. If you are writing an analysis of just one text and you have identified the author and the title of the book in the introduction, you may use the authors name and the page number for the first quotation only. After that, all that you need for parenthetical reference is the (2) __________________ ______________________ in brackets. (2 words needed). There is no need to for a (3) ______________________ between the author's family name and the page number, and there is no need to write p. or pg. before the page number. Put the reference where there is a natural (4) __________________________ in your sentence, preferably at the end; the page number in brackets goes BEFORE any punctuation. So put the period (5) ________________________ the closing bracket of the reference.
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If you copy out a quotation wrongly, with a spelling error, or a word left out, or a word not capitalized, you are suggesting that the author made that mistake. So, quote accurately. Reproduce the spelling and (6) ___________________________ correctly.
A quotation should NEVER (7) _______________ _________________________. (2 words needed) To avoid this, you could introduce the quotation and or analyze its significance. If the quoted material starts with a capital letter in the original text, and is a continuation of your sentence, there should be a natural pause, so use a (8) _________________________ or a colon before the quotation.
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If you have finished your own (9) _______________________________ and you want to quote the author's words, replace the period you would normally use with a colon before the quote.
Long quotes of more than (10) ______________ _________________ _________________ (3 words needed) are used when the person reading your essay has not read a text, and you want to reproduce a long passage.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I WANT TO QUOTE WORDS THE AUTHOR HAS ALREADY PUT IN QUOTATION MARKS?
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When quoting material that is already in quotation marks, like dialog for example, use (11) ________________ quotes outside and single quotes inside:
Ellipsis = three periods with a space before and after each period to indicate (12) ___________ ________________ ________________. (3 words needed) If you leave out the end of a sentence, or you omit a sentence, you have to use four periods.
When you integrate a quotation into your writing, it has to blend grammatically into your sentence. Use (13) ___________________ _________________________ around any words that you change or add. (2 words needed) You can capitalize words, add words, or make any changes you need, so long as you use square brackets to show you are changing the original text. Square brackets can also be used to change or add words to make a quotation clear.
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At the end of your essay, you have to have a Works Cited section (or Work Cited if you used only one source), where you give full details of any book you have quoted from, the authors last name and first name; the full (14) ____________________________ in italics; the place of publication; the publisher; and the year of publication.
The titleWorks Citedis (15) _________________________________. The Works Cited section has to be on a new page. The first line of the citation is not (16) ____________________________; the subsequent lines of each entry are indented. Like the rest of the essay, the Work Cited section is (17) __________________ - ______________ (1 hyphenated word needed). A book, for example:
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Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. London: OUP, 1976. Print. What this entry contains: 1. Author(s) in alphabetical order by last name, then first name, followed by a (18) _______________________________________ 2. Title of book in italics, followed by a period
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3. Place of publication, followed by a (19) _________________________ 4. Name of publisher, comma, (20) ________________ of _____________________, followed by a period (2 words needed). 5. Medium, followed by a period.
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1. Author and/or editor names (if available), followed by a period 2. Name of article (if available), followed by a period which goes inside the closing quotation marks = . 3. (23) ________________ ____________________ (2 words needed
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4. Publisher/sponsor name and publishing date. Put a comma between the name of the publisher and the date, and a period at the end. 5. Page numbers (if available). Put a period after. 6. (24) _______________ _________ ____________________ (3 words needed) 7. Medium of publication. Put a period after. 8. Your date of access. Put a period after.
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It might be helpful to use the acronym: (25) _______________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________(8 words needed).
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This essay should be typed in correct MLA format. Include a Work Cited page at the end of your essay. Double-space to leave enough room for editing.
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If you have any questions about how you should change your corrected draft, see the teacher before you type this reviseddraft. You will not be able to write this reviseddraft again for higher grades. Before handing in your RevisedDraft of the essay, consult the appropriate grade sheet. Check the categories that will be graded, and make sure that your paper has all the required elements.
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1
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Your first and family names Instructors name Course name and number Date
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Title Spacing: The MLA Guide says everything in an essay must be double-spaced, including headings with your name, instructors name etc., quotations, and the list of Works Cited. LEARN HOW TO INSERT PAGE NUMBERS CORRECTLY. WRITING THEM IN BY HAND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. Page Numbers: Number pages consecutively throughout the manuscript (including the first page) in the upper right-hand corner of each page, one-half inch from the top (in case pages get separated). Add your name and number in Windows by using INSERT/PAGE NUMBER/ TOP OF PAGE/PLAIN NUMBER 3. Type in your family name and a space before the number. Do not use the abbreviation p. or add any other punctuation. Title: Center the title. You must write a title that tells the reader what to expect in the paper. Body Text: Indent new paragraphs five spaces; no extra space between paragraphs.
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Notice that there is no space between paragraphs; a new paragraph is shown by taking a new line and indenting five spaces from the margin.
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http://instruct.uwo.ca/english/234e/site/guidelns/smplessy/smplessy1.html
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HOW DO I WRITE A WORK CITED ENTRY FOR SOMETHING IN THE CLASS MANUAL?
If a story or essay is included in a longer book or class Manual, you have to indicate this in your Work Cited section, and give the page numbers where the story or essay is found:
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Work Cited Joyce, James. Evelina. XXXXXX (= Title of Manual, in italics). Montreal: Dawson College, 2011. ### - ###. Print.
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(XXXXX is for the title of the class Manual. The last ### - ### are for the page numbers where the essay or story is found in the class Manual.) When you write your own Work Cited, do not follow the exact indentation pattern from this Manual. Start with the authors name at the margin, and indent the second and any subsequent lines five spaces from the margin.
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Even if you are quoting from a story or essay in the Manual, with numbered lines, you still give the page number in the parenthetical reference, not the line numbers. Line numbers are only used in MLA for poetry and old plays that have Acts, Scenes and numbered lines. Even if your essay or story is all on one page, give the page number in the parenthetical reference.
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GRADE SHEET FOR REVISEDDRAFT OF AN ESSAY ANLYZING A NONFICTION TEXT: VALUE 20 POINTS
The essay should be 1000 words long. Write the number of words you wrote here: __________
OBJECTIVES TO BE MET BY THE STUDENT 1. Statement in a sentence of the main idea from the selected reading 2. Students thesis = use of key words in the introduction for rhetorical techniques and devices # 1, # 2, # 3(?) which will be discussed in the essay 3. Use of key words to introduce points # 1, 2 and 3(?) in the body of the essay 4. Use of specific evidence from the text in discussion of techniques 5. Conclusion to sum up essay 6. Good paragraphing 7. Correct formal essay style: no use of first, second person; repetition; redundancy; contractions; incomplete comparisons; poor style; clichs; use of familiar language 8. Good vocabulary and expression: no words left out, wrong word order, use of words that dont exist, poor word choice 9. Correct spelling, punctuation and mechanics: capitalization, numbers, italics for titles etc. (except for quotations; see 12 below) 10. Good grammar 11. Correct sentence structures 12. Use of at least 3 relevant, direct quotations from the text as support for points , with correct quotation mechanics and parenthetical references 13. Work Cited entry, written in MLA style 14. Correct MLA layout; double spacing 15. Essay submitted on time with this grade sheet 16. Quality of analysis on 5 Essays that are NOTICEABLY less than 1000 words long will not get full points. M+ M MCOMMENTS
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MINISTERIAL EXAMINATION OF COLLEGE ENGLISH LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION AND -LITERATURE 10 AUGUST 2011 WRITING GUIDELINES
The task: Write a 750-word essay based on a main idea in ONE of the three readings. Interpret the reading and discuss the ways in which the author develops his or her ideas. Do not simply summarize the main points of the reading or write an opinion paper that does not analyze the text itself. Be certain to write the required number of words. READING 1: A personal essay "Playing for Keeps" by Beth Kephart Identify a main idea in Kephart's text. Structure your essay around a thesis statement that is the focus of your interpretation and analysis of her narrative. Comment on her, use of techniques and devices* and make appropriate references to the reading. READING 2: A short story "Shaving" by Leslie Norris Identify a main idea in Norris's short story. Structure your essay around a thesis statement that is the focus of your interpretation and analysis of his story. Comment on his use of techniques and devices* and make appropriate references to the reading. READING 3: A short story "Return of the Frogs" by David Arnason
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Identify a main idea in Amason's short story. Structure your essay around a thesis statement that is the focus of your interpretation and analysis of his story. Comment on his use of techniques and devices* and make appropriate references to the reading.
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Techniques and devices may include the following: allusion, analogy, appeal to authority, cause and effect, characterization, comparison, contrast, definition, description, dialogue, diction, empirical evidence, enumeration, example, flashback, foreshadowing, imagery, irony, level of language, metaphor, narration, narrative point of view, refutation of opposing views, repetition, rhetorical questions, setting, symbolism and tone. You may discuss other techniques and devices as well.
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MEM
OIR:
BLACK BOY
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Section 3: Chapters 6 10 Pages 145 207 = 62 pp. Section 4: Chapters 10 14: Pages 208 257 = 49 pp.
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A
READING QUESTIONS ON BLACK BOY
SECTIONS 1-3
Name___________________________________________________________________________
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PLEASE
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Name _________________________________________________________________________ Answer either these A questions on Section 1 or the B questions, according to what the teacher assigns to you. You do not have to answer both A and B questions. Fill in the blank spaces for the following questions. Just write the answers; full sentences are not needed. In some cases you just have to put a tick beside the correct answer. 1. Richard was afraid that his: a. mother b. father a. brother d. grandmother Put a tick
beside the correct answer. would burn when he set the house on fire.
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2. On pages 7-8 there is a list of moments of living that suddenly became precious to Richard. In the box below, write 3 things from your own experience (not from the book, but what you think personally) that are inspiring, e.g.: There was the delight I caught in seeing long straight rows of red and green vegetables stretching away in the sun to the bright horizon (7). There was/is a. the: There was/is the: There was/is the: b.
c.
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3. When the family moved to _________________________, Richard was disappointed when he saw the boat called ___________________________________________. 4. Richard was not punished and triumphs over his father when he kills the kitten
3920
because _____________________________________________________________________. But his mother gave him a spade and told him to _____________________________________________
3925
5. Fill in this table of Richards experiences when he first goes grocery shopping: a. First time
He ran back into the house. b. Second time c. Second time, when his mother sent him They overtook him, wrenched his money away; back out, saying, Youve got to get over that gave him a few slaps and sent him home, sobbing [fear]. d. Second time when his mother said she was going to teach him to stand up for himself, and gave him a stick and slapped him
6. To counteract Richards drunken exploits, which of the following actions did his mother take? Tick the correct answers.
a. Beat him b. Prayed and wept c. Sent Richard to talk to the Pastor d. Cried every night e. Implored Richard to be good f. Gave up on her son g. Placed her sons in the care of a black woman
3930
7. Richard was first taught to count by _______________________________________________ 8. When he was very young, and he heard of a white man who beat a black boy, Richard thought that
3935
________________________________________________________________________________ . 9. After returning from his first day in school, Richard went home, took soap and _______________________________________________________________________________
3940
10. Richard said this about whom (Fill in the blank): The _________________________ is going to eat all the chicken!?
11. In court, when she asked for child support, a. the mother b. the father got off by saying,
3945
12. Miss Simon, the supervisor at the orphan home stopped the mother from visiting the boys each night because __________________________________________________________________
3950
_______________________________________________________________________________. 13. When Richard ran away from the orphan home, a. the police
b. Miss Simon
14. Who is Richard talking about and when in the following: I forgave him and pitied him. . . (35)?
3955
________________________________________________________________________________ 15. a. they woke memories he wanted to forget. Richard left his friends in the orphan b. home easily because: c. but he did what he would do countless times after, by acting in conformity with what others expected, even though he did not share their spirit.
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16. Who is the novel that Ella told Richard about? ____________________________________________
17. Fill in the blanks spaces with words from the text to complete the sentences. a. [it] made the world around [him] _________________________________________
b. Reality __________________________ When Richard heard about Ellas book: c. The world became peopled with _____________________________________
18. The grandmother referred to Ellas novel as ____________________________________________ 19. To discipline Richard after he was rude to her while she was bathing him and his brother, his
3970
grandmother called on _____________________________________ . 20. Tick the questions that Richard asks his mother about his Granny: Tick the correct questions a. Is Granny white? b. Do the white folks think shes white? c. Why is Granny white? d. Why is she living with us colored folks? e. Will Granny ever go and live with white people? f. Did Granny become colored when she married Grandpa? g. Why didnt Granny marry a white man? h. Who gave Granny her name [Bolden]? i. What [races] has Papa got in him? j. Are Uncle Hoskins and Aunt Maggie colored?
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21. When he went to live in Aunt Maggies house, Richard stole biscuits because _____________________________________________________________________________________
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who wanted ________________________________________________ 23. Richard and the other black boys learned at home and in Sunday school to call Jews _____________ ____________________________ .
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24. Uncle Professor Matthews bribed Richard by giving him _________________________________ ____________________________________________ .
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25. Who said to Richard, Youre just about the craziest nigger boy I ever did see, and why? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________
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26. Wright gives a list of suspicious beliefs e.g. If I kissed my elbow, I would turn into a girl. Write 3 suspicious beliefs you know of, other than the ones Wright lists in the book: a.
b.
c.
27. The black woman whose husband was killed by a mob got her revenge by _________________
4005
_________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________.
4010
Name _________________________________________________________________________ Answer either these A questions on Section 2 or the B questions, according to what the teacher assigns to you. You do not have to answer both A and B questions. Fill in the blank spaces for the following questions. Just write the answers; full sentences are not needed. In some cases you just have to put a tick beside the correct answer.
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2. When Richards mother became ill with a kind of stroke, like paralysis, what did these people do to help? Richard a. Wrote to the Granny, pleading with her to come and help. The neighbors b. Granny Aunt Maggie c. Dictated letters to her eight children asking for money to take Ella and her two little children to our home. d.
3. When Richard first went to school at Uncle Clark and Aunt Jodies town, another boy challenged him, asking, How come they make you people so _____________________ in
4030
__________________________________________________________________________________ .
5. Richards mother taken away on a stretcher after her operation because there were
4040
_____________________________________________________________________________________ 6. What did Richard think about what he learned from the sermons when he went out of his familys Seventh Day Adventist church?
4045
____________________________________________________________________________________ .
b. she was nervous, self-conscious because a relative who was not of her faith or church was in her classroom (104).
8. When Richard was accused of dropping bits of walnut on the floor, a. What did he expect the guilty boy would do?
b. What did Richard not do because of his gang code? c. What did the religious boy in front of him do?
9. What did Richard sense was the real reason Aunt Addie beat him in school?
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____________________________________________________________________________________ . 10. When she tried to beat him a second time at home, Richard used ____________________________ to fight off Aunt Addie.
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11. For the first time in her life, Aunt Addie ____________________________ when Richard was hurt playing pop-the-whip. 12. When a young friend is sent to talk to Richard about becoming a church member, what replies does Richard make to the following questions: Youre not saved a. Im all right. Say, Richard, Id like to be a good friend of yours. b.
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But dont you want to save your soul? Have you really tried to feel God? Dont mock God. Oh, Richard, brother, you are lost in the darkness of the world. You must let the church help you.
c. I simply cant feel religion. d. e. Ill never feel God, I tell you. Its no use. f.
13. Richard tried to bribe his granny to let him work on Saturdays by offering her __________________ __________________________________________________________ . 14. To make money, on the suggestion of another boy, Richard sold ____________________________
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___________________________________________________________________________________ . 15. Richards granny did not object to him selling papers because ______________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________ . 16. The best part of selling papers for Richard was reading ___________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ .
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17. What is ironic about Wrights words: There were more violent quarrels in our deeply religious home than in the home of a gangster, a burglar, or a prostitute. . . (136)?
18. a.
What were Richards impressions of the black people he saw on the plantation when he went there with Brother Mance?
b.
c. They bought insurance because it would make their children writen speak lad dat pretty boy [Richard] (136).
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19. Richards grandfather did not get his pension after fighting in the Civil War because of a mix-up with ____________________________________________________________________________________ 20. After Richard finally persuaded his granny to let him work his mother showed her approval when
4095
___________________________________________________________________________________ .
21. The white woman whom he applied to for a job told Richard, . . . we dont want a sassy nigger around here (146) because ____________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________________ . 22. Richards first employer fed him with stale, hard bread and molasses with _____________________ ________________________________________ 23. As he was baptized, what Richard wanted to yell for [the preacher] to stop and to tell him that _____________________________________________________________ . But he said nothing.
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24. a.
Richard fought off his Uncle Tom with razors and told him he had no right to beat him because
25.
a.
b. From what you read in the book so far, what are 3 of the most shocking or new things you have learned about the situation in the place where Richard Wright lived? c.
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Name _________________________________________________________________________ Answer either these A questions on Section 3 or the B questions, according to what the teacher assigns to you. You do not have to answer both A and B questions. 1. a.
Basing your reading on these chapters, outline briefly in your own words 3 occasions when Richard or other people were humiliated because of their status as black people.
b.
c.
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2. His boss at the drugstore told Richard Dont come back. You wont do, because Richard __________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________
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3. Wright says that: the black boys he worked with in a hotel had: even though, in America, there existed equality of opportunity,:
a. shut off their minds and emotions from all that the white race had said was taboo (197). b.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
5. Which examples of black people stealing from whites does Richard give? Tick the correct answers. a. Boys in the hotel stole whatever they could b. Griggs, Richards friend who worked in a jewelers stole regularly. c. A black neighbor stole bags of grain from a wholesale house. d. A deacon steals from his church. e. Black girls stole food to supplement their wages.
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6. The only way Richard could think of to make money involved ________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ 7. When he was promoted to bellboy, to make money illegally, Richard __________________________
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____________________________________________________________________________________ 8. Richard has a good chance of getting a job as a ticket-taker in a movie house because _____________
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_____________________________________________________________________________________ 9. a. He was white and Richard would never do what he and his kind had done to Negroes b.
Richard justified his plan to cheat on the movie house owner by thinking: c.
10.
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On the bus to Memphis, Richard resolved never to steal again because for him _________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ _
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SOUTHERN NIGHTS
Name _________________________________________________________________________ Answer either these A questions on Section 1 or the B questions, according to what the teacher assigns to you. You do not have to answer both A and B questions.
SECTION 1
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2. After setting the house on fire Richard hid under _________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ .
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3. Fill in the blanks for what each person did during the fire: a. His mother called Oh find my child; looked for him but didnt see him. b. His father c. His brother d. e. Everybody thought about Richard warned the mother but not before half the house was burned. using the mattress as a stretcher, rushed the grandmother to safety.
4. Before and during the incident with the kitten, match the speaker with the statement. Choose from the following: Richard, his father, his mother, his brother a. Kill that damn thing! b. He said for us to kill the kitten. c. He didnt really say killim. d. Your fathers going to beat you for this.
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6. a. After their father left, Richards mother said Richard and his brother would have to: b. dress themselves. c. d. take on responsibility for the flat while she worked. 7. a. first, When Richard was 6 he went into a bar where b. Then they told him to whisper things into womens ears for a nickel. 8. Richards first reading materials were _____________________________________________ .
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9. When he was very young, Richard did not recognize the difference between blacks and whites because ___________________________________________________________________________ .
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10. a. four-letter words he already knew from saloons On his first day in school, Richard learned from the other boys: b.
11. When Richards mother got ill for the first time, she sent the kids to an orphan home because: Put a tick beside the correct answer(s) a. she needed to go into hospital. b. they could not pay for tickets to go to the grandmothers house c. the father is also ill with a terminal disease. d. the father abandoned the family completely. e. they could not pay rent.
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12. At the orphan home, what did the boys do as work that made Richard unconscious? _________________________________________________________________________________ .
4220
14. When Richard went to ask his father for money to go to his mothers sister in Arkansas, who said the following, and whom did they say it about? Choose from these: Richards brother, the father, Richard, the mother, the strange woman The mother about the children a. It aint for me. . . . Its for your children. . . (32). b. Give him a nickel, . . .Hes cute (32). c. You ought to be dead (33). d. Dont teach him to be a fool (33).
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15. Who is Richard talking about and when in the following: . . . we were forever strangers speaking a different language ___________________________________________________________________________________
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16.
Who was:
a. the person who bought the house for Richards grandmother? b. a colored schoolteacher who boards with Richards grandmother? 17. Why did Ella not want to tell Richard about the book she was reading?
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______________________________________________________________________ . 18. As a result of hearing the story in Ellas novel, what did Richard decide to do when he got older? __________________________________________________________________________________ . 19. What happened to Ella? _________________________________________________________________________________ 20. Wright writes about how experiences take on special meanings: There was the breathless anxious fun of chasing and catching flitting fireflies on drowsy summer nights. There was the drenching hospitality in the pervading smell of sweet magnolias (45). Write 3 items that you enjoy from your own experience (not from the book, but what you think personally): a.
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b.
c.
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21. What answer did Richard get from his mother when he asked the question, Then what am I? _____________________________________________________________________________________
4255
___________________________________________________________________________________ 23.
What elements of a strict religious routine did Richards mother get tired of in Grannys house?
c.
24. What business made a lot of money in the flat next to Richards?
4265
_____________________________________________________________________________ . 26. Uncle Professor Matthews had to leave in a hurry with Aunt Maggie because ____________________________________________________________________________________ .
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27. Richard said he didnt want to sell Betsy, his dog, to white people because ___________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ ,
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but it was a bad decision because the dog was killed when ___________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ . 28. What happened in the new school when: a. the teacher asked Richard to write his name and address on the board?
b. whistles blew and bells rang and the teacher sent the class home?
4285
Name _________________________________________________________________________ Answer either these A questions on Section 2 or the B questions, according to what the teacher assigns to you. You do not have to answer both A and B questions. Fill in the blank spaces for the following questions. Just write the answers; full sentences are not needed. In some cases you just have to put a tick beside the correct answer.
4295
b. The first white sonofabitch that bothers me is gonna get a hole knocked in his head. c. Man, you reckon these white folks is ever gonna change. d. Whenever I see one [white man], I spit. Timid, questioning hope
4300
2. a. carrying lunches
b. in a small caf What were Richards first odd jobs? c. in a pressing shop
3. a. Where did Richard go from his Grannys house when his mother was sick? b. Where did his brother go?
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4. In his Uncle Clarks house, the neighbor, Mr. Burden upset Richard by telling him that ________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________
4310
6. According to Aunt Addie, the least Richard could do to repay the family for being compassionate
4320
enough to feed him was to follow its guidance and __________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Aunt Addie wanted to make clear to every student that Richard was ________________________
4325
___________________________________________ and that he was not to be granted consideration of any kind. 8. How was Richard different from the kids in Aunt Addies school?
4330
They were a docile lot, their speech flat, their gestures vague, empty of anger hope, laughter, enthusiasm, passion or despair: wholly claimed by their environment and could claim no other
Richard
9. When he finally told Aunt Addie at home that he did not want to tell tales about the boy who threw the walnut pieces, she still wanted to beat him because, she said _____________________________ 10. Back at school, after Richard had defended himself with a knife at home, as Aunt Addie never called
4335
on him to recite or go to the blackboard, Richard played _____________________________________ with the other kids.
4340
11. In church that makes him compare himself to a black imp with two horns because he spends his time gazing at ___________________________________________________________, trying to hypnotize her, to communicate with her.
4345
12. Richards grandmother was humiliated in church because she thought Richard had told her _____ __________________________________________________________________________________
4350
13. Which of the following happened when Aunt Addie and Granny gave Richard up for lost? Tick the accurate answers a. Dropped to coldness and hostility b. Would not buy worldly books for him c. Stopped feeding him d. Made him wash and iron his own clothes e. Maintained interest, urging him to study hard
4355
14. a. he was a minor, Richards granny said Richard could not take a job like his fellow students because b.
c. and he could not work on Saturdays. 15. Richard stopped selling papers because ________________________________________________
4360
____________________________________________________________________________________
16. When Richards grandmother tried to hit him when he interrupted a discussion about religion, he
4365
dodged, and she ______________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 17. Richard got a summer job filling out forms for ____________________________________________
4370
18. Wright writes that his grandfather was probably cheated of his Civil war pension because of ____________________________________________________________________________________
4375
19. Richard made his granny show her humanity and let him work when he _______________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________
4380
20. When the woman whom he applied to for a job asked Richard directly if he stole, Richard realized
4385
that whites look upon Negroes as ________________________________________________________ 21. Richards employer asked, Who on earth put such ideas into your nigger head? when Richard told her that _____________________________________________________________________________
4390
22. Wright suggests that he never got used to white ways because _____________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________
4395
What strategies did the preacher use at the revival meeting to get young men to join the church that make Wright write, Every human relationship was shamelessly exploited?
b. asked them to let the church members send up a prayer for them to God c.
d. asked the mothers to come in front kneel and pray for their sons e.
24. When Richard defended himself against his Uncle Tom, he insulted him by saying, Do you think I
4400
a.
From what you read in the book so far, what are 3 of the most shocking things about the way Richard Wrights family treats him?
b.
c.
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4410
Name _________________________________________________________________________ Answer either these A questions on Section 3 or the B questions, according to what the teacher assigns to you. You do not have to answer both A and B questions. 1.
a.
Basing your reading on these chapters, outline briefly in your own words 3 occasions when Richard achieved success.
b.
c.
4415
2. Richard showed signs of independence as his principal gives him a prepared valedictorian speech and he__________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________
4420
3. a.
Griggs told Richards about his attitude that kept him from being able to hold down a job:
b. Dick, look, youre black, black, black, see? Cant you understand that? c.
d. the word has gotten out about him. 4. Wright says that: If a black boy said he wanted to be a writer,
a.
if a black boy had wanted to get a seat on the New York Stock Exchange,
b.
5. When the watchman slapped the black girl playfully on the buttocks, she explained to Richard that
4425
_____________________________________________________________________________________ 6. In regards to black people stealing from whites: The attitude of Negroes a. Richard was called a _______________________ __________________________________________ by black boys who discovered that he had not snatched some property that had been carelessly left within his reach. e. They would rather have Negroes who stole than b. Richard was asked, _______________________ ______________________________________ _________________________________________ [without stealing]? c. No Negroes had ever thought of organizing and _________________________________________ _______________________________________
4430
7. Richard felt that he was not bound by the law because_______________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ 8. Richard felt he should not wait two years to save the money to leave because ___________________
4435
_____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________
4440
9. There was no problem for Richard to see prostitutes naked because people though that negroes like him were __________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
4445
At the opticians Richard had felt c. tense; now, however he was calm about stealing in the movie house because: d. he had been made to live outside the normal processes of life. e.
f. he had been accustomed to living on the side of those who watched and waited.
4450
Name ________________________________________________________________________________
4455
1925 - Richard is 17. Answer any two of the following questions. Write at least 200 words for each question but you may go over. Use the back of this paper if you need more space. 1. In your own words, briefly outline Richards first experience with finding a place to stay in Memphis.
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4470
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4480
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2. You are about nine, and your black uncle owned a bar that was making a lot of
4500
money, so some jealous Southern whites killed him. What would you and your family do? How would you feel? (54-5)
3. You are standing on a box peeking at a man and a woman making love in a nextdoor room. You lose your balance and fall to the floor. A few minutes later, the landlady from next door is pounding on the door and yelling at you to open it. You are nine years old. What would you say and do? (63-4)
4505
4. You are very hungry and decide to sell your dog for a dollar. A lady offers you 97
cents, all she has in the house. She's white, and you are black. Would you sell your dog to her for less than a dollar? Why or why not? (69-70)
5. You are about nine, living with an aunt and uncle, and you learn that you're sleeping
4510
in a room where a boy about your age died. You are sleeping in the same bed. What would you do? How would you feel? Would it bother you? (93-95)
6. You are hi grade school and are accused of eating nuts hi class and dropping the
shells on the floor. It was the boy hi front of you who did it, and you know it. The teacher is going to beat you with a switch. She is your aunt and does not want the other students to think she is playing favourites. The boy in front of you says nothing. What would you say and do? (105-10)
4515
7. You are young and your grandmother keeps after you to have faith in God. You are
in church and whisper that you'll have faith when you see an angel. Your grandmother doesn't hear properly and she tells that minister that you actually have seen an angel. The minister comes up to you. What would you say to him? What would you say to your disappointed grandmother? (117-19)
4520
8. You are sleeping when your uncle wakes you up to ask what time it is. You tell him
in a sleepy way what he wants to know. He says, however, that you are being rude and
goes to get a switch to whip you. What would you do? What would you say to him? (156-59)
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9. You are black and work for a white man whose dog bites you hard on the thigh. The white man won't call the doctor and just says, "A dog bit can't hurt a nigger." What would you do or say? (163-64)
You work for a white man and his son who brutally beat up black customers who don't pay their bills on time. You are black and you see the boss and his son drag a woman into the back room of the store. You hear screaming and the woman comes out bloody and battered. The boss afterwards comes up and slaps you on the back hi a friendly way. How would you feel? Would you say anything to him? If so, what? (17980) You are out hi the country and some white boys offer you a ride hito town on the running board of their car. You hop on. They offer you a drink, and you say, "No," but you forget to add "sir." The boys crack you on the head so that you fall onto the road. They then stop the car and threaten you. What would you do? How would you feel? (180-81) You are black and raised in the South, working for a white man from the North (a Yankee) who promises to train you on the job. He places you with two Southern white men, but these men refuse to train you. They keep you busy with janitor work and pick a fight with you. What would you do? Fight with the men? Would you tell the boss? (187-93)
10.
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11.
4540
12.
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13. You are black and work nights cleaning hi a hotel. As you are leaving early one morning, you walk out with another of the cleaning staff, a young woman. The night watchman, a white man, slaps her on the rear as she goes by. She twists away and doesn't want to make an issue of it. How would you feel? Would you say anything to the man or the woman? If so, what? (198-99) 14. You take a room at a rooming house with a pleasant woman and her daughter. The woman wants you to marry her daughter and promises you her house if you do. You are poor, but you don't love the girl, who is willing but rather simpleminded. Would you marry her anyway? Why or why not? If not, what would you say to her and to her mother? (216-19) 15. One of your black friends needs money for lunch. He jokes around with a white man and asks him for the money. He tells the white man that, hi exchange, he can give him a kick in the pants. The white man pays him and gives him a hard kick. What would you dunk of the white man? What would you dunk of your friend? (228-30) 16. You are a Southern black and you are dun and hungry. One day, you deliver a package to a white man from the North (a Yankee). He observes you and asks if you
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are hungry. What would you say to him? He offers you money. Would you take it? Why or why not? (227-29)
4565
You are black and work for some whites. One of your bosses tells you that another black man that you know slightly is out to get you with a knife. What would you do? Would you believe the boss? Would you go to see the other black man? If so, what would you say to him or do when you arrived? (235-39)
17.
4570
18. You are black and you need money. Some white men you work with offer you a week's salary to box another black man for four rounds. The other man is willing because he needs extra money badly, too. There is no ill-will between the two of you. Would you agree to fight? Why or why not? (240-43)
1. What new things did you learn about the way blacks were treated as a result of reading this book? 2. What do you see as the worst experience Wright suffered? 3. What incidents in the story show that Wright was nave about life in his early years? 4. What were some of the occasions when Richard was punished for things he was not really
4580
responsible for? 5. What factors made Richards family treat him the way they did? 6. What do you see as the most uplifting and cheerful event of the story? 7. Who has the greatest influence on Wright as a young man? 8. What early experiences shape Wrights attitude to white people?
4585
9. How does Wright make himself seem dependable as a witness of life as a black boy? 10. What experiences does Wright have that could happen to any young person of any color? 11. What poetic elements does Wright introduce into his narrative? 12. What do you see as the main idea of Wrights book? 13. Why do you consider this as a hopeful book (or why do you see the book as leading to
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despair?) 14. What situation can you think of where discrimination (not necessarily racial) as described in this book still exists? What are the similarities between the book and the situation you are thinking of?
4595
Value: 5
MARKS
4600
4605
Make a group presentation, involving an activity associated with Black Boy The more interactive and original your activity is, and the more you involve the members of the class, the better. You can use PowerPoint or any other computer program. Since this book is about prejudice, you may choose to do an activity connected with any kind of discrimination, not just racism. It is important that you attend all classes when your presentation is being planned and presented, or you will not get the marks for this project. It is very important that every student participate in the actual presentation, so the teacher can grade individual effort so divide the work equally. If you play a major role in an oral for example, if there are a series of drawings, and you did them - let the teacher know during the presentation. Groups will sign up for 1 of the following activities one group per activity. 1. Do in-depth interviews with people talked about in the book, showing their different points of view about the events that happen. Organize a game show for the class, like Jeopardy, with questions on the book. or 2. Do a T.V. special, based on the story, e.g. a CNN news report. or 3. Hold a debate for and against an idea connected with the book e.g. Why some people think they should give in to oppression, and why some, like the author, want to speak out. or 4. Present a song whose main idea is related to this book. Play the song and show the lyrics to the class, and explain the relationship between your song and the story. or 4. Write and read out a rap or sing or a song about events in the book. Put the words on computer so the class can see them and maybe get the class to join in. or 6. Present a computer-generated graphic story of an event in the book. or 7. Present any other activity of your choice linked to the book and approved by the teacher, e.g act out a scene in your own words, using props; make a video outside class.(Several groups can choose this option, since each activity will be different.)
If you miss the planning part of the Group Oral on The Lieutenant of Inishmore, but participate in the presentation, you will not get full grades. If you miss the presentation day, you will get 0 for this part of the course. Because there is limited class time for presentations, even if some people in a group are absent, the presentations still have to go ahead. So every student in a group should keep a record of what the group plans to do, so that if someone is missing, the others can still make their presentation.
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Value: 5 points
SPEAKERS NAME: _________________________ TOPIC _______________________________
4640
GRADE ON 5 _____________
Yes = 1 point Is the activity interesting? Somewhat = 1/2 point No = 0 points
Does the speaker show that he or she has personally contributed to and participated in the oral? Does the speaker present confidently and fluently?
Does the speaker relate well to students, speaking clearly and using eye contact, or does the student just read?
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2. One reading of a book is not enough to write a good essay. Even if you do not read the whole work twice, you will have to look over the important parts you want to write about.
4685
3. Ignore movie versions of a book at least until after you write your essay. Movies are usually different from the written text, and dealing with both will leave you confused. 4. Trust your own judgment about a book, and write about that. As you are a unique human being, your ideas are completely original. So avoid the temptation to put the teachers ideas down on paper. Talk about your own insights on a book. Doing so will make your essay different from everyone elses.
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5. Copying from outside sources without acknowledgement is dishonest. Do not download web material directly; do not reproduce it in your essay with the words slightly changed, or the sentence order switched around. Using websites takes away from your ability to take charge of a book yourself. Also, websites are open to all so other students will be writing exactly the same thing as you. Teachers also have access to computers and you will lose your good reputation by cheating. Even if you copy one or two phrases or sentences from a website, that is, even if your essay is only partly plagiarized, you lose your teachers trust, and you may end up with a grade of 0 for the essay. 6. The key to successful essay-writing is to look in the book itself for quotations and examples as evidence for your points. As you read, pick out interesting quotations and points you can use in your essay. Highlight them, and write notes in the margins so you can remember why they are important 7. Use quizzes and notes to help you find key passages in the book
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8. Imagine someone reading your paper saying, No way! about every sentence you write. Prove that person wrong by giving evidence from the book for every one of your points. Use quotations or mention events in the text. Give page numbers in brackets for quotations and indirect references it means your reader will trust your judgment. 9. Show the reader that you have read the entire book do not pick examples from the first pages only. Talk about the book as a whole. 10. Avoid dogmatic statements, like: The author says this because. . . . Instead write: The author may be writing this because. . . . Or write: Perhaps . . ., or, It is possible that . . . , or Maybe . . . .
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Dont say, The above quote proves that . . . . Your quoting proves nothing. Write, These words prove that . . . .
Begin planning your essay with a working thesis - a statement that gives you a structure enough to get started but lets you discover what you want to say as you write. You can change the working thesis after if you want. Controlled, effective papers require you to limit the subject and to achieve a thesis of manageable proportions. Unlimited subjects result in papers that are too long.
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CHOOSE A TOPIC
The City of Montreal
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Once you have chosen your subject, you need to make an assertion - something to say about the topic. The thesis is the reason you are writing the paper - it is a claim that you make, and the whole paper provides proof that you are right, in the form of evidence. A thesis statement tells your readers what your essay is about. It must be simple, direct, and clear.
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Since the thesis statement is the main statement for the whole essay, it should express a complete thought; therefore, it should be expressed in a complete sentence. And since it makes a statement, it should not be written as a question.
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2. A THESIS STATEMENT EXPRESSES AN OPINION, ATTITUDE OR IDEA; IT DOES NOT SIMPLY ANNOUNCE THE TOPIC THE ESSAY WILL DEVELOP.
NOT A THESIS STATEMENT
I am going to discuss the advantages of living in Montreal.
3. A THESIS STATEMENT SHOULD NOT EXPRESS A FACT; IT MUST INCLUDE A JUDGMENT WORD.
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The thesis statement is really a statement that someone could disagree with. Therefore, the thesis is a statement that needs to be explained or proved.
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4. A THESIS STATEMENT SHOULD EXPRESS ONLY ONE IDEA ABOUT ONE TOPIC; IF IT CONTAINS TWO OR MORE IDEAS, THE ESSAY COULD LACK UNITY .
NOT A THESIS STATEMENT GOOD THESIS STATEMENT
Montreal can be fun, but the cost of living and the Montreal can be fun. snow are disadvantages.
In Montreal the cost and trouble associated with In Montreal, the cost of living and the snow transport, going out and paying rent can be are disadvantages. demanding and may cause young people to look for another city to live in. (too many variables to discuss)
_____ 4. When I first came to Canada, I wasn't used to eating in fast-food places.
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9. There are many similarities and differences between Montreal and Toronto.
Study the following statements, which are not thesis statements. Rewrite each of the sentences to make it a thesis statement. The first one is done for you.
1. I am going to explain why I decided to go to college. Choosing to go to college can be a difficult decision.
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3. There are many similarities and differences between life in the country
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5. CEGEPS should require fewer compulsory courses; they should also have activities.
more social
INTRODUCTION
The introductory paragraph should be SHORT- about three sentences. The introduction of an essay is like a table of contents. It mentions everything that will be in the essay. Do not discuss your topic here - just introduce it.
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Write the title and author of the book. Perhaps mention when it was written first, and when and where it is set. Give a very, very short summary of what the book is about keeping in mind that the teacher who is grading has not read the text and needs to know what is happening to be able to understand your essay. EXAMPLE OF A SYNOPSIS OF A BOOK
The book, Angelas Ashes, by Frank McCourt, describes what it was like to grow up in total poverty in Ireland in the years preceding the Second World War. In this biographical account, McCourt pays special tribute to his mother, Angela, who gets very little help as she goes through terrible times trying to keep her family together.
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STUDENT THESIS
The next sentence should be the thesis, giving a general idea of the maid idea that comes across from reading the book.
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The book gives such graphic details of what it is like to be really poor that the reader will see poverty in a new light after reading it.
The thesis is followed by an organizing statement, outlining the main points that the essay will be divided into. Use key words which you will repeat later in the body of the essay as signposts to tell the reader which point you are discussing.
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Point # 1
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Point # 2
Point # 3
McCourt s account of his experiences unveil some surprising facts about life in Ireland at the time of his youth. The situations described are worlds apart from life in modern Montreal. The honest writing in this book has won it critical praise and widespread world success.
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The suggested number of points is 3. But students can discuss 2, or even 4 without losing grades. Introductions include: 1. Opening comment keep it short, so the reader can easily find your thesis. 2. Short synopsis of what the book is about
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3. Your thesis a general statement about the main idea in the book + an organizing sentence (or sentences) outlining the points you plan to discuss. The sentence (or sentences) should contain: Key word(s) for: Point # 1
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Point # 2
Point # 3
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BODY SECTIONS
THERE CAN BE SEVERAL PARAGRAPHS FOR DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE SAME POINT
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Discuss the points you mentioned in the introduction to back up your thesis. Each key idea is explained in a section of its own. Put your points in the same order as in the introduction. Make sure you have enough details that really explain each of the key ideas. Dont use the same supporting details for different points. Pick examples for you points from the whole book show that you have read more than just the opening chapters.
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The suggested number of points is 3. But students can discuss 2 points in depth, or even 4 points. 1. In the first sentence of the first body paragraph of your essay, repeat the recognizable key word(s) THAT YOU USED IN THE INTRODUCTION for point # 1 in a full
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sentence. Then give evidence to prove your point. Use quotations or paraphrase the authors words.
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CONCLUSION
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1 PARAGRAPH
This is the place to restate your thesis in slightly different words. In the introduction you set out to prove something was true. Now you remind the reader of what you were trying to prove, so the reader can make a judgment in light of all the evidence you have presented. Change the wording you used in the introduction for you thesis, or your essay will seem repetitive. Do not contradict the main points of your paper in the conclusion. This is not the place to introduce new ideas - just sum up what you have written. The conclusion is your last chance to make your thesis understood. Most students like to end the concluding paragraph with a general closing statement, about the future, or the topic in general.
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1. Restatement of the thesis in slightly different words than in the Introduction 2. Optionally, a restatement of the main points 3. A closing comment to finish off the essay
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a. Background facts and the time period of the book that you have researched b. New things learned in the book 3 or 4 typical examples c. Particularly interesting or surprising parts of the book 3 or 4 examples d. 3 or 4 specific illustrations of how the time, place and situation described in the book are different from our life in Montreal now e. Details of how this book would change or deepen a persons picture of the person(s) or situation(s) described 3 or 4 concrete examples f. Evidence to show whether this account seems real enough to be regarded as a truthful representation of reality. (Unless the life of the author is relevant to the book, do not spend much time on biographical details. This essay does not require you to get involved in deep independent research on a topic. When there are gross errors in a so-called factual narrative, it is enough for you to base an analysis on your own judgment. The web is also a good source to check inaccuracies in a text that claims authenticity.) g. Opinions of critics about the book 3 or 4 examples. Do not just quote from the blurbs on the back cover; instead go to the internet, and try to use criticisms that are a few sentences long. Choose opinions of established literary critics, from newspapers and magazines, like The New York Times, for example, rather than informal blurbs from individuals. A bad critique is often interesting. You could add details of any award nominations the book has got, or any prizes it has won; how popular is the work; how many copies have been sold; was it on any best-seller list and for how long; has it been made into a movie? is it translated into other languages? Give references for every piece of information, and list all sources in the Work(s) Cited.
h. Compare the book with a movie version of the story. You need to show your reader that you have read the text, not just seen the movie. Put details of the movie in your Works Cited, i. Later developments - things that you know happened since the book was published j. Life lessons in the book k. Any other aspect you want to talk about, subject to the teachers approval Then write the body sections of your essay, repeating the key word(s) you used in the introduction to identify each point. Remember that the teacher may not have read the book, so you have to give evidence from the text for your points, using direct quotations or paraphrase, and giving parenthetical references for each item of information. You must have at least 3 quotations as evidence for your points, and you may find it necessary to include some long quotations, but do not overdo them. When you quote, use square brackets to clarify any details that will help your reader understand who or what you are talking about. Finally, write a conclusion summing up your thesis and the content of your essay. Add a Work(s) Cited page at the end of your essay, listing the edition of the actual book that you are writing about, and any outside sources cited in the essay. This draft will be written in class. You may not bring a prepared essay to class, but you may use the following: The class Manual A dictionary to check spelling and meanings The Outline for an analysis of a Non-fiction Book The book you are writing about Any prepared notes, which should be submitted with your essay Write a good, legible copy of your essay, double-spaced in an exam booklet. If you use pencil, make sure your writing is dark, and easy to read. Write on one side of the paper only, please. Put print-outs of any information you get from outside sources in the booklet. Before handing in your essay, consult the appropriate grade sheet. Check the categories that will be graded, and make sure that your paper has all the required elements.
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SPECIAL ADVICE ABOUT WRITING AN ESSAY ON A BOOK THE TEACHER MAY NOT HAVE READ
When you write your introduction, you must give a general outline of the main events of the book. When you discuss the book, make sure you identify any person you mention. Tell your reader who the person is, and what his or her role in the book is. Wwhen you quote, use [ ], square brackets, to explain who is speaking and to whom and what the situation is, if necessary, Do not leave the teacher wondering who or what you are talking about. You do not want comments on your paper, like, Who is speaking? or What is this person talking about exactly?
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STUDENT-TEACHER INTERVIEW ON ESSAY ANALYZING A TRUE STORIES NON-FICTION BOOK: VALUE 5 POINTS
You must meet with the teacher for a short personal interview to discuss the book you have chosen for your final paper. This interview is to make sure you are on the right lines for the essay. Interviews will be held at normal class time in the usual classroom. Make sure you turn up on the correct day for your interview; if you miss it, you may get a grade of 0 for this part of the course. Name_________________________________________________________________________
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Title and author of the book you will write about _______________________________________ Year the book was first written ____________________________________________________
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Place and time when the book is set _______________________________________________ Title of your paper ______________________________________________________________ Main idea that comes from reading the book __________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________ Leave this box empty for the teacher to fill in. Your Grade on 5 ___________________
To get a good grade in this part of the course, you must bring the following items to the interview: 1. This sheet, with your name filled in. 2. A copy of the book you will write about 3. The Outline for an Analysis of a Non-fiction Book in this Manual, filled in or a similar outline of your own. 4. Your completed Work(s) Cited list. 5. Any notes you plan to bring into class on essay-writing day.
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For 3 and 4 and 5, you can show me your work on your laptop, if you like. You need to print out any notes you need before you write your in-class essay, as you may not use a laptop in class. Copies of your notes should be handed in with your essay booklet.
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STEP 1
SYNOPSIS OF WHAT YOUR BOOK IS ABOUT
Put the title of the book and the author. Mention when the book was written, where and when it is set, and write a couple of sentences telling what the book is about.
STEP 2
YOUR THESIS, A. GIVING THE MAIN IDEA THAT COMES FROM READING THE BOOK
_________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________
B.
__________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ . Using key words, announce the points you plan to develop (Point # 1, Point # 2, Point # 3), in a sentence, or sentences. You may write about 2 or 4 points also.
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Evidence for Point # 1 (Just write notes here. Write quotations you will use, or put page and line numbers where you can find them in the text.):
BODY Point # 2, written as an opening sentence for this section Repeat the key word(s) SECTION from the Introduction: 2
Evidence for Point # 2 (Just write notes here. Write quotations you will use, or put page and line numbers where you can find them in the text.):
BODY Point # 3, written as an opening sentence for this section Repeat key word(s) from SECTION the Introduction: 3
Evidence for Point # 3 (Just write notes here. Write quotations you will use, or put page and line numbers where you can find them in the text.):
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CONCLUSION = 1 PARAGRAPH
This model is a suggestion you can vary the pattern if you find the wording in this example too repetitive. STEP 1 Restatement of your thesis, in slightly different words, as a short reminder of what Points # 1, 2 and 3 were.
Last sentence to wrap up your essay a sentence about the topic in general, or about the future (You can write this later at the end of your essay.)
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ANY ESSAY THAT DOES NOT HAVE PARENTHETICAL REFERENCES FOR ALL QUOTED AND PARAPHRASED MATERIAL, AND A WORK(S) CITED PAGE WITH FULL DETAILS OF ALL SOURCES CANNOT BE CONSIDERED A PROPER COLLEGE PAPER. DEFINITIONS AND BACKGROUND DETAILS
Try to integrate definitions, background, and brief histories of the topic into your first body paragraph, rather than writing a separate section. If you use an extra source, like a dictionary or a textbook, for a definition of a technical term give a Works Cited entry.
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NO WAY!
Try to imagine someone reading your paper is saying, No way! about every sentence you write. Prove that person wrong by giving evidence from the book for every one of your points.
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WHEN QUOTING FROM A BOOK THAT YOUR READER, THE TEACHER HAS NOT READ, EXPLAIN REFERENCES IN QUOTATIONS
When you mention names or places, or use pronouns like, he, or, they, put in explanations of what you are referring to in square brackets. Do not leave the reader of your essay wondering what you are talking about.
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Be careful about using what you think is common knowledge. Some things are accepted as true by nearly everyone that the world is round, for example. But things that you know because you are an enthusiast on a certain topic not be common knowledge for other people. You are writing for a person who may not know things that are common to your field. For you to say: I just know these things, is not good enough for an essay. You cannot use anything in your paper that you cannot find evidence for from a source, like a web page, a textbook, or a video. You have to give your source in a parenthetical reference, and include full details in your Work(s) Cited.
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Adultery and break-ups are becoming increasingly common. This phenomenon is largely responsible for our societys high divorce rate and one-parent families. (How common are adultery and break-ups? Where? When? Who says this is the reason for the high divorce rate? How high is the rate? How many one-parent families are there?)
Do not write categorical judgments, like: Genetically modified foods will bring about the death of the planet. You are entitled to your opinion, but it is wiser to say: Genetically modified foods MAY be bad for the planet.
But if you have to use information from the United States of America, make sure you indicate this in your essay. For example if you refer to the Supreme Court, or special laws or statistics, give the dates and the geographical location the information refers to.
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AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
CHOOSING WHEN TO GIVE CREDIT Need to put a parenthetical reference and a Work Cited entry
When you copy the exact words from somewhere
No Need to Document
When you are using common knowledge folklore, common sense observations, shared information within your field of study or cultural group, or when you are talking about generally accepted facts e.g. The world is round. World War II happened between 19391945. When you are using facts or somebody When you are writing your own experiences, your own observations, your elses opinions from the internet, a own insights, your own thoughts, your magazine, book, newspaper, Web page, textbook, or any other medium even if you own conclusions about a subject do not quote directly When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, and pictures When you use information gained through interviewing another person When you are writing up your own experimental results
If you are not sure whether if you need to put in a reference, take the safe way and give the source of the information.
In the Y/N column, indicate if you would need to give a parenthetical reference and a Work(s) Cited entry (Yes), or if it is not necessary to provide a reference (No).
Y/N 1. You are writing new insights about your own experiences. 2. You are using an editorial from The Gazette with which you disagree. 3. You use some information from a source without ever quoting it directly. 4. You have no other way of expressing the exact meaning of a text without using the original source word-by-word. 5. You mention that many people in your discipline belong to a certain organization. 6. You want to begin your paper with a story that one of your classmates told about her experiences in Iran. 7. The quote you want to use is too long, so you leave out a couple of phrases. 8. You really like the particular phrase somebody else made up, so you use it.
Answers 1, N: 2, Y: 3, Y: 4, Y: 5, N : 6, Y: 7, Y : 8, Y
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Nussbaum 1 Alanna Nussbaum Paula Mc Cafferty 603-102-MQ 52 True Stories 29 February 2012
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A Long Long Way: Fact The futility of war is commonplace. The novel, A Long Long Way, by Sebastian Barry, though written in 2005, goes back to the years of World War I and tells the tragic sacrifices made by a young Irishman, Willie Dunne, who signs up and goes to fight the Germans on the Belgian front. In the novel, Barry describes in amazing detail and in extremely realistic terms the situation in World
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War I. The book gives such a detailed picture of the horrors of war that it would be hard to support any military campaign after reading it. The precision and accuracy of the novel suggest that it is a factual recounting of the war itself, the situation in Ireland, as well as of the impact the hostilities had on the families of the brave soldiers who risked their lives during this lengthy conflict. A Long Long Way uses amazing and realistic details to recount the events of World War I
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as well as the reality of the lowly soldiers who served in it. Sebastian Barry uses proper terminology in writing the novel, such as the terms "boche" (28), and "nun" to describe the Germans (22), as was commonly done during the course of this war. He also includes details about the life of a soldier by describing the trenches that were lived in for long lengths of time, including the fire step (41), and the food occasionally eaten by the soldiers, called Maconochie (26).
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Nussbaum 2 The imagery used by Barry leaves the reader truly imagining the life of soldiers who were treated like mere animals: "They might be rotting animals thrown out at the back of the slaughterhouse, ready for the pits" (174). The conditions they lived through such as trench foot from the wet and unsanitary conditions (143, "WWI Background"), and the shrapnel bombs that were
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constantly being fired at them, "just to keep the conversation going" (266), as Christy Moran. Willies captain, so elegantly puts it, are brought to life in Barry's vivid words. Though originally volunteers, the soldiers were stuck with the choices they had naively made at the beginning of the war. This reality can only truly sink in when the reader is presented with the devastating example of a soldier suffering through field punishment, where he is tied to a canon wheel for hours each day, for no
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better reason other than that he has morals and values that he refuses to give up - he will not fight in a war he does not believe in. As Jesse Kirwan, the soldier in question, says, "an Irishman can't fight this war now. . . . I won't serve in the uniform that lads wore when they shot those other lads. I can't"' (155). Most important in the recounting of a war are the battles fought. In A Long Long Way,
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Sebastian Barry illustrates some of the events and battles that would have affected a soldier serving in Willies 16th Irish Division (273), one of the most impressive being the second battle of Ypres, where the first gas attack of the war occurred (43, "WWI Background"). In accordance with true events, the Algerians - French Africans - were hit first (43, "WWI Background"). Another gas attack mentioned in the novel involving this particular division occurred in the Battle of
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Hulluch on Easter Wednesday of April 1916 (108-114, "WWI Background"), although this time the army provided the soldiers with gas masks, so at least they had a chance at survival.
Nussbaum 3
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Of course, war rarely comes without horror and destruction, without repercussions. The most horrific descriptions of destroyed souls occur during gas attacks endured by Willie Dunne and his fellow soldiers, when those unfortunate enough to inhale the poison were found "tearing off their uniforms and writhing on the ground, and howling" (45), "falling to their knees, their hands around their throats like those funnymen in the music halls that would pretend to be being strangled and it
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was their own hands at their necks doing the throttling" (47). By the end, the war had left, "everything . . . levelled and destroyed" (286). The accuracy of the novel suggests that it is a factual account of the war. Barry depicts the situation in Ireland during this time by pointing out that, even before the war began, Ireland was split in two: between the people of the North, who were pro-English, and those in the South, who were
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looking for independence (14). When Lord Kitchener promised Home Rule for Ireland at the end of the war, John Redmond, leader of the Irish Volunteers, called for his fellow-countrymen to enlist (95). The Ulster Volunteers, "set up by Carson to resist Home Rule" (95), "joined up in the self-same army for an opposite reason, and at an opposite end. It was to prevent Home Rule they joined" (14). While the war went on, many Irish from the South looked at the situation in Europe and began
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to think that "England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity" (96). They got fed up waiting for Home Rule and decided to take matters into their own hands. A rebellion took place in the streets of Dublin (86-93), though unsuccessfully - the rebels were brought to their knees everywhere but in the General Post Office (87), where a declaration of independence was signed by the leaders (136). England immediately shot down this rebellion by bringing in soldiers (86-93), shelling the rebels from
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gunboats (103), and by having the leaders court-martialled (136). England left Ireland in ruins: "the artillery had been brought up the river and had shelled . . . Sackville Street with a will" (124).
Nussbaum 4 Not only was the rebellion a failure, but "Home Rule . . . was a dead duck" (274). As we see at
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the end of the novel, England began viewing the Irish as untrustworthy (275), although there was still an attempt to recruit more Irish soldiers, even if this effort failed. Conscription in Ireland was never established as "the nationalists wouldn't stand for it" (274), and the Americans entered the war in the summer of 1918, easing the anxieties of the English government (284, "WWI Background"). The war had a great impact not only on the soldiers who fought, but also on their families.
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While out fighting the war, letters were the only connection between soldiers and their families and friends (37). It was a very poor means of communication, as "dozens of letters from home went astray, despite the best efforts of the postal service" (248). Families like the Dunnes essentially lost their sons, either for a few years or forever - "the beds of the young men of England were empty" (144). Unfortunately, millions died in the course of the war. In such instances, a farewell wave was
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probably the last memory the family was left with - a wave, and an empty uniform. Parents were left to their own imaginations when it came to burial, as bodies were buried where they died. Sometimes, gravestones were placed despite the circumstances. The mother of ome officer explains to Willie that she has a monument in memory of her son, but, "Of course, his body doesn't lie here" (260). Families were torn apart, and the only solace was a letter from the superior officer claiming that the soldier
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died bravely (258, 259) - not much consolation for a grieving family.
Nussbaum 5 The novel, A Long Long Way, is a detailed and accurate portrayal of World War I, of the situation in
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Ireland, and of the impact the war had on the families of the soldiers. The author tells
his story in such chilling and graphic detail, that after reading the story, one wonders why any person in his or her right mind would think war is a solution to anything. (The Works Cited was originally on a separate page.) Works Cited
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Barry, Sebastian. A Long Long Way. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2005. Print. "WWI Background". Distributed Document. 603-102-MQ True Stories Winter 2012. Feb. 2, 2012. Dawson College Lea. Feb. 29, 2012.
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If you feel you must include long quotations of more than four typed lines in your final essay on a True Stories book, you should follow special rules for formatting: The quotation is not put into quotations marks. The quotation is preceded by a colon: Indent the quotation 10 spaces (double tab when typing.). Double-space the quotation. At the end of the quotation, the parenthetical reference goes after the closing period, not before, as in normal in-text quotations. Example: McCourt writes about conversations that he could not possibly have known about, since they took place before his birth: At Philomena's house the sisters and their husbands ate and drank while Angela sat in a corner nursing the baby and crying. Philomena stuffed her mouth with bread and ham and rumbled at Angela, That's what you get for being such a fool. Hardly off the
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boat and you fall for that lunatic. You shoulda stayed single, put the child up for adoption, and you'd be a free woman today. Angela cried harder and Delia took up the attack, Oh, stop it Angela, stop it. (McCourt 19)
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1
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Your first and family names Instructors name Course name and number Date Title Spacing: The MLA Guide says everything in an essay must be double-spaced, including headings with your name, instructors name etc., quotations, and the list of Works Cited.
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LEARN HOW TO INSERT PAGE NUMBERS CORRECTLY WRITING . THEM IN BY HAND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Page Numbers: Number pages consecutively throughout the manuscript (including the first page) in the upper right-hand corner of each page, one-half inch from the top (in case pages get separated). Add your name and number in Windows by using INSERT/PAGE NUMBER/ TOP OF PAGE/PLAIN NUMBER 3. Type in your family name and a space before the number. Do not use the abbreviation p. or add any other punctuation. Title: Center the title. You must write a title that tells the reader what to expect in the paper.
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Body Text: Indent new paragraphs five spaces; no extra space between paragraphs.
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The first line of the citation is not indented; the subsequent lines are indented, that is, moved five spaces from the left margin. A book would appear this way in the Work Cited section:
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Work Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. London: OUP, 1976. Print. (Notice that my spacing on screen may not be the same as in the Manual, because the font is bigger.)
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What this entry contains: 1. Author(s) in alphabetical order by last name, followed by a comma, then first name, followed by a period. 2. Title of book in italics + a period. 3. Place of publication + colon: 4. Name of publisher + comma, (it can be abbreviated) 5. Year of publication + period. 6. The medium Print, Web etc.
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In your essay, include in brackets the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name), so that your in-text reference points to the Work(s) Cited entry. You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers in a parenthetical reference. So if your Work(s) cited entry reads:
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Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory. Purdue U, 28 Nov. 2003. Web. 10 May 2011. the parenthetical reference should be: (Felluga) If your Work(s) Cited entry reads: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2011.
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the parenthetical reference should be: (The Purdue OWL Family of Sites)
______________________________________________________________________________The material in this article has been adapted from: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web.
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Here are some common features you should try and find before citing electronic sources in MLA style. Not every Web page will provide all of the following information. However, collect as much of the following information as possible:
WHAT TO PUT
1 Author and/or editor names (if available) Name of article (if available)
EXAMPLE
Munroe, Harold J.
3 4.
Use n.p. if no publisher name The Writing Lab and OWL at is available and n.d. if no Purdue and Purdue U., 2011. publishing date is given. Put a n.p. comma between the name of the publisher and the date, and a period at the end. Put a period after. Put a period after. 122-130. Web. 23 Apr. 2011.
5. 6. 7.
Your date of access. (= Put a period after. necessary because web postings are often updated, and information available on one date may no longer be available later.) URL?? MLA no longer requires the use of URLs in MLA citations because Web addresses change often and Put URL in square brackets. Break URLs only after slashes. Click on the URL and remove hyperlink on a
8.
[http://owl.english.purdue.edu /owl/resource/747/11/].
because documents sometimes URL if you want it to print appear on multiple databases. darkly. Put a period after the But if you want to, or if some URL brackets. teachers require you to, you can add the URL.
1 Author
3 Website title
A Any
W will
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What we are interested in here is the spirit. By giving a reference for your web source, you are showing that you have found some really good information, and you want to put it into your essay, without being blamed for cheating. You should learn to do correct citations from the Internet, so you can then use the information you get there regularly and legally.
Example of the source for the information in this part of the Manual:
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The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. [http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/11/].
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1.
Interesting title, written correctly and summing up the content of your essay. 2. Synopsis of book, explaining what it is about. 3. 4. 5. 6. Student thesis, with main idea, dividing the essay into points # 1, 2, 3 (?) Discussion of point # 1, using key words Discussion of point # 2 using key words
Discussion of point # 3 using key words (If you only have 2 points, this grade will be an average of # 1 and # 2.) 7. Use of evidence from the book as support for points 8. Conclusion to sum up the essay 9. 10. Good paragraphing Correct formal essay style: no first, second person; repetition; redundancy; contractions; incomplete comparisons; use of familiar language, poor style, clichs 11. Good vocabulary and expression: no words left out, wrong word order, use of words that dont exist, poor word choice 12. Correct spelling 13. Correct use of punctuation and mechanics: commas, capitalization, numbers, italics for titles etc. (except for quotations; see 16 below) 14. Good grammar 15. 16. Correct sentence structures Use of at least 3 relevant direct quotations from the book or other sources to back up points, with parenthetical references, correctly punctuated 17. Parenthetical references for paraphrased material (not quoted directly), and references for all sources other than the book itself 18. Correctly written Work(s) Cited entry 19. 20. 21. Correct MLA format, double-spaced. Inclusion of this grade sheet Quality of analysis on 5
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YOUR NAME
Essays that are NOTICEABLY less than 750 words will not get full grades. ___________________________________________________
GRADE
ON
25
______________
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On this and the following pages, write in the "Tips" that are written on the board. By using these tips, you can avoid making mistakes in writing. Get any tips you miss from your classmates, because once you have been told what to do or what not to do, you will be responsible for observing these guidelines when you write.
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TIPS, CONTINUED
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TIPS, CONTINUED
Buscemi, Santi V. et al. The Basics.Toronto : McGraw-Hill, 1996. 369-369. Total pages 409. ISBN: 75527103. =
(2pp.)
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1. Write out numbers that can be expressed in one or two words. Use numerals for all others. You can combine numerals with million, billion, and so on. The club welcomed thirty-nine new members The librarian purchased only 118 books during the year. Did foreign tourists add $4.7 billion to Canadas economy in 2007? 2. Never begin a sentence with a numeral. Write out a number that begins a sentence or rewrite the sentence so that the numeral appears later. One hundred and seventy people attended the fund-raiser. The fund-raiser attracted 170 people. 3. Use numerals for dates, sums of money, scores of games, addresses, volume and page numbers, exact times of the day, kilometres per hour, precise measurements, and numbers used as numbers. He was born on November29, 1990. The book cost $17.38. I lost 50 cents on the deal. They won the game by a score of 8 to3. She lives at 903 De Maisonneuve St. I found the information in volume 2, page 403. He gets up at 6 a.m. every morning. He was going 118km/h in an 80km/h zone. It weighs 4.3 grams at 0 C. I saw her at the ice rink practicing figure 8's.
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Correct the errors in the use of numbers in the following sentences. 1. 2. Enrolment in each class is limited to 25 students. We were told to read pages one hundred and seventeen to one hundred and twenty in the manual. 3. 50,000 tickets to the concert were sold on the first day; the price of the tickets ranged from eighty seven dollars to three hundred and fifty dollars.
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4.
She was born on August fourth, nineteen hundred and ninety, and lived at seven Gesner Street until she was 16.
5.
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2: The job tasks given to me are to perform the task of cleaning the kitchen, mopping the bathroom floor and straightening the living room.
4. The doctor was examining the patient for symptoms of a rare form of asthma. 5. Susan is the teacher who teaches Chemistry at her High School. 6. To succeed it is important to be along the lines of your friend. In other words, you should be a hard worker. 7. The book which is located on the table is a grammar book. 8. She was in deep thought and contemplation about what happened. 9. Julius ran with the other runners in the 10,000 meter track event and finished third overall.
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11. Regretting what happened, she is deeply sorry for what happened. 12. It is inappropriate for men to flirt with persons of the female gender if they are married.
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SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
EXERCISE 1
In the following exercise, mark F in the blank for any fragments. Put C is the sentence is correct. 1. ___ a. Mrs. Blanco has gone to visit her mother at the hospital. ___ b. Finding a parking space there is usually easy during the week. ___ c. Driving in the city during the evening rush hour. 2. ___ a. To apply for a job at the new store in the mall. ___ b. Asking the interviewer how often he would have to work on weekends.
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___ c. Shaking his new boss's hand, Tony knew he would like working there. 3. ___ a. By the time Frances found out how expensive the wallpapering job would be. ___ b. After getting estimates from contractors, she decided to do the work herself. ___ c. Before picking out an interesting wallpaper pattern that went well with her
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furniture, she called her friend. 4. ___ a. Who borrowed Stefanie's car Saturday night? ___ b. The nineteen-year-old car looked out of place next to the new models. ___ c. Which the salesman was surprised to find in such good shape. 5. ___ a. While waiting for her neighbor to move the car that blocked the driveway.
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___ b. To avoid hitting the other car, Michael had to back across the lawn. ___ c. By making sure that no one will park on the grass again.
6. ___ a. Because Manuel was sure he had heard the same strange story before. ___ b. Although I will never forget how cold we were last winter.
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___ c. Since Anna wasn't at the meeting, I took notes so that she wouldn't miss anything. 7. ___ a. When my cousin moved to Toronto, Ontario, after he finished school. ___ b. After he went to all the trouble of fixing up his apartment. ___ c. While living there, he made very few friends.
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8. ___ a. My brother has been running a small business for five years. ___ b. Many of his customers coming back three or four times over the summer. ___ c. His business been so busy that he has very little time for anything else.
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SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
EXERCISE 2
Each numbered set of words below looks like a complete sentence i.e., it begins with a capital letter and ends with a period or question mark, but some are fragments. Underline the fragments, and write F beside them. If the sentence is correct, write C. 1. I read the book yesterday evening after dinner.
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2. While reading the book yesterday evening after dinner. 3. There is the car which ran into me on the street. 4. Which ran into me on the street. 5. For example, that man over there. 6. The woman who talked to you in the corridor is my English professor.
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7. Who talked to me in the corridor. 8. Who talked to you in the corridor? 9. Considering all the factors in this case, I think that he is guilty. 10. Considering all the factors in this case. 11. That he is guilty.
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SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
EXERCISE 3
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In each of the following groups of sentences identify the sentence fragments (they may not all have sentence fragments). Underline the fragments, and rewrite them in correct sentence form:
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1.
We all agreed that the accused person was guilty. Considering all the evidence. Which is the verdict the jury reached. 2. My brother always likes to take chances. Especially with extreme sports. 3. In the World Cup I bet money on the European countries who fought against the Germans in World War II. That is, on England, France, Holland, Scotland, and Croatia. Which turned out to be a smart plan.
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4. The experiment which I carried out last Tuesday, in which we asked fifteen people to come into the laboratory and have their reflexes measured, was a great success.
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5. She said many interesting things about her adventures. That on different expeditions she had climbed Mount Everest, paddled down the Amazon River, and gone across Africa in a balloon. 6. I don't understand the basic details of the argument. The initial assumptions and the definition of human nature being totally ambiguous. 7. Where did you camp last night? We found a place on an island in the middle of the lake. Where there was a prepared camping spot.
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8. I walked into my new English class yesterday night. It was full of eager students. Who sat there waiting for me to start talking.
Roberts, John et al. The Canadian Writers Workplace. 3rd. Ed. Toronto: Harcourt Brace, 1998. Teachers Overheads.
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1. The fused run-on: Two or more independent clauses run together without any punctuation. Example: He wanted to go shopping downtown his favorite store was having a clear out sale. 2. The comma splice: Two or more independent clauses run together with only a comma between them. Example: She wanted to go to her favorite store, it was in another town. 3. The "and" run-on: Two or more independent clauses run together with coordinating conjunctions between them. Example: They struck a compromise, and they went to his store first, and then they went to her store, and finally they went for dinner to a restaurant they both liked.
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1. Make two simple sentences with a period and capital letter. Example: She wanted to go to her favorite store. It was in another town. 2. Use a semicolon. Examples: She wanted to go to her favorite store; however, it was in another town. She wanted to go to her favorite store; it was in another town. 3. Use a joining word. Examples: She wanted to go to her favorite store, but it was in another town. She wanted to go to her favorite store, which was in another town.
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RUN-ON SENTENCES
EXERCISE 1
Correct any run-on sentences: 1. The spaghetti sauce wasn't very good the meat was burned there was too much garlic.
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2. Janice was afraid to go visit the dentist she had terrible memories of her last visit.
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3. Petula was afraid to step on the scale at her health club she knew she'd gained five pounds over the holidays.
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4. Minnie studied her class notes for two hours every day after school that way she avoided having to cram for tests.
5. You can clean up your room you can't go out to the cinema.
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7. People should stop throwing away bottles and plastic bags this action would greatly reduce pollution.
8. Sara desperately wanted to buy a new handbag she didn't have the money to get it.
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9. Hannah did well on today's English quiz, she had studied for it.
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RUN-ON SENTENCES
EXERCISE 2
Correct any run-on sentences: 1. I walked into HMV there I found the new CD I was looking for.
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2. Marian didn't have the nerve to ask her boss for a raise she sat at home that night wishing she had more courage.
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3. Mary was in the kitchen all afternoon cooking a fantastic dinner, her husband, Joe, sat watching the football game on TV.
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4. Kelly wanted to buy a new iPod so that she could listen to music her bank account wasn't large enough.
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5. Soccer players should be able to run fast they have to get to the goal with the ball quickly.
6. Plants can add beauty and warmth to any home, they provide a good source of oxygen.
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7. The hamburger's history began in the Middle Ages in Russia the Tartars ate chopped raw meat seasoned with salt, pepper, and onion juice.
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8. The Autobahn was built by Hitler to transport tanks and troops to Germany's borders in World War II the Autobahn is still one of the world's finest highway systems.
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9. Men deny it women will soon be able to compete with them in most sporting events. 10. Russ drives like a crazy man he will lose his license soon.
Leech, Geoffrey. An A-Z of English Grammer and Usage. London: Nelson, 1989. 398. Total pages 207. ISBN: 713184728. = (1p.)
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PRONOUNS
A pronoun is a grammatical word which we use instead of a NOUN or Noun phrase. Pronouns can be SUBJECT, OBJECT, or COMPLEMENT in a sentence. They can also follow a preposition. Pronouns have a very general meaning (either definite or indefinite - see Table below). There are the following kinds of pronoun in English: Personal Pronouns I, you, he, her, we, they, them Reflexive Pronouns Myself, yourself, herself, himself, yourself, ourselves, themselves, etc. Possessive Pronouns My , your, his, its, our, their, mine, theirs, etc. Demonstrative Pronouns this, that, these, those Indefinite Pronouns all, any, none, some, each, everyone, anyone,' nobody, something Relative Pronouns who (whom, whose), which, that Wh- Pronouns Who, whom, whose, what
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PRONOUN REFERENCE
EXERCISE 1
1. As I came home, it reminded me of a scary movie. 2. According to the story, they are looking for happiness and contentment. 3. When I return a book to the library, they always look at its due date.
4. Now that I have a job, I can buy things without having to ask them for the money.
5. The dishwasher leaked, and it spread all over the floor.
6. My husband lost twenty pounds and got a haircut. This made him look years young
PRONOUN REFERENCE
EXERCISE 2
Revise each of the following sentences.
1. Every time Pavlov set out his dogs food, he would salivate. 2. Skiing is exciting, but they often have accidents. 3. I had a good job, and I thought that would be enough to satisfy my father.
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4. Bilingual education has become very important in recent years. This is one reason I have decided to become a teacher. 5. Dan arrived late and forgot the dish he was supposed to bring. This is nothing new. 6. My daughter came home from school sneezing and coughing. I hope it isnt catching.
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7.
The mechanics fixed the dent, changed the spark plugs and
the oil. That explains why the bill is so high. 8. Golf would be more enjoyable for me if I could just hit it. 9. As soon as Diana gets paid, she spends it. 10. The rain melted the snow; this caused flooding.
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Do not use, I, me, or my in formal essays. Also, try to avoid getting personal, by calling your reader, you. Correct the following examples of misuse of personal pronouns: 1. I believe, therefore, that Canada should not sell nuclear reactors to certain countries.
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2. When I consider the question of teenage alcoholism, it becomes obvious to me that the greatest danger is driving while drunk.
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3. In conclusion, I would like to repeat that students today have much greater pressures than their parents did a generation ago. 4. I agree with the authors main idea, because it is seems perfectly logical that young people should make their own decisions.
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5. It is clear to me that social justice will always be an ideal which is not always applied. 6. The author makes several wrong assumptions, and that is why I disagree with her.
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Use of YOU to refer to the reader should be avoided: 7. Surely the problem of having thousands of students line up for lockers at the same time is obvious to you.
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8. Cant you just imagine what it is like to need a book and not be able to get near the bookstore? 9. The main idea of this essay is that you can never anticipate how people are going to react in a crisis.
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10. Whenever a person asks you what you want to do in the future, it is wise not to talk about your real dreams.
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11. People often say that once you have suffered the loss of a partner, you are never quite as naive again. 12. My view is that the authors main idea, that crises bring out the best in you, is still valid today.
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Langan, John et al. English Brushup. 2nd Ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998. 77-80. Total pages: 208. ISBN: 730371083. (= 4pp.)
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Commas are used to separate three or more items in a series. Bears, chipmunks, raccoons, and groundhogs all hibernate during the winter.
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Felipe groaned when he learned that his exams in biology, economics, and sociology were scheduled for the same day. The mechanic started the engine, fiddled with the fan belt, and announced that the problem was solved.
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But: Do not use a comma when the series contains only two items: The mechanic started the engine and fiddled with the fan belt. Practice I In the following sentences, insert commas between items in a series. 1. 2. 3. 4. Most communities now recycle newspapers aluminum and plastic. Walking bicycling and swimming are all good aerobic exercises. We collected the kids loaded the van and set off for the amusement park. Signs of burnout include insomnia an inability to concentrate and depression.
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A comma is used to separate introductory material from the rest of the sentence. (If you were reading the sentence aloud, you would probably pause slightly at the end of the introductory material, where the comma belongs.) Although the county issues a large number of jury-duty notices, many people find reasons not to serve.
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Pushing and laughing, the second graders spilled onto the playground. In the middle of the thunderstorm, all the lights on our Street went out. Practice 2 Insert a comma after the introductory material in each of the following sentences. 1. 2. 3. 4.
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During the first-aid course one student accidentally broke her finger. When the power went back on all the digital clocks in the house began to blink. Disappointed by his performance the former ice-skating champion hurried past the television camera. After waiting in line for two hours the students were told that the registrars office was closing for lunch.
Sentences sometimes contain material that interrupts the flow of thought. Such words and word groups should be set off from the rest of the sentence by commas. For example, My brother, who is very neat, complains that I am too messy.
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If you read this sentence out loud, you can hear that the words who is very neat interrupt the flow of thought. Such interrupters often contain information that is less important to the sentence.
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Here are some other examples of sentences with interrupters: The owner of the blue Ford, grumbling angrily, came out to move his car.
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The house, which was built in 1955, needs a new roof and extra insulation. The house's storm windows, though, are in fairly good shape.
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Practice 3 Insert commas around the interrupting words in each of the following sentences. 1. 2. 3. 4. The Beatles who originally called themselves the Quarrymen released twenty-nine single records in their first year. Frozen yogurt which is relatively low in calories is as delicious to many people as ice cream. Some dieters on the other hand would rather give up desserts completely. The new office building forty stories high provides a fine view of the parkway.
When two complete thoughts are combined into one sentence by a joining word like and, but, or so, a comma is used before the joining word.
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They were five strangers stuck in an elevator, so they told each other jokes to ease the tension.
Each part of the sentence is a complete thought: They were five strangers stuck in an elevator. They told each other jokes to ease the tension. The parts are combined into one sentence by the joining word so.
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Here are more sentences, with complete thoughts connected by joining words:
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Michael has a restaurant job this summer, and his sister has an office position. Money may not buy happiness, but it makes misery a lot more comfortable.
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Punctuation note: Don't add a comma just because a sentence contains the word and, but, or so. Use a comma only when the joining word comes between two complete thoughts. Each of those thoughts must have its own subject and verb. Comma: Lois spent two hours in the gym, and then she went to class. (Each complete thought has a subject and a verb: Lois spent - and she went.) No comma: Lois spent two hours in the gym and then went to class. (The second thought isn't complete because it doesn't have its own subject.)
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Practice 4 Insert commas before the joining words in the following sentences. 1. The team has lost ten games in a row but fan support is as strong as ever. 2. Melba wasn't wearing her glasses so she couldn't read the fine print in the ad.
3. I used to be able to type very quickly but now I'm out of practice. 4. Frequent TV watchers spend less time interacting with friends and family and their reading is often limited to magazines such as TV Guide.
A comma is used to separate directly quoted material from the rest of the sentence. Someone shouted, "Look out below!"
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The customer grumbled to the waiter, "This coffee tastes like mud." "To learn more about lions," the zookeeper told the visiting children, "you should read the book, Born Free."
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Punctuation note: When the comma is placed at the end of a quotation, it is included within the quotation marks. Practice 5 Insert commas to set off quoted material in the following sentences. 1. 2. 3. 4. When bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he replied "Because that's where the money is." "Only fifteen more minutes until this class ends" Sharon whispered. "We have everything for tall women" the dress store owner bragged "except tall men." "Please remain on the line for the next available operator said a cheerless voice on the telephone answering tape.
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COMMA USE
EXERCISE 1
Read the following sentences and insert commas wherever they 5865 are needed or remove them if they are not needed. If a sentence is correctly punctuated, mark it C. 1. We played tennis on a hard rough surface. 2. The young worker started out on the long hard road to success.
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3. The victims of the hurricane were stunned for they had lost everything. 4. Mohammed walked into my office took off his hat and sat down. 5. The businessman wore an expensive well-tailored suit to the meeting.
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6. We have to arrive by 7:30 p.m. to get a seat. 7. On turning the corner I ran into a police officer. 8. When he got up to give his speech he was greeted with thunderous applause.
9. I was foolish to have trusted you but I won't make the same
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mistake again. 10. The girl who is wearing a long black scarf is my sister. 11. Being in a hurry I was able to see him only briefly. 12. A group composed of Mark, Luke, and John gave a presentation. 13. Tom the captain of the team was injured in the first game of the
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season.
COMMA USE
EXERCISE 2
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Put in commas where they are needed in the following sentences. 1. There was no question that John's painting a huge colorful and ugly mural was the worst entry in the art exhibit.
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2. Leonardo da Vinci Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein great men of science have made many discoveries. 3. Jamals ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time is I believe amazing. 4. Lying on top of a car the cat was abruptly awakened by the
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motor. 5. If the opposition should win our candidate would never have any political future. 6. Gracefully lightly and daintily the ballerina moved across the stage.
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7. The Gazette the daily Montreal English language newspaper used to have a competitor The Montreal Star. 8. Mr. and Mrs. Jones my parents' best friends sat in front of us at the football game. 9. Pirates of the Caribbean a famous movie with Johnny Depp is very
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popular with young people. 10. Joey ate all of his rice but he refused to eat his meat. 11. Handguns knives and other weapons are not allowed in Dawson.
12. Sheila did not see how she could organize write and proofread her work in only two hours.
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PARALLEL STRUCTURE
EXERCISE 1
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Correct any nonparallel elements in the following sentences they are not all wrong: 1. He was handsome, brave, and the sort of person who would do anything for you.
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2. She told Jake to take out the trash, to mow the lawn, and be listening for the phone call. 3. The room was beautiful, the service impeccable, and I've never tasted better food in my entire life.
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4. You are not only responsible for organizing the conference, but also to introduce the keynote speaker.
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6. Joe wants you to get groceries, wash the car, pay the electric bill, and return his CD player.
7. Although the student is cooperative , works hard, and intelligent, she does not seem to get good grades.
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8. I have an important role, taking care of the swimmers and the shore.
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PARALLEL STRUCTURE
EXERCISE 2
Correct any nonparallel elements in the following sentences they are not all wrong: 1. An actor knows how to memorize his lines and getting into character.
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2. Tell me where you were, what you were doing, and the reasons for doing it. 3. Clark's daily exercises include running, swimming, and to lift weights.
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4. Before going to Dawson, he exercises, eats breakfast and the dog is walked. 5. Jim likes not only working outside but also to spend weekends in the country. 6. The writer was brilliant but a nasty individual. 7. The writer expresses the main idea that war is hell and how many people suffer because of it. 8. The writer expresses the main idea through imagery, using humor and by the technique of irony.
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APOSTROPHES
EXERCISE 1
6000
1. His ____ house is up for sale. a. fathers b. father's 2. In order to be a good leader, one must have good ____. a. followers b. follower's 3. The ____ vice president is related to the president. a. companys b. company's 4. My only ____ stocks went up yesterday. a. sisters b. sister's
5. The ____ presentation was very good. a. students b. student's 6. My ____ husband is my husband's brother-in-law. a. sisters
b. sister's 7. The ____ horse ran away. a. man's b. mans' c. mans 8. The three ____ ties looked exactly the same. a. brother's b. brothers' c. brothers
9. The ____ money is mostly tied up in investments. a. bank's b. banks' c. banks 10. The ____ room is spotless. a. child's b. childs' c. childrens
11. The ____ have been ringing a long time. a. phone's b. phones' c. phones 12. The ____ bag is heavy. a. mailman's b. mailmans' c. mailmans 13. The ____ lunches are made. a. kid's b. kids' c. kids
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APOSTROPHES
EXERCISE 2
Change each underlined noun to the correct possessive form. 1. The friend of her brother drives a Toyota. Her ____________________ friend drives a Toyota. 2. We heard the voices of the children clearly in the park. We heard the __________________ voices clearly in the park.
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3. The wives of the sons have lunch together every Monday. The _____________________ wives have lunch together every Monday. 4. The report, supported by the accounts of two witnesses, proves he did not commit the crime. The report, supported by two ________________ accounts, proves he
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did not commit the crime. 5. The flavor of the bread was improved when he put butter on it.
The _____________________ flavor was improved when he put butter on it. 6. The guess of anybody is as good as mine.
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_____________________ guess is as good as mine. 7. I spent all my summers at the house belonging to my grandmother. I spent all my summers at my _______________________ house. 8. The votes of four members changed the outcome of the election.
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9. Jim used a camera to photograph the game yesterday. Jim used a camera to photograph ________________________ game. 10. Can you leave some ice cream for the sister of George?
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APOSTROPHES
EXERCISE 3
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In the following sentences, add any necessary apostrophes, and remove any apostrophes that should not be there. Make the corrections directly on each sentence. 1. After two years study in Spain, Anna could speak fluent Spanish.
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2. David and Johns fishing trip will be next weekend, 3. Teds grandmother gives him lots of money. 4. The womens centre on the campus of the University is on de Maisonneuve.
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5. These childrens mother wants them to study in France. 6. The officers who arrived on the scene said that the accident was because of the rain.
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7. Last months bills came in today, so Im a bit upset. 8. The instructor prepared a course Manual for forty students. 9. The instructor handed out the forty students essays.
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APOSTROPHES
EXERCISE 4
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Put apostrophes in the right places for the following sentences. Remove any incorrect apostrophes. 1. 2. Our neighbors dog chews gum and drinks rum. (one neighbor) My grandfather lives in the childrens playhouse in the back yard. Donnas younger sister is a lumberjack in the Yukon. Do you remember which team won last years Stanley Cup? Keiths old Volkswagen bus was stolen last night and abandoned in a junk yard. Because I enjoy Shakespeares sonnets, I read them at least once a year. This mornings newspaper said that tonights concert had been canceled. Olivers pick-up truck crushed Lindas motorcycle. Raccoons frequently visit my friend, the farmers, vegetable garden to enjoy a midnight snack
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3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
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8. 9.
there. 10. We watched our neighbors puppy chew my sisters slipper. (several neighbors) 11. After two years in Spain, Clare could speak fluent Spanish.
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12. Dad complains bitterly because mens suits have become so expensive recently. 13. Those houses red roofs remind me of Italy. 14. We had a fourteen days delay in starting our trip because our tour guide was ill. 15. My dog has hurt its leg badly on an animal trap.
MISPLACED MODIFIERS
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EXERCISE 1
Rewrite the following sentences to correct any misplaced modifiers. Some of the sentences are correct.
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1. Jeff offered an apple to the horse that he had been carrying around in his pocket for two weeks. 2. Expecting a storm, we turned the boat around and headed for harbor. 3. Speeding along the lane on my ten-speed bicycle, a herd of cows passed by. 4. I strolled cheerfully along as the freight train roared past me without a care in the world. 5. After passing her grade 6 English exam, the teacher congratulated the pupil.
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6. At the age of 24, my daughter was born. 7. Hoping to arrive early enough for lunch, Jason did not bring any food with him on the bus. 8. Frustrated by the lengthy delay, the honking of horns began to be heard. 9. Jason and Paulette stood and watched as the two deer bounded away, hand in hand. 10. Mark handed the book to the woman that he had found lying covered with dust under the sofa.
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11. I watched as the tent collapsed, horrified by what I had done. 12. When visiting my relatives in Toronto, the train is very slow. 13. Disgusted at the number of mistakes I had made, the exercise ended up in the wastebasket. 14. Dressed in cap and gown, the graduates filed onto the stage. 15. A man was escorted out by the security guard who was drunk and disorderly
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16. After barking and growling fiercely, the letter carrier raced off in terror.
MISPLACED MODIFIERS
EXERCISE 2
Repair the following flawed sentences:
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1. The island had a museum for tourists with shrunken heads. 2. Being a normal youth, domestic chores bored me.
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4. By assigning true-and-false problems, students don't have to think. 5. Having grown up in a mining town, the big city seemed unfriendly.
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6. When taking a bath, a radio should never be left close to the tub. 7. The lion was captured before anyone was injured by its keepers.
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9. Being made of glass, Doris handled the lamp carefully. 10. Knowing little math, the problem was too hard for her to solve.
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11. Although a minor, the judge gave her a high fine. 12. Looking through her binoculars, the deer ran away.
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Langan, John et al. English Brushup. 2nd Ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998. 130-132. Total pages: 208. ISBN: 730371083. (= 3pp.)
CAPITAL LETTERS
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Capital letters have many uses: THE FIRST WORD IN A SENTENCE OR DIRECT QUOTATION Sentences begin with capital letters. The first word of a quoted sentence is also capitalized. My sister said, "Don't forget Nick's surprise party. It's Friday at 8 p.m." "Let's hope," I replied, "that nobody tells Nick about it." In the last sentence, the word that is not capitalized because it does not start a sentence. It is part of the sentence that begins with the words Let's hope. THE WORD "I" AND PEOPLE'S NAMES "Today I got a call from an old high school friend, Dick Hess," Sandy said. Note: A title that comes before someone's name is treated as part of the name. Next week Uncle Dave and Aunt Gloria are seeing, Dr. Mendell for checkups. But: My uncle and aunt go to the best doctor in town. NAMES OF SPECIFIC PLACES AND LANGUAGES In general, if something is on a map (including a street map), capitalize it. Frankie graduated from Kennedy High School on Main Street, left her home in Altoona, Pennsylvania, moved to New York, and took a job as a waitress in a Greenwich Village restaurant. Note: Places that are not specifically named do not require capital letters. Frankie graduated from high school, left her home in a small town, and moved to the big city, and took a job as a waitress in a neighborhood restaurant. The names of languages come from place names, so languages are also capitalized. Inez, who was born in Spain, speaks fluent Spanish as well as English. NAMES OF SPECIFIC GROUPS (RACES, RELIGIONS, NATIONALITIES, COMPANIES, CLUBS, AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS) Although Barbara is Lutheran and Mark is Jewish, and she is his boss at the United Parcel Service office, their marriage seems to work very well. The robbery suspect is a six-foot Caucasian male with a German accent. The American Civil Liberties Union supports the Ku Klux Klan's right to demonstrate.
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Practice I Place capital letters oil the words that need that need them in the sentences below. 1. as we watched the movie, doug leaned over and whispered, "don't you think this is pretty boring? 2. 3. 4. 5. st. mary's seminary in baltimore, maryland, has trained Catholic priests for over two hundred years. we decided to hold the retirement dinner for professor Henderson at the florentine, the new italian restaurant on lake street. because of a three-car accident, traffic on the santa monica freeway was delayed for over an hour. "when I was a kid," rodney dangerfield told his audience" my parents moved a lot - but I always found them."
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CALENDAR ITEMS Basically, everything on a calendar - including names of days of the week, months, and holidays-should be capitalized. The only exceptions are the names of the seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter), which are not capitalized. Since Joy was born on December 26, her family celebrates her birthday oil Christmas Day. Next Monday, which is Labor Day, all government offices will be closed. Stan watches baseball on television in the spring and summer, football in the fall, and basketball in the winter. PRODUCT NAMES Capitalize the copyrighted brand name of a product, but not the kind of product it names. Pilar won't buy pre-sweetened cereals for her children. She prefers less sugary brands such as Cheerios and Weetabix. Our cats have refused to cat any more Friskies or Nine Lives cat food. They insist on eating Starkist tuna-right off our plates. TITLES The titles of books, TV or stage shows, songs, magazines, movies, articles, poems, stories, papers, and so on are capitalized. Id much rather read The Gazette than the Globe and Mail. Professor Martin praised Aishas term paper: The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution, but he suggested that she revise one section. Note: the words the, of, a, an and, and other small, unimportant words are not capitalized when they appear in the middle of a title. FAMILY WORDS THAT SUBSTITUTE FOR NAMES When I was a little girl, Bubby used to babysit me. Ill ask Mom if she can lend me $20.
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Capitalize a word such as grandma or dad only if it is being used as a substitute for that persons name. Do not capitalize words showing family relationships when they are preceded by possessive words such as my, her or our. Did you know that my grandmother goes to the racetrack every week? SPECIFIC SCHOOL COURSES Capitalize the names of specific courses, including those containing a number. To graduate, I need to take Advanced Biology, Calculus 101 and Literature of the Americas. But the names of general subjects are not capitalized. Recently, Ive been thinking of taking some history or computer classes.
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If the subjects are languages, though, they are always capitalized. I love my English class. Practice 2 Place capital letters on the words that need that need them in the sentences below. 1. Our student body is about 50 percent english, and the others come from asian, african or other european countries. 2. Elvis Presleys song, all shook up, was inspired by a bottle of pepsi. 3. Rashid heard that introduction to statistics was impossible to pass, so he signed up for a psychology course instead. 4. Every time my grandparents visited in july and august, I had to sleep on the living room couch. 5. But, mommy, it hurts! the boy whimpered as his mother dabbed solarcaine on his sunburn.
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CAPITAL LETTERS
EXERCISE 1
Rewrite each sentence correctly, adding capital letters as needed. EXAMPLE: I read the book, the time machine by h.g. wells ANSWER: I read the book, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells 1. We will go on uncle mels boat for a cruise in the caribbean islands. 2. White polar caps are visible on both mars and earth. 3. The capital of morocco, rabat, is located in the northwest coast of africa. 4. Her cousin, muriel ziegler, wrote an exercise book called: the way to stay fit and healthy.
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5. According to greek mythology, demeter was the goddess of agriculture. 6. I saw the movie, twilight, at the guzzo cinema. 7. The fraser river in bc is long, but not as long as the nile. 8. The italian capital, rome, is a beautiful city. 9. the most commonly spoken language in the world is mandarin chinese.
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10. the largest amusement resort in the world is disney world in central florida.
CAPITAL LETTERS
EXERCISE 2
Correct the capitalization errors in the following sentences: 1. the singers with the greatest sales of records of any group have been the beatles. 2. one of the tallest office buildings in the world is the sears tower in chicago with 110 stories. 3. the smallest independent country in the world is the state of the vatican city within the city of rome. 4. the richest cat in the world is charlie chan, an alley cat in missouri, whose owner left the cat her entire estate of $250,000 when she died. 5. the two longest rivers in the world are the amazon river, flowing into the atlantic ocean, and the nile river, flowing into the mediterranean sea. 6. the easiest test for a driver's license is in egypt. you just have to have the ability to drive 19.7 feet forward and in reverse. 7. the fastest barber on record is gerry harley, who shaved 987 men in 60 minutes with a safety razor in england. 8. the fastest growing religion in the world is muslim.
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9. I think dad is coming to the play, and perhaps my cousin and my sister will come too. 10. He celebrated Hannukah on the fourth of december, but had to get back to work on the fifth.
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CAPITAL LETTERS
EXERCISE 3
Correct the capitalization errors in the following sentences: 1. My aunt is planning to visit us, but uncle michael can't come.
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2. How many countries are members of the united nations? 3. He complained that the liberal party wasn't really liberal. 4. We loved to go to the old orchard beach when we were children. 5. On the day after labour day children go back to school. 6. I turned west, when I should have turned east.
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7. I'm taking history 101, english 100, french 200, and psychology 309. 8. I like history and english, but I find computer science and psychology difficult. 9. During my university days, I spent a lot of time on athletics and later won a prize in athletics from Concordia university.
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CAPITAL LETTERS
EXERCISE 4
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Capitalize the following sentences properly. 1. 2. 3. i picked up the latest copy of the gazette. my husband works as a reporter for ctv news. the province of quebec is beautiful, especially the laurentians and the gaspe. i speak three languages, english, french and arabic. I read an interesting article yesterday entitled, "climbing up a mountain." 6. 7. john enjoyed his time in europe, especially in Paris, france. we are going to australia and new zealand for the summer. june, july and august are the hottest months. The food at mcdonalds is not really healthy; I dont like to drink coke or eat hamburgers.
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5.
8.
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TIPS REVIEW
COMMA: 1
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Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question. 1. The instructions were written in French Japanese and Spanish, but not in English. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. written in French Japanese and Spanish, b. written in, French, Japanese, and Spanish, c. written, in French Japanese and Spanish, d. written in French, Japanese, and Spanish, 2. Unafraid of the thunder I rushed outside to dance under the raindrops. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. Unafraid of the thunder, I rushed b. Unafraid of the thunder I rushed, c. Unafraid, of the thunder, I rushed d. Unafraid of the thunder I rushed 3. Ann never known for her sensitivity waved a chocolate bar under the nose of her dieting friend. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. Ann never known for her sensitivity b. Ann, never known for her sensitivity c. Ann, never known for her sensitivity, d. Ann never known for her sensitivity,
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COMMA: 2
Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question.
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1. To tell you the truth my best friend confessed Ive never liked you very much. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. truth my best friend confessed b. truth my best friend confessed, c. truth, my best friend confessed d. truth, my best friend confessed, 2. The tiny Olympic gymnast who stands only 4'5" tall embodies pure energy and power. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. gymnast who stands only 4'5" tall b. gymnast, who stands only 4'5" tall, c. gymnast, who stands only 4'5" tall d. gymnast who stands only 4'5" tall, 3. Nervously, Lori bit her fingernails tapped her foot and twirled a strand of hair around her finger. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. fingernails tapped her foot and twirled b. fingernails tapped her foot, and twirled c. fingernails, tapped her foot, and twirled
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APOSTROPHE: 1
Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question. 1. Tomorrow, the neighbors are leaving for a weeks vacation in the mountains. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. a weeks vacation in the mountains b. a weeks vacation in the mountains c. a weeks vacation in the mountains d. a weeks vacation in the mountains 2. The veterinarian phoned to tell me that my cats condition seems to be improving. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. my cats condition seems b. my cats condition seems c. my cats condition seems d. my cats condition seems
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CAPITAL LETTERS: 1
Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question.
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1. Thousands of people huddle together every new years eve in times square. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. every New years eve in times square b. every New Years eve in Times square c. every New Years Eve in Times square d. every New Years Eve in Times Square 2. On their birthday, the twins received a monopoly game, a barbie doll, and a set of cowboy and indian figures. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. a monopoly game, a Barbie doll, and a set of cowboy and Indian figures b. a Monopoly game, a Barbie doll, and a set of cowboy and indian figures c. a Monopoly game, a Barbie doll, and a set of cowboy and Indian figures d. a Monopoly game, a Barbie doll, and a set of Cowboy and Indian figures
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3. In which parts of canada is french the official language? In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. canada is french the official language b. Canada is french the official language c. Canada is French the official language d. Canada is French the Official Language
CAPITAL LETTERS: 2
Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question.
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1. The waiter said, hi, my name is bob. id like to tell you about tonights specials. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. hi, my name is Bob. id b. Hi, my name is Bob. Id c. Hi, my name is bob. Id d. Hi, my name is Bob. id 2. We were proud of mom when she signed up for introductory spanish at the community college. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. Mom when she signed up for introductory spanish b. mom when she signed up for Introductory Spanish c. Mom when she signed up for Introductory Spanish d. mom when she signed up for introductory Spanish 3. Many questions still remain about the assassination of president John F. Kennedy in dallas in november, 1963. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in November, 1963 b. the assassination of president John F. Kennedy in Dallas in november, 1963 c. the assassination of president John F. Kennedy in Dallas in November, 1963 d. the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in November, 1963
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PRONOUNS: 1
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Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question. 1. The used motorcycle needed a paint job and a new muffler, so the customer decided not to buy it.
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In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. it b. the motorcycle
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2. When Larry got to the bowling alley, he had to wait twenty minutes to bowl because they were polishing the lanes. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. they b. the maintenance people 3. After we had been in class for fifteen minutes, we could see the students start to relax. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. we b. you
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PRONOUNS: 2
Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question.
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1. People who still lie out in the sun all summer to get a deep tan should have their heads examined. Dont they realize they can get skin cancer from it? In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. it b. exposure to sun 2. Unfortunately, a boy who acquires an unflattering nickname is often stuck with it until he grows up and moves away. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. he grows up and moves b. they grow up and move 3. The customer wanted to return a pair of shoes she had already worn, but they wouldnt let her. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. they b. the store manager
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FRAGMENTS: 1
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Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question. 1. The first settlers of the Midwest faced many life-threatening challenges. Including the weather. Floods, blizzards, droughts, and tornadoes were not uncommon. One correct way to write the underlined part above is a. challenges. Including the weather. Floods b. challenges. Including the weather, floods c. challenges, including the weather. Floods d. challenges, including the weather, floods
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2. Although the climate was severe. Settlers ignored it and kept coming by the thousands. One correct way to write the underlined part above is a. Although the climate was severe. Settlers ignored it and kept b. Although the climate was severe, settlers ignored it and kept c. Although the climate was severe, settlers ignored it. And kept d. Although the climate was severe. Settlers ignored it, and they kept
3. While few of these settlers were rich. Most were able to bring numerous tools, for example, axes, saws, mallets, and shovels. 6470 One correct way to write the underlined part above is a. rich. Most were able to bring numerous tools, for example b. rich, most were able to bring numerous tools. For example c. rich. Most were able to bring numerous tools. For example, they brought d. rich, most were able to bring numerous tools. For example, they brought
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FRAGMENTS: 2
Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question.
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1. Attitude is crucial in determining success or failure. According to Dr. Bernstein, a psychologist. One correct way to write the underlined part above is a. Attitude is crucial in determining success or failure. According b. Attitude is crucial in determining success or failure, according c. Attitude is crucial. In determining success or failure. According d. Since attitude is crucial in determining success or failure. According 2. When Dr. Bernstein spoke at a recent conference in Toronto. She stated that understanding and accepting ones parents was a key to personal happiness. One correct way to write the underlined part above is a. When Dr. Bernstein spoke at a recent conference in Toronto. She stated that b. When Dr. Bernstein spoke at a recent conference in Toronto, she stated. That c. When Dr. Bernstein spoke. At a recent conference in Toronto, she stated that d. When Dr. Bernstein spoke at a recent conference in Toronto, she stated that 3. Leaders develop during crises, Dr. Bernstein pointed out. And turn problems into opportunities. One correct way to write the underlined part above is a. Leaders develop during crises, Dr. Bernstein pointed out. And b. Leaders develop during crises. Dr. Bernstein pointed out. And c. Leaders develop during crises. Dr. Bernstein pointed out, they d. Leaders develop during crises, Dr. Bernstein pointed out. They
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RUNS-ONS: 1
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Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question. 1. I wanted to buy the desk I couldnt take it home on the bus. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. desk I b. desk, I c. desk, but I d. desk, however I 2. The roommates found the idea of rising at 7 a.m. repulsive, they made sure their first class didnt begin until 10. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. repulsive, they b. repulsive. They c. repulsive they d. repulsive, because they 3. She has kept every letter that he had written to her, she must still be in love with him. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. letter that he had written to her, she b. letter. That he had written to her, she c. letter that he had written to her she d. letter that he had written to her. She
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RUNS-ONS: 2
Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question.
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1. Wendy bought a car she no longer has to take the bus to school. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. Wendy bought a car she b. Since Wendy bought a car. She c. Wendy bought a car, she d. Since Wendy bought a car, she 2. The applicant seemed uninterested in the job, the personnel manager didnt hire her. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. job, the b. job, therefore the c. job, so the d. job the 3. He was courteous, charming, and persuasive, I could see why so many people had been fooled. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. persuasive, I b. persuasive. I
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MISPLACED MODIFIERS: 1
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Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question. 1. A woman at the restaurant with a delightful Spanish accent asked to share our table. The sentence above should be written as a. A woman at the restaurant with a delightful Spanish accent asked to share our table. b. A woman at the restaurant asked to share our table with a delightful Spanish accent. c. A woman with a delightful Spanish accent at the restaurant asked to share our table. d. At the restaurant, a woman with a delightful Spanish accent asked to share our table. 2. While phoning the vet for instructions, Sallys dog quietly had five puppies. The sentence above should be written as a. While phoning the vet for instructions, Sallys dog quietly had five puppies. b. While Sally was phoning the vet for instructions, her dog quietly had five puppies. c. While she was phoning the vet for instructions, Sallys dog quietly had five puppies. d. Sallys dog quietly had five puppies while phoning the vet for instructions. 3. The birdwatchers spotted a great blue heron looking through their field glasses. The sentence above should be written as a. The birdwatchers spotted a great blue heron looking through their field glasses. b. The birdwatchers spotted a great blue heron, which was looking through their field glasses. c. Looking through their field glasses, the birdwatchers spotted a great blue heron. d. Looking through their field glasses, a great blue heron was spotted by the birdwatchers.
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MISPLACED MODIFIERS: 2
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Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question. 1. Lying shattered under Kevins shoe, I saw my lost earring. The sentence above should be written as a. Lying shattered under Kevins shoe, I saw my lost earring. b. While I was lying shattered under Kevins shoe, I saw my lost earring. c. I saw my lost earring, which was lying shattered under Kevins shoe. d. I saw my lost earring while lying shattered under Kevins shoe. 2. Eileen nearly ate all the peanuts in the can and then had a terrible stomach ache. The sentence above should be written as a. Eileen nearly ate all the peanuts in the can and then had a terrible stomach ache. b. Eileen ate nearly all the peanuts in the can and then had a terrible stomach ache. c. Eileen ate all the peanuts in the can and then nearly had a terrible stomach ache. d. In the can, Eileen nearly ate all the peanuts and then had a terrible stomach ache. 3. Immediately after entering the store, a membership pass must be shown.
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The sentence above should be written as a. Immediately after entering the store, a membership pass must be shown. b. A membership pass must be shown immediately after entering the store. c. Immediately after they enter the store, membership passes must be shown by customers. d. Immediately after entering the store, customers must show membership passes.
PARALLELISM: 1
6605
Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question. 1. Elena possesses the necessary commitment and can discipline herself to be a success. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. can discipline herself b. self-discipline c. she can discipline herself d. discipline of the self 2. The terrible storm left a trail of damaged houses, terrified people, and lives that were lost. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. terrified people, and lives that were lost b. people who were terrified, and lives that were lost c. terrified people, and lost lives d. people terrified, and lives that were lost 3. Our two-year-old daughter is playful, quick, and has curiosity. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. quick, and has curiosity b. she is quick, and is curious c. quick, and she has curiosity d. quick, and curious
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PARALLELISM: 2
Read the sentences below. Then circle the letter of the correct answer to each question.
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1. Brad looked for his car keys in his jacket, under the couch, and he checked the top of the dresser. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. he checked the top of the dresser b. the top of the dresser c. also checked the top of the dresser d. on top of the dresser 2. Montana has rugged mountains, skies that are spacious, and rolling plains. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. skies that are spacious, and rolling plains b. has spacious skies, and rolling plains c. spacious skies, and rolling plains d. skies that are spacious, and plains that are rolling 3. Their eyes that are large, oversized ears, and clumsy movements make puppies instantly lovable. In the sentence above, the underlined part should be written as a. eyes that are large, oversized ears b. large eyes, oversized ears c. large eyes, ears that are oversized d. eyes that are large, ears that are oversized
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Imagine that you are the teacher, and you are grading the writing sample from the beginning of the semester, based on the text, Snapshot of a Dog. This was the original assignment, given in the first class of the semester: Read the text, Snapshot of a Dog, and write an essay of 400 words, double-spaced on the following topic: The Main Idea of Snapshot of a Dog 1. State a main idea expressed by James Thurber in Snapshot of a Dog. 2. Discuss the success of the author's use of techniques and devices (for example, imagery, irony, description, persuasion, comparison-contrast, generalization and examples, exaggeration, analogy, irony, anecdote, humor, figurative language), to express this idea.
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Correct your paper. 1. See if you have written the authors main idea. 2. Check that you have a thesis, discussing the author's use of literary elements and devices (for example, imagery, irony, description, persuasion, comparison-contrast, generalization and examples, exaggeration, analogy, irony, anecdote, humor, figurative language.) to express this main idea, 3. Make sure that you have announced which points you will discuss, that you have support for each point. 4. Check if you have repeated key words and used correct paragraphing. Check for unnecessary summarizing. 5. Check grammar, spelling, quotation mechanics, etc. 6. Check the word count (you were asked to write 400 words).
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Just by turning up for this class and writing your commentary of 300 words, you will earn yourself a perfect grade for this assignment.
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NAME______________________________________
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AVERAGED
GRADE ON
10 _____________
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MINIMUM TIME EACH STUDENT SHOULD PRESENT: 5 MINUTES TOTAL TIME FOR BOTH STUDENTS INCLUDING ANY VIDEOS, POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, QUESTIONS FROM THE CLASS AND GRADING: 15 MINUTES
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SPEAKERS NAME: ____________________ TOPIC ____________________________ GRADE ON 10 ________________ (THESE GRADES WILL BE AVERAGED.)
Yes = 2 points Is the topic presented by the speaker interesting speaker talk Does the and related about more than just the story? presentation Is the organized into at least three sections, andshow Does the speaker does that he or she has invested time and effort Does the speaker present confidently and fluently and within the time allowed? (If the the speakers presentation abilities: Favorable comments on Somewhat = 1 point No = 1/2 point
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
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Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
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Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
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SPEAKERS NAME: ____________________ TOPIC ____________________________ GRADE ON 10 ________________ (THESE GRADES WILL BE AVERAGED.)
Yes = 2 points Is the topic presented by the speaker interesting speaker talk Does the and related about more than just the story? presentation Is the organized into at least three sections, andshow Does the speaker does that he or she has invested time and effort Does the speaker present confidently and fluently and within the time allowed? (If the the speakers presentation abilities: Favorable comments on Somewhat = 1 point No = 1/2 point
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
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MINIMUM TIME EACH STUDENT SHOULD PRESENT: 5 MINUTES TOTAL TIME FOR BOTH STUDENTS INCLUDING ANY VIDEOS, POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, QUESTIONS FROM THE CLASS AND GRADING: 15 MINUTES
6820
SPEAKERS NAME: ____________________ TOPIC ____________________________ GRADE ON 10 ________________ (THESE GRADES WILL BE AVERAGED.)
Yes = 2 points Is the topic presented by the speaker interesting speaker talk Does the and related about more than just the story? presentation Is the organized into at least three sections, andshow Does the speaker does that he or she has invested time and effort Does the speaker present confidently and fluently and within the time allowed? (If the the speakers presentation abilities: Favorable comments on Somewhat = 1 point No = 1/2 point
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
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MINIMUM TIME EACH STUDENT SHOULD PRESENT: 5 MINUTES TOTAL TIME FOR BOTH STUDENTS INCLUDING ANY VIDEOS, POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, QUESTIONS FROM THE CLASS AND GRADING: 15 MINUTES
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SPEAKERS NAME: ____________________ TOPIC ____________________________ GRADE ON 10 ________________ (THESE GRADES WILL BE AVERAGED.)
Yes = 2 points Is the topic presented by the speaker interesting speaker talk Does the and related about more than just the story? presentation Is the organized into at least three sections, andshow Does the speaker does that he or she has invested time and effort Does the speaker present confidently and fluently and within the time allowed? (If the the speakers presentation abilities: Favorable comments on Somewhat = 1 point No = 1/2 point
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
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Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
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Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
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SPEAKERS NAME: ____________________ TOPIC ____________________________ GRADE ON 10 ________________ (THESE GRADES WILL BE AVERAGED.)
Yes = 2 points Is the topic presented by the speaker interesting speaker talk Does the and related about more than just the story? presentation Is the organized into at least three sections, andshow Does the speaker does that he or she has invested time and effort Does the speaker present confidently and fluently and within the time allowed? (If the the speakers presentation abilities: Favorable comments on Somewhat = 1 point No = 1/2 point
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
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MINIMUM TIME EACH STUDENT SHOULD PRESENT: 5 MINUTES TOTAL TIME FOR BOTH STUDENTS INCLUDING ANY VIDEOS, POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, QUESTIONS FROM THE CLASS AND GRADING: 15 MINUTES
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SPEAKERS NAME: ____________________ TOPIC ____________________________ GRADE ON 10 ________________ (THESE GRADES WILL BE AVERAGED.)
Yes = 2 points Is the topic presented by the speaker interesting speaker talk Does the and related about more than just the story? presentation Is the organized into at least three sections, andshow Does the speaker does that he or she has invested time and effort Does the speaker present confidently and fluently and within the time allowed? (If the the speakers presentation abilities: Favorable comments on Somewhat = 1 point No = 1/2 point
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
6895
MINIMUM TIME EACH STUDENT SHOULD PRESENT: 5 MINUTES TOTAL TIME FOR BOTH STUDENTS INCLUDING ANY VIDEOS, POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, QUESTIONS FROM THE CLASS AND GRADING: 15 MINUTES
6905
SPEAKERS NAME: ____________________ TOPIC ____________________________ GRADE ON 10 ________________ (THESE GRADES WILL BE AVERAGED.)
Yes = 2 points Is the topic presented by the speaker interesting speaker talk Does the and related about more than just the story? presentation Is the organized into at least three sections, andshow Does the speaker does that he or she has invested time and effort Does the speaker present confidently and fluently and within the time allowed? (If the the speakers presentation abilities: Favorable comments on Somewhat = 1 point No = 1/2 point
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
6910
6915
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
6925
6930
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
6945
SPEAKERS NAME: ____________________ TOPIC ____________________________ GRADE ON 10 ________________ (THESE GRADES WILL BE AVERAGED.)
Yes = 2 points Is the topic presented by the speaker interesting speaker talk Does the and related about more than just the story? presentation Is the organized into at least three sections, andshow Does the speaker does that he or she has invested time and effort Does the speaker present confidently and fluently and within the time allowed? (If the the speakers presentation abilities: Favorable comments on Somewhat = 1 point No = 1/2 point
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
6950
MINIMUM TIME EACH STUDENT SHOULD PRESENT: 5 MINUTES TOTAL TIME FOR BOTH STUDENTS INCLUDING ANY VIDEOS, POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS, QUESTIONS FROM THE CLASS AND GRADING: 15 MINUTES
6960
SPEAKERS NAME: ____________________ TOPIC ____________________________ GRADE ON 10 ________________ (THESE GRADES WILL BE AVERAGED.)
Yes = 2 points Is the topic presented by the speaker interesting speaker talk Does the and related about more than just the story? presentation Is the organized into at least three sections, andshow Does the speaker does that he or she has invested time and effort Does the speaker present confidently and fluently and within the time allowed? (If the the speakers presentation abilities: Favorable comments on Somewhat = 1 point No = 1/2 point
Advice you would give the student on points that need improvement:
6965