Chapter 2 Academic Writing
Chapter 2 Academic Writing
FOCUSING: DRAFTING:
Look at your free Write a paragraph
writing paragraph. developing the idea
Take a new page and you just wrote down.
write down in one Use any relevant
sentence Xs single details from your list
most striking/ or free writing.
unusual feature.
REVISING & EDITING
Introductory paragraph
Thesis statement central message and
appears in the introductory paragraph
Background information provides a context
for understanding the points
Points of discussion supports the thesis
statement
Concluding paragraph
Chapter 2 Outline
THESIS STATEMENT
I. First main idea
A. First subordinate idea
1. First reason or example
2. Second reason or example
B. Second subordinate idea
II. Second main idea
Chapter 3 Writing Paragraphs, Shaping essays
Now 97, Margaret Prescott remembers that the friends she made in her
childhood were people who lived within two or three blocks of her house,
and that was it. Today, we visit people who live 10-100 miles from where we
are located on a daily basis with no problem. She remembers when McKinley
was shot in the third grade; the newsboys who ran through the streets
shouting Extra! Extra! Extra! she went to Mt Holyoke College in south
Hadley, Massachusetts. Getting to the college was a chore: To get to South
Hadley you had to get yourself to Boston by train, transfer stations, catch the
train for Springfield, take a trolley car to the nearest town, which was
Holyoke, and then get from there to South Hadley by horse and wagon and
unload your bags. Once you were there you were lucky if you got to go home
for Thanksgiving. Her husband worked for a family-owned firm which was a
blacksmith shop. They made steel rims which would go around wooden
spoked wheels on horse-drawn carriages and some other various parts. Then,
as cars came with time, they made custom parts and did interior work. The
first car they ever had was made by Ford and was called a Falcon Night; it
was made in 1919 and had fold-out rumble seats in the back.
REVISED FOR UNITY
Part of motivating a child is letting her know she is loved for who
she is. All too often parents place conditions on their love: a B
grade may be all right, but well love you more if you get an A.
Children learn that they will be loved only if they get good
grades. As Kathie Durbin points out in her article Grappling with
Grades, children are an investment in time. Knowing the child -
abilities, limitations and all - takes time and care: time at the
library and at home reading together, time spent together
learning for fun, time spent just talking about anything thats
important to the child, time providing guidance and assistance as
opposed to punishment and criticism. These are the things that
can motivate a child to learn.
REVISING PATTERNS OF DEVELOPMENT:
COMPARISON AND CONTRAST
One might ask: why are people so serious about sports? The answers to this
question could be many. For one, people can release their aggressions
through sports. Kicking a ball, hitting it with a bat, punching another man in
the face can feel good for both participants and spectators. Just think, one
man can get in a boxing ring with another and beat him up and its perfectly
all right. All right, people love to see it. They cheer them on, Yeah, Ali, get
him on the left, the left. Ah, hes down, hes down! Some people make bets
on the game. If they win, great, but think of the risk people are willing to take
on a boxing match or a horse race. Sports can be healthy. Its good exercise,
and again a good way to get out some aggressions, its legal, you can almost
always find someone else who wants to play. Sometimes I think sports can be
political. When judges announce the score in Olympic games, why is it certain
countries that are allies will give the same scores to a country they are not
friendly with? Americans are always more aware of U.S. against U.S.S.R. than
U.S. against Canada.
REVISED TO EMPHASIZE CAUSE AND EFFECT
Anne was a young girl with two children. Pregnant with her
first at sixteen, she dropped out of school. At this point it was
obvious her life was going to have some drastic change. She
would not graduate from high school as her friends would. With
no job, she lived off welfare in a tenement. After two years, she
had a second child. This one she sold on the black market. Anne
had lost all sense of direction in her life. What she was living
with was a role she hated. She wanted to make a change in her
life, but couldnt.
ROLE YOUR OWN (cont)