Writing 2 Class Notes -- February 21

Greetings!

Thankfully, we all made it to class safely despite our biggest snow of the season.  With President's Day in mind, our Quick Write for today was "Write a promo for a new national holiday."  I was at first amazed at the fact that two students, one from Writing 1 and one from Writing 2, had almost identical Quick Writes.  That is until they admitted that they had texted one another about the topic. In the famous words of Sergeant Schulz from Hogan's Heroes:  "Jolly jokers!" We did a second quick write yesterday which included a quote about writing.  The students were to write what this quote meant and how they could apply it.  They decided it was too big a task to do alone and designated one student to write down their combined ideas.

I divided the class into small groups so that each group could discuss and then present one of the Short Stories to the class.  Like food and music preferences, people sometimes have opposite reactions to a piece of literature.  One of the short stories, "Nobody" by Charles Dickens, was thought by one student to be "genius" and by another to be "stupid."  It's as we discuss and unpack our individual perspectives that we better understand the writing.  In an indirect manner, thinking about someone else's writing makes us better writers.

I handed back the students' final copies of their Cause/Effect or Problem/Solution essays.  As always, I enjoy reading their papers.  I also learn a lot about various topics.  We took some time to review how to write numbers in essays.  Over the next 2 weeks (we don't have class next week) they are to be writing their Evaluation Essay rough draft.  We discussed this a bit, and I've written about it on the blog.  This paper is to be at least 3 pages long.  Not including name, date, title, etc,. this is approximately 1000 words.  Most of the previous papers have been about 2 pages long, so this may be more of a challenge.  It's a good thing that I know they are ready for it.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read "Dr. Heidigger's Experiment"  (Hawthorne, p. 73); "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" (Bierce, p. 10); "The Cask of Amonillado" (Poe, p. 156)
-- Note:  No short stories worksheets this week
-- Write rough draft of Evaluation Essay

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

Writing Numbers in Essays

Convention determines when to use a numeral and when to spell out a number.  Numerals are commonly used in scientific and technical writing and in journalism, but they are used less often in academic or literary writing.

The following guidelines are base on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.  APA style, however requires that all numbers below ten be spelled out if they do not represent specific measurements and that the numbers ten and above be expressed in numerals.


Spell the numbers out as words if:
-- you can to so in one or two words; as a rule of thumb, these are numbers one hundred and under;
-- beginning a sentence with a number;


Conventional Uses of Numerals
-- Addresses.  e.g.  111 Fifth Avenue
-- Dates.  e.g. January 15, 1929; 1914 - 1919

-- Exact times.  e.g.  9:16; 10 a.m.; 10:00 a.m. (but spell out times of day when they are used with o'clock:  ten o'clock)
-- Exact sums of money:  e.g.  $25.11; $6,738.00
-- Literary divisions:  e.g.  Act 5; lines 17 - 28; page 42
-- Percentages and decimals:  e.g.  80%; 3.14
Note:  You may spell out a percentage (eighty percent) if you use percentages infrequently in your paper, provied the percentage can be expressed in two or three words.  Always use a numeral (not a spelled-out number) with a % symbol.

-- Measurements with symbols or abbreviations.  e.g.  32°, 15cc

-- Ratios and statistics.  e.g.  20 to 1; a mean of 40

-- Scores.  e.g.  a lead of 6 to 0

-- Identification numbers.  e.g.  Route 66; Track 8; Channel 12

When using numbers, follow the general rules.  However, it's important to be consistent.  If some of your numbers are written as numerals because they're decimals or over 100, then the related numbers should also be written in that manner.

Writing 2 Class Notes -- February 14

Greetings!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!  In honor of the day, the Quick Write was a "literary love letter."  They were to write a letter of affection and appreciation to an author, book, character, grammar item like punctuation or parts of speech.  We had a creative piece expressing love for "rhyming."  For our Vocabulary Challenge, the students added their own words to the list.

The students have begun to read from the Great Short Short Stories book.  This week they were assigned 3 stories by Russian writers:  Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, and Alexander Pushkin.  We had a lively discussion about a thief, a coffin maker, and three hermits.  With each story we tried to determine which was the focus, the theme, plot, characters, or setting.  I re-explained the worksheets that I handed out.

I collected the final copies of their Cause/Effect or Problem/Solution and look forward to reading them.  This year I've asked the students to hand in their rough drafts along with the final copies.  Looking at the both copies shows the work they've done to improve their writing.  Our next assignment is an Evaluation Essay.  I've explained this essay a little more thoroughly in a blog entry.


Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read the following stories: 
     "Nobody's Story"  (Dickens, p. 45)
     "The Sphynx without a Secret" (Wilde, p. 189)
     "Wee Willie Winkee"  (Kipling, p. 101)
     "The Open Window"  (Munro/Saki, p. 140)
-- Fill out 1 Short Story Worksheet each for 2 stories.  Fill out a Character & Setting Worksheet for a third story.
-- Pre-Writing for Evaluation Essay.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

Writing an Evaluation Essay

In an Evaluation Essay, the writer explores the significance of a particular event, a current trend, an extended project, a recent decision, a new product, and so on.  To develop an essay of this type, think in terms of a subject's value, impact, and significance; its strengths and weaknesses; its place in the scheme of things.

Once you select a subject, list all the points that you want to evaluate.  For example, if your subject is a product, you might evaluate its appearance, durability, manageability, affordability, usefulness, etc.  You are trying to put your subject in perspective, to rate it, to measure it, etc.

As you're writing, ask yourself:
-- Does this essay truly evaluate, assess, consider, weigh the subject?
-- Does the writing have a clear sense of order and purpose?
-- Will readers appreciate the treatment of the subject?


A useful graphic organizer for an Evaluation Essay:

Points to evaluate	Supporting details
1.	1.
2.	2.
3.	3.
4.	4.
5.	5.
Etc.	Etc.

Writing 2 Class Notes -- February 7

Greetings!

When you combine a busy schedule with being under the weather, sometimes you don't get things done as soon as you'd like.  I aim to get the Class Notes done ASAP after the class.  I hope the fact that they are a little later doesn't mess up anyone's schedule.

In honor of the caucuses which were to be held, I asked the students to write a politically-themed Quick Write.  They were to write from the following prompt:  "Dear _________ , Won't you please be our president. ..."  They could pick anyone and be either serious or funny.  As always, we enjoyed the responses.  One student even wrote asking his dad to be president.  Our Vocabulary Words came from the students; they put on the board words they thought were interesting.

I handed back the rough drafts of their most recent writing assignment which was a News Story.  I feel that our discussions about the rough drafts are the most productive.  We not only cover grammar mistakes, but our discussion about writing strategies makes more sense when you have something you've written in your hands. We took a longer time to discuss "choosing the right word."  I look forward to reading the final copies of these papers next week.

We finished the last two stories in the Sherlock Holmes book.  The consensus with the students is that these were "winnners."  They enjoyed the plots and the puzzles of the mysteries.  We also discussed the composite characterization of Holmes in the collection of stories.  Our next reading assignments will be more short stories from our  Great Short, Short Stories book.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read the following stories:
     "The  Coffin Maker" by Pushkin
     "The Three Hermits" by Tolstoy
     "A Malefactor" by Chekhov
-- Worksheets:  2 short story worksheets  and 1 themes/character worksheet
-- Final copy of Cause/Effect or Problem/Solution

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard