Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 8 (October 16)

Greetings!

Another beautiful fall day and another great class!

 Our Quick Write today was a prompt taken from a list of college application prompts.  Some of our Quick Writes at the beginning of class are light-hearted nonsense, but some of it has a purpose.  I talked for a while about the importance of the essay in the college application.  One of the key aspects of these essays is that they are intended for the student to show some his/her personality and character.  Admissions counselors are looking for those characteristics that cause the student to stand out.  Today’s prompt was about family traditions and family uniqueness.

Our Words for the Day, from A Connecticut Yankee, were:

Augmentation – fr. Latin, augmentare, to increase – to make larger, enlarge in size, number, strength

Dubious – fr. Latin dubius; wavering -- doubtful

Sumptuousness – fr. Latin, sumptus, expensiveness – costly, rich, or luxurious

Gimcrack – origin unknown– a showy, useless trifle

We discussed our current writing assignment, an Extended Definition or Classification Essay.  The pre-write for the essay is due this week.  They didn’t need to be handed in this week, but should be handed in next week with the rough drafts.  Pre-write activities include brainstorming, outlining, and researching.

 I also discussed the format for the essays.  Rough drafts can be handwritten, but the following guidelines still need to be followed:

1 inch margins

Double spaced

Name, Type of essay, and rough or final draft should be in the upper left or right corner

Title between the heading and the body of the paper

We discussed the reading assignment for this week, which was Chapters 32 – 36.  At this point of the book, Hank and the King are incognito, traveling as average people among the peasants of the time.  However, Hank pushes his theatrics a bit too far the people run them off only to be captured as slaves. 

We are nearing the end of the book.  We have two more weeks of reading assignments, one week for a Take Home Final exam, and an in-class “Final” activity.  Since Hank introduced the game of Baseball to King Arthur’s court, we’ll play a game using questions that the class writes as a means to go around the bases.

 No Grammar this week.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Write Rough Draft of Extended Definition or Classification Essay

-- Read Chapters 37 – 41

-- Answer 3 Study Questions and write out 5 Vocabulary Words.

     -- Extra credit Study Questions may be done.

This week’s blogs

Class Notes

ClassificationEssay  

ExtendedDefinition Essay  

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard