Friday, January 23, 2015

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 2 (January 22)

Greetings!

We had a productive class yesterday.  Even if they occasionally need to redirect their attention to the tasks at hand, they're a wonderfully collegial group.

Our Quick Write was in recognition of National Popcorn Day that was on January 19.  I had the students write about either their favorite salty snacks or something popcorn-related.  

Our Words of the Day were the following Latin roots:
amo/ami -- fr. Latin "to love" -- derivatives:  amiable, amicable, amorous, enamored
aqua -- fr. Latin "water" -- derivatives:  aquarium, aqueous, aqueduct, aquifer, aquamarine
audi -- fr. Latin "to hear" -- derivatives:  audiotape, auditory, auditorium, audiophile

Following these beginning of class activities, we quickly discussed the progress on their first writing assignment for the semester.  This first writing assignment is a Mystery Story. Diverging from the essay format, some students are finding this easy while others find it more challenging.  Coming up with a good idea seems to be the hardest part.  However, I have great faith in them,  The Pre-Write was to be done this week, and the Rough Draft is due next week.
The next order of business for our class was our Grammar discussion.  I went over again the elements of a sentences.  In order to know where you put the comma for a complex, compound,  or a compound-complex sentence, you need to understand what independent and dependent clauses are. And you need to know what subordinating conjunctions and coordinating conjunctions are.  You see, learning where to put commas also involves learning a lot of other bits of grammar. 
The next comma rule deals with the comma used in lists.  This is often called the series comma, the serial comma, the Oxford comma, and the Harvard comma.  The Oxford, etc. comma is the final comma that is inserted before the conjunction and the last word of a list.  Take this sentence, for example:  I like to eat cookies, brownies, cake, and pie.  The comma between the words "cake" and "and" is considered the serial or Oxford comma.  Students have a worksheet to go with this lesson.  By the way, the syllabus has this week's lesson as "Introductory Elements;" I switched it for something a little simpler since I considered the previous lesson a little more challenging.
Our discussion about the Sherlock Holmes stories centered on the character development of Holmes and descriptions of his personality and abilities.  We also discussed the partnership between Holmes and Watson. 
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" and "The Engineer's Thumb."
-- Answer 4 questions for one of the two stories
-- Complete the Series Comma Worksheet
-- Rough Draft of the Mystery Story
-- EXTRA CREDIT -- Bring to class an article about the Oxford comma.  Extra points if you bring an article that discourages/disapproves of this comma.

This week's links:
-- Class Notes
-- Series Comma Worksheet
-- Dependent Clause Love Story video
-- Compound-Complex Sentences video

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Prichard

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