Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 3)

 Greetings!

We had an fun class today -- we covered a lot of material.  Before we started with our Quick Write I had them do a little drawing exercise, using as inspiration a picture I drew when I was a toddler.  They had to draw a stick figure -- with their eyes closed. 

Here are the Quick Write prompts for the day:

• February 2 –  World Read Aloud Day.  Do you have a favorite story that was read aloud to you when you were young?  Write about it.

• February 4, 2004 –  the day that Facebook was launched.  Do you use Facebook?  What are your thoughts about social media?

• February 4, 1789 – the day that George Washington was elected our first president by a unanimous vote of the first electoral college.  Do you have any opinions about the electoral college?  Do you have opinions about what makes for a good elected leader

Our Words of the Day

mellifluous -- fr. Latin mel, "honey" and fluus, "flowing" -- sweetly flowing

monoglot -- fr. Greek, mono "one" and glotto "tongue" -- speaking only one language

borborygmus -- fr. Greek, borborygmos, "to have a rumbling in the bowels" -- a rumbling or gurgling noise in the digestive system

progeniter -- fr. Latin, progenit, "begotten -- an ancestor, parent, or origin (as of an invention or practice)

I handed back the rough drafts of the Mystery Stories.  These were amazing!  I found myself thinking of the plots and characters long after reading and correcting them.  Many students wrote more than they usually did, and they were pretty creative.  As per my practice, I go over common mistakes as part of our rough draft discussions and use these for grammar instruction.  The most common errors I found in their write had to do with punctuating dialogue, paragraph formation, comma splice sentences, and compound sentences with commas.  Students are to revise their rough drafts into final drafts for next week. Ask your student to share his/her story with you. 

We've now finished our 6 short stories of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  To round out this literature unit, students are to write an essay exam in which they address the question, "Is Sherlock Holmes a Hero?"  They must first define what a hero is and then apply their definition to Sherlock Holmes.  We had NO discussion on these points because I want students to give me their own original ideas.  Usually we had a debate-like discussion after this assignment, so I look forward to that next week.

I gave them their next book, Great Short, Short Stories,  they have a reading assignment, but no required homework for the stories.  

Our Grammar  was on hold for the week.  Students have enough other work to do for the week.

Assignments for next week

• Mystery Story Final Draft

• Sherlock Holmes Final Exam

• Short Stories: Read  Pushkin (162); Tolstoy (169); Chekhov (26)

Links for This Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 3)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 3 (January 27)

Greetings!

This week's Quick Write prompts were taken from the list that the students in Writing 1 and Writing 2 contributed to last fall.  Here are the prompts for today’s Quick Write:

• What is a favorite childhood memory?

• What is one of the best days of your life?

• What was a highlight of your week?

• Whatever …..

Our Words of the Day came from Michael, Nina, and Annelise

virile-- fr. Latin vir, "man" -- strong, manly

corvine-- fr. Latin corvus, "raven"  -- resembling a crow  

feriation-- fr. Latin, feriatus, "to rest from work" --  to take a vacation or holiday

misanthrope -- fr. Greek, mis, "hate" and anthropos, "man" -- to hate mankind

Students have handed in the Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts of their Mystery Stories.  Many of them enjoyed writing these and felt that they wrote more than they usually wrote.  Others felt that this writing assignment was a bit harder since it's not easy to be creative.  This kind of writing required some different planning and a different kind of thinking.  I am looking forward to curling up with a cup of coffee and reading my pile of Mystery Rough Drafts.  

We are 4 stories into our book of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and the consensus this week was that the "Speckled Band" was more interesting than "The Engineer's Thumb."  Most agree that there was something satisfying about following clues and deducing solutions.  Someone mentioned the "red herrings" in the story about the speckled band.   These false clues and distractions add another layer of interest.

For the Grammar portion of class, we worked again on complex sentences.  In our unit on Commas, we also need to learn about sentence structures.  You won't understand where the comma goes with regards to dependent clauses in complex sentences if you don't know what a complex sentence is.  You won't know the difference between an independent and dependent/subordinate clause if you don't understand what the essential elements of a sentence are.  All of grammar is interconnected, and the students are doing a great job at working to understand these intricacies.  

Assignments for Next Week:

• Holmes:  Read “The Final Problem” & “The Adventure of the Empty House"
  

• Characterization of Sherlock Holmes

• Grammar:  Wk3 - Complex Sentences & Commas

• Grammar:  Wk3 - The Complex Sentence (3 pages)

 

Links for This Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 3 (January 27)

Video, audio, and pdf versions of "The Final Problem"

Video, audio, and pdf versions of "The Empty House"

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 2 (January 20)

 Greetings!

We started today with a Quick Write using prompt options that they had written:

1. What are some of your pet peeves?
2. What do you do that annoys others, either accidentally or intentionally?
3. What is the grossest thing you've ever eaten?
4. What is the best/worst part of your hous?
5. Whatever????

Our Words of the Day were from Michael, Nina, and Annelise

cantillate--  from Latin cantillare, "to sing low" -- to chant or intone

onychophagy-- from Greek onux, "nail;" phago, "to eat" -- nail-biting 

apathy -- from Greek a, not, without; pathos, feeling/emotion -- lack of feeling or interest; indifference

empathy -- from Greek em, "in;" pathos, feeling/emotion -- the ability to identify with feeling the suffering of others.

The usual Agenda for the class time is to do these beginning of class activities and then most of the time we cover these topics in this order:  Writing assignments/instruction, Literature discussion, and Grammar instruction/work.  My plan is to give the last 10 - 15 minutes of every class to working on Grammar assignments so that if students have questions, they can ask them right in class. 

For our Writing discussion, I checked in with them about the progress of their Mystery Stories.    The Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts are due next week. We discussed for a bit how writing this story will take a different kind of planning.  Students are thinking about putting in clues and even red herrings.  I am really looking forward to reading their stories next week!  By the way, if students want to read some student-written stories, they can go to the Writing 2 blog, and the stories are listed on right hand margin.  

The class has read the first 2 stories from our book, Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories. I read sections from the first pages of the story and we discussed the character and abilities of Sherlock Holmes.  Then I divided the class into 2 groups, and they played the game "Enter the Mystery Mansion."  Students were given cards with pictures, and as a group, they were to compose a mystery and/or spy story.  When they were done, they retold their stories for the Zoom portion of the class.  They were quite creative!

The last part of class was for Grammar instruction.  Today, I did a short lesson on simple and compound subjects and predicates along with compound sentences.  I often use fairly simple sentences to illustrate the concepts, but then we take these concepts and apply them to the students' own writing.  T

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Homework for Next Week:

Mystery Story Pre-Write

Mystery Story Essay Rough Draft

Spring Writing Survey

Holmes: Read  “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” & “The Engineer’s Thumb”
Answer 4 questions for one of the two stories

Commas and Coord Conjunctions

Is it a Compound Sentence? -- Note: This one's extra credit because I left the worksheet at home

Writing Compound Sentences

Links for this Week

Writing 2 Class Notes

A Scandal in Bohemia (YouTube)

The Red-Headed League (YouTube)

Adventure of the Speckled Band (YouTube)

The Engineer's Thumb (YouTube)

The Engineer's Thumb Cartoon

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 18)

 Greetings!

We had a delightful class this week.  Our class time was quite full.

We started with a Quick Write, and today they had 5 options (4 of which came from their own ideas): Tell what your favorite Disney character is; tell which you prefer, Marvel or D.C.; what would be better to live in, a tree house, a hobbit hole, or under water: what is that one product that you will not compromise quality for; or whatever else is on your mind.  I had a lot of homework to hand back, so they students had a lot of time to write.

Our Words of the Day came from Nalani, Ellie, and Maddy today.  As I put the words on the board, I asked the class to make up definitions for the words. Some of them had some pretty creative definitions

etymology-- fr. Greek etymon, "true sense" and logia, "the study of" --  studying the underlying semantics and meanings of words

gubbins-- from obsolete old English, gobbon, raw fish or flesh -- a foolish or futile person; the parings or refuse from a fish

gobbledygook-- first recorded in 1940/1945; a fanciful form of gobble -- language characterized by circumlocution and jargon

While the students were writing for their Quick Writes, I handed back homework; we usually do a short Homework Check after these beginning of class activities.  This week, I reminded them of my late homework policy.  I give students three weeks to get assigned work in (actually, they have 4 weeks from the assigned date until I will no longer take it.)  After that extended time, assignments will be given zeros.  I also explained that while I don't have a specific day for correcting homework, I correct homework all at once and don't check and re-check Google Classroom for late assignments.  If homework is handed in on time, it will automatically be included when I correct homework.  If it is late, it could be included, or it might not be.  Most weeks, I will enter scores on Track My Grades.  (Another reminder, you can check to see if you are missing on any homework on Google Classroom, but you need to use your chatclasses email. And a further reminder -- if you handed in an assignment in class, leave the assignment on Google Classroom alone.  I will go through and mark as finished.)

Students handed in the final drafts of their Mystery Stories, and  I'm really excited about reading these because their rough drafts were so good!  As a reminder, they should hand in their rough drafts with my marks/corrections when they hand in the final drafts.  The final drafts could be handed in during class or uploaded to the Google Classroom assignment.  

When we finish one paper, we start another.  For the next round of essays,  students can choose to write a Cause/Effect Essay or a Problem/Solution Essay. For the both of these essays, the writer usually chooses to focus the bulk of his/her attention on one part of this 2-part essay.  Students have the next two weeks to do their brainstorming and research.  The pre-writes and rough drafts should be handed in on March 11. 

We have finished our Sherlock Holmes book, and the students wrote an essay exam in which they define "hero" and then explain if Sherlock Holmes is a hero.  As it happens every year, the class was divided in their opinions.  I had the class separate into Hero/Not a Hero groups and told them to come up with their top 5 strongest points to support their position.  (We had a little bit of a debate, that probably would have been better if we could have hear one another better.  The concrete walls and masks muddies a lot of the voices.)  At any rate, they had done some careful thinking about the sides that they chose.

We are now starting into our next book, which is a collection of Short Stories.  The class is to read the Russian authors for our next class time and to fill out the worksheet that I gave them.

At the end of class, I gave a very brief Grammar  "power lesson" about the commas that follow introductory elements.  These elements can include interjections, personal addresses, prepositional phrases, and dependent clauses.  We finished a few in class, and they are to complete the worksheet for our next class time. 

I want to commend this class in its ability to take down the room every week.  Because we're the last class to meet in our room, the students have to fold the tables and take them to another room down the hall.  Then they have to load all of the folding chairs onto a rack.  They always do it with cheerful attitudes, and I'm so grateful for their work!

A reminder -- we don't have class next week ; the next time we see one another will be March 4.

Assignments for March 4

• Cause/Effect OR Problem/Solution  Pre-Write

• Short Stories: Read  Pushkin (162); Tolstoy (169); Chekhov (26) (Note -- we are week behind with the stories because I didn't assign last week due to the essay exam
  

• Short Story Packet #1
  

• Grammar:  Wk5 - Introductory Commas

• Grammar:  Wk5 - Commas after Introductory Phrases

Links for This Week

Class Notes

About Cause/Effect and Problem/Solution Essays

Have a good weekend and a wonderful week off!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 11)

 Greetings!

We had an fun class today -- we covered a lot of material,  We started with our Quick Write.  As I told them last week, the plan was to write letters of encouragement and gratitude to someone.  I also gave them 2 other options.  They could write a "literary love letter" to some aspect of writing or literature, or they could write a "love letter" to a person or some thing that they love.  Because I think it is really important to write real letters and send them in the mail, I'm offering extra credit to those who do that.  For those who wanted the extra credit, they wrote their letters, put them in sealed envelopes, and handed them in.  If need be, they can bring the addresses next week if they forgot to bring them today.  I will mail them.

We didn't have any Words of the Day because I wanted to make sure that we had enough time for other activities.  

I handed back the rough drafts of the Mystery Stories.  These were amazing!  I found myself thinking of the plots and characters long after reading and correcting them.  Many students wrote more than they usually did, and they were pretty creative.  As per my practice, I go over common mistakes as part of our rough draft discussions and use these for grammar instruction.  The most common errors I found in their write had to do with punctuating dialogue, paragraph formation, comma splice sentences, and compound sentences with commas.  Students are to revise their rough drafts into final drafts for next week. Ask you student to share his/her story with you. 

We've now finished our 6 short stories of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  To round out this literature unit, students are to write an essay exam in which they address the question, "Is Sherlock Holmes a Hero?"  They must first define what a hero is and then apply their definition to Sherlock Holmes.  We had NO discussion on these points because I want students to give me their own original ideas.  Usually we had a debate-like discussion after this assignment, so I look forward to that next week.

We discussed how, as any detective is solving crimes, it is important to be able to tell if someone is lying or not.  To that end, I handed out playing cards to each of the students, and 4 of them received an Ace, indicating that they were the Liar.  They were all to mingle and tell one another about something that they had done this year during the pandemic.  Everyone was to tell the truth except for the 4 "Liars."  At the end of this activity, student shared whom they thought were the liars.  Oddly enough 2 of the actual liars did not even make it on the list.  I wonder if this would have turned out differently if the students had not been wearing masks.  

I gave them their next book, Great Short, Short Stories, but we will hold off on reading any of the stories until after the Essay Exam.  

Our Grammar instruction centered again on dependent and independent clauses.  In our focus on commas, we are also learning a lot about sentence structures.  We took time to work  on the homework for next week so that students could work together and ask questions.   Students have 2 sides of one worksheet to do for next week.

A note on homework:  last week with 46 rough drafts from Writing 1 and Writing 2, I only corrected student papers.  The other grammar and literature homework will be graded and entered into Track My Grades this week. Again, if you are not able to get into Track My Grades, let me know.  We discovered today that I had the wrong email entered for one student, and I was able to correct it.

Assignments for next week

• Mystery Story Final Draft

• Sherlock Holmes Final Exam

• Spring Writing Survey

• Grammar:  Wk4 - Identifying Independent/Subordinate Clauses

• Grammar:  Wk4 - Writing Independent/Subordinate Clauses

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 3 (February 4)

Greetings!

We started our class thinking about "Gratitude."  I shared with the class that research shows that people who develop intentional habits of expressing gratitude have stronger cognitive functioning, better immune systems, and a greater degree of happiness.  For our Quick Write prompts today, students could choose from these options:  

• What is a simple pleasure that you are grateful for?
• What is something that you are looking forward to?
• Who is someone who could really use a "thank you note?"

The students had some great comments, and we decided that next week we would write some real thank you notes.  I will bring envelopes and stamps and the students are to bring addresses.  (What a great group this is!!)

Our Word of the Day came from Ethan:

apocalypse-- fr. Greek apokalupsis, "to uncover or reveal" -- something viewed as prophetic revelation; a revelation; also something perceived as catastrophic

For class this week, we had extras on Zoom due to the bad roads. We had enough on Zoom to make a small group for our literature discussion

Students have handed in the Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts of their Mystery Stories.  Most of them enjoyed writing these, and many felt that they wrote more than they usually wrote.  This kind of writing required some different planning and a different kind of thinking.  I am looking forward to curling up with a cup of coffee and reading my pile of Mystery Rough Drafts.  

We are 4 stories into our book of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and the consensus this week was that the "Speckled Band" was more interesting than "The Engineer's Thumb."  Most agree that there was something satisfying about following clues and deducing solutions.  Someone mentioned the "red herrings" in the story about the speckled band.   These false clues and distractions add another layer of interest.

For the Grammar portion of class, we worked again on complex sentences.  In our unit on Commas, we also need to learn about sentence structures.  You won't understand where the comma goes with regards to dependent clauses in complex sentences if you don't know what a complex sentence is.  You won't know the difference between an independent and dependent/subordinate clause if you don't understand what the essential elements of a sentence are.  All of grammar is interconnected, and the students are doing a great job at working to understand these intricacies.  

Assignments for Next Week:

• Spring Writing Survey (This is a Google Form on Google Classroom. It is not due for 2 weeks, but students can do it right away if they would like)

• Holmes:  Read “The Final Problem” & “The Adventure of the Empty House"

• Characterization of Sherlock Holmes (Students can do this on the document attached to the Google Classroom assignment OR they can print it and do it with pen/highlighter on paper.)

• Grammar:  Wk3 - Complex Sentences & Commas

• Grammar:  Wk3 - The Complex Sentence

 

Links for This Week

Track My Grades (note -- if you can not find your password in the email sent to you, please let me know.)

Class Notes

The Final Problem (audiobook on YouTube)

The Final Problem (video with Jeremy Brett)

The Adventure of the Empty House (audiobook on YouTube)

The Adventure of the Empty House (video with Jeremy Brett)

Sherlock Holmes stories on Librivox

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 2 (January 28)

 Greetings!

We started today with a Quick Write using prompt options that they had written:

1. What is your favorite musical?
2. Who is your favorite Veggie Tales character?
3. Do you think college is worth it?

Our Words of the Day were chosen randomly from the students' contributions:

floccinaucinihilipilification--  from Latin flocci, nauci, nihili, pili (words meaning ‘at little value’) + -fication -- the action or habit of estimating something as worthless (Thank you, Ellie, for this word.)

consecotaleophobia -- the fear of chopsticks (Thank you, Jesse, for this word.)

[Note:  I reminded the students that they can bring 1 word each week for extra credit as long as they have the etymology and definition.]

The usual Agenda for the class time is to do these beginning of class activities and then most of the time we cover these topics in this order:  Writing assignments/instruction, Literature discussion, and Grammar instruction/work.  My plan is to give the last 10 - 15 minutes of every class to working on Grammar assignments so that if students have questions, they can ask them right in class. 

For our Writing discussion, I checked in with them about the progress of their Mystery Stories.    The Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts are due next week. We discussed for a bit how writing this story will take a different kind of planning.  Students are thinking about putting in clues and even red herrings.  I am really looking forward to reading their stories next week!  By the way, if students want to read some student-written stories, they can go to the Writing 2 blog, and the stories are listed on right hand margin.  

The class has read the first 2 stories from our book, Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories. I had cued a video of "A Scandal in Bohemia" (an 1984 version with Jeremy Brett) to watch a couple of scenes. In addition to that video, YouTube has a number of episodes from this Sherlock Holmes series.  We talked about some of his deductions.  They are to read 2 more stories for next week. [Note:  Below I have links to videos and audio books for some of our Holmes stories.]  

The last part of class was for Grammar instruction.  Today, I did a short lesson on simple and compound subjects and predicates along with compound sentences.  I often use fairly simple sentences to illustrate the concepts, but then we take these concepts and apply them to the students' own writing.  Then the students had time to work on the worksheets and ask questions.  Some of them got a lot of work done during that time.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Homework for Next Week:

Mystery Story Essay Rough Draft

Mystery Story Pre-Write

Holmes: Read  “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” & “The Engineer’s Thumb”
Answer 4 questions for one of the two stories

Commas and Coord Conjunctions

Is it a Compound Sentence?

Writing Compound Sentences

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Track My Grades

Spring Writing 2 Syllabus

Spring Writing 2 Assignments Checklist

A Scandal in Bohemia (YouTube)

The Red-Headed League (YouTube)

Adventure of the Speckled Band (YouTube)

The Engineer's Thumb audio book (YouTube)

The Engineer's Thumb Cartoon

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 1 (January 16)

Greetings!

What a great first day!  It's always good to see everyone after a long  break.  We've added a few more to our numbers, making this a fairly large class.  

As always, we began the class with a Quick Write.  For this week I asked the students to write a letter to themselves.  Starting with "Dear Future Me,' they could write about goals, interests, or questions.  Rather than hand them in, they are to go to the Future Me website, type in their letters, and set the letters to be sent to them on January 1, 2021.

We will continue doing Words of the Day at the beginning of class.  This semester, I will focus on foreign words and phrases; unusual expressions, and Latin roots.  There will be a test at the end of the semester.  Today's words were for those little bits and pieces that we might simply call "thingamajigs" or "whatchamacallits."

meme -- fr. Greek mimeme; to imitate -- a digital image combined with text to express a cultural comment.

pintle -- the pin or bolt that is used in hinge.

ferrule -- the metal cap on the end of an umbrella

aglet -- the cover of the end of a shoe lace

Students were given a shortened version of the Class Policies that they should have you read and sign.  Reminders of class expectations is a good way to start a fresh semester.  I also made some brief comments about having a good system for keeping track of homework and for planning time wisely so that assignments get done.  

Our first Literature selections for the semester are short stories from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  (Unfortunately something went wrong with my book order, so some of the students got pdf versions of the first two stories.  The books will be here by next week, so they will have the full collection.)  We'll be reading six stories from this book, answering study guide questions, and participating in small group and whole class discussions.  Most students really enjoy this literature unit because they've seen some versions of the Sherlock Holmes stories.  

This then leads to our first Writing assignment for the semester:  a Mystery Story!  A few years ago a group of Writing 2 students lobbied for some creative writing to be incorporated into the class, and this assignment has become a favorite.  Not all students enjoy writing fiction, so I've adjusted the parameters of the assignment.  They can write a bona fide mystery with clues and a detective, or they can write an essay about a topic that is "mysterious," which could include a scientific problem that is hard to solve or the elements of crime-solving. The students should begin work this week, and the pre-write and rough draft are due in two weeks.  (Note:  On the blog are some samples of stories from previous years.  They are on the right hand side bar.)

Our Grammar focus for this semester will be commas and other punctuation.  Last semester I polled the students, and that topic was the one that the majority of the students wanted to conquer.  Fortunately, in order to fully understand where to place commas, students will need to know a lot of other grammar topics, so they will be learning about more that where to put the small bit of punctuation.  We had time in class to work on the worksheets.

Finally, a note about our class culture.  I enjoy a lively class and encourage discussion and camaraderie among the students.  With 24 students in the class, we will probably break into small groups more often so that each student has an opportunity for his/her voice to be heard.  I will also be "cracking down" on side conversations and off-topic chatter.

Have a great weekend!  Enjoy the snow!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read the handouts about the Sherlock Holmes stories

-- Read "Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Red-Headed League"

-- Answer 4 Study Guide questions

-- Mystery Pre-Write

-- Letter to Future Me

-- Grammar -- 3 worksheets about compound sentences

Links for This Week

Spring Writing 2 Technology

Class Notes

Google Folder for Spring Writing 2

     Grammar

     Literature

     Writing

Rocketbook Class Notes

My GradeBook Instructions

Class Policies

Future Me

Characteristics of a Detective Story

Sherlock Holmes Study Guide

Sherlock Holmes Quotes

Mystery Story/Essay

Comma Usage at a Glance

Names, Repetitions, etc. and Commas

Mystery Story

Write your own Holmes mystery

Using what you have learned about characteristics of a Sherlock Holmes mystery, write your own. It can be a significant mystery (someone stole my car!) or a small one (why do my socks go astray in the dryer?).  It can be funny or serious in tone. As a reminder, include some of the following: 

a. Retelling of an action sequence 
b. Holmes using deductive reasoning 
c. Holmes taking justice into his own hands 
d. Character from a foreign land with a dark past 
e. Holmes unable to solve the case 
f. Exotic murder weapon 
g. Young woman about to be married 
h. Grotesque details 
i. Crime committed

Story Guidelines

– Due dates:  Pre-Write due January 23; Rough Draft due January 30;  Final Draft due February 13

– Essay length:  500 – 900 words (between 2 and 6 pages)

– Rough drafts can be typed or hand-written, but must be double-spaced.

– Final draft format:

– Typed (if this is not possible, please let me know)

– 1 inch margins

– Name and date on the upper right hand corner

– Number the pages on the lower right hand corner

– Title centered above the text of the essay

Sherlock Holmes Quotes

“A Scandal in Bohemia”

·         You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.

·         It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

·         To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.

“The Red-Headed League”

·         I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life.

·         It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes.

 “The Five Orange Pips”

·         A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library...

·         As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after.

·         It is not so impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this, I have endeavored in my case to do.

·         A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.

“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”

·         My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know.

·         On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing your inferences.

·         My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know.

“The Adventure of the Speckled Band”

·         "You are Holmes, the meddler."
My friend smiled.
"Holmes, the busybody!"
His smile broadened.
"Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!"
Holmes chuckled heartily.

·         "When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals. He has the nerve and he has the knowledge."

·         Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.

“The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”

·         "Data! Data! Data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay."

·         The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

·         "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they seem to you to be relevant or not."

·         "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there."

Study Guide for Sherlock Holmes Stories

“A Scandal in Bohemia”

1.      What does Sherlock Holmes think of Iren Adler?

2.      Describe Holmes’ and Watson’s situation in the beginning of the story.

3.      How does Holmes prove his intelligence?

4.      Who is the client? How does Holmes know who he is and how does he treat the client?

5.      What was Watson’s job for when they get Irene Adler’s house?

6.      How did Irene Adler outsmart Holmes?

“The Red-Headed League”

1.      Holmes lists the “obvious facts” that he deduces from Mr. Wilson’s appearance. What are they and how did Homes know?

2.      What is the only requirement needed to apply for a vacancy in the Red-Headed League? What are the benefits?

3.      Describe the work Mr. Wilson must do for the League. What exactly is it? When must he do it? What is supposedly the purpose? What happens if he leaves the office during working hours?

4.      Holmes begins to question Mr. Wilson about his assistant. List here some of the things that he learns.

5.      What detail suggests that Holmes already knows who this man is? Why does Holmes pretend to be lost and ask the way of Mr. Wilson’s assistant? What other odd thing does he do in front of Mr. Wilson’s place of business?

6.      Who are Mr. Jones and Mr. Merryweather? Who is John Clay?

“The Adventure of the Speckled Band”

1.    Why has Helen Stoner decided to visit to Sherlock Holmes at that particular time?

2.    Why is Helen Stoner afraid when she comes to see Holmes in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”?

3.    Why does Holmes quickly suspect that Dr. Roylott is the criminal?

4.    What, if any, significance does Dr. Roylott’s interest in Indian animals have as evidence

5.    Explain which relevant clues you were able to identify in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” and which false clues may have led you astray.

6.    Which of the five senses are used by Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery of the speckled band?

“The Five Orange Pips”

1.      What reasons does Watson give for not writing about Holmes’ cases between 1882 and 1890?

2.      What deductions does Holmes make about John Openshaw?

3.      Why does Elias Openshaw come back to England?

4.      Why does John Openshaw seek out Sherlock Holmes?  What does he want Holmes to do?

5.      How do the three Openshaw men die?

6.      How does Sherlock Holmes finally track down the killer?