Syntax

Write sentences with the following structure:

Periodic, Loose, Parallel, Inverted Order, Interrupted Order.

Write the following types:

Simple, Compound, Complex, Compound-Complex.

Label Each.

Thursday/Friday Work

Thursday: A Syntax Primer With Exercises

Read over the information regarding syntax on pages 1-2.  Then follow the directions on page 3 and record you comments/observations on author's use of syntax for #1 Moby-Dick and #3 A the Pretty Horses.

Friday: Read "A Modest Proposal" and write a précis on it.

Remember you have a news article/video to review and take a stance on.

Wednesday 8/29

Today -

We are going to do the GRAPHIC ORGANIZER as a class.  I realize that this might have been to much to ask of you on a 1st go.  We'll post it on the board and discuss what you have an well.

Then, you have time to finish précis.

Last, a hand out on sentences types with exercises.  You might be able to start this, but probably you'll do it as a class tomorrow.

HW: Question #1 or #2 on page 347.

Tuesday August 28th

Today - we are going to discuss your annotations of "Why We Crave Horror Movies".  What did you mark and why?  What type of notes did you make in the side margins?

As a group you will write and post a precis on this essay.

HW: Take this essay and paragraph by paragraph review it using the graphic organizer suggested in your textbook.

Remember also to be reading/viewing news articles/videos for this week.

Classwork/Homework and More

Wednesday night homework: One Hundred Great Essays page 327, do either question 2 or 3:

2) Throughout the essay, Kincaid presents concrete objects as having larger symbolic significance--her father's felt hat, to name one of many examples.  Find as many of these as you can; then, choose several that you think are particularly important to analyze in detail.  What does this technique contribute to the overall meaning of the essay.

3) Kincaid writes that "the idea of something and its reality are often two completely different things...and so when they meet and find that they are not compatible, the weaker of the two, idea or reality, dies."  Can you recall instances in your own life when your idea of something collided with its reality?  In an essay explore the validity of Kincaid's statement.

Thursday - In class: Read George Orwells, "Shooting An Elephant" and mark it up.  Think about speaker, subject, audience, context, thesis, purpose, tone.

HW: Write a precis on either "Shooting An Elephant" or "On Seeing England for the First Time".
(If a precis proves too difficult students can choose to write an assertion essay: students provide a clear explanation of the writer's assertion and then defend or challenge it) in 250-300 words.

Also, make sure you post your analysis of one news item as presented in two different mediums - print and video.  (Students are required to write a short -200-300 words- analysis of these news items noting point of view, claims or thesis, major points and write a defense or challenge).

Friday - In class: read The Language of Composition chapter 2.

HW: For Monday, outline chapter 2 of The Language of Composition and post it on your blog.

NEXT WEEK:

We will read "Why We Crave Horror Movies" by Stephen King and do some grammar exercises, looking a sentence structures.  

The England I was looking at was laid out on a map gently, beautifully, delicately, a very special jewel; it lay on a bed of sky blue--the background of a map -- its yellow form mysterious, because though it looked like a leg of mutton, it could not really look like anything so familiar as a leg of mutton because it was England -- with shadings of pink and green, unlike any shadings of pink and green I had seen before, squiggly veins of red running in every direction.

sometimes all of these things, sometimes some of these things, sometimes only one of these things

PRECIS REWRITING