22nd class
Brad Johnson Engl 81, 22nd class
How many of you are willing to take on the challenge of others challenging your belief system? Power struggles between countries exist in various forms. Remember: students are the positive agents of change. Despite all, we need to maintain hope.
On sheet of paper:
1. What is your topic?
2. What is the controlling idea of your topic?
3. What is the most crucial point that you want to make to your reader?
4. What is the purpose of your paper – why are you writing this paper?
Need to do a better job about seeing the big picture and then express this in your writing.
Brad read a sample paper to the class:
Listen and answer: what is the topic and what is the controlling idea of this paper.
Title: Alternative Media Vs. Elite or Corporate Media
Topic: Media -- Corporate, Alternative, Elite Media
Elite – for profit
Alternative – public driven
Exposing corporate media is developed in this paper as well as the control of the media.
This paper is an Informative piece of writing.
Rewrite of the above paper:
Title: The Benefits of Alternative Media
Topic sentence: should be clear and concise, complete. Compelling, purposeful, specific,
avoid facts. See if the question, “So What?”, can be answered in the topic sentence.
Give them the background or an explanation of alternate media in this paper
Some examples of alternative media include: 91.3 out of Bellevue: KBCS, public radio and television stations. These provide freedom of speech and give alternative ways of thinking about issues.
In this paper, give the other side of the issue: corporate media. Corporate refers to a person, entity, corporation that owns the media. Corporations give the message that they want you to follow. Example: spend money and consume. Messages are given to spend and feel good about spending. These entities want to maintain their power, their way of thinking.
Alternative media refers to publicly owned. Ideas are shared and challenged, giving you a grounding or a base for debating issues and forming your own opinions.
Another paper read by Brad to the class:
Title: Deforestation
Topic Sentence: “A quarter of the land of the world is a forest.”
General topic in one word: “forests”
Most important thing being said: “protecting and restoring the forests.”
More ideas that could be included in this paper: clear cutting and select cutting
Clear, topic sentence: “We need to protect and manage our forests.”
Your topic sentence needs to be written so it pulls readers in to make them want to read your paper.
This paper is more difficult than it had to be. Choose one of the following to add focus to this paper: cause/effect or problem/solution.
Example: “Because of these problems, we need to do this _________,.and these are our solutions: _______________.
Step outside of your paper. Read it objectively to find out what is the purpose of your paper. Read your paper as if it had not written by you. Pretend that you are a different person reading this paper for the first time.
Get into groups and share PRL’s.
CHAPTER 35 – COMMAS, pp. 470-480
Part A, “Commas for Items in a Series, p. 470
Items in a series: There needs to be at least 3 items to be in a series.
p. 470
1. You need bolts, nuts, and screws.
2. I will be happy to read your poem, comment on it, and return it to you.
Note: DON’T USE COMMAS WHEN ALL THREE ITEMS ARE JOINED BY and OR or. Example:
5. I enjoy biking and skating and swimming.
Don’t use commas too much. Use them sparingly. Vary your sentence structure
p. 471 – Practice 1
1. At the banquet, Ed served a salad of juicy red tomatoes, crunchy green lettuce, and
string less snap beans.
7. Don’t eat strange mushrooms. Walk near the water or feed the squirrels.
p. 471 – Part B, “Commas with Introductory Phrases, Transitional Expressions, and Parentheticals”
Note: “Parenthetical” refers to the use of commas to set off words that are an “aside”. Examples: “by the way”, “after all”, “actually”, “as a matter of fact”, “to tell the truth”.
*“To tell the truth, I did all my homework last night.”
*“By the way, I am traveling to Mexico this summer.”
*“After all, the information found in the textbook is easy to understand.”
*“Actually, the quote from the speech came from the book, “To Kill A Mockingbird’, a
true classic of American literature.”
*“As a matter of fact, dogs are a very popular family pet.”
Using commas to separate introductory phrases from the rest of the sentence:
p. 471 – bottom of the page
1. By four in the afternoon, everybody wanted to go home.
2. After the game on Saturday, we all went dancing.
p. 472 – Using commas to set off transitional expressions:
3. Ferns, for example, need less sunlight than flowering plants.
4. Instructors, on the other hand, receive a lower salary than assistant professors.
Use commas to set off parenthetical elements: Some more examples:
5. By the way, where is the judge’s umbrella?
6. Nobody, it seems, wants to eat the nut burgers.
p. 472 -- Practice 2
1. Frankly, I always suspected that you were a born saleswoman.
3. On every April Fools’ Day, he tries out a new, dumb practical joke.. (Note: this phrase
can be put at the end of the sentence also.) He tries out a new, dumb practical joke on
every April Fools’ Day.
Pay attention to the concept of time. Introductory Phrases give an indication of where you are going in time and space.
p. 473 Part C, “Commas for Appositives” (Note: appositives are interrupters in a sentence.)
Interrupters can be found on p. 365. Know all of these.
Note: Another way to write a sentence includes the interrupters. This is indicated with the abbreviation: I. Inter. C.
Example: from p. 473
1.Yoko, our new classmate, is our best fielder.” Make sure you have a comma before and
a comma after each interrupter.
HW:
1. Revise your draft.
2. Bring in new and improved draft.
3. Remember: bring 2 new copies, typed and double-spaced.
4. Have all changes in bold or italics or underlined or typed with different colored type.
HAPPY REWRITING AND REDRAFTING!!!
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “If clear, written directions had not been given, we would have never be able to find our favorite chocolate store.”
