WEEK 6

Good Morning!

So this week we'll be doing at least two things: writing the comparison essay, and looking at the next essay form: the film/book review. Some of you are even doing final drafts of the narrative essay. That's a lot of writing. Oh, and there's a little Strunk and White too. 

Pace yourselves. Home schoolers are especially good at that, right?

1. Revise your narrative essay (final draft). 

Remember, every essay needs to have a point. Why would someone want to read about that time you broke your toe unless you learned something about yourself or the world you live in? They wouldn't. No one wants to read a narrative unless it's about something beyond the narrative, so look for a lesson, an insight, a point.

Read my comments carefully. And when you think you're all done and you're ready to turn it in, proofread it one more time. 

2. Begin the comparison essay (first draft).

Some reminders...

The choices you make need to involve a legitimate choice. In other words, it needs to be something that reasonable people probably think hard about often. Pepsi vs. Coke is not good comparison essay material. No one really thinks about that, despite what the commercials say. Whether a football kicker should go with soccer or football cleats is better. Whether a 20 gauge or 12 gauge is the better load for a shotgun is better. 

Write a draft of 600+ words, carefully proofed, in one of the two outline forms -- alternating or opposing -- and no deviating from this format! YES, this is a highly prescriptive essay. NO, you don't have the freedom to organize it however you want. We're becoming disciplined writers.

3. The book or film review (no essay draft yet, just pre-writing). 

Read this book review. Notice it MAKES A JUDGMENT on the book. That's key. Your job will be to critique a book or film and make a recommendation to your reader (yes, no, or a qualified yes or no). Summarize the Opening Moves review in one paragraph.

Read this film review.  It's a little heavy on re-telling of the plot (something we'll need to avoid), but it's well-written and does the job of critiquing. And this one. It's a good example of a "qualified" yes. What do the two film reviews have in common? One paragraph, please. 

Before you get your wheels turning too fast, I'll let you know now that there are some off-limits subjects: Your book or film may NOT be on anything Tolkien, Rowling, Collins (Hunger Games), or Lucas related. It may not feature aliens or superheroes (sorry, Marvel and DC fans. You'll need to stretch beyond your comfort zone). The rest of the literary world is open for your enjoyment! 

4. LBGB...

1. Read chapter 4, "The Clause."

2. Define the following:

a. clause

b. simple sentence

c. independent clause

d. dependent clause

e. the complex sentence

f. the compound sentence

g. the compound-complex sentence 

3. Choose one from the four "Avoid" items and explain how it might improve your writing. 50+ words.

4. Explain the problems in these usage items (how do people tend to mess them up?) and their correct usage:

a. who / whom

b. literally

c. choose one

  

Turn everything in by midnight Friday. 

Have a great week!

WEEK 5

Good morning!

Your main task this week is to get the first draft of the narrative essay turned in. We'll also start looking at the next mode of discourse: argumentation. With description and narration, we did just one essay, but for argumentation we'll be writing two pieces over a three-week period: a comparison essay and a film/book recommendation. 



Here's your work for the week...

Due Friday at midnight...

1. Go through the work section (not the essay section) and label every week clearly. Some of you are already doing that, some aren't. I need it to be easy for me to scroll down and quickly find what I'm looking for, but if it's all strung together without labels I can't do that. Thank you!

2. First draft of the narrative essay. Write an essay about a significant event that can be narrated (first this happened, then this, and then I did this [or she did that]...etc.). 

Remember, as with any essay, it should have a point, so avoid picking some random thing that has no potential for reflection or insight. 

Don't tell me about your day at work unless there was something important about it. Maybe it was your first day of work, and you worked really hard, and you gained some appreciation for those who have to do it every day to support a family (or something else deeper than just my day at work). 

Each of the essays we've read so far has a point. Your writing should have a point.

Organization: 
3 parts - an intro paragraph; body paragraphs that narrate the event; a conclusion paragraph that draws something significant out of the event.

Format:
800 words minimum
paragraph form
non-scripty font 

PROOF IT CAREFULLY for spelling, grammar, mechanics, and read it aloud to someone else.   


3. Read this post on proof-reading. Summarize my advice in a 50+ word paragraph.


4. Comparison...I don't like the name of this essay type, but most people know it as a compare-and-contrast essay, so I'll start there. Here's why I don't like it: when we compare two things, we often see both similarities and contrasts. But calling it a similarity/contrast essay is somehow even worse than compare/contrast. So why not just call it a comparison essay, since it implies both things? I see no reason not to.  

Read this post on the comparison essay (there's a sample essay at the end of the post).

a. Summarize the main points of the post. Use an outline format instead of paragraph.

b. In short outlines (like the country/city examples in the post, one for the opposing pattern and one for the alternating pattern), compare two of the following pairs (that's FOUR short outlines) using 3 points of comparison: 

• apples and oranges (Yes, they can be compared!)
• pc vs. mac
• two breeds of dogs (your choice)
• charcoal vs. gas (as in bbq method)
• airline travel vs. car (or some other mode)
• propose a comparison of your own

5. Choose your essay subjects —two items for comparison— and propose an outline (it must be in opposing or alternating pattern, and it must include your three points of comparison; in other words, don't just say you'll use opposing pattern — show me using the points). If I approve them, these will be your comparison essay subjects. It's IMPERATIVE that you do #3 above before you choose your subjects. 

6. LBGB. Read chapter 3 this week and do the following: 

1. Define "phrase" using a formal definition (like a definition you might find in a dictionary).

2. Define "phrase" using an informal definition (hint: look in the "Debrief" section).

3. Diagram this sentence:  The car in the road hit our mailbox.  You may do it on paper and attach it to your google doc (I have no idea how to do that, but I bet there's a way). Or you can do it on paper, take a pic, and email it to me.

4. Look at these usage pairs and write a correct sentence using each:

        a. affect / effect

        b. compose / comprise

        c. farther / further

        d. i.e. / e.g.



Have a great week!

CATCH UP!

 

This is our first catch-up week, so no post today. 

Use it to CATCH UP. If not in my class then in some other endeavor that you've neglected. 

Have a great week, and see you next Monday.

WEEK 4

Good morning!

First, here's a reminder about the posting schedule:

• Post 1 - 9/2
• Post 2 - 9/9
• Post 3 - 9/16
• Post 4 - 9/23 (work will be due Friday 10/4)
•  No post on 9/30
• Post 5 - 10/7
• Post 6 - 10/14
• Post 7 - 10/21 (work will be due Friday 11/1)
• No post on 10/28
• Post 8 - 11/4
• Post 9 - 11/10
• Post 10 - 11/17

YOUR WORK...

1. Unless I scored your descriptive essay as a final draft (It would look like this: Descriptive Essay FD), revise it one more time.. 


2. Read this post on narration.


3. Read this introduction to the form. It suggests some pre-writing strategies and exercises, but these are NOT assignments. You're welcome to do them, but I'm not assigning them as work. I only need you to read it.

(You MUST do #2 and #3, which show you what narrative writing is, before you do #4 and #5, which have you doing your own narrative writing.)

Just like we did with the descriptive essay, we'll start the narrative essay by practicing with some paragraphs first. In the next post I'll assign the actual essay. After that the pace increases to (roughly) a new essay every week. 


4. Using events from your lit source, write your own 100+ word paragraph for each type of event below. 

a. a character's interaction with another character
b. an event where something bad happens
c. an event where something good happens
d. an everyday occurrence (something mundane like Luke purchasing a new droid or Mr. Darcy writing a letter, or Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy going on a stag hunt)

Obviously, these won't be experiential (at least not to you, for a character maybe), but they will be narrative. And if you would like to write in the first person and pretend they're your experiences, knock yourself out.


5. Write FOUR narrative paragraphs (100+ words each) based on FOUR DIFFERENT PERSONAL EXPERIENCES FROM YOUR OWN LIFE. TWO OF THESE MUST COVER NO MORE THAN AN HOUR OF TIME. The time span of the other two are up to you. 

One of these may end up being your essay topic, but don't worry yet -- you're not committing to anything. The idea here is to practice the form and if some brainstorming leads to an essay topic, great. If not, you can worry about that next post. *See the brainstorm list below for help with topics.

6.  LBGB... You get a week off from LBGB. You're welcome! 



That's an essay revision (maybe), some reading, and 8 paragraphs. Put the paragraphs in the "MISC" section of your google doc. 

As usual, everything is due by Friday @ 5:00.


* I borrowed the following list from a writing resource. You can come up with your own ideas or use these to get things rolling. If nothing else, reading through it will at least give you a sense of the unlimited range of possible material for narration.

1. 1 wedding or funeral
2. one minute of a football game (or other sporting event)
3. your first day at a new school
4. your first day at a new job
5. your last day on a job
6. a disastrous encounter with someone of the opposite gender
7. a moment of failure or success
8. an encounter that changed your life
9. an experience that led to renewed faith
10. a strange job interview
11. an experience that demonstrated how labor-saving devices can be more trouble than they're worth
12. an experience that left you disillusioned
13. an embarrassing experience
14. a frightening experience
15. a memorable journey
16. an encounter with someone or something you were afraid of
17. an occasion when you experienced rejection
18. your first visit to the country (or to a large city)
19. the breakup of a friendship
20. an experience that showed how we should be careful of what we wish for
21. a significant misunderstanding
22. a dangerous experience
23. an experience that showed how appearances can be deceiving
24. an account of a difficult decision that you had to make
25. an event that marked a turning point in your life
26. a historic event
27. a memorable encounter with someone in authority
28. an act of heroism or cowardice
29. an imaginary encounter with a real person
30. a rebellious act
31. a brush with greatness
32. a brush with death
33. a time that you took a stand on an important issue
34. an experience that altered your view of someone
35. a trip that you would like to take
36. a vacation trip from your childhood
37. your introduction to a hobby you now love to do
38. your first time away from home
39. two different versions of the same event
40. a traffic accident
41. a day when everything went right (or wrong)
42. an experience that made you laugh until you cried
43. the day you decided to change your life
44. the experience of being lost
45. an unexpected encounter
46. surviving a hurricane or a tornado (or other natural disaster)
47. an experience that taught you a lesson
48. an important discovery
49. an eyewitness account of an important event
50. an experience that helped you grow up

HAVE A GREAT TWO WEEKS! 

WEEK 3

 Good morning!

Your work for the week...

But first... 

1) Don't resolve comments! I need to see those when I re-grade work. I'll resolve them if I need to.

2) You write everything in single or 1.15 spacing. In fact, I'd prefer it. I may have changed your google doc to that spacing. If not, go ahead and do it yourself.

3) Your google doc is divided into two parts (look for the highlighted words): a place for essays and a place for everything that's not an essay. Move stuff around now if you need to.

4) A word about essay draft grades. No matter which draft it is, I always grade them on the final-draft scale, so a 50/100 doesn't mean you wrote an E paper. It just means you're about half way in the revision process. I rarely give first-draft grades any higher than a 75/100. They're usually in the 50-70 point range. So you over-achievers, don't panic.


Now here's your work...


1.  video on commas. 


Your task...
watch the video and write A SET OF NOTES ON THE 5 RULES I COVER. INCLUDE IN YOUR NOTES... 

• THE RULE ITSELF
• ONE EXAMPLE THAT I USE FOR EACH RULE
• ONE ORIGINAL SENTENCE (that means a sentence of your own creation) THAT DEMONSTRATES EACH RULE.

ORGANIZE YOUR NOTES BY THE RULES, SO THAT YOU HAVE FIVE SECTIONS, EACH SECTION CONTAINING THREE ITEMS. 



2. Everyone's got 2nd drafts of the descriptive essay to work on. That's the HARD work for this week. And many of you will be tearing your writing down to its bare bones and (almost) starting over. That's normal revision, and we need to get comfortable doing it. REMINDER: When you're writing about a thing, what's the real point? (Every essay should have a point; otherwise...what's the point?)

3. LBGB. Read chapter 2 and do the following: 

a) Look at the opening paragraphs. Consider both metaphors: the sentence as a truck and the sentence as a stage. Explain how each metaphor works.

b) Define and provide a sentence example for each: subject, verb, complement, action verb, linking verb, state of being verb.

c) Flip these sentences (if it's active make it passive; if passive make it active):

i. "The ball was thrown threw the window by me."

ii. "Billy washed all the windows."

iii. "My cats killed four moles last week."

d)  Write correct sentences using each of these (you may model my examples):

i. less

ii. fewer

iii. immigrate

iv. emigrate

v. imply

vi. infer 

EVERYTHING IS DUE FRIDAY at midnight.


Have a great week, guys!


"Revision is the worst and best part of writing."

                                   ~ me

WEEK 2

GOOD MORNING!

A FEW GOOGLE DOCS reminders:

1. Only put full essay drafts in the ESSAYS section. Everything else goes under MISC.  

2. For subsequent drafts of essays, keep the assignments grouped together. So, for example, if you have three drafts of the descriptive essay, make sure they're all next to each other with the latest draft at the top. 

VERY IMPORTANT: Do NOT revise or omit the draft that has my comments on it, and don't resolve the comments. I need to see those (and the essay exactly as you wrote it) when I go to grade the next draft. So just copy, paste it above, and then revise that draft. But leave the old one and the old comments, ALL the old ones. Yes, this will end up being a very long doc.

3. REVIEW MY COMMENTS in your writing even if you got full credit for that assignment. I'll often give full credit and still add instruction in the document.



YOUR WORK FOR THE REST OF THIS WEEK:


1. Revise your 6 paragraphs from last week. If you got a 100/100 then you have nothing to revise. 


2. Write ONE paragraph summarizing the "Google docs reminders" points in red above. Come up with a clear topic sentence [highlight it, and remember it doesn't have to go at the top] and write. Keep it succinct: 50 - 75 words should do it.


3. Read each essay below. Hopefully you can see that descriptive essays have a lot of purposes and that all of them go beyond description for description's sake. Whether it reflects, informs, or entertains, a descriptive essay should have a point!

A descriptive article by Annie Dillard. She's describing an activity that was an integral part of her childhood. Notice how she's doing a lot of reflecting as she describes. Description for its own sake makes for boring and pointless writing (unless of course your teacher asks you to do it as an exercise, like last week). The point for Dillard is the reflection. The mode she uses is description. 

A descriptive essay by Flannery O'Connor. (make sure you go to the 2nd page). This is an excellent example of the descriptive mode with a lot of the author's voice coming through. She's describing life with peacocks, but you're learning a lot about what kind of person she is. You'll like Flannery (and probably peacocks) by the end.

A descriptive essay by yours truly. I'm not really describing lilacs, I'm describing the activity of seeing. It's reflective, but not in the childhood-reminiscing way of Dillard. It's reflective in the I-wonder-and-you-should-wonder-too sort of way. My point is to make you think, but my mode is description. This one is also printed at the back of LBGB if you'd rather have an old-fashioned book in your hand. It's on page 110.


4.  For each of the essays above, write a short summary that includes...
I. the author's name
II. title of the essay
III. main points
IV. [50+ words] conclusion (What's the point? What does he or she want us to take from the writing?) 

For example, here's one I wrote just now on the book of Romans: 

"The book of Romans" by the apostle Paul is a letter to the Christians of Rome. Paul discusses such things as the universal problem of sin, justification by faith, new life in Christ, and the future of Israel. He concludes the letter with some practical ways of living out the Christian life." 

Your summaries don't need to be any longer than that, but they must be at least 50+ words.



5. Write a descriptive essay on a thing (object, place, activity, idea, work of art, etc.) of significance in your life. (See below for help on finding a topic.) If you're not sure that your "thing" qualifies, run it by me. I'm flexible. I know the course description includes the option of writing about a person, but I changed my mind on that. Your thing cannot be a person. MOST of your writing in this draft should be in the descriptive mode (as opposed to the narrative mode where you're telling a story or recounting an event. There can be some of that, but the focus of the writing should be to describe. And remember, every essay must have a point. Describe away, but do it with a purpose. No one wants to read about your grandma's attic, unless there's a good point to it. 

This is a first draft, but it must meet these criteria:

1. 800-word minimum (to get a sense of scale, the 4 essays you read are each in the 1000 to 2000 word range); this figure may go up depending on what happens with subsequent drafts. For example, I may ask you to add a paragraph or more detail or other support. I also may ask you to cut something, which would then require more be added. We'll see.

2. Organization. This too may change with revision, but you need to make a first attempt at intro, body, conclusion (beginning, middle, end). The essays you read each have these parts, though they may be hard to decipher because of the variety in paragraph and style. 

We'll do a second draft of this essay next week. 

6. Little Black Grammar Book work...

a. Read the introduction and chapter 1 "Parts of Speech."

b. Summarize the introduction in one paragraph of 50+ words. 

c. Define each of the 8 parts of speech (don't worry about the sub-categories [some parts of speech have lots of sub-categories]). Provide two short-sentence examples for each. You can use my examples as models, but as models only. Write your own.

d. Style & Usage: Explain the problem for each of these sections: Avoid Deadwood, Avoid Redundancy, Avoid Superfluity of Diction

e. Provide your own (correct) examples of these usage problems: all ready / already,  __ and I / __ and me,  more / most

For help in coming up with a topic, you might try one or more of these:

1. a brainstorm - take a few minutes to list every "thing" in your world you can think of; don't self-edit but write down even the silliest.

2. free-write - force your hand (or fingers if you're typing) to write continually for five minutes about significant things in your world. This may feel foolish as you can think of nothing to write (but the rule is you HAVE to write) so you write, "I can't think of what to write" a hundred times. Stick with it. On the 101st time, something will click and you're off!

3. Look for categories to drop things into: hobbies, places, things in your bedroom, things your family likes to do, green things, circular things, whatever (the category is just a trick to get you into more "files" in the brain).

4. Draw a life map. Go through your years, one by one, and draw any "things" that you remember (you can always turn an event into a thing; for example, I had to do this assignment in college so I wrote about a memorable event from child by describing the airplane my grandpa owned. My point was reflection on the event of falling in love with flying, but the method was description of a thing)

5. If none of these work, ask your parents.

Due Friday at midnight.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK! 

WEEK 1

Welcome to our first Monday Morning Meeting!

The format for this course is simple: every Monday check in here and over the next five days do whatever I tell you to do, and then turn it all in on Friday. How you manage your time over the week will be up to you. 

Here's what I'm telling you to do for this week. Read every word...

1. Watch this introduction video. Ignore the "Labor Day" remarks. It's from a couple years ago.


2. Read "The Course" under PAGES on the right side of the blog.


3. Watch this video on the course syllabus if you haven't already. Pay special attention to due dates! ATTENTION: All back and forth between you and me needs to happen through GOOGLE DOCS. You can ignore the part of this video that refers to email attachments.  


4. Write four topic sentence paragraphs (watch this video for examples and instructions for the assignment; one of the examples cuts off--don't worry about it). This is also the video that explains your LIT SOURCE! 


5. Complete two descriptive writing exercises. Here they are:

I. Find any one-square-foot, flat surface and in 250+* words, describe it in close detail. (It might look like this: "The desk top in front of me is of a tight, dark brown and black grain running horizontally [from my perspective as I sit and type]. This particular square foot is well used; the varnished has rubbed away in tiny spots which creates a light-brown speckled effect. One such spot is an eighth of an inch in diameter and resembles a football. Next to it are two smaller specks, and running through all three is a thin line of light brown where the varnish is missing from a deeper grain in the wood..." Notice the writing involves CLOSE DETAIL. That's the idea.)

II. Using your lit source, put yourself (pretend to be a character) anywhere within the plot and describe it using the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. (250+* words) Sorry, no example for this one. You'll just need to take a deep breath and plunge in on your own.

* The + signifies a minimum; writing more won't necessarily improve your grade, but writing under the minimum will definitely hurt it.



6. Proofread your writing (all six paragraphs) carefully. 


7. GOOGLE DOCS FYI:   Over the weekend I created a google document for each student and shared it with you (unless I don't have your gmail address yet!). This is where you will put all of your work. You can draft the actual work however you want as long as the final work that I see and grade (the work you'll turn in by Friday at 5pm) is IN YOUR GOOGLE DOC.

You don't need to "send" your work to me. You don't even need to save it. In google docs it happens automatically. However, you DO need to email me if your work is going to be later than 5pm Friday. I don't want to open your portfolio and look for work that's not there.  

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT LATE WORK: I know you home schoolers are busy people. If you let me know in advance [48 hours or more] that you'll need more time to get something done, I'll work with you. If you tell me the day it's due or after the fact, it will be counted late and will affect your grade for that work. DON'T WAIT UNTIL MID-WEEK to look at the assignments. I post them Monday at 6am. Managing your whole week is up to you, so take into account the whole week, not just how much English you can cram in on Thursday or Friday.  [I'm not wagging my finger at you. I just know how procrastinators work. I am a recovering one myself.] 



DUE DATES: All assignments (unless I specify otherwise) from the Monday posts are due at 5pm Friday.



HAVE A GREAT WEEK!