Post on 03-Jan-2016
Warm-up: September 29, 2011
What did you find interesting, bizarre, confusing, or strange in last night’s reading assignment? Did anything stand out to you as particularly important?
Mission Statement
The mission of this lesson is to provide students with a writing tool. This is a technical writing tool. Its purpose is to develop a strong foundation for research driven writing.
Terminology
Thesis: a sentence with a subject and an opinion. Pre-writing: getting your ideas and concrete
details down on paper before you put your essay together in paragraph form. Graphic organizers are used at this stage.
Concrete Detail: specific details or facts. In a literary analysis quotes may be used.
Commentary: your opinion about something. Depending on what you are writing it could also be more detail to the fact.
More Terminology
Concluding Sentence: the last sentence in your body paragraphs
Shaping the essay: writing the following before you write your first draft: thesis; topic sentence for each body paragraph.
Conclusion:the last paragraph in your essay that is all commentary, does not repeat key words, and gives a finished feeling to the whole essay
Peer Response: written responses and reactions to a partner’s paper
Thesis Statements
A thesis is a general sentence with a subject and an opinion.
Example:Australia is the best country of all for a vacation.
In this sentence Australia is the subject and is the best country of all for a vacation is the opinion.
More Thesis Statements
WSCA is a wonderful place to go to school.
Getting braces was one of the best things that could have happened to me.
Practice Thesis StatementsWrite the following sentences and underline
the subject once and the opinion twice:
Fishing is fun to do when I’m with my dad.English is my favorite class.
It’s exciting to go to a new school.
Tacos are my favorite food. I like radio station Star 102.9 the most.
Once you develop a thesis statement it is time to use a graphic organizer to expand your thoughts
Put your thesis in the middle bubbleBranch three other bubbles off of the center
bubble. It should look like this:
Thesis
Topic sentences are what that whole paragraph is going to be about
Branch three other bubbles off from the each topic sentence bubble.
ThesisTopic Sentence
Topic sentence
Topic Sentence
Topic sentences must relate to your thesis
Concrete details are very specific They can be a quote if you are writing a literary analysis, or factual
information if you are writing a book report
ThesisTopic Sentence
Topic sentence
Topic SentenceConcrete Detail
Concrete Detail
Concrete Detail Concrete Detail
Concrete Detail
Concrete Detail
Concrete Detail Concrete Detail
Concrete Detail
Concrete details must relate to the topic sentence
Once your bubble cluster is complete you can start creating body paragraphs
Each grouping of one TS and three CDs is a body paragraph
Topic SentenceConcrete Detail
Concrete Detail
Concrete Detail
The next step is to add two commentaries to each concrete detail - NOT IN THE BUBBLE CLUSTER
Commentary is opinion relating to the concrete detail or fact
Here is the pattern for a body paragraph:
Topic SentenceConcrete Detail
Concrete Detail
Concrete Detail
TS - topic sentenceCD - concrete detailCM - commentaryCM - commentaryCD - concrete detailCM - commentaryCM - commentaryCD - concrete detailCM - commentaryCM -commentaryCS - concluding sentence The last item added to the pattern is the
concluding sentence, which can lead the reader to the next paragraph
Once your body paragraphs are complete it is time to create an introductory paragraph
An introductory paragraph is used to catch the reader’s attention
Your thesis should be the last sentence in your introductory paragraph
There are 4 types of introductory paragraphs : Anecdote ( a little story) Dialogue (open conversation) Startling information (sometimes statistics are used) Commentary (open with an opinion)
There are other graphic organizers besides the bubble cluster
Spider diagram (like a bubble cluster except you use lines instead of bubbles)
Random outline (you just start brainstorming ideas and organize them later)
Columns outline (great for comparing two things)
Technical Writing list Literary Analysis Persuasive Essay Biographies Science Fair Papers Research Papers Comparison Contrast Essay Any type of paper in which
factual information will be used
Writing Tips
Be careful with the topic you chooseThink about why you chose that topic If it is too narrow you will get frustrated
finding information to write about If it is too broad your piece will sound
scatteredFind information that will interest your
reader