Reflection on your writing.

Now that you've turned in some papers and we're looking at definition essays, I'd like you to reflect and compare what you've read in the past couple of days with your writing.  What have you learned about your writing?  What can you do to further improve your writing?

Classification - The People Next Door

Jot down a list of neighbors you have now and have had in the past.  Then write a short journal entry about the different kinds of neighbors you have encountered.

Division - Racism and Sexism in Advertising

Think of a TV commercial that you object to because it is offensive or annoying in some way.  Write about why it bothers you so much.

Earth without People

1.  Paragraphs 7 and 8 describe a causal chain.  Diagram this causal chain.  What other causal chains can you identify?

4.  Throughout the essay, Weisman piles up series and catalogs of details.  Point to a few places he does this.  What is the effect of such lists of details?  Are they absolutely necessary, or could the essay make its point without them?

5.  What do the visuals contribute to this essay?  How would the essay be different without the?  If you were choosing alternative (or additional) visuals for this essay, what kind would your choose, and where would your place them?

SOAPSTone (Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject, Tone)

When reading your assigned texts, this is a good mnemonic to use.

Who is the Speaker?
The voice that tells the story. Before students begin to write, they must decide whose voice is going to be heard. Whether this voice belongs to a fictional character or to the writers themselves, students should determine how to insert and develop those attributes of the speaker that will influence the perceived meaning of the piece.

What is the Occasion?
The time and the place of the piece; the context that prompted the writing. Writing does not occur in a vacuum. All writers are influenced by the larger occasion: an environment of ideas, attitudes, and emotions that swirl around a broad issue. Then there is the immediate occasion: an event or situation that catches the writer’s attention and triggers a response.

Who is the Audience?
The group of readers to whom this piece is directed. As they begin to write, students must determine who the audience is that they intend to address. It may be one person or a specific group. This choice of audience will affect how and why students write a particular text.

What is the Purpose?
The reason behind the text. Students need to consider the purpose of the text in order to develop the thesis or the argument and its logic. They should ask themselves, “What do I want my audience to think or do as a result of reading my text?”

What is the Subject?
Students should be able to state the subject in a few words or phrases. This step helps them to focus on the intended task throughout the writing process.

What is the Tone?
The attitude of the author. The spoken word can convey the speaker’s attitude and thus help to impart meaning through tone of voice. With the written word, it is tone that extends meaning beyond the literal, and students must learn to convey this tone in their diction (choice of words), syntax (sentence construction), and imagery (metaphors, similes, and other types of figurative language). The ability to manage tone is one of the best indicators of a sophisticated writer.

2nd question: Blah Blah Blah

“Blah Blah Blah” has varieties of meanings. Kessler describes these words as a “cover-up” of the truth. I’ve seen it happens many times. It hides what behind the story. It lets assumption takes place. Let us guess that it is normal and nothing really interested really happen.

Behind each story of each person, there is more to it than just a plain boring life. American historian’s can’t just say that they had a revolution and blah, blah, blah. Then people won’t know what actually happen during the American revolution. If no one is telling the whole story and just say blah blah blah, people might not understand each other anymore. People will have nothing to talk about.

Describe a place in such a way that you convey your attitude about it through the use of concrete detail.

The Radley Place jutted into a sharp curve beyond our house.  Walking south, one faced its porch; the sidewalk turned and ran beside the lot.  The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters, but had long ago darkened to the color of the slate-gray yard around it.  Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away.  The remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard -- a "swept" yard that was never swept -- where johnson grass and rabbit-tobacco grew in abundance.

Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom.  People said he existed, but Jem and I had never seen him.  People said he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows.  When people's azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them.  Any stealthy small crimes committed in Maycomb were his work.  Once the town was terrorized by a series of morbid-nocturnal events; people's  chickens and household pets were found mutilated; although the culprit was Crazy Addie, who eventually drowned himself in Barker's Eddy, people still looked at the Radley Place unwilling to discard their initial suspicions.  A Negro would not pass the Radley Place at night, he would cut across to the sidewalk opposite and whistle as he walked.  The Maycomb school grounds adjoined the back of the Radley lot; from the Radley chickenyard tall pecan trees shook their fruit into the schoolyard, but the nuts lay untouched by the children; Radley pecans would kill you.  A baseball hit into the Radley yard was a lost ball and no questions asked.