Saturday, January 12, 2013

Rough Drafts on the Rise!


Today's class was all about finishing up the skeletons of our research papers. We already had the major part of our body paragraphs--the evidence and the analysis--we just needed to complete our main ideas and links. Here's a summary of what those are:

Main Idea: The Main Idea of a body paragraph is to state the general topic of what your paragraph will be about. For example, for this evidence and analysis,

EVIDENCE -- “In part, Formspring is just the latest place to   hang out and exchange gossip, as teenagers   have always done.   But because of the anonymity, the banter is unvarnished,”   (Lewin).
  ANALYSIS -- Formspring is a new website that give teens a space   to   talk, mainly about other people. They can post comments without   leaving their names which allows them to talk in very raw   language. It is sort of like the Jerry Springer effect where people   can say all kinds of mean things about someone else without   consequence.  The users of this site make comments, and the   subject of  their insults cannot respond.  They do not know  who   said it.  This can lead to bullying by a group of unnamed people.    The pressure can grow so intense that the a teen will choose   suicide rather than fight these anonymous enemies.

...here's a sample main idea:

SAMPLE TOPIC SENTENCE
   Young people have engaged in gossip since the dawn of time, but many of today’s social media sites encourage users to make comments about other people without saying who they are, where they are from, or even if they know the person they are putting down.

Notice that it talks generally about social media and it's the quote that goes into the specific harms of Formspring. 

Link: The purpose of the link is to quickly summarize your body paragraph and then connect it back to your thesis. Here would be an example of a link for this paragraph:

Sample Link (concluding sentence):
  Cyber-bullying like that found on sites like Formspring can lead to tragic consequences, and points out one of the harms of social networking.

After we finished off our body paragraphs, it was time to begin outlining out concluding paragraphs.  Here is the function of a concluding paragraph:
1.It signals the end of the essay.

2.It summarizes the main points.
 (remember points 1, 2 and 3?)

3.It leaves the reader with the writer’s final thoughts on the subject.

So first, briefly paraphrase your thesis statement in one to two sentences. Then, summarize each of your three points with one or two sentences each. And finally, express your opinion, or give a recommendation about your subject matter. Here’s an example:

            Humans just want everything to be done for them so they do not have to do anything. In brief, the film Wall-E shows us what humans could be like in 700 years if we continue to do nothing.  Technology will take over our lives.  Pollution will destroy our environment. If we are to actually live for another 700 years, we will have to get up off the couch and not wait for cartoon robots to help us out.

I hope this helps. Remember, rough drafts are due MONDAY. These will be worth a quiz grade. Another note, all rough drafts must be HANDWRITTEN, unless I or Mr. Hannah told you otherwise. Please do your best on these. These will mark the tone for your final drafts which are due this Friday.

Also remember, you must read to pg. 65 of Night by Monday as well. There will be another paragraph quiz when you come in.

As always, if you have any questions, please email me or Mr. Hannah.

Have a great weekend!

DEETS:
In-class:
--DEAR time
--Finish MEALs
--Concluding Paragraphs

HW:
--Rough Draft
--Read to pg. 65 of Night





No comments:

Post a Comment