Rules for Writers Chapter 4

Building Effective Paragraphs:
Focus on the main point.  Make sure the point is clear to readers and all sentences in the paragraph relate to it.
Topic Sentences:
Stating the main point is your topic sentence.  A good topic sentence is one that is a one sentence summary of the paragraphs main point.
Sticking to the point: Sentences that  do not support the topic sentence destroy the unity of a paragraph.  If the paragraph is well focused you can simply delete offending sentences.
Develop the main point: Make sure you have enough evidence to support the readers, even skeptical readers.
Choosing a Suitable pattern of Organization: Either examples and illustrations, narration, description, process, comparison and contrast, analogy, cause and affect, classification and division, and definition.
Examples and illustrations: An example is a selected instance.  They are enough to suggest the truth of many topic sentences.  Illustrations are extended examples, frequently presented in story form.
Narration is a paragraph a story tells or a part of a story.  It is usually arranged in chronilogical order.
Description: A descriptive paragraph sketches a portrait of a person, place, or thing by using concrete and specific details that appeal to one or more or our senses; sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.
Process: A process paragraph is one that is structured in chronological order.  It may be a pattern to show how something is made or done or to explain to readers step by step how to do something.
Comparison and Contrast: To draw attention to their similarities, although the word compare also has a broader meaning that includes the consideratin of the differences.  To contrast is to focus only on differences.
Analogy: Draw comparisons between items that appear to have little in common.  Writeres tend to make the unfamiliar seem familiar.  Writers turn to analogy for many reasons; to argue a point, or provoke fresh thoughts or changed feelings about a subject.
Cause and Affect: Ususally cause and affects are a matter of argument, but if a writer wishes to describe a cause and effect relationship that is generally accepted, then the effect may be stated in the topic sentence, with the causes listed in the body of the paragraph.
Classification and division: Classisfication is the grouping of items into categories according to some consistent principle.  Division takes one items and divides it into parts.
Repeating key words: Repeating key words is an important technique for gaining coherence.  Try using variation of words to prevent becoming dull such as: hike, hiker and hiking.
Using Parallel Structures: Parallel structures are frequently used within sentences to show the similar information.  They may also be used to bind together series of sentences expressing similar information.
Maintaining Consistency:  Combine some of the original sentences.  This way you can avoid excessive repitition for pronoun.
Providing Transition: Transitions are bridges between what has been read and what is about to be read.  Transitions help readers move from sentences to sentence.  They also alert readers to more global connections of ideas between paragraphs or even larger blocks of text.
If necessary, adjusts paragraph length.  Shorter paragraphs force too much starting and stopping, and longer ones.
In the future, I plan on making sure my sentences are complete.  Also, sticking to the point is very hard for me because my mind tends to wander.  So, this is where my most energy will be put to focus on.  I tend to write a "buffet essay" because I have a hard time staying focused.  So, I am going to try and stay focused and making sure I am stating sentences that are based on my main point.  This is my biggest issue and I think if I just stayed focused on the main point all the other stuff will come into play when I am doing my final draft.

"Shooting Dad"

I chose to write a dialogue about the significance of "Shooting of Dad". Reading this story tells a lot about the daughter and father having extremely different views.  The father loving guns and the daughter loving art.  As a child the daughter always saw her and her father as completely different people and how they were so separated as she grew up.  She went with dad to try and shoot the guns but it just wasn't right for her.  As she matured and grew up she saw how really they were both people who loved art and had ver similar love for art even though it was a different kind of art.  She tried going along with dad again and watching him shoot off the canon.  The importance of "Shooting Dad"  is when she realized we really have a lot in common.  The daughter just looked at things in more of a positive way of what they had in common rather than what differences they have and how they aren't alike.  This cannon was eventually what brought the two of them together.  In the end, when dad passes away, he wants the daughter to put his ashes in the cannon and shoot him away on the first day of hunting season.  The daughter is willing to do this for the love of her father:-) 

I really enjoyed reading this article.  It's very sweet how the daughter at first was very separated by her father by what she thought was having been total opposites.  As she grew older and wiser she didn't fall in love with guns, but decided to look at the positive in it such as; they both loved art.  This was her way of showing dad how much she truely loved him and wanted him to see how much she really cared about him.  As we get older we see things differently that when we were younger.

Writing Topic: Rules for Writers Chapter 3

This chapter walks you through the aspects of  global revisions, revising and editing sentences,  proofreading and final drafts.  While looking at global revisions you may drop paragraphs of text and add others or rearrange entire sections.  Many people resist global revisionss so it's best to put it aside for a bit and come back to it at a later time.  In global revisions you will need the following:
Purpose and Audience; inform readers, persuade them, entertain them.
Focus: Is the thesis clear? If there in no thesis is there a good reason for omiiting one? Any ideas obviously off the point?
Organization and paragraphing: Are there enough organizational cues for readers.  Are ideas presented in a logical order?  Are any paragraphs too long or too short for easy reading?
Content: Is the supporting material relevant and persuasive?  Which ideas need further development?  Are the parts proportioned sensibly?  Do major ideas receive enough attention?  Where might material be deleted?
Point of View: Is the draft free of distracting shifts in point of view?  Is the dominant point of view appropriate for your purpose and audience?
Revising and edit sentences:  You can do revisioning and editing right at the computer.  The grammar check makes it possible to help with a draft but you will also need to look it over, as it won't catch everyting.  Also, you can print out what you have, mark it up and the return to the computer to enter the revisions.
Proofreading: After revising and editing it's time for the final manuscript.  Proofreading is a special kind of reading. It's reading it slow and methodical search for misspellings, typographical mistakes and omitted words or word endings.  Try to proofread outloud or try proofreading sentences in reverse order.  You can also use the spell checkers on the computer. They are a little more reliable than the grammar checkers but still use with caution.
Final Drafts: Have classmates give you feedback on what you have written.  This will give other people ideas on how to make your essay better and stronger.  Now, you should be ready to write your final draft.
When writing I will definitely use the global revisions, revising and editing sentences,  proofreading and final draft ideas mentioned in this chapter.  I will make sure I have the purpose and audience; inform readers, persuade them and make sure I am entertaining them. I will make sure the thesis is clear.
I will go through my paper and make sure there are ideas presented in a logical order, making sure the paragraphas arent too short or too long.  I will check for supporting material such as relvancy and persuasive.  I will go through the paper and check for my purpose and audience.  Last, I will have the computer do spell check, grammar check ect.  I will print out a rough draft for further editing and mark up changes and type up a final draft.  I will have classmates give me ideas on how my writing assignment can be better and stronger and then type the final draft.

"Coming Home Again"

I chose to respond to the importance of food in this essay.  While reading this touching article it seems as if food always brought the family together.  It was their means of all coming together and having that special time of enjoying each others company and having some time to enjoy each other.  The mother became very ill and couldn't eat anymore but the son still wanted to have mom there just like the old days when he was a child.  He really enjoys bringing the family together to just sit together.  It reminds him of when he was a child and mom would cook for him.  The son was taking care of his dying mom.  She was dying of stomach cancer and he thought that was particularly cruel because having that "eating time" together was their bonding time as a family and having stomach cancer was just not right.  While his mom was dying the son put together some special Korean food which was mom's favorite food.  His sister and him decided to put together a bunch of different finger foods to get to try and eat something.  They prepared a try of smoked salmon canapes, fried some Korean bean cakes, and made a few other dishes that he thought she might enjoy.  His sister helped by arranging the platters and carried the dishes to their parents.  Mom really tried to eat but just couldn't get it down.  She told her children how yummy the food was although they knew she couldn't eat it.  This family moved here from Korea and the only food they would eat for the first year was Korean food.  Then they had neighbors bring them recipes of swedish meatballs, tuna casserole and angel food cake.  This family lived for Mom's cooking and not just the cooking but for the time they spent together while they would all sit down together and enjoy the time together.
This article gets me thinking that I wish our family could sit down together and talk everynight.  It seems as though maybe once a week we are able to do that because with 5 kids everyone is constantly going in different directions.  It seems like a very important thing to do just to check in with everyone and see how their day is or just to sit and all be in the same place at one time together.  My husband travels during the week as well so it makes it that much harder to come together as a family on a daily basis.

Extra Credit The Owl Purdue

The Owl Purdue is a very useful tool for many different kinds of writing papers.  It helps you write, grammar, structure ect.  This is a unique too in that you can use it for any writing situation such as business, personal, memos, sales letters, personal ect.  It can give you great samples and ideas on how to  write reports and scientific abstracts.   It provides you with information on revising documents for audience purpose with emphasis on language, tone, organization and correctness.  It provides information on examples on parallel structure in business documents.  You can use the OWL tool for providing overviews and examples how to use the proper tone in your papers.  It discusses and guides you on writing good abstracts for reports.  It covers information and descriptive abstract and gives pointes or communicate contents of reports.  This article states infomation on accentuating the positives rather than the negative facts such as stressing something is rather than is not.  You can get helpful hints about writing a memo. Memos bring attention to problems and they solve problems.  It covers sales letters which cover 4 points on how to write a good conclusion such as: 1) clearly state what action you wish the reader to take 2) Make that action easy through facilitating devices and careful wording 3) Date the action 4) provide a reader benefit as stimulu for action.  The Owl tool also discusses how to write good abstracts for reports. It covers information and descriptive abstracts and gives good pointers such as on an Informational Abstract 1) communicating contents of reports 2) include purpose, methods of scope, results, conclusion and recommendations 3) highlight essential points
A Desciptive Abstract should tell what report containing, include, methods, scope but NOT results and recommendations.
This resource will help many in any writing areas of my life.  It seems to be a very useful, helpful and an all around tool.  I will use it in the future for any of my english class assignments such as essays, dialogues ect.  I really need the help with the structure of different writing assignments.  I get stuck on the structure.  The Owl tool with guide you through by telling you what it should include and what it shouldn't include such as the Descriptive abstract how it tells you what it should contain and what it shouldn't.  These are great guides. 

Rules for Writers Chapter 2 Summary

There a some critical parts of a writing assignment that you need to have included in  your essay.  For starters there is the Rough draft.  But, even before that you want to gather all your notes, outlines, freewriting, diagrams ect.  Also, notes and blueprints will help you keep moving.  Next, draft your introduction by coming up with your main point.  The body develops it.  The introduction usually is 50-100 words long.  This is where you want to engage the reader and establish your a for writing.  Basically, it's your main point.  The sentence stating the main point is called the thesis.  The sentence leading to the thesis should hook the reader with a description, a question, an analogy, an anecdote, an example ect.  Next, draft the body.  The body of the essay develops and support for your thesis.  In drafting the body of your essay by writing a paragraph about each supporting point you listed in the planning stage. The next step is to attempt a conclusion.  The conclusion should remind the readers of the essay's main idea without completely repeating it.  It can be relatively short to sum up the essay.  You may want to make the conclusion memorable by including a detail, an example or an image.

I plan on using the structure of this essay plan.  I am going to start my essay by sorting through my notes, outlines and my freewriting log.  This will help me get started with the essay.  Then, I am going to draft my introduction that includes my thesis statement.  For my thesis statement, I am going to probably state something like who get's to celebrate their grandma's 87th birthday?  I will make key points of what we did at her 87th birthday party for the body.  Probably state the main points; the entire family came to celebrate, we all came together and had a buffet, and we all gathered to watch Nonie open her presents.  And, for the conclusion, just sum it all up without repeating the same thing I have already discussed.  This will have to state something about how we enjoyed my grandma's birthday and we look forward to doing it again next year.

"The Ways We Lie"

The White Lie

I agree with Ericsson's definition that a white lie can cause more damage than the truth.  The article has an example of a family missing a loved one who is in the military.  The sergeant tells the family that their loved one is missing rather than the truth that he has passed away.  He does this to help the family receive benefits but doesn't realize the reprocutions.  This family suffered many years of hoping their loved one would come home at some point.  This is truely a tragidy due to a "white lie".   This sergeant did what he thought was best for the family but what we think isn't always the best solution.  Although, in a tragic situation such as this I wouldn't call this a white lie, it would be a lie.  People tend to underestimate a "white lie".  When it comes to death, you shouldn't be telling any kind of lies.

Although, it is my opinion that telling a white lie will cause more damage, there are times when it is not harmful but rather helpful.  My opionion is that there is a time and place to tell a white lie.  Sometimeses the truth can be more harmful than a white lie. I believe it depends on the situation such as the story in this article.  Sometimes, we are having a bad day and you want to cheer up a friend, or maybe you are being asked if the person looks ok, or maybe your trying to protect your spouse in a situation that won't be detrimental to telling a white lie.  It has to be something very simple though. 

Essay 1 (Roughdraft)

This picture is truly amazing to me.  It holds my grandparents (Nonie and Buzzy)

and my children.  They all look so happy together.  This picture was taken during my

grandma’s 87^th birthday party at my house.  It holds many thoughts and memories to me

and my children.

I love this picture so much because it has my grandma, grandpa and my five kids

together.  I have always been very close to my grandparents.  When I was a child I would

call my grandma from school and tell her I didn’t feel good just so that I could hang out

with her. So, seeing my kids with my grandparents is really special to me.  I really see

and feel the love in this picture.  I took this picture at my house while celebrating my

grandma’s 87^th birthday party.  Looking at this picture is special to me since my

children all look so happy to be spending time with their great grandparents.  Also, my

daughter Mikayla looks extremely happy to be with her great grandparents.  She is

snuggled in closely with Buzzy which shows how much she cares about him.  She

doesn’t spend a lot of time with them and she is very shy a lot of the time so it’s nice to

see her showing her affection with them.  My grandma didn’t realize how loving Nathan

was until this day.   You can see in this picture how he is squeezing his Nonie. He kept

hugging her all day.  I see him hanging all over her while looking at this picture because

that is what he did all day long.  Dustin and Andrew seem to be close to their great

grandparents as well.  They seem to be happy to be close to them in this picture.   Tyler

doesn’t know them as well and the picture shows that.  He isn’t bonded with them as the

other kids are. Tyler just moved in with us about a year and a half ago so he doesn’t have

the great grandparent/great grandchild bond.  The picture shows how is isn’t as

comfortable as his brothers and sister are.  This picture will hold a lifetime of memoreies

for me and my kids.  This picture makes me want to go visit them.  We don’t see them a

lot and we live right down the road. I probably will go visit them tomorrow and give

them a copy of this picture.  I can’t wait to see my grandparents face when I give them a

blown up copy of this picture.  I also love this picture because I know my Nonie and

Buzzy are going to love it too.  They get so excited when we go to visit and especially

excited when I bring them pictures of them and the kids. A lot of people don’t ever get to

meet their great grandparents.  And, a lot of great-grandparents don’t ever get to meet

their great-grandchildren so this is especially sacred.

When looking at this picture it makes me sad at the same point.  This picture

shows how old my Nonie and Buzzy really are.  It reminds me of when we had to get his

food for him because he couldn’t get up out of that chair the entire day.  Everyone had to

go sit  next to Buzzy to take the picture because his back was hurting so bad.  It makes

me feel like since my grandparents are so old that this will be the last birthday party.  I

know that looking at the picture it could be the last picture I have of my grandparents and

my children.

There are so many precious memories I feel and see from looking at this picture. 

There are many things I can see in this picture that other people may not.  This is partially

why it is so important to me.  Also, just look at this picture and you can feel the love

between great-grandparents and great-grandchildren; even if you don’t know the story.  I

feel very lucky and thankful to have my grandparents here today.  Many people my age

don’t have their grandparents around anymore.   I will forever hold on to this picture in

my mind and in my heart.  I make sure I get pictures with my kids and my grandparents

every time we see them but, this picture has been the best picture by far.