February 28, 2011

Writing: Supporting a Point with Specific Evidence

Grammar: Parts of Speech Quiz

Housekeeping

Writing Support for Paragraphs, p. 49

• Last class we read two paragraphs about Family.

• The strongest was about “Changes in the Family,” p. 47, because it had– a clear topic sentence– easy to find reasons – specific examples for each reason

• See outline on p. 49

Writing Support for Paragraphs, p. 50

• Let’s look at another paragraph, “Goodbye Tony,” p. 50

• What is the author’s point?

• What three reasons does she give for her point?

Activity 3, p. 53-54

Each question has four statements. Identify which is the main point (P) and which are supports (S) as shown in the example.

1. P – The apartment has some real drawbacks2. P – Some people have poor eating habits3. P – Children are at risk at the school.4. P – There are definate advantages to having a cat as

a pet5. P – Ron might be having a heart attack.

Writing Suppport for Paragraphs, p. 50

• The other thing the writer of “Goodbye Tony” does is give us specific examples for each reason.

• For example,

Reason 2: He was bossy– Example 1: He refused to see the Chris Rock comedy in favour of an

action movie.– Example 2: Told me to just close my eyes during the bloody parts.

• Specific examples help us to “see” and imagine the writers details and examples

General vs. Specific

General:

I bought a new car.

Specific:

I bought a red, 2005, 4-door Toyota Echo Hatchback.

Writing Support for Paragraphs, p. 51

• Let’s look at some more sample paragraphs on the same topic that will show us how specific details make a paragraph easier to understand, more interesting, and more convincing.

• Read paragraph A and B on p. 51 and 52.

Writing Support for Paragraphs, p. 53

• Paragraph B gives us clear reasons and specific examples for being in school.– Reason 3: “To fulfill a personal goal: to finish

something.”• Example: I quit high school• Example: dropped out of job-training program• Example: gave up on my high-school equivalency

• Paragraph A gives only vague, general reasons.– Reason 2: “to fulfill my dream.”

• Example: need an education• Example: need courses for the position I think I can handle

Activity, p. 58-59

• Each of the five points is followed by two possible details.

• For each point, we will take turns reading the choices aloud.

• We will discuss which choice provides specific details.

Activity, p. 58-59

1. b 2. a3. b4. b5. a

BREAK

Grammar Quiz – Parts of Speech /5

Which part of speech is underlined in each sentence? [Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Preposition, Interjection, Article, Conjunction, Pronoun. ] Directions: Write the part of speech in the space provided. Keep your paper for now.

Grammar Quiz

1. Int.2. Verb3. Adv.4. Conj.5. Article6. Pronoun7. Prep8. Adj.9. Noun10. Adj.

Handout, Activity, p. 61Rewrite the sentences, replacing the underlined words with more specific words.

Read Example.

Student Sentences:

1. At the shopping center, we visited several stores.. . .we visited the Gap, Zara, and Mexx.. . .we visited the shoe store, the clothing store, and the furniture

store.

Activity, p. 61

2. Sunday is my day to take care of chores.. . . care of doing laundry, doing homework, and making food.. . .dusting and kitchen cleaning.. . .gardening, shopping, and cleaning.

3. Lola enjoys various activities in her spare time.. . . hiking, going to the gym, going to the swimming pool and

doing physical activity . . . . . .swimming, travelling, diving, running, and reading. . .landscape drawing and oil and watercolour painting

Activity, p. 61

4. I spent most of my afternoon doing homework.. . . . writing a narrative essay. . . preparing my presentation for history course. . . reading the novel “Don Quioxte”

5. We returned home from vacation to discover that several pests had invaded the house.

. . . a mouse and racoon had invaded the house

. . .a spider, a rat, moths. . .

How to make sentences more specific

• Use exact names

• Use lively verbs (powerful)

• Use descriptive words (modifiers) before nouns

• Use words that relate to the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch

Activity, p. 631. The lunch was not very good. The family lunch was disgusting.The lunch was served slowly, we were waiting for half an hour and the waitress ignored our request for a cup of hot water.This stale chicken sandwich wasn’t a good lunch.The beef for lunch wasn’t cooked and was too spicy.The appealing (attractive) beef was very salty and uncooked.

2. The animal ran away.The little piebald foal stepped away with fear in his charming eyes.(Piebald = brown with white spots)The cow ran away when the hunter shot the gun.The stinky shrewd racoon quickly escaped to the creek border.The big brown bear escaped from the cars’ noise.

Homework

For Next Monday• Review of Sentence Types - Online Lesson and

Practice• Read Organizing and Connecting Evidence, p.

84-88 (English Skills)