Essay Writing Class, Quarter 2 — Week 2

A Primer on Style For Teacher Kathryn’s class inHomeschool @ The Fort

But first…

Paper Formatting❖ Please always include the following in your papers:

❖ NAME:

❖ GRADE LEVEL:

❖ ASSIGNMENT:

❖ DATE of SUBMISSION:

❖ CLASS: Essay Writing, Week [X]

Paper Formatting

❖ Please always print your homework and submit in class.

❖ If you cannot send it in class, please send to:❖ kathryn.cartera@gmail.com

So, what is style?

❖ “Do I start with a question?”

❖ “Short sentences? Or longer thoughts?”

❖ “Do I choose descriptive adjectives, or focus on the accuracy of my verbs?”

–Matthew Arnold

“Have something to say and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style.”

Style Essentials

1. Be Purposeful

You  go&a  care  about  your  topic!    Why  do  you  think  your  readers  should  know    about  swimming,  or  boxing,  or  essay  writing,    

or  technology?  Why  do  you  care  about  your  topic?  

Choose  a  subject  that  you  really,  really  care  about!    Then,  it’s  easier  for  you  to  instinctively  know  what  to  say.  

1. Be Purposeful

Subject Ideas

❖ What’s your biggest struggle right now in life?

❖ What’s something you wish didn’t exist in the world right now?

❖ What is something you can never let go of, in life?

❖ What’s your most life changing experience? Why?

❖ What do you want to do with your life in the future?

2. Be Clear

Focus,  focus,  focus.    What,  exactly,  are  you  geBing  at?    Flow  your  thoughts!  Like  a  river!  

2. Be ClearFirst sentence of paragraph:

Concentrating on mental health needs while in foster care is the key to ensuring the success of these adults…

Next sentence:

…The odds of these children becoming homeless by the age of 19 were higher if that child had run away more than once, was placed in a group care setting, had been physically abused, had demonstrated delinquent behaviors, and/or did not develop a close connection to a biological parent or grandparent.

3. Be Sincere

We’re  not  made  out  of  plastic!    What’s  your  goal?  To  be  understood,  of  course!    

Don’t  try  to  impress,  to  sound  clever    or  super  smart.  Just…  say  it.    

Like  you  mean  it.  

Get  to  the  heart  of  how  you  feel  about  the  subject,    and  use  it  as  inspiration  for  the  tone  of  your  writing!  

3. Be Sincere

As a result of parental drug abuse, poverty, and mental instabilities, an alarming number of children live and grow up in our nations foster care system. These children are taken from the care of their natural parents with the intent to protect them from poor living conditions, physical, sexual, and mental abuse and to increase their quality of life.

NayThirty-six percent: that’s how many kids today in America grow up in the foster system. They are removed from the birth parents and placed into strangers’ families. But why the drastic step? It’s because these children are also the ones vulnerable to their parents’ drug abuse, mental instability, and poverty. This is to keep them from abuse, and to help give them a fighting chance at life.

Yay!

Tips & Tricks

#1: It’s called the Main Idea!❖ Make it clear. Write down, in one

sentence, what you want your paper to say.

❖ Appraise your topics. Are you super, duper sure that all your paragraphs support your main idea?

❖ I-xamine those sentences. Now, do all the sentences in your paragraphs support the paragraph?

❖ Now, revise!

#2: Tense with your sentences?

Avoiding Sentence Problems

Proofread for the following sentence problems….

#2: Tense with your sentences?

Short, Choppy Sentences

There was a girl. She had bangs. She also liked to dress all boyish. She was me.

Bangs, boyish clothes… Once upon a time, I was that girl.

#2: Tense with your sentences?Incorrect Sentences

❖ Fragments — “If the giraffe had a tail.”❖ Run-on — “I thought I saw a pussy cat and then I really

did saw a cat it went away I thought it didn’t but it did.”❖ Rambling — “The intruder entered through the window

and tiptoed down the hall and stood under the stairwell and waited in the shadows.

#2: Tense with your sentences?Unclear Sentences

“We have an assortment of combs for physically active people with

unbreakable teeth.”

#2: Tense with your sentences?Unacceptable Sentences

“So yeah. That’s my point.

Ya feel me?”

“Not eating corn doesn’t make sense.”

“And now, I’ve just written a whole essay for you. Thanks for reading!”

#2: Tense with your sentences?Unnatural, Flowery Sentences

“I’m so exasperated I could expectorate” vs. “I’m so mad I could spit.”

“I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request.” vs. “No.”

#3: Read it out loud.

No, seriously. Read it out loud. :)

Read it to a friend, even!

#4: Read. Just read. Like, a lot.

Pulitzer-Prize-winning articles

Books

Magazines (Time, The Economist, etc.)

Your own writing. Over and over and over again.

Homework

HW: Compare-Contrast Essay1. Choose a subject for your paper:

What two things do you want to compare or contrast?

2. Ex.

1. Loving others first vs. Loving yourself first

2. Apple vs. Windows

3. Life is just like traffic

3.Write that first draft!

4. Proofread, edit, and revise.

5. Pass the both the first and the second draft.

HW: Compare-Contrast Essay

• FIRST DRAFT DEADLINE:

•Next week! (Week 3)

• SECOND DRAFT DEADLINE

•Week 4