Monday, March 3, 2014 Melissa Gunby English 350 and 355

Today’s Agenda Critical Reading Writing Summaries

Critical Reading

You’re already practicing critical reading skills when you’re working in the lab. However, we need to expand on those skills a bit in order to prepare you for the tasks of the CME and English 370

What is Critical Reading Critical Reading means reading with a critical eye, or reading for meaning, and doing so actively Critical Reading does not mean challenging and arguing with everything. Things to look for when reading actively and critically: The main idea Supporting details Specific evidence or examples Unfamiliar or technical language

Steps in the Reading Process Previewing Highlighting Annotating Outlining Summarizing Writing a Response Paragraph

Finding Main Ideas All writing has structure. Expository writing, the kind we’ll be doing in this class, follows a very specific structure. This structure helps us to locate main ideas more quickly, as well as giving us a standard form to study and work from. Main Idea Major Detail Minor detail Major Detail Minor detail Major Detail

Why do we need topic sentences? Because without topic sentences, it’s really hard to figure out what a paragraph is about.

She was really annoyed, but she decided she had to go. Joanne received an invitation to her ex-boyfriend’s wedding. She was really annoyed, but she decided she had to go. The spectators enjoy the sun or the evening, chat, drink beer or soda, cheer or boo as the occasion demands, and hope for a victory by the home team. The analysts keep score, watch each pitch intently, note the strengths and weaknesses of the players, and follow managerial strategy with microscopic attention.

Small Group Work: I’m going to put up a paragraph on the following slide. Working with the 2 or 3 people around you, find the Topic Sentence of the paragraph, and locate the supporting details. Just make notes; we’ll discuss it as a class.

From “Looking Back: A Chronicle of Growing Up Old in the Sixties” by Joyce Maynard We [students] were forever being organized into activities that, I suspect, looked good on paper and in school board reports. New programs took over and disappeared as approaches to child education changed. One year we would go without marks, on the theory that marks were a “poor motivating factor,” “an unnatural pressure.”…Another year every activity became a competition, with posters tacked up on the walls showing who was ahead that week, our failures and our glories bared to all the class. Our days were filled with electrical gimmicks, film strips and movies and overhead projectors and tapes and supplementary TV shows, and in junior high, when we went audio-visual, a power failure would have been reason enough to close down the school.

More Practice! Silently read the short essay handout. Find the main idea for each paragraph (this should be a bit of review based on where you are in the lab at this point). When we’re done, we’ll compare.

Writing a Summary

Writing Summaries What is a summary? A summary is a restatement, in your own words, of another longer document. Summaries must: Maintain and communicate the meaning of the original document NOT contain your opinion or views on the original stick strictly to what the original writing had to say Contain ALL the main points the original author included Will usually not contain all the details, unless of importance.

Good Summaries Should Answer 3 Questions 1. What is the subject of the original? What problem or situation is the writing addressing? When writing a summary, you may want to make this question/answer like an introduction to set up the rest of the piece 2. What are the main points of the original? The summary may nor may not follow the same order as the original. Usually, a summary hits the most important points first. Summaries of pro/con will generally list all the pros together and all the cons together for clarity’s sake. 3. What conclusions does the original reach?

Steps in Writing a Good Summary 1. Read the whole piece. On a separate page, write your own words of the main ideas. 2. Reread and underline/highlight the important ideas. 3. Write the introductory statement, explaining what the original is about. 4. Decide on the order in which you want to present the main points. 5. write the body of your summary, using your own words. 6. write your last part, which tells about the author’s conclusions. 7. PROOFREAD!

Aside: Why it’s important to proofread Someone tell me what’s wrong with this sentence: I whore those shoes until they fell apart. Microsoft word (and other software) can only tell you if the word is spelled correctly. It can’t tell you if you’ve chosen the right word. Make sure to take the time to read through your document before turning it in.

Turn to page 692 for an example of annotation

Homework! Complete Narrative Paragraph (if not already turned in) If you’ve completed it, you may continue to revise it until the final submission in the portfolio Complete Descriptive Paragraph (if not already turned in) Rough Draft Process Paragraph (if not already turned in) Read: “My Grandmother’s Dumplings” pg 730 Along with the Focus On questions (due 3/17), write a summary of the text. The summary is due on Wednesday