Warm-up: September 29, 2011 What did you find interesting, bizarre, confusing, or strange in last night’s reading assignment? Did anything stand out to you as particularly important?

Jane C. Schaffer or The High School Writing Process

Mission Statement  The mission of this lesson is to provide students with a writing tool. This is a technical writing tool. Its purpose is to develop a strong foundation for research driven writing.

Terminology  Thesis: a sentence with a subject and an opinion.  Pre-writing: getting your ideas and concrete details down on paper before you put your essay together in paragraph form. Graphic organizers are used at this stage.  Concrete Detail: specific details or facts. In a literary analysis quotes may be used.  Commentary: your opinion about something. Depending on what you are writing it could also be more detail to the fact.

More Terminology  Concluding Sentence: the last sentence in your body paragraphs  Shaping the essay: writing the following before you write your first draft: thesis; topic sentence for each body paragraph.  Conclusion:the last paragraph in your essay that is all commentary, does not repeat key words, and gives a finished feeling to the whole essay  Peer Response: written responses and reactions to a partner’s paper

In your essay keep in mind you are continually going from general to specific. thesis TS CD CM

Thesis Statements  A thesis is a general sentence with a subject and an opinion.  Example:  Australia is the best country of all for a vacation.  In this sentence Australia is the subject and is the best country of all for a vacation is the opinion.

More Thesis Statements  WSCA is a wonderful place to go to school.  Getting braces was one of the best things that could have happened to me.

Practice Thesis Statements  Write the following sentences and underline the subject once and the opinion twice:  Fishing is fun to do when I’m with my dad.  English is my favorite class.  It’s exciting to go to a new school.  Tacos are my favorite food.  I like radio station Star the most.

Once you develop a thesis statement it is time to use a graphic organizer to expand your thoughts  Put your thesis in the middle bubble  Branch three other bubbles off of the center bubble. It should look like this: Thesis

 Topic sentences are what that whole paragraph is going to be about  Branch three other bubbles off from the each topic sentence bubble. Thesis Topic Sentence Topic sentence Topic Sentence Topic sentences must relate to your thesis

 Concrete details are very specific  They can be a quote if you are writing a literary analysis, or factual information if you are writing a book report Thesis Topic Sentence Topic sentence Topic Sentence Concrete Detail Concrete details must relate to the topic sentence

Once your bubble cluster is complete you can start creating body paragraphs  Each grouping of one TS and three CDs is a body paragraph Topic Sentence Concrete Detail  The next step is to add two commentaries to each concrete detail - NOT IN THE BUBBLE CLUSTER

Commentary is opinion relating to the concrete detail or fact  Here is the pattern for a body paragraph: Topic Sentence Concrete Detail TS - topic sentence CD - concrete detail CM - commentary CD - concrete detail CM - commentary CD - concrete detail CM - commentary CS - concluding sentence  The last item added to the pattern is the concluding sentence, which can lead the reader to the next paragraph

Once your body paragraphs are complete it is time to create an introductory paragraph  An introductory paragraph is used to catch the reader’s attention  Your thesis should be the last sentence in your introductory paragraph  There are 4 types of introductory paragraphs :  Anecdote ( a little story)  Dialogue (open conversation)  Startling information (sometimes statistics are used)  Commentary (open with an opinion)

There are other graphic organizers besides the bubble cluster  Spider diagram (like a bubble cluster except you use lines instead of bubbles)  Random outline (you just start brainstorming ideas and organize them later)  Columns outline (great for comparing two things)

Technical Writing list  Literary Analysis  Persuasive Essay  Biographies  Science Fair Papers  Research Papers  Comparison Contrast Essay  Any type of paper in which factual information will be used

Writing Tips  Be careful with the topic you choose  Think about why you chose that topic  If it is too narrow you will get frustrated finding information to write about  If it is too broad your piece will sound scattered  Find information that will interest your reader

Literary Analysis Paragraph  Prompt: Explain either how either Mildred and Clarisse, or Beatty and Faber, function as foils of each other. Use two concrete details in the story as evidence.