It's none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.
--Ernest Hemingway

Essay #1: "Still Life" Description Essay:  Due Monday 2/5 For this, your first piece of word art, your first essay in English 114, you will describe your favorite meal.  You will then write a 250-500 word essay that describes the image of this food, offering three points of observation and a thesis.  But here, you are going to use your five senses to paint the most wonderful specific details in words, sight, smell, taste, touch, and maybe even hearing.  To make your words as vivid as possible, use strong verbs and colorful nouns.  The kinds of words that appeal to the reader’s senses.  Keep away from the “to be” verbs (be, is, are, was, were, been, being).                                                     Here is an example of description with almost no appeal to the senses: My mother has brown hair. Here is an example rich in description: My mother’s hair reminds me of the soft brown leaves of fall. You may even want to take your essay a step further.  Make believe that you are one of the ingredients in your favorite meal and comment on the other ingredients that surround you.  Tell me what the french fries look like and smell like from the hamburger's point of view!  Or make believe you're a fly, or maybe a person from another country who has never seen this kind of food before.  You get the idea, right?  Bonne Chance Mes Amis!

Journal entry #2 While reading “Lou’s Place,” in one page of your journal, write about how “Lou’s Place” appeals to the senses, using examples from the essay.  Find the little nuances in the text that describe the indescribable.  Beth Johnson knows how to write Description, no?   While you’re reading, write down prime examples rich in sense impressions, sight, sound, hearing, feeling.

Tuesday: 2/6 Lab: work on argumentation essay
Read Argument in Langan: 319-23. Read 332: “Teenagers and Jobs”

Wednesday: 2/7: Langan: Ch 4: other connecting words, 83-85; Chapter 25: Run-Ons, 430-436, do all activities.
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Journal Topic #3:

Read  “Three Passions,”  by Bertrand Russell.   Does this essay follow the traditional one-three-one model of introduction, support, and conclusion?   Also, talk about transitional signals the author uses.  List the transitions you find going from paragraph to parapgraph using time, space, and addition. 


You can download "Three Passions" right here.

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Friday: 2/9: Ch 25 Run-Ons continued: 436-442;  Review Tests 1,2,&3.  Be ready to discuss emphatic order, 93,94; Completing Transitions 98, Ident. Intro &Concl. 99-100.

2/9 Last day to withdraw from a class without receiving a “W” grade—3 p.m.  Last day to file a petition for Credit/No Credit—3 p.m.
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Week Five: 2/12-2/16

Monday: 2/12:  Chapter 5: Using Parallelism, Consistent Point of View, 101-109, do activities on 102, 104, 122-25.

Tuesday: 2/13 Lab:  Work on Argumentation essay

Wednesday: 2/14: Chapter 27: Subject Verb Agreement: 453-56; Do Activity on 456; Do Review tests 1&2.  456-57

Friday: 2/16 No class, Lincoln's day                                                                                        
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Week Six: 2/19-2/23                

Monday: 2/19, No class, Washington's Day

Tuesday: 2/20 Lab: Continue work on argumentation essay

Wednesday: 2/21: Argument Essay: Bring in 4 copies of draft for group readings.

Friday: 2/23: Argumentation essay on my desk when you walk in to class.
Ch39: Commas: 515-521; capitals p. 490-96;  Do exercises on 492, 495, and 496.

2/23: Last day to file a petition for Credit by Challenge Examination—3 p.m.
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Week Seven: 2/26-3/2

Monday: 2/26: Langan 109-111. Active verbs, concise words; Ch 12: Cause and Effect essays 245-249
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Begin Essay 3: Cause and Effect:
In 750 words (three pages) write about an incident, a thing, a friend, some music, a work of art, anything that comes to mind that has helped make your life better or worse.  See “The Joys of an Old Car.” 

You want to focus on the "why." Why have attitudes changed or why did something significant happen.  Your thesis will focus on values learned from the consequences experienced.

Click HERE for more info on the Cause and Effect essay

Click HERE for outline form, which must be handed in with your essay (along with rough drafts etc.)

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Tuesday: 2/27: Lab begin Cause and Effect essay.

Wednesday: 2/28: Ch 28: Verb 459-62; bring rough drafts into class, question and answer session.

Friday: 3/2  (Staff Development Day)

Mar 2, 2007  Deadline to petition for spring graduation
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Week Eight:  3/5-3/9

Ready!  Get set!  It’s your first Cataclysmic exam!

Monday: 3/5: Midterm 25 questions
Tuesday: 3/6 Lab: Midterm: Essay 4: 250 word essay

Wednesday: 3/7: Théâtre 434, Movie!  Andy Goldsworthy--Rivers and Tides: Working with Time

Director Thomas Riedelsheimer. Producer Annedore V. Donop. Music Fred Frith.

Click here for information from NPR on Andy Goldsworthy.  Be sure to check out some of the interviews.

"The underlying tension of a lot of my art is to try and look through the surface appearance of things," Goldsworthy says. "Inevitably, one way of getting beneath the surface is to introduce a hole, a window into what lies below." (from Susan Stone interview)

Click here for reviews on Rivers and Tides.

Friday: 3/9: Rivers and Tides continued.  
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Week Nine: 3/12-3/16

Monday: 3/12: discuss Goldsworthy, Rivers and Tides.  Langan Ch 31: (Adjectives and Adverbs, 475-78), do activities on 478-9 and Review Test 1 on 479

Tuesday: 3/13: work on your Cause and Effect essay

Wednesday: 3/14 Bring in 4 rough drafts for group reading.      

Friday: 3/16 Ch 32 Misplaced Modifiers
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Week Ten: 3/19-3/23

Monday 3/19: Please come into class having read chapters 31 and 32 and be prepared to take a quiz on these chapters.  Also, bring in 4 drafts of your paper for group readings.

Tuesday:3/20: Lab Continue Cause and Effect paper.

Wednesday 3/21: ch 37 apostrophe, 501-06 with activities.  Editing test 1, 554

Friday 3/23: Ch 33 Dangling Modifiers, Activity 484-5, Review Test 1&2 p486-487.  
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Week Eleven: 3/26-3/30

Monday: 3/26: Cause and Effect due today.  Intro to compare and contrast

Tuesday: 3/27 Lab

Wednesday: 3/28: Russel Baker, “In My Day”

Friday: 3/30 no class, Cesar Chavaz Day

Week Twelve: 4/2-4/6

      
 No classes, Spring Break!

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Week Thirteen:  4/9-4/13

Monday: 4/9: MLA handouts and worksheets, due Wednesday

For MLA Worksheet, Click HERE

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	Purdu University's MLA Format Guide  MLA Crib Sheet Capital Community College MLA Guide Timothy Pagaard's MLA format Research Paper Templates MLA Sample Paper MLA, Documenting Web Sources Citation Machine
	Hacker's Documenting Sources: MLA MLA Template for Papers and Annot. Bib.(Spokane Falls CC) Dr. Mary Ellen Guffey's MLA Electronic Format Cornell Annotated Bibliography Lesley U MLA Format for Annot. Bib. CW Post MLA Citation Style OWL Online Research Paper Workshop

Wednesday: 4/11: Bring MLA to class, workshop.

Friday: 4/13: review of format, grammar, any loose ends.
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Apr 13, 2007  Last day to withdraw from full-semester courses and receive a “W” grade—3 p.m.
Deadline to petition for summer graduation
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Week 14: 4/16-4/20

Monday: 4/16: Persepolis: 1-33, Research paper

Click the advertisement below for your list of research-paper topics:

Tuesday: 4/17Lab: Research paper

Wednesday: 4/18: 33-54

Friday: 4/20: Persepolis 54-80
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Week 15: 4/23-4/27
Monday: 4/23: 80-103
Tuesday: 4/24 Lab
Wednesday: 4/25: 103-118
Friday: 4/27.Persepolis 118-end
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Week 16: 4/30-5/4
Monday: 4/30: Research paper groups
Tuesday: 5/1 Lab
Wednesday: 5/2: Research paper groups
Friday: 5/4: Research paper groups and readings

Week 17: 5/7-5/11
Monday: 5/7: Research paper groups and readings.
Tuesday: 5/8 Lab
Wednesday: 5/9: Research paper groups and readings, last day.
Friday: 5/10: Research paper due.

Week 18: 5/14-5/18
Monday: 5/14: Review
Tuesday: 5.15 Lab
Wednesday 5.16: Review
Friday 5.18: Review for final.

Final Monday, May 21 7-7:50 or 6-7:50am Room 226

Mechanics

Articles

Articles: a, an, the  (recall hint: Ar-tickles nouns)

Nouns: common and proper

Common Nouns can be counted and can have an article in front of them.

Proper Nouns are usually capatilized and can be longer than one word.  Also, the clues that work for common nouns do not work for proper nouns. You can't say the New Yorks, or I'm going to New Yorks.


Personal Pronouns

1) Personal pronouns are defined as words that name persons or things. 
2) Personal pronouns do not follow articles and do not form plurals by adding s as many nouns do.

You will write pron. over personal pronouns.

Verbs
Most verbs show action.

Verbs will fit into the following sentences:
I will___________________.
Yesterday I _____________________.
I have ___________________.

Some verbs don't show action.  These are linking verbs: am, is, are, were, be, being, been, become, seem.  Linking verbs will tell you something about the subject of the sentence.

The chihuahua is yappy.  Is here tells you something about the subject, the "chihuahua."

The subject is your key to finding the verb.  Find out what the sentence says about the subject, and you'll find the verb.

Can you put I, you, he, she, it, or they, in front of the potential verb?  If you can, you have your verb.

A helping verb appears before the main verb.

The teacher and I have worked hard.

A helping verb acts as the buddy of the main verb and gives a sentence its mood, voice, aspect, and tense.  Imagine the main verb as the action center, the Boss Tanaka, of a sentence with the helping verb as Boss Tanaka's dweeby assistant, always tweeking the action.

Some helping verbs can stand alone and act as a main verb.  The linking verbs, such as be, been, being, am, are, is, was, were and helping verbs such as do, does, did, have, had, and has can all stand alone.  Other helping verbs work with a main verb: may, might, must, could, should, would, can, shall, and will.

You would do well to memorize these verb, especially the "to be" verbs:

do	has	may	should	shall	ought
does	have	might	would	will
did	had	must	could	can

to be verb

is

am

are

was

were

be

being

been

Contractions, interrogatives, adjectives, adverbs, and modification:

Contractions

Two parts of speech in one word.

Contractions are built out of pronouns and linking verbs.

You + are = you’re

She + will = she’ll

Interrogative Sentences

An interrogative sentence asks a question.

A sentence that asks a question separates the helping verb from the main verb.

Did Crandall run into the shack?

Did = helping verb

Run = main verb

Adjectives

Many adjectives have antonyms:

Big/small 

Tall/short

Happy/sad

Adjectives will make sense between articles and nouns that are places, persons, or objects.

The tiny lake

The happy boy

A red thermos

Many adjectives are found to the left of nouns.  This is not always the case because they can also be found to the right of linking verbs.

Memorize this: Adjectives will answer one or more of the following questions.

Which_____________?

What kind of_____________?

How many______________?

Adverbs

Adverbs often deal with time.

Adverbs can be moved to another place in the sentence.

Adverbs often end in –ly

Memorize this: Adverbs will answer the following questions:

When?

How?

Where?

To what extent?

Why?

Won’t is a contraction of will not.  Not is an adverb for will.  It answers “how” or "to what extent" you will do something in the contraction “won’t.”

Modification

Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns.

Adverbs modify or describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

The  road runner ran very quickly.  
In this sentence, very and quickly are both adverbs, with the word very modifying quickly.

Adverbs not and very almost always modify the words they are next to.

Simple Sentences
A simple sentence is built of a single subject-verb unit.

Ron runs.
The chicken flew the coop.
The unicycle has been riden by several sad circus clowns.

Yet, a simple sentence can have more than one subject or verb.

multiple subjects:
Ron and Aryeh run.
The chicken and the rooster flew the coop.
The unicycle and the ostrich have been riden by several sad circus clowns.

multiple verbs:
Ron runs and trips.
The chicken flew and buzzed the coop.
The unicycle has been stolen and riden by several sad circus clowns.

We can even have multiple subjects and verbs:
The unicycle and the pogo stick and the Schwinn Airdyne had been stolen, ridden, and returned by several sad circus clowns.


Compound Sentences
A compound sentence is built out of two or more simple sentences.

                  These are two complete sentences with a subject and verb hooked up together, and they are usually connected by a comma plus a word to join the two sentences.

The joining words are called coordinating conjunctions because they coordinate the two sentences.

the coordinating conjuncions:
and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet.

Carl opened the door, and the ants made their break to freedom.
Lois loves to go shopping at Sacks, but Superman can never find anything to match his costume there.
Billy loved his asparagus garden, for he was not your average boy.

You see?  Each of the above can be separated into two sentences, but the coordinating conjunction coordinates them together.

Consider the coordinating conjunction as the camp councilor of the word world.  The words and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet, are always trying to hook their sentence campers together.  There will usually be something in common between the first sentence and the second sentence.  In other words, the ideas of both sentences should be related.

Complex sentences:

A complex sentence is made up of a sentence with a complete thought and a statement of an incomplete thought (one that begins with a dependent word).

We are talking about an dependent clause and an independent clause hooked up together.

Remember:  an independent clause tells a complete thought; a dependent clause tells an incomplete thought.

Here's an example of a dependent clause:

When I get those P.F. Flyers...

Do you feel the tension in the above dependent clause.  It's incomplete.  It needs more, more, MORE!

When I get those P.F. Flyers, I'll be the most popular kid in school.

A dependent clause begins with a dependent word.  Let's look at a few.

Dependent words:

After Although As Because Before Even though How

If In order that Since That Unless Until What

When, Where Whether Which While Who Whose

When do we use complex sentences?

When we want to emphasize one idea over another. 

Before I left the house, I fed my pet cockatiel.

What we want to emphasize here is this guy fed Cessna.
I fed my pet cockatiel is a complete thought.

Before I left the house is subordinated to the complete thought.

This technique of giving one thought more emphasis than another is called subordination.

With subordination, the part of the sentence starting with the dependent word or the subordinator will always be the less emphasized part of the sentence.

But if you want to emphasize leaving the house you would write:

After I fed my pet Cockatiel, I left the house.

Do you see how the use of the the word after causes the first half of the sentence to emphasize I left the house?
Read it again.  This is important stuff and will give your writing a tremendous boost.

It depends on what you’re trying to express.  If you want I left the house as the emphasis of the sentence, you would leave that clause independent. 

But, like all the grammar we've learned in this class, it depends on context. 

Check out the context in the following sentence:

After I fed my pet cockatiel, I left the house.  But when I got to my office, I realized I had forgotten my keys for the third time this week.

And in this one:

Before I left the house, I fed my pet cockatiel.  Cockatiels are very picky eaters, and if Cessna does not find a piece of mango in her birdseed, she gets into a huff. 

Can you feel the difference between the above two sentences?  One emphasizes the forgetting of the keys; the other emphasizes the feeding of Cessna, the cockatiel

A very important point to remember is to make the last part of your sentence the emphatic part.  Emphasize your main thought at end of your sentence and pick up that thought in the beginning of your next sentence.

On Subjects and Verbs

Words that come between subjects and verbs should be handled with care.  Take this sentence for example:

The pie for the guests is not as tasty as I thought.

The subject pie is singular, so the verb must be singular as well.  We must use the verb is for the verb and subject to agree.  The words,for the guests, which come between the subject and the verb, do not affect agreement.  Don't be fooled by the object of a preposition--learn what a prepositional phrase is.  By identifying the prepositional phrase, you can avoid subject-verb agreement problems. 

Remember this rule: the subject will never be found in a prepositional phrase.

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns always take singular verbs.

one anyone everyone someone

nobody anybody everybody somebody

nothing anything each either neither

Everyone in the line screams (not scream) for their money back.
Nobody, out of thousands of volunteers, twists (not twist) the way she does.
Each of the students has (not have) a beautiful sandwich for lunch.

Verbs must agree with subject no matter their placement in a sentence:

Near my closet hides Chris Ware.
    *here the famous illustrated novelist, Chris Ware, is the subject; the verb he comes after must be singular.

Near my closet hide Chris Ware and Quimby the Mouse.
    *here we use a plural verb because we have a plural subject: Chris Ware and Quimby the Mouse.

Interrogatives are sentences with different verb placement:

Where are those sea anemones?
    *the word anemones is the subject here, so we must use the plural verb are.

Watch your subject-verb placement with sentences that begin with the words there, here, who, which, what, and where.

Compound Subjects

When the word and joins subjects a plural verb should be used:

Chris Ware and Quimby the Mouse are a demanding couple.
Esther and Haman are the life of the party.

When subjects are joined by or or nor or contain either. . .or, neither. . .nor. the verb agrees with the subject closest to the verb:

After the last incident, neither Cha Cha nor her cousin eats BBQ.
Neither the barista nor her helpers make a decent soy mocha latte extra hot no whip.