Readings:     Tan, "Mother Tongue" 60     Bishop, "In the Waiting Room" 196     Hopi, "The Hopi Boy and the Sun" 16     Lau, "Runaway: Diary of a street kid" 71     Crow, “Maps, Projections, and Ethno. . . 464                     Hass: “A Story about the Body” 36        Border Images Plates 1, 16, 19    Film:  Like Water for Chocolate Assignment: Personal Narrative: defining your invisible borders

Readings:     Masih, "Exotic, or 'What Beach Do You Hang Out On?'" 79     Brooks, “We Real Cool.” 241     Hartigan, "The Baseball Game" 213     Marin, "Helping and Hating the Homeless"167     Sibley, "Feelings about Difference" 180     Spiegelman, "MAUS: A Survivor's Tale" 424     Lowenstein, "Confronting Stereotypes: Teaching MAUS. . ." 429       Border Images Plates 8, 9, 14, and  7 Assignment: Compare and Contrast essay: Why is your family different from other families?  You will offer at least two direct quotes from outside sources on families, using MLA citings for this paper. Film: Adaptation

Essay #2: Compare or Contrast: 750 words, Due 10.15 Why is your family different from other families?  You will offer at least two direct quotes from outside sources on families, using MLA citings for this paper.  You can use our readings, such as "Mother Tongue," "In the Waiting Room," "A Storyh about the Body," the maps and plates we've studied, or anything else that comes to mind. If you are having a difficult time finding book references, consider Internet sources, but only those with a .org, .edu, or .gov.  If you happen to find a great .com site, run it by me.  Also, try putting words like "family definitions" in Google and see what come out.  There is some great stuff waiting to be found. Click HERE for the US Census Bureau's idea of family.  Some great info here too. For your compare or contrast packet, click HERE This packet must be filled out and handed in with your essay.

Essay 3: Cause and Effect The cause and effect essay is about connections.  We have each experienced situations that have changed our lives in big ways and small ways.  Sometimes the changes are positive and sometimes they’re not.  But these changes, good or bad, help us to realize that for every cause there is an effect.  This brings us to our essay.  The cause and effect essay will train you to look at these connections, to call and respond.  For example, if you’re arguing about why cigarettes are detrimental to health, you can’t just say cigarettes cause lung cancer and move on to the next subject.  You must respond to that statement and tell the reader why cigarettes cause lung cancer: Call-Response. Your prompt: What incident, event, or occurrence happened in your life that made you realize you are different from other people?                                                                                             Date Due: 11.14 Note Bene: You will be expected to bring in your free-writing or  rough draft as of 10.17 to each class thereafter.  Failure to do so will effect a loss of 2 points to your paper, each time. Cause: forget your rough draft Effect: lose 2 points. Click HERE to download your cause and effect packet. This packet must be handed in with your essay, filled out.

Readings:     Blauner, "Talking Past Each Other. . .” 302     Sam, "An English/Chinese Phrasebook" 291     King, "Borders" 37     Kemmis, "The Last Best Place: How Hardship and Limits Build Community" 137     Hall, "Ethnicity: Identity and Difference" 228 Border Images Plates 5, 11, 13, 8   Film: Andy Goldsworthy: River and Tides Assignment:  cause and effect essay to be announced

Eng. 115, The Argument Essay: Hegemony or How Society Acts Like a Bear in an Invisible Cage.   The philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, studied how large groups of people are coerced to form societies.  Gramsci wondered what makes people in a huge group, like a nation, stay within the invisible borders of that society?  What makes citizens obey laws and even give the ultimate sacrifice for their country, their lives?  Gramsci analyzed and compared the powers that cause “spontaneous consent given by the great masses of population to the general direction imposed on social life by the dominant fundamental group” (Gramsci 277).   He examined the societal theory that came before him and proposed something called hegemony, the domination of a set of ruling beliefs and values through consent rather than coercion.  Under hegemonic conditions a large group of people, even whole nations, internalize so effectively what their rulers want them to believe that this group of people genuinely think they are voicing their own opinion when they are actually voicing the opinion of the powers that be.  Does this sound familiar?  Wasn’t there a bear in the Denver zoo that internalized so effectively the bars that surrounded him that he voluntarily believed they existed even though they didn’t exist?  Just like the invisible cage, hegemony is not necessarily a brainwashing as much as it is an acceptance, like the bear that accepted his imaginary cage, he could have beyond stepped beyond his imaginary cage’s borders anytime, so too hegemony leaves room for descent.  It’s artificial.  We can resist it if we so decide.  In this, your last 750-word essay, you are going to argue for some hegemonic influence that we as a society consent to.  It could be in fashion, art, music, politics, or anything where we genuinely think we are voicing our own opinion, but we are actually voicing the opinion of the powers insidiously hovering over us.  What is the goal of an argument essay? 1. To offer a claim and to back up that claim with research, reasoning, and persuasion.  Since we are arguing on one side of the issue, our side, we avoid confrontation by offering thorough explanations for our claims and anticipating any questions that may arise on the reader’s side.  Never use rude language. 2. To organize your argument in a point-by-point manner. Download your essay forms HERE Gramsci, Antonio.  “Hegemony.” Literary Theory an Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Oxford: Blackwell, 1971.

Final Essay: due one week before finals Elegant, eclectic and clever, Gore Vidal reminds young writers that a peek into the fabulous history of the word essay, an etymological poke into the labyrinth of essays past, yields another word you might not have expected to run across: attempt. You see most people think of an essay as a finished product--a dull, lifeless, inert textual body with a static introduction, an "ABCD" body, and a clear let’s-tie-up-all-the-pieces conclusion. You will not write this kind of final essay, opting instead to produce something that is less product and more process. Don’t get me wrong, I am STILL asking with no little nostalgia to return to the origins of the essay we’ve been working on. Yet I want you to make a sincere attempt to produce a truly unique set of ordered reflections, a group of carefully arranged tasty words which respond in some way to the essays, films, short critical treatments and lectures you have worked through and will continue to work through in the coming weeks. Are you writing for Lanzbom? --in a way, of course you are. That means no curse words, no “hip” jargon, toss out clichés, lots of research, and staying within MLA forms.  But beyond that, and in order to do well on this assignment, you must write for another audience. Who is this audience? Well, they are a lot like you. They are impatient and easily bored. They like specific details; they love direct, succinct quotes woven carefully into the fabric of an essay, and most of all, they like you to take chances, take risks, make assumptions, open new doors. If you are going to write about an image, they want to see a reproduction of that image. They hate misspellings and passive verbs (is, am, are, was, were, been, being). They like tangy language, which is fresh and not filled with stupid clichés. So here we go: You will choose one of sixteen prompts for your final paper by Monday 12.3.  Once you choose, you must use your topic.  You will have a minimum of three works cited, not including our books or the dictionary.  You may NOT use Wikipedia or any encyclopedia.  You will hand in an outline and at least two drafts.  You will use perfect MLA format works citing and if not sure how, you will get thee to the Writing Center. Click HERE to download your essay topics.

	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

Articles are like little adjectives that point to 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.

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.

A Little Bit about Prepositions
Let's see if we can make some sense out of this prepositional phrase business.  Look at the following sentence:

The hamburger with the double order of french fries (is/are) not as tasty as I thought.

The subject hamburger is singular, so the verb   must be singular as well.  We must use the verb is for the verb and subject to agree even though it feels wrong.  The prepsositional phrase, with the double order of french fries, which comes between the subject and the verb, does not affect agreement. 

Prepositional phrases are real trouble makers. 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. 

The hamburger with the double order of french fries is not as tasty as I thought.

A preposition is usually a word that will show position or time.  Imagine a bird flying toward a tree.  Anything that bird can do to the tree will be a preposition: in the tree, the tree, aroundthrough the tree, over the tree, under the tree, at the tree, along the tree, from the tree, onto the tree, etc.

As far as time goes: at noon, during the siesta, in the fall, until tomorrow etc.

There are other prepositions that do not fit in these catagories: the words for, of, or like  are examples.  So watch out for these guys, especially the word of.  You might try placing parentheses around the prepositional phrase, reading the sentence  without the phrase.  This way, you'll be sure of the subject.

The taste of peaches has/have always attracted me.
The taste (of peaches) has always attracted me.

A prepositional phrase is a prepostion and the noun that follows it plus any modifiers that might find their way in between.  The noun that follows the preposition is called the "object" of the preposition.

Prepostion + noun
"at home":  at= preposition / home=noun (the word "home" is the object of preposition)

Preposition + modifier(s) + noun
"in the old car":    in=preposition/the= article/old=modifier(adjective)/ car=noun ("car"=object of hte preposition)

Let's repeat the 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.