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Word Rogues |
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On English and Writing: Leon Lanzbom |
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 Southwestern College: Spring 2010: ENGLISH 71 (86) 52502 Basic Writing and Editing 13 January 2010 - 21 May 2010 instructor: Leon Lanzbom email: lanzbom@yahoo.com class: M,W: 5:00 pm-7:15 pm, RM5208 Grading of Assignments: four Paragraphs: 2-500 words 20.0% (20 pts. each = 100 pts.) one essay 500-750 words 20.0% (100 pts = 150 pts) two Cataclysmic Shakedown paragraphs 10.0% (25 pts each = 50 pts.) two Cataclysmic Shakedown Exams 30.0% (75 pts each = 150 pts.)  five Startle-Response quizzes 10% (10 pts each = 50 pts) journals and participation 10% 50 pts) __________________________________________________ (Percentages are approximations) 100.0% = 500 pts.
Assignments:
-Four at-home paragraphs in response to readings (200-500 words long.) -Two Cataclysmic Shakedown exams with paragraphs (AKA Midterm and Final (200 word paragraph). -Five unannounced, in-class, startle-response quizzes. -500-750 word essay, using MLA citings -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Startle-response quizzes and missing class: There will be 5 in-class Startle-Response quizzes, otherwise known as "check that you did the reading carefully and on time quizzes." You can expect these quizzes from time to time, and they will come unannounced throughout the semester. The quizzes will primarily focus on the reading assignments and homework, providing me with a chance to see how well you are doing with the readings and documentation technique, though any area of the course may provide material for quizzes. The whole point of these quizzes is to help us work together, to convert what might be a boring classroom into a chaotic, unpredictable and exciting intellectual laboratory where everyone is involved. *You must submit all paragraphs, exams, and the paper in order to pass this course.* I do not accept late work. Missing an assignment will result in zero points for that assignment and may result in your failing the course. No quizzes or other in-class journal assignments may be made up only when prior arrangements made with me. (See below for more information on late work policies.)
I do not accept emailed assignments. No assignments may be submitted by email. You must arrange to get your assignment to me by giving it to another student or leaving it in my mailbox.
Attendance and Participation: Our Class is comprised of a variety of activities, most of which cannot be made up. Try, therefore, to miss as few classes a possible. There's no need to inform me about an unexcused absence unless it's consecutive (one after the other). Students missing three consecutive classes will be dropped from the course (if it's before the drop deadline). Skipping lab is counted as an absence. Twenty minutes late is considered an absence. Every two times you walk in late you will receive one class absence. Since you cannot be dropped after the withdrawal deadline, your grade will drop one full letter for every 6 hours of missed class time. If you believe you have an extreme circumstance, please see me. *Please see your hard-copy syllabus for more information on class policy *Download your hard copy of our syllabus here: Click HERE Class Menu: English 71, spring 2010 Note: Make sure you read whatever is assigned for that day before coming to class. In other words, the readings for 1.27 should be read and ready to discuss by 1.27 _______________________________________ Week one
MENU: spring 2010, English 71
Week One
W-1/13 First-day. Syllabus review. What is expected. Books etc. Week Two
M 1/18 : Monday January 18 Holiday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day W 1/20: You must have your book today! Continue Ch2 "The Writing Process," 17-45 and Ch 21: 406-410 What is a simple sentence?
CH 3: 46-56; Paper Format 496-500; Ch 22 Sentence Sense, 411-13. Do several exercises in class on 53-56 _______________________________
Begin Paragraph 1: Description. P278, Writing Assignment 2: Write a paragpraph describing a specific person. (See the categories on top of 279.)
Review CH 14, Description, 269-78, particularly the paragraphs "My Teenage Son's Room, " "A Depressing Place," and "Karla." Remember to support your point with sight, touch, hearing, and smell. Due 2/3
1.28 Last day to add a class. Last day to withdraw and qualify for a refund Week three M 1.25 review Ch2 "The Writing Process"; Read Ch 3 "The First and Second Steps in Writing," 56-82
W 1.27 "Fragments," 414-29; Complete Ch 2 "The Writing Process" and CH 3 "The first and Second Steps in Writing."
Bring in draft of paragraph 1 for reading and editing._____________________________________
Four Steps (bases) You Must Have in Your Essay
M 9.24 Introduce �Four Bases for Revising Writing.� 137-63 Paragraph 3: Process paragraph, 191-206, Due 10.8 Assignment: Read �Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name,� 686-93. Read 198-206. And write a process paragraph on any one of the topics on page 198. Make sure you include your prewriting, and your paragraph drafts. Follow the Four Bases checklist on 201 and 204 W 9.26 Bring in rough or your process paragraph drafts. Readings. Review Four Bases and process paragraph. Over the weekend make sure you read the assignment for Monday 10.1 ________________________________________ Week seven  M 10.1Bring in paragraph 3: read and respond. �Standard English verbs 445-53 �Irregular verbs 454-62 Subject verb agreement: 463-69 Review for midterm W 10.3: No! The midterm cometh! Cataclysmic Shakedown numero uno! _______________________________________ Week eight M 10.8 Hand in paragraph 3 Begin Paragraph 4: �cause and effect� on pages 207-20: Due 10.22 Review assigned sentence skills Assignments: work through Capital Letters 508-09, Quotation Marks, 523-530, and commas, 531-39. Read �Do It Better,� 676-86 and do one paragraph writing at a time Do Writing Assignment #1 on page 684. Remember to be aware of the four bases checklists.
Links: help with MLA formats and citings.
Articles are like little adjectives that point to nouns. ________________________________ Nouns: common and proper 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.
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 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.
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:
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 PronounsIndefinite pronouns always take singular verbs.
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 SubjectsWhen 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. |
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