English

Directions: Look at each of the following five paragraphs and then determine which sentence is the main idea/point of the paragraph and which sentences are the supporting details.  1.       Being a celebrity is often difficult. First of all, celebrities have to look almost perfect all the time.  There’s always a photographer ready to take an unflattering picture of a famous person looking dumpy in old clothes. Celebrities also sacrifice their private lives. Their personal struggles, divorces, or family tragedies all end up as front-page news. Last, and most frightening of all, celebrities are in constant danger of the wrong kind of attention. Threatening letters and even physical attacks from crazy fans are things a celebrity must contend with. Main Idea:______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 1. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 2. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 3. ________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2.       People lie for different reasons. One common reason is to avoid hurting someone’s feelings.  For example, a friend might ask, “Do you like my new haircut?“ If you think it’s ugly, you might still answer, “Yes.”  Another common reason for lying is to avoid a fight.  Say a friend angers you and then asks, “Are you upset with me?” 7 You might answer, “No,” to avoid an argument.  People also lie so that they’ll fit in, as when you listen to a boring person and politely say, “That’s interesting.”  In addition, people lie to avoid spending more time with someone. For instance, you might lie, “I have to go now.” Main Idea:______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 1. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 2. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 3. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 4. ________________________________________________________ 3.       You don’t have to scare your family with statistics about heart attacks. There are several positive ways to encourage your family to exercise more often. To begin with, get them to exercise more often by emphasizing how good they’ll feel and how much better they’ll look if they work out on a regular basis. A second method you can use is to set an example. If they see you walking to stores rather than driving, they might be encouraged to do likewise. Finally, make exercise a family activity. Suggest that the whole family go hiking or camping together, take up early morning jogging, or join the Y at the group rate. Main Idea:______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 1. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 2. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 3. ________________________________________________________ 4.       Serious depression, as opposed to the fleeting kind we all feel at times, has definite warning signs. One symptom of depression is a change in sleep patterns—either sleeplessness or sleeping too much. In addition, abnormal eating patterns may develop, either eating too much or loss of appetite. A third sign is trouble in thinking or concentrating—even to the point of finding it difficult to read a magazine or newspaper. And last of all, a general feeling of hopelessness may signal depression. People feel indifferent to their families and jobs and may begin to think that life is not worth living. Main Idea: _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 1. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 2. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 3. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 4. ________________________________________________________ 5.       Several factors can interfere with having a good memory. For one thing, there can be a lack of motivation. Without a real desire to learn or remember something, you probably won’t. Also a factor is a lack of practice. To stay sharp, memory skills, like any other skill, must be used on a regular basis. Yet another factor that can hurt memory is self-doubt. If you’re convinced you won’t remember something, you probably won’t. In addition, distraction can interfere with memory. If you’re distracted by a television or by conversation nearby, try to find a quiet environment before trying to commit something to memory. Main Idea:______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 1. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 2. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 3. ________________________________________________________ Supporting detail: 4. _____________________________________________

Why would you like to be a pilot?

Choose a photograph that affects you in a powerful way emotionally, that brings up strong positive or negative feelings. Write about it in two ways: Write the facts. What can you KNOW by looking at the photograph? What can you imagine that is not clear in the photograph? Make up a story about what you imagine is going on in the picture; the background, location, people, weather, etc. Describe an event or action you are fairly sure you will never experience firsthand. Use the first person (“I”) and be very specific–the more details you incorporate the more likely it is that your reader will believe you. Include your feelings and reactions. (1 page). Visualize a place that you really love, be there, see the details. Now write about it. It could be a corner of your bedroom, an old tree you sat under one whole summer, a table at McDonald’s in your neighbourhood, a place by a river. What colours are there, sounds, smells? When someone else reads it, she should know what it is like to be there. She should feel how you love it, not by your saying you love it, but by your handling of the detail. (300 pages). Find 5 stories from a newspaper, popular magazine, or tabloid that seem to you to form–either partially or wholly–the basis for a story. Briefly list what each story is early in your writing practise for this assignment. Next, sketch out, free-write, or outline a story based on one of them that captures your imagination. Indicate where the story begins, who the main characters are, what the general tone or mood will be (dark or comic, etc.), and from whose point of view you would tell the story. Often, these newspaper accounts will be the “end” of the story and you will have to fill in the events leading up to the more dramatic event that made the news that day. Or perhaps the story leads you to ask what is going to happen to the person now. (1 page)

Consider the importance of visuals in connecting with an audience. Discuss a moment or experience in your life when a picture, drawing, or other visual had a significant impact. Consider whether the same impact could have occurred if you heard about the image rather than experiencing it visually. Find a poorly designed PowerPoint slideshow and share it here. Give a short summary that identifies the problems and make suggestions on what would improve the design.

Response Journal 1 – Each response journal assignment usually takes about 30 minutes to complete. Response journals are considered free-style writing assignments prepared in essay format. They are accumulated (filed) in a separate folder (portfolio) on your computer or another memory device for later submission. Complete the assignment below NLT August 23. The journal must be prepared in the same essay format as the essay assignments, including a creative title and paragraph divisions. To view an example of a completed response journal, click here. View the video below titled “The Best Advice” featuring Dr. Maya Angelou. Compose a 200-word (minimum) response (in essay format) that includes what is morally instructive about our reaction when rude or invasive language is directed toward us. CAUTION: Assume that your audience has already seen and heard the Angelou video, so do not simply repeat Dr. Angelou’s comments. Focus your response on the specifics of the assignment, “what is morally instructive about our reaction when rude or invasive language is directed toward us.?” Any quotations used in this assignment will not count as part of the word count requirement. The speakers must be specifically named in your response.

Discuss your experience with creating a presentation recording. How is the preparation process going and what obstacles have you faced? What questions do you have about the process that your peers may be able to help solve? Find a helpful tip about recording audio or video and share that here (with proper credit – a link to the source will be fine).

Write a story of two novels, plays, or films that you have read or watched. Then list three ways that the plot of each work reorders or condenses that raw material (flashbacks, montages, etc.). Does the text begin in chronological order or in medias res? Does the narrative include a frame story? How might the opening of the text affect the meaning and the tone

*Attempt only two questions. *Question # 1, Section A, is compulsory. *Choose one more question from Section B. *Keep your answers clear, concise and analytical. *Address your responses to the specific demands of each question. *Illustrate your answers with apt references, and cite key sources used. *Limit your responses to 4 pages per question. total of no more than 8 page *Your answer scripts must include questions chosen, and be in MLA format. QUESTIONS: SECTION A (compulsory) 1) Explore the complexities of the term, ‘Black Literature’, and discuss how they, critically, engage certain social experiences, literary traditions, canons, racial and cultural politics. SECTION B (choose one) 2) With attention to each story’s social milieu, examine the nuanced relationships between racism and gender politics in Going to Meet the Man and Sometimes, a Motherless Child. 3) Analyze, with focus on subtleties, the critical significance of gender, childhood, community, coming-of-age and unnamed protagonists in The Hammer Man, and No Beating Like Dis One. 4) Discuss how the narrative threads of Red Hot Peppers, with regard to forms of inequalities, violations, and resistance, pose questions about identities, gender, social and power relations. READINGS: Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. The Shivering Baldwin, James. Going to Meet the Man Bambara, Toni Cade. The Hammer Man Chamoiseau, Patrick. Red Hot Peppers Clarke, Austin. Sometimes, a Motherless Child D’Aguiar, Fred. A Bad Day for a Good Man in a Hard Job  Danticat, Edwidge. Nineteen Thirty-Seven Evaristo, Bernadine. Yoruba Man Walking  Osondu, E. C. An Incident at Pat’s Bar  Silvera, Makeda. No Beating Like Dis One. HINTS: 1. you may use outside sources, where such would enhance your responses, and, crucially, there are NO specifications about how many sources MUST be cited. In brief, assigned reading materials (The Reader) and, if pertinent, any other scholarly sources that support your arguments would do. 2. Qualify your responses, where necessary, to demonstrate polished understandings of the issues. Good scholarship refrains from sweeping generalizations, bad grammar, haphazard organization, and trite political posturing. While most would agree that racism is bad, you will NOT gain points by merely ‘dissing’ it but by deftly showing how the authors have creatively engaged its problematic features in their respective works. 3. Your papers will be graded for depth and logical flow; particularly, as they integrate assigned readings and other credible sources. So, overall, qualify your responses, where necessary, to demonstrate finespun understandings of the issues. Answered should all aspects of the questions. * Cogent application of lectures and readings. * Cited other relevant materials appropriately. * Identified characters, authors, and situations apply. * Clear, engaging, scholarly and logical analyses. * Avoided pointless summaries of texts. * Hardly any spelling or grammatical errors. * No colloquialisms (slangs and informal language). * Kept responses within specified page limits. * No attempts to ‘stretch’ paper, unduly (through creative pagination, font sizes,

Major Assignments Assignment 1: Rhetorical Analysis Assignment 1 asks you to use basic rhetorical concepts to analyze a written, spoken, or visual text of your choosing. You will study the text and make observations about it in order to explain how it responds to a specific rhetorical situation or call to write. Final Length: 3-4 pages.   This is a graded discussion: 100 points possible due Aug 26 Assignment 1 Planning Workshop No unread replies. No replies. Part One: Plan Your Work (Due Wednesday) First, upload a copy of the text you plan to analyze.  You can do this by inserting, attaching, or providing a link to it in a reply to this forum. Then, post answers to the following questions:  What is the basic history/background information about the text you chose? How does this text respond to an opportunity to make a change? Why did you choose this text? What do you find interesting or compelling about it? Who is the writer? Does this person have expertise or credentials that would be appealing for a particular group of people? Remember a writer could be a group of people (e.g. a company, multiple authors). Does the writer have any ulterior motives/biases that may have influenced the rhetorical design of the text? Who seems to be the audience for the message? How do you know (be specific)? What argument do you think the text is making? What message is the text trying to communicate? What is the purpose of the text? Do you think the argument is effective in communicating its message to its audience? In general, did the writer succeed or fail in this rhetorical situation? In other words, was this a fitting response? How do you know? What rhetorical components of the text are especially compelling (consider rhetorical appeals, methods of development, etc.) Provide at least one example of a rhetorical element or appeal that you find interesting. In a few sentences analyze this example by showing how it appeals to the intended audience. What genre did the writer choose for this text? Does that genre seem to fit the message and audience? Source: Glenn, Cheryl. The New Harbrace Guide. third ed., Cengage Learning, 2019, pp. 32-33.

Is being positive important?