Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Narrative Lesson

It's nearly break time! 

Today we learned about narrative writing (chapter 22--p. 321, YOU SHOULD READ THIS CHAPTER!).

A narrative tells (and shows) about events and usually about people.  They often involve conflict and suspense and answer the following questions:
WHO?
WHAT?
WHERE?
WHEN?
HOW?
WHAT WAS THE OUTCOME?


A narrative is essentially telling a story.  We tell stories for many reasons--to inform, entertain, persuade, vent.
Just like description is not just reciting a list of attributes about a person/place/thing, narrative is more than simply listing a series of events.  There should be a point or some significance to your story.  Maybe your behavior changed or your thinking or feeling about a certain subject.  Did it help you become who you are today? How so?

We read a sample narrative in class and went over possible topic ideas.  There was also time for free-write and planning at the end of class.

FOR FRIDAY WRITE A 200-300 WORD NARRATIVE. 
Class ended talking about some non-negotiable aspects of this and all future assignments:
-Your name must be typed on your paper
-Your paper must be typed
-It must be printed by the time we start class on Friday
-12 pt font
-double-spaced

If you need help with using Microsoft Word or any other area of writing, you have to ask.  I can't read your minds and I cannot do the work for you.


Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Commas Are Cool!

Before our next class, I'd like you to read through this page about commas (click on the link!).  We'll work on this more after our week off.  Study and enjoy because there may be a quiz!

Thank you, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for this great compilation from The Writing Center!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Workshop Monday

It's the week before Spring Break!  Are you tired and worn out?  Hang in there!  In only a few more days you'll be able to shrug off academic stress for a week and bask in some mental freedom.

Remember that we will not meet in ATB 132 today.  We're working on the modules and tests at the Writing Center (LIB 308).  I was impressed with the progress some of you made last week in moving ahead on the lessons--keep up the great work!

Your homework from Friday was to read through this blog and catch yourself up on some things you may have missed, and also to review things we covered in class.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Extra Credit Opportunities

It's a dark and rainy day, so I'm in the mood to offer you some extra credit.

The first one is: The Career Development Center is offering a free 2-session strengths workshop with free assessment ($12.50 value) to interested JCCC Students.  For more information, call (913) 469-3870 or send an email to kfrankenfield@jccc.edu.  Do you know your strengths?  They are your greatest opportunities for success in college, career and your personal life.
If you complete this by Friday, March 11th, and show me the results, or show me that you have an appointment scheduled and then set a different due date, you can earn 50 points!  This is HUGE!

The second one is: I want to know that you have actually read or are reading this blog.  In the past I have made announcements about extra credit in class.  This time, I won't.  For those that see this post and want to earn 20 extra credit points, turn in a sheet of paper answering the two following questions to me on Wednesday, March 9th.
            1: According to the post from 2/23, what is Stacey going to do on payday?
            2: According to the post from 2/14, what are the four parts of speech categories?

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Sleep Much?

Today was a sick and sleepy class, but you stuck with it! Go home and rest while you enjoy the KU game tonight. We only have one more week to get through before Spring Break--hang in there!

We talked about Schoolhouse Rock and I felt old. We enjoyed the verb video at the beginning of class and are officially closing the chapter on verbs.

I handed out a schedule for the rest of the semester.  Unfortunately, I'm composing this post at school and don't have digital copy of the handout to paste in here.  If you were absent, please see me for a copy when you return to class.

We discussed the freewrites from last week about our favorite place and related them to Chapter 21 in the text book on the topic of description.  Your assignment for Friday is to go through your freewrite and decide which details are really relevant to your favorite place and the impression you want to communicate, and then type this up.

I am not interested in reading a list of details that describe your favorite place, but details that would support your feelings about that place.

For example, Jennifer and Dustyn's favorite place was the lake.  Rather than say: There are trees and people fishing and sometimes the sun is shining and other times it rains, etc.  Focus on a specific location at the lake.  Dustyn could say: Sitting on the dock with a beer is the most relaxing place for me.  To be even more specific, he could tell what kind of beer. Bottle or can? Are you sitting on a towel or a chair? Is it sunny? Are you alone? Is it quiet or do you hear birds or boats?  Think of your physical senses.  At the end of reading your piece, I want the details to help me understand why this is your favorite place.  This is called creating a dominant impression.

While you should consider all of the senses, in such a short piece you will probably only focus on one or two.  This isn't an exhaustive essay, but something that could be developed into a paragraph and maybe later an essay in your next level writing class.

Try to have fun with this.  It's your favorite place!  Enjoy sharing it with us!

If you start working on this and need any help, don't hesitate to ask.
See you on Friday in ATB 132!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Nouns & Pronouns



Lesson on nouns and pronouns--chapter 3.

Nouns, along with verbs, form the core of our sentences.  They tell us who or what is doing the action.
Nouns name a person, place, thing, or idea.
Pronouns are words that stand in the place of nouns.

Commonly used pronouns include:
I     you     he     she     it     they     all     everyone     many      someone
who     this     that     my     your     his     hers     its     their

Proper nouns are the names of specific person, places, and things.  All other nouns are common nouns. 

Proper Nouns might include:

Lake Superior
Johnson County Community College
Stacey Lillich
Lincoln Memorial
Shawnee Mission Medical Center

Common Nouns
a lake
community college
my teacher
monument
hospital
(**note that you only capitalize when you are referring to a specific person, place, or thing***)

In looking at your freewrite, what are some nouns that you found? Verbs?

Insert a noun into each of the following sentences.

After I graduate from high school, I plan to attend _________________.

The shoplifter stole a __________________from the sports store.

I'm having my surgery done at ________________________.

_______________ threw the football to me.


Give the _____________________ to Jennifer.

What is the correct pronouns in the following sentences?

When Richard and (I/me) went to apply for jobs, we looked for (them/they) in the newspaper advertisements.

Cecilia said that she wanted to be a word processor, but (I/me) was more interested in jobs that might take (I/me) overseas.

(She/her) applied for a computer job when (I/me) found (it/them) in an advertisement.


Both Cecelia and (I/me) had excellent training in our business classes.
(Note, one way to test this is to cross out the other name and see how it sounds.  Can "me" have excellent training in our business classes? Try it in "She had a great time with Cecilia and I/me.") Also check out this link for a good explanation.

Nouns are often subjects in sentences.  After you have located the verb in a sentence, next look for the subject.  The subject either does the action or is linked by a verb to a describing word.

1. Subject with action verb: Mariano Rivera pitches for the Yankees.  (Who pitches?)
2. Subject with helping and linking verbs: Rivera may be the best closing pitcher in baseball. (Who may be the best pitcher?)
In most cases we can find the subject in a sentence by asking who or what is doing the action.

Subjects can be nouns or pronouns. Other possible subjects could be gerunds (verbs with an -ing on the end that act as a noun) and infinitives (verb forms that begin with to and can be nouns).
Examples:
Gerund subject: Laughing is good for the spirit. (What is good for the spirit?)
Infinitive subject: To succeed requires hard work. (What requires hard work?)

Writing Center Workshop

Remember that Monday was our time for working on the lessons at the Writing Center.  I'll be expecting verification of your completion of the master tests in each area starting NEXT WEEK.  That means you should be working on them LAST WEEK so that you can complete them all this semester.

See you on Wednesday!