verbs

We've started working on verb tense. It's important to keep your tenses consistent in writing so your readers can follow the timeline.

We covered six tenses:
past, present, future and continuous past, present and future.

check out the chapter in Scarry for an awesome chart that breaks these tenses down.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Style and Structure

We discussed two main ideas today. 

Style:  We learned about descriptive writing. 

• description is a method of development that uses sensory images to recreate a situation for the readers. 
• descriptive writing uses all six senses (sight, sounds, touch, taste, smell, and emotions) to help you recreate a moment for your readers. 
• descriptive writing always includes a DOMINANT IMPRESSION--a main impression or point that the writer wants the readers to pick up on. 

Look at the image to the right --> --> -->

• What sounds can he hear?
• What does he smell like?
• What can he taste right now?
• What emotions does he feel?
• What does he look like?
• What does the ball feel like against his foot?

We also talked about essay structure.  Today we focused on the INTRODUCTION.

There are three pieces to the intro

1. the hook (which catches the readers' attention)
2. the background (which provides the basics each reader needs to know to understand your point)
3. the thesis (which states the point of the whole essay)

**Check out this link about what you SHOULD NOT DO in an introduction**

For more practice on introductions, email me or Nancy! 

Homework (ex. 11 from Scarry page 511)

I know some of you have old books, and exercise 11 is not in the old book.  Below is the exercise:

Compose your own introductory paragraph using narration and description.  On a seprate sheet of paper, write out your introductory paragraph making sure to include a hook, background and thesis. 

**If you are lost, check this afternoon's blog notes from class. 

Kevin Costner...inventor?

Check out the article from the LA Times.  

Image for class Thursday, June 24

Wednesday, June 23

It was a dark and stormy night...

Today, we reviewed some troublesome sentences that make finding the subject particularly difficult.

Sentences that begin with THERE or HERE

• There are problems in all parts of the world. 

Notice the verb is are, which is a linking verb.  In this case though, the subject is behind the verb, so the linking kind of works backwards.  You can help yourself find the subject by looking for the verb first (are), and then asking "what are there?"  Problems!

• Here are the qualities of a good cupcake. 

Again, the verb is in front of the subject, but when the sentence starts with HERE, you can just ask "what are here?"  Qualities!

We also examined apostrophes for use in showing possession.

Verbs!

Today we really got into different parts of speech.  And that's a good thing because knowing how to craft a sentence will help us develop and strengthen our paragraphs. 

We learned about several parts of speech:

• Nouns-people, places and things
• Pronouns-small little words that take the place of nouns (he, she, it)
• Verbs-show the time frame and action in sentences.  Sometimes verbs also link subjects to descriptions of the subject.  Those are called linking verbs.
• Prepositions-small words that point readers in a direction to the object.
• Conjunctions-(also called FANBOYS) connect parts of sentences together
• Adjectives-describe or modify nouns and pronouns
• Adverbs-describe verbs (and a bit more, but we'll cover that later this summer). 

We really focused on verbs today, especially ACTION VERBS!  Action verbs show readers what the subject is doing and when the action took place (because of the tense).  Check out Scarry page 47 for some samples and practice work. 

We finished off the day with Vocab List #2 (see Blackboard) and writing the second draft of our paper in class.  Email me (lroessner@ccc.edu) with questions or concerns about this second draft.  On Monday, we'll be moving on to draft #3 (the final draft of this first essay).