Learning Objective: To use conventions of English to develop clear and detailed informational and directional compositions Common Core Standards: W.9-10.3.

Learning Objective: To use conventions of English to develop clear and detailed informational and directional compositions

Common Core Standards: W.9-10.3. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole.

L.9-10.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

RI.9-10.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

RI.9-10.3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

RI.9-10.5. Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).

RI.9-10.6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.

Write the first draft of a paragraph about a familiar process that you believe needs improvement. After choosing your topic, do some background research. In your own words, argue for a revision of the existing process. For example, are you happy with the process for dealing with recyclables where you live, the process for registering for majors at Brooklyn Tech, or the way students are selected for teams.

Spelling Words

etiquette

hygiene

Vocabulary Words augment (v.)

August means supreme and majestic The sufffix –ment means a movement The prefix a- means towards Likewise, one cannot augment  his or her

intelligence without proper and exerting mental or intellectual workout.

to make larger; enlarge in size, number, strength, or extent; increase.

avarice (n.) His characters are motivated by

avarice because of their greed. insatiable greed for riches; inordinate,

miserly desire to gain and hoard wealth.

Motivational Motivational Activity: Activity:

Describe your three most serious failings when it comes to writing. What do you think you can do to remedy each one.

Free write a process analysis paragraph in which you are ironic about the steps that need to be followed. For example, in a paragraph about how to lose weight by changing your diet or increasing your exercise, you might cast in a positive light all the things that absolutely should not be done.

When you give someone directions to your home, tell someone how to make ice cream, or explain how a president is elected, you are using process analysis.

Process analysis usually arranges a series of events and relates them to one another.

Process analysis tries to explain -in detail- how something happens.

There are two types of process analysis: directional and informational.

The directional type provides instructions on how to do something. The purpose is to give the reader directions to follow that will lead to a desired result.

There is a full-proof method of outsmarting a vending machine that refuses to give up its food. First, approach the machine coolly. Make sure that you don’t seem frightened or angry. The machine will sense these emotions and steal your money. Second, be polite. Say hello; compliment the machine on its selection of goodies, and smile. Be careful. If the machine thinks you are trying to take advantage of it, it will steal your money. Third, if the machine steals your money, remain calm. Ask nicely to get the food you paid for. Finally, it is time to get serious. Hit the side of the vending machine with your fist. If this doesn’t work, lower your shoulder and throw yourself at the machine. A good kick or two might also help. When the machine has had enough, it will drop your snack, and you can grab it. If you follow these simple steps, you should have no trouble walking away from vending machines with the food you paid for.

There are two types of process analysis: directional and informational.

The informational type tells how something works, how something is made, or how something occurs.

Clarity is crucial for successful process analysis. The most effective way to explain a process is to divide it into steps and present those steps in a clear and chronological sequence. Sometimes, you have to explain why a certain step is necessary.

Read Adam Goodheart’s “Mummy Arts”

Group #1: Focus on Strategy ( 2 groups of six)

Group #2: Focus on the Pattern (2 groups of five)

Group #3: Focus on Critical Thinking (2 groups of three)

Group #4: Focus on Writing ( 2 groups of four)

The sun rose slowly over Mount Vernon on December 12, 1799, revealing a cold and wintry day. Aside from periods of rain, sleet, and snow, it seemed like a normal day. Indeed, no one could have foreseen that this day would lead to the death of a great American hero: George Washington.

Nouns: sun; Mount Vernon; December 12, 1799; day; periods; rains, sleet, snow; day; day; death; hero; George Washington

Pronouns: it; no one; that

Verbs: rose; revealing; seemed; could have foreseen; would lead

Prepositions: over; on; aside from; of; to; of

Adjectives: The; a; cold; wintry; a; normal; this; great; American

Adverbs: slowly; like

Conjunctions: and; and; indeed Interjections: NONE

With over four thousand soldiers under his command, the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado headed north in 1540 from what is now Mexico. He was hoping to find the immense wealth of the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola, also known as the Seven Cities of Gold. He never found the imaginary cities, but he did explore areas of the southwestern United States. To escape the dry climate of Arizona, Colorado and his troops marched northeastern into New Mexico. Here he saw the magnificent Rocky Mountains in the distance from his winter campsite.

List the first ten adjectives in the following paragraph. Exclude the articles a, an, or the.

Arizona State University effectively runs an academic “boot camp.” It substantially increases the number of minority, college-bound math majors. Sixteen-year-olds develop their math skills quite successfully here. They work cooperatively to solve one hundred math problems nightly. The students study intensely, but they work happily together. Initially, this program helped only thirty-two minority students. The academic “boot camp” has progressed significantly and quickly, becoming part of the university’s Institute for Strengthening Underrepresented Minority Students in Mathematics and Science.

List the first ten adjectives in the following paragraph.

When his troops later crossed the present-day Texas, they experienced a dramatic change in scenery. The landscape became barren and flat. Grass-covered plains stretched to the horizon. Coronado and his troops never found the mythical cities of gold for which they were searching. When they reached what is now south-central Kansas, they turned back. Their long adventure took two difficult years. Coronado retired to a quiet, uneventful life in Mexico City, richer in knowledge of the North American continent than in gold.

List the first ten adjectives in the following paragraph. Exclude the articles a, an, or the.

It takes a creative person to develop a new invention. Alexander Graham Bell worked extraordinarily hard to perfect his highly successful invention, the telephone. Marie Curie won a second Nobel; Peace Prize in 1911 for her exceptional work with dangerously radioactive elements. Pi Sheng created one of the first entirely mechanical printing presses in China in 1040. Samuel Morse’s first completely accurate telegraph message was sent from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., in 1844. Nineteenth century French physician Rene Laennec invented the stethoscope, a strange, foot-long device, to listen to patients’ chest sounds and to diagnose previously undetermined heart ailments. Thomas Edison, an ingenious inventor, registered more than one thousand patents for such brilliantly imaginative products as the light-bulb, the phonograph, and the movie projector. Basketball fans owe a deep debt of gratitude to James Naismith, who invented the game in 1891 by cleverly using two peach baskets and a soccer ball.

List the first ten adjectives in the following paragraph.

Confusing: First, the vending machine should be approached coolly. Make sure that you don’t seem frightened or angry.

Illogical shift from passive to active voice

When you write a process analysis, you may find yourself making illogical shifts in tense, person, and/or voice

Clear: First, approach the vending machine coolly. Make sure that you don’t seem frightened or angry.

Consistent use of active voice

Strictly speaking, in English, only two tenses are marked in the verb alone, present (as in "he sings") and past (as in "he sang"). Other English language tenses, as many as thirty of them, are marked by other words called auxiliaries. Understanding the six basic tenses allows one to re-create much of the reality of time in his writing.

Simple Present: They walkPresent Perfect: They have walkedSimple Past: They walkedPast Perfect: They had walkedFuture: They will walkFuture Perfect: They will have walked

Present Tense: expresses an action that is occurring now (Martina runs down the court and shoots the ball.)

Past Tense: expresses an action that occurred in the past. (In the last lap, the runner fell and injured his knee.)

Future Tense: expresses an action that will occur (The president will not return to Washington today.)

Present Perfect Tense: expresses an action that occurred at an indefinite time in the past. (Miguel and Tim have already entered the information into the computer.)

Past Perfect Tense: expresses an action that ended before some other past action (Paul had travelled several miles before he realized his mistake.)

Future Perfect Tense: expresses an action that will end before some other future occurrence. (By the time school begins in August,. You will have saved enough money to buy the car.)

Each of the following sentences contains an error in the use of tenses. Give the correct form of the verb.

1.Would you still have told that joke if we said we already heard it?

2.Who found that the earth revolved around the sun?

3.By the time we get to the picnic area, the rain will stop. 

4.In July my parents will be married for twenty-five years. 

5.If the books have been cataloged last week, why haven’t they been shelved?

6.I would have agreed if you would have asked me sooner.

7.Val claims that cats made the best pets.

8.After Sam had answered, Mr. Catalano says, “There were no rabbits.”

9.Before leaving the house, we have closed the windows.

10.As a witness to the accident, Pam told the police what happened.

Pilar, Kimberly, and Laura have donated their time.

Identify the pronoun. Why is the pronoun plural?

A pronoun usually refers to a noun or another pronoun, which is called the pronoun’s antecedent.

Neither Cindy nor Carla think she is ready to audition for the school play.

Identify the pronoun.Why is the pronoun singular?

Some indefinite pronouns are singular: anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, somebody, someone, and something.

Some indefinite pronouns are plural: both, few, many, and several.

Some indefinite pronouns can be either singular or plural, depending on their meaning: all, any, more, most, none, or some.

Everybody stayed late at the dance party because they were enjoying themselves. (Informal)

Everybody stayed late at the dance party because he or she was enjoying himself or herself. (Grammatically correct but misleading and wordy)

All of the students stayed late at the dance party because they were enjoying themselves. (Grammatically correct and clear)

There are two types of process analysis: directional and informational.

The directional type provides instructions on how to do something. The purpose is to give the reader directions to follow that will lead to a desired result.

Read Paul Merrill’s “The Principles of Poor Writing”

•At what point did you realize that Merrill was being ironic?

•Why did Merrill order his three process steps in this particular way? Could he have used a different order?

•Complete Writing Assignment #1

Compare your process analysis paragraphs (both about something you do well, but one written with irony. Which is most effective? Revise the more effective one

and submit it.