A Podcast on Argumentative Writing - Entry #10

Teachers of other subjects are expected to support student writing.
The five paragraph essay is a basic format of essay, very useful, but not the only one. In fact, the problem is that many students, even of university level, cannot go beyond it. It helps them to understand the basic structure.
Going beyond the five-paragraph-essay
Any type of writing should have an introduction of some kind, a body of about three main points, and a closing. This is basically a five-paragraph-essay; but students should not feel they are to write only five paragraphs. It is not true, either, that each paragraph should have a certain number of sentences.
1 Read good writings
Show mentor texts, examples of well-written texts in the genre we want students to write. Thus, if we want them to write a good piece of argumentative essay, models of such genre should be provided to them. Real life texts are the best at this initial stage. It is also a good idea to deal with topics students feel connected with, so they have more to say about it.
Reading is not enough: comparisons need to be made, how the writer cited, criticism and analysis are to be carried out before actually writing.
Formulaic writing is not quite a s important as experimenting a variety of writings.
2 Free style arguing
Icebreakers are used, where one polemic issue is discussed and students take their stand. They defend their position, so ideas flow freely. This is to show that giving an argument is something done regularly and sometimes unconsciously. An easy topic which students can talk about is ideal.
3 Formal argument
The teacher gives written data and information to learn about a topic before beginning the writing process. This helps to back up one´s personal opinion and strengthens one's argument. Students look for evidence to support their points in the material they were given. This is an oral discussion.
Philosophical Chairs
A little bit more formal and structured debate, two sides argue their points. One side is supposed to summarise the opposite's point before talking. Students are required to refer to evidence in their texts. As a result of this, they get acquainted with citing textual evidence for one's argument.
4 Performance assessment 
It takes time; it could take up to four weeks. A sample is shown, teacher-created or a well-done student model as a model of the assignment. teaching how to do a research should be taught in a different lesson.
5 Building the base
Not leaving students work alone without help is important. Students can look at their partners' work. After all, they are going to write different things. The teacher could start composing and writing his/her own essay on a topic of his/her choice to show how the process works. Seeing how the process develops really helps their own. This step, the writer's workshop, would take two weeks
Once students have their thesis statement and three reasons they could work at their own pace. This is self-paced learning. Students write and clear up their doubts with the teacher's help and work at their own pace. Some skills students need to develop are knowing how to choose the best evidence, how to distinguish reliable, credible information, the kind of language necessary, citing sources correctly and how to move from one idea in a paragraph to the next one.

How to write an effective essay- Entry #9

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A well-written paragraph – Entry #8

Parts of a Paragraph - English Academic Writing Introduction

 Alex, at his YouTube channel “English Lessons with Alex (engVid AlexESLvid)” offers information about how to write a paragraph, the basic information needed to write it well.

He states that the North American formal writing style has a ‘formula’:

1. Topic sentence
2. Body – order of importance or chronology
3. Closing sentence

His piece of advice is... 

• For the topic sentence, do not make it over-detailed
• The body is the heart of the paragraph. The supporting details and arguments are here and should always be linked to the first sentence
• The closing sentence reminds the audience of what the paragraph is about by restating the topic sentence and adds a little extra to keep them thinking

This is part of the information you are going to find in the video. Here it is

Examples of Topic Sentences

1) Many politicians deplore the passing of the old family-sized farm, but I'm not so sure. I saw around Velva a release from what was like slavery to the tyrannical soil, release from the ignorance that darkens the soul and from the loneliness that corrodes it. In this generation my Velva friends have rejoined the general American society that their pioneering fathers left behind when they first made the barren trek in the days of the wheat rush. As I sit here in Washington writing this, I can feel their nearness.

2) There are two broad theories concerning what triggers a human's inevitable decline to death. The first is the wear-and-tear hypothesis that suggests the body eventually succumbs to the environmental insults of life. The second is the notion that we have an internal clock which is genetically programmed to run down. Supporters of the wear-and-tear theory maintain that the very practice of breathing causes us to age because inhaled oxygen produces toxic by-products. Advocates of the internal clock theory believe that individual cells are told to stop dividing and thus eventually to die by, for example, hormones produced by the brain or by their own genes.

3) We commonly look on the discipline of war as vastly more rigid than any discipline necessary in time of peace, but this is an error. The strictest military discipline imaginable is still looser than that prevailing in the average assembly-line. The soldier, at worst, is still able to exercise the highest conceivable functions of freedom -- that is, he or she is permitted to steal and to kill. No discipline prevailing in peace gives him or her anything remotely resembling this. The soldier is, in war, in the position of a free adult; in peace he or she is almost always in the position of a child. In war all things are excused by success, even violations of discipline. In peace, speaking generally, success is inconceivable except as a function of discipline.

4) Although the interpretation of traffic signals may seem highly standardized, close observation reveals regional variations across this country, distinguishing the East Coast from Central Canada and the West as surely as dominant dialects or political inclinations. In Montreal, a flashing red traffic light instructs drivers to careen even more wildly through intersections heavily populated with pedestrians and oncoming vehicles. In startling contrast, an amber light in Calgary warns drivers to scream to a halt on the off chance that there might be a pedestrian within 500 meters who might consider crossing at some unspecified time within the current day. In my home town in New Brunswick, finally, traffic lights (along with painted lines and posted speed limits) do not apply to tractors, all terrain vehicles, or pickup trucks, which together account for most vehicles on the road. In fact, were any observant Canadian dropped from an alien space vessel at an unspecified intersection anywhere in this vast land, he or she could almost certainly orient him-or-herself according to the surrounding traffic patterns.

Retrieved on June, 1st 2016 from the website http://arts.uottawa.ca/writingcentre/en/hypergrammar/writing-paragraphs/review-topic-sentences

Exploring ideas in Literature: Genres – Entry #7

What is Literature good for? Exploring literature may help people think about the important questions in life, and there is a variety of genres in literature. Genre also means "form" or "type". Therefore, each genre or form in literature has certain particular characteristics and there are different categories of genres: fiction,  poetry, drama and non-fiction.

·         FICTION. This genre refers to stories about non-real events and characters but that does not necessarily mean that in fiction everything can be made-up. Some authors invent every element of a story, from the setting to the plot and the characters, whereas there are others who, get the inspiration from real events and people and then build a story around them. All fiction should have a plot, a setting, and characters. Fiction also has themes or messages about life.

Three examples of fiction are:

·        A short story often focuses on a single event or incident. It is the shortest.

·        A novella is generally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. Novellas usually have a limited number of characters.

·        A novel is a longer work of fiction that describes different events, storylines, and characters. It is the longest.

Elements of fiction are: plot, conflict, characters, setting, theme, narrator, and point of view. We can analyse fiction through these elements.  

·         POETRY. In this is a type of literature words are chosen and arranged in a precise way to create certain sounds and meanings, specific effects, for example: odes, sonnets, narrative poems, lyric poems. Poems are made up of lines grouped in stanzas which may follow a recognizable form or not.

·         DRAMA. A drama is any work that is written to be performed on a stage, a dialogue among characters. It shares the same elements of good fiction: plot, characters, setting and theme. But it differs from fiction in the way it is written. It is written to be performed on stage  and it is usually divided into scenes, grouped into acts. The characters and conflicts are developed through dialogues and action. Examples are comedies, radio plays and historical dramas.

NON FICTIONAL AND INFORMATIONAL TEXTS describe real events, people and places. Informational nonfiction is related to those sources consulted for information such as news articles, manuals, directions . Another example of this genre is the autobiographies and biographies which provide details about a person´s life from the person´s point of view or a third person´s version. Essays and speeches pretend to share personal experience to express feelings, to inform, to persuade or to entertain. The first one can be written in a formal or informal style and the second is written to be performed orally. In nonfiction the events actually happened, and the characters are real people. Informational nonfiction includes and other sources you consult for information.

Types of nonfiction texts are:

+  AUTOBIOGRAPHY/ BIOGRAPHY. (The true story of a person’s life. Written in first or third person)

+  ESSAY.(It  focuses on a single subject to be written with one of the styles: informal style with an academic tone or informal style with a conversational tone)

+  SPEECH. (Oral presentation of the ideas, beliefs, or proposals of a speaker)

+  NEWS/ FEATURES ARTICLES. (they report recent events)

+  FUNCTIONAL DOCUMENTS. (user manuals)

MEDIA. It is important to become media literate and learn how to read its messages. Featured films and TV shows are created to entertain people and technology is found everywhere nowadays. News media are designed to inform. Media messages influence people's beliefs and actions and that is why it is important to become media literate and know how to read all types of media messages. 

·         Advertising to persuade and Web sites present information however they require evaluation as most web sites are not checked for credibility.

• News media: designed to inform and entertain viewers presented in many forms such as magazines, newspapers, television, the radio and the Web.

• TV shows: programs broadcast on television which are sponsored by advertisers. They could be dramas, sitcoms, talk shows, documentaries and reality shows.

• Web sites: present information through text, graphics, audio, video, animation and interactive features. Most web sites are not checked for credibility.

• Feature films: motion pictures that use narrative elements to tell stories with the purpose of entertaining and making money.

What is "Academic" Writing? - Entry #6

Communication and miscommunication - Entry #5

We’ve all experienced miscommunication. Trying to say something and being misunderstood or not listened to. Not understanding the other speaker is miscommunication too.

Some model try to explain what communication is:

Transmission model described communication as a message going from one person to the other but that was too simplistic. Real life communication is really more complex than that.

Transactional model is more interactional as it considers the reception of feedback from the other speaker. We create meaning while speaking.

Still, our internal perceptions determine what we are going to interpret from the other person, even emotions can cloud our understanding. The message is always changing as it is passed from person to person.

Passive hearing and active listening are different so when you listen, listen with eyes and ears. Pay full attention.

Take to time to understand, be open.

Be aware of your own perception and what conditions your understanding

Speech acts-constative-performative - Entry #4