English Logic and Writing

English Logic and Writing Week 13 (May 29th, 2014)

Today’s schedule • Return analogy paragraphs • 5 paragraph essay Q and A • How to write an Introduction • How to write a Conclusion

Analogies

Teachers are like umbrellas. Like Junot Diaz’s mother’s teacher, teachers can protect students, whose hands they hold, especially when they are in trouble. She was an idealistic educator so when his mother begged the teacher, saying, ‘I want to go to school,’ she took it very seriously. The Dominican girl held a young teacher’s hand desperately, and the young and idealistic teacher grabbed her hand. Like an umbrella and the person who holds it, they went hand in hand in the rain. When it rains, it is like having difficulties, but if you have an umbrella, you don’t have to be worried. You can hold it until you the rain passes.

5 Paragraph Essays • Introduction • 3 Body Paragraphs • Conclusion

Introductions • Should invite readers into your essay • Minimum: state subject, lead to your main idea (thesis) • Effective introductions grab the readers attention! • Say just enough, don’t tell readers any more or less than they need to know.

More notes on introductions • Make a good first impression • Establish a positive, engaging tone • Avoid mechanical phrasing “In this essay I will explain…”

Effective ways to begin an Intro. • Lead up to a statement about your main idea, perhaps showing why you care about it. • Present startling facts about your subject • Tell an anecdote (brief story that illustrates your subject) • Give background information • Begin with an interesting quotation • Ask a challenging question

Your Main Point is: Why you believe what you believe about Education What are some ways you could begin your introduction? In pairs, think of ways you could start your essay, using the 6 strategies: • Lead up to a statement about your main idea, perhaps showing why you care about it. • Present startling facts about your subject • Tell an anecdote (brief story that illustrates your subject) • Give background information • Begin with an interesting quotation • Ask a challenging question

Let’s look at some essays: which strategy did this essay use? • Think about this: • Which strategy did they use? • Did they grab the readers attention? • Did they say just enough (and didn’t tell readers any more or less than they need to know)

Bill McKibben “Waste Not, Want Not” Does it… • Lead up to a statement about your main idea, perhaps showing why you care about it. • Present startling facts about your subject • Tell an anecdote (brief story that illustrates your subject) • Give background information • Begin with an interesting quotation • Ask a challenging question Once a year or so, it’s my turn to run recycling day for our tiny town. Saturday morning, nine to twelve, a steady stream of people show up to sort out their plastics (No. 1, No. 2, etc.), their corrugated cardboard (flattened, please), their glass (and their returnable glass, which goes to benefit the elementary school), the Styrofoam peanuts, their paper, their cans. It’s quite satisfying – everything in its place.

Derrick Jensen “Forget Shorter Showers” Does it… • Lead up to a statement about your main idea, perhaps showing why you care about it. • Present startling facts about your subject • Tell an anecdote (brief story that illustrates your subject) • Give background information • Begin with an interesting quotation • Ask a challenging question Would any sane person think Dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday, or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons, or that dancing naked around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Then why now, with all the world at stake, do so many people retreat into these entirely personal “solutions?”

Maya Angelou “Champion of the World” Does it… • Lead up to a statement about your main idea, perhaps showing why you care about it. • Present startling facts about your subject • Tell an anecdote (brief story that illustrates your subject) • Give background information • Begin with an interesting quotation • Ask a challenging question The last inch of space was filled, yet people continued to wedge themselves along the walls of the Store. Uncle Willie had turn the radio up to its last notch so that youngsters on the porch wouldn’t miss a word. Women sat on kitchen chairs, dining room chairs, stools, and upturned wooden boxes. Small children and babies perched on every lap available and men leaned on the shelves or on each other.

I love the Look of Words Maya Angelou4/4/1928 - 5/28/2014 • Popcorn leaps, popping from the floorof a hot black skilletand into my mouth.Black words leap,snapping from the whitepage. Rushing into my eyes. Slidinginto my brain which gobbles themthe way my tongue and teethchomp the buttered popcorn. • When I have stopped reading,ideas from the words stay stuckin my mind, like the sweetsmell of butter perfuming myfingers long after the popcornis finished. • I love the book and the look of wordsthe weight of ideas that popped into my mind.I love the tracksof new thinking in my mind.

Conclusion • Give a sense of unity to the whole essay • Ideas come from what was written in the body • Convince readers that the essay is finished but the author isn’t out of ideas

Effective Conclusions… • Restate the thesis or main point of your essay • Mention the broader implications or significant of your topic • Give a final example • Offer a prediction for the future • End with the most important point • Suggest how the reader can apply the information you have provided • End with some drama or a flourish: tell an anecdote, use a quotation, ask a question, make an insightful remark, circle back to the introduction, etc.

More Notes on Conclusions • Try not to sound false or gimmicky • Don’t diminish the impact of your writing by ending on a weak note • Don’t apologize for what you have or have not written • Don’t cram details here that should be in the body

Your Main Point is: Why you believe what you believe about Education What are some ways you could end your essay? In pairs, think of ways you could start your essay, using the 7 suggestions: • Restate the thesis or main point of your essay • Mention the broader implications or significance of your topic • Give a final example • Offer a prediction for the future • End with the most important point • Suggest how the reader can apply the information you have provided • End with some drama or a flourish: tell an anecdote, use a quotation, ask a question, make an insightful remark, circle back to the introduction, etc.

Bill McKibben “Waste Not, Want Not” • Does it: • Restate the thesis or main point of your essay • Mention the broader implications of your topic • Give a final example • Offer a prediction for the future • End with the most important point • Suggest how the reader can apply the information you have provided • End with some drama or a flourish • Is it weak? Strong? We may have waited too long – we may have wasted our last good chance. It’s possible the planet will keep warming and the economy keep sinking no matter what. But perhaps not – and we seem ready to shoot for something nobler than the hyperconsumerism that’s wasted so much of the last few decades. Barak Obama said he would “call out” the nation’s mayors if they wasted their stimulus money. That’s the mood we’re in, and it’s about time.

Derrick Jensen “Forget Shorter Showers” • Does it: • Restate the thesis or main point of your essay • Mention the broader implications of your topic • Give a final example • Offer a prediction for the future • End with the most important point • Suggest how the reader can apply the information you have provided • End with some drama or a flourish • Is it weak? Strong? The good news is that there are other options. We can follow the examples of brave activists who lived through the difficult times I mentioned – Nazi Germany, Tsarist Russia, antebellum United States – who did far more than manifest a form of moral purity; they activity opposed the injustices stat surrounded them. We can follow the examples of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems.

Junot Diaz “The Dreamer” • Does it: • Restate the thesis or main point of your essay • Mention the broader implications of your topic • Give a final example • Offer a prediction for the future • End with the most important point • Suggest how the reader can apply the information you have provided • End with some drama or a flourish • Is it weak? Strong? She never did become a nurse, my mother. Immigration got in the way of that horizon – once in the United States, my mother never could master English, no matter how hard she tried, and my God, did she try. But strange how things work – her son became a reader and a writer, practices she encouraged as much as possible. I write professional now, and life is long and complicated, and who knows how things might have turned out under different circumstances, but I do believe that who I am as an artist, everything that I’ve ever written, was possible because a seven-year-old girl up in the hills of Azua knelt before a puddle, found courage in herself and drank. Ever time I’m in trouble in my art, I try to think of that girl. I think of that thirst, of that courage. I think of her.

Any questions about next week?

English Logic and Writing