Writing Hacks - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Writing Hacks

Tips and activities to enhance your writing skillsSlide2

FPMA 3 Results (Hoverboards)

CLASS

# of LOW

# of MODERATE

# of HIGH

Period 1

0

17

4

Period 2

5

10

5

Period 3

3

11

9

Period 4

0

16

7

Period 5

2

17

3

Period 6

1

17

4Slide3

Opening Activity (FPMA 3 REFLECTION)

Get on your laptop.

Go to the SHARED drive > STUDENTS > FRANKENSTEIN

Under FPMA 3, open your class folder to view your paper.

Review the comments and feedback provided.

Respond to the following questions (on the bottom of your document):

What did you do well? (Be specific.)What do you need to improve upon? (Again, be specific.)How much effort did you put into the planning, drafting, and editing of this essay? (And yes, once again, be specific.)Slide4

Hack #1: Plan Before You Write!

Use P.E.EL. (or P.E.E.).

P

oint

(What

is the

main point of this paragraph?) Evidence (What facts, statistics, or expert opinions support the point?)

E

laboration

(How/Why does the evidence relate back to the claim/controlling idea?) A brief plan is better than no plan. You don't have to write down all of your evidence, but noting the source and paragraph number as you read should help you know where to go back.Slide5

Activity

But, before you plan, consider

what the prompt is

even asking

!

When

we say to “TAP” the prompt, we mean it. TASK AUDIENCE (Assume you’re writing in a formal manner. Every. Time.) PURPOSE PROMPT: Write an explanatory essay for your school newspaper about how safety has become a national concern for hoverboard owners.

What is your

task and purpose?Slide6

Activity: Reverse P.E.EL.

Referencing your FPMA 3, you are going to “plan” your essay in reverse.

You will complete the Reverse

P.E.EL. plan sheet

for your

first body paragraph.*If you realize that you don’t have a controlling idea… any points… any evidence… or any elaboration… Well…Finally, we will compare and contrast your initial thoughts versus the final product.Slide7

Discussion Questions:

After completing the Reverse P.E.EL. Activity, what did you realize about your own writing?Slide8

Hack #2: Pick Evidence You Understand!

It’s difficult to explain something you don’t understand.

Choose what makes the most sense to you

!

When choosing evidence, ask yourself...

How does this relate to my point?Why is this important? These questions should help you determine whether or not your evidence is…

R

elevant

PurposefulEffective These questions should also provide potential ideas for elaboration and original commentary.Slide9

Activity

PASSAGE SET TITLE:

“Pen

Names in Literature

”

PROMPT:

Your town’s public library is hosting an exhibit on pen names throughout history. You have been asked to write an informational article for the exhibit’s display explaining why some authors choose to use pen names. TAP the prompt!Slide10

Activity

Once establishing your writing task and purpose,

write a general controlling idea

:

?

PROMPT:

Your town’s public library is hosting an exhibit on pen names throughout history. You have been asked to write an informational article for the exhibit’s display explaining why some authors choose to use pen names. (*Turn the prompt into a question. Your response will essentially be your controlling idea.)Slide11

Activity

With a partner

you will read your designated source, searching for specific POINT(S) to complete your controlling idea!

Source 1

: “What’s in a Name

?” by E. Bennet Source 2: “Introducing Jane Eyre: An Unlikely Victorian Heroine” by National Endowment for the HumanitiesSource 3: “Letter from Robert Southey to Charlotte

Brontë

”

Source 4: “Who is Richard Bachman?” by J. L. CampbellSlide12

Activity

What is an overarching POINT(S) you could make for your controlling idea based on your source and the information provided? (Write on paper first.)Slide13

Activity: Evidence – Trash / Upload

Go to the designated

padlet

link (on my website).

Provide

the TWO BEST pieces of TEXT EVIDENCE to support the controlling idea regarding the "Pen Names in Literature" passage set. ***Make sure to include YOUR NAME(S), YOUR POSSIBLE POINTS, and PROPER CITATION to indicate the corresponding source.

(The passage set is attached at the bottom of the padlet page.) Once posted, find another group that shared the same source. Discuss why your evidence is better! (Or why the other group’s is worse!)

Next class, we will TRASH the “garbage” and UPLOAD the “goods.”Slide14

Hack #3: Write Like You’re Teaching Someone about Your Topic!

Consider what your audience needs to know the most…

Provide context.

The “who, what, where, when, why, how” of the topic or point

Provide evidence.

Paraphrase, direct quote, signal phrase, etc. Provide original commentary and *elaboration. The HOW and WHY

factor

Helps make sense of it all

*Do you remember the SIX TYPES OF ELABORATION?Slide15

Six Types of Elaboration

Explanation

Definition

Evaluation

Analysis (COMPARE/CONTRAST)

Analysis (CAUSE/EFFECT RELATIONSHIPS)

Analysis (PREDICT)Slide16

Reading

Read the remaining sources from the “Pen Names in Literature” passage set.

For each source, write down the potential “point” of each, (just like you did for your assigned source).Slide17

Trash / Upload

Go to the designated

padlet

page where you uploaded your BEST EVIDENCE.

Gather with peers who analyzed the same source.

Pull up your evidence. Discuss the following:What are the potential points you have in common / contrast with your peers?What evidence makes the most sense? How / Why is it relevant?Slide18

Activity

Go to the new

padlet

page for COMMENTARY.

Use any TWO pieces of BEST EVIDENCE to provide original COMMENTARY / ELABORATION. (If you realize your point or evidence is ineffective or lacking focus, feel free to revise!) Make sure to show HOW / WHY the evidence matters through your elaboraiton. Provide your controlling idea and point, followed by the evidence and elaboration. *Remember, write like your teaching someone about the subject!Slide19

Evidence Analysis and Integration Activity

For this activity, you will be taking

THREE pieces

of information

(assigned) from

the “Pen Names in Literature” passage set, determining HOW to use the evidence.Direct Quote: when the author says something in an especially precise or original waySignal Phrase: when only part of the quotation is needed

Paraphrase/Summary

: when

you want to simplify a great deal of information or be more concise in your own words Write a sentence for each, integrating the evidence smoothly into a sentence, providing proper citation as well.Slide20

Example:

Evidence:

“Eric

Blair, author of

Animal Farm

and Nineteen Eighty-Four, adopted the name George Orwell because he feared his early work would embarrass his family.” Revised Evidence: (signal phrase)Fearing his literary beginnings would potentially “embarrass his family,” Eric Blair took on the nom de plume George Orwell, eventually publishing famous works like Animal Farm and

Nineteen Eighty-Four

(Source 1).Slide21

Evidence: (Source 1: “What’s in a Name?” by E.

Bennet)

"

Rowling’s publishers feared that young boys—the presumed audience of the 

Harry Potter

 series—wouldn’t take the book seriously if they knew it was written by a

woman.“ “Charles Dodgson, a noted mathematician, used the name Lewis Carroll to write fantasy works such as Alice in Wonderland.” "When a local newspaper refused him publication, sixteen year-old Benjamin Franklin started writing letters to the editor under the persona of the middle-aged widow Silence

Dogood

.” Slide22

Evidence:

(Source 2: “Introducing Jane Eyre: An Unlikely Victorian Heroine” by National Endowment for the Humanities)

“

Brontë’s

determination to portray a plain yet passionate young woman who defied the stereotype of the docile and domestic Victorian feminine ideal most likely developed from her own dissatisfaction with

domestic duties and a Victorian culture that discouraged women from having literary aspirations.” “Considering Brontë’s position and her desire for literary achievement given that context, we are able to see why she felt compelled to write Jane Eyre and to publish it under a male pen name, Currer Bell.”

“Works

such as Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, George Eliot’s [another woman using a male pen name] Middlemarch and Charlotte Brontë’s own sister Emily’s Wuthering Heights [published under Ellis Bell instead of Emily Brontë] featured female characters that represented trapped and repressed Victorian women marrying for the wrong reasons, disillusioned with family life, and relying on their physical beauty as a means to gain attention and advancement.” Slide23

Evidence

: (Source 3: “Letter from Robert Southey to Charlotte Brontë”)

“Many volumes of poems are now published every year without attracting public attention, any one of which, if it had appeared half a century ago, would have obtained a high reputation for its author. Whoever, therefore, is ambitious of distinction in this way, ought to be prepared for disappointment.”

“Literature

cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be

.” “To those duties you have not yet been called, and, when you are, you will be less eager for celebrity. You will not seek in imagination for excitement, of which the vicissitudes of this life, and the anxieties from which you must not hope to be exempted, be your state what it may, will bring with them but too much.”Slide24

Evidence

: (Source 4: “Who is Richard Bachman?” by J. L. Campbell)

“Initially

, King wanted to write using the Bachman pseudonym so that he would be able to publish more books. When King started writing, it was common practice for publishers to release only one book per year. Writing as both King and Bachman, he could produce twice as

much

work

.” “Thinner, a book released under Richard Bachman’s name, sold about 28,000 copies. When it was later released as a Stephen King book, it sold more than ten times the Bachman version.” “King also embraced the Bachman pseudonym because it allowed him to analyze his own success in his writing career.”Slide25

Introductory Paragraph

Write an introductory paragraph for the prompt below:

PASSAGE SET TITLE:

“Pen Names in Literature”

PROMPT:

Your town’s public library is hosting an exhibit on pen names throughout history. You have been asked to write an informational article for the exhibit’s display explaining why some authors choose to use pen names.