Entry # 6

                                                        WRITING STRUCTURED PARAGRAPHS

Elements for succed in Academic Writing:

 Formal style

 Correct punctuation

 Paragraphing

Paragraph:

 Definition: A distinct section in a piece of writing  indicated by a new line

 Types: Explanatory, descriptive, persuasive and narrative

 Elements:

·         Each paragraph must start in a new line

·         It is focused on one main idea

·         It must be well organized

 Qualities for a successful paragraph:

·         Unity:

o   Topic sentence: Main idea of the paragraph

       + Parts:

                                                                                I.            Topic: Subject of the paragraph

                                                                              II.            Controlling idea: Specific comments about the main idea

                                                  + Position:

                                                                                 I.          At the beginning of the paragraph

                                                                               II.         Elsewhere in the paragraph

                                                                             III.         At the end of the paragraph

·         Coherence:

o   How sentences are related to each other

o   A paragraph is coherence if the details make it easy to read

o   It is achievable

                                                                                I.            If bridges are created from one sentence to an other

                                                                              II.            By repeating key words

                                                                            III.            By using pronouns

                                                                            IV.            By using synonyms

                                                                              V.            By using transition words

·         Development: Details on evidence to support the topic sentence and illustrate points with examples

 TEE RULE:    T (TOPIC SENTECE)

                   E (EXPLANATION OF THE TOPIC SENTENCE)

                   E (EXAMPLES OR EVIDENCE)

 Types of paragraph:

·         Introductory paragraph:

o   States topic of assignment and comments on its importance

o   States main argument

·         Concluding paragraph:

o   Summary of what it has been said before

o   The most important paragraph

o   Summarizes the main points in very few sentences

o   States main conclusions

o   Satisfies the readers

o   DO NOT:

                                                                                I.            Introduce new material

                                                                              II.            End with a generalization

                                                                            III.            End with a quotation

                                  PARTS OF A PARAGRAPH: ENGLISH ACADEMIC WRITING

Paragraph:

v  Topic sentence:

o   The subject of the writing

o   Interesting topic with our opinion on it.

v  Body:

o   Heart of the paragraph

o   Gives more information about the topic

o   Supporting arguments

o   Details: Order by importance and chronology

v  Closing sentence:

o   Remains the audience about what they have been reading

o   Keeps the audience thinking about the topic

o   Restates the topic sentence but in a different way

o   Summarizes the ideas of the paragraph

o   Final comment of the topic

 Sources

Massey University, Writing Structured Paragraphs. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w183qB0KDFg&feature=player_embedded. Accessed on May 29, 2013.

AlexESLvid, Parts of a Paragraph - English Academic Writing Introduction. Retrieved from:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCuExRE6N-4&feature=player_embedded Accessed on May 29, 2013.

Students:
             Grieco, Mayra Rocio.
             Pérez, Marianela.

SHE IS A WRITER

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into thirty languages and has appeared in various publications, including The New Yorker, Granta, The O. Henry Prize Stories, the Financial Times, and Zoetrope. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, a New York Times Notable Book, and a People and Black Issues Book Review Best Book of the Year; and the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck. Her new novel, Americanah, is being published around the world in April and May 2013.

A dangerous single story.

Knowing a single story about a person, a country or a culture could be very dangerous. Broadly speaking, when we are children, we are very vulnerable to incorporate things as unique; as a result, we create a single story. Firstly, the single story creates stereotypes which are not totally true due to the fact that they are incomplete. The single story emphasizes the differences between humans rather than their similarities. Secondly, the single story is related to power. Thus, powerful countries can manipulate the non-powerful ones because power is the ability to tell the story of a person, to make the definitive story of that person. However, stories can also be used to humanize, to repair the dignity of people because a person has many stories to be told. Finally, when humans realize that there is never a single story about any place or any person, they begin a kind of paradise, understanding that their differences make them valued persons. To conclude, it is important to be aware of the danger of having a single story and that we have to know the different stories of a place or person to understand and to know the truth.

The power of literature.

Books and literature have something in common: the ability to show us that we are not alone. To begin with, writing is not a private act, in fact, it is a public one. We always write to an audience. However, being creative implies being not entirely in control of the writing situation at all, the artist could forget about the audience because he is ruled by inspiration and emotion. In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie words “logic can convince us but is in fact emotion that lead us to act; we are emotional beings”.  Secondly, literature is never just words. Literature gives a message, its role is to instruct and delight. Apart from this, literature helps us to see other people´s life style and opinions, as well as, helping us to realize how similar humans are, even though their differences. Thirdly, the realistic literature is not the real story itself, however, it is closed enough to the real world, as well as, transmitting the sensibility of citizenship.  The realistic literature helps us to realize that we share a common and equal humanity owing to the fact that humans always wanted to be valued. The reading of human stories makes us become alive in bodies that are not ours. To conclude, realistic literature remains ourselves that we are not alone mainly because we share our lives with people. Persons always have something in common, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie mentions, “to be human is to be valued” and every person wants to be valued.

Sources:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie´s website.

 Retrieved from:  http://chimamanda.com/  Accessed on May 21, 2013.

Sentences in context

A dialogue between two friends:

-       What about going to the Caribbean next summer?

-       I think it´s a great idea.

-       Let´s find out the price of the hotel.

-       Do you think Darlene would like to come?

-       I don´t know. Darlene is as miserable as ever, and Jackie never comes to visit us. Anyway, I´m sure you don´t want to hear about my problems, so let´s get back to those holiday plans.

-       I think it would be a good idea that Darlene came and spent a good time with us.

  

A dialogue between two friends:

-       Hello, Darlene! How are you?

-       Hi, Peter! I´m fine. What about you?

-       Everything okay. Did you see the bike race yesterday?

-        Yes, after working, I spent the rest of the day watching the cycling on television. By the way talking about bikes, have you got yours mended yet?

-       No, I will get it next week.

-       So, when you get it, tell me and we can go cycling to the park.

Entry # 4

American Psychological Association.

APA citation style refers to the rules and conventions for documenting sources used in a research paper.

·         Font: recommends using 12 pt. Times New Roman.

·         All papers should be double space.

·         Print on white 8.5 x ll-inch paper.

APA style recommends organizing your paper into the following sections:

·         Title page.

·         Abstract.

·         Main body.

·         References.

APA Formatting:

·         Reference page on a separate sheet of paper, the same title as the rest of the paper. The word reference must be centered at the top of the page.

·         Author´s last name and then initials for all authors of a particular work for up to and including seven authors. A work that has more than seven authors, list the first six authors and then use ellipses after the sixth author´s name. After the ellipses, list the last author´s name of the work.

·         Names of books, chapters, articles or web pages only capitalize the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle.

APA Citation of:

·          Books

·         Journal article

·          Magazines

·          Newspapers

·          Encyclopedias

·         Web- based sources

Citing books:

Author´s last name, A (year of publication) Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

Citing Articles from Scholarly Journals:

Author, A.A, Author, B.B, & Author, C.C. (Year) Title of article. Title of periodical, volume number (issue number), pages.

Magazines:

Author, A. A. (date). Title of article. Title of periodical. Volume, pages.

Newspapers:

Author, A.A. (date). Title of article. Title of newspaper, page number(s).

P for single page.

PP for double pages.

Citing Articles from Encyclopedias:

Author, A. A. (date). Title of article. In Title of encyclopedia. (Volume, page numbers). City of publication, State: Publisher.

Citing Web- based sources:

Author, A.A. & Author, B.B. (date of publication). Title of article. Title of journal, volume number. Retrieved from http://www.journalhomepage.com/full/url

Sources:

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6º edition).
Retrieved from http://www.apastyle.org/ Accessed on May 12, 2013.

I AM WRITER (IMPROVED VERSION)

Being a writer is a difficult task. Nobody can write without inspiration. You need to have many innate characteristics or develop them through practice.

Being a writer is not easy, you have to be a very creative person and have a particular vision of life, share your life with your characters as well as writing all the ideas you have no matter the moment of the day; so you need to be always prepared to do it. What is needed is discipline to reinforce your imagination as well as observation; writers watch people and events and store away material which they can use later on.

Even though you need the characteristics mentioned before, they can be developed through constant practice and lecture of different types of books. All writes need an audience and maybe your life can change radically when a book of yours is published and people loves it. Self-confidence is what is needed to decide that your material is good enough to get published, this means taking a serious attitude towards your work, to put it another way, you must behave as a professional writer. As a result, you can become a very famous writer and a film of your book can be done, what it would be marvelous.

So, would you like to develop yourself and became a famous writer? No matter the topic of your novel or story book, give the best of you as well as enjoying the experience of seeing your words printed on paper.

Metacognitive Reflection

When we have to experience the writing situation, knowing all the writing steps can be very helpful. Taking into account the steps give us confidence as well as organizing our thoughts. The writing strategies help us to have a clear idea of what we are going to talk about. They are also helpful to make us aware of grammar mistakes because we need to edit our work before publishing it.

I AM A WRITER

I AM A WRITER

Being a writer is a difficult task. Nobody can write without inspiration. You need to have many innate characteristics or develop them through practice.

Being a writer is not easy, you have to be a very creative person and have a particular vision of life, share your life with your characters and write all the ideas you have no matter the moment of the day, so you need to be always prepared to do it.

Although you need the characteristics mentioned before, they can be developed through constant practice and lecture of different types of book. All writes need an audience and maybe your life can change radically when a book of yours is published and people loves it. You can become a very famous person and can be done a film of your book, what it would be wonderful.

So, would you like to develop yourself and became a famous writer? No matter the topic of your novel or book, give the best of you and enjoy the experience of seeing your words printed on paper.

Hi everyone! I hope we can enjoy the new experience of sharing our writing assignments. See you, Marianela.