Friday English 11

ACT Practice: Try the tests at http://www.actpracticetest.net/

OR try MENSA - a society for bright people, the only qualification for membership of which was a high IQ. The original aims were, as they are today, to create a society that is non-political and free from all racial or religious distinctions. The society welcomes people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population, with the objective of enjoying each other's company and participating in a wide range of social and cultural activities.

try a MENSA workout at http://www.mensa.org/workout.php

Outline and Essay format

For fun!

An Emphatic Essay About Appositive Epithets

Posted: 26 Feb 2012 08:52 PM PST

An interesting problem often presents itself when one employs an anarthrous nominal premodifier.

A what who which?

“Anarthrous nominal premodifier” is usage-ese for “false title,” one of a handful of other more user-friendly ways to describe a job title that is not a job title. A description of this concept that is, I think, better still is epithet (a versatile word meaning, in this case, “characterization”), and that’s the one I use here and elsewhere on this site.

An epithet — in which, for purposes of clarification or edification, a person’s name is preceded by a concise description of that person — is often derided as a coarse conceit of journalistic writing, but it appears quite often in books and other forms of publication as well, and it serves a useful purpose, eliminating the need to follow a person’s name with a more distracting (and often more extensive) parenthetical description.

Unfortunately, too many people form the epithet-name construction incorrectly, as in this sentence: “The essay was written by humanities professor, Paul A. Robinson.”

This is one of the most egregious mechanical errors a writer can make; few other such infelicities distinguish the amateur from the professional, and it is one of life’s mysteries how such an obvious error has come to be so persistent as well as pervasive. (The correct form, of course, is “The essay was written by humanities professor Paul A. Robinson.”)

The mistake probably stems from confusion with the nearly identical form in the more traditional sentences “The essay was written by a humanities professor, Paul A. Robinson” and “The essay was written by Paul A. Robinson, a humanities professor.” (These forms are preferable to those who find epithets antithetical to good writing.)

The distinction here is that in the corrected sentence, the phrase “humanities professor” is a restrictive appositive. (An appositive is a noun phrase that defines or modifies another noun phrase, and a restrictive appositive is one that applies to only one other noun phrase.) In this sentence, the only humanities professor the phrase can refer to is Paul A. Robinson.

The presence of the indefinite article in the other variations is the crucial indicator that they each include a nonrestrictive appositive, one that refers to any example of the appositive’s description; Paul A. Robinson is just one member of the class “humanities professor,” and the punctuation signals that fact.

The restrictive/nonrestrictive distinction in appositives should be observed when referring to inanimate objects as well. A common error is to insert punctuation between the appositives in “Have you read the book, The Bestseller?” If a generic reference to the book has already been made, this sentence is correct; the title is an elaboration. However, when used on first reference, this construction presumes that the sole example of the concept “book” is The Bestseller. Because The Bestseller is, in fact, only one example among countless others, the comma is omitted to indicate that “the book” and “The Bestseller” are identical.

The same principle applies to any form of composition (film, television program, and so on) or any other thing: “I went to the amusement park Funland.” (“I went to the amusement park, Funland,” in the absence of a previous reference, implies that only one amusement park exists. “I went to the world’s largest amusement park, Funland,” by contrast, is correct, because only one amusement park can be the world’s largest one.)

If you oppose appositive epithets, this post isn’t for you. But for the many writers who accept the construction as proper usage, I recommend that you use the proper usage properly.

English 11 week of February 27

Monday students will finish up their papers on Ethos, Pathos, or Logos

Tuesday we will be in the lab working on SparkNotes practice tests for ACT
ACT: http://www.actstudent.org/sampletest/index.html?utm_source=act_home&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=practice_test

Sparknotes: http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/act/

Wednesday we will do our 3rd and final persuasive writing

Thursday we will chart our persuasive writing growth, and write a reflection on our personal writing goal

Friday and Monday will be spent on final ACT review

A Quiz on Treatment of 75 Compound Words

Posted: 02 Feb 2012 08:08 PM PST

Open, hyphenated, or closed? Usage guides, dictionaries, and style manuals may differ in their treatment of the following words, so there’s not necessarily one right answer — except for the purposes of this exercise: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. All terms in this list are treated as open compounds. Which ones should be left as is, and which should be hyphenated or closed, and in which usages? The correct forms according to Merriam-Webster are listed at the bottom of the page.

1. Air borne
2. Anti social
3. Audio visual
4. Back log
5. Blood pressure
6. Book keeping
7. Bull’s eye
8. By law
9. Catch all
10. Check book
11. Child like
12. Clearing house
13. Court martial
14. Crew neck
15. Cross reference
16. Dog sled
17. Father land
18. Far reaching
19. First hand
20. Free style
21. Freeze dried
22. Fresh water
23. Go between
24. Great uncle
25. Half brother
26. High school
27. Higher ups
28. House hold
29. Inter agency
30. Key word
31. Jewel like
32. Land mass
33 . Life size
34 . Light year
35 . Long term
36 . Lower case
37 . Main frame
38 . Mass produced
39 . Mid week
40 . Mother ship
41 . Multi purpose
42 . Near collision
43 . North west
44 . Off shore
45 . On site
46 . Over supply
47 . Pine cone
48 . Pipe line
49 . Policy maker
50 . Post war
51 . Pre existing
52 . President elect
53 . Pro life
54 . Pseudo intellectual
55 . Quasi realistic
56 . Real time
57 . Record breaker
58 . River bed
59 . Sea coast
60 . Self control
61 . Semi final
62 . Shell like
63 . Six pack
64 . Snow melt
65 . Socio economics
66 . Step mother
67 . Stomach ache
68 . Strong hold
69 . Toll free
70 . Two fold
71 . Under water
72 . Vice president
73 . Wild life
74 . World wide
75 . Year round

Answers

1. Airborne
2. Antisocial
3. Audiovisual
4. Backlog
5. Blood pressure (in the dictionary, so never hyphenate, except when combined with another adjective, as in “high-blood-pressure medication”)
6. Bookkeeping
7. Bull’s-eye
8. Bylaw
9. Catchall
10 . Checkbook
11 . Childlike
12 . Clearinghouse
13 . Court-martial
14 . Crew neck (in the dictionary, so never hyphenate)
15 . Cross-reference
16 . Dogsled
17 . Fatherland
18 . Far-reaching
19 . Firsthand
20 . Freestyle
21 . Freeze-dried
22 . Freshwater
23 . Go-between
24 . Great-uncle
25 . Half brother (in the dictionary, so never hyphenate)
26 . High school (in the dictionary, so never hyphenate)
27 . Higher-ups
28 . Household
29 . Interagency
30 . Keyword
31 . Jewel-like (because of the collision of two ls)
32 . Landmass
33 . Life-size
34 . Light-year
35 . Long term (hyphenate only when the phrase modifies a following noun)
36 . Lowercase
37 . Mainframe
38 . Mass-produced
39 . Midweek
40 . Mother ship (in the dictionary, so never hyphenate)
41 . Multipurpose
42 . Near collision (hyphenate only when the phrase modifies a following noun)
43 . Northwest
44 . Offshore
45 . On-site
46 . Oversupply
47 . Pinecone
48 . Pipeline
49 . Policymaker (not in the dictionary, but other -maker constructions, such as winemaker, are closed; if it looks wrong, leave it open)
50 . Postwar
51 . Preexisting
52 . President-elect
53 . Pro-life
54 . Pseudo-intellectual (not in the dictionary, bust pseudo- constructions in which the second word starts with a vowel, such as pseudo-event, are hyphenated; those in which the second word starts with a consonant, such as pseudopod, are closed)
55 . Quasirealistic (not in the dictionary, but most quasi- constructions, such as quasiperiodic, are closed; it if it looks wrong, hyphenate it)
56 . Real time (hyphenate only when the phrase modifies a following noun)
57 . Record breaker (not in the dictionary, but all other compounds with breaker, such as “circuit breaker,” are open)
58 . Riverbed
59 . Seacoast
60 . Self-control
61 . Semifinal
62 . Shell-like (hyphenate only because of the collision of the ls)
63 . Six-pack
64 . Snowmelt
65 . Socioeconomics
66 . Stepmother
67 . Stomachache
68 . Stronghold
69 . Toll free (hyphenate when the phrase modifies a following noun)
70 . Twofold (but hyphenate with a number, as in 10-fold)
71 . Underwater
72 . Vice president (always open, though other compounds containing vice, such as vice-regentviceroy, are treated differently)
and 73. Wildlife
74 . Worldwide
75 . Year-round

Scoring guide

0-25 correct: Always look it up.
26 -50 correct: Always look it up.
51 -75 correct: Always look it up.

Can Winter Weather Bring Down Brain Performance?

As the winter wears on outside of Lumosity's San Francisco headquarters, we're pondering this question: can bad weather be bad for your brain?

In some cases, wintry weather can lead to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a seasonally recurring depression linked to limited sunlight exposure during winter months. Research shows that about half of non-depressed people have some degree of SAD symptoms during the winter.

But seasonal affective disorder doesn't just change your mood. A Psychological Science study showed that seasons can impact cognitive processes such as memory and speed. The study found that students' mood ratings and memory performance improved when the weather was better, especially on days with more sunlight. In an experimental manipulation, students who took a memory assessment indoors performed worse than students who took the same test outdoors on a warm, sunny day.

Given that research suggests a link between warm weather and enhanced cognition, we turned to our own database of cognitive performance to assess the effects of the seasons on Lumosity game performance.

We looked at scores from the popular free game Memory Matrix to answer this question. Our analysis included only adults in North America, to control for seasonal differences in daylight and weather in the Southern Hemisphere.

Members who started playing Memory Matrix during the winter months (December, January, and February) had significantly lower initial scores than those who started playing during the three other seasons. However, after just five sessions of training, winter Memory Matrix scores improved as much or even more than those in other seasons. By the fifth training session, Memory Matrix scores had improved and were at about the same level across all seasons.

So though initial game scores affirmed prior research linking bad weather to poor performance, we also found that people can significantly improve memory in any season.

If the winter blues have you feeling down, don't fret—spring is just around the corner. While you may feel a little less sharp at the moment, our research shows that you can still enhance your cognitive abilities to new levels no matter what season it is.

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Learning goal: Persuasive writing that takes a logical, focused position with specific details using effective word choice to support and refute opposing viewpoint.

During class, February 23 and 24 you will explore on your own Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. The following are recommended links, with an assignment that follows.

*Go to http://courses.durhamtech.edu/perkins/aris.html - Take time to read all of the explanations and examples through the links. (Ethos)

*Informative powerpoint at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHJlVRFJb6A (Carmeyrose)

*Informative video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhbbTb0t8q8 (Rangerswebsite)

*Sample of persuasion at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKC5LsVO9k0&feature=related
(Naikamit8)

*Sample of president persuasion at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVyDi-iwuNY&feature=related (Kelmscott2008)


NOW, In your own words, write a multi-paragraph essay defining your particular circled principle of persuasion: Ethos, Pathos or Logos on your rubric, and how you use each of them in your writing.

Include a title,
ntroduction that gives an overview of Aristotle's principles of persuasion,
then a detailed paragraph defining your element,
a few paragraphs how you plan to use this in your writing,
and a conclusion

Please type, double-spaced, 12 point Cambria

save in your English 11 writing portfolio and print a copy for Luttke

English 11 week of February 20

Tuesday - Persuasive essay timed writing #2
Wednesday - Receive essay back, look at Dr. Martin Luther King's "Letter from a Birmingham jail" - focus Ethos, Pathos, Logos.
Thursday - Internet exploration on Ethos, Pathos, Logos
Friday - Internet exploration on Ethos, Pathos, Logos. Self improvement on one of these particulars in persuasive writing.

25 Subordinating Conjunctions

Posted: 14 Feb 2012 03:20 AM PST

If you’re having trouble developing sentences with sufficient variety to keep your writing fresh, take a ride on A WHITE BUS.

No, I’m not shouting at you; A WHITE BUS is a mnemonic initialism that reminds you about a set of conjunctions with which you can begin dependent clauses. (A dependent clause is a phrase that must be attached to an independent clause — a series of words that can stand on its own as a sentence — to make grammatical sense.) Below, you’ll find the words or phrases that the letters in A WHITE BUS represent, and sample sentences in which they’re employed.

A

1. “After dinner, we’ll go see a movie.”

2. “Although I’d rather not, I’ll make an exception.”

3. “As you know, she’s rather eccentric.”

W

4. “When we’re done, let’s get some ice cream.”

5. “Whenever I go, I try to see something I’ve never seen before.”

6. “Whether or not you agree, I think it looks fine.”

7. “Where I go, they always have sales.”

8. “Wherever I go, I try to enjoy myself.”

9. “While I’m there, I play music on a jukebox.”

H

10. “How is it that even though you go there all the time, you’ve never noticed that before?”

I

11. “If you find out, please let me know.”

12. “In case you hadn’t heard, I couldn’t care less.”

13. “In order to enjoy your trip, take your time and enjoy the sights.”

T

14. “That I like wearing red — that has never been in dispute.”

15. “Though I’m flexible, I draw the line about that.”

E

16. “Even if it is true, I’ll forgive him.”

17. “Even though I’d heard the song before, I hadn’t known who sang it.”

18. “Ever since I met her, I haven’t been able to think about anything else.”

B

19. “Because I’ve been there before, I’d rather go somewhere else.”

20. “Before I saw the house, I was ready to just rent an apartment.”

U

21. “Unless you’re willing to wait, you’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

22. “Until we find it, we can’t leave.”

S

23. “Since then, I’ve had a different opinion of him.”

24. “So sure were you of your theory about them, you ignored evidence that you were wrong.”

25. “So that I’m sure I understand you, please repeat what you said.”

Sometimes, ON, representing “only if” (“Only if I get to drive will I go with you”) and “now that” (“Now that we understand each other, things are much better”) precedes A WHITE BUS in the mnemonic phrase.

Note, too, that the order in which the dependent and independent clauses appear can be reversed (though often, the comma separating the clauses is then not necessary). However, because the independent clause generally contains the essential information, the sentence is usually more effective when the independent clause trails the dependent clause.

A Quiz About Missing Connections

Posted: 05 Feb 2012 08:01 PM PST

Writing is often compromised by a writer’s failure to think a sentence through to its logical conclusion. Often, along the way, a small but crucial word or phrase is omitted that leaves a gap in a parallel construction, thereby contributing to the reader’s confusion. In each sentence below, determine the missing element, then check my revisions at the bottom of the page to see how our solutions compare:

1. “The corporation runs hydropower plants from Maine to Montana.”

2. “Because Martinez was so young, it was natural to compare his potential with Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax.”

3. “If she could, she would travel to Saturn to see the rings as well as other galaxies to see if there is life elsewhere.”

4. “Remember the sixties dream of an entire meal served in a pill, like the Jetsons?”

5. “The practice field utilizes the same dirt on the warning track as the team’s home stadium.”

Answers and Explanations

1. The impression is that the plants are somehow interconnected in a continuous string from one state to the next, rather than that the plants can be found in various states in and between the two states mentioned. Complete the thought with the addition of a phrase that clarifies that the plants are located intermittently and eliminates the possible misapprehension: “The corporation runs hydropower plants in many parts of the country, from Maine to Montana.”

2. The comparison should not be described as the one between Martinez’s potential and Sandy Koufax; it should be between the respective potentials of the two men. That distinction is clarified by the addition of two words that indicate the true parallel relationship: “Because Martinez was so young, it was natural to compare his potential with that of Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax.”

3. As written, the sentence suggests that the subject desires to travel to Saturn to see two features — the planets rings and other galaxies – both for the purposes of determining whether life exists elsewhere besides Earth. But the two things she wishes to experience are Saturn’s rings and other galaxies — and only in the latter case because she’s curious about the possible existence of extraterrestrial life. This significant misunderstanding is due to one small but important omission: The sentence is missing a preposition before the reference to other galaxies that parallels the one before “Saturn to see the rings”: “If she could, she would travel to Saturn to see the rings, as well as to other galaxies to see if there is life elsewhere.”

4. This sentence implies that the Jetsons constituted an entire meal served in a pill. However, the writer is referring to a futuristic idea reminiscent of something that might have appeared, or perhaps did appear, in the 1960s animated television series The Jetsons — referring to the program, not the family featured in it — and that’s what the sentence should indicate: “Remember the sixties dream of an entire meal served in a pill, as in The Jetsons?”

5. The suggestion here is that the dirt on the warning track at the practice field is dug up and deposited in the home stadium — and that it is shuttled back and forth repeatedly. What the writer means is that the dirt on the practice field’s warning track and the dirt on the home stadium’s warning track are from the same source. This fact must be explicated in such detail, including specifying that the dirt in question at the home stadium is to be found not just generally within the structure, but, more precisely, on its warning track: “The practice field utilizes the same type of dirt on the warning track as that found on the perimeter of the team’s home stadium.”

English 11 week of February 6

Our first persuasive writing practice will be Tuesday!

Monday we will look at more anchor papers and identify the elements of the best score
Tuesday will be our practice - you will have 30 minutes to write
Wednesday I will return your papers and go over the score you received.
Thursday I will ask that you look at the focus section I highlighted on your rubric - define that section in your words and correct those elements in your writing.
Friday I will give you a focus section to improve your grammar.

The writing is about practice and improvement.