Comma Usage Notes

Do your parents let you win?

This is an interesting article I came across in the NY Times.  Check it out!

Is it better to teach children tough life lessons, like the thrill of victory is sweeter if you have known the agony of defeat? Or is it better simply to let a child win? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/garden/the-role-of-competitiveness-in-raising-healthy-children.html

Structuring Your Essay

Remember, for HW you need to finish the questions on the "Alphabetism" article and finish annotating what kinds of paragraphs the author uses.

Also, you need to write 2-3 sentences explaining YOUR structure (whether it is from my list of essay organizing strategies below or you make up your own "recipe").

Here are types of paragraphs you might use (this can also give you ideas as to how you can expand your essay, if need be).

• Introduction
• Narration/anecdote
• Explanation of argument or opinion
• Definition of major terms or ideas
• Personal example
• Research example 
• Book/movie/game etc. example
• Counter point
• Compare/contrast
• Wrapping it up/Conclusion

Here are different strategies for organizing the order of your paragraphs (you can make up your own name for your special recipe of structure)

• The Chronological:  showing development over time (works great for a personal essay).
• The Traditional:  Start off with an illustrative anecdote, present your argument, give examples, then wrap it up.
• The Traditional Twist:  Like the traditional, but you also address the counter argument and tear it down.
• The Full Circle:  Like the traditional, but you refer back to your initial anecdote in your conclusion.  Such a lovely way to finish off an essay.
• The Step by Step:  You give the reader step-by-step directions (this can be used ironically to great effect)
• The Effect and Cause:  I switched this around because usually you address the effect first then analyze what caused this (this is especially true in our human nature essays).  This should also integrate research as much as possible.

Voice Powerpoint

I had some requests to put the voice slide from my power point up on the blog.  This should just give you an idea of what different voices may look like in word form.  Disclaimer:  these were just some ideas off the top of my head, so this is certainly not a comprehensive list, nor does each "trait" need to look like that in writing.

VOICE

• Your style or personality that comes out in your writing (or any other creative medium you express yourself in)
• Your writing should be a self-portrait, but instead of using different colors or brush strokes, you are using diction, syntax, figurative language etc.
• Are you a no-nonsense kind of person and have a really clear and to-the-point sentence?
• Are you quirky and have an image that sticks out and shows some “out of the box” thinking?
• Are you energetic and have a series of short sentences that build energy?

Can't Get to 700 Words?

One of the main reasons I notice that students fall short on word count (especially when it's as small as 700) is that they have not supported their ideas with ACTUAL evidence or examples.

Here's the fix:  Do some research!

1.  Go here
2.  Sign in (username and password are both neistm)
3.  Click on "My Products Page"
3.  Type your topic (Santa Claus, Jersey Shore, humor, hoarding etc.) in the search box
4.  Click on "Full Text" right underneath the search box.
5.  Click the magnifying glass to search

Once you find your article, you can integrate what the author is saying into your own essay, showing that you aren't the only person with this idea.  You can also tear down people you disagree with.  In any case, adding actual research to your essay will beef it up and make it more credible.

For example, when I looked up "reality tv" I found this article:

Reality TV's Effect on Teens

Kolich, Heather N. Listen64. 8 (Apr 2011): 16.

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Cheryl Dellasega, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, links the abundance of reality TV "mean girls" who benefit from bad behavior to a real-world rise in relational aggression (bullying) among teen and adolescent girls. Jon KraszewsM, assistant professor of broadcasting and film at Seton Hall University, thinks MTV's The Real World uses casting, editing, and production choices to construct a reality- and support a particular ideology - for its authence.

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Reality TV aims for coarseness and shock Value. Viewers get a glimpse at the lowest aspects of human behavior: greed, cruelty, promiscuity, betrayal, rudeness, and deceit beyond imagination. There's little that's actually real in manufactured, highly edited gamedocs, docusoaps, and reality sitcoms. But for entertainment, you can suspend your disbelief and imagine your friends or yourself acting like the characters from a particular show.

The brains and experiences of younger viewers aren't developed enough to process many of the prefabricated settings and situations posed by reality TV. Older teens have an easier time dismissing the antics of the actors as fiction. But do you get away scot-free? Or does the descent into depravity linger in your perceptions andinteractions with the real world?

Cheryl Dellasega, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, links the abundance of reality TV "mean girls" who benefit from bad behavior to a real-world rise in relational aggression (bullying) among teen and adolescent girls. Laurie Ouellete and Susan Murray, editors of Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, state in the introduction that reality TV "encourages viewers to test out their own notions of the real, the ordinary, and the intimate against the representation before them." This includes spying on others, accepting being watched by surveillance cameras as we go about our business, and posting homemade reality episodes on the Internet.

Jon KraszewsM, assistant professor of broadcasting and film at Seton Hall University, thinks MTV's The RealWorld uses casting, editing, and production choices to construct a reality- and support a particular ideology - for its authence. President of Media Research Center Brent Bozell claims that MTV's reality show lineup promotes sexual liberation, experimentation, and adopting new sexual identities. The programming pushes distorted sexuality on teens and kids as young as 12, most of whom don't want to ask an adult for the straight scoop.

The negative effects of reality TV go beyond emotional and psychological. If you're like most teens, you spend an average of 23 hours per week watching television. This has relationship, physical, and academic consequences. When you're watching the tube, you're disengaged from family and friends. Every hour spent idly watching as a couch potato increases your risk of obesity by 2 percent, further distancing you from the idealized stereotypes depicted in reality TV. And watching more than one or two hours of television daily lowers your academic achievement, particularly in reading.

Copyright Review and Herald Publishing Association Apr 2011