Express Yourself(1),
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Yourself
WRITING SKILLS
FOR HIGH SCHOOL
Edith N. Wagner
NEW YORK
Express
Copyright © 2002 LearningExpress, LLC.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New York.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Wagner, Edith N.
Express yourself : writing skills for high school / by Edith Wagner.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-57685-403-5 (alk. paper)
1. Language arts (Secondary) 2. English language—Composition and exercises.
I. Title.
LB1631 .W23 2002
808'.042'0712—dc21
2001050445
Printed in the United States of America
987654321
First Edition
ISBN 1-57685-403-5
For more information or to place an order, contact LearningExpress at:
900 Broadway
Suite 604
New York, NY 10003
Or visit us at:
www.learnatest.com
Contents
Introduction
iv
How to Use this Book
v
Section 1: Writing for Information and Understanding
1
Chapter One: The Test Question
3
Chapter Two: The Term Paper Assignment
19
Chapter Three: Everyday Writing
27
Section 2: Writing to Persuade
33
Chapter Four: Thesis Statements and Effective Research
35
Chapter Five: Writing for Persuasive Speaking
53
Chapter Six: Persuasion in Everyday Writing
63
Section 3: Writing to Narrate
71
Chapter Seven: Narratives for Personal Experience
75
Chapter Eight: Narratives for Academic Purposes
85
Chapter Nine: Narratives in Everyday Life
91
Section 4: Writing in Response to Literature
97
Chapter Ten: Writing About Poetry
99
Chapter Eleven: Writing About Prose (Fiction)
113
Chapter Twelve: Writing About Drama
127
Appendix A: Tips for Peer Review
135
Appendix B: Answers and Explanations
141
Introduction
Human beings communicate in four ways. We listen, speak, read, and write. When you were a baby the first
thing you did was listen to the world around you. You recognized voices; you were startled by noises; you
were soothed by music. Then you began to imitate the sounds you heard and you experimented by creating
your own sounds. You learned that crying brought attention, words identified things, and that linking words
together made meaning. Then you learned that symbols on a page held unique meaning, and you learned to
read. The last of the four ways you learned to communicate was through writing, and the very formal trans-
ference of words to paper was probably initiated in school, as early as kindergarten.
Now, as adults, even though you can say with confidence that you know “how” to listen, speak, read,
and write, you also know that simply knowing
how
doesn’t mean you always
do
any one of the four com-
munication strands well. Have you ever “listened” to a lecture and not been able to remember one thing you
heard? Have you ever “read” a page or two and had to read it all over again because you didn’t concentrate?
Have you ever “spoken” and then had to explain something twice because you weren’t clear the first time?
Have you ever “written” an exam or a paper or even a note, to find you needed some serious help making
yourself understood? If you were ever in any of these situations, you were not alone.
Effective communication requires skill—just like mastering a sport, playing an instrument, dancing,
cooking, or woodcarving. Communicating well demands that you learn the rules and practice a lot. Now there
are many folks out there who get along just fine with basic communication skills, and this book is not for
them. This book is for those who want to become more effective at communicating their thoughts and ideas,
specifically as writers.
Unlike listening, speaking, and reading, writing is the way we make our thinking visible to the world.
Without committing our ideas to paper, our thinking remains invisible, locked in our heads. This is proba-
bly a good thing if we are confused or without information. Who would want to put a foolish, illogical, mis-
informed mind on display for the public? But in today’s world of high stakes testing, writing has become the
one tried and true measure of your thinking, and everyone wants to see it. So, if you try to avoid writing, this
book is dedicated to you.
iv
EXPRESS YOURSELF
I
NTRODUCTION
How to Use This Book
“High stakes testing” is a phrase that has been captured in the newspapers and has students, parents, and
teachers very concerned. Simply defined, high stakes tests are those that have very serious consequences. For
example, you are likely to discover that you cannot earn a high school diploma in your state unless you pass
certain exit exams. Without that high school diploma, the doors to higher education are locked; entry to cer-
tain employment is closed; a career in the military might be impossible. What ties high stakes testing to this
book is that all of the tests require you to demonstrate your learning by
writing
what you know in complete
sentences. In doing so, you provide a logical pattern of organization that follows the conventions of standard
written English. The days of the multiple-choice tests are gone. Testing now wants you to show not just
what
you may know but
how
you know it and how you can
apply
your knowledge and information. In short, today’s
tests demand that you write.
This book is organized around the four major purposes for writing which drive most of the instruc-
tion and all of the testing that you experience in high school and college. The four purposes are:
W
RITING TO DEMONSTRATE INFORMATION
AND UNDERSTANDING
This type of writing is also called
expository writing
and it takes the form of your content area term papers
and essays. It’s where you select information and organize it to show that you understand it. An example would
be the social studies essay that asks you to explain the economic, social, and political causes of the Civil War.
W
RITING TO PERSUADE
This type of writing requires that you use information to argue a point and prove it. This kind of writing is
often called
writing for critical analysis
because you are asked not only to select appropriate information but
also to use that information to prove a point of view. For example, instead of just explaining the causes of
the Civil War, you might be asked to persuade your reader that the Civil War was more about the econom-
ics of the southern plantation system than it was about the social issue of slavery.
W
RITING TO NARRATE A STORY
OR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
This type of writing requires that you tell a story in order to demonstrate information, knowledge, or per-
sonal experience. The same social studies essay would require that you create a series of journal entries writ-
ten as a plantation owner in 1859 Georgia to demonstrate the social and economic realities of the plantation
system, or to construct a chronological narrative of a day in the life of a Confederate soldier.
H
OW TO
U
SE
T
HIS
B
OOK
EXPRESS YOURSELF
v
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