Notes from Practice Midterm
I did not give points. I wrote something like: Pass +, Pass, Not Passing (high, average, below average).
You will get points for your actual midterm (50).
GENERAL:
1) You don’t need to use 2 pieces of paper. 1 piece is fine. Do the summary first, skip a few lines, then
write the response.
2) Don’t write titles for these paragraphs. I know what they are and you’re wasting your time if you write
them. Use your time well!
3) You do not have time to rewrite anything. Take the time to make a little outline or plan on the
assignment sheet, but you just don’t have time to write these paragraphs twice.
4) Respond to both prompts or you can’t receive a passing grade.
5) USE MARGINS ON BOTH SIDES!
SUMMARY:
1. Include title of text, author’s full name, and main idea of the text (don’t go too narrow!)
2. Try to use a precise verb (not “writes”, “says”, “talks about”, etc.)
3. A summary must be objective – no opinion at all. Just report what the author’s main ideas were.
4. Weed out details – the name of the TV station or the interviewer or details like “rumpled” aren’t
important in a 5-sentence summary of the whole text. You need mostly general statements that cover
the whole text.
RESPONSE:
1) Read. The. Directions.
2) Respond ONLY to the question I ask. You need to be very specific in your answer. This is slightly
different than the open response you usually write because it asks to you answer a very specific
question in paragraph form.
3) The best thing to do is use PIE. Your first sentence, the main idea/the Point - should directly answer
the question. Then you should give illustration/examples and explanation.
4) The “response” question is testing many things: reading and following directions, writing under
timed pressure, organizing a paragraph, staying focused on the answer to the question, using discipline
when you write.
Examples!
Here are some good examples from class. They’re not perfect, and I’ve touched them up in a few places,
but they’re VERY good for timed writing based on a prompt that hadn’t been seen before.
Summary:
In “To Be or Not to Be as Defined by TV,” Jack McGarvey asserts how television changes
people’s behavior, images, and characteristics. McGarvey starts the experience with his class activity on
criticizing the use of language in television commercials. The outcome was not about how his students
actively participated in the debate with the media people, but it was about how television makes people
change the way they think and act in front of the camera. McGarvey also discusses in the text that people
know television has cut off all the facts or the reality of life to present only nice and perfect output to the
audience. Still, we want to appear to be perfect.
In Jack McGarvey’s “To Be or Not to Be as Defined by TV,” the author gives a first hand account of
the sensation that surrounds television exposure and the drastic ways it can change the views of the
people watching. It is also noted that the simple involvement in a television production can give the
prized celebrity status to people that were once considered normal. The piece also brings to light how
surrounding people will act much differently when there are TV cameras in the area. He expresses how
many people, including the author himself, became seduced by the feeling of celebrity and all the social
privileges that surround it. It brings the readers to question what their true view of society is, and is it
influenced by what is portrayed on TV.
In the essay “To Be or Not to Be as Defined by TV,” Jack McGarvey, a 9th grade English teacher,
discusses the idea of celebrity and the effect it has on people. Recalling a time in his life when he briefly
enjoyed the spotlight, McGarvey recalls the ways students changed when a news crew visited his class.
He observes not only the way the students changed, but how he let it go to his head, too. What started out
as a simple class assignment on deceptive advertising, turned into a much bigger lesson for both students
and teacher. McGarvey illustrates the human desire to be in the limelight and the feeling they get from it.
In the article “To Be or Not To Be as Defined by TV,” written by Jack McGarvey, the author
talks about how TV can change a person making him/her look either good or bad. McGarvey first set out
to teach his students how to analyze the language used on TV, but later when he and his students were on
TV, they focused on themselves, forgetting the whole point. TV made him seem like a different person and
showed a fake image of the class. The media can twist and turn facts around. They can go to extremes to
show you what they want, not the reality. [NOTE: this last bit seems more like the writer’s opinion than
McGarvey’s, and you want to avoid this.]
Response:
I believe that celebrities are so appealing to today’s audiences because of all the glamour that
comes with the position. In my youth, I often fantasized about living the celebrity life because thy had
wealth and power, and I was struggling with school and work. Any time an individual is consistently
bombarded with images of something that appears better than them, individuals have a natural instinct to
want it. As humans, we always want what’s easy an appealing to the masses, therefore humans
consistently struggle to chase this dream of celebrity of status, with the vast majority falling short.
I think celebrities appeal to today’s audiences in many ways. The most obvious to me would be
that as a viewing audience, we have established appearing on television as the ultimate form of success.
Someone who regularly appears on TV is seen by society as achieving the highest in their field. Even if
another person was more successful, both professionally and financially, they would not be perceived as
successful as the person regularly on TV. There is also the sense of wanting to be popular. This could be
the most popular kid in the 5th grade, or popular to millions of viewers in the mass media. The concept of
desired popularity remains the same. Lastly, I think the enviousness of the celebrity lifestyle has the
strongest impact. We are left to think how great it would be to have all that money an popularity. One of
the first comments to be heard is “imagine how many girls that guy gets.” I would be sure female
audiences imagine the same for the opposite sex. Society seems to need celebrities, even if the person
hasn’t done anything special.