November 4, 2013
Warm up: Identify the problem with each of the following hooks. What makes it
ineffective?
1. In a literary world full of allusions to hedgehogs and foxes, the weasel has
been neglected: until now.
2. Since the beginning of time, man has wondered what it would be like to live like
a weasel.
3. Merriam Webster defines a weasel as...
4. Benjamin Franklin once said of weasels that...
5. Short. Furry. Muscled: The Weasel.
6. Have you ever wondered what it was like to live like a Weasel?
Announcement of Grade Category Changes:
Major Grades(50%) --> Writing and Projects (50%)
Process Writing (15%) --> Process/Analysis (25%)
Classwork/Homework (20%) --> Academic Process and Homework (15%)
Vocabulary/Quizzes (15%) --> Vocabulary/Grammar/Quizzes (10%)
An introduction should...
Include relevant, important, and unique information.
Prepare the reader for the thesis
Provide any background necessary to understand the text and
thesis
Read the prologue from "And the Band Played On." Identify the
following with your group:
1. Use a sun chart to identify structural characteristics
2. Tools used to build rhetorical appeals
3. Characteristics of an effective introduction
November 5, 2013
Warm up: Complete the sun chart for "And the Band Played
On." How would you describe the organizational structure?
Homework: Choose one of the following to read and be prepared to write about
it on Friday. All are in the textbook:
"Doing Nothing is Something" by Anna Quindlen, p 640
"Abolishing the Penny Makes Good Sense" by Alan S. Blnider, p 648
"Tolerance" by E. M. Forster, p 484
"Harmless Fun?" from World Almanac, p 759
"The Man in the Water" by Roger Rosenblatt, p 376
Rhetorical Precis
Sentence 1: Identify author, title, date, and genre + main claim (WHAT)
Ex: In her essay "Living Like Weasels (revised in 1994), Annie Dillard claims that human life
is full of complicated changes and decisions, rather than the pure instinct of the animal
world; while Dillard wishes for this life of wildness and instinct at first, she concedes that
humanity is built for choice, not instinct.
Sentence 2: Organizational method and tools (HOW)
Ex: The essay uses sharp imagery and contrasting syntax--short and direct for the
weasel, long and meandering to show the choices distracting the human mind-- to
contrast the two lifestyles.
Sentence 3: Author's purpose for writing or speaking (WHY)
Ex: Dillard hopes that her exploration of this difference will provoke an answering
examination of what is necessary in life and what is taken for granted, encouraging the
audience to take stock of their own actions and thoughts.
Sentence 4: Intended audience (WHO)
Ex: Her audience is primarily made up of readers familiar with her work and therefore
prepared to take yet another lesson on their own lives from the natural world Dillard reveals.
Create a precis for "And the Band Played On."
How can this precis be used as part of an introduction? What
sentences might change? Why?
November 6, 2013:
Warm up: Identify the part(s) of this sentence that is vague:
The author uses many rhetorical tools to make his point about
the AIDS epidemic.
Un-pitchfork the sentences in the essay. Why are the originals
better?
Pitchfork the warm up sentence. What specific parts will help
the rest of your essay?