Review the following paragraph (handout).
Identify the active Verbs (check your own work)
Young slave Fredrick Douglas enjoyed indulging in his
favorite fantasy about slave owners. In his fantasy,
everyone conspired against the slave owners. Slaves still in
bondage gave no hint of an impending escape. Members
of the community never revealed the whereabouts of
escaped slaves. Slaves who escaped successfully never
talked too much about how they got away. Recaptured
slaves told their owners nothing at all. Even some white
southerners who sympathized with slaves gave no
information to their slave owning friends. Douglas enjoyed
the final part of his fantasy the most. In it, Douglas
imagined slave owners as being too afraid to hunt escaping
slaves. The owners distrusted their slaves, their enemies,
and even their friends.
Topic Sentences
Topic sentences can express a question, which
the rest of the paragraph answers.
Topic sentences can express a an opinion, a
fact, or an attitude, which other sentences
support or discuss.
Topic sentences can present a problem, which
the paragraph addresses.
Topic sentences can summarize what other
sentences explore in detail.
1. Find at least 2 passages that prove
this statement is true.
2. Use the following topic sentence
and construct a paragraph, using the
quotes you chose:
Topic Sentence: Rose begins his story by using a vivid
description of his neighborhood in South Los Angeles to
set the tone for his central argument. Introduce the
quote, using a transition word…keep going!
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Find passages to prove the following
thesis statements.
• Rose, himself the child of working-class Italian
immigrants, argues for the unrealized abilities of many
students not well served by our society.
• Having overcome in high school his own inadequate
preparation and intellectual neglect, Rose gives us
insight into the lives of nontraditional students (often
working class and minority students, ones who have
been labeled “remedial”) and helps us reconsider our
assumptions about them.
Thesis Statement
Rose contends that those students in the
"vocational" track have been written off but
some show unrealized potential and specifies
reasons why the school system allows them to
fail.
Vocabulary Words—Look these up and create a
sentence for each one….some may appear on a
quiz…;)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Myopic
Reclusive
Calliope Music
Unequivocal
Rambunctious
Inventiveness
Somnambulant
Paradox
Beatnik
Precocious
Shibboleths