Study Guide
English Composition
By
Michael Horan, Ph.D.
About the Author
Michael Horan earned his Ph.D. from Binghamton University with
a specialization in Renaissance Literature and has taught dozens of
writing and literature courses at various colleges and universities.
His business experience includes years writing research analyst
reports and advertising copy, as well as medical copy for consumers
and health care providers for both print and interactive media. A
New Jersey native, he currently resides in Boston, where he makes
his living doing free-lance writing and consulting.
All terms mentioned in this text that are known to be trademarks or service
marks have been appropriately capitalized. Use of a term in this text should
not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
Copyright © 2004 by Education Direct, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright may be
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
EDUCATION DIRECT is a registered trademark used herein under license.
Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should
be mailed to Copyright Permissions, Education Direct, 925 Oak Street, Scranton,
Pennsylvania 18515.
Printed in the United States of America
06/29/06
1
LESSON ASSIGNMENTS
9
LESSON 1: THE BASICS
13
EXAMINATION—LESSON 1
27
LESSON 2: THE WRITING PROCESS
31
EXAMINATION—LESSON 2
43
LESSON 3: DESCRIPTIVE WRITING
47
EXAMINATION—LESSON 3
61
LESSON 4: NARRATIVE WRITING
65
EXAMINATION—LESSON 4
77
LESSON 5: REFLECTIVE WRITING
79
EXAMINATION—LESSON 5
89
LESSON 6: PERSUASIVE WRITING
93
FINAL EXAMINATION
107
SELF-CHECK ANSWERS
109
Contents
INSTRUCTIONS
iii
YOUR COURSE
Think about how much you’ve already written during your
lifetime. You’ve completed countless assignments in school.
You’ve filled out job applications, signed your friends’ yearbooks, and scribbled notes on bulletin boards. Maybe you
once had a diary; maybe you’ve had to do extensive writing
on the job. In fact, it’s next to impossible to get through a
day without doing some writing.
So, since you’re already a writer, your task is pretty simple—
it’s to become a better writer. Of course, like any other
worthwhile skill, writing takes practice.
PERSONAL AND PRACTICAL
APPLICATIONS OF WRITING
Writers almost always write for one of two purposes. The first
is very private and individual. It springs from the need people
feel to express themselves—to somehow translate a thought
or a feeling into words. The second is to communicate that
feeling or thought to others.
This course in composition is designed to help you with the
second purpose—to communicate more effectively with others.
This means adhering to certain rules and writing according
to certain customary patterns.
While the rules of writing are arbitrary standards made up by
ordinary men and women over the centuries, they’re no less
important because of that. Everyone follows certain rules
every day—people couldn’t interact without them. Think, for
example, of a simple game of checkers. Unless both players
Instr uctions
The purpose of this English Composition course is to help
you turn yourself into a better writer. The emphasis isn’t
going to be on a teacher or on a textbook or on what other
writers have written or said. Rather, you’ll be reading many
good writers, and you’ll learn to incorporate many of the basic
rules for standard written expression as you move through
the course. But no one can teach you how to be a writer—
only because you already are one!
1
agree to play by certain rules, there’s no game—just a number
of different-colored squares and pieces. The same idea applies
to writing. Like checkers, communication is a “game,” and it
makes sense only when both the writer and the audience
share the same ideas on what the rules are.
Sometimes, of course, you’ll want to write just for yourself.
You may decide to keep a private diary and put some of your
innermost thoughts on paper. You may be developing plans
for a trip or jotting notes on things you want to say during a
job interview. Many of the ideas you’ll explore throughout
this course should help with your private writing as well.
Effective composition isn’t just about forming clear, grammatical sentences. It’s also about getting your thoughts in
order and training yourself to think logically—so that you
automatically start thinking about what your purpose is and
how best to get from Point A to Point B. In short, if you apply
yourself to the material in this course, you’re not simply
going to learn to be a better writer, but you’ll start thinking
like a writer as well.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Most of your writing will be directed toward a specific audience—a family member, a friend, or a colleague at work. It
may be a letter to the editor of a newspaper or a letter to a
company about a product you purchased. In any case, the
ultimate goal of this course is to help you, no matter what
your purpose or audience, to compose a finished piece of
writing that helps you accomplish what you want. In this
course, you’ll write in a variety of styles and compose essays
in different modes. In that way, no matter what your purpose
or audience is in the future, you’ll have some real experience
under your belt and know exactly how to proceed.
To get to that place requires a step-by-step approach. This
course will help you master each step, so that you’re soon
writing without even consciously thinking about the steps
any more than you think about the steps involved in riding
a bicycle or driving a car.
2
Instructions to Students
The objectives of this step-by-step approach are to enable
you to
■
Master the simple but essential rules for creating sentences that mean exactly what you want to say without
making your reader do any extra work
■
Make your point simply but emphatically and back it up
with the evidence you need to persuade your reader
■
Maintain your reader’s interest—no matter how
uninteresting the subject matter might be
■
Use the best approach to begin each piece of writing
and recognize when it’s truly finished
■
Apply the same strategies professional writers use, from
brainstorming and freewriting about your subject to outlining your ideas, from creating sentences and paragraphs
to revising and editing your writing
COURSE MATERIALS
Your English Composition course consists of the following
materials to help you achieve your goal of becoming a
better writer:
1. This study guide, which includes an introduction to your
course, plus
■
A lesson assignment page, which lists the schedule
of the study assignments in your textbook, and lesson
exams, which you’ll complete as you progress
through the course
■
Explanatory material, which emphasizes the main
points in the instructional part of each lesson
■
Suggestions on what to watch for as you read the
required material
■
Self-checks and answers, which allow you to measure your understanding of the course material
Instructions to Students
3
2. Your course textbooks:
■
Write to Learn, Eighth Edition, by Donald M. Murray
■
The Familiar Essay, edited by Mark Christensen
■
Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook, Sixteenth Edition,
by Cheryl Glenn and Loretta Gray
3. A journal—a private notebook in which you can complete various writing assignments you’ll receive. If you
like, you can always type your better efforts later on a
typewriter or computer. You may want to share them
with others, and who knows—some may even be worth
publishing! But it’s essential that you begin by completing
each assignment in a notebook that you’ll keep during
the whole time you’re taking this course.
Because this is a writing course, every other piece of writing
you read can also serve as study material. In a way, the
whole world is your textbook. As you start developing a better
sense of what makes for good writing, you should also get into
the habit of paying more attention to everything you read—
from the back of the cereal box to the sports pages in your
newspaper to the novels and stories you enjoy. You’ll soon be
able to start asking—and answering—questions such as this:
Is this a good, effective piece of writing? What makes it persuasive? How can it be improved?
KNOW YOUR TEXTBOOKS
Write to Learn. The author of Write to Learn, Donald M.
Murray, is the writing teacher most people wish they had
had in the classroom. A respected author himself, he’s been
teaching writing for decades. As a result, he displays a deep
understanding of students’ own hopes, fears, experiences,
and expectations.
His book isn’t about rules and regulations—it’s a step-by-step
manual that teaches the process of writing. Along the way, it
will help you to appreciate that every writer faces the same
hurdles you do each time he or she sits down with a pen and
a blank sheet of paper. More important, Murray can show how
to leap gracefully over each hurdle.
4
Instructions to Students
The Familiar Essay. Edited by Mark Christensen, this book
is a collection of essays written by some famous writers in the
past, some people who currently write quite a bit for the newspapers and magazines you might read yourself, and some
students as well. These essays serve as models for good
writing of your own.
Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook. This book is your guide to
the rules. It should be by your side each time you sit down to
complete a writing assignment. It’s like a bible for writers. Use
it to look up common points of grammar and the finer points
as well. Years from now, long after you’ve forgotten where
you’ve put your other study materials, you should still have
your copy of your Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook on your desk.
ORGANIZATION OF
YOUR COURSE
Your English Composition course consists of five lessons.
Each lesson has several components:
1. Introduction. Each lesson begins with an explanation of
what you’re about to explore, why it’s worth learning, and
what you should master by the time it’s over.
2. Assignments. Each lesson includes three to five assignments, which include the following elements:
a. A reading assignment in one or more of
your textbooks
b. An objective, which is a brief statement of what
you’ll learn from the assignment
c. Directed reading information in the study guide,
which explains what’s important in each reading
and helps you identify key points in your texts
d. Self-checks, which include some objective questions
and some writing exercises. Don’t ever judge your
work on the self-checks too harshly. If you make
mistakes, you’ll know right away what you need to
practice. Make sure you complete each self-check,
check your answers, and then go back to the pages
in your textbooks and review material you may not
have fully understood.
Instructions to Students
5
3. Examination. Each lesson concludes with an
examination that you must submit for grading. In
Lessons 1 and 2, you’ll complete a multiple-choice
examination; in Lessons 3–6, you’ll be graded on writing
exercises. Don’t be intimidated by these examinations.
You don’t have to take them until you feel you’ve truly
mastered the material—and the self-checks will let you
know when you have!
A STUDY PLAN
Work through this study guide one assignment at a time.
After completing the reading assignment, review the concepts
and skills you’ve learned by completing the self-checks. Once
you’ve finished all the assignments included in each lesson,
you’ll be ready to complete the examination at the end of the
lesson. Before you attempt to complete this exam, make sure
you’ve read all the assigned material and completed all the
self-checks.
Here’s a suggested procedure to help you get the most out of
your studies:
6
Step 1:
Carefully note the pages where your assigned reading begins and ends. These pages are identified in
this study guide.
Step 2:
Skim through the assigned pages (in both the
study guide and the textbook) to get a general idea
of their contents. Try to develop an overall perspective on the concepts and skills you’ll be studying.
Step 3:
Carefully read through the introductory material in
the study guide. These pages contain background
information about the material you’ll be reading in
the textbooks.
Step 4:
Read the assigned pages in your textbook(s). Take
notes on any important points or terms that you
feel are especially significant.
Step 5:
Complete the self-checks at the end of each assignment in your study guide and compare your
answers with those given at the back of the guide.
Instructions to Students
Don’t send any of the answers to self-checks to the
school. These exercises are intended for your personal use in evaluating and directing your progress.
Step 6:
When you feel you’ve mastered all of the material
presented in the first assignment, proceed to your
next assignment. Repeat Steps 1–5 for the remaining assignments in each lesson.
Step 7:
Once you’ve finished all of the assignments and
self-checks in Lesson 1, complete the examination
at the end of the lesson. Take your time with the
exam. As you work on the exam, feel free to refer
to your textbook, the study guide, and any notes
you may have taken. After finishing the examination, use one of the school’s examination reporting
formats to submit your examination answers to the
school for grading.
Step 8:
When you’ve completed the assignments, selfchecks, and examination for Lesson 1, proceed to
the next lesson. Repeat Steps 1–7 for the remaining lessons in your study guide.
Remember, at any point in your studies, you can e-mail
your instructor for further information or clarification. Your
instructor can answer questions, provide additional information, and further explain any of your study materials.
You should find your instructor’s guidance and suggestions
very helpful.
Now, look over the lesson assignments on the following
pages of this study guide; then begin your study of English
Composition with Lesson 1, Assignment 1.
Good luck with your course!
Instructions to Students
7
NOTES
8
Instructions to Students
Lesson 1: The Basics
Read in the
study guide:
Read in
the textbook:
Assignment 1
Pages 14–18
Pages 3–23, 43–59 (M)
Assignment 2
Pages 19–21
Pages 3–86, 311–363 (H)
Pages 74–78 (C)
Assignment 3
Pages 22–23
Pages 429–440 (H)
Assignment 4
Pages 24–26
Pages 296–297, 416–417 (H)
Pages 79–81, 124–129 (C)
Examination 05085503
Material in Lesson 1
Lesson 2: The Writing Process
For:
Read in the
study guide:
Read in
the textbook:
Assignment 5
Pages 31–33
Pages 405–406, 393–399 (H)
Pages 62–65, 171–173 (M)
Assignment 6
Pages 33–36
Pages 403–405, 408–417 (H)
Pages 65–70, 81–87 (M)
Pages 83–90 (C)
Assignment 7
Pages 37–38
Pages 261–273 (M)
Assignment 8
Pages 38–39
Pages 87–143, 203–219 (H)
Assignment 9
Pages 39–41
Pages 220–240 (H)
Examination 05085603
Material in Lesson 2
(C) = The Familiar Essay, edited by Mark Christensen
(H) = Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook
(M) = Write to Learn, by Donald M. Murray
Assignments
For:
9
Lesson 3: Descriptive Writing
For:
Read in the
study guide:
Read in
the textbook:
Assignment 10
Pages 47–52
Pages 285–308 (H)
Pages 183–184, 207–214 (M)
Pages 92–93, 21–24 (C)
Assignment 11
Pages 53–55
Pages 651–656, 270–284 (H)
Pages 10–12, 33–37 (C)
Assignment 12
Pages 56–57
Pages 138–150 (M)
Pages 79–81, 83–90, 95–98,
113–115, 117–121 (C)
Examination 05085704
Material in Lesson 3
Lesson 4: Narrative Writing
For:
Read in the
study guide:
Read in
the textbook:
Assignment 13
Pages 65–68
Pages 305–306 (M)
Pages 241–247, 14–19,
56–60, 176–183 (C)
Assignment 14
Pages 69–70
Pages 426–428 (H)
Assignment 15
Pages 70–73
Pages 418–458 (H)
Pages 273–294 (M)
Examination 05085803
Material in Lesson 4
Lesson 5: Reflective Writing
For:
Read in the
study guide:
Read in
the textbook:
Assignment 16
Pages 79–87
Pages 308–309 (M)
Pages 135–138, 131–133,
39–41, 262–268 (C)
Examination 05085903
10
Material in Lesson 5
Lesson Assignments
Lesson 6: Persuasive Writing
For:
Read in the
study guide:
Read in
the textbook:
Assignment 17
Pages 93–94
Pages 138–146, 313–314,
214–226 (M)
Pages 70–72, 108–111,
237–239 (C)
Pages 399–417 (H)
Assignment 18
Pages 95–103
Final Examination 05068300
Lesson Assignments
Pages 380–391, 459–491 (H)
Material in Lesson 6
11
NOTES
12
Lesson Assignments
The Basics
In this lesson, you’ll examine some of the common problems
that many beginning writers face. You’ll explore the most
fundamental building blocks of effective writing—sentences
and paragraphs. You’ll also study how you can achieve precise
writing by making sure that you define all your terms. By the
time you’ve completed this lesson, you should find that your
own writing is less confusing to your readers than it might
have been before.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism refers to the act of copying or rewording someone
else’s actual words or ideas and presenting them as if they
were your own. It’s an illegal offense that’s punishable by law.
Please review your Student Handbook for the school’s policy
on copying and plagiarism. For the essays required in this
course, you’ll use your firsthand knowledge and direct experience to develop ideas. In other words, you won’t use
researched information or ideas from another person or from
outside sources. Instead, you’ll rely on your own memory
and awareness of people and things around you.
Now read “Plagiarism” on pages 311–312 in Donald M. Murray’s
Write to Learn and section 38e, “Avoiding plagiarism,” on
pages 546–548 in your Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook. Murray
shares the personal pain of being plagiarized and the
Handbook further defines plagiarism and explains how to
give proper credit when you do use others’ information. In
other courses that require research papers, you’ll need to
follow these strict style rules.
The online school library has links to various citation style
guides like MLA and APA, which you can access from the
link on your student page. Apply these rules according to
the requirements you’re given as you reference any work
you build on, summarize, paraphrase, or directly quote. By
doing so, you’ll ensure your own writing is credible, ethical,
and authentic.
Lesson 1
INTRODUCTION
13
ASSIGNMENT 1:
WRITING DIFFICULTIES
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 1. Then, in your textbook
Write to Learn, study Chapters 1–3,
pages 3–23, and Chapters 5–7, pages 43–59.
Objective
To recognize that nearly all writers face similar difficulties and
that many of these difficulties are based on past experiences
with teachers and classes—as well as on their own fears
Directed Reading
As you read the assigned pages in Write to Learn, think about
the following key points. Write your thoughts and the answers
to any questions in your journal.
Pages 3–6. These opening pages of Write to Learn may
change your mind about the process of writing. The author,
Donald Murray, talks about starting with a blank piece of
paper and creating some type of writing. But, he approaches
the task of writing in a way that may be completely different
from what you’re used to. See what he has to say in this
introductory chapter.
Pages 7–9. As you read these pages, consider the ways
your own mind works and the surprising connections that
happen when you don’t expect them. For example, the
smell of a certain food may suddenly trigger memories of your
grade-school cafeteria, and you might suddenly remember
a long-forgotten incident that happened when you were in
second grade.
14
English Composition
What does this have to do with writing? Most people, when
they think about writing, picture someone typing at a computer or a typewriter or seated at a desk with pen in hand.
However, most writing doesn’t actually occur in that manner.
The thoughts that eventually make it to the printed page occur
at the strangest times. The difference between writers and
everyone else is that most people simply forget these connections. Writers jot them down and use them as the basis for
something they may write about later. In short, writers are
writing—even in their heads—all the time.
After you read the sample of freewriting on page 9 of Write to
Learn, put your book down and try some freewriting of your
own. One of the pleasures of freewriting is that there are
no rules! Just let your head wander and start jotting down
anything that crosses your mind. Here are some suggestions
to help get you started on your first freewriting experience:
■
If you can’t think of anything to write down, just write
some words—any words. Eventually thoughts will begin
to come to your mind.
■
Don’t try too hard. Don’t think too much. Just jot down
everything you think of.
■
Do your freewriting about all different topics, or pick a
topic and confine your freewriting to that one area.
■
Use sentences and paragraphs, or just jot down words
and phrases—or use both if you wish.
■
If you get stuck, rewrite some words, phrases, or sentences you’ve already written down. Soon, new ideas
will surface.
■
Set a time limit of, say, 10 minutes and write continuously
during that time.
■
Don’t worry about what your writing sounds like. The
idea isn’t to develop a polished essay. The idea is to
discover ideas that might not otherwise occur to you.
When you finish your freewriting, keep it with your other
materials for this course. You’ll be using this information
later in this assignment.
Lesson 1
15
Pages 10–11. In these pages, the author moves from
freewriting to composing an essay of 700 to 800 words. As
he does this, he begins to think about two things: focusing
his subject and considering his audience’s reactions.
After you’ve read these pages, look back at the freewriting
you just did. Believe it or not, nearly every thought, image, or
idea you jotted down could serve as the basis for a good
essay. If you don’t believe it, look again at Murray’s own list
on page 9. When you first read this list, did you think that
most of his phrases could be developed into an essay?
Probably not, but it’s true.
For example, thinking about college leads the author to think
about the prep school kids he saw on the train. He remembers
the Windsor knots they used on their neckties. These knots
might not sound like a very important part of his list, but
think about it. They could serve as the basis for different
essays aimed at different people. Consider these possibilities:
16
■
An amusing narrative essay might recount his own
unpleasant experiences tying and wearing a necktie.
Most male readers would sympathize and probably
smile at his recollections.
■
A compare-and-contrast essay could explain the differences between people who wear ties regularly and those
who don’t. This would be of interest to people interested
in psychology and personality differences. Another essay
in this category might examine changing styles in neckties over the decades. Anyone interested in fashion would
probably find this entertaining.
■
An expository essay could explain, step-by-step, how to tie
a knot in a necktie. Anyone who has struggled with tying
these complex knots might thank you for your advice.
■
An argumentative or persuasive essay could try to
convince readers that there’s no reason to wear a tie
in the office. This type of essay might find its way into
a memo to your boss or company owner.
English Composition
Now that you have an idea of some possibilities, look at
your own list. Who might be interested in what you have to
say about each of these things? If you were to talk or write
about each of these ideas, what aspects of each would be
interesting to different audiences? Jot your answers down
next to your freewriting.
Pages 12–23. The title of Chapter 3 is “Unlearn to Write,”
which may seem a bit strange to you at first. In fact, most of
these pages deal with debunking the rules that many teachers
present for good writing. In a way, the author is telling you
to forget the rules and just write. Reading what the author
has to say in these pages should make you feel much more
comfortable about the task of writing.
Pages 34–39. Pay particular attention to the “Shoptalk”
section on pages 34–37. Here, Murray continues his efforts
to make the writing process less mysterious and fearful by
answering several questions students often ask about writing. Perhaps you’ve wondered about these questions yourself.
Pages 43–51. The title of this chapter is slightly deceiving.
When Murray advises you to “write before writing,” what he
really means is that good writers tend to rehearse in their
heads what they’re going to write before sitting down with
their blank page or computer. Starting with the heading “Pay
Attention” on page 45, Murray lists a number of rehearsal
strategies that experienced writers have found useful.
Pages 52–59. In these important pages, you’ll learn that
nearly all of your own thoughts and experiences provide the
basis for writing. Sadly, many people are hindered from writing because they believe (falsely) that they have nothing to
say. Pages 52–59 show you how unlocking the rich storehouse of your personal memories can provide you with material for writing you never knew you had.
Lesson 1
17
Self-Check 1
When you read pages 7–9, you were asked to do some freewriting of your own. Look back
at what you jotted down. By now, you may already have forgotten the way your mind
moved—some of the words and phrases you jotted down may look like gibberish now.
But somewhere in there is the germ of an idea worth expanding. Follow these steps:
1. Choose one of the items you jotted down—something you would like to develop. Then, have
a second go at freewriting. This time, jot down all of the relevant memories, ideas, and
thoughts you have about this particular subject—ideas that are related to your point of view.
(For advice on trying out different points of view, see “A” in the list on page 35 and the last
paragraph on page 47, “Try Different Points of View.”)
2. Recalling what Murray said about voice (page 50), think about a point of view. Recalling what
we said about audience earlier in this study guide, think about the people for whom you
might write about this subject.
3. Go through your second freewriting list and select the ideas and images that are related to
your point of view and that might be of interest to your audience. For example, if one of the
images that occurred when you were freewriting was “the dog I had when I was a child,”
your point of view might be “how much my dog meant to me.” Certain specific ideas, images,
and events will make your point of view come alive for your audience—for example, your
dog sleeping on your bed each night, greeting you when you came home from school each
day, running away once for hours and returning, playing fetch with you. Other details might
be useless—the kind of collar she wore, the time she bit the mailman, and how afraid of cats
she was.
4. Incorporate those ideas into a piece of writing 300–500 words long.
Check your answers with those on page 109.
18
English Composition
ASSIGNMENT 2:
GRAMMAR—SENTENCES,
ADJECTIVES, AND ADVERBS
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 2. Then, in your textbook
Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook, study
Chapters 1–4, pages 3–86, and Chapters
23–30, pages 311–363.
In The Familiar Essay, read William
Zinsser’s essay “Clutter,” pages 74–78.
Objective
To explain the most fundamental building blocks of all
writing—words and sentences—in order to write quickly
and easily according to the “rules”
Directed Reading
Chapters 1–4. The lessons in the Harbrace Handbook are
designed to help you understand the nuts and bolts of writing.
You might have brilliant ideas or a great story in your head,
but if your sentences don’t adhere to the rules, your reader is
going to spend too much time trying to figure out exactly what
you mean rather than enjoying or learning from your writing.
The first four chapters in the handbook will help you produce
clear, effective sentences. Don’t try to sit down and master
these four chapters all at once. Take them one chapter at a
time and spend several days on each one. Although you should
try to understand and learn the information presented in this
assignment, you should also treat this handbook as a reference manual. Whenever you’re unsure of how to handle a
particular bit of usage, look it up.
Chapters 23–30. These chapters teach more sophisticated
writing skills to help you make conscious, deliberate choices
about how you arrange words in sentences. Review these
skills each time you’re ready to revise a piece of writing.
Lesson 1
19
Knowing how and when to apply proper emphasis, to use
logical connections, and to vary sentence structure involves
practice and experimentation. As you try different techniques, read your work out loud and listen for changes in
emphasis and coherence. Either have someone read your
writing to you or tape yourself reading your work exactly as
you’ve written it so you can hear problem areas that you
need to fix.
“Clutter.” William Zinsser’s essay, “Clutter,” is something
everyone can profit from reading now and then. The “sins”
of clutter in writing include such habits as using longer sentences and even longer words than you have to, trying to sound
more important or intelligent than you need to, and using
too many irrelevant details or going into great length about a
point you’ve already made. These errors are as obvious in the
work of professional writers as in that of beginners.
20
English Composition
Self-Check 2
1. When you finish reading “Clutter,” read through a few magazine articles and try to identify
examples of clutter. When you find cluttered sentences or paragraphs, rewrite them in your
journal using simpler, easier-to-understand plain English.
Then look back at the first piece you wrote in your journal. Can you find any clutter in there?
Remember, Zinsser isn’t talking about what you’re saying so much as the way you say it. He’s
talking about the language you use. Have you expressed yourself as simply and as clearly as
possible, or do some of your sentences exhibit clutter? If they do, rewrite them in your journal.
2. Complete the following exercises from your Harbrace Handbook. If you don’t score
at least 90 percent on each section, go back and reread the material related to the
topic you had trouble with.
■
Page 14, Exercise 1
■
Page 16, Exercise 2
■
Page 21, Exercise 4
■
Page 60, Exercise 3
■
Page 61, Exercise 4
■
Pages 73–74, Exercises 1–2
■
Page 86, Exercise 4
Check your answers with those on page 109.
Lesson 1
21
ASSIGNMENT 3: PARAGRAPHS
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 3. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study pages 429–440
of Chapter 31.
Objective
To explore the ways in which sentences are combined to
become effective paragraphs
Directed Reading
In a way, a paragraph is a miniature essay. An essay has one
controlling idea, and each paragraph in the essay should support that idea. If it doesn’t, throw out the whole paragraph—
no matter how great the writing might be! Likewise, each
sentence in a paragraph should support the controlling idea
in that paragraph. If a sentence doesn’t relate to the topic of
the paragraph, get rid of it.
22
English Composition
Self-Check 3
Follow these steps for your journal exercise:
1. In your journal, write a simple, declarative sentence that can serve as a controlling idea
for a paragraph.
2. Jot down three to five ideas that help support that paragraph.
3. Turn each of these ideas into a sentence.
4. Decide the order in which you want these sentences to occur in the paragraph. You may want
to move from the most important to the least important idea, or maybe just the opposite,
from the least important to the most important. You may wish to proceed chronologically—
that is, from first to last in order of time. For example, if you were explaining how to tie a
necktie, you would probably want to describe the steps in the order in which they should
be performed.
5. Reread pages 429–440 in your Harbrace Handbook and develop transitions between the
sentences in the paragraph you’ve written.
6. Rewrite the entire paragraph.
7. To evaluate your paragraph, ask yourself and answer the following questions:
a. Does this paragraph have one controlling idea? Is that idea clearly expressed?
b. Does each sentence in this paragraph support that idea?
c. Does my use of transitions help the reader to move smoothly from one sentence
to the next, or do the transitions between sentences feel choppy and abrupt?
Check your answers with those on page 113.
Lesson 1
23
ASSIGNMENT 4: DEFINITION
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 4. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study “Clear definitions ” on pages 296–297 and “Defining
an important concept or term clarifies
meaning” on pages 416–417.
In The Familiar Essay, read Judy Brady’s
essay “I Want a Wife” on pages 79–81
and Judith Viorst’s essay “What, Me? Showing Off?” on
pages 124–129.
Objective
To demonstrate the different ways of defining words
and concepts
Directed Reading
When people think of the word definition, they usually think
of the standard dictionary definition, which defines things
according to class and species. The class is the general
category, and the species provides the characteristics that
make the term unique. For example, one writer once defined
human as “the animal that laughs.” The word animal represents the class to which humans belong, and the phrase
that laughs indicates the thing that makes humans different
from other animals.
Sometimes using strict definitions is important, especially when
you’re talking about terms that may have different meanings
for different people. For example, most people probably agree
on what a cat and a table are, but not everyone agrees on the
meanings of words like freedom and courage. Whenever you
write anything, it’s always a good idea to read it over to identify terms that might mean something very different to your
readers than they do to you.
The essays you’re about to read in The Familiar Essay use a
different means of defining. Judy Brady doesn’t use a standard
dictionary definition to explain what a wife is. In fact, she
24
English Composition
doesn’t even say she’s going to define the word. But when
you read her essay, you realize that what she has actually
done is to create a very clear picture of what the word wife
means to many people—a definition that you probably won’t
see in a dictionary.
Likewise, Judith Viorst doesn’t begin by saying, “In this essay
I will define what showing off means.” Rather, she presents a
number of examples. By the time readers have read her essay,
they’ll probably have a pretty good idea of what showing off
is all about. And they’ll probably spot themselves as well as
other people they know in the essay!
Many pieces of writing are actually all about definition, even if
they don’t seem so at first glance. For example, the suggested
essay about “how much my pet dog meant to me” might
actually be the basis for a definition of unconditional love.
Self-Check 4
1. Select five words and write your own dictionary-style definition of each one. Make sure you
choose at least one noun, one verb, and one adjective. Use this format: A _______ is a
_______ that _______. For example, “A dictionary is a book that defines words.”
2. Using the words from exercise 1, define each word by using synonyms and examples.
3. Look up three words in the dictionary and study their definitions. Then, think of ways to
illustrate those definitions in your own writing. For example, maybe you would list examples.
Maybe a very short story would do the trick, or perhaps contrasting the thing you want to
define with other related objects or ideas would be useful. Use as many techniques as you
can to make those definitions come alive before your readers’ eyes.
(Continued)
Lesson 1
25
Self-Check 4
4. Before taking the examination for Lesson 1, be sure you understand the following terms and
how they’re used. Use the index at the back of the Harbrace Handbook to look up any terms
you’re still unsure of.
a. Adjective __________________________________________________________
b. Adverb ____________________________________________________________
c.
Comma splice ______________________________________________________
d. Conjunction ________________________________________________________
e. Direct object________________________________________________________
f.
Fused sentences ____________________________________________________
g. Interjection ________________________________________________________
h. Object complement __________________________________________________
i.
Paragraph coherence
j.
Paragraph unity
________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
k. Preposition ________________________________________________________
l.
Sentence fragment __________________________________________________
m. Topic sentence ______________________________________________________
Check your answers with those on page 113.
26
English Composition
EXAMINATION NUMBER:
05085503
Whichever method you use in submitting your exam
answers to the school, you must use the number above.
For the quickest test results, go to
http://www.takeexamsonline.com
When you feel confident that you have mastered the material
in this study unit, go to http://www.takeexamsonline.com and
submit your answers online. If you don’t have access to the
Internet, you can phone in or mail in your exam. Submit your
answers for this examination as soon as you complete it.
Do not wait until another examination is ready.
Questions 1–20: Select the one best answer to each question.
1. In the following sentence, what part of speech is the
word Tearfully?
Tearfully, I hung up the phone.
A. Adjective
B. Adverb
C. Preposition
D. Interjection
2. In the following sentence, how is the underlined phrase used?
Both Joe and I wanted the last piece of pizza.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Subject
Verb
Direct object
Object of a preposition
3. Which one of the following statements correctly describes a
topic sentence?
A.
B.
C.
D.
It’s always the first sentence in a paragraph.
It includes specific details about the subject.
It expresses the main idea of a paragraph.
It’s always the last sentence in a paragraph.
Examination
Lesson 1
The Basics
27
4. Coherence in a paragraph means that every sentence
A.
B.
C.
D.
leads logically to the next sentence.
supports the topic sentence.
supports the main idea of the entire essay.
follows in chronological order.
5. Which one of the following sentences represents an example of an effective definition?
A.
B.
C.
D.
An
An
All
An
animal is a living creature that is not human.
animal is different from a vegetable or mineral.
animals are the same in some ways, yet different in others.
animal is a living creature that moves and ingests food through a mouth.
6. Which one of the following sentences is an example of a declarative sentence?
A.
B.
C.
D.
That’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen!
Who let the dogs out?
All you need is love.
Do as you are told.
7. Identify the adjective in the following sentence.
John Keats’s “Ode on Melancholy” is a truly beautiful poem.
A. Melancholy
B. truly
C. beautiful
D. poem
8. In the following sentence, how is the underlined word used?
Even though the darkening skies threatened rain, the band decided to play
the concert.
A. Subject
B. Verb
C. Direct object
D. Object of a preposition
Question 9 is based on the following paragraph.
When I get up in the morning, the first thing I do is head straight for my coffeemaker.
After one cup, I start feeling at least somewhat normal. (Don’t most people feel this
way?) I won’t have my last cup until shortly before I go to bed. In between, I’ll litter
my desktop with Styrofoam cups of instant coffee, I’ll enjoy a cup after each meal,
and if I’m lucky, I’ll take a mid-afternoon break and enjoy a cup with my colleagues at
the local café. I guess you could say I’m a caffeine addict. I really couldn’t get through
the day without it.
28
Examination, Lesson 1
9. What organization pattern characterizes this paragraph?
A. Question-answer
B. Specific to general
C. Chronological order
D. Problem-solution
10. Which one of the following examples is an illustration of a sentence fragment?
A. The author of this book, William Gaddis.
B. “I’m not sure,” she said; and I knew that she wanted to be sure more than
she wanted anything in the world.
C. It’s easy to grow a pumpkin.
D. Jesus wept.
11. Identify the part of speech of the underlined word in the following sentence.
I plan to start writing before seven o’clock each morning.
A. Adjective
B. Adverb
C. Preposition
D. Interjection
12. In the following sentence, how is the underlined word used?
We both thought that this novel was one of the finest books we had ever read.
A. Subject
B. Verb
C. Direct object
D. Object of a preposition
13. Which one of the following examples is an illustration of a fused, or run-on, sentence?
A.
B.
C.
D.
I didn’t know which way to turn; every road seemed long and hard.
The raccoon in the garage was vicious you could see it in his eyes.
You never know where you are going until you get there.
Some dogs hate cats. Because they are born that way I guess.
Question 14 is based on the following paragraph.
I’ve always been a pretty good basketball player. When I played today, I scored 22 points
and grabbed 4 rebounds—not bad for an old guy. In high school, I led the league in assists
one year and made nearly every shot from the free-throw line. Of course, sometimes I have
a bad day, but a bad day for me means shooting 60 percent or worse. I remember in
college making a few shots that were game winners. I think it’s partly the love of the game
that has made me a good ballplayer. I actually started playing when I was three years
old, and I’d try really hard to throw the heavy ball toward the basket. To be able to keep
up with the younger guys on the court, you have to stay in shape and practice regularly.
14. The major problem with this paragraph is that it lacks
A. a topic sentence.
B. unity.
Examination, Lesson 1
C. definitions.
D. coherence.
29
15. Which of the following sentences defines a term by including an appositive?
A. The word irascible means “marked by hot temper.”
B. Proper nouns (like Philadelphia, James, and the Empire State Building) always
begin with a capital letter.
C. A stylus, a type of writing instrument, was originally used to write on clay or
waxed tablets.
D. In this paper, the modern era refers to anything that has occurred since 1990.
16. Which of the following is an example of a compound sentence?
A. Because the weather was so nice, we decided to take the day off from work.
B. There are five players on the court for each basketball team at any given time:
two guards, two forwards, and a center.
C. She bought me a guitar, so I decided to learn how to play it.
D. Carl and Sara decided to go bowling and then out to dinner.
17. Identify the part of speech for the underlined word in the following sentence.
What I loved most about her was her laugh.
A. Noun
B. Verb
C. Adjective
D. Adverb
18. How is the underlined word used in the following sentence?
When it came to autumn, my thoughts often turned to the years I had spent
quarterbacking my high school football team.
A. Subject
B. Verb
C. Direct object
D. Object of a preposition
19. Which one of the following examples illustrates a comma splice?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Swimming is great exercise, but I prefer riding my bicycle.
I saw fish, frogs, turtles, and tadpoles at the lake.
Fishing for trout, and frying them on a campfire.
Don’t go over before noon, I won’t be there.
20. Which one of the following sentences contains a double negative?
A.
B.
C.
D.
30
She did not like skating so she would not go to the party.
James couldn’t hardly stay awake after his surgery.
No one could tell me that he wasn’t afraid.
Sherrill wouldn’t tell me that I didn’t win the contest.
Examination, Lesson 1
The Writing Process
For many people, the act of writing means sitting down with
a piece of paper and writing one complete sentence after
another. When the final sentence is completed, the work is
done. The purpose of this lesson is to explore the process of
composition—including all of the things you do before you
start writing those sentences and all of the things you do
after you think you’re finished. When you’ve completed this
lesson, you should have a firm understanding of each step
involved in creating a solid, clear, and polished piece of
writing you can be proud of.
ASSIGNMENT 5: DRAFTING
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 5. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study “Your first
draft allows you to continue exploring your
topic and to clarify what you think” on
pages 405–406 and “Writers find appropriate subjects and decide how to focus
them” on pages 393–399.
In Write to Learn, read “Techniques for Discovering Subjects”
on pages 62–65 (up to “Mapping”) and Chapter 18 on pages
171–173.
Objective
To further explore the ways in which freewriting and brainstorming can unlock memories, images, feelings, and ideas
that can serve as subjects for your own writing
Lesson 2
INTRODUCTION
31
Directed Reading
You’ve already studied a little about freewriting and
brainstorming. You’ve even tried your hand at using those
techniques. In this assignment, you’re going to learn more
about how to organize those ideas that result from these
two processes.
The Harbrace Handbook makes a definite distinction between
freewriting and directed freewriting. In freewriting, you write
down everything that comes across your mind, looking for
“surprises” and “connections” you might not have made otherwise. In directed freewriting, you focus on one subject and list
relevant details about that subject only. Directed freewriting is
similar to what you did in Lesson 1, when you moved from
general, free-form freewriting to brainstorming a particular idea.
Pages 62–65 in Write to Learn focus on brainstorming. Note
that this process involves a second step—analyzing what
you’ve written and noting the connections. Often two thoughts
that occur one after the other may at first appear unrelated.
Chances are, however, that you’ll be able to find some
connection between them if you study them a little more.
And it’s in those connections that you often find the basis
of something to write about, or you discover something about
yourself and even your opinions that you didn’t know before.
Keep in mind that brainstorming isn’t necessarily something
you do for 15 minutes and then stop. The best ideas of many
writers don’t come to them when they’re expecting them.
Instead, they happen by chance and are likely to occur at
the oddest moments. That’s why many writers carry with
them small pocket notebooks so they can jot down ideas
whenever and wherever they strike.
32
English Composition
Self-Check 5
1. Over the next day or so, perform at least three to five directed freewriting exercises.
Follow these steps for the exercises.
a. Choose one particular subject and just let yourself go.
b. Next, as Murray does on pages 64 and 65 of Write to Learn, look for surprises
and connections.
c.
Make a list of controlling ideas for each group of related ideas. (You may want to
reorganize your list first.)
d. Think about what subject these ideas might illustrate. For example, in Write to Learn,
Murray moves from the specific image “the vacant lot” to the idea that his details might
add up to exploring “the terrors of childhood.” You won’t have enough ideas to write a
full essay yet, but that’s not the point here. There’s plenty of time to come back and flesh
out this skeleton. Right now, you’re just looking for a subject—one you know something
about (even though you may have to do further research) and care about (even if it’s no
longer part of your everyday life).
2. Using the material you developed in step 1, write down the subject. Then, in a single
sentence, summarize what you would like to tell your audience about it.
Check your answers with those on page 114.
ASSIGNMENT 6:
OUTLINING AND MAPPING
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 6. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study sections
33d and 33g on pages 403–405
and 408–417.
In Write to Learn, read from “Mapping” on
page 65 to “Shoptalk” on page 70. Also in
Write to Learn, read pages 81–87, stopping
at “Outline 6.”
Finally, in The Familiar Essay, read Susan Allen Toth’s
“The Boyfriend” on pages 83–90.
Lesson 2
33
Objective
To organize your freewriting ideas so that when it comes time
to write, you already have a master plan established
Directed Reading/Writing
As you read page 403 in the Harbrace Handbook, look back
at your own list. Can your own ideas be grouped into categories? Remember that some ideas on your list might not fit
at all and others may overlap. Don’t ever try to force ideas
into one category or another. One critical element in writing
is learning what to eliminate.
Pages 404–405 in the Harbrace Handbook explain the use
of lists and outlines. A list may use both topic phrases and
sentences, while a formal outline uses only one and maintains
parallel structure. After you read this section, write a topic
outline and a sentence outline for several of the idea categories
in your lists. When you’re finished, determine which style
you find more helpful, and use that as you plan your writing.
Whichever type of outline you decide to use, make sure you’re
consistent. Don’t mix topics and sentences in the same outline. Also, make sure the items in your topic outlines are
grammatically parallel phrases.
The outline on pages 404–405 of the Harbrace Handbook is
only a rough outline. It doesn’t consistently use parallel grammatical construction. Often, it’s good to use a rough outline
to generate ideas and then switch to a more formal topic or
sentence outline to better focus and organize your writing. In
that case, you’ll choose either topics or complete sentences
in your outline items, and you’ll maintain parallel construction.
Occasionally, you may have to write something that requires
a table of contents. In such a case, you may prefer to use a
topic outline to organize your material. When you’re finished
with your report, your outline can serve as the table of contents. On the other hand, the sentences in a sentence outline
may serve as the topic sentences of your paragraphs when you
begin your writing. Each type of outline has its advantages.
It’s up to you to decide which style to use for your writing.
34
English Composition
On pages 81–83 of Write to Learn, you’ll study some more
relaxed, informal ways of creating outlines. Some writers
prefer these to the formal outlines presented in the Harbrace
Handbook. Using the same categories you did for formal
outlines, try writing basic outlines according to the model
Murray provides in “Outline 1” on pages 81 and 82.
Once you have a basic outline of the ideas you want to
present, you must determine what mode of presentation
you want to use. Pages 408–417 in your Harbrace Handbook
present a variety of methods you can use:
■
Narration
■
Description
■
Explanation
■
Cause and effect
■
Comparison and contrast
■
Classification or division
■
Definition
Study these terms and the examples presented closely. Then,
when it comes time to choose a mode for your writing, you’ll
be familiar with the possibilities.
“The Boyfriend” (Familiar Essay, pages 83–90) is an example of
a narrative essay. As you read it, ask yourself these questions:
■
What specific time period does this essay cover?
■
Is the author simply describing something out of her
past, or does the essay involve the present as well?
■
What details make this story come alive? Underline or
highlight particular words or phrases that appeal to
your own senses (sight, taste, touch, smell, hearing).
■
Is there a controlling idea behind this story? Write it
down. If you think there’s more than one, write them
all down.
Lesson 2
35
Self-Check 6
Choose one of the outlines you’ve already created and study it. Then glance again at the
various modes of presentation described on pages 408–417 in the Harbrace Handbook.
Based on your outline, write at least 5–10 sentences for each mode—more if you feel
you’re on to something. Use the following information to guide you.
Narration. Is there a story you can tell that will help illustrate your point? It doesn’t have to
be true, of course. A fictional story can be just as effective. Just don’t pretend that it’s true.
In this mode, you’re a storyteller.
Description. Choose one element from your list of ideas and begin to describe it. In your
writing, use as many of the senses as you can—touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. Think of
yourself as an artist.
Explanation. Try to logically explain some element of your subject. What parts is it made of? How
does it work? In this mode, you’re working as an engineer.
Cause and effect. Describe the steps that created a circumstance or condition covered in your idea
list. How does this thing come to be? Think like a scientist.
Comparison and contrast. Are there different subtopics among your ideas that you can
compare (show similarities) and contrast (highlight differences)? Using this mode requires
you to think like a philosopher.
Classification or division. Can you group the elements in your outline into various categories?
How can explaining this grouping help the reader to understand what you’re trying to communicate?
This type of grouping is what biologists, botanists—and librarians—do.
Definition. What terms in your outline might be unfamiliar to your audience? What terms might you
and your audience understand differently? Use a dictionary-style definition to spell out exactly what
those words mean to you. What examples can you add to further help define them? Now you’re
working as a lexicographer!
Check your answers with those on page 114.
36
English Composition
ASSIGNMENT 7:
REVISION, PART 1
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 7. Then, in Write to Learn,
study Chapter 25, pages 261–273. Stop at
the heading “The Revision Checklist.”
Objective
To identify some of the principles of revising and editing
Directed Reading
The purpose of this assignment is to introduce you to a topic
some people don’t like to think about—making revisions.
Writers’ jobs begin long before they write the first sentence
and don’t end until they’ve rewritten and corrected the
problems they discover as they reread their material.
Some people are so happy when they write the last sentence
that they don’t even want to look at the material again. But
revision and editing are necessary parts of the writing
process. Once you become skilled at these tasks, you’ll be
surprised at what you discover in your initial writing—what
needs to be added, deleted, corrected, or changed to make
it a readable and understandable document.
Lesson 2
37
Self-Check 7
You’ll be studying more about revising and editing in Lesson 4—after you’ve completed
several full-fledged essays of your own. For now, as you read the material for this assignment, try to get a taste for what’s involved in the revision process and to understand how
vital a role revision plays in effective writing.
To get some practice at revising, take the strategy for revision explained on pages 264–268
and apply it to one of the pieces you wrote in Assignment 6.
Check your answers with those on page 115.
ASSIGNMENT 8: PRONOUNS,
VERBS, AND COMMAS
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 8. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study Chapters 5–7,
pages 87–143, and Chapters 12–13,
pages 203–219.
Objective
To apply the basic principles of using pronouns and
commas correctly
Directed Reading
This assignment covers pronouns, agreement between subjects
and verbs, verbs, and commas. Although the reading assignment is rather long, you have to decide how carefully and
thoroughly you have to read this material. Only you are aware
of how well you know the principles of pronouns, verbs, and
commas. Scan the material you’re very familiar with, and
spend more time on the finer points that may be new to you.
Above all, become familiar with the layout of the handbook
so you can use it as a quick reference when you’re writing.
38
English Composition
Self-Check 8
Complete the following exercises from your Harbrace Handbook. If you don’t score at least
90 percent on each section, go back and reread the material related to the topic you had
trouble with.
■
Page 95, Exercise 1
■
Pages 96–97, Exercise 2
■
Page 108, Exercise 1
■
Page 112, Exercise 3
■
Page 134, Exercise 3
■
Page 135–136, Exercise 4
■
Page 205, Exercise 1
■
Page 213, Exercise 4
Check your answers with those on page 115.
ASSIGNMENT 9:
SEMICOLONS, APOSTROPHES,
AND QUOTATION MARKS
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 9. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study Chapters
14–16, pages 220–240.
Objective
To use punctuation marks to create different effects and to
use apostrophes correctly
Lesson 2
39
Directed Reading
The first punctuation mark you’ll encounter in this assignment
is the semicolon. Although the semicolon isn’t a difficult punctuation mark to understand, like other marks, it’s often
misused. There are really two rules to remember about
using semicolons:
1. Use a semicolon to separate two independent clauses that
are closely related (pages 220–221). (Note: Don’t use a
semicolon to connect two independent clauses if the
clauses are also linked by a coordinating conjunction.
See page 13 for a list of these conjunctions.)
2. Use a semicolon to separate elements that themselves
contain commas (page 221).
If you remember these two rules and use semicolons only in
these instances, you’ll be in good shape.
The second punctuation mark you’ll study in this assignment is the apostrophe. Apostrophes are used for three
different purposes:
1. To show ownership or relationship (Carol’s book, the
boy’s father)
2. To indicate an omission of a letter or a number (can’t,
the year ’02)
3. To form the plurals of letters, numbers, and words
referred to as words (C’s, 2’s)
Note: In the chapter on apostrophes, pay particular attention
to the difference between its and it’s. Also, be careful not to
use an ’s to form a plural of a common noun (page 227).
The final punctuation mark you’ll study in this assignment is
the quotation mark. This is a chapter that you should plan to
refer to as you do any writing. The misuse of and overuse of
quotation marks is all too widespread.
Sometimes misusing quotation marks can lead to somewhat
humorous results. For example, page 245 of the Harbrace
Handbook says “Writers sometimes use quotation marks to
indicate that they are using a word or phrase ironically.”
Therefore, the grocer that advertises “Fresh” Fish is really saying the fish are anything but fresh. Don’t use quotation marks
40
English Composition
to emphasize or bring special attention to a word or phrase.
Instead, do as your textbook suggests (page 237) and take
the time to find a more suitable word. (Note: If you do want
to emphasize a word or phrase, you can also use italics.
See page 186 in the Harbrace Handbook. But be careful.
Overusing italics makes them lose their impact.)
Self-Check 9
Complete the following exercises from your Harbrace Handbook. If you don’t score at least
90 percent on each section, go back and reread the material related to the topic you had
trouble with.
■
Page 223, Exercise 2
■
Page 231, Exercise 2
■
Page 239–240, Exercise 1
Check your answers with those on page 119.
Before you take the examination for Lesson 2, review the
material you studied in Assignments 5–9. Then complete
the examination.
Lesson 2
41
NOTES
42
English Composition
EXAMINATION NUMBER:
05085603
Whichever method you use in submitting your exam
answers to the school, you must use the number above.
For the quickest test results, go to
http://www.takeexamsonline.com
When you feel confident that you have mastered the material
in this study unit, go to http://www.takeexamsonline.com and
submit your answers online. If you don’t have access to the
Internet, you can phone in or mail in your exam. Submit your
answers for this examination as soon as you complete it.
Do not wait until another examination is ready.
Questions 1–20: Select the one best answer to each question.
1. Which one of the following sentences is punctuated correctly?
A. I saw so many of my friends, that I knew from high school.
B. Work was especially hard today, I had to train someone
new to the job
C. I often carry a cell phone with me, it helps if someone is
trying to reach me.
D. If I had arrived earlier, I wouldn’t have missed the
opening act.
2. Which one of the following sentences is grammatically correct?
A.
B.
C.
D.
I really need to lay down.
Sit it down over there by the window.
I thought it would be best if I were to rise the curtain.
The men came today to lay the carpet in the living room.
3. Which one of the following sentences demonstrates correct
subject-verb or tense agreement?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Neither my team nor Sandra’s team are in the playoffs.
One pair of shoes cost four dollars now.
How many times has she told you that same old story?
The sound of the people were really loud.
Examination
Lesson 2
The Writing Process
43
4. Which one of the following sentences uses who or whom correctly?
A.
B.
C.
D.
She couldn’t decide who to pick.
She found the person who she wanted.
Whom is expected to come?
She wasn’t sure whom she could trust.
5. Which one of the following sentences contains a coordinating conjunction?
A.
B.
C.
D.
I walked to the train station, and I caught the 11:15 train into town.
The car that I want to buy is awfully expensive.
Before you leave, there’s one thing more I should tell you.
My friend Tom, whom I’ve known for a long time, recently buried his dog.
6. Which one of the following sentences contains a restrictive clause?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Her sister, who is a lawyer in New York City, is coming for the weekend.
The book that Mario wrote turned out to be long, dense, and boring.
Rhode Island, which is the smallest state, is in Northeastern United States.
The cost of the carpet is $500, which is more than I wanted to spend.
7. Which one of the following modes is best suited for the topic “urban and suburban living”?
A. Narration
B. Explanation
C. Cause and effect
D. Comparison and contrast
8. The term freewriting refers to
A.
B.
C.
D.
writing down everything that crosses your mind as quickly as you can.
organizing your ideas in a formal plan.
writing the subject and drawing lines out from it when related ideas occur to you.
considering the act, actor, scene, agency, and purpose of a subject.
9. Which one of the following sentences uses the apostrophe correctly?
A.
B.
C.
D.
She enjoyed the movie and told me it’s scenery reminded her of her hometown.
You really ought to take up fly-fishing—it’s a very relaxing hobby.
This is a fine piece of furniture, and it’s merits speak for themselves.
She wants to study music in all of it’s various genres.
10. In which one of the following sentences is the semicolon used correctly?
A. There were five items on the kitchen counter; a coffeemaker, a bag of beans, a
grinder, a sugar bowl, and a cracked cup.
B. At first I couldn’t make out what kind of bird it was, but as it swooped low, I recognized it by its markings; a peregrine falcon.
C. I still need to take History 101; Math 410; and Biology 243.
D. In the nineties, everyone was listening to grunge; today, everyone seems to tune
in to hip-hop.
44
Examination, Lesson 2
11. Which one of the following sentences uses quotation marks correctly?
A. “Some laws,” he intoned, “are made to be broken.”
B. “Put those books on the shelves, she said, Or we’ll never be able to locate them again.”
C. The title of the first chapter in the new science book is “Introduction to the
Planet Earth”.
D. Her short story, “The Last Day of Spring”, won first prize.
12. Which one of the following modes for composition is best suited for the topic “my first
day at my new job”?
A. Narration
B. Cause and effect
C. Definition
D. Comparison and contrast
13. Which one of the following elements is most important when you’re writing your
first draft?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Making sure your spelling is correct
Writing grammatically correct sentences
Getting your ideas down on paper
Checking the punctuation in each sentence
14. Suppose you’re exploring a subject for a composition. Which one of the following
methods is used by journalists and can help you discover ideas about a subject?
A. Journaling
B. Freewriting
C. Questioning
D. Brainstorming
15. Which one of the following sentences would you most likely find in a process essay?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Lack of discipline in early years can create teens that have no sense of purpose.
First, gather all the materials listed under “Supplies.”
He walked into the room, holding the package as if it contained fragile glassware.
The day began when John announced his plans to become engaged.
16. Which one of the following sentences uses pronouns correctly?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Please give Paul and I your undivided attention.
Jacob and me are going to set a meeting date.
Carol told Sylvia and he the good news.
Send the package to Tanya and him.
Examination, Lesson 2
45
17. The following options are short excerpts from a topic outline. Which one uses parallel
construction in the subpoints?
A.
A. Goals
1.
2.
3.
B.
A. Goals
1.
2.
3.
C.
Building my own log cabin in Vermont
I want to visit every major league baseball stadium
Inventing something useful
A. Goals
1.
2.
3.
D.
Traveling through Europe
Earning a degree
To start my own business
To do more volunteer work
To read a book every month
To learn how to play an instrument
A. Goals
1.
2.
3.
I want to keep my room neat.
I plan to save enough money for a car.
To pay off all my credit card bills
18. In which one of the following sentences is the subject-verb agreement correct?
A.
B.
C.
D.
The sound of the waves are drowning out their cries for help.
Either Jim or I am going to the convention.
Neither Carol nor her children is coming to the reunion.
There is too many people to fit into this small room.
19. In which one of the following sentences is the possessive used correctly?
A. The boy’s basketball team plays every Friday, but the girls play every
other Thursday.
B. Their’s is the first bus to arrive at school every morning.
C. The childrens’ activity period lasts 15 minutes.
D. Carl’s and Sara’s schoolbooks are on the kitchen table.
20. Which one of the following sentences incorrectly uses a comma?
A. We had to decide among steak, lobster, and pork roast.
B. Before we could enter the building, we had to show our identification badges.
C. The car that was used as a demonstration in the race, is owned by
Cambridge Motor Company.
D. The tree, which has been part of the community for more than 75 years, was
struck by lightning.
46
Examination, Lesson 2
Descriptive Writing
In this lesson, you’ll examine ways to make your writing
more descriptive—without, of course, adding any “clutter”!
You’ll also discover that adding descriptive language is more
than simply decorating your writing with adjectives.
Not only does description make narrative writing come alive in
the mind’s eye of your reader, but it also can make your writing
more forceful and powerful and, therefore, more persuasive
as well.
When you’ve finished this lesson, you should find that embellishing your writing with accurate and moving descriptive
language is already starting to come quite naturally, and
you’ll understand what the real and practical purposes of
using descriptive language are.
ASSIGNMENT 10: DESCRIPTION
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 10. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study Chapters
20–22, pages 285–308.
In Write to Learn, study pages 183–184,
beginning with “See with the Seven
Senses,” and pages 207–214, “Student
Case History: Writing to Describe.”
In The Familiar Essay, “The Power of Detail,” pages 92 and 93,
and “The Death of a Moth,” pages 21–24.
Objective
To use sensuous language to bring your writing to life and to
make more effective presentations
Lesson 3
INTRODUCTION
47
Directed Reading
Harbrace Handbook
On pages 409–411 of the Harbrace Handbook, you read about
writing a description. Take a few minutes to quickly review
that material now. Notice that the author of the textbook
draws attention to a key element in using highly descriptive
writing: tailoring your descriptions to different audiences.
Now look at the outline you created in Lesson 2. What items
on that outline might deserve very descriptive treatments?
Think about how you would emphasize different descriptions
for different audiences.
Pages 288 and 289 in the Harbrace Handbook discuss
metaphors and similes. Read the definitions of these terms on
page 288, and then carefully study the examples of each that
follow. Can you create metaphors and similes for various
items in your outline? Use your journal to practice using
these figures of speech.
Pages 294–295 point out that it’s often appropriate to use
the pronouns I and you in your writing. Many writers have
been taught that this use is inappropriate. However, in many
cases, it’s both appropriate and necessary. Can you imagine
writing a personal narrative without using the first person
pronouns I, me, we, and us?
Once you decide what pronoun you’re going to use, use the
same pronoun throughout your writing. Some writers switch
thoughtlessly between first- and second-person pronouns when
they want to preach a lesson to their readers. However, using
that tactic can cause you to lose your readers because they’ll
feel they’re being talked down to. Writers also tend to switch
between pronouns when they don’t want to take responsibility
for the feeling or action they’re discussing. For example, they
may write “I learned you should not criticize people” instead of
“I learned I should not criticize people.” To avoid these pitfalls,
practice what you’re learning about how to convey your experience clearly. Then, trust that the way you write about your
experience is powerful enough to make your point without
making an explicit statement. For example, if you write
movingly about your brother’s being killed by a drunk driver,
you don’t need to end with “Don’t drink and drive.”
48
English Composition
Note: Avoid using I think, I feel, or I believe in your writing. Your
audience will understand when you’re expressing an opinion.
Write to Learn
On pages 183–184, Murray looks out his window and uses
each of his senses, plus memory and imagination, to discuss
the compost heap behind his house. He then employs many
of the techniques we’ve already discussed to create a very
graphic (and not very pleasant!) depiction of that heap. As
you read, look for examples of the following techniques:
■
Use of past memories
■
Similes
■
Metaphors
■
Lists
As you read the student essay on pages 212–214, underline
or highlight each example of descriptive writing. Use a different color to mark the text at any point at which you feel the
writer could have provided additional description. In this essay,
most of her descriptions are about people. Notice that her
physical descriptions of the way people look and act suggest
something about their personalities. That’s using description
not merely to bring something to life, but for a higher purpose.
The Familiar Essay
As you read Natalie Goldberg’s essay “The Power of Detail”
(pages 92–93), note her own use of detail. She’s writing about
some profoundly important matters—genocide and war—and
yet she creates a mood of her own by writing in the first person and describing the scene around her. As you read this
essay, ask yourself these questions and summarize your
responses in your journal:
■
What does the author accomplish with her
opening description?
■
How does that description relate to the first line of
her second paragraph?
■
How does that description relate to the theme of the
essay as a whole?
Lesson 3
49
As you read “The Death of the Moth” (pages 21–24), notice
that the writer, Virginia Woolf, doesn’t attempt to describe
everything she can about the moth. Instead, she focuses her
essay on the topics of life and death and on how the moth
has influenced her thinking about these topics.
Her essay uses specific details, modifiers, and strong verbs to
describe the scene she’s observing. She deliberately chooses
words to show the moth in a word picture and also to reveal
something about the way the moth is influencing her thinking about life and death. For example, Woolf writes of the
moth, “Nevertheless, the present specimen, with his narrow
hay-coloured wings, fringed with a tassel of the same colour,
seemed to be content with life” (21). These carefully chosen
descriptive details allow the reader to see the color and shape
of the moth’s wings. They also convey what Woolf concludes
about the moth’s life: that he “seemed to be content with
life.”
As Woolf’s essay continues, so does her development of the
way in which the moth is influencing her thinking about life
and death. For example, the following description conveys
Woolf’s further consideration of the moth’s life:
Yet, because he was so small, and so simple a form of
the energy that was rolling in at the open window and
driving its way through so many narrow and intricate
corridors in my own brain and in those of other
human beings, there was something marvellous as
well as pathetic about him (22).
Woolf’s description identifies an energy that rolls through the
room, through the moth, and through her own brain. In this
way, Woolf shows that she, the moth, and all life are connected.
On page 23, Woolf describes the moth having difficulties. “The
helplessness of his attitude roused me,” she says, indicating
that the moth has influenced her in such a way as to attract
her attention to his efforts. She describes using a pencil to try
to help him up and then says, “It came over me that the failure
and awkwardness were the approach of death. I laid the pencil
down again.” This description conveys the sense that Woolf
has become aware of the fact that the moth is about to die.
By describing the scene in this way, Woolf allows us to see the
efforts the moth makes. She also provides insight into her own
thoughts and conclusions about the moth, thereby conveying
the way he’s influencing her thinking about his death.
50
English Composition
The essay goes on to describe the moth’s continued efforts,
and it conveys Woolf’s attitude about those efforts. In doing
so, the essay allows us to see how the moth is affecting, or
influencing, Woolf’s thinking about death.
Read the last several lines of this essay carefully (bottom of
page 23 to page 24). Notice that Woolf describes the moth as
the “insignificant little creature.” Describing him in this way
helps to show her compassion for this small creature who,
like everything else who lives, must struggle with death.
Woolf concludes that death eventually will win over us all.
Woolf ends the essay with the lines, “The moth having
righted himself now lay most decently and uncomplainingly
composed. O yes, he seemed to say, death is stronger than
I am.” This description conveys the way Woolf sees the moth’s
death. These lines effectively convey how the moth has influenced Woolf’s thinking about its death: she sees the moth as
accepting his death with calm dignity.
Lesson 3
51
Self-Check 10
Wherever you are right now—don’t move. Spend 15 minutes or so just listing in your journal
the physical details of your current surroundings. Don’t look for anything remarkable—in
fact, try to work with most insignificant details. Consider the stain on the rug, for example.
Is it just one of many dull, gray stains on an old rug not cleaned in years? Or is it a fresh
grape juice stain on your brand-new carpeting? Noting each minute detail within its context
suggests something about not only the rug, but also your feelings about the room.
Once you have a comprehensive list, organize the key details according to categories or
spatial area. You may wish to use a mapping approach, an informal outline, or a pentad.
Then follow the plan to do a directed freewrite, putting the details into sentences and
developing a paragraph. Try to incorporate the mood of your current environment. Be sure
you do your prewriting before you write your paragraph. Here’s an example of a finished
paragraph of this type.
I’m currently sitting at my desk in my second-story apartment. It’s a pleasant June evening,
and the work is going well, so I feel quite happy to be here right now. At other times I might
feel trapped here, or I might feel lonely, or I might feel cluttered and crowded. Tonight, however, I
describe the scene this way: My lamp is casting a warm glow over my busy desk, reflecting
gently in the pools of coffee that sit in my favorite old cups. At another time, and to create
another mood, I might have described the same scene like this: The bright bulb atop my desk
throws a harsh glare over the mess of scribbled paper and the stale coffee congealing in the
bottom of cold, cracked cups. Same scene, different mood.
Check your answers with those on page 120.
52
English Composition
ASSIGNMENT 11: FIGURATIVE
AND SENSUOUS LANGUAGE
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 10. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study pages 651–656,
which deal with writing about literature.
Also, study Chapters 19–21, pages 270–284.
In The Familiar Essay, read “We May Be
Brothers,” pages 10–12, and “I Have a
Dream,” pages 33–37.
Objective
To use language vividly and to create the emotional responses
you want in your reader
Directed Reading
Harbrace Handbook
On pages 651–656 in the Harbrace Handbook, you’ll learn
how to approach writing about literature. To do this, you
should become familiar with the different types of literature
and the elements that make up a literary piece. In addition
to the material on these pages, don’t forget about figurative
language, which you’ve already studied (pages 288–289).
The Familiar Essay
The selection “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King is actually a speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
in 1963 before an audience of 250,000 people. Martin Luther
King was an advocate of nonviolent social change. This essay
is undoubtedly his most famous piece.
The selection is full of figures of speech. In fact, you’ll find
instances of each in the first paragraph.
As you read this speech, write down examples of each of these
elements in your journal.
Lesson 3
53
Before you begin to read “I Have a Dream,” find a private place
and read it aloud, as though you’re delivering it yourself. In
this way, you’ll obtain a better sense of the use of sound and
rhythm than you would reading silently.
Note: To make this piece really come alive, search for an audio
file online or visit your local library and find out if they have a
version of this speech on a record, tape, or CD. Many will, and
it’s worth hearing King deliver it himself.
Repeat this exercise when you read Chief Seattle’s speech,
“We May Be Brothers,” on pages 10–12, delivered in 1854.
A gentleman named Isaac Stevens was sent to the state of
Washington by the government of the United States. His
purpose was to purchase a large tract of land from the
Native Americans and to provide a reservation for the Indian
people. This speech is Chief Seattle’s response to the offer
made by Stevens.
Both Martin Luther King’s speech and Chief Seattle’s speech
employ many of the techniques you studied in the Harbrace
Handbook. However, the sound and the effect of each are quite
different. This difference may result in part from the different
traditions that each speaker represents. Martin Luther King
came from the Southern Baptist school, where gospel hymns
played a very significant cultural role. You can hear a kind of
gospel music in King’s own rhythms. Chief Seattle, on the
other hand, was a Native American for whom English wasn’t
his first language.
But the differences go deeper, and they’re also related to the
purpose each speaker is trying to accomplish. As you read
these essays, ask yourself the following questions and write
the answers in your journal:
54
■
What is the current condition of each of the two peoples
these leaders represent?
■
What are their future prospects?
■
In describing their conditions and prospects, each of
these speakers uses very different diction, sound, and
rhythm. How does their language mirror the content of
their speeches?
■
On pages 285–286 in the Harbrace Handbook, you studied
the denotation and connotation of a word. What words
from these speeches have both types of meaning?
English Composition
Hint: In the first paragraph of King’s “I Have a Dream,” he
describes Abraham Lincoln (without naming him) as “a great
American.” He could have used “a great man,” “a great person,”
or “a great president.” Instead, he chose “a great American.”
The denotative meaning of “American” is “someone who inhabits the North American continent.” But the connotations of
that word are different. What are the connotative meanings
of American, and do you think King deliberately selected that
word instead of man or president? Study the rest of this speech
for other examples of denotation versus connotation. Write
them down in your journal.
Self-Check 11
Review the organized details and rough paragraph you freewrote for Self Check 10. Look
for places where you can incorporate a simile, metaphor, or sensory images. Also use the
following literary strategies to help your writing convey the mood or emotional effect of
your surroundings. (You may find yourself developing more than a paragraph. Follow your
instincts and any new ideas to discover something you hadn’t noticed before.)
1. Start with diction. Review each word to see if there’s a more exact, a more graphic, or a
more emotionally charged word you could use in its place. This is a good time to get used
to referring to a thesaurus. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
defines thesaurus as a book of synonyms, often including related and contrasting words
and antonyms. (If you have a computer with a word processing program on it, see if it has
a thesaurus as part of the program. It’s a wonderful tool for writers. However, as you select
words from a thesaurus, be careful to choose words whose denotation and connotation fit
the mood and purpose of your writing.)
2. Look for opportunities to employ metaphors, similes, and imagery. (Don’t overdo the use of
figures of speech. After a while, it can become tiring for your readers.)
3. Read your paragraph aloud. What rhythms do you hear? Do some sentences sound too short
and abrupt? Do others seem too long?
4. Rewrite your descriptive paragraph incorporating these tools.
Check your answers with those on page 120.
Lesson 3
55
ASSIGNMENT 12: FINDING FOCUS
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 12. Then, in Write to Learn,
study Chapter 15, “The Focusing Line”
(pages 138–150).
In The Familiar Essay, review “I Want a
Wife” (pages 79–81) and “The Boyfriend”
(pages 83–90). Then read the following
essays:
■
“I Get Born,” pages 95–98
■
“Women in the Wild Blue Yonder,” pages 113–115
■
“Just Walk On By,” pages 117–121
Objective
To explore how focusing lines and other related techniques
can guide and motivate you during your first draft of an essay
Directed Reading
The first few lines of each piece of writing you compose—known
as leads in journalistic language—are extremely important.
For better or worse, people—including your readers—make
judgments based on first impressions. And as the saying goes,
“You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.”
Sound scary? Must you quiver before that blank page or
screen until you’ve thought of a killer opening? If you’ve
followed what Murray has said about writing so far, you won’t
be surprised that his answer is, “Of course not.” Since he
believes that some of the best features of writing develop in
the writing process itself, he thinks the most important thing
is just to start writing. His favorite technique, the focusing
line, is designed to get your writing under way.
Realize that the focusing line need not be a complete sentence;
it can be a phrase or even just a word. It can even sound very
ordinary or meaningless to another person. Its key feature, in
Murray’s words, is that it “produces an itch you want to
explore”—by writing. Note on page 139 how Murray carefully
distinguishes it from a thesis statement, a lead, and an
introduction—features an essay may eventually need to have,
but which may even hinder the writing of a creative first draft.
56
English Composition
As for the effective lead mentioned earlier, Murray notes
that they often evolve straight from the focusing line. In
Self-Check 12, you’ll explore the possible use of focusing
lines in the assigned essays and their relations to titles
and lead sentences.
On pages 140–143, Murray spells out many of the elements
hidden within focusing lines that make them effective
engines for driving a first draft along. On pages 144–146, he
lists the many benefits the focusing line gives a writer.
Finally, he ends the chapter with several other techniques he
and fellow writers have found helpful for launching a first
draft by giving it focus.
Self-Check 12
1. Pages 138–146 in Write to Learn list a number of ways in which focusing lines help writers
launch their compositions. Based on your reading of the five assigned essays in The Familiar
Essay, make an educated guess about whether its title, lead sentence, or either was likely to
have served as a focusing line. Write “Title,” “Lead,” or “Either” in the blanks provided.
Essay
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
“I Want a Wife”
“The Boyfriend”
“I Get Born”
“Women in the Wild Blue Yonder”
“Just Walk On By”
Focusing Line
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
2. Knowing that a focusing line, which can be a phrase or snippet of dialogue or mini-story, can help
you focus your controlling sentence, review your revised paragraph from Self-Check 11. Review
Chapter 15 in Murray’s Write to Learn. Then develop five different leads or focusing lines for your
paragraph. Notice how each one will cause you and the reader to see the room from a different
perspective or slant. (This is still prewriting, so do some experimentation.)
a.
_________________________________________________________________________
b.
_________________________________________________________________________
c.
_________________________________________________________________________
d.
_________________________________________________________________________
e.
_________________________________________________________________________
Check your answers with those on page 121.
Lesson 3
57
DESCRIPTIVE WRITING REVIEW
Follow these steps as you prepare your Lesson 3 examination.
Step 1: Once you’ve completed your prewriting, use the following guidelines to test whether
you’ve included enough descriptive language in your essay.
■ Close your eyes and picture the person, pet, or environment in your mind. Keep this mental
picture with you as you open your eyes and read your essay out loud. What’s your essay
missing? What did you see in your mind that’s not represented in your writing? Did you
describe the person, pet, or environment through the use of multiple senses? What does
your scene look like? What colors are most memorable or remarkable? What does it smell
like? How does it feel, taste, sound?
■ Have another person read your essay silently and then aloud to you to test your use of
descriptive language. Ask this person to describe the scene, pet, or person that he/she sees
after reading your essay. Does the description match your picture? If not, return to your
essay and try adding descriptive details as needed to clarify your description. Ask the person if he or she has any questions. What does the reader want to know more about? Is
there anything your reader is confused about?
Step 2: Revise your essay further. Be sure you’ve used at least one simile, one metaphor, and
several sensory details, and have applied the descriptive methods illustrated in the assigned
essays and explained in your texts. Remember, describing is different than telling about or
reporting on. When you tell about a room, person, or pet, you merely provide facts. Describing
involves strong verbs, concrete modifiers, specific details, and figurative language. Use these
techniques carefully and deliberately to convey both the physicality and the mood or emotion of
the person, room, or pet. You may wish to review the discussion of “The Death of the Moth” for
ways to describe your thoughts and feelings about your subject.
Step 3: When you finish drafting and revising your essay, put it away for a day or two and try to
forget about it. Don’t think about it at all. After that time, read it with fresh eyes. Read it aloud
for rhythm and word choice. Ask another person to read it. Circle any areas that you or the other
reader stumbled over, that were confusing to the reader, or that don’t work with the other details
to enhance the mood and descriptive focus you want to convey. Revise as needed.
Step 4: Read your last paragraph—the conclusion. Does it reinforce your main descriptive focus?
Does it maintain a descriptive approach or does it fall into reporting or stating your final ideas?
Read your introduction next. Does it work to establish the focus as given in the conclusion? What
can you do to make the introduction more attention-grabbing for the reader? Revise your essay.
Step 5: Read through your revised essay backwards, first word by word, then sentence by
sentence, and then paragraph by paragraph.
Word by word. In this way you can locate spelling errors. Just be alert—you may see the
word here in your essay, a correctly spelled word. But also check the words on either side. Did
you mean here in terms of location or did you mean the sense of hearing?
(Continued)
58
English Composition
DESCRIPTIVE WRITING REVIEW (Continued)
Sentence by sentence. By looking at each group of words separately from the context, you
can more easily locate run-ons or fragments. You also need to compare the length and structure
of each sentence for variety. Check the connections between sentences—do they provide coherence?
Paragraph by paragraph. Locate the controlling idea of each paragraph and check your essay’s
focus. Does the paragraph help to develop that focus in a specific way? Then match controlling
ideas of each paragraph to the one before it and the one after it. Do they follow in logical order?
Step 6: Now look at the descriptive details of which you are most proud. Be honest with yourself—have you used too many words, cluttering the description, when one or two more concrete
words would work better? Is that detail really developing the overall mood and focus, or is it
merely spectacular writing that pleases you? If it doesn’t help develop the focus, cut that portion
from your essay.
Check your use of figurative language (rich sensory details, metaphor, simile, imagery). Have you
inflated your description with too much flowery language? Would stating the detail in a simpler,
more direct fashion better enhance the overall description?
Step 7: Finally, review the exam evaluation criteria and revise your essay one last time
as needed.
Lesson 3
59
NOTES
60
English Composition
EXAMINATION NUMBER:
05085703
General Instructions
Instructions for the Lesson 3 Examination have changed.
Note: You can’t use Exam Express or Tel-Test for this exam.
Please click here for the revised instructions.
Write a descriptive essay of 500–750 words using concrete, vivid
words, including at least one simile, one metaphor, and several
sensory details. In addition, you must include the organizing plan
for your key details, no matter how informal, and the five different
focusing lines or leads you created as part of your prewriting
(based on Chapter 15 in Write to Learn). Use the Descriptive
Writing Review on the preceding pages as a guide to preparing
your essay. You must write about one of the following three topics:
1. Continue with the paragraph(s) you began and worked on in SelfChecks 10, 11, and 12. Offer the reader your perspective from which
to experience the surroundings as you perceive them. You may write
in first person or in third person. Spend time in the same surroundings
at different times of the day and night. Review your five leads or
write new ones to help you choose both the perspective and the
mood you want your description to convey. Use spatial organization
for your description.
2. Take your composition journal or a smaller pad of paper with you
during your day. Stay alert to your surroundings, especially to people
you don’t know—a fellow shopper at the grocery store, a person
on the subway, a child on a school playground. (Don’t pick someone
you know. Choose a completely unknown person to describe.) Jot
down descriptive details that capture both the person’s physical
description and the mood you think the person is in based on his or
her actions and facial expression. For your essay, feel free to make
up what that person might have been thinking or reasons for what
he or she was doing. Organize the most vivid details from your notes
using mapping, outlining, or a pentad. Freewrite a rough draft of
an essay. Then write at least five different focusing lines or leads.
(Remember, this part is still prewriting so do some experimentation.)
Examination
Lesson 3
Descriptive Writing
61
NOTES
62
Examination, Lesson 3
NOTES
Examination, Lesson 3
63
NOTES
64
Examination, Lesson 3
Narrative Writing
For many writers, narrative is one of the most enjoyable forms
of expression. Most people like to tell stories, and they begin
to tell them soon after they learn to speak. Your first story
was probably something like “I ate food. Then I went to sleep.”
As the years went by, your narratives (stories) became more
complex. You included more descriptions and you quoted
other people. Also, your narratives began to have a point
or purpose.
In this lesson, you’ll read some narratives by writers who
really know how to tell a tale, and you’ll learn how to embed
details and dialogue in your work. Most of all, you’ll see that
a well-crafted story is as effective a way to make a point as
any other form.
ASSIGNMENT 13: NARRATIVE
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 13. Then, in the textbook
Write to Learn, study the section titled
“Tips on Writing Narrative” on pages
305–306.
In The Familiar Essay, read the following
four essays:
■
“Writing Rape,” pages 241–247 (student essay)
■
“A Hanging,” pages 14–19
■
“A Miserable Merry Christmas,” pages 56–60
■
“Running the Table,” pages 176–183
Objective
Lesson 4
INTRODUCTION
To explain how the first-person narrative is an effective way
to illustrate the point you want to make
65
Directed Reading
An effective narrative can run from several paragraphs to more
than a thousand pages. One interesting point to consider about
narrative is this: the amount of space writers devote to their
narratives has nothing to do with the amount of time covered.
For example, some writers have briefly summarized their
entire lives in the space of a couple of pages. On the other
hand, James Joyce’s Ulysses, one of the most famous novels
ever written, is over 600 pages long and covers only 24 hours.
Two of the narratives you’re about to read cover a very short
time interval. On the other hand, “Writing Rape,” by student
Katherine Fluke, encompasses years, as does “Running the
Table.” But no matter what the time frame, you’ll find that
all of these narratives share certain key elements. As you
read them, look for the following and briefly summarize your
responses in your journal:
■
What is the narrator like when the narration opens?
■
What key event occurs that somehow alters or changes
the narrator?
■
In what way(s) is he or she different?
■
What other characters play a significant role?
After reading “A Miserable Merry Christmas,” read the following
analysis as it relates to writing a narrative. Your next essay
assignment requires you to write a narrative about something
that has happened to you related to a friendship, a job, or
a romance. Your story must make an overall point or convey
a theme about the topic you’ve chosen to write about. That
means your story has to focus on events and details that you
choose deliberately to pull together a particular point or theme.
Lincoln Steffens tells the story of the Christmas when he
received a much-desired pony. The story is, in one sense,
about getting the pony; in another sense, it’s about the range
of emotions he felt that Christmas Day. As he says at the
end of his essay, “It covered the whole distance from brokenhearted misery to bursting happiness—too fast. A grown-up
could hardly have stood it” (60). It’s this range of emotion
so clearly shown in the narration, in the choice of details
included, that gives this story its appeal.
66
English Composition
A writer must consciously and deliberately decide what to
describe in detail and what to summarize. For example, to
let his reader know he has wanted a pony for a long time,
Steffens summarizes his situation in his opening paragraph.
He chooses to relate in detail some of the key moments in
the overall story, and he relies heavily on description to do
so. (See Donald Murray’s “Tips on Narrative Writing” on
pages 305 and 306 in Write to Learn.)
Clearly, then, to make an overall point, the story needs a
beginning, a middle, and an end, because writers must
give readers a sense that events start and then finish. But
a narrative essay can’t relate every detail of what happened.
Rather, the writer chooses details carefully and uses them
to build a scene that reflects the chosen point or mood.
Consider the paragraph (page 58) that begins with the
sentence “After—I don’t know how long—surely an hour or
two—I was brought to the climax of my agony by the sight
of a man riding a pony down the street, a pony and a brandnew saddle . . .” Steffens indicates the passage of time. Then
he describes what he sees. Notice that his word choice is
descriptive all through this paragraph. He builds the scene
with descriptive detail, and in doing so, he conveys both the
events and the excitement and longing he feels when he sees
the pony.
Narrative essays aren’t written for the sake of recording an
event. Instead, they’re used to explore generalizations, recall
an experience, or interpret that experience. Besides relating a
series of events, narratives also
■
Reveal an insight or unique understanding about the
experience or the people involved
■
Expose a conflict or problem that may or may not
be solved
■
Reveal a change in a person or people who struggle, grow,
change, or make things happen
Steffens uses two methods to engage his readers in his
experience to show them, that is, to help them see, what the
story is about. First, he uses strong descriptive details to
show what happened to him. Second, he gives the reader
insight into his feelings. Consider the following passage:
Lesson 4
67
I went alone out into the yard, down to the stable,
and there, all by myself, I wept. My mother came out
to me by and by; she found me in my pony stall sobbing on the floor, and she tried to comfort me. . . . I
wanted no comfort and no breakfast (58).
This passage tells what happened, and its details provide
insight into the boy’s feelings. As a result, the reader understands that the emotions are an important part of the story.
Reread the essay as a writer with the above analysis in mind.
Look for other places in the story where Steffens conveys
emotion. Then notice that when the reader gets to the end,
the last two lines of the essay are not a surprise. We understand all the way through that the story is about the emotional experience, not just the facts about getting a pony.
Self-Check 13
Review your responses to the questions you answered in Assignment 13. Organize your
ideas using mapping or outlining.
■ In your journal, write two or three paragraphs explaining what a writer must do to create
a good narrative. Each paragraph should have a controlling idea related to creating a
narrative (your essay focus).
■ Keep a journal of daily events over the next two weeks, writing about at least two events each
day. Include things that happen to you and events you observe. List the events or freewrite
about them for ten minutes each. You’ll use this work later in the lesson. You may note specific
conversations or descriptive details or feelings. For instance, suppose you’re in McDonald’s when
you overhear someone say, “You are what you eat,” just as you bite into a double cheeseburger.
Or you and your coworker play a joke on another coworker, who gets quite angry. Perhaps
you’re driving home as the sun sets and you feel a sense of melancholy as you watch the
golden glow slowly soften to orange and pink-red and finally into darkness. Use everyday events
like these to practice tuning in to detail, feelings, and dialogue.
Check your answers with those on page 121.
68
English Composition
ASSIGNMENT 14: CONCLUSIONS
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 14. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study section (2)
on pages 426–428.
Objective
To effectively end a piece of writing
Directed Reading
On pages 426–428, the Harbrace Handbook provides examples
of four different methods writers use to conclude their essays.
Study each one carefully and decide which approach or
approaches you think would work for you.
Narrative essays often close on a somewhat different note.
The writer frequently chooses to end a narrative by explaining
the point of the story. This method takes a little practice. If
you’ve ever read Aesop’s Fables, you know that each tale ends
with a brief moral, or lesson. In “The Tortoise and the Hare,”
for example, Aesop concludes the tale with “Slow but steady
wins the race.” This brief statement summarizes what he was
trying to teach in the story.
Most readers don’t want to be “hit over the head” with the
meaning of what they’re reading. In fact, the art of effective
storytelling lies in providing just enough detail so the readers
can draw their own conclusions. There’s a fine line between
giving the readers too much information and leaving them
confused because there wasn’t enough.
Look back at the narrative essays you read in the preceding
assignment. This time, pay particular attention to the ways
the authors end their essays. Were the points of the stories
clear? Do you feel they explained enough? Did any author go
overboard in explaining?
Lesson 4
69
Self-Check 14
Return to the brief essay you wrote in Assignment 13 about what makes a good narrative.
Are you satisfied with your conclusion? Now that you’ve studied different methods used by
writers to end their work, do you have any ideas of a different way you could have ended
your essay? In your journal, write four different conclusions using the strategies noted in
the Harbrace Handbook, pages 426–428.
Continue logging two or more events a day in your journal.
Check your answers with those on page 121.
ASSIGNMENT 15:
REVISION, PART 2
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 15. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study Chapter 34,
pages 418–458.
In Write to Learn, study the material
on revision, editing, and proofreading,
pages 273–294.
Objective
To explain the elements you should review in your work once
you feel you’ve finished writing; to determine when to revise
and when to stop
Directed Reading
Both the Harbrace Handbook and Writing to Learn make
numerous valuable suggestions on what to look for once
you’ve finished your draft and are ready to revise it.
70
English Composition
Before reading these sections, make a list of what to focus
on when you take a second, third, and even fourth look at
your own composition. Try to identify any weaknesses you
may have so that you can watch for these things during your
revision. For example, you may be so well trained in grammar
that every sentence you write is nearly perfect. However, you
may have a habit of leaving out important facts or jumping
from idea to unrelated idea without any transition. On the
other hand, maybe you’re very strong on outlining and writing
very logical, fact-filled essays, but your grammar needs some
work. Find out what you need to concentrate on during your
revision and editing stage.
Take a few minutes right now to think about what your
weaknesses are and what you need to concentrate on most.
Make a list in your journal and use it during your revisions.
Narrative Components
Before you complete Self-Check 15, review these terms for
narrative components.
Narrator. The person telling the story
Narrative Voice. The narrator’s word choice, dialect, style
of speaking, and tone
Point of View. The perspective from which the story is told.
The most common points of view are first-person, where the
narrator is the I of the story, and third-person, where the
narrative uses he or she to refer to the main character.
Plot. A sequence of events developing a conflict or problem
Setting. The time and place where the story occurs
Significance. The overall point or meaning underlying the
sequence of events, sometimes called the theme
Narrative Strategies
Time. Just about every story has a beginning, middle, and
end. However, that doesn’t mean you’ll tell every story in
chronological sequence. Some techniques writers use to handle time include flashback, flash forward, and time markers.
Lesson 4
71
Many writers reorder time for effect. When telling a story,
writers can flash back to an earlier point in the story or flash
forward to a point later in the sequence of events.
When you write a true story and you describe events out of
chronological order, readers can get confused. Narrative writers
help readers stay oriented by using time markers, words or
phrases that orient the reader to the passing of time. Examples
include phrases like one day, after that, for a week or so, one
afternoon, and then.
Writers often repeat or echo something throughout a story.
This technique is called framing. Framing can help the reader
recall where the story began, giving a sense of familiarity and
closure at the end. Framing can include repeating words and
phrases, visual details, feelings or other sensory details.
Plot. Key to any story is plot development (what happens in
the story) and the climax, which shows the high point of action
or conflict. The conflict provides motivation and purpose for a
person’s actions. Conflict can be internal—a struggle between
person and himself or herself, such as facing a difficult decision—or external—a struggle between a person and someone
or something else, such as between two or more people, a
person and forces of nature, or a person and society.
Dialogue. When you write a narrative, it’s important to
describe events and details. A good story includes details
about the people and the setting, or surroundings. One type
of detail common to a narrative is dialogue—a conversation in
written form. To be effective, dialogue needs to have a purpose.
Narrative writers choose when to include dialogue by thinking
about whether or not it’s an effective way in that context or
situation to move the story along by having a character
explain what happened, illustrate a characteristic of one or
more people in the story, or develop conflict as the people in
the story argue or express thoughts, feelings, and opinions.
Sometimes those thoughts are revealed in dialogue between
characters and other times through selected direct or indirect
quotes. A direct quote is presented in quotation marks. An
indirect quote restates what someone said without using the
identical words, so it doesn’t need quotation marks.
72
English Composition
Narrative voice. The narrative voice of a story is the voice
of the person telling the story. The term voice refers to the
narrator’s style of speaking, word choice, and dialect. In a
story—fictional or autobiographical—the narrative voice isn’t
necessarily the same as the author’s voice. To recognize a
story’s narrative voice, identify who is speaking, what his or
her relationship to the story is, and what other experiences
and feelings the speaker brings to the narrative. Is the narrator
an elderly man? A young woman? A disabled war veteran?
An inner-city school teacher? An avid rollerblader? Each of
these narrators would probably offer a different set of feelings
about the same event.
When you write a narrative, you may choose to tell the story
using someone else’s voice—from someone else’s point of
view. If you tell the story of the weekend trip you and your
grandmother took, from your grandmother’s perspective,
rather than your own, she would be the “I” in the story.
Tone. Identifying the narrative voice also involves identifying
the narrator’s tone—his or her attitude toward the story. Is
the tone humorous? Argumentative? Serious? Cynical? What
does that say about the narrative voice?
Self-Check 15
After you’ve read the assignments in the Harbrace Handbook and Write to Learn, create a
revision checklist of your own. Then, each time you finish any piece of writing, you can
refer to your list to aid in your revision process.
Hint: Consider creating separate categories for content, style, structure, and grammar.
Under each category, list the specific items you should watch for when proofreading and
editing your writing. To help in compiling this list, examine the comments and corrections
on the corrected essays you receive from the school.
Keep these lists for as long as you remain a writer. You’ll probably discover things you
should add to them over the years. And the more time you spend with the Harbrace
Handbook and reading good writing, the more items you’ll find to add as well.
Check your answers with those on page 122.
Lesson 4
73
NARRATIVE WRITING REVIEW
Follow these steps as you prepare your Lesson 4 examination.
Step 1: If you haven’t yet completed your two weeks of recording daily events, begin now. Once
you have at least 28 events recorded in your journal, review each of them. After reading each of
the notes, imagine yourself back in each situation, experiencing the sounds, smells, tastes, textures,
and colors. Put stars by the events that seem most vivid and memorable to you.
Step 2: Choose the two events that most inspire you to write further. Brainstorm and freewrite
to develop details and sketch a beginning, middle, and end for each event. Jot down dialogue,
sensory details, and emotional reactions. Let that set for a day or two.
Step 3: Look over your prewriting on the two events. Choose the one for which you can best
recreate the experience for your reader. Think about the tone—should it be comic or tragic?
Thoughtful and serious or lighthearted? List words that will connote that tone for a reader,
then use them to write a paragraph describing the setting of your event.
Step 4: Take another look at your timeline of the event. What’s the climax—the key action or
tension point in the event? Draft a narrative of just the climax, using the narrative strategies of
dialogue, characterization, and plot development. Include your thoughts and feelings as that
highpoint occurs. Add sensory details and figurative language about the setting, so the scene
leaps from the page.
Step 5: Focus on the narrator of your story. Is it yourself? If so, try writing from another person’s
perspective. Maybe you’ll be the person whose conversation you overheard or your daughter, who
was in the car beside you. Be creative and rewrite the climax from that point of view, using the
pronoun I, but as that other person. Add further details, thoughts, and feelings. Narrow the focus
of your timeline to where the action begins for your narrator.
Step 6: Using your prewriting and work from Steps 3, 4, and 5, write the first draft of your
narrative. As you revise, use these questions to help you evaluate your work:
■ What’s the narrator like when the story opens?
■ What key event occurs that somehow alters or changes the narrator?
■ In what way(s) is he or she different?
■ What other characters play a significant role?
■ What do you learn about the characters/people in the story by reading the dialogue?
After revising your essay, ask someone to read it, tell you what happened, and describe how
the story made him or her feel. Ask your reader whether you’ve told a story or simply reported
information on the event. If it sounds like a newspaper article or a diary entry, you haven’t
effectively used the narrative strategies.
74
(Continued)
English Composition
NARRATIVE WRITING REVIEW (Continued)
Step 7: Ask your reader to point out where the action of your narrative begins—you may have
included unnecessary opening paragraphs. Rewrite your narrative from that point. Use narrative
strategies and dialogue to engage the reader in the experience of that moment.
Step 8: When you finish your essay, put it away for a day or two. After that time, read it with
fresh eyes. Read it aloud and listen for pleasing rhythm and word choice. In particular, look for
common words like said or got and replace them with more specific verbs.
Ask someone different to read it. Circle any areas of choppy or artificial dialogue, shifted
perspective, or details that don’t contribute to the tone and narrative flow of your writing. Circle
any places where you or the other reader stumbled or where the reader wasn’t quite sure what
you were trying to do.
Step 9: Next, read your last paragraph (the conclusion). Does it provide closure on the event
and reinforce the tone and feeling of the story? Make sure you don’t “preach” to your reader. Now
read your introduction. Does it immediately engage the reader? Does it begin the story where the
action starts and match the tone of the conclusion? Revise your essay into another draft.
Step 10: Read through your revised essay backwards, first word by word, then sentence by
sentence, and then paragraph by paragraph as you did with your previous assignment. (See Step 5
of the Descriptive Writing Review before the Lesson 3 exam.)
Step 11: Check your use of figurative language (rich sensory details, metaphor, simile, imagery).
Have you overblown your description with too much flowery language? Would stating the detail
in a simpler, more direct fashion improve the narrative flow?
Step 12: Review the evaluation criteria and revise your essay one last time as needed. Carefully
proofread your final draft. When you’re satisfied with your essay and revisions, type your final
essay for submission. Use Times New Roman font, size 12 and format your document for left justification and double-spacing.
Lesson 4
75
NOTES
76
English Composition
EXAMINATION NUMBER:
05085803
General Instructions
Note: You can’t use Exam Express or Tel-Test for this exam.
Write a narrative of 700-1200 words using concrete, vivid words,
including figurative language and sensory imagery. In addition,
use the narrative techniques covered in this lesson. Follow the
steps in the Narrative Writing Review at the end of Lesson 4.
You must include dialogue, time markers, plot development,
and characterization.
Evaluation Criteria
Your instructor will use the following criteria to evaluate your essay:
Introduction (15 points)
Your opening line catches the reader’s attention in a unique way. The
introduction engages the reader immediately in the scene and tone and
establishes the narrative perspective.
Use of narrative mode (30 points)
You use appropriate narrative methods to create a vivid event. The essay
stays focused on telling the story of a single scene. The narrative perspective is realistic and remains true throughout. Dialogue helps to advance the
narrative and adds spice to the scene and character(s). Each detail is
essential to engage the reader in the experience and convey a clear, focused
mood. Nothing necessary is left out and descriptions aren’t overblown.
Conclusion (15 points)
The last paragraph maintains the narrative mode as it provides closure for
the reader and reinforces the essay’s primary tone.
Coherence and overall development (10 points)
Your essay is unified, cohesive, and coherent. It maintains a single, organized
focus without clutter. You use appropriate transitions and/or connective discussion to guide the reader and to maintain clear focus. Each sentence and
paragraph flows coherently to the next. Each paragraph contains a controlling
idea that develops the essay and each sentence works to develop the
paragraph’s controlling idea.
Examination
Lesson 4
Narrative Writing
77
Grammar and mechanics (20 points)
You correctly use a variety of sentence types (compound and complex, short and long) that indicate
you know when certain types of sentences work best to convey your message. The essay contains
no run-on sentences, no comma splices, and no fragments. Your essay is free of errors in grammar,
usage, spelling, and punctuation.
Length and format (10 points)
Your essay is double-spaced using the Times New Roman font, size 12. The first line of each paragraph
is indented by one tab. The length is between 700 and 1,200 words. Required header information is
given on each page.
Submitting Your Exam
Include the following information at the top of each page of your document. The best way to ensure
the information is on each page is to enter it through the Header option of your word processing
program (usually located on the View or Insert menu).
Your Name and Student Number
Exam number (05085803)
Page X of Y
Your Mailing Address
Your E-mail Address (if you have one)
Note: If you don’t include the above information at the top of each page of your document, your
exam may not be processed for grading. If your exam is processed without some of the information,
you’ll lose at least five points from your overall exam grade for neglecting to include this information.
You may submit this exam for evaluation by the school in one of two ways:
By mail: Make sure your final draft is on 8½-by-11-inch white paper. Send your work in the envelope
provided or use your own envelope and mail it to
English Composition Instructor
Penn Foster Schools
925 Oak Street
Scranton, PA 18515
Be sure to include your name, mailing address, student number, and exam number in the upper-left
corner of the envelope.
Online: For submission, use the online “Take an Exam” feature. When you enter the full exam number,
an e-mail format will appear and allow you to attach your text document to it. You’ll receive an autoreply e-mail within 24 hours confirmating that your exam has entered the school system. Be sure to
set your email browser to accept auto-replies. It will take two to three weeks to evaluate your essay.
While you’re waiting, begin the next lesson and draft the essay. We recommend that you wait to
receive your evaluated narrative essay before completing and submitting the final draft of your next
assigned essay. You’ll then be able to apply the evaluator’s constructive comments toward your next
essay and grow in your writing skills.
78
Examination, Lesson 4
Reflective Writing
This lesson deals with the reflective essay. A reflective essay
combines deeply personal thoughts and feelings with the purpose of encouraging others to share an experience, a sensation,
or a way of thinking. In short, a reflective essay lets readers see
the world through the eyes of the writer.
The word reflect means to spend some quiet time contemplating
something—not through the objective eyes of a scientist, but
through your own mind’s eye. A reflective essay, then, develops the writer’s own experiences and deeply felt opinions
about a subject. The first goal of this lesson is to help you to
communicate those personal thoughts and feelings in a way
that truly touches the reader on an equally deep level. In other
words, you’re going to study techniques for writing a reflective
essay.
ASSIGNMENT 16: INTRODUCTION
TO THE REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 16. Then, in Write to Learn,
study “The Reflective Essay” on
pages 308–309.
In The Familiar Essay, read the following
essays:
■
“The Embrace of Old Age,” pages 135–138
■
“Recalling a Father Who Died,” pages 131–133
■
“The Angry Winter,” pages 39–41
■
“Feeling Out of Place,” 262–268
Lesson 5
INTRODUCTION
79
Objective
To describe a framework for writers who want to write meaningfully about a personal experience or some issue of personal
significance to them
Directed Reading
A reflective essay is in many ways paradoxical—that is, in a
way, contradictory. It analyzes a subject—but the tone isn’t
at all scientific or even objective. It often takes personal experiences into account—but it isn’t primarily a narrative. Often,
it seeks to help readers to adopt a new perspective on some
matter—but it’s neither argumentative nor even persuasive.
Let’s look at each of those paradoxical components in turn.
First, a reflective essay analyzes. To analyze something is to
take it apart. A scientist might analyze a substance in a lab
to find out what that substance is composed of. When writers
create reflective essays, they take apart their experiences to
identify the significant parts of them. Why do writers make
this effort? Well, the experiences they examine are human
experiences, and looking at them in a reflective way helps
them—and their readers—to understand something specific
about being a human being.
Reflective writers then choose the most representative parts
from their analyses and synthesize them with a reflective
tone. Synthesis means to combine parts so they make a unified whole. It involves a process of reasoning that results in a
conclusion. When you synthesize, you take the parts you’ve
gathered and you put them together in a way that makes
sense. Doing so creates new knowledge. You come to understand what you didn’t understand before. You know what you
didn’t know before. By sharing parts of your experiences, you
guide your readers toward that same understanding—something like an “ah-ha” moment when a light bulb flashes in
the mind.
Although a reflective essay does examine specific experiences,
it’s not a narrative. Narrative structure takes the reader
through one event, from its start to finish. A reflective essay,
on the other hand, examines experience in a broader sense—
80
English Composition
not one particular event but bits and pieces of experiences
used to develop a greater whole than the isolated parts might
not suggest until the writer’s analysis shows a unified theme
by examining each part.
As you read each of the essays in The Familiar Essay, reflect
(think carefully about) how the writer takes a very personal,
even intimate, subject and turns it into something universal—
that is, a topic that strikes a chord with every reader.
In the essays that you’ll be reading, one writer lost a parent,
one faced an angry dog on a winter’s night, and another was
returning home from battle. Not all readers will have had
these experiences. Yet these writers somehow manage to
enable their readers to share their view and experience
their emotions.
How do they do this? They understand that there’s a common
set of emotions we’ve all experienced. We may not have had
these same experiences, but we’ve had similar ones that allow
us to understand and relate to the writers. For example, we’ve
all lost someone dear to us—if not to death, then to time and
distance. We’ve all faced someone angry and defensive of their
turf at some point. We all, like the aging Mr. Hall, can reflect
back on a rich and varied history, no matter how old we are;
like Markovitch, we’ve all had the feeling of being out of place.
As you read these essays, try to identify the point at which
you begin to empathize—that is, to share the same feelings—
as the writer. Perhaps it occurs in the first paragraph; maybe
it doesn’t happen until the end. Identify—and write in your
journal—exactly what emotion the writer is trying to convey,
and then list the elements in his or her writing that really
make that feeling come alive for you.
After completing your assigned reading, return here for an
analysis of Ellen Goodman’s reflective essay “Recalling a
Father Who Died.” This analysis will point out some writing
methods that should help you when you draft your own
reflective essay for the next exam.
Goodman examines (analyzes) bits and pieces of experience
related to her father, but its focus isn’t to tell the story of his
death. (Remember: This isn’t a narrative.) Rather, the essay
mentions the event of his death as one instance in a much
Lesson 5
81
larger experience with her father. Goodman’s essay also
recalls other moments when her father’s presence was with
her—as she drives in her car, when she ponders how to be a
good parent, and when she thinks about the fact that her
young daughter won’t know her grandfather.
Goodman then synthesizes those particular experiences by
reflecting upon them. She doesn’t simply tell about things
that happened. Instead, she provides insight into her thoughts,
and those thoughts are analytical in the sense that they ask
questions, wonder about things, and reveal insights. For
example, Goodman considers the difficulty of relating to her
father as one adult to another. She ponders what it means
to be a good parent and examines how her father did it. She
thinks about his persistence and optimism and how that
applies to her own life.
A reflective essay concerns itself with a common set of emotions, a universal experience. Look at the last paragraph of
Goodman’s essay. She makes statements that apply to just
about everyone. Throughout the essay, she’s able to connect
her very personal experiences to the larger experiences of her
audience. For example, she mentions trying to talk with her
father as one adult to another. That’s something that almost
every child has to learn to do. Goodman also says that she
looks to her father as an example and that our parents are
travelers with us in this world. That, too, is a universal experience. We all look to the people who raised us for an example of how to raise a child or how to be an adult.
Your own reflective essay must move from the very personal
experiences you’ve chosen into territory that’s common to all
humans—or at least to many of us. Of course, your essay
should focus on using examples to convey only one universal
message rather than several, as Goodman has done.
Practical Application of Reflective Writing
Since reflective writing allows the writer to explore his or her
inner thoughts, feelings, and emotions on paper, this type of
writing tends to have a personal and private tone. Reflective
writing allows one’s inner thoughts to assume a more concrete and physical form through the written word, so it can
be thought of as a personal diary.
82
English Composition
Despite its personal nature, reflective writing can be used in
more general settings, as well. For instance, many instructors require their students to write a reflective essay after a
fieldwork or clinical experience or at the end of a course or
semester. The purpose is to examine the experience or course
material and the individual’s strengths, successes, and
weaknesses. Students might be asked to write an essay critiquing their own work. Similarly, employees may be asked to
critique their own reports or create job portfolios based on
their own personal reflections. Consequently, being able to
communicate your personal thoughts in a more formal setting or in a written form is important not only for this course
but also for your future career.
What Is and Is Not Reflective Writing
The paragraph below is an example of reporting or telling
about an event; it’s not reflective writing.
During my sophomore year in high school, my close
friend Katie died from cancer. She was fifteen years
old when she died. Her death was a shock to the whole
community. The school district held a candlelight vigil
for her. Many of her classmates attended this service, as
well as the funeral service that was held in her memory.
Both services were filled with the sounds of people crying
and murmurs that she was too young to die. After the
funeral service, my friends and I tried to remember the
good times when Katie was still alive.
This next paragraph, on the other hand, is an example of
reflective writing.
During my sophomore year in high school, my close
friend Katie died from cancer. Her illness came on
quickly, but her suffering was brief. She was in the
hospital for only a few weeks. During that time, I was too
busy to call her, and I was too busy to visit her. Instead,
I created excuses for myself. I told myself that she would
be fine in a few weeks, that I had to concentrate on my
studies, and that it was too late to call her by the time I
got home from practice. Looking back, I wish that I had
gone to visit to her one last time. Was I really a true
Lesson 5
83
friend if I could not even take the time to call her or visit
her when she needed me the most? Instead of caring
about my friend, I cared only about my feelings and my
activities. By placing Katie’s situation last on my list of
things to do, I ignored the possibility that Katie’s illness
was serious. In truth, I was probably afraid of seeing
Katie on her deathbed. By ignoring Katie’s condition,
however, I lost the chance to say goodbye, and I lost
Katie. I should have done something. I could have done
something. I would have done something, if I could go
back in time.
Notice the differences between the first paragraph and the
second paragraph. The first paragraph contains more summary
in regards to the plot of the story, while the second paragraph
contains examples of a personal monologue. Instead of focusing on the specific event, the second paragraph focuses on
the writer’s feelings, inner thoughts, wishes, and emotions.
The first paragraph, on the other hand, is very general. In
fact, the first paragraph sounds more like a report of event,
instead of a reflection on an event.
As you write reflectively, include with your memories an
analysis or explanation of their significance in relation to
your overall purpose. It will help if you use verbs related to
thought or feeling, like those in the box below, which are
commonly used in reflective writing.
Use the review on the following pages to organize and write
your essay for the Lesson 5 exam.
WORDS USED IN REFLECTIVE WRITING
remembered
thought
seemed
experienced
knew
contemplated
embraced
responded
appreciated
faced
conjectured
84
wondered
realized
wanted
appeared
needed
expected
rejected
pondered
empathized
suffered
doubted
felt
recognized
wished
worried
considered
understood
represented
hoped
valued
marveled
became aware of
English Composition
REFLECTIVE WRITING REVIEW
Follow these steps as you prepare your Lesson 5 examination.
Step 1: Look back into your childhood and teenage years. Over the next few days, brainstorm
about what you learned at age 3, age 6, age 10, age 13, and age 16. Allow your mind complete
freedom and write everything that comes to mind. Don’t worry about sorting the information by
ages; if you remember something important from a different age, write that down as well.
Step 2: Sort through your brainstorming notes and develop maps of events relevant to either
categories of events or particular ages and relate them to a single lesson or theme. Pick one or
two for which you have the most information or in which you have the most interest. Choose
memories that are so vivid you can recall the moment with all your senses. Then begin delving
into the feelings involved and the impact that the experience had on you. Writing a reflective
essay begins with deep thought, and it’s not something you can accomplish in one day.
Step 3: Narrow your focus to three experiences representing one particular age or to three
related experiences across three ages. Make sure they represent you learning something or
coming to understand it more clearly. Spend at least two more days reflecting on your topic
and doing more prewriting. Let your ideas bounce around to capture connections you may not
have considered before.
Carry a small notebook with you over the next few days. Whenever you think about something
related to the experiences, jot it down. When you write your essay, you’ll include only what you
want your readers to see and what you need to develop your essay. You shouldn’t include very
personal information. However, for the prewriting process, there are no boundaries or limits on
your reflections.
Step 4: After several days of generating ideas, read through what you’ve gathered. Take 10
of the reflective verbs listed in your study guide and write 10 sentences related to the three
experiences, using a different verb each time. For example:
“I wondered, Why did my mom tell me to be a good girl as she took my little brother to
the hospital?”
“I pondered whether I had missed what was really going on because I was so focused on
playing my game.”
“I rejected my brother’s attempt to say he was sorry.”
“I felt curious about this feeling I had. Was I happy? Or glad? Or adventurous?”
If this exercise helps you to remember more details, write those down and perhaps
freewrite further.
(Continued)
Lesson 5
85
REFLECTIVE WRITING REVIEW (Continued)
Step 5: Review your three experiences. Write down the lesson, meaning, or significance those
experiences have for you. If you learned more than one thing, write each down in a separate
sentence. These sentences usually look something like this:
“I began to feel I was more grown up and less of a kid.”
“I learned how sad it is to lose a pet.”
“I realized my parents make mistakes just like I do.”
Which of your experiences seems most alive and important to you now? Does one of the experiences show you realizing this idea or do two or three work together to show you understanding
something more clearly? Do any other experiences and specific details come to mind? Write those
down as well, because you need to develop your reflection fully.
Step 6: Choose one of your sentences from Step 5 to use as your main idea. Choose 1–3
experiences to use in your reflective essay. Begin drafting your essay using that main idea as
your opening line. You should relate your story in such a way as to lead your reader to experience an “ah-ha!” moment with you as you reach a new level of understanding. Remember to
write from your perspective as an adult. Use descriptive techniques to make the experience real
and vivid to the reader; similes and metaphors are quite helpful in capturing reflective thoughts
and feelings. Use appropriate narrative strategies like dialogue to engage the reader in the
moment. Let your draft sit for several days to allow your emotions and memories to settle.
Step 7: After some time, review your draft. Does a single experience fully show you growing in
understanding, or do you need more support for your main idea? Does each experience you’ve
used work with the others and engage the reader in your learning process? Remove any personal
information you wouldn’t want an outsider to see. Then ask others to read the essay and share
their understanding of the essay and what they felt while reading it. Ask if the essay has a logical
flow or if you shifted perspective or focus. Review the list of reflective verbs and make sure you’ve
used them in the places where you show yourself learning and growing in understanding. Finally,
ask readers to suggest other ways of wording what you stated in your main idea, which might
trigger some further reflections.
Step 8: Revise further for coherence and unity. Is your essay clear and logical? Read it aloud for
rhythm and word choice. Then ask someone else to read it. Circle areas that divert from the
focus and experience or where your adult perspective shifted.
Step 9: Read your conclusion. Does it provide closure and understanding? Does the tone support
your feelings about that time in your life? Do you allow the essay to speak for itself, or do you
tell your reader what you learned? Do you see the pronoun you in your conclusion? If so, change
your perspective back to I.
(Continued)
86
English Composition
REFLECTIVE WRITING REVIEW (Continued)
Read your introduction next. Review Chapter 15 in Murray’s Write to Learn. Write at least five
different leads or openings for your essay. Use your conclusion to help guide you. Grab your
reader’s attention gently but firmly and work toward the lesson you learned. Be sure the introduction hints at what you’ll be realizing through your experiences. Make sure the introduction’s
tone and theme match the conclusion.
Revise your essay into a new draft.
Step 10: Read through your revised essay backwards, first word by word, then sentence by
sentence, and then paragraph by paragraph. (See Step 5 of the Descriptive Writing Review
before the Lesson 3 exam.)
Review the exam evaluation criteria and revise your essay one last time as needed. Carefully
proofread your final draft. When you’re satisfied with your essay and revisions, type your final
essay for submission. Use Times New Roman font, size 12 and format your document for left
justification and double-spacing.
Lesson 5
87
NOTES
88
English Composition
EXAMINATION NUMBER:
05085903
General Instructions
Note: You can’t use Exam Express or Tel-Test for this exam.
Write a reflective essay between 700 and 1,500 words
using concrete, vivid words, figurative language, and sensory
imagery. In addition, use the reflective techniques covered in this
lesson. You’ll also use narrative and descriptive strategies as part
of your reflective essay.
Using the guidelines in the Reflective Writing Review at the end of Lesson 5,
write an essay in which you recall an enlightening experience you had as
a child or teenager. Looking at the experience from your present, adult
perspective, then describe the experience and its meaning or significance
for you. Tell your story using lively language, dialogue, and the other
writing strategies you’ve learned. Draw your reader in and lead him or
her to understand the importance of the experience for you. Make sure
the conclusion is clear on what you learned from your experience, without
telling the reader outright.
Review the evaluation criteria before writing your final draft, to be sure
you’ve met all the requirements of this assignment.
Evaluation Criteria
Your instructor will use the following criteria to evaluate your essay:
Introduction (15 points)
Your opening line invites the reader into the reflection in an interesting
way appropriate to the focus of the essay. The lesson, idea, or understanding you’ll show yourself learning is included in some way.
Use of reflective mode (30 points)
You use appropriate descriptive, narrative techniques for the purpose of
supporting your reflections. You included appropriate concrete, reflective
verbs as well as figurative and sensory language to engage the reader in
the moment. The essay stays focused from beginning to end on the one
thing learned. The reflective perspective stays true and is realistic.
Examination
Lesson 5
Reflective Writing
89
Conclusion (15 points)
The last paragraph maintains the reflective mode and perspective as it provides closure on the new
understanding without any explanation or preaching.
Coherence and overall development (10 points)
Your essay is unified, cohesive, and coherent. You focus on one particular age when you learned
something or on several experiences showing how you grew in understanding about one main idea.
Your essay is organized and without clutter. You use appropriate transitions and/or connective
discussion to guide the reader and to maintain clear focus. Each sentence or paragraph flows
coherently to the next. Each paragraph contains a controlling idea that develops the essay focus
and each sentence works to develop fully that paragraph’s controlling idea.
Grammar and mechanics (20 points)
You correctly use a variety of sentence types (compound and complex, short and long) that indicate
you know when certain types of sentences work best to convey your message. The essay contains no
run-on sentences, no comma splices, and no fragments. Your essay is free of grammar and usage,
spelling, and punctuation errors.
Length and format (10 points)
Your essay is double-spaced using the Times New Roman font, size 12. The first line of each paragraph
is indented five spaces (one tab), and there are no skipped lines. The length is between 700 and 1,500
words. Required header information is given on each page.
Include the following information at the top of each page of your document. The best way to ensure
the information is on each page is to enter it through the Header option of your word processing
program (usually located on the View or Insert menu).
Your Name and Student Number
Exam number (05085903)
Page X of Y
Your Mailing Address
Your E-mail Address (if you have one)
Note: If you don’t include the above information at the top of each page of your document, your exam
may not be processed for grading. If your exam is processed without some of the information, you’ll
lose at least five points from your overall exam grade for neglecting to include this information.
Submitting Your Exam
You may submit this exam for evaluation by the school in one of two ways:
By mail: Make sure your final draft is on 8½-by-11-inch white paper. Send your work in the envelope
provided or use your own envelope and mail it to
English Composition Instructor
Penn Foster Schools
925 Oak Street
Scranton, PA 18515
Be sure to include your name, mailing address, student number, and exam number in the upper-left
corner of the envelope.
90
Examination, Lesson 5
Online: For submission, use the online “Take an Exam” feature. When you enter the full exam number,
an e-mail format will appear and allow you to attach your text document to it. You’ll receive an autoreply e-mail within 24 hours confirmating that your exam has entered the school system. Be sure to
set your email browser to accept auto-replies.
It will take two to three weeks to evaluate your essay. While you’re waiting, begin the next lesson
and draft the essay. We recommend that you wait to receive your evaluated reflective essay before
completing and submitting the final draft of your next assigned essay. You’ll then be able to apply
the evaluator’s constructive comments toward your next essay and grow in your writing skills.
Examination, Lesson 5
91
NOTES
92
English Composition
Persuasive Writing
ASSIGNMENT 17: THESIS
STATEMENTS
Read the following introduction for Assignment 17. Then, in
Write to Learn, reread about the focusing line on pages 138–146.
Next, study “Write to Persuade” on pages 313–314 and “Student
Case History: Writing to Persuade” on pages 214–226.
In the Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook, study section 33c,
pages 399–403. Continue by reviewing sections 33d–33gf,
pages 403–417.
In The Familiar Essay, read “The Right to Die,” pages 70–72;
“The Triumph of the Yell,” pages 108–111; and “A Girl Needs
to Know How to Defend Herself,” pages 237–239.
Objective
To create clear, definitive thesis statements for your analytical
and persuasive compositions
Directed Reading
In Assignment 12, you studied about the focusing line
(pages 138–146, Write to Learn). Review this material before
you begin the assigned reading.
As the assigned material in the Harbrace Handbook mentions,
many narrative and reflective essays don’t include a typical
thesis statement. However, a standard persuasive essay
almost always includes such a statement. In a persuasive
essay, you must be crystal clear about the point or points
you’re trying to make. You want your reader to follow your
Lesson 6
This lesson deals with the persuasive essay. Persuasion is
an art that most of us start developing as soon as we learn
to speak, and persuasion also figures prominently in many
things we write. Maybe the most important persuasive compositions you’ve written and will write, for example, are the
letters you send to prospective employers when you’re looking for a job. This lesson will help you sharpen the persuasive skills you already have.
93
own logical train of thought and arrive at the same conclusions
that you have. When you state your opinion directly and then
supply evidence, your readers will know exactly what you’re
getting at—even if they don’t ultimately agree with you.
Self-Check 16
Identify the thesis statement in each of the three essays you read for Assignment 17.
1. “The Right to Die”
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
2. “A Girl Needs to Know How to Defend Herself”
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
3. “The Triumph of the Yell”
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Check your answers with those on page 122.
94
English Composition
ASSIGNMENT 18:
INTRODUCTION TO THE
PERSUASIVE ESSAY
Read the following introduction for
Assignment 18. Then, in the Hodges’
Harbrace Handbook, study Chapters 32
and 35, pages 380–391 and 459–491.
Objective
To use evidence and to structure an essay to convince a
reader of something you believe to be true about an issue
that’s in doubt.
Directed Reading
On pages 465–466, the Harbrace Handbook notes that the
“claims” made in persuasive or argumentative essays tend to
be one of three kinds: substantiation (asserting something
exists), evaluation (asserting that something has specific
value), and policy (calling for some specific action). Now reread
the essays from Assignment 17, and ask yourself this question:
Into which of these categories does the claim made by each
of these writers fall?
Deborah Tannen’s essay “The Triumph of the Yell” takes the
form of an evaluation. Many evaluative essays point out the
value of something, but Tannen’s essay points out the negative
effects of something. Tannen evaluates the current way we
engage in public discourse. That is, she examines the way we
go about discussing topics, pointing to the damage brought
about by our current methods of public discussion. Let’s
analyze one of the assigned readings to see how an effective
persuasive essay is constructed.
Lesson 6
95
An Effective Opening Paragraph and Thesis
Whatever topic you choose to write about, your first job is to
draw the reader into your discussion. As you already know, an
interesting introductory paragraph gets your readers interested
in what you have to say and encourages them to connect with
what they think they know about the topic. Without an interesting opening, you lose your readers’ interest before you have
a chance to say anything. Tannen’s introductory paragraph
is short, but it contains a thought-provoking question, one
that gets readers thinking about the arguments we see in the
media every day.
An effective introduction sets the stage for your discussion by
starting with your chosen specific topic. In her first paragraph,
Tannen describes a scenario in which a journalist justifies
public attacks on other people by claiming that those attacks
are arguments. In the second paragraph of her essay, Tannen
identifies this journalist’s attitude as a problem. Within the
first few sentences of her essay, Tannen has identified the
topic that she wants us to think about: journalists attack
people publicly and then defend those attacks as arguments.
Once the introduction has identified the topic of the essay, it
has to make a specific point about that topic. This point is
your claim or thesis statement (or, simply, thesis). It’s a
focused, specific point that you want to declare about that
topic. Having identified her topic for her readers, Tannen is
ready to state her thesis: “More and more these days, journalists, politicians and academics treat public discourse as an
argument—not in the sense of making an argument, but in
the sense of having one, of having a fight.”
Now we understand that she wants to say something about
public fighting. She used the journalist to draw our attention
to a problem, but her thesis tells us that the problem also
extends to politicians and to people in academics. Her thesis
also tells us that these people are more often turning public
discussion into fighting. Her thesis makes a clear statement,
a claim that the rest of the essay will support.
The tone of her statement suggests another idea that’s
important to her discussion: the idea that this fighting is
a problem. Tannen doesn’t actually say that fighting is a
problem, but the word fighting itself carries the connotation
96
English Composition
of something that’s generally disagreeable and unprofessional.
When people argue, they carry on civilized discussions in an
attempt to come to an understanding. The spirit is professional
and the manner of discussion is respectful. Fighting, on the
other hand, is generally mean-spirited and not as respectful.
A very broad thesis will allow your paper to run in too many
different directions, making it difficult for you to keep control
of it and for your readers to follow you in making sense of
your discussion. Tannen’s point is focused on the idea of
public figures having fights instead of arguments. Her essay
discusses only points related to that difference and to the
harm that public fighting causes our culture. She avoids
discussing any other points that may be related to the larger
issue of public discourse and stays focused on her one
specific point.
When you choose your topic, you may have a sense of what
you want to say about it, but until you put a thesis down on
paper, you won’t know exactly what point you want your
essay to make. Do some brainstorming and freewriting to
help you arrive at a concise, clearly stated point that you
can use for your thesis. Remember that you may not be sure
what it is until you reach your conclusion, at which point
you should revise your essay to work toward that claim.
The thesis is the main idea that holds any essay together.
Your whole purpose in writing a persuasive essay is to persuade your reader to think the way you do about something.
In a persuasive essay, therefore, the thesis has to state a
clear point that you want your reader to agree with.
Specific Claims to Support Your Thesis
Once you have a clearly stated, focused thesis statement, your
next job is to build an argument to support that thesis in a
logical way. An argument uses assertions and specific claims
that support and develop the main point in your thesis. For
the essay to effectively persuade its readers, each claim it
makes has to have a logical relationship to the thesis as
well as to the claim before and after it.
Lesson 6
97
Generally, you should try to make one claim per paragraph
and to state that claim as the paragraph’s topic sentence.
Remember that a topic sentence is the main idea of a paragraph. For that reason, the topic sentence of your paragraph
should be a claim that supports your thesis.
Let’s look at one of Tannen’s paragraphs as an example of
this concept. Tannen begins the eighth paragraph of her
essay with the following sentence: “Because the culture of
critique encourages people to attack and often misrepresent
others, those others must waste their creativity and time
correcting the misrepresentations and defending themselves.”
This statement is the topic sentence of her paragraph. It’s
also a claim that supports her thesis. Let’s think about the
connection between this statement and Tannen’s thesis.
Her thesis indicates that public fighting among journalists,
scholars, and other professionals is a problem. Her eighth
paragraph makes an assertion about one of the negative
effects of public fighting: that people have to waste their
time defending themselves against these kinds of attacks.
Logical Development
A persuasive essay is built step by step using logical claims.
For the essay to effectively persuade its readers, each claim
it makes must have a logical relationship to the other claims
in the essay. Here’s a summary of the claims in Tannen’s
essay. As you read them, notice how the ideas move forward
in a logical way toward their conclusion.
1. There’s a breakdown in the boundary between public
argument and private bickering.
2. When people fight to win, they may deny facts or even lie.
3. Complex issues are reduced to having only two sides.
4. The culture of critique is based on the idea that when
both sides argue, the truth will emerge.
5. People have to waste time and creative energy defending
themselves against attacks.
6. Some people don’t hold up well under public attack.
7. This type of opposition, in the form of attacks, limits
information and ideas.
8. Even scholarly work is attacked in this way.
98
English Composition
9. This type of attack leads to widespread animosity.
10. Tough questions are part of public discussion, but when
they’re designed to encourage animosity, they keep us
from getting closer to truth.
Support for Claims
A claim has to be supported with evidence. Evidence can take
the form of statistics or other facts. It can take the form of
examples and even stories to illustrate the point. It can take
the form of extended reasoning. Whatever form it takes, the
purpose of evidence is to support the claim you’re making.
Without evidence, your persuasive essay doesn’t carry
much weight.
Let’s look again at the claim that Tannen makes in her eighth
paragraph. She supports her claim with one piece of evidence
in the form of a specific example. She says, “Serious scholars
have had to spend years of their lives writing books proving
that the Holocaust happened, because a few fanatics who
claim it didn’t have been given a public forum.” This bit of
evidence helps the reader see what she means by her claim.
It also lends credibility to her claim because it gives us an
example that makes sense to us and helps us to agree with
her point.
Tannen uses a different type of evidence in her tenth paragraph, where she continues her claim that some people don’t
hold up well under public attack. The entire paragraph is
devoted to explaining her reasoning on that subject. It also
helps her to connect two ideas: the idea that some people
don’t hold up well under public attack with the idea that
public attack limits information.
Look over Tannen’s essay again and think about what type of
evidence she uses to support her other claims.
Considering Other Viewpoints
Any issue can be looked at from a number of different points
of view. A persuasive essay is effective when it shows that its
writer has considered other views. A view that differs from your
own is called an opposing viewpoint. When you write your
persuasive essay, try to convince your reader that what you
Lesson 6
99
say is true and refute the opposing viewpoint. Like anyone else
who writes to persuade, you must show that you know what
the opposition is saying about your topic, as you show that
your viewpoint is the correct or best one.
Tannen examines an opposing viewpoint in her seventh
paragraph. Here, she states that the whole “culture of critique
is based on the belief that opposition leads to truth: when
both sides argue, the truth will emerge.” In the rest of that
paragraph, she explains the error in this point of view.
Your persuasive essay must give some indication that you’re
aware of what others might think about your topic. Handle
that opposing viewpoint carefully. Explain why or how it’s
wrong, but do so in a respectful way. Your essay is meant to
persuade another’s thinking, not to attack someone’s ideas.
Using Good Strong Language
A persuasive essay relies on the use of strong language.
Descriptive verbs and figurative language are two ways to use
language to make your persuasive essay more forceful. Look at
the verbs Tannen uses throughout her essay. In paragraph nine,
for example, she uses verbs such as provoked, spurred, and
sputter. In paragraph twelve, she uses the phrase “den of wolves”
to suggest the atmosphere at many universities. Such figurative
language adds power to her essay and helps her to convey the
sense of mean-spirited attacks that she’s talking about. Be sure,
however, that your support for your assertions warrants the
strong language you use and that the tone your language indicates is shown consistently throughout the argument.
Grade Your Reading
Assign a grade to each persuasive essay. Base the grade you
assign on how convincing you found it. In each case, did you
agree or disagree with the author’s arguments, or were you
convinced or unconvinced by the examples and evidence he or
she used to support those arguments?
Exam Preparation
Your goal on the last exam is to make use of all the skills
you’ve developed throughout this course as you compose a
persuasive essay. Your assignment will be to write a persuasive
100
English Composition
essay of 900 to 1,500 words to convince your reader to agree
with your position on a contentious issue you’ve recently
argued about with a friend, coworker, family member, or
yourself using only your own knowledge and experience.
At first, writing a persuasive essay based entirely on your
own ideas may seem difficult or impossible. In fact, it’s much
easier than writing a research-based paper. When you base
your essay on your own ideas, you don’t need to research
your topic or gather sources pertaining to your topic.
Instead, you’re writing about a topic that you already know
about. For instance, you could write an essay about writing
English papers, since you’ve already written at least three for
this course.
On the other hand, you probably wouldn’t write an essay
about the environmental effects of acid rain on the decomposition of landfill material, since you probably don’t know
much about this topic. When you don’t have enough firsthand knowledge on a particular topic, it’s difficult to form
and support an argument. We’ll avoid a lot of difficult work
dealing with research and citations by writing about a topic
you’ve experienced directly and are knowledgeable about.
For instance, I recently participated in a friendly debate
regarding the existence of free will. My friend argued that
all human beings possess free will, since humans have the
ability to make choices. By using a personal example taken
directly from my life, I argued that humans don’t have free
will—they’re influenced and pressured by their environments.
This debate could form the basis of a persuasive essay, such
as the example offered on the next page.
Notice that this essay excerpt doesn’t include any outside
sources. Instead, it’s based upon personal experiences, such as
choosing a college and writing a paper. This essay could have
included secondary sources, but it was much easier to write
without having to research and organize outside information.
The essay may have been influenced by an outside conversation between friends, but all of the ideas are original.
Lesson 6
101
FREE WILL
To choose or not to choose, that is the question. Do we really have the free will to independently
make our own choices and decisions in life? On the surface, it may appear that we as human beings
possess the coveted element of free will; but are the choices that we make in the name of free
will really independently based? If someone or something prevents or influences me from performing an action, then I am not free to choose that action on the basis of my own will. The choice has
already been made by the person or thing that is preventing or influencing me from acting in the
opposite manner. Human beings are influenced by their physical environments and previous
experiences; consequently, human beings do not possess free will.
I, for one, know that I do not possess free will. Instead, my choices and decisions in life have
been impacted and influenced by my past experiences and environments. For example, I was not
free to choose the college that I attended. I went to the undergraduate college that offered me
the best financial aid package and that my parents liked. Although I could have chosen another
college or university, my parents’ influence and financial limitations negated my true free-will
choice. In other words, my parents and the lack of financial support from other institutions prevented me from choosing another school. Consequently, in this case, I did not have free will.
In fact, while it may appear that we, as humans, have the will to choose and decide our actions,
underlying obligations guide or prevent us from choosing certain outcomes. For the most part,
these obligations center on human morals. In order to be considered human, we must subscribe
to morals by which we protect and respect ourselves and the lives of others. As a human subscribing to these moral obligations, I am limited in terms of my behavior. I cannot choose to end
the life of another human, since doing so would result in the dismissal of my morals and humanity. I would be considered nothing more than an animal. Of course, my lawyer would argue for
this animalistic view in order to show that I had no control over my actions. In either case,
whether my actions were considered animalistic or humane, I would not have free will. My animal
yearnings would overtake my reason and will, while my attachment to humanity would have prevented me from ever acting in such a manner to begin with.
Let’s consider a less complicated example. It appears that I have a choice in terms of writing
this paper. I could choose to write this paper, or I could choose to not write this paper. Obviously,
I chose the former of the two. Since I made a choice, does that imply that I had free will? In
order to have free will, I must not be prevented or influenced from acting in the opposite manner.
If I chose not to write this paper, I would have to face the wrath of the teacher, a bad grade, a
potential of failing the class, and the complaints of my family or significant other or employer.
These repercussions prevented me from choosing not to write this paper, even though I did not
wish to write the paper. Thus, I was left with only one choice--to write this paper. If I really had
free will, I would have been able to choose whether or not I wrote this paper without feeling
guilty about either choice. I was coerced into my decision by the threat of harmful repercussions
that were attached to the choice of not writing this paper.
102
English Composition
Of course, the constraints and coercions depend upon the morals that one follows. I hold that:
education is important, that I should aim to please those whom I respect, and that I am obligated
to participate in my college courses. Others may not hold the same standards; however, for other
reasons, they too will write this paper. How many times have you heard students say, “I have to
write this paper”? When asked why they have to write such papers, many respond, “I have no
choice” or “It’s required.” The students themselves don’t believe that they have any choice in
the matter, so how could they possibly have free will if there is only one option or choice in
their minds? They are not aware of any other choice other than the one that has already been
determined or required.
The previous examples are just a representation of the apparent choices we make on a daily
basis. Despite appearances of the ability to choose one way over the other, in fact, we always
face underlying constraints and restrictions that prevent us from actually choosing under our
own free will. In other words, we are constantly being coerced by other influences, environmental
factors, and previous experiences in order to act in a certain way.
Excerpt from Free Will paper written by Kelly Keiper. Reprinted by permission.
Lesson 6
103
PERSUASIVE WRITING REVIEW
Follow these steps as you prepare your Lesson 6 examination.
Step 1: Explore your internal knowledge base by setting aside at least 20 minutes each day for a
week to brainstorm and freewrite. Explore ideas or topics about which you have strong opinions,
questions, and feelings. Make a note if a question or strong reaction springs to mind when you
read or hear a statement or opinion. Note minor or major disagreements you face each day. How
often have you had such a disagreement? Which ones stir the strongest emotions in you to
defend yourself and your opinions or actions? Also, listen to the arguments and discussions you
have with yourself when you’re convincing yourself to date a certain person, start a garden,
decide where to take a vacation, or take a study break to watch a TV show even though you’re
behind in your work. Don’t think in terms of essay assignments or persuasive writing; just let
your mind respond as it usually does and jot down notes about those reactions, thoughts, and
feelings, as well as what triggered each.
Step 2: After a day or two, review your prewriting. Circle related topics or issues. Mark those
entries containing anything surprising to you. Perhaps you didn’t realize you felt so strongly
about a simple issue or that others felt so differently. Or perhaps you continue doing something
others keep advising you not to do. Pick two or three of those recurring issues, making sure each
has an opposing position someone could take on the issue. Take at least 20 minutes to brainstorm and freewrite further about these issues.
Step 3: As you continue freewriting, reflect on what has made you take this position or develop
this opinion. Use descriptive and narrative techniques to capture moments of intense discussion
and conflicting views (either with another person or yourself). Spend at least three sessions over
two or three days in this stage. Write down everything that crosses your mind on the particular
issue, no matter how silly or insignificant it seems. Pay particular attention to any minor incidents
that illustrate the two opposite sides of the issue.
Step 4: Turn to the “Tips for Assessing an Arguable Statement about a Topic” on page 462 of the
Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook. Answer all the questions honestly. If you have trouble completing
two or three of these items related to the issue you’ve chosen, you should choose a different
topic. If you do decide on a different topic, go back and begin again at step 1. If you’re satisfied
with your answers to the exercise on page 462, go on to step 5.
Step 5: Develop a controlling thesis. Your thesis should be an argument or claim—your position
on an issue that has opposing viewpoints. For example, on the topic of pets, a possible argument
could be “Cats make better pets than dogs.” The opposing viewpoint could be “Cats do not make
better pets than dogs” or “Dogs make better pets than cats.” To persuade your reader that your
viewpoint is valid and believable, there must be another option or viewpoint against your claim.
By refuting the opposition and supporting your claim from your own experience and knowledge
base, your essay will become more persuasive.
(Continued)
104
English Composition
PERSUASIVE WRITING REVIEW (Continued)
Remember that you can’t persuade your reader to believe in something that can’t be challenged,
such as that there’s an increase in technological discoveries. You could argue, however, that technological discoveries have an adverse effect, not a positive impact, on society.
State your claim in one sentence. Use mapping, outlining, or some other method of organization
to develop a persuasive argument. You need to establish a clear focus and flow to keep your essay
draft on the right track. You may find it helpful to review “Write to Persuade” on pages 313–314
in Write to Learn. A more formal method for organizing an argument, classical rhetoric, appears
on pages 473–474 in the Hodges’ Harbrace Handbook. As you develop your outline, ask yourself,
“Does this idea, example, or experience connect directly to my claim? You may discover that
much of what you’ve already written will be irrelevant. At this point, you must be ruthless. Cut
anything that’s unrelated to your claim. Keep only what’s useful in developing your main idea.
Step 6: When you’ve finished developing a specific claim and organizing your ideas, set everything
aside for a few days. Then review it through the eyes of someone who is reading it for the first
time. You may even want to ask someone to listen to you talk through your outline to get that
person’s suggestions for what to include or cut to enhance the strength and logic of the argument.
As you examine the organization of your ideas and experience, ask yourself these questions:
■ What arguments or experiences don’t seem to fit naturally into the flow of the discussion?
■ Do they belong some other place in the outline, or should they be cut?
■ Which arguments don’t persuade, but merely report or talk around the issue?
■ What additional questions might readers ask about this topic? How might they challenge
my claim?
■ Is there additional information they need to make a decision in favor of my position?
As you answer these questions, continue to reorganize until you’re satisfied with the strength and
logical flow of your argument. Make a mental picture of a specific person who disagrees with you.
As you write, strive to convince that person to change his or her mind.
Step 7: When you finish your complete draft, put it away for a day or two. Then read it with
fresh eyes. Read it aloud for rhythm and word choice. Have you used specific, descriptive details
as well as figurative language in a persuasive tone?
Step 8: Ask someone different to read your essay. Circle areas where the argument is weak,
unfocused, or repetitive or where you shifted perspective. When you refute the opposing side,
make sure you guide your reader to show the connection to your side. Circle any places where
you and the other reader stumbled. Circle areas where the reader wasn’t quite sure what you
were trying to do or in which direction you were moving the argument or you circled around to a
previous argument instead of developing another level. Make any necessary revisions.
(Continued)
Lesson 6
105
PERSUASIVE WRITING REVIEW (Continued)
Step 9: Read your conclusion. Does it reinforce the key points you used to develop your argument
and convince your reader your position is correct? Does it flow naturally from the last argument
to provide closure or do you change perspective and “preach” to your reader? Does it end the
argument or does it merely start the reader thinking about the opposing side or another argument?
Then review your introduction. Does your opening premise match your conclusion? Does the tone
match the tone of the conclusion? Does the introduction engage the reader? After revising the
introduction and conclusion, revise the rest of your essay into another draft.
Step 10: Set your essay aside for several days. Review the comments and corrections on
your previous essays for this course and the revision checklist you created in your journal.
Read through your revised essay backwards, first word by word, then sentence by sentence,
then paragraph by paragraph. (See Step 5 of the Descriptive Writing Review before the
Lesson 3 exam.)
Step 11: Review the exam evaluation criteria and revise your essay one last time as needed.
Carefully proofread your final draft. When you’re satisfied with your essay and revisions, type
your final essay for submission. Use Times New Roman font, size 12 and format your document
for left justification and double-spacing.
106
English Composition
EXAMINATION NUMBER:
05068300
General Instructions
Note: You can’t use Exam Express or Tel-Test for this exam.
Since this essay is your final exam—worth 30% of your course
grade—you should spend several weeks preparing your final
draft, as you would studying for your final exams. Before you
begin, make sure you’ve received final evaluations on the
previous three essays.
Write a persuasive essay of 900–1,500 words to convince your
reader to agree with your position on an issue you’ve recently
debated with a friend, coworker, family member, or yourself.
Follow the steps in the Narrative Writing Review at the end of
Lesson 6. You’ll work with only your own ideas and experiences.
Do not conduct any research or search outside sources for this
essay. If you do, you’ll earn 1% as a grade on the exam.
Evaluation Criteria
Your instructor will use the following criteria to evaluate your essay:
Introduction (15 points)
Your opening line catches the reader’s attention. The introduction
engages the reader immediately in the issue, causes that person to
begin pondering both sides. It ends with a clearly established claim
representing your position on the issue as the correct one.
Use of persuasive mode (30 points)
You use appropriate persuasive methods that include specific experiences
and your own thinking, creating a convincing argument that refutes the
opposing side and carefully develops clear, logical support for your side.
The essay stays focused on the single issue, its tone relatively informal,
authentic, and realistic. Each argument is essential to convince the reader
and contains specific evidence with analysis (no generalizations).
Examination
Lesson 6
Persuasive Essay
Final Examination
107
Conclusion (15 points)
The last paragraph maintains the persuasive mode as it reinforces the key arguments and convinces
the reader that the essay’s claim is the correct position. It doesn’t stray into another argument or
new line of thinking.
Coherence and overall development (10 points)
Your essay is unified, cohesive, and coherent. It maintains a single, organized argument without clutter.
You use appropriate transitions and/or connective discussion to guide the reader and to maintain clear
focus. Each sentence and paragraph flows coherently to the next. Each paragraph contains a controlling idea that develops the claim in persuasive fashion and each sentence works to develop fully that
paragraph’s controlling idea.
Grammar and mechanics (20 points)
You correctly use a variety of sentence types (compound and complex, short and long) that indicate
you know when certain types of sentences work best to convey your message. The essay contains no
run-on sentences, no comma splices, and no fragments. Your essay is free of grammar and usage,
spelling, and punctuation errors.
Length and format (10 points)
Your essay is double-spaced in Times New Roman, size 12. The first line of each paragraph is indented
by one tab. The length is 900–1,500 words. Required header information is given on each page.
Submitting Your Exam
You may submit this exam for evaluation by the school in one of two ways:
By mail: Make sure your final draft is on 8½-by-11-inch white paper. Send your work in the envelope
provided or use your own envelope and mail it to
English Composition Instructor
Penn Foster Schools
925 Oak Street
Scranton, PA 18515
Be sure to include your name, mailing address, student number, and exam number in the upper-left
corner of the envelope.
Online: For submission, use the online “Take an Exam” feature. When you enter the full exam number,
an e-mail format will appear and allow you to attach your text document to it. You’ll receive an autoreply e-mail within 24 hours confirmating that your exam has entered the school system. Be sure to
set your e-mail browser to accept auto-replies. It will take two to three weeks to evaluate your essay.
108
Examination, Lesson 6
Self-Check 1
1. Read over what you wrote.
2. Ask yourself this question: Do all of my details support
my point of view? Underline anything that doesn’t seem
directly related to your point of view.
3. Reread what you wrote. This time, read it as if someone
else had written it. What additional questions would you
ask? What else would you want to know? Make a list of
everything you would want to ask the writer if someone
else had written your piece.
Self-Check 2
1. There are no right or wrong answers to this exercise.
However, you should take some time to look for clutter
in material you read each day. Soon, it will become a
habit that will transfer over to your own writing.
Exercise 1 (page 14)
1. After (conjunction, subordinating) we (pronoun) finished
(verb, action) lunch (noun), we (pronoun) piled (verb) into
(preposition) a (article) minivan (noun) and (conjunction,
coordinating) explored (verb, action) the (article) valley
(noun).
2. A (article) narrow (adjective, attributive) river (noun)
runs (verb, action) through (preposition) it (pronoun).
3. The (article) tour (noun functioning as adjective) guide
(noun) drove (verb, action) very (adverb) slowly (adverb)
because (conjunction, subordinating) the (article) road
(noun) was (verb, linking) old (adjective) and (conjunction, coordinating) rutted (adjective).
4. We (pronoun) stopped (verb, action) at (preposition) a
(article) roadside (noun functioning as adjective) stand
(noun) for (preposition) fresh (adjective, attributive)
figs (noun), Oh (interjection), were (verb, linking) they
(pronoun) good (adjective, predicate)!
Answers
Of course, there are no right or wrong answers to this selfcheck. However, to help you evaluate your writing, use the
following suggestions:
109
5. While (conjunction, subordinating) we (pronoun) were
(verb, linking) there (adverb), we (pronoun) bought (verb)
flowers (noun) for (preposition) the (adjective, article)
guide (noun).
Exercise 2 (page 16)
1. Magicians (subject) are in our oceans (predicate).
2. They (subject) are octopuses (predicate).
3. Octopuses (subject) can become invisible (predicate).
4. They (subject) just change color (predicate).
5. They (subject) can also change their shape (predicate).
6. These shape-changers (subject) look frightening (predicate).
7. Octopuses (subject) can release poisons and produce
spectacles of color (predicate).
8. The blue-ringed octopus (subject) can give an unsuspecting
diver an unpleasant surprise (predicate).
9. Researchers (subject) consider the poison of the blueringed octopus one of the deadliest in the world (predicate).
10. Octopuses and their relatives (subject) have been living
on Earth for millions of years (predicate). Octopuses and
their relatives is a compound subject.
Exercise 4 (page 21)
1. none
2. subject complement: octopuses
3. subject complement: invisible
4. direct object: color
5. direct object: their shape
6. subject complement: frightening
7. direct objects: poisons; spectacles of color
8. indirect object: an unsuspecting diver; direct object: an
unpleasant surprise
9. direct object: the poison of the blue-ringed octopus;
object complement: one of the deadliest in the world
10. none
110
Self-Check Answers
Exercise 3 (page 60)
Your answers may vary from those given here. These are
some suggested possibilities.
1. The iceberg was hard to see because there was no wind
causing waves to splash against it.
2. The lookouts on the Titanic did not spot the iceberg until
it was too late.
3. The name given to the large ocean liner was Titanic,
which means “of great size.”
4. One of the most reliable eyewitnesses was Jack Thayer.
He gave his report shortly after he was rescued.
5. Moviegoers raved about the film Titanic, which was
based on the ship’s story.
Exercise 4 (page 61)
Your answers may vary from those given here. These are just
some suggested possibilities.
A giant hairy animal has caught the fascination of many
people, including normally skeptical citizens and
scientists. They are all interested in the phenomenon
of Sasquatch, also commonly called Big Foot.
Sasquatch comes from the Salish word saskehavas. The
North American Sasquatch has a counterpart in the
Himalayan Yeti. Both have been studied by cryptozoologists—scientists who research undiscovered
animals. In our country most sightings of Sasquatch
occur in the Pacific Northwest, from northern California
to central Alaska, although reports have come from
almost every state. During the settlement of the United
States, stories of hairy ape-men were told by Native
Americans, and later on by trappers. Teddy Roosevelt
recorded one such story.
Exercise 1 (page 73)
Your answers may vary from those given here. These are
some suggested possibilities.
1. Because they offer a variety of settings, our national
parks attract millions of visitors every year.
Self-Check Answers
111
2. The Grand Teton National Park, with its sixteen-peak
mountain range, offers extensive hiking trails and
wildlife-viewing opportunities.
3. Yellowstone National Park is generally full of tourists,
but the geysers and cliffs are worth the visit.
4. At Yellowstone National Park, hikers especially enjoy the
two million acres of backcountry perfect for hiking.
5. Vacationers enchanted by cascading water should visit
Yosemite National Park: The waterfalls at Yosemite reach
heights of more than two thousand feet.
Exercise 2 (page 73)
Your answers may vary from those given here. These are
some suggested possibilities.
1. Discoveries in neuroscience have yielded many benefits.
For example, researchers have developed medications for
schizophrenia and Tourette’s syndrome.
2. The average human brain weighs about three pounds.
In contrast, the average brain of a sperm whale weighs
seventeen pounds.
3. Researchers studying brain hemispheres have found that
many professional musicians process music in their left
hemisphere. Hence, the notion that musicians and artists
depend on the right side of their brain is outmoded.
4. The brain needs water to function properly. In fact,
dehydrtion commonly leads to lethargy and hinders
learning.
5. The body of a brain cell can move; however, most brain
cells stay put, extending axons outward.
Exercise 4 (page 86)
Your answers may vary from those given here. These are
some suggested possibilities.
1. As a woman in the twentieth century, Gertrude Bell led
an unusual life.
2. Young, wealthy, and intelligent, the red-headed Bell
impressed many people.
112
Self-Check Answers
3. Among the first women to graduate from Oxford, she
could hardly be satisfied with domestic life.
4. Instead, Bell traveled to what were considered the most
remote countries in the world, saw the wonders of the
Ottoman empire, and explored the desert of Iraq.
5. Several of the Arab sheiks who knew Bell thought that
she acted boldly.
6. The war in Iraq didn’t give Bell any time to pursue
her research.
Self-Check 3
Use the questions provided in Self-Check 3, step 7, to evaluate
your paragraph.
Self-Check 4
1–3. Your answers will vary from anyone else’s.
4. a. Adjective—a word that modifies or qualifies nouns
and pronouns
b. Adverb—a word that modifies verbs, adjectives, and
other adverbs
c. Comma splice—a writing error in which two
independent clauses are joined by a comma
d. Conjunction—a word that connects two parts of
a sentence
e. Direct object—that part of a sentence which receives
or shows the result of the action of the verb in
the sentence
f. Fused sentences—a writing error in which two
independent clauses are run together with
no punctuation
g. Interjection—a word that expresses surprise or
strong feeling
h. Object complement—a word that refers to, identifies,
or qualifies the direct object
Self-Check Answers
113
i. Paragraph coherence—a condition in which each
sentence in a paragraph leads to the next sentence
j. Paragraph unity—a condition in which each sentence
in a paragraph helps develop the main idea
k. Preposition—a word that sets up relationships
between words
l. Sentence fragment—an incomplete sentence starting
with a capital and ending with a period; a group of
words lacking a subject or verb or both
m. Topic sentence—a sentence that expresses the main
idea of a paragraph
Self-Check 5
Of course, there’s no one right answer to this exercise. The
important thing is that you complete the work and get some
practice with freewriting, making connections, and looking
for surprises. These exercises are designed to prepare you for
the examinations that involve actual writing projects. Be sure
to do the preparation work. The examinations will be much
easier if you do.
Self-Check 6
The best way to get the most from this exercise is to be
tough on yourself. Use the following steps to evaluate each
piece of writing:
1. Reread the material in the Harbrace Handbook on the
mode you’re evaluating.
2. Read the sentences you wrote in that mode.
3. Ask yourself questions like these:
a. Did I follow the information given in the handbook?
b. Are my sentences grammatically correct? If you’re
unsure of the proper way to word something, use the
index in the Harbrace Handbook and look up the
information you need. When in doubt, look it up.
This is an important habit to develop for yourself.
114
Self-Check Answers
c. Are my sentences coherent? Do all the sentences fit
together in a logical way?
d. Will my readers understand what I’m saying?
4. Have someone else read your work. Ask them to tell you
what they read to determine if they understood what
you’re trying to say.
Self-Check 7
There are no correct or incorrect answers for this self-check.
Self-Check 8
Exercise 1 (page 95)
Your corrections may vary from those given here. These are
some suggested possibilities.
1. Correct
2. My parents taught English at a university; my younger
brother and I went to a local school.
3. Although the Spanish language was new to both Sam
and me, we learned to speak it quickly.
4. At first, we couldn’t understand much at all, but with
the help of a tutor, whom we met every day after school,
we started learning “survival” Spanish.
5. Sam had better pronunciation than I, but I learned
vocabulary and grammar faster than he did.
6. After we learned to ask and answer some basic questions,
we started making friends, who eventually introduced us
to their own version of Spanish.
7. Correct
8. However, though Sam and I benefited from all our Spanish
lessons, we learned the language so quickly because,
unless we were with our parents or by ourselves, we
listened to it, read it, wrote it, and spoke it all day long.
Self-Check Answers
115
Exercise 2 (pages 96–97)
1. who
2. whoever
3. Whomever
4. who
5. Whoever
Exercise 1 (page 108)
1. are
2. include
3. is
4. says (when referring to one person); say (when referring
to two people)
5. is
6. recommends
7. know
8. are
9. speed; bump
10. tells
Exercise 3 (page 112)
Your answers may vary from those given here. These are just
some suggested possibilities.
1. Researchers rely on a number of principles to help them
make ethical decisions.
2. People should have the right to participate in a study
only if they want to.
3. A team of researchers should provide volunteers
with informed-consent forms, in which they describe
to the volunteers the procedures and risks involved in
participation.
4. Participants should be guaranteed that the information
they provide will remain confidential.
5. Institutions of higher education require that researchers
address ethical issues in their proposals.
116
Self-Check Answers
Exercise 3 (page 134)
1. With the simple present tense of the verb, the sentence
uses a literary prestent form of the verb; by changing
the verb to the simple past tense, the sentence describes
a completed action in the past. The first might be used
in a literary analysis, the second in a historical study.
2. Using the simple present tense of the verb implies a past
action, using the present perfect tense suggests a past
action that’s still relevant, and using the auxiliary verb
“do” adds emphasis.
3. Using the simple present tense suggests a general truth
about algae; by changing to the past tense, the sentence
suggests something that happened in the past, but not
necessarily about the algae.
4. The present perfect tense suggests a situation originating
in the past but still ongoing today; the past perfect tense
implies that coral were “bleached” in the past prior to
another past time or action.
5. The present progressive tense suggests that new life is
just beginning to flourish, the past progressive tense
suggests that the new life was an ongoing past action
that has since ceased, and the present perfect tense
suggests that new life began to flourish in the past and
continues to do so.
6. The simple present tense suggests that scientists
currently study this area; the future progressive tense
suggests that scientists haven’t yet studied this area,
but will do so in the future.
Exercise 4 (pages 135–136)
Your answers may vary from those given here. These are
some suggested possibilities.
1. We had expected the storm to bypass our town, but
it didn’t.
2. We would like to have had prior notice; however, even
the police officers were taken by surprise.
3. Not knowing much about flooding, the emergency crew
was at a disadvantage.
Self-Check Answers
117
4. Having thrown sandbags all day, the volunteers were
exhausted by 5 P.M.
5. They went home, having succeeded in preventing a
major disaster.
Exercise 1 (page 205)
Your answers will vary from those given here. These are just
some suggested possibilities.
1. Dinosaurs lived for 165 million years but then
became extinct.
2. No one knows why dinosaurs became extinct, but
several theories have been proposed.
3. Some theorists believe that a huge meteor hit the earth,
so the climate may have changed dramatically.
4. Another theory suggests that dinosaurs did not actually
become extinct but instead evolved into lizards and birds.
5. Yet another theory suggests that they just grew too big.
But not all of the dinosaurs were huge.
B. Answers will vary.
Exercise 4 (page 213)
1. Maine Coons, long-haired cats with bushy tails, have
adapted to a harsh climate.
2. These animals, which are extremely gentle despite their
large size, often weigh twenty pounds.
3. Most Maine Coons have exceptionally high intelligence,
which enables them to recognize language and even to
open doors.
4. Unlike most cats, Maine Coons will play fetch with
their owners.
5. According to a legend, later proven to be false, Maine
Coons developed from interbreeding between wildcats
and domestic cats.
118
Self-Check Answers
Self-Check 9
Exercise 2 (page 223)
Placement of punctuation may differ slightly because of
optional and stylistic uses.
1. Every morning I take vitamins, a multivitamin and
sometimes extra vitamin C.
2. Correct
3. By eating a balanced diet, getting plenty of exercise, and
keeping stress to a minimum, I thought I would stay
healthy.
4. New research suggests that multivitamins are beneficial;
when our diets don’t provide all the recommended
amounts of every vitamin every day, our health can suffer.
5. Although taking one multivitamin tablet a day is a
healthy habit, we don’t need to buy the most potent or
most expensive vitamins available.
Exercise 2 (page 231)
1. Whose responsibility is it to see whether it’s working?
2. Hanson’s book was published in the early 1920s.
3. They hired a rock ’n’ roll band for their wedding dance.
4. Only three of the proposals are still being considered:
yours, ours, and the Wilbers’.
5. Few students enrolled during the academic year ’98–’99.
6. There can’t be more x’s than there are y’s in the equation.
7. The students formed groups of twos and threes.
8. The M.D.’s disagreed on the patient’s prognosis. [Note that
according to MLA guidelines, abbreviations are usually
written without periods, and plurals of abbreviations are
written without apostrophes: “The MDs disagreed….”]
Self-Check Answers
119
Exercise 1 (pages 239–240)
1. Have you read Ian Buruma’s essay “The Joys and Perils
of Victimhood”?
2. Buruma writes, “The only way a new generation can be
identified with the suffering of previous generations is
for that suffering to be publicly acknowledged, over and
over again.”
3. When my reading group met to talk about this essay, I
started our discussion by noting that the word victim is
defined in my dictionary as “anyone who is oppressed
or mistreated.”
4. “So how can we tell who the real victims are?”
asked Claudia.
5. Cahit responded, “I think that both the Israelis and the
Palestinians are victims of violence.”
6. “Yes,” agreed Claudia, “I worry especially about the
women and children in that part of the world. I wish I
could say to them, ‘Do not give up hope!’”
7. Correct
Self-Check 10
Reread what you’ve written. Before you begin to analyze the
grammar, punctuation, spelling, and other similar points,
take time to read what you said and how you said it. Did you
use any metaphors and similes? If not, why not try to add
one or two? Did you incorporate any past memories? If not,
is that something you can do? Is there anything about your
surroundings that remind you of something in the past?
Don’t be too rough on yourself. This is your first attempt at
writing a description. But begin to understand that there are
things you can look for in your descriptive writing to help
yourself improve.
Self-Check 11
There are no right or wrong answers for this self-check.
120
Self-Check Answers
Self-Check 12
1. The answers to this exercise aren’t cut and dried. We’ve
provided some possibilities here, but you may have some
different ideas. The important thing is to get you to think
about the different ways you as a writer can use focusing
lines to develop an essay.
Essay
Category
a. “I Want a Wife”
Either
b. “The Boyfriend”
Title
c. “I Get Born”
Title
d. “Women in the Wild Blue Yonder”
Lead
e. “Just Walk On By”
Either
Note: Since a writer’s train of thought can lead anywhere, we
can’t know for sure what, if anything, these essayists used
as focusing lines. In our list, we’ve simply excluded as possible focusing lines those titles or leads that don’t really seem
to determine the overall direction the essay takes.
2. Your answers to this exercise will be unique to
your writing.
Self-Check 13
What approach did you take to writing your essay? Did you
use classification or division? Definition? Did you decide to
use explanation and tell how to write a good narrative? To
help you evaluate your work, turn to pages 409–417 in the
Harbrace Handbook. Find the information on the approach
you used and read it again. Then read your essay. Does your
approach match the description in the textbook?
Self-Check 14
There are no right or wrong answers for this self-check.
Self-Check Answers
121
Self-Check 15
There are no right or wrong answers for this self-check.
Self-Check 16
1. The unbearable tragedy is to live without dignity
or sensitivity.
2. There’s nothing a boy can do that you can’t. It’s just
gonna be a little harder, because you’re a girl.
3. More and more these days, journalists, politicians, and
academics treat public discourse as an argument—not
in the sense of making an argument, but in the sense
of having one, of having a fight.
122
Self-Check Answers