Sweating the Small Stuff Review
Non-restrictive elements are always set off by
commas, em-dashes, or parentheses and
should be information that is NOT essential or
most important to the sentence.
Which is best?
The English final, an exam with five sections,
tests our ability to analyze.
The English final, an exam that tests our ability
to analyze, has five sections.
Sweating the Small Stuff Review
Full quotations must be set up either with an
introductory clause OR with a full sentence
followed by a colon.
Which is NOT correct?
I can’t wait for the new Star Wars film. I heard that Chewbacca has
like twenty-five lines of dialogue. He says, “Arraghagrrgh.”
The new Star Wars villain is supposed to have a really bad attitude.
“I will destroy all the Chipotles in the universe.”
In the new Star Wars film, Hans Solo apparently gets a new catch
phrase: “Sure, I’m technically married, but you’re no saint either.
Sweating the Small Stuff Review
Non-restrictive clauses ALWAYS use “which.”
(Remember, the witch always has claws like
little commas) and restrictive clauses get
“that.”
Which is Incorrect?
Poetry, which is the art-form of
essentializing language, remains central to
advertising.
Poetry that features warlocks is my favorite
Poetry which is dark can sometimes be
depressing to read.
Sweating the Small Stuff Review
Parenthetical page numbers go after the
quotation mark but before the period or end
punctuation.
In Goodnight Moon, the mother bunny
says, “Goodnight mush” (4).
Sweating the Small Stuff Review
Pieces of a larger work of art, like songs on an
album, chapters in a book, poems in a poetry
collection, get quotation marks around them,
while titles of full works are underlined.
Is this correct?
While “Jungle” remains Drake’s best song
from the album If You’re Reading This…, many
fans feel that “You & the 6” is the real hear of
the album.
Sweating the Small Stuff Review
One of the biggest SAT-score killers is the
dangling modifier. This is when a nonrestrictive element is not placed next to the
noun it is trying to modify.
Can you spot the dangler?
.
After biting two children, the police took away our
German Shepherd.
Glancing down at the test paper, Ben was anxious
and his anxiety got
the best of him.
Sweating the Small Stuff Review
You’ll want to review the different kinds of
SLIDER words that can be used to make
transitions. These, of course, will help you on
the other parts of the exam as well!!!!
When he woke in the woods in the dark and the
cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the
child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond
darkness and the days more gray each one than
what had gone before. Like the onset of some
cold glaucoma dimming away the world. His
hand rose and fell softly with each precious
breath. He pushed away the plastic tarpaulin
and raised himself in the stinking robes and
blankets and looked toward the east for any
light but there was none. In the dream from
which he'd wakened he had wandered in a cave
where the child led him by the hand. Their light
playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like
pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among
the inward parts of some granitic beast.
What does S.Q.U.A.A.T.
stand for?
What are your
favorite/best analytical
moves for the A’s?
Common S.Q.U.A.A.T problems
1. Set up takes too long. An effective set up sentence should be no
more than two sentences and most often can be handled in one
sentence. Often these sentences begin with a subordinate conjunction
like When, After, In, During.
2. Student skips over really paraphrasing the quotation in the “U” section.
Force yourself to go phrase by phrase and expect to be surprised by what
is there.
3. Student does not try out a totally different move for the second A and repeats
what has been written before.
4. Theme sentence does not use author’s name or refer to a BIG idea about people
in general. E.g. McCarthy seems interested in exploring how people seek out hope
even in the most hopeless situations.
Quick Non-Fiction Source Review
The keys to writing a powerful source summary
sentence:
1. Use author name
2. Tell us his/her claim to fame in an apositive
3. Use a strong, accurate verb like suggests,
notes, explores, posits, argues
4. Give the gist of the bigger argument
Jerome Groopman, chief of experimental medicine at
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, argues doctors
need to slow down and be aware of common cognitive
errors they can make.
Paraphrasing
1. Integrate a powerful, complex, and interesting
quotation into your writing.
2. Put that quotation into your own words. I like
using the introductory phrases “Put another
way…” or “In other words”
3. Go phrase by phrase in your paraphrase,
offering examples to clarify the idea.
4. Add on to the quotation by considering
inferences (what might be implied by the idea)
and by connecting it to other relevant ideas.
Two Integrated Paragraphs
The Key to the transition sentence between the two paragraphs. Figure out
what the two works have in common and use a subordinate clause sentence
to link them.
If the works have different takes on the same
subject, try this:
While the end of Catcher in the Rye suggests that humans
have the capacity to change, the final pages of The Bluest
Eye offer little hope for Pecola or the narrator….
If the works have similar takes on the same
subject, try this:
In the same way Jerome Groopman suggests that are
unconscious minds can be our own worst enemy, the
characters in The Bluest Eye constantly fall prey to their own
subconscious ideas about beauty and goodness.
S.Q.U.A.A.T. Practice
I’ll take away his field of ‘Ha Ha,’ and give him Normal places for his
ecstasy – multi-lane highways driven through the guts of cities (109).
When I got to him,
a blue halo
of flies had already claimed him. (Lines 5 – 7)
Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand. (5 – 8)