Essay Writing: Transitions Practice

Transition Words

In addition                          Similarly Furthermore                        Moreover In contrast                           Therefore For this reason                     However Thus                                     On the other hand                                        On the contrary                    As a result

Write each transitional word in the group it belongs to:

Addition (AND)             Contrast (BUT)       Cause and Effect (SO)

1. 2. 3. 4.

1. 2. 3. 4.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Fill in the blanks with a transitional words from the list above.

1. Using cell phones can be extremely helpful for young people. ________________, it can be harmful to their learning.
   
2. When I receive a text, it takes my attention away from my studies. ________________, I always turn the volume off when I’m studying for a test.
   
3. Nowadays, cell phones have so many useful apps, such as a dictionary and map. ___________, they provide internet access, which can be helpful when doing research.
   
4. Most teachers are opposed to using cell phones in class. _______________, they do allow laptops for taking notes.

Write a sentence that logically follows the transition.

5. I use my phone for everything. As a result, __________________________________________.
   
6. I use my phone for everything. However, ____________________________________________.

Rewrite the following sentence using Therefore. You may have to change the punctuation.

My friend really liked a rapper who was always drinking alcohol in his music videos, so she started drinking, too.

Fill in the blanks with a transition word that fits each context, keeping in mind punctuation rules. You may not change the punctuation in the paragraph. Do not use the same transition word twice.

The author states that multi-tasking can cause negative results. ______________, he points out how our brains can get confused and overwhelmed if we do too many things at once.
I agree that multi-tasking can sometimes be a bad idea. ____________, I don’t think that we should avoid it all the time. ______________, in certain situations it can even be helpful. For example, at my job at a restaurant, I am expected to multi-task all the time. I need to talk to customers, write down their orders, get their drinks, and bring them their food. ______________, my brain can feel a little tired and unfocused by the end of the day. ______________, I have never made a huge mistake because I was multi-tasking. _____________ doing two things at the same time can be mentally fatiguing, it doesn’t always bring negative results.

Essay Writing: Total Recall

There's an interesting article in the Huffington Post:

A Judge Is about to Rule Whether Banning Mexican-American Studies Is Constitutional

Read this article from beginning to end.  The article bears some connections to the texts we read in L&T.  Think about Richard Wright, Malcolm X, and Julia Alvarez.  For our practice today, use one of those texts as a textual example and write a body paragraph in which you respond to something in the article using that textual example.

Reminder: When quoting from this article, be sure that your introduction to the quote answers "who said what when?" (Phase 2ers especially know what this means)

Essay Writing: Dangers of Reality TV

In Monday's post, you have an article on the dangers of reality TV.  What did you think?  Do you feel that reality TV is as harmful as the article says.  End your summary paragraph by writing your thesis and complete the essay with two body paragraphs and a conclusion.

Remember you have the handout on the CATW Structure in the Links section, but be sure to use your own transitions.

Essay Writing: Beyond "Says"

Sometimes articles are just plain informational, but sometimes the author has a strong opinion they're trying to advance.  When summarizing these articles, we want to move beyond writing "the article/the author says."  We should use opinion words: supports, advocates, endorses, criticizes, opposes, rejects, is a supporter of, is an opponent of.

Create a chart of verbs you can use when the article is for something, against something, or has no opinion.

The article ________________

FOR             AGAINST  NO OPINION

1. 2. 3. 4.

1. 2. 3. 4.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Read the following article and write a summary using opinion words.

The Dangers of Reality TV

Reality television reinforces several unsound messages that are molding the minds of its young fans. Among the dangerous messages that reality TV sends out are the importance of competition, the value of image over ability, and the obsolescence of education.
Reality television promotes the old belief that competition is the key to success in a capitalist economy. Whether it’s Survivor awarding winners a million dollars or Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire awarding a husband, reality tv shows reinforce the idea that life is nothing but a competition that we continually engage in with each other. In fact, big business abhors competition. There isn’t a business in America that doesn’t want to become a monopoly serving the needs of 100% of consumers. This is why almost every industry in the United States is shrinking due to mergers and acquisitions.

Reality television also sends the message that the key to success is image rather than ability. On many of these shows a contestant who is often considered the most qualified often loses out to another contestant who presents a hipper image. Whether it is a singer on American Idol who has a better voice but is less attractively “packaged” or someone on The Apprentice who is far more competent at what they do but lacks “personality,” the message is that image is more important than substance. Of course, in the world of television, the message is true. After all, who would tune-in week after week to watch a boring yet infinitely qualified-to-win contestant over a contestant who consistently entertains and surprises?

Probably the single most dangerous message these shows send is that education is completely unnecessary to fulfill the American dream. One need only possess the ability to humiliate oneself on national television, or have absolutely no shame whatsoever, and make more money than many college graduates. Why go to school and face the difficulties of learning something when you can just get on Fear Factor, eat bugs, and walk away with a bucket of money?

By categorizing these shows as “reality,” the makers are insidiously suggesting that they are replicating society. In fact, they aren’t replicating society as it is, but rather as those in power want people to believe it is. And if you have to ask why those in power wouldn’t want you to become educated…well…hey, I think Who Wants to Marry an Idol Survivor who Danced with a Skating Celebrity Named Gotti is on.

Adapted from article by Timothy Sexton. Originally posted on Buzzle.com.

Essay Writing: Beyond Good and Bad

Often in our writing, when we support something, we will say that it's good and when we disagree with something we will say that it is bad.  The thing is that good and bad don't really tell us anything.

For example,

I ask how you day was.  You say is was "good," or you say it was "bad."

I ask how that movie you watched the other week was.  You say it was "good" or you say it was "bad."

I ask you what you think about sterilizing those convicted on drug charges in exchange for a shorter sentence and you say it would be "good," or you say it would be "bad."

We can use the same words, but are your day, the movie, and the sterilization of drug addicts anything alike?  We need words that are going to be more specific that are going to communicate more what you have to say about the particular issue at hand.

So when we see the words good or bad in our writing, we want to try to replace them with something more communicative.  To do this, we need to ask ourselves, why was it good, or why was it bad?

If I write that my day was good, I ask, why was it good?  Because I didn't have a lot to do so I got to relax a bit.  Now I can say, my day was relaxing.  If I want to write that the movie was bad, I ask, why was it bad?  The acting was terrible and the plot was predictable.  So now I can write that the movie was predictable and poorly-acted.

So here's some writing practice:


Exercise
Directions: Take this paragraph on the article "How to Do One Thing at a Time."  Rewrite the body paragraph replacing the words "good" and "bad" with more specific language.  You may have to use more than one word.  You may even have to use a whole sentence.  The idea is to explain more specifically what the author is trying to describe about multi-tasking.

To begin with, multi-tasking is bad for us.  The article said that “when we attempt demanding tasks simultaneously, we end up neither as well as we should because our brains have cognitive limits.” In other words, when we try doing a lot of things at once, we don’t do a good job at any of them because we don’t have the brain power.  I can certainly relate to this because I multi-task a lot, and when I really think about it, I don’t know why.  Multi-tasking never really works out for me.  One time, I was trying to study for my history exam while watching TV.  They were giving this really interesting episode of Law and Order.  The episode was so good that I didn’t realize I wasn’t really paying attention to my history notes.  As a result, I got a bad grade on the test the next day.  Just like the article said, the brain cannot handle two things at the same time. I tried to study and watch TV at the same time, and I got a bad result.  It’s better to focus on what’s really important like your history exam.

Essay Writing: Writing with Strong Opinion

WRITING WITH A STRONG OPINION

That nations in the world should adopt a policy of “open borders”—meaning that people would be free to move to a different country to find work—is an idea that some economists have advocated as a way to end global poverty.  They argue that, “Workers in rich countries earn more than those in poor countries partly because they are better educated but mostly because they live in societies that have, over many years, developed institutions that foster prosperity and peace. It is very hard to transfer Canadian institutions to Cambodia, but quite straightforward for a Cambodian family to fly to Canada. The quickest way to eliminate absolute poverty would be to allow people to leave the places where it persists.” Many fiercely reject open borders on the grounds that it would bring overpopulation, economic instability, crime and terrorism to more developed nations.

Write a body paragraph explaining your STRONG opinion about whether you think a policy of open borders should be adopted globally. Do you think this would be helpful, or will it lead to problems? Why?

In your paragraph, be sure to:

●      use at least 3 opinion words: support (verb), advocate (verb or noun), proponent (noun), oppose (verb), opponent (noun), criticize (verb), reject (verb), denounce (verb)

●      use other strong words and evidence to support your ideas

●      include at least 2 transitional words:

addition: In addition/ Additionally, Moreover, Furthermore, Also,

cause and effect: Therefore, As a result, Consequently, Thus, Due to this

similarity: Similarly, Likewise, By the same token, In the same way, Equally important,

contrast: However, In contrast, On the other hand, Yet, Still, On the contrary, Nevertheless, Even so, That said, Notwithstanding,

●      fill an entire page

Essay Writing: Connections Practice

So we've talked about how CATW body paragraphs should end with a connection sentence, connecting your example back to the SI.  More generally, body paragraphs should end with interpretation or analysis of what was discussed in the paragraph that ties it all together to your thesis, to the claim you've been trying to make in your essay.

To practice connections, read this CATW article: Spanking kids can cause long-term harm: Canada study

Then, complete this Connection Activity with some sample body paragraphs.

The Importance of Practice

Hey Alums!

You probably heard me mention before the importance of continued practice--my Phase 2ers definitely did.  I spoke to you about a study they did on top musicians and athletes.  The article below is an excerpt from that research, and it's a good thing, I think, to kick off this blog with.  On here, you will find recommended readings and materials for continued practice.  I encourage you to follow along during the break(s) to stay in practice.

Your first exercise: read and annotate the following article.  Write a 3-4 sentence summary.  You can post your summary in the comments for feedback.

The 10,000 Hour Rule

            For almost a generation, psychologists around the world have been engaged in a spirited debate over the question: is there such a thing as innate talent?  The obvious answer is yes.  Only the innately talented hockey player ends up playing at the professional level.  Achievement is talent plus preparation.  The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.

            In a study done in the early 1990s led by the psychologist K. Anders Ericsson at Berlin’s Academy of Music, they divided the school’s violinists into three groups: the stars (students with the potential to become world-class soloists), the merely “good,” and those who were unlikely to ever play professionally and who intended to be music teachers in the public school system.  All of the violinists were then asked the same question: over the course of your entire career, how many hours have you practiced?  Everyone from all three groups started playing at roughly the same age, around five years old.  In those first few years, everyone practiced roughly the same amount.  But when students were around the age of eight, real differences started to emerge.  The students who would end up the best in their class began to practice more than everyone else until, by the age of twenty, they were practicing well over thirty hours a week.  In fact, by the age of twenty, the elite performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice.  By contrast, the merely good students totaled eight thousand hours, and the future music teachers had totaled just over four thousand hours.

            The striking thing about Ericsson’s study is that he and his colleagues couldn’t find any “naturals,” musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of the time their peers did.  Nor could they find any “grinds,” people who worked harder than everyone else, yet just didn’t have what it takes to break the top ranks.  Their research suggests that the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works.  That’s it. 

            “The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything,” writes neurologist Daniel Levitin. “It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.”

            Here is the explanation for what was so puzzling about the rosters of the Czech and Canadian national sports teams.  There was practically no one on those teams born after September 1, which doesn’t seem to make any sense.  But to Ericsson and those who argue against the primacy of talent, that isn’t surprising at all.  That late-born prodigy doesn’t get chosen for the all-star team as an eight-year-old because he’s too small.  So he doesn’t get the extra practice.  And without extra practice, he has no chance at hitting ten thousand hours by the time the professional hockey teams start looking for players.  Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good.  It’s the thing you do that makes you good.

            The other interesting thing about that ten thousand hours, of course, is that it’s an enormous amount of time.  It’s all but impossible to reach that number all by yourself.  In fact, most people can reach that number only if they get into some kind of special program—like a hockey all-star squad—or if they get some kind of extraordinary opportunity that gives them a chance to put in those hours.

Adapted from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Outliers