Writing/Reading Handbook

Table of Contents

Writing Territories

Reading Territories

Reading Journals

Genre

Miscellaneous Bell Work

Conventions

Parentheses

Hyphens

Capitalization
Dashes
Colons: Independent and dependent clauses
Literary Terms (Leave a few pages)
Italics/Underlining
Short Story PPT (Fill in the blank):  Stapled into your handbook
Types of meter: Glued into your handbook
Apostrophes
Dangling Modifiers
Misplaced Modifiers
Two-Way or Squinting Modifiers

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Writing Territories

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Reading Territories

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Reading Journals

Your Reader's Journal is different than your Writing and Reading Handbook.  The Handbook stays in class for you to take notes.  The Journal has student letters in it that you bring to class every Friday.

I require students to read 20 minutes, 6 days a week.  This can be their own personal book--they get to choose.

On Monday/Tuesday of every week, they pick a student to write a reading letter to.  They have to write a letter to me twice a month.  This letter has to be 1/2 a page.

On Friday during the Reader's Workshop, students write a paragraph-long response to their peers or Mrs. Martin.

Because the point of this assignment is in-class participation, there can be NO LATE WORK accepted for the letters.  Every Friday for the rest of the year will be the same routine:  Students will have a letter written, bring the letter to class in their journals, exchange with another student or Mrs. Martin, respond to the letter, and read their personal books.

How To Get Full Credit

1.  Bring a book to class every Friday.

2.  Bring a letter to class every Friday.

3.  Follow the instructions for the letter (in rubric on my letter to students):  Length, letter format, date, closing, on topic, school-appropriate, legible, conventions followed.  

4.  Be completely silent so others can either read or write during this workshop.

5.  Read your "choice" book after your response is written.

6.  Write at least TWO letters to Mrs. Martin each month.

  

What To Write About In Letters

I went over this in class, but here is a reminder.  Note:  This list does NOT include everything.  A student may come up with some other topic regarding his personal reading book.

How the author wrote:  His/her topic, plot, pace (too slow/fast), plausibility (is it believable?), description/detail, dialogue (too much/too little?), flashbacks/flashfowards, affect (did something make you laugh/cry?), setting, characters, title, theme, problem/conflict, suspense, formula (too formulaic?), conventions, information (too much/too little?), length, point of view, first sentence, lead (how did the author keep his audience?), conclusion.

The author:  Speculate about the author, compare with other books by the same author, research the author, correspondence with the author.

Concepts of Genre:  What are elements of fiction? What makes a novel a novel? What makes a good short story? What makes a good poem?

The Reader's Strategies:  Choice (how did you decide what to read?), pace (did you skim, skip, slow down, look ahead?), abandoning (How and when should you abandon a book?), When do you reread? Do you predict? Text to text or text to self connection, Time it took to read, difficulty, unknown vocabulary, rituals of reading (how, when where?).  

Reader's Affect:  How did the book make you feel?  Likes/Dislikes.  Rating the book.

Recommendation:  Would you recommend this book?

Compare/contrast:  To other books.  To movies based on the book. 

Example Letter

9/7/12

Dear Students,

I am reading, for the second time, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I go back and forth between the paperback and audio version.  On audio, I wonder if I should be listening to this content in front of my 4-month-old-daughter.

The story is about the too-wealthy after WWI.  The main characters have money and little care for anything or anyone else in the world.  They are bored.

Daisy, the narrator's cousin, is married to a jerk.  He cheats on her and blames her for not allowing him to get a divorce.

The characters go on for pages talking about their clothes, jewelry, parties and the games they play.  I would not fit into that time period, but I would love to have that much money!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Martin

9/7/12

Dear Mrs. Martin,

Why would you not want to read that book in front of your daughter?  What age do you think she would be old enough to read that book?  I am not interested in books that are about jewelry and parties.  What else is this book about?  The main thing that sounds interesting is that it is after WWI.  I am very interested in that time period.

Sincerely,

Your Student

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Genre

Shakespearean Sonnet:  a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g.  Consists of three quatrains of alternating rhymes and then ends with a couplet. In each quatrain a specific idea is developed--as in "Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare.
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Ballad:  A lyrical poem.  One of the oldest poetry forms that exists in the English language.  Each stanza is four lines.  The second and fourth lines rhyme.  The first and third lines have four iambic feet (8 syllables).  The second and fourth lines have three iambic feet (6 syllables).
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1st line:  Ta Tum Ta Tum Ta Tum Ta Tum Rhyme A
2nd line: Ta Tum Ta Tum Ta Tum Rhyme B
3rd line: Ta Tum Ta Tum Ta Tum Ta Tum Rhyme A
4th line:  Ta Tum Ta Tum Ta Tum. Rhyme B

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Miscellaneous Bell Work

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Conventions

September 11, 2012

Question:  Why do we have conventions?

Research shows:  If there are 5-6 errors in a text, the reader will give up reading and think, “Something is wrong!”

Real World Reactions:

Resume—spelling errors=trash can.

Short story with one long paragraph=trash can.

Essay with no periods=trash can.

Why?

Readers need all the help they can get.

Writing/Reading Pact:

           

Writers hold up their end of the bargain to be taken seriously, to communicate clearly, to be viewed as intelligent.

Convention:  It comes from Latin, meaning “agreement.”  What conventions do we have in law, driving, school, work?

All year I will teach you conventions in what I call “mini-lessons.”  I will help you uphold your end of the bargain so you can be recognized as a writer.  This was your first mini-lesson.

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Parentheses

September 13, 2012

How and when?  There are six ways to use parentheses:

1.    Use to enclose numbers or letters in a series.

a.   Three elements to a story include (1) characters, (2) setting, and (3) plot.

2.   To enclose supplemental information—tangents and afterthoughts.  The sentence can be complete without them.

a.   For the last five years (some say longer), the house on the hill has been haunted.

3.   To indicate the plural of nouns.

a.   In the following example, circle the grammatical error(s) in each sentence.

4.   To indicate an acronym.

a.   President Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958.

5.   To enclose dates.

a.   Mrs. Martin (1983-) loves science fiction.

6.   To enclose citations.

a.   “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” is a well-known first line in A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens). 

b.   Notice the period comes after the parentheses—to complete the sentence. 

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Hyphens

There are more ways to use hyphens than in the following notes.  We will continue talking about them throughout the year.

1.     Use between two closely related words.

a.    close-knit, low-octane fuel, 28-year-old

2.    Divide words between syllables at the end of the line.  Two letters need to be on the first line, and at least three on the second line.

a.                                                                                                                              mis-                         

                             take.

3.     Fractions.

a.    Give me one-half of your pear, please.

4.    Numbers with two digits.

a.    thirty-six

5.    With prefixes like self, pre.

a.    self-interest

b.    pre-Columbus times

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Capitalization

1.  First letter of the first word of sentences.

2.  The pronoun "I".

3.  Proper Nouns: Supreme Court, Golden Gate Bridge, Salt Lake City, Jefferson Academy.

4.  Family relationships used as proper nouns:  My mother is a teacher.  (Not capitalized.)  I went shopping with Aunt Lisa.  (Her name.)

5.  Names of gods, holy books:  the Bible, God the Father, the Greek gods.  Exception:  Do not capitalize the word "god" if you use it as a general word.  The Greeks worshiped multiple gods.

6.  Titles preceding names:  Mayor Hanolov.  I was able to interview Miriam Moss, mayor of Littonville.

7.  Directions used as names:  The Patels have moved to the Southwest.  Jim's house is south of Salt Lake City.

8.  Days of the Week, Months, Holidays, NOT seasons:  Halloween, Christmas, Monday, Friday, fall, spring.  Exception:  Fall Semester 2012 (used as a name).

9.  Countries and Nationalities:  Spanish, French, Costa Rica, America.

10.  First word in a direct quote:  Emmerson once said, "A foolish..." (This is used in dialogue, too.)

11.  National, political, racial, social, civic, athletic groups:  African-American, Democrats, NFL, NBA, Republican.

12.  Periods and Events (not century numbers):  sixteenth century.  Victorian Era, Great Depression, World War I.

13.  Trade Marks:  Pepsi, Honda, IBM, Apple, Microsoft Word. 

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Dashes

We already learned about hyphens and that you generally use them when you are connecting two words together to make one idea (T-Shirt, money-saving techniques, etc.).  You also use them in most numbers 21 through 99.  Twenty-one.  Ninety-nine.  Other ways to use hyphens are in your English Handbook under "Hyphens."

Dashes are different than hyphens.  First off, they are physically longer.  A hyphen is one "-".  A dash is TWO "--".

Generally, in Microsoft Word, when you combine two hyphens (--), it evens out into one long line.  It does not show the two mini lines.  

How dashes are used:

1.  To indicate an interruption.

Mrs. Martin began to say, "Get out your writing home--" when her cell phone rang in class.

2.  Used as a substitute for "it is", "they are", "he is", and similar expressions.

There was only one person suited for the job and he is Mr. Davis.
There was only one person suited for the job--Mr. Davis.

3.  They can be used in place of parentheses.

Mr. Davis is best for this job--he is the only one with enough experience--but he decided to take a job elsewhere.

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Colons, Independent and Dependent Clauses

In order to know how to use colons, you need to know what a dependent and independent clause is.

Independent clause:  An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought. An independent clause is a sentence.

Mrs. Martin teaches grammar in Language Arts.

  Subject     Verb           Complete thought

Dependent clause:   A group of words that contains a subject and verb but does not express a complete thought. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence. Often a dependent clause is marked by a dependent marker word.

When               Mrs. Martin teaches grammar in Language Arts... (what?)

Dependent         Subject        Verb                 Not a complete thought

marker 

word

Dependent marker word:  A dependent marker word is a word added to the beginning of an independent clause that makes it into a dependent clause.

When Mrs. Martin teaches grammar in Language Arts, students jump for joy.

Common dependent marker words are:  after, although, as, as if, because, before, even if, even though, if, in order to, since, though, unless, until, whatever, when, whenever,whether, and while.

Okay, back to colons.

Uses of colons:

1.  Use a colon to join two independent clauses when you wish to emphasize the second clause.

ex. Road construction in Orem, Utah has slowed down traffic significantly: parts of the freeway are down to one narrow lane.

2.  Use a colon after an independent clause when it is followed by a list, a quotation, appositive, or other idea directly related to the independent clause.  (I want to teach you this rule because I also want you to break it whenever possible.  You cannot break rules correctly unless you know them.)

ex.  Julie went to the store for some groceries: milk, bread, coffee, and cheese.

ex.  In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln urges Americans to rededicate themselves to the deceased soldiers: "It is for us..."

ex.  I know the perfect job for her: a politician.

3.  Use a colon at the end of a business letter greeting.
ex.  To Whom It May Concern:

4.  Use a colon to separate the hour and minute(s) in a time notation.

ex.  12:00 p.m.

5.  Use a colon to separate the chapter and verse in a Biblical reference, or to identify an act and scene of a play.
ex.  Matthew 1:6
ex.  Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Act 1:3  (Act one, scene three.)
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Literary Terms

Irony  

Irony is about expectations.  Irony is the opposite of what is expected.

There are three types of Irony.
1.  Dramatic:   If unexpected by a character.
2.  Situational:  If unexpected by everyone.
3.  Verbal:  Sarcasm.  You say one thing, but mean another.
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Italics/Underlining

Italics and underlining are the same thing.  Be consistent when you are writing a paper.

It is not wise to italicize when you are handwriting a paper.  Just underline instead.

When to use italics (this is not a complete list—find more complete lists in a style guide like MLA, Turabian, etc.).

1.     Foreign words not yet assimilated into the English language.

2.     Letters of the alphabet when you refer to them as letters.

a.     The letter A is the first letter in the alphabet.

3.     Scientific names.

a.     Binomial nomenclature is a phrase used for naming things in science.

4.     Titles of works:  Books, plays, short stories, very long poems, newspapers, magazines, movies, t.v. series, musical compositions, names of famous speeches, titles of pamphlets, names of vehicles, blog titles, website titles, podcast titles.

a.     The name of our class website is Mrs. Martin’s Blog.

b.     Titanic

c.      The Office

d.     Facebook

e.     U.S.S. Truman

f.      I have dream by Martin Luther King

g.     Beethoven’s Fifth concerto.

5.     Using words as words.

a.     The word really is not necessary and should be taken out of most writing.

6.     To emphasize something:  If you overuse italics to emphasize something, then nothing will stand out.  Use sparingly.

a.     I really don't care what you think!

b.     I really don’t care what you think!

c.      I really don’t care what you think!

d.     I really don’t care what you think!

e.     I really don’t care what you think!

Exceptions for Italics:

1.     You do not need them for the Koran or the Bible.

2.     Chapter titles of books and television series.  You put those inside quotation marks.

a.     Friends, “The one where Ross gets a monkey.”

3.     Don’t italicize The when used in a newspaper or magazine article. 

a.     The New Yorker.

b.     The Standard Examiner.

If you are writing and not typing underlining takes the place of italics.  If you are typing in Microsoft Word, pressing the buttons control + I puts words in italics.

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Types of Meter 

Types of Meter

A foot containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (ta TUM) is called an iamb.  Because there are five feet in the following line, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18, Shakespeare)” that makes it iambic pentameter. 

The prefix pent means five..  Pent is joined to wrods or word roots to form new words indicating five.  (Pentagon with five sides, Pentatuech, first five books of the Bible.) 

Some feet in verse and poetry have different stress patterns (not ta TUM).  For example, one type of foot consists of two stressed syllables followed by an unstressed syllable (TUM TUM ta).  Another type consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (TUM ta).

There are six types of feet:

1.  Iamb/Iambic         

ta TUM (unstressed/stressed)                                    Two Syllables

     

2.  Trochee/Trochaic

TUM ta (stressed/unstressed)                                    Two Syllables

    

3.  Spondee/Spondaic      

TUM TUM (stressed/stressed)                                    Two Syllables

4.  Anapest/

Anapestic

     

ta ta TUM (unstressed/unstressed/stressed)            

Three Syllables

     

5.  Dactyle/

Dactylic           

       

TUM ta ta (stressed/unstressed/unstressed)            

Three Syllables

     

6.  Pyrrhic       

ta ta (unstressed/unstressed)                                    Two Syllables

Meter is determined by the type of foot and the number of feet in a line.  A line with three iambic feet is known as iambic trimeter.  A line with six dactylic feet is known as dactylic hexameter.

Number of feet in a line:

Monometer­­­­­­_____________One foot

Dimeter_______________Two feet

Trimeter____________Three feet

Tetrameter___________Four feet

Pentameter___________Five feet

Hexameter_____________Six feet

Heptameter__________Seven Feet

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Apostrophes

The apostrophe has THREE uses.  Here are two of them:

1. to form possessives of nouns
2. to show the omission of letters.

1.  Forming Possessives:

To see if you need to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the..." phrase. For example:

the boy's hat = the hat of the boy
three days' journey = journey of three days

• add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s):

  the owner's car
  James's hat / James' hat 

• add 's to the plural forms that do not end in -s:

  the children's game
  the geese's honking

• add ' to the end of plural nouns that end in -s:

  two cats' toys
  three friends' letters
  the countries' laws

• add 's to the end of compound words:

  my brother-in-law's money

• add 's to the last noun to show joint possession of an object:

  Todd and Anne's apartment

2.  Showing omission of letters

don't = do not
I'm = I am
he'll = he will
who's = who is
shouldn't = should not
didn't = did not
could've= could have (NOT "could of"!)
'60 = 1960

*Don't use apostrophes for personal pronouns, the relative pronoun who, or for noun plurals.

wrong: his' book
correct: his book

          correct: one's book
          correct: anybody's book

wrong: Who's dog is this?
correct: Whose dog is this?

wrong: The group made it's decision.
correct: The group made its decision.

wrong: a friend of yours'
correct: a friend of yours 

wrong: She waited for three hours' to get her ticket.
correct: She waited for three hours to get her ticket.

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Dangling Modifiers

Modifier:  Changes or adds meaning to a word in a sentence.  

Nouns are modified by adjectives or other nouns and prepositional phrases (on, open, under).   

Adverbs modify adjectives (so, very, rapidly).

There are pre modifiers and post modifiers.  They can come before or after the word in which they are modifying.  The key is to make sure the modifier modifies the correct word.  If it doesn't, the sentence becomes confusing.  

Dangling modifier has a modifier that doesn't clearly modify a word.  The modifier describes a word that does not appear in the sentence.

ex:  Sitting on the floor, the hours seemed to drag by slowly.

Draw a picture in your notebook about this phrase.  Take up half a page.

The modifier Sitting on the floor describes somebody, but the sentence doesn't tell us who is sitting on the floor.  The only possible noun for this phrase to modify is hours.  It is obvious that the hours are not dragging on the floor, but that's what the sentence seems to say.  

How to correct a dangling modifier:  by specifying the object that is being modified.  

Add or replace words to make the sentence clear.  Ask questions, "Who, what, where."  If the sentence doesn't answer your question, it needs to be re-worded.

Examples of incorrect sentences:

Keaton:    1.  To earn extra spending money, the summer was spent working for her father.

(Did the summer work for money, or did a person work for money?)

Sarah:      2.  While reaching into my pocket for change, my car rolled into the tollbooth.  

(Was the car reaching into its pocket, or was a person?)

Landon:    3.  While driving to school, flashing lights appeared in the road.

(Were the flashing lights driving to school?)

Mason:      4.  Running to catch the bus, Kara's shoestrings tripped her up.

(Were the shoestrings running?)

Elizabeth:  5.  Having selected a college, a trip to the campus was planned.

Kelsey:     6.  To be a good ballplayer, daily practice is extremely important.

Caed:        7.  When hosting a dinner party, a variety of food should be provided.

Asia:          8.  Frustrated, all of the scientists' data were reexamined.

Jordan:       9.  Looking back over my shoulder, the team went into a huddle.

Carter:       10.  While riding to the store, my front bicycle tire went flat.

Tom:          11.  To qualify for the Olympics, many trial heats must be won.

Tim:           12.  Hurrying through the last fifty pages, the books was fascinating.

Jacob:         13.  Being a novice basketball player, my dribbling needs work.

Emmalee:   14.  When leaving the train, the station is on the right.

Daison:       15.  Exhausted by the hard work, a long nap sounded good.

Ruth:           16.  Driving through the Rockies, the landscape was magnificent.

Nick:           17.  Having overslept, my exam results were poor.

Hailey/Dallin:        18.  Although excited, sleep came easily.

Joshua/Spencer:        19.  As a new student, it was difficult at first to find my way around.

Daniel/Tasha:        20.  To repair an appliance, experience is helpful.

Drew/Kylie:          21.  Looking at recent consumer surveys, more Americans are working at home.

Michael/Dillon:      22.  I was late for school again.  Running for the bus, my book fell in the mud.

Noah/Breanna:          23.  Deciding to join the Navy, the recruiter enthusiastically shook Joe's hand.

Tanyon/Cheyenne:       24.  Upon entering the office, a skeleton caught my attention.

Cheyanne/Kennedy:   25.  After reading the research, the article still seemed unconvincing.  

Amelia/Danna:       26.  The homework was turned in late, having not had time to finish it the night before.

Hannah/Jada:      27.  Hoping to excuse my lateness, the note was written and given to my teacher.

II.  Squinting Modifier

      A.  AKA a two-way modifier. Occurs when a modifier is placed between two words and could modifier either one. In other words, the modifier is squinting—looking in two directions.

            1.  Students who miss classes frequently fail the course.

                 We can't tell which part of the sentence the word frequently is           supposed to modify. Look at these two possible meanings:

       Students who miss class frequently

or

                 frequently fail the course.

      B.  Correct a squinting modifier error by repositioning the modifier to place it next to the word it modifies.

1.    The victims who swallowed the antidote rapidly recovered.

        Unclear:  Does it mean that the victims who rapidly swallowed the antidote recovered? Or does the sentence mean that the victims who swallowed the antidote recovered rapidly? 


2.    Kevin's mom asked him when he finished his homework to take out the trash.

       Did Kevin's mom want him to finish his homework and then take  out the trash? Or had Kevin just finished his homework when his mom asked him to take out the trash?

III.  Misplaced Modifiers

       A.  A modifier should always be placed as near as possible to the word it modifies. A misplaced modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that lands in the wrong place in the sentence.

             Look at these examples:

        1.  Sharon put the hat on her head that she bought yesterday.

          Obviously, the clause that she bought yesterday is supposed to   modify the noun hat. However, since the modifying clause is placed next to the word head, the sentence seems to suggest that Sharon bought her head yesterday. 



      2.     I am writing a research paper about Queen Elizabeth in my  English class.





3.   Priscila only took one test today.

a. The little word only is the most frequently misplaced modifier.

               b. The word only limits or shows contrast. The issue here is not   that Priscila only took one test--as opposed to passing one test, failing one test, or refusing to take one test. The issue is that Priscila took only one test--as opposed to taking two or three tests. To correct the misplaced modifier error, move the modifier next to the word it modifies. Priscila took only one test yesterday.