Transcript Sept. 8, 2011

Sept. 8, 2011
Writing Sample Day – YEAH!
 Telling a story or narrating to your audience
 It can be very effective, especially when speaking
from experience
 A few things to consider:
◦ Scope – consider time, when will the narrative
begin and end?
◦ Details – which details will contribute and move
the story along? Which ones are weak? Strong?
Vivid? Lost?
◦ Connections – make sure the reader feels
included, like they are a part of the story
1. Narrative
 In persuasive or argumentative writing, we try to
convince others to agree with our facts, share our
values, accept our argument and conclusions
 A few things to consider:
◦ Establish facts – necessary to support your
argument
◦ Make clear connections – link your facts
clearly to your argument
◦ Be convincing and strong – you want to
persuade the reader with your points
 Has a formal structure – clear introduction (with
thesis), body (building argument) & conclusion
2. Persuasive or Argumentative
 Descriptive essays strive to create a deeply involved
and vivid experience for the reader.
 Description appeals to the senses: sight, touch,
sound, smell, taste
 A few things to consider:
◦ Choose your words carefully – proof work for
unclear, inexact, inappropriate words – use a
thesaurus
◦ Use figures of speech – similes, metaphors are
powerful tools of description
◦ Show, don’t tell – be as clear as possible, avoid
generalizations
3. Descriptive
 The function of the expository essay is to explain, or
to acquaint your reader with a body of knowledge
 A few things to consider:
◦ Managing your topic – make sure you don’t bite off
too much
◦ Method of development – how are you going to
present your idea (compare/contrast, cause and effect,
example . . .)
◦ Organization – you want your information to flow
and the explanation to make sense
 This will have a similar structure to the persuasive,
but it is not necessary to be convincing – more
informative
4. Expository
Introductory Write #1
• Using standard English, write a coherent,
unified, multi-paragraph (3 or more
paragraphs) composition of at least 300
words based on any of the photos that follow.
In your composition, you may apply any
appropriate method of development including
exposition, persuasion, description, and
narration.