Unit 1 Expository Writing

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Unit 1Expository Writing

• Responding to
• a Short Story

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Responding to a Short Story

• What is a literary response?
• In a literary response, a writer
• tells how he or she reacted to a literary
  selection
• explains his or her reaction using specific
  details and examples from the text
• In this workshop, you will learn how to
• write a response to a short story
• that you have read.

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Assignment Use my critical thinking skills to
write a response to a short story I have read.
Goal Clearly present an engaging response to a
story or an aspect of a short story.
Strategy Organize my main points and support
them with evidence from the story.
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My response to literature should include
the following

• an introduction that grabs the readers attention
  and sets up my thesis statement
• a clear organizational pattern
• textual evidence (paraphrased and quoted) that
  supports my main ideas
• an awareness of my audience and an appropriate
  tone
• a conclusion that restates my thesis in a new way

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Chaim Potok was a novelist, essayist, and poet.
In this interview excerpt, Potok discusses how
reading influenced hiswriting. Consider how your
own readingexperiences inspire you.

• I think it was...the realization that you could
  really create the world out of language...I
  figured if these writers could get me to be
  interested in two different...worlds that there
  was something about this form of communication
  that I wanted to be part of. That it captivated
  me the way it did, that it worked its magic on
  me, made me realize how powerful this medium is.
  And I wanted to become part of it.

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? PREWRITE

• Narrowing Your Topic
• First, decide on a story to write about.
• Which stories do you feel most strongly about?
• Which stories changed your understanding of
  something or made you question what you thought
  you knew?
• Which stories did you find especially enjoyable,
  surprising, or strange?
• Whichever story you choose, be sure that it is
  one that inspired a strong reaction and one that
  will give you enough to discuss in your response.

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? PREWRITE

• Gathering Details
• Once you have chosen a story to write about,
  freewrite to gather ideas.
• When you freewrite, you write without pausing,
  reflecting, correcting mistakes, or changing
  ideas.
• In freewriting, you simply write.
• Begin by setting in front of you a
• pen and a clean sheet of paper.

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? PREWRITE

• Gathering Details
• Think about your favorite story so far. Before
  touching pen to paper, consider
• Why is this your favorite?
• What is the best thing about it?
• Who are the most important characters?
• What deeper meaning might the story have?
• How does the story affect you?
• Next, begin writing. Continue for five straight
  minutes.

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? PREWRITE

• Gathering Details
• Read over what youve just written to gain some
  insight into what you can focus on.
• Circle each thing that seems like an important
  detail from the story.
• Underline anything that might be a good idea to
  expand.

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? PREWRITE

• Deciding on Your Thesis
• Make a list of what you have circled and
  underlined.
• These ideas should become part of your thesis or
  evidence to support the thesis.
• Skim the story to help you remember the themes
  of the story, recall details, and answer any
  questions you have.
• Reread any parts of the story that are
• unclear and ask a classmate or teacher
• if you have additional questions.

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? DRAFT

• Organizing Ideas
• Choose an organizational pattern that will help
  you explain your ideas clearly and effectively.
• To emphasize your strongest points, organize them
  by order of importance.
• Least important to most important
• Most important to least important

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? DRAFT

• Organizing Ideas
• Or, you may prefer to use chronological order, in
  which you discuss details in the order they
  appear in the story.
• Whatever you decide, the order of paragraphs
  should be clear and logical to the reader.

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? DRAFT

• Write your response by following this three-part
  framework

Introduction
Body
Conclusion
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? DRAFT

• Introduction
• Summarize the basic plot of the story.
• Include your thesis.
• Body
• Include a topic sentence for each paragraph that
  expresses the main idea of that paragraph.
• Give supporting evidence in each paragraph to
  support your main idea and your thesis.
• Conclusion
• Sum up your main points.
• Restate your thesis.

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? DRAFT

• Before drafting, create a plan for your response.
• Example

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Tone and Audience

• As you write, keep in mind who will read your
  response. This is your audience.
• Make sure you give your audience enough
  background information.
• If your audience has also read the
• story, only summarize the main parts.
• Use your introduction to
• hook, or engage, your
• audience.

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Tone and Audience

• Your tone is your attitude toward the subject you
  are writing about.
• Your tone tells the reader how you feel about the
  subjects you discuss.
• The tone you take can be formal or informal, and
  it can show a variety of different attitudes.
• The tone of your response should be natural, but
  not too casual.

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? REVISE

• Evaluating Your Draft
• When your draft is complete, look over your paper
  to identify its strengths and weaknesses.
• To get the best evaluation of your writing,
  conduct a peer review.
• Exchange papers with a
• classmate.
• Discuss ways you can improve
• your work.

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? REVISE

• Delivering a Peer Review
• Be focused.
• Concentrate on content, organization, and style.
• Leave spelling and punctuation for the
  proofreading stage.
• Be positive.
• Respect the writers feelings and genuine writing
  efforts.
• Be specific.
• Give the writer concrete ideas on improving his
  or her work.

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? REVISE

• Receiving a Peer Review
• Be specific.
• Tell the reviewer your concerns about the paper.
• Ask questions.
• Make sure you understand the reviewers comments.
• Be selective.
• Accept suggestions graciously, but dont feel you
  have to use allor anyof them.
• Use the Revising Checklist on the next slide to
  help guide you through your review.

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• Does the introduction grab the readers attention
  and set up the thesis statement?
• Is the organizational pattern clear?
• Are the main ideas supported with specific
  details and examples?
• Are the sentences varied and engaging?

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? REVISE

• Below is part of a draft of a literary response.
• The notes to the right indicate the reasons for
  the changes in the draft.
• See the complete draft on page 133 of your
  textbook.

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EDIT AND PROOFREAD

• Focus Sentence Variety
• Including a variety of sentences in your response
  will make your writing more interesting.
• As you revise your draft
• Check to make sure the length and type of your
  sentences vary.
• Add introductory phrases or change the order of
  the clauses in complex sentences.
• If you have several short, choppy sentences in a
  row, combine some of them with conjunctions.
• Use transitions to connect ideas.

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? EDIT AND PROOFREAD

• Focus Sentence Variety
• An effective way to add variety is to use
  questions to grab your readers attention.

Children find themselves in some unusual
situations. Can you think of some unusual
situations you found yourself in as a child?
Children will do very strange things to avoid
getting in trouble.
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EDIT AND PROOFREAD

• Focus Commonly Confused Words
• Some words can be confusing when you are writing.
• Review words such as whose and whos carefully as
  you are revising your draft.
• If you are not sure which word to use, check a
  dictionary.
• Test yourself using the example
• on the next slide.

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EDIT AND PROOFREAD

• Which is correct?

1
The story makes you wonder about whose who, and
if there are any other Charles-es out there.
2
The story makes you wonder about whos who, and
if there are any other Charles-es out there.
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?EDIT AND PROOFREAD

• Correct answer
• If you substitute the words who is for the
  contraction whos you will see that the second
  example makes sense. The word whose is the
  possessive form of the word who, as in, Whose
  umbrella is this in my backpack?

2
The story makes you wonder about whos who, and
if there are any other Charles-es out there.
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? EDIT AND PROOFREAD

• Proofreading
• The next-to-last step in the writing process is
  to correct mistakes in spelling, punctuation, and
  capitalization.
• Look for any misused words or errors in grammar
  too.
• Use proofreaders marks to show your corrections.

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Student Model

• Review the final draft of the Student Model on
  page 135 of your textbook.
• Pay attention to the notes that identify the
  different parts of the paper.

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PUBLISH AND PRESENT

• Final Draft
• Make a clean copy of your paper for presentation.
• Handwritten papers should be neat and legible.
• If you are working with a word processing program
• double-space the lines of text
• use a readable typeface
• Follow your teachers presentation
• guidelines before submitting your
• work.