Diagnostic Writing Activity

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Diagnostic Writing Activity
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The purpose of this assignment is

• To accustom you to following directions in
  preparing and submitting assignments to me
• To show you how to summarize both oral and
  written texts
• To give me an idea of your writing ability.

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Step One

• Go to The Moth website and choose a story to
  listen to.
• The link is http//www.themoth.com
• Ive included in this presentation images from
  the site, but youll have to leave the
  presentation to access any of the live links on
  the site.

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Home page
Click here
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Then click hereto see a listof stories
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Here are the storiesyoumay want to listen to
more than one before youchoose the one to
summarize
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You should listen to the one you choose more than
once and record the details to help retell the
story, while keeping in mind the following

• What would someone who doesnt know the story
  need to know in order to understand what
  happened? These are major details.
• What was interesting or entertaining but could
  left out of the story without confusing the
  audience? These are minor details.
• You should be able to write the story in a
  paragraph of about seven to ten sentences.

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Once you have your paragraph written

• Email it to me as a file attachment, no later
  than midnight, Sunday, June 3rd
• Additionally, post your paragraph on the
  Blackboard discussion board and read your
  classmates summaries as well.

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THEN. . .
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Read a short article from the following list and
apply the same summarizing process to this
reading that you used for the story, which means
that you will. . .
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• Read the article once and then reread to
  highlight major details.
• Pull the highlighted information from the article
  to create an outline of major and minor points
  and then use the outline to write a brief (7 to
  10 sentence) summary of the article.

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Articles you can choose from

• The articles on this page come from Fastweb, an
  online resource to help students find financial
  help and adjust to college
• The page below is an index page, listing short,
  informative essays aimed at entering college
  students--http//www.fastweb.com/fastweb/resources
  /index?idZMQ6OE7K7SNQ.909a4268eea8699e4124af93cd7
  c2b65
• (you can hit back to return to the PowerPoint
  show)
• Pick an article that interests you and write a
  summary.

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For example. . .
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Since Im sending a child off to college this
link on save money looksinteresting.
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Im interested in how tosave money on textbooks
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• Click on this link to see an example of this
  piece of writing theres narration attached if
  you want to turn on your computers speakers.
• You should be able to hit back on the toolbar
  to return to the PowerPoint show.

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Once youve written the summary

• Email it to me as a file attachment, no later
  than midnight, Sunday, June 3rd
• Additionally, post your paragraph on the
  Blackboard discussion board and read your
  classmates summaries as well.

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Summary for Week Ones Activities

• View the Orientation PowerPoint
• Enroll in Blackboard
• Take a quiz over the policy
• Take the diagnostic grammar test
• Write two summaries
• One over the story you listened to on The Moth
• One over the article you read on FastWeb
• Email me both summaries as RTF attachments
• Post both summaries on the discussion board on
  Blackboard
• Read the summaries posted by your classmates.

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If you get confused or want more clarification

• Get in touch with me!
• Email dsmith_at_odessa.edu
• Telephone [phone]

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• Dont wait till the last minute
• He (or she) who does will probably be
• LOST!