Final Paper Topic: National Geographic

Prompt:
Present a plan using SPECIFICS as to what should be done to protect the oil sands of Alberta, or the Jaguars of Central and South America.

-You may propose a series of laws, rules, or other items.

-You MUST list the advantages, and disadvantages of each law, or rule.

Format:

Introduction:
Epigraph
Hook
General statement
Proposal
Consideration of the opposite
Transitional sentence
100-200 words

Body paragraphs (2-3 made up case studies)
Topic sentence
Example
Advantages/Disadvantages
Concluding/transitional sentence.

100-150 words each

Conclusion:

Restatement of thesis
Summary of rules or evidence
Warning against the other side
Final statement

Works cited:
You must find at least ONE example of oil, or animal preservation and cite it IN this section
You must ALSO cite National Geographic

National Geo Vocabulary

61. Wanderer, noun; anything (usually a person or animal), that travels far looking for something.
62. Instinct, noun; part of a living organism’s mind that MAKES it do things. Birds have the instinct to migrate; bears have the instinct to hibernate.
63. Telltale, adjective; a sign or clue that something happened “the policeman looked for telltale clues”. Literally means “to tell a tale”
64. Roam, verb; to travel over a wide area. “The man roamed across Asia, looking for a teaching job”.
65. Subspecies, noun; a part of a species. “black-bears are a subspecies of the bear species”.
66. Crucial, adjective; Of extreme importance. “Without his crucial essay, the student failed John’s class”
67. Aura, noun; a quality that is noticeable, but not definable. “Jaguars have an aura surrounding them to the South American people”.
68. Indigenous, adjective; People who are native, or originally from, an area. “The Japanese people of today are not indigenous, as they displaced the Ainu many years ago.”

Source: White, Mel. Path of the Jaguar. National Geographic Magazine. U.S.A. March, 2009. pp 122-123.

Final Paper Topic: Night.

Final paper topic:

Prompt:
Is the Holocaust the worst event in human history ever; or are there other events (the Armenian Genocide) that compare to it? Alternatively, is it impossible to compare human suffering?

Directions:

Write 400-500 words (only ONE block quote allowed per paper), and argue, using EXAMPLES from personal narrative (Night) or other sources, that the Holocaust is the worst even in human history, or that other events can compare to it.

Opening paragraph:

1. Opening Quote (epigraph)
2. Hook
3. General statement about your position
4. Consideration of the opposite
5. Thesis

Body:

1. Topic sentence
2. Explain example
3. Quote
4. Concluding sentence

Conclusion:

1. Restate your position
2. Consider the opposite again
3. Expand your thesis by warning against ignoring it

(Total words 400-500)

Grading :
Grammar (40 percent)
Structure (20 percent)
Vocabulary (20 percent)
Thesis (20 percent)

Quote, Debate Question, Vocab - 4-6-2009

For those who do NOT write vocabulary there WILL be a test on Thursday.

For those of you who DO write vocabulary sentences there will NOT be a test.

Elie Wiesel's, Night, pages 47-66.

48. Veritable, adjective; regular. “There was a regular traffic of drugs”. p.48
49. Pittance, noun; a small amount of money, or payment (not enough) p.48
50. Accountable, adjective; responsible for, or liable for, something. p.50
51. Meekly, adverb; to ask something in a very submissive way. “He meekly asked for a better grade, but was denied.” p.51
52. Famished, adjective; to need food, and desperately. p.52
53. Venting, verb; to show than you are angry. “He vented to me about his life”. p.53
54. Defiance, noun; to show, or display, rebelliousness. p.53
55. Untenable, adjective; not believable, impossible to maintain. p.56
56. Muster, verb; to gather things, or yourself, together; “He mustered his strength, and pushed on ahead” p.59
57. Credible, adjective; believable. p.60
58. Wail, noun; to cry or make a loud crying sound. “The baby wailed”, or, “the sirens wailed”. p.60
59. Latter, adjective; the second of two things. “In the latter case”. p.62
This is the antonym of former
60. Arms, noun; a synecdoche for weapons. p.64

---------------

Journal Topic:

Answer this question: Does Wiesel’s personal narrative, Night, reflect the concept of “the banality of evil” or not? Find one, or two, quotes from the book to support your answer. Bonus: Identify one metaphor, symbol, or other literary technique or element discussed in class!

Note: The easiest way to answer this question is to focus directly on the characters, and their characterizations.
Format: one to two paragraphs, 100 to 200 words, quotes no more than 30 words of total writing, no block quotes allowed!

Journal Article:

Prompt: imagine that you are a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. Would you write from the first person, personal narrative style? Alternatively, would you construct a monograph (book), or article (for journals) based entirely of lists of statistics, primary, and secondary sources?

Task: Write 100-200 words explaining which method you would use, and why.

The methods are listed below

1. Night, is a personal narrative, written in the first person. It is an autobiographical narrative of the Holocaust as seen through a young man's eyes.


2. Typical historical writing, constructed of primary, and secondary, sources. As found on www.wikipedia.org. The point-of-view, is the third person, and is non-narrative.




Fig. 1: This is a FIRST person point-of-view.

Note:

First person writing uses "I", "we", or "us" to discuss and explain events. Most autobiographical writing is in this this point-of-view. Imagine it as seeing from someone's eyes.

An example: "I got up this morning and ate cheerios, they were very tasty. After that my mother and I went to the park. We saw many different things. She was unable to eat more cheerios, so I ate the rest."

Third person, explains events from a distance. Most historical writing is written from a third person, omniscient, point of view. Imagine you are seeing from God's eyes, and watching the world.

An example: "Today Tom got up, he walked down the corridor and kissed bellana on the forehead. After doing this he saw Harry, who wasn't happy to see him, but he honestly did not care. Finally, the ship they were traveling on exploded. Many were sad to see this happen."

Fig. 2: This is a THIRD person point-of-view.

As you can see, third person omniscient style allows for the destruction of all people in a story, without any problems. This is why it works for historical writing.

Primary and Secondary Sources:

A primary source is information from somewhere, or something, that was at an event. An interview with a survivor of a plane crash is a primary source. Also, examining the plane would give you primary evidence about the plane crash.

A secondary source is if you saw that interview in the newspaper, and used that information to make your own judgments. Almost all student writing uses secondary sources, which is acceptable, but it's important to know the difference.

Wiesel's "Night", vocab, 4-4-2009

Vocabulary pp. 29-45.

38. Wielding, verb; to use effectively. p.29
39. Imperative, adjective; very important. p.30
40. Invective, noun; abusive or very mean language. p. 30
41. Crematorium, noun; place for burning bodies. p. 32
42. Sanctify, verb; to make something sacred. p.33
43. Nocturnal, adjective; stays awake at night, sleeps during the day. p.34
44. Interspersed, adjective; placed at intervals between things. p.35
45. Stung, simple past tense verb; to be hit by a bee, insect, whip, or acute insult (a small sharp pain). p.37
46. Spoiled, simple past tense verb of spoil; food – to get old and go bad. Person, to be given so many things you behave badly. p.42
47. Concurred, verb; to agree in a very positive way. p.45

Vocabulary, 4-2-2009.

Here is the vocabulary for today, using the OPEN ID you should have, post your responses to FIVE of the vocabulary words here:

27. Boreal, noun; very northern. 42

28. Cut off, phrasal verb; separated. 43

29. Bitumen-laced, noun phrase; laced means to have in it “his words were laced with curses”. 43.

30. “In-situ”, adverb; “on location”. 43.

31. Copious, adjective; to have a great quantity. 43.

32. Hospitable, adjective; well behaved, respectful, generous towards guests. 44.

33. Invariably, adverb; in an inevitable manner (not changing at all). “As Koreans invariably say, ‘Dokdo is ours’”46

34. Stupendous, adjective; huge, amazing, beyond words. “His energy was stupendous”. 48.

35. Satanic, adjective; related to Satan. “The fires were so hot, as to be Satanic”. 54.

36. Asserts, third person singular noun; to declare, defend or state strongly. 55.

37. Moratorium, noun; a suspension of an ongoing activity. 58.

Good luck.

Open ID

Class:

Please sign up for an "Open ID", in this way you can post homework directly to this blog, as responses:

Go to:

https://www.myopenid.com/signup

All you need to do, is enter your email account. I promise this is simple, and will work perfectly.

Best regards,

-John Teacher

Debate Question Saturday, April, 4, 2009.

The debate question has been changed to the following:

Taking the position of someone who has lived in Alberta, Canada, for their whole life do you find the prospect (idea) of having a job in the bitumen industry more attractive than preserving the environment?

The positive side will argue FOR the bitumen industry.

The negative side will argue AGAINST the industry.

There will be three teams:

1. Sang-Ki and You Jin
2. Victoria and Yoon-Seo
3. Young-Geun and John Teacher

On Saturday you will be required to voice ONLY the constructive (negative or positive) side of your argument.

Your need to include in your constructive argument a CASE study - two very simple case studies are those of

1. A person who loves the environment, or raises animals for a living.

2. A person who has been out of work for a very long time, and while sad about the environment would simply like a place to live.

Finally, the questions asked may ONLY be closed answers.

Think of the TOEFL iBT questions:

1. "What do you feel about cars?" - this is an OPEN question, and may NOT be asked.

2. "Do you enjoy driving cars, more than bikes?" - this is a CLOSED question, and MAY be asked.

You will be graded on your logical development of a case study, your ability to construct a strong statement regarding the opposition, and direct response to questions.

Note: The negative team will also be graded on ability to respond to the positive case study.

Grammar Notes, Vocabulary.

1. My surname is Simpson.

This sentence is correct, the noun phrase "my surname" directly relates to Simpson. The same applies to "My car is blue". Quite correct, but as we will see further down the page, not applicable to adjectival confusions.

2. Because I woke up at five in the morning, I feel weary.

Correct - "feel weary", weary, being an adjective modifies feel, which is a noun in this sentence. "I am weary" would also be correct.

3. Feelings are very abstract things.

Again, correct, "abstract" as an adjective modifies things, the object of the sentence.

4. Atomic bomb can liquidate many people.

This sentence, is incorrect for two reasons.

A. "Atomic bomb" is a singular subject. Singular subjects MUST take an article "An atomic bomb can liquidate many people".

B. This sentence COULD be correct if atomic bomb were plural. "Atomic bombs can liquidate many people", would be a correct sentence. A plural subject does not require the article.

5.Getting an A++++++++++++++++++++++in her test, so and so was hysteria.

This sentence is also incorrect.

Hysteria is a noun, that's like saying "so and so was chair" The adjective form "hysterical", which would have also been acceptable, would have correctly modified the noun "so and so".

Grade of 3/5

Please be careful when modifying sentences.

1. Many nouns ALSO have adjectival forms.

2. A singular subject MUST take an article "a/an/the".