Jan. 15th, 2014 Luis A.

Almeida Section 001 Journal 2: Final Version

Part II: Evaluative Comments about Files Since we started the semester, in the Reading and Writing course, we have received different materials via e-mail from the professor Audy Castaeda. These materials are intended to be formative so that they can be helpful in the constructive process of our career. They are well written, full of techniques, explained in a very clear way and most of them are entertaining. Moreover, the exercises and examples that are included in these files are really assistive to practice and to improve our skills during the reading and writing processes. All of these materials were studied and analyzed in class so we could practice and understand everything much better. The first writing file we studied in class was The Writing Process. In this file, we learned that writing implies more than just putting some words down, and that it is in fact, a process, and as a process, it has several steps or stages. Prewriting is one of these stages and it consists in reading, discussing and thinking about the topic itself, also in this stage the writer investigates about the topic and order the ideas by lists or unconsciously. After that, there is the Drafting step which is basically writing the text, and finally Revising: here you improve your draft(s) combining or taking ideas out, using linking words, correcting senseless sentences, ideas, grammatical mistakes, etc. Prewriting, is the title of the second file we analyzed. This document exposes that, in order to write a successful text, it is necessary to take into consideration some aspects are called Prewriting decisions. The first prewriting decision establishes that sometimes the writer will have the freedom to select the topic and sometimes he or she will not, so whenever the situation is the second, the writer must try to understand the assignment, the type of text and for whom it is going to be written. The second decision has to be with selecting purpose and audience; and also with understanding assigned purpose and audience thus, before you write anything, you must understand that the audience is an

essential component because writers must make decisions about topics, evidence, methods of arranging material, and grammar according to who will read the finished text. After that, there is the third prewriting decision which advises that the subject of the text should be narrowed to a topic so it will be easier to write about it, and in consequence, it will be clearer. Finally, the fourth decision is about the strategies that one as a writer can use to collect information like details and examples. Some of these strategies are making lists, using brainstorming, outlining, etc. In the next three sessions of the course, we studied a series of three files called Structural Components of Writing. In the first one, we studied the sentence and how to write it effectively. A sentence is basically a group of words or a single word that expresses a complete thought, feeling, or idea. It usually contains an explicit or implied subject and a predicate containing a finite verb. Also in this file there were options to arrange several ideas into a very one sentence. A writer could arrange the different ideas by, for example, using a relative pronoun to introduce the different thoughts, using an introductory phrase or clause for the less relevant ideas or even using punctuation like semicolons and colons to emphasize an idea. After all this techniques, there was a final exercise in which we had to think about a happy event and write six sentences expressing the basic ideas and, after that, rewriting the same ideas, but using the techniques mentioned before. The second file was about the paragraph, topic/main idea sentence, and text structure. So, summarizing what we learned, a paragraph is a piece of writing that consists of one or more sentences, begins on a new and often indented line, and contains a distinct idea or the words of one speaker. On the other hand, a topic sentence is the one that states the topic of the paragraph; it will help the reader to understand what you are writing about: it is the key to write a successful and understandable paragraph. In addition to that, a paragraph must have three specific characteristics so it will be considered as a good one. These are: a. it must be supportive, meaning it should support the thesis and make it clear; b. the paragraph has to be strong and should not have unnecessary information or redundant sentences, and c. it should be considerate with the other paragraphs, meaning that it will make sense and have a connection with the rest of the paragraphs and the whole text.

The third of this series of materials is once again about the paragraph, but this time, it focuses on unity and coherence. Unity is one of the most important qualities of a paragraph. When you write, every idea must be connected to only one topic, and every topic should have the same kind of connection with the idea suggested by the heading of the text. Another very important characteristic from a paragraph is the coherence; a paragraph that is coherent is logically or aesthetically consistent and flows by itself. To make it coherent, you have to make sure of some aspects like the consistence of the grammar, the repetition of certain words so it makes an effect of unity or the usage of linking words. The Drafting/ Narrative Paragraph was the next file studied. On this file were exposed some decisions as, for instance, the selection of details and examples that are most interesting and relevant to explain ideas, the construction of a precisely topic sentence to state the main idea or the usage of a second sentence to clarify even more the paragraph; also the decision on what voice to use and some other pieces of advice that should be taken into account at the moment of drafting your text. Another of the subjects explained on this sixth file was the narrative writing. A narrative paragraph or text is one which contains experiences in a chronological order. This kind of writing has two characteristics that stand out: the first one is the usage of a variety of narrative verb tenses like simple past, past progressive or past perfect; and also, it is very common to notice connectors showing the time of the events like after, before, then, meanwhile, etc. On the other hand, in the seventh file it was exposed the Descriptive Paragraph. A descriptive paragraph is the one that colorfully describes a person, place or thing. It allows you to imagine the way a person felt, heard or saw the object or location at a particular time regardless if the writer explains a real or imagined circumstance. If, for example, you are describing a place, there are two ways of doing it: the description can be done as if it was seeing from the air and from the point of view of a journey through it. However, this way of description changes a little bit if the description is about a person. When that is the case, there are also two ways: the first one focuses on the physical appearance and aspects like height, age, build, face, etc.; and the second one focuses of course, on the personality using adjectives like friendly, aggressive, intelligent, easy-going, and so on.

Then, we studied the Expository Paragraph. In an expository paragraph you explain a subject, give directions, or show how something happens or works. In expository writing, linking words like first, second, then, and finally are usually used to help readers follow the ideas. Furthermore, in this kind of texts the information can be developed in four different ways: The first one is as a Process; in this case you explain how to do something or how something works, for instance, a manual from a TV. The second way of developing the information is writing it as an Extended Definition; meaning that basically the writer will define a term in specific. For example, in a text about the mother cells, the writer should begin by defining what a cell is, where it can be found, etc. and then, the rest of the information can be explained. The other two ways of developing the information are Comparison and Contrast -in which the writer explains why a thing in specific is different/like from another thing-; and Causes and/or Effects, in this case as the name indicates, the writer explains why something happened or the effect of that thing on something else. The last writing file was about the Persuasive Paragraph, which is the type of text where the writer tries to sell an idea or prove a point by presenting information about the topic so it will make it stronger and valid. Persuasion, as the file explains, requires arguments. An argument is basically writing that puts forward in support of or in opposition to a point of view; this has the intention to change the readers mind or maybe, moving readers to action. Also, a good argument must have three basic elements so it is considered valid: Assertions, which are basically statements of fact; Evidence (facts, statics, examples, experts opinions, etc.) and opinions or beliefs that tie evidence to an assertion, these are called Assumptions. In this Reading and Writing course, we had some readings about different topics, too. The first, of a series of five readings files was Reading as a Process. In this file are set several strategies to take into account before, during and after reading anything. Before reading a text, it is a good idea to think if what you are about to read is just to see what happens or to learn some information in specific; take a chance to have a preview of the whole text, you could also look at the different elements that are presented such as the title, pictures, headlines, bold-faced text, etc. and make some predictions on the text based on

your previous knowledge. Then, during reading, you can confirm your own predictions, reread the text again if something is not clear, focus on the words and expressions used, connect your previous knowledge with the information developed in the text and think about implicit and explicit information, too. Finally, after you have read the text you can retell and summarize, tell someone or write about what happened, draw conclusions, discuss and respond, etc. The second reading file is titled Guessing Meaning from Context I. As the introduction of the file establishes, most of the times in real life we do not have time to use a dictionary when you face a text and there are words that you do not understand, when this happens the best is not to freak out and try to guess the meaning of the word(s) from the context. The context is, basically, all the elements (pictures, bold-faced sentences, etc.) that surround the term and that can help you to figure out what its meaning is. The very first thing to do when trying to guess the meaning of a word you do not know is to identify what kind of word is (Is it a verb, an adjective, a noun, an adverb?). After that, we read Guessing Meaning from Context II. In this file, it is said that there are four context clues that you can use to support your reading comprehension: Synonyms and definitions, examples, antonyms and contrast, and general knowledge. A synonym is a word or phrase that means the same or is very similar to another word; whenever there is an unknown word, you could check if there is a synonym in the sentence that can help you to figure out what its meaning is. Examples, on the other hand, can help the reader by illustrating the word in a situation. Another context clue to take into account is looking for antonyms; these are words that mean the opposite of other words. Antonyms can refer to the opposed idea of an unknown word in the sentence or paragraph. And finally, general knowledge, sometimes it will be necessary to use your own experience and background knowledge to understand a word. A strategy you could use is to read all the words surrounding the unknown term to help you draw conclusions. The fourth reading was Scanning, Main Ideas, and Topic Sentence. According to the reading, there are different ways of reading a text. These are: Intensive Reading: consists on reading a text carefully in order to understand and read every single detail; Skimming, which is reading a text quickly to understand the main idea and finally, Scanning. It means

looking through a text in order to find a particular piece of information. At the end of this file, there were several exercises in which we had to practice the three ways of reading described before. Finally, the last file was Making Inferences. First of all, an inference is a conclusion drawn from evidence or reasoning. On the other hand, the writer's purpose, style, tone, and word choice influence the type of inferences that readers make. After reading this file, we completed a True/False activity about an article titled The News. In conclusion, the experience through the Reading and Writing course has been absolutely wonderful, productive and successful. I feel like I have learnt so many things, techniques and tools by reading, writing and completing the exercises exposed in the different files. Also, the teacher has had an excellent, very joyful and truly inspiring attitude towards us. I have enjoyed all the writing and reading files and honestly, I cannot complain about anything.