Entry# 6 Structured Paragraph Writing

Successful Academic Writing: Paragraphs

What is a Paragraph?:

• A number of sentences focusing on one main midea.
• Physically easily to identify.
• Backed with sustained evidence and examples.
• Writing structured Paragraphs must have:

1. The Format Style
2. Correct Punctuation.
3. Paragraphing:

• A distinct section in a piece of writing.
• A number of related sentences.
• One main idea - single focus.
• Cohesion: well organised

Parts of a Paragraph: English Academic Writing:

• Topic Sentence: Introduce the subject
• Body: Supported with arguments by:
• Importance: degree
• Chronologically: order of events

• Closing sentence: remind the audience:
• Re-state
• Keep your audience thinking

Types of Paragraphs:

• By listing: Introduction+developer+modulator+terminator
• By examples: Introduction+example+example
• By comparison:
• By contrast
• By definition:

Genres of Paragraphs:

• Fiction or non-fiction:

1. Narrative: Used to tell a sequence of events
2. Descriptive: to describe a scene
3. Expository: To provide information
4. Persuasive: To convince others about something

   
   

Qualities of Successful Paragraphs:

1. Unity:

• Topic sentence: states the main idea
• Topic sentence: Deconstruction:
1. Topic: Subject of the paragraph
2. Controlling Idea: specific comment about the subject based on “Wh questions”: Who? What? Where? When? Why?
• Position of the Topic Sentence:

1. Start the paragraph with the topic sentence:Helps the reader to identify the topic
2. To be creative: The Topic sentence can be elsewhere in the paragraph.

2. Coherence: How all the sentences fit together: Logical bridges from one sentence to the other.
• Repetition of key words
• Use synonyms
• Use pronouns
• Use transition words
3. Development: Supporting evidences
• Examples of the topics

Parts of a Paragraph/ T E E Rule: T.S. + Explanation + Evidence:

• Topic Sentence: What?: Gold, a precious metal, is prized for 3 important characteristics
• Explanation:Why?:

1. Beauty
2. Durability
3. Utility

• Evidence: How?:

1. Jewellry
2. Roman Coins
3. Space Techno

Differences between Introduction and Conclusion:

1. Introductory:
• State the topic of assignment and comment on its importance
• State the Main Argument
• Specify How you intend to answer the question
2. Concluding:
• Summarise the main points
• State main conclusions
• Satisfy the reader
• Give something the reader to think about
• DO NOT end with a quotation
• DO NOT introduce new material
• DO NOT end with a generalisation

Parts of a Paragraph:

Sources:

AlexESLvid (2009). Parts of a Paragraph. [ONLINE] Retrived from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cCuExRE6N-4#!. [Last Accessed 30 May 2013].

Cage, K. (2012). Writing a Paragraph. Retrived from: http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/Student%20services/Student%20Learning%20Development%20Service/Documents/Albany/Brochures/Assignment%20Writing/Writing%20a%20paragraph.pdf. [Last Accessed 31 May 2013].

Students:

Fos, María Soledad

Moyano, Federico E.

Entry # 5 She's a writer.

She’s a writer

Reading helps us to create an exquisite confection of the world that produces the delight of imagination but this writer believes that the discovery of reality demystifies that imaginary world creating a truthful connection with the world. At the fiftieth Commonwealth lecture, Nigerian storyteller Chimmamanda Adichie touched the heart of the audience deeply with her moving speech about the role of a writer. Writing is to enlarge our imagination through creating mystical worlds that are to touch the sensibility of another human being. Writing is a lonely quest in which vocation, seriousness are attached to a remorseless determination to reveal an intense world that claims to be discovered. The notion of “private” does not combine with the sense of writing because the virtue of writing is to unite with a random reader that is expectant to enjoy literature. She prefers realistic literature because the similarities with our world, sometimes not only they are to be treated as a record of the real but also they have the powerful possibility to infuse with meanings our world. Then, Literature as the realization of the world has the power to transform facts into truths that will help us to find humanity. On a world that quantifies death, poverty, famine or war. Literature is the search for humanity, a leap of faith that fills with delight the hearts of those who touch. Writing transcends the author because the writer is attached to a sensibility that is the voice of a citizenship that demonstrates against injustice and requires to be built stronger to create a stronger history. At the Commonwealth lecture, Chimmamanda said that writing is creating citizenship, writing is born from a genuine sensibility, and writing is the capacity to narrate perceptions and above all writing is an obsession to state that we are similar, in our differences, in the long quest for a better world.

The single story refers to the concept developed by people with a certain degree of power above other people. A dominant group projects a definite concept based on assumptions or beliefs supported inevitably by a social sensitivity created by economic variables. Accordingly to Ms Adichie, the danger of the single story demonstrates how impressionable and vulnerable everyone is in front of input that was born from blased viewpoints. Stories have the power to produce the division of a group, but Chimmamanda Adichie realizes how stories have also the power to make a better world. Consequently, people are given a unique perception about the nature of reality and how things have to behave in relation to the world. There, the single story shows people as the result of a fully power exercise from a dominant group because power makes stronger the predominant one who at the same time deposits a limited perception of other person as an alien or different. Power is justified through the financial dominant position modifying the perception of the audience of the single story to shape shift a concrete identity over another group. Furthermore, the single story not only creates stereotypes but also steals recognition from people leaving them no other option but to be labeled as “different” without dignity in their futures. The concept of “pity” was elucidated by her as an automatic response of the audience of the single story who are blinded by recurrent stereotypes reproduced massively. Conversely, she states that in order to avoid the danger of the single story, we need to produce a mental shift so as to achieve real authenticity. Real authenticity places individuals as rightful human beings with their own identity and culture with the ability to comprehend the world, the aptitude to create meaning and enough potency to speak for themselves. Stories have both the power to break the world and to humanize it; it is our final decision to choose what we like, a single place or a paradise.

Sources:

Adichie, C. (2009). The Danger of the single story. [ONLINE] Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html. [Last Accessed 05/22/13].

Adichie, C. (2012). Commonwealth Lecture 2012: Connecting Cultures. [ONLINE] Retrieved from: http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/event/commonwealth-lecture-2012. [Last Accessed 05/22/13].

Adichie, C. (2012). About the author. [ONLINE] Retrieved from: http://www.halfofayellowsun.com/content.php?page=book&n=2&f=2. [Last Accessed 05/22/13].

Tunca, D. (2012). Bibliography. [ONLINE] Retrieved from: http://www.l3.ulg.ac.be/adichie/cnabio.html. (Last Accessed 05/22/13)

Entry #4 APA Citation Form

APA Citation Form

Moyano, Federico E.

APA Style

            The American Psychological Association is a large community of scientists and professionals in The United States. In order to avoid problems such as plagiarism, using and taking full credit of other’s ideas, this organization developed a system to clarify communication through a clear organization of the format and through producing clear and accurate reference citations to support facts.

          CITATION RULES                                        

            The focus of this summary is very much on Citation Rules based on APA style. Therefore, this text has a pragmatic approach in order to make possible a quick comprehensible reading for those who are interested in this academic style. The citation requires to be on the correct formatting: This means that the text needs Times new Roman type format, and also requires the correct indentation, and double- spacing and the same margins (1 inch of each side of the page)  

                                              

CITATION FORMAT FOR BASIC SOURCES

CITING AUTHORS

If we want to cite a book we have to include the Author’s last name followed by a comma, and the Author’s initial name followed by a period. In case we have more than one author, we have to include them in alphabetical order. Nevertheless, The APA style only allows up to seven authors by citation, so in case we have more authors than what it is legally allowed we include the first six authors, followed by ellipsis and we include the last author in alphabetical order. This formula is applied to all the citations in reference to the quoting of authors. We include the author’s followed by the year of publication in parenthesis followed by a period.  There is a possibility that an author would appear twice as a reference but with different productions. In that case, we repeat the whole reference and we order the authors chronologically.

Ex-1: 

Author, A. (Year of publication).

Ex-2:

Author, A.A, Buthor, B.B. (Year of publication).

Ex-3:

Author, A.A. Buthor, B.B, Cuthor, C.C, Duthor, D.D, Euthor, E.E, Feuthor, F.F.… Zuthor, Z.Z. (Year of publication).

Ex-4:

Author, A. (Year1).

           Author, A  (Year2).   

CITING BOOKS

The quoting of books in order to support a fact has to follow the APA rules that are shown below. We include the author followed by a comma and the year of publication followed by a period. The title of the specific work has to be in italics and followed by a period. The location followed by colon and last but not least, the Publishing house.

Ex-5:

Author, A.A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capitol letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher. 

CITING ARTICLES FROM SCHOLARLY JOURNALS

            Citing articles have almost the same logical patterns that books have. We act in accordance as above, we include the author, comma and the year of publication followed by a period. Then, we write the title of the article followed by a period. In italic text type, we add the title of the Journal followed by a comma and we include the volume number. The issue number has to be in parenthesis followed by a comma. Finally, we add the pages followed by a period.

Ex- 6:

Author, A.A. (date). Title of article. Title of periodical,  volume number (issue number), pages.

            CITING MAGAZINES

            Citing magazines follows the same logical order that citing from articles. In italics text type we include the title of the magazine followed by a comma, and the volume followed by a comma and we add the pages in normal text type followed by a period.

            Ex-7:

Author, A. (date). Title of article. Title of Magazine, volume, pages.

            CITING NEWSPAPERS

           

            In order to quote from newspapers we add: author, year , title of article and the title of the Newspaper italicized followed by a comma. Finally, we add the page numbers.

           

            Ex-8:

Author, A. (date). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, page number(s)

            CITING FROM ENCYCLOPEDIAS

            Citing an entry from an Encyclopedia has the following structure: We introduce the exact formula we have been using before {Author, A. (Year). Title of the article.} Thus, we include the name of the Encyclopedia italicized  followed by a comma, in parenthesis we add the volume followed by a comma and the page numbers, we have to remember to include the city of publication followed by a comma .We complete the reference by adding the state of publication followed by colon and the publishing house.

            Author, A.A. (date). Title of the article. In the Encyclopedia, (Volume, page numbers). city of publication, state of publication: Publisher.

            CITING FROM WEB-BASED SOURCES

           

            In order to track sources from the internet, The DOI (Digital organizer identifier was developed) consists of a large numeric string that allow users to track information on the internet. However, the recently the DOI was replaced due to its flaws by a new alphanumeric link that enable us to track information easily with a long lasting registered link. Nevertheless, if the article does not have DOI or the new alphanumeric link we simply add the phrase “Retrieved from” plus the URL of the web page.

            The citation from web-based sources use these systems. Therefore, we have to use the following formulas:

DOI (Digital Object Identifier):

            Author, A. (Year). Name of the article. Title of Journal, Volume, page: doi 000000000/000000000000

NAL:

            Author, A. (Year). Name of the article. Title of Journal, Volume, page. http://dx.doi.org)10.0000/0000

URL:

            Author, A. (Year). Name of the article. Title of Journal, Volume, page. Retrieved from http://www.somethingsomethingsomething.com/full/url

          Sources:

American psychological association (2013). Publication Manual. Retrieved from: http://www.apastyle.org/. [Last Accessed 5 May, 2013].

Entry #3.1 "Writing Strategies" and metacognitive reflection

Hello, This is a short written production called "Writing Strategies", if you want to delight yourself with some tips about how to write, you really need to click here.

Have a good day! Banzaii!

Entry #3. I am writer: Extended version

Hello, the following text has 669 words and in this case, I broke the law of the 300 words in order to create a richer context. You can either read the whole text or skip the fictional introduction and read from the second title.

“The audience, in the old of Phrygian city, has a great expectation on what He is going to do now; many have tried to untie the knot that would make a mere ordinary mortal into a king of kings, the blessed Gordian knot, and all have failed, up to now because He is standing in front of the giant object, his thoughts are concentrated on one simple thought that He learned on his encounter with Diogenes of Sinope, “Stand out of my sunlight”. There is no audience; just the violent majesty of the universe screaming as Paul Klee’s angel of death while looking at the existence. He draws his sword, no space, no time, neither reason nor madness, just the universe within his sword, will to power in the hands of Alexander “The Great”, and his Macedonian sword of dialectical reason crushing obstacles in order to create life. Alexander sliced the Knot and conquered the world with his wit, hands and sword in order to expand as much as he could to see “the sunlight”.”

The statement “I am writer” not only describes the action of writing, but also its mere thought reflects a controversial truth: I am the one in charge, I make decisions and I create a path to a heaven or to a netherworld. Certainly, we, Argentinians  have a problem with authority and we tend to be arrogant. However, no coward has ever done anything. If we are arrogant, we need to study and become worthy of our pride. If I am writer, I will make the decisions not only as a teacher in a classroom but also as a citizen, a worker, a politician, a scientist, or as a musician until we find the end: Weltschmerz”.

What is it going to be then, eh?

I am a writer: a self-processed reflection

.  

My obsession is to write properly without slovenliness in the use of language and without lack of meaning. Last year training in Language and Written Expression III   with a teacher whose name I will not use in here due to copyright, I had learnt to separate correctly the paragraphs, and to avoid my recurrent mistakes by giving the correct shape and form to my writings. Now, as refers to the written production of the first class denominated “I am writer” that is embedded with this document I will develop some serious and fallible thoughts about what should have I done to write it correctly.

             Firstly, I admit that my weakest point at the time of writing is my slovenliness in the use of language due to my own ignorance as a result of my limited scope of vocabulary. I am not familiar with words that would definitely help me to solve certain problems at the time of developing a complex idea or to describe a simple elemental concept. Secondly, I tend to write paragraphs where I hinder the message and the whole text becomes too illegible and illogical, escaping the parameters of coherence and cohesion. This situation happens to me in fictional productions where I write nonsense, and as a result, I lose track of my original idea. Luckily, thanks to the training I have learnt to give a logical shape to the paragraphs. Last but not least, the use of commas in my expository text should have to be done correctly to separate the ideas properly. The correct usage of punctuation marks help to give coherence and definiteness to the text.

              My conclusion is that I need to expand my knowledge on vocabulary and on grammatical rules. The only and final solution is to write including complex lexical items and introducing real context situations to improve myself in this never ending process. 

Sources:

Burguess, Anthony, (2009). La Naranja Mecanica. 3ra ed. Estados Unidos: Paperback Fiction.

Feinman, J.P., (2008). La Filosofía y el Barro de la Historia. 1ra ed. Argentina: Planeta.

Plutarco, (1999). Vidas Paralelas. 2nda ed. España: Catedra.
Sartre, J.P., (2001). Crítica de Razón Dialéctica Parte I . 2nda ed. Argentina: Losada.

Entry #2 - I am a writer: Classroom version

The following text was written in class a few weeks ago by me as a stream of conciousness project. Thus, I consider this written production a solipsist attempt to apply my nihilism to define a concept as part of a random less and worthless world.

I am writer

As any writer I am creating or recreating or just copying my inner thoughts into a sheet of paper. However, as a writer I have a question, the following question implies a self- reflection of my actions so far but I will not answer a specific answer in this early task: If I am writer, what does it mean to be a writer?

In the film “The Shining” appears an interesting subject, the main character, Jack Nicholson  losses his mind and attempts to kill his family. This action of “losing his mind” can be analysed in terms of “the inside” and “the outside” due to our impossibility to distinguish what is real and what is not. Nevertheless, there are either many factors such as psychological, and socio-political factors that can be used to support the idea of madness not only in the man but also in the whole family to state that the images are projected by them (“the inside”) or to accept the sinister fictional environment as a trigger of problems. Our former inquire can not be answered directly stating that a writer produces an argument, supports it, and creates a perfect Borges-like prose ready to be sold out in stores, and this is so because we do not control our reason without mindless barbaric prejudices factors that make us worse than we are.

We have to accept that we are not decent, we are evil per se and we are evil a posteriori, and there is a dark side of that evil that lives in the culture. The answer to the question leads me to barely see the difference among a writer, a murderer with an axe, a writer and a demon. They all create, recreate or doom the world. Are we ready for some “real horror show”?

Sources:

Angelika (2013). Hotel Stanley. [ONLNE] Retrieved from: http://tejiendoelmundo.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/shini_nicholson.jpg. [Last Accessed 2013]

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Entry #1: The return of Stella!

 Welcome back to this humble place where we can discuss several topics, produce arguments supported with real logical evidence in order to find what we need: Ephemeral truths. Theories are always changing, truths are  not stable, because of this we need to work, work and work! Hope you enjoy this blog!