Found this post at The findingDulcinea Blog (our blogs were meant for one another!).  Contains some good links to start your college search.  Don’t forget to check out the comments, too.  Apparently eNotes has a "Get Answers from Real Students" section.

Happy Spring Break.

We will be discussing DeLillo’s White Noise through chapter 34 on Monday.  We will write over this in about a week, so please keep up with your reading journals.

Another great discussion (From the Board below) over the censorship!  The debate was heated at times, so we’ll be writing our own argumentative articles this weekend.  By now you are all familiar with the basic structure of an argumentative article, but here’s a quick outline to help you with your writing:

• Know your position.  Begin with a basic argument, such as "Apples are good."
• Begin gathering support for your basic argument.
  • "Apples are healthy"
  • "Apples are all-American"
  • "Apples are portable"
  • "Apples can be eaten many different ways"
• Then, begin supporting each claim, adding statistics and quotations from other sources as necessary.
  • "Apples are healthy"
    • Food and Drug Administration
  • "Apples are all-American"
    • All-American Apple Council
  • "Apples are portable"
    • Relevant personal anecdote
  • "Apples can be eaten in many different ways"
    • Recipes
    • How-to guides
• After that, make sure your sources are credible and your claims are relevant and logical.
  • "Apples are all-American" (Appeal to emotion, but not a major point.)
    • All-American Apple Council (Biased source)
• After you are certain you have a logical argument, begin writing your article.  Draw your audience in with a "hook"—something to draw them in, give them interest in your article. (Look over your previous articles for examples.)  Also, because this is such a heated topic, don’t forget to appeal to those on the other side of the issue.

Post questions below for the good of all.

Legend: Black: from the articles, Blue: From you, Green: From me.

Here is a link to the previous post, How to Write an Article.  If you ever have trouble finding a post, use the calendar on the side, the "Tags" section, or the search box at the top of the screen.

Here are some (legible) notes from our discussion in class.  While we are going to be using these steps to create newspaper/magazine articles, the process is the same for coming up with a topic for just about any type of nonfiction writing.

• Choose your topic.  It should be something you’re interested in, something you have a question about.
• Research your topic. As you go, make sure you have a solid understanding of your topic. If you don’t understand your topic, you are likely to confuse or put off your audience.
  • Take notes, mark up your book, look up other sources, mark them up.  This step is important.  You’ll thank yourself later if you do this.
  • As you consume, ask questions of the work:
    • Am I a cockroach?  Does the author’s comparison work?
    • Is radio really irrelevant?  Does music really make commercials better?
    • Where are video games headed?
    • Why do people go to Disney World?
    • Where can I buy one? [Okay, that last one would be a short article.
  • These questions will become the “prompt” for your essay.  The great thing about it is that you can change your question if the answer seems obvious or the answer would take too long to come up with.  [Avoid “What is the meaning of life,” for example.  (Unless your answer is “42.”  Wait, that’s too short.)]
  • After you find your question, begin thinking about a possible answer.  Read through your notes, look for other sources, and talk with friends that know something about your topic, and some that don’t.  The first group can help clarify and help with ideas, while the second can ask questions and check your understanding.
  • Begin writing your article.

  We’ll talk about the last steps tomorrow.

[This post was WinsomeWiki’d on 5 Jul. 2009.]

Jargon, slang, colloquialisms are all interesting parts of diction (To sum up the previous section: interesting writers choose interesting words over boring ones in order to infuse their writing with more information). Jargon is a word for any set of words devoted to a particular task usually used by a particular group or organization. For example, there can be sailing jargon (“aft,” “starboard,” “boom,” etc.), as well as sailing slang and colloquialisms (“avast matey,” “shiver me timbers”). I assume you are all familiar with the slang of previous generations: “cool,” “gnarly,” “far out,” etc. (For this, [i.e. your] generation, I use UrbanDictionary.com.) So, slang is used in everyday conversation, but never in academic or professional writing.

Colloquialisms are similar. Droppin’ the “g” after words ending in “-ing” is a Southern colloquialism. These words are usually defined by a geographical location (a good dictionary will tell you the location in which these words are used), but as you can see, slang and colloquialisms are very similar. The second word is just longer. Jargon, however, is quite different from the other two. Jargon is used amongst people that are familiar with the topic being discussed. For English students, “gerund,” “apostrophe,” “synecdoche,” and “metonymy” are jargon words. Those who have never studied the language would not understand the technical terms. I am sure you can come up with a few for computer programming, gaming, sports, auto repair, astrophysics, or any other hobby or study.

When an author uses jargon (without defining it), he or she is speaking to a specific audience. So, if you find your author using several words that you are unfamiliar with, grab a dictionary and look them up. If, for example, you look up “humor” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, you will find ^“hu·mor noun . . . 2 a in medieval physiology” below the standard definitions. “In medieval physiology” applies to the word when it is used as jargon.

[This post was WinsomeWiki’d on 5 Jul. 2009.]