Week 7

                                                                 Art by Pablo Picasso

    Over the last several weeks we've focused on using description and narration and last week summary and direct quotation to present the contents of a book chapter or article.  You were to join, so to speak, in conversation on the topic and ideas addressed in P.M. Forni's book Choosing Civility, specifically one chapter called "Speak Kindly."  In it, the author discusses the goodness to come of thinking well of others, and of how we can moderate our speech to reflect our care for the feelings and well being of others. Many of you chose to write on a topic of your own choosing.  You were encouraged for independent practice to identify a personal interest in reading material, whether in print or online.

     Most of you were working on the first draft when class finished for the evening, and took the work home for completion.  These drafts we will review today (essay 4).   I have in mind to do pair or small group work involving a little personal exchange, interviews of sorts, with some note-taking, after which you write up the various interests reflected in the responses of your classmates.  The idea is to provide practice in gathering information and presenting it clearly, including reference titles such as books or periodicals (magazines), website names, and so on.
  So today we will share these essays and invite comments from those in your group or with whom you partner. You'll write a brief response to one of the pieces you've read.  In this way, you'll practice again, in brief, the skill of summary presentation, including use of title reference and author, and perhaps some direct quotation, and you can share your thoughts on what was presented in the essay directly and in writing with the student author(s).


  We will do some practice with verbs, as we have homework to review, including the perfect and progressive tenses and conditional and subjunctive forms, those employing would, could, should, may, might, must, ought, and so on  We will review, too, pronoun use.
     
         Essay 6, involves a focus on verb forms and use.  You will narrate or describe in hypothetical terms a wish or desire or "What if" situation to explore how things might go were you or others to take a certain course of action, or how things might have gone by comparison or contrast to how they actually did as you look at the past or the situation as it stands.   There are a number of ways to explore hypothetical or counter factual scenarios.  For example, if Hillary Clinton had won the presidential election, what kinds of stories would we be seeing and hearing about her performance?  I don't know, but I know what we would not be hearing! :) I will bring a short story that illustrates another example, a love story I think you'll like.

In this assignment you may find yourself using the present, past, and possibly future tenses, as well as the subjunctive verb mood and conditional verb tenses.

Ex:  There is no dress rehearsal for life, it is said. Still, we strive to make an art of our living.  I left home at 18 to make my way in New York City.  My parents were divorced and neither had gone to college and the subject of my going never came up, although many college brochures arrived in the mail.  I remember tossing them in the trash in the belief that college was not for me, not then anyway, and not a thing I could afford.  Fours years would pass before I enrolled at University of Miami, and much that was beyond my predicting.  But by 22, for many reasons, I was eager for a liberal arts education and better prepared to appreciate and focus on its demands. Had I gone to college straight out of high school, missed the "real world" education I got in those four years, how different my attitude would have been!