Good Morning,
 
Today is Tuesday, March 11, 2014.  Please work on your PEER EDITING AND REVISING YOUR NARRATIVES today.  I will continue to conference with you throughout the period. 
 
Please remember all of the characteristics of a Narrative that you must include in your essay:

• It must tell a story somehow (have a plotline/sequence of events)
• It must have a setting (you may use flashback and flash-foward) to help create the mood
• It must have characterization of your subject. The subject's personality should come through.  (Remember, show how this experience is personal to the subject)
• It should be from either 1st person or 3rd person point of view
• It must have a meaningful THEME (purpose, message)
• You should include as many elements of style that you can:
• description
• imagery
• dialogue
• figurative language (metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, symbolism, etc.)
• colorful adjectives and action verbs

Your revision (Draft 2) is due tomorrow at the beginning of the period. Tomorrow is Wednesday. We will have a quick lesson on punctuation (comma usage, specifically comma splices and run-on sentences.  Then you will complete a self-edit.

Your final drafts are due on Thursday.
Turnitin information will be available tomorrow.

Have a great day!
MM

p.s. There is a blog open on millertimeenglish.weebly.com for this class.  I will post updates and upload handouts from our lessons.  Please use them to apply to your work.

 

Hello Everyone,

Today is Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Welcome to Writing for College.  Congratulations!  This is your last semester of High School English!  Unfortunately, I am at a conference in Albany today and tomorrow.  I had planned to meet you yesterday; however, Mother Nature thought differently. 

I will get you all set up on our class blog and review our syllabus with you when I come back on Thursday.  For now, please complete the following assignment:

Assignment:

Write a letter to me, Ms. Miller about you so that I can get to know you.  Express yourself honestly.  Please print out and hand in. 

The letter should be about a page, give or take.  (can, of course be more if you’d like)

Due at the end of the period.  (I will write one to you, as well.)

 Questions to Get You Thinking…and Writing

1.      Who are you? What’s your name?

2.      What defines you as a student? What defines you as a person?
3.      As a teacher, what do I need to know about you in order to help you succeed academically this semester?
4.      As a mentor, what do I need to know about you in order to help you achieve your personal goals this semester?
5.      What interests or hobbies do you consider your passion? What is it you about this interest or hobby that thrills you?
6.      What is your favorite book and what is it about this book that makes it your favorite? Has any book changed your life in some way? Tell me about it.
7.      What comes easily to you with regards to writing? What presents a challenge for you?
8.      What is your philosophy on life?
9.      What ideas, people, places, activities, cultures, etc. have you wanted to learn more about but haven’t had the opportunity?
10.  Who is your favorite person in the entire world?
11.  Who would you most like to meet?
12.  What is one thing that concerns you?
13.  What makes you proud or what are you proud of?
14.  Tell me about your short term goals (within the next year). What about your long term goals (within the next 5-10 years)?
15.  What colleges are you applying to? Do you have a first choice? What might you major in?
16.  Quirky Fact: What is one fact about you that makes you unique? For instance, do you have an obsession with watching Project Runway? Or, maybe you can bend all of your fingers backwards? What about a hidden talent? Any collector’s items that you’ve accumulated over the years?

p.s.  If anyone would like to get in touch with me today or tomorrow, my email address is:
tmiller@smithtown.k12.ny.us

Good Morning, Musees,

Your research papers are due today.  :)  Hard copies should include:
...from bottom to top

Draft 1 with Works Cited on
Peer edit sheet
Final Draft with works cited on top

If you have more than two drafts, that is absolutley great!

You may submit onto turnitin.com by 12 a.m. tonight. 

Turnitin.com information is in yesterday's post.

You may have the first half of the period to "finish up..."

I will go over our presentation process today.  :)

MM

Good Morning Musees,

It's Tuesday, January 14th.  Please work on your peer reviews, revisions, conferencing with me, letters, powerpoints, or anything for WFC.  My advice is to put your cellphone away so that you can focus.  :)

There are two assignments open on turnitin.com for your reearch papers.  I opened two (one draft 1 and one revision) as some of you have asked if you can submit your paper first to see what the originality report is before you submit your final copy.

You do not HAVE to do this, but you may if you would like.  Please submit your FINAL PAPER to the assignment that says:

Research Paper Career/Argument REVISION.


TURNITIN
Your class ID is:

Period 1:   6953235
Period 6:   6953245

Your password is:  muse

I can't wait for presentations tomorrow!  :)

Have a great day!
Ms. Miller

Happy Friday, Musees,
 
 
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
 
 
Here is the direct link to the OWL website for MLA research paper citations, etc.  If you are stuck, missed a mini-lesson, or simply don't remember, please use this website to look up the correct way to format.  It has tons of resources. 
 
Please refer to previous blogs if you were absent in the past days.
 
Research papers (final draft, hard copy + turnitin) are due on Wednesday, January 15th.  We will begin presenations on this day, as well.
 
Reminder:  Monday, we will take the period to write professional formal letters to your interviewees.
 
Have a great weekend!
 
Ms. Miller

Good Morning, Musees,

Today is Thursday, Jan, 9th.

1.) Good News.  The due date for your final submission of your research paper (both hard copy and turnitin.com) is now:
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15TH.

**There will be NO EXCEPTIONS.  POINTS WILL BE TAKEN OFF IF YOUR PAPER IS SUBMITTED AFTER THIS DATE.**

2.) Please submit your title sheet for your Interview with your Interviewee's signature and information.

3.) If you are absent, please remember to read all blogs and handouts that you missed.  These are for you to use and apply to your paper.

4.) I will take next Monday to do a lesson on letter writing.  You must write and send a professional thank you letter to you the person you interviewed.  You will write them in class and send them independently.

Have a great day! 

Remember, I am available for conference during class and by appointment.

Good Morning, Musees,

Just a couple of things to help you:

1.) Assignment Drive - Miller WFC, Research, 2014, MLA Author Page Citation

2.) The following website will assist you with any question you have regarding formatting in MLA style. Use this now, next semester, in college and after college. It's great!

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/

3.) Peer Review Sheets are on the table.  Everyone must do a peer review.

4.) Your final assignment is to put together a BRIEF powerpoint or presi presentation that, in a nutshell, portrays to the class the information you learned and your thoughts on it.  It can be personal, but must be informative and educational.  You may use first person.   Your presentation can be anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes. You may have 5-10 slides. Be creative.  This is awesome practice for college.

5.) Final Research Papers are due on Monday, January 13th, at the beginning of the period.  We will begin presentations Monday also.  Please hand in a hard copy, as well as submitting to turnitin.com

I AM AVAILABLE FOR CONFERENCING DURING CLASSTIME OR BY APPOINTMENT.

Have a great day!
MM

Hello Musees,

Please read the following and then go to millertimeenglish.weebly.com to access the documents that you are asked to read in today’s task.
So far, you have created an outline of your information that graphically organized your points and supporting evidence.

• You can use various methods of organization for layout of your paper:
• Analogy, cause and effect, chronological, compare/contrast, logical connections, order of importance, process, etc.

So far, you have a rough draft of your research paper in front of you. 

Just a reminder note: This is an Analytical Research Paper.  In other words, it analyzes and makes a conclusion about the information you found about your career or college major choice.  You will use persuasive writing to make your conclusion and present an opinion about your topic, and then use the information to support this opinion.

Be ready for hardcore peer review tomorrow.  Your final draft is due at the end of this week on turnitin.com, as well as a hard copy.  Your powerpoint presentation is due on Monday, January 13^th.  We will begin presenting on Monday, January 13^th.

Today’s task: Complete a self-analysis on the following:

WORKS CITED:

1. In your MLA works cited window in NoodleTools, you should have all the correct information for ALL of your sources.  (Correct title, author, website, database or source, date of publication, etc., etc., etc.)

INTRODUCTION

1.  Should contain your thesis, an attention getter, and some background information of what your topic is and what you will be discussing.  Your intro can be one to two paragraphs.
2. Possible attention getting headers:  Compelling fact or statistic, powerful quote, rhetorical question (avoid “you”), anecdote or story, description of a problem, condition or issue

BODY OF PAPER:

1. Each paragraph in the body should be restricted to one idea and have a topic sentence.
2. The topic sentence of each subsequent paragraph should relate or have a connection somehow to the thesis
3. Explain any unfamiliar terms or ideas in simple language for the “everyday” person
4. Avoid unnecessary repetition of ideas.
5. Try to vary sentence patterns
6. Transition between ideas.  Topic changes should flow logically from  one to the next

IN TEXT CITATIONS:

1. Important theories, unusual or specific facts, and quotations should all be cited in the text
2. Direct Quotes: In research papers, you should quote from a source

a)      to show that an authority supports your point

b)      to present a position or argument to critique or comment on

c)       to include especially moving or historically significant language

d)      to present a particularly well-stated passage whose meaning would be lost or changed if paraphrased or summarized

3. Paraphrase/Summarize: You should summarize or paraphrase when

     a)      what you want from the source is the idea expressed, and not the specific language used to express it

            b)      you can express in fewer words what the key point of a source is

4. Now please read and apply the “IN TEXT CITATION” POWERPOINT attached in the post in Weebly.
5. Now please read and apply the “How to quote or paraphrase MLA” document in the post on Weebly.