Writing Unit

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• Writing Unit

2
Why Write?

• Why is it important to know how to write well?
• What are the benefits of good writing?
• What are the consequences of bad writing?

3
Talk Show

• If you could be on televison, the radio, a talk
  show, etc. and voice your opinion, would you? Why
  or why not?
• How can this apply to writing?

4
Attention!

• How do you capture someones attention? How do
  you keep their attention?
• How can you convince someone of your position in
  writing?

5
Case Building

• How do you convince your parents or guardians to
  let you do something or let you have something?
  What works? What definitely does not work?
• How can you build your case in an essay?

6
Lasting Impression

• How do people make a lasting impression on you?
  What can you do to make a lasting impression on
  someone else?
• How can you make your writing make a  lasting
  impression ?

7
Distracting Behaviors

• What are annoying or distracting behaviors that
  make you avoid people or impact your ability to
  listen to what they are saying?
• What are some distracting behaviors in writing?

8
Visual Appeal

• What makes an outfit look good? Be specific.
• OR
• What makes a car/truck look good? Be specific.
• What makes writing look good?

9
True Writing

• Ernest Hemingway said,  Good Writing is True
  Writing 
• What does this mean? Do you agree or disagree?

10
My Writing

• What is your greatest strength in writing?
• What is your greatest weakness?
• Specifically, how can you improve your writing?

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Soul Writing

•  Writing is the soul on paper 
• Do you agree with this quote? Why or why not?

12

• Make a FAT-P for this prompt and jot down
  observations, readings, and examples that you
  could use.
• Write a speech for rising freshman on the meaning
  of perseverance.
• Perseverance is failing nineteen times and
  succeeding the twentieth Julie Andrews
• Life is not easy for any of us. But what of
  that? We must have perseverance and above all
  confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we
  are gifted for something, and that this thing, at
  whatever cost, must be attained Marie Curie
• Perseverance is not a long race it is many
  short races one after the other. Walter Elliot
• Perseverance is the hard work you do after you
  get tired of doing the hard work you already
  did. Newt Gingrich
• Just remember, you can do anything you set your
  mind to, but it takes actions, perseverance, and
  facing your fears. Gillian Anderson
• Using the information presented, your
  experiences, observations, and/or readings, write
  a speech for rising freshman on the meaning of
  perseverance.

13
Synonyms for Common Writing

• Look at your Synonyms for Common Writing Handout.
  Find 5 words out of the list that you often use.
  Circle/highlight 3 of the synonyms you could use
  in place of the common word. Record information
  on Global introduction sheet.

14
Cause and Effect

• Event Student fails a course for the 9 week
  period
• What are possible causes for this event?
• What are possible effects?

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Cause and Effect

• Event Student has a minor car wreck
• What are possible causes for this event?
• What are possible effects?

16
Powerful Verbs

• Look at your 100 Power Verbs Handout. Find and
  highlight/circle 5 words that appeal to you.
  Create a sentence using each word.

17
Make a FAT-P for this prompt and jot down
observations, readings, and examples that you
could use.

• Write a speech to present to your school board in
  which you examine the causes behind academic
  cheating at the high school level.
• Recently the Educational Testing Service
  published an advertisement titled, Cheating is a
  Personal Foul. The following information was
  presented in the advertisement.Academic Cheating
  Fact Sheet
• Academic cheating is defined as representing
  someone else's work as your own. It can take many
  forms, including sharing another's work,
  purchasing a term paper or test questions in
  advance, paying another to do the work for you.
• Statistics show that cheating among high school
  students has risen dramatically during the past
  50 years.
• In the past it was the struggling student who
  was more likely to cheat just to get by. Today it
  is also the above-average college bound students
  who are cheating.
• Grades, rather than education, have become the
  major focus of many students.
• Math and Science are the courses in which
  cheating most often occurs. Computers can make
  cheating easier than ever before. For example,
  students can download term papers from the world
  wide web.
• According to the 1998 poll of Who's Who Among
  American High School Students, 80 of the
  country's best students cheated to get to the top
  of their class. More than half the students
  surveyed said they don't think cheating is a big
  deal and most did not get caught.

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Make a FAT-P for this prompt and jot down
observations, readings, and examples that you
could use.

• Read the following quotations
• Artistic creativity is a whirlpool of
  imagination that swirls in the depths of the
  mind.-Anonymous
• Art does not reproduce what we see it makes us
  see. Klee
• Do not quench your inspiration and your
  imagination do not become the slave of your
  model. Vincent van Gogh
• We are told never to cross a bridge until we
  come to it, but this world is owned by men who
  have crossed bridges in their imagination far
  ahead of the crowd. Anonymous
• The man who has no imagination has no wings.
  Muhammad Ali
• The process of imagining, or of forming mental
  images or concepts of what is not actually
  present.- Websters
• Using the opinions presented in the quotations
  above, as well as your own experiences,
  observations and/or readings, write a college
  application essay to an art school in which you
  discuss the definition of imagination.

19
Make a FAT-P for this prompt and jot down
observations, readings, and examples that you
could use.

• Read the following quotations
• I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
  Aeschylus
• Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that
  if you just show up and try to do the right
  thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch
  and work You dont give up. Anne Lamott
• While theres life, theres hope. -CiceroNever
  deprive someone of hope it might be all they
  have. H. Jackson Brown Jr.
• Young people have an almost biological destiny
  to be hopeful. Marshall Ganz
• Hope is necessary in every condition. Samuel
  Johnson
• Using the opinions presented in the quotations
  above, as well as your own experiences,
  observations and/or readings, write a letter to
  senior citizens in which you discuss the
  definition of hope.

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Powerful Verbs

• Look at your 100 Power Verbs Handout. Find and
  highlight/circle 5 words that appeal to you.
  Create a sentence using each word.

21
Create a FAT-P for this prompt and list any
observations, readings, and/or experiences that
you could use

• Read the following quotations
• Where there is love, there is pain Spanish
  Proverb
• Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not
  envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is
  not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not
  easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
  Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with
  the truth. It always protects, always trusts,
  always hopes, always perseveres. Love never
  fails. -1st Corinthians 134-8 The Bible
• All love that has not friendship for its base,
  it like a mansion built upon the sand. Ella
  Wheeler Wilcox
• Love is everything its cracked up to beIt
  really is worth fighting for, being brave for,
  risking everything for. -Erica Jong
• Using the opinions presented in the quotations
  above, as well as your own experiences,
  observations and/or readings, write a Valentines
  Day editorial to a magazine or newspaper in which
  you discuss the definition of love.

22
Make a FAT-P for this prompt and jot down
observations, readings, and examples that you
could use.

• On August 20th, 1999, CNN published an article
  titled, Televisions Effects on Kids It can be
  harmful, by Daphne Miller.
• The article stated that the average child in the
  United States spends about 25 hours a week in
  front of the television (including the use of
  VCR), according to the latest annual Media in the
  Home survey, conducted by the Annenberg Public
  Policy Center-a number significantly exceeding
  the maximum limit suggested by the American
  Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
• Over the past several decades a number of
  studies have shown that there are several ways
  that television can be harmful to the mental and
  physical health of children. Thats not to say
  that all television is bad for kids. In fact, a
  number of quality childrens showsengage kids in
  positive ways. However, when children watch
  television frequently and indiscriminately, the
  effects can be detrimental.
• For exampleThe Media in the Home survey found
  that 28 percent of all childrens shows contained
  four or more incidents of violence per show-a
  number that media experts consider high.
• There appears to be a strong relationship
  between time spent in front of the television and
  being overweight.TV watching (especially
  late-night and violent shows) has been connected
  with poor sleep patterns in children.
• Using the information presented, your
  experiences, observations, and/or readings, write
  a speech to present to your communitys
  elementary and middle school Parent/Guardian
  Associations in which you examine the harmful
  effects of children watching too much television.

23
Make a FAT-P for this prompt and jot down
observations, readings, and examples that you
could use.

• Read the following quotations
• Opinions founded on prejudice are always
  sustained with the greatest of violence.-Francis
  Jeffrey
• Prejudice is the child of ignorance. Hazlitt
• There are those who are asking the devotees of
  civil rights, When will you be satisfied? We
  can never be satisfied as long as our bodies,
  heavy with fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging
  in the motels of the highways and the hotels of
  the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as
  the Negros basic mobility is from a smaller
  ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied
  as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and
  a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for
  which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and
  we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down
  like waters and righteousness like a mighty
  stream. from I Have a Dream by Martin Luther
  King, Jr.
• Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the
  personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate
  destroys a mans sense of values and his
  objectivity. It causes him to describe the
  beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and
  to confuse the true with the false and the false
  with the true. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Prejudice-Irrational suspicion or hatred of a
  particular group, race, or religion. American
  Heritage Dictionary
• Using the opinions presented in the quotations
  above, as well as your own experiences,
  observations and/or readings, write an editorial
  to your local newspaper in which you discuss the
  meaning of the word prejudice.

24
Powerful Verbs

• Look at your 100 Power Verbs Handout. Find and
  highlight/circle 5 words that appeal to you.
  Create a sentence using each word.

25
Make a FAT-P for this prompt and jot down
observations, readings, and examples that you
could use.

• Read the following information
• The excerpts listed below originally appeared in
  a 2000 article published by Focus Adolescent
  Services titled Youth Who Drop Out One-Third of
  Those Who Enter High Schools Dont Graduate.
  
• More than half the students who drop out leave by
  the tenth grade, 20 quit by the eighth grade,
  and 3 drop out by the fourth grade.
• Nearly 25 changed schools two or more times,
  with some changing for disciplinary reasons.
• Almost 20 were held back a grade, and almost
  half failed a course.
• Almost one-half missed at least 10 days of
  school, one-third cut class at least 10 times,
  and one-quarter were late at least 10 times.
• 8 spent time in a juvenile home or shelter
• One-third were put on in-school suspension,
  suspended, or put on probation, and more than 15
  were expelled.
• 12 of dropouts ran away from home
• Reasons Why Youth Drop Out
• Didnt like school in general or the school they
  were attending.
• Were failing, getting poor grades, or couldnt
  keep up with school work.
• Didnt get along with teachers and/or students.
• Had disciplinary problems, were suspended, or
  expelled.
• Didnt feel safe in school
• Got a job, had a family to support, or had
  trouble managing both school and work.
• Got married, got pregnant, or became a parent.
• Had a drug or alcohol problem
• Using the information presented, your
  experiences, observations, and/or readings, write
  a speech to present to your classmates in which
  you examine the causes, influences, and reasons
  behind why high school students drop-out.

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Powerful Verbs

• Look at your 100 Power Verbs Handout. Find and
  highlight/circle 5 words that appeal to you.
  Create a sentence using each word.

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Support and Elaboration

• Statement The administration has the right to
  examine the contents of a students cell phone.
• Agree or Disagree and Give Specific
  Reasons/Support for your Position!

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Support and Elaboration

• Statement Schools need to have a dress code to
  create a healthy learning environment.
• Agree or Disagree and Give Specific
  Reasons/Support for your Position!

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Support and Elaboration

• StatementThe Legal Dropout Rate should be raised
  to 18.
• Agree or Disagree and Give Specific
  Reasons/Support for your Position!

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Support and Elaboration

• StatementTexting while driving should result in
  a 500 fine.
• Agree or Disagree and Give Specific
  Reasons/Support for your Position!

31
Support and Elaboration

• StatementEnd of Course Tests (EOCs) should be
  eliminated.
• Agree or Disagree and Give Specific
  Reasons/Support for your Position!

32
Support and Elaboration

• StatementStudent Athletes should be tested for
  Drugs
• Agree or Disagree and Give Specific
  Reasons/Support for your Position!

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Support and Elaboration

• Statement The Supernatural (ghosts, aliens,
  angels, etc.) exists.
• Agree or Disagree and Give Specific
  Reasons/Support for your Position!