Sentence patterns ( SP4, SP5)

SP4: A series of balanced pairs

Ex: «God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, surfeit and hunger» Heraclitus

Ex: «Michael Clayton» is a story of money and power, passion and obsession, love and hate, good and evil.


SP5: Introductory series of appositives, with dash -- and summarizing subject. ( Each, all, these, what, many, etc.)

Ex: The Mona Lisa, Michaleangelo's David, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel-- such are the wonders of Renaissance Italy.




Ex: Ham and eggs, coffee and fruit, toast and jam -- all are typical canadian breakfasts.

Writing journal 1

After reading «The Lady and the Tiger?», by Tom Stockton, I realized how hard it is to be good sometimes. In the story, the king creates a unique way of judging his people. The accused enters a stadium and has to choose between two doors: one holds a maiden to be wed to the man and the other has a starving, ferocious tiger waiting for its next meal. One day, the king discovers his daughter has a lover and condemns him to be judged in the stadium. The princess, having discovered what door holds what, signals her lover what door to choose. And the story ends with the reader wondering if the princess killed him or made him live happily ever after with another woman.

Personally, if I had to answer quickly, I would certainly choose the door with the maiden. But, after thinking about it, what would I honestly do? I don’t know. It’s true my love for him would push me to keep him alive, but he wouldn’t be mine to love anymore. Would that be worth the pain? Being human, therefore selfish, I would be tempted to choose his death to assure me of his love for eternity. However, in both cases, I would lose him by death or marriage. In conclusion, I would probably let him live, because I wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of having killed someone, and if I really and truly loved him, I’d want his happiness before mine, no?

Sentence ( 2 , 3)

2. compound ( 2 ICs), :colon / gives an explanation/ genreal to specific

S V DO S V

ex: Darwin's ''The origen of species'' stated a harsh truth : Only the fittest survive.
(-----------general statement---------------------) (-specific statement----)

ex: Obama made an important annoucement: Hillary will not be my vice-president.

ex: Shaw told a writer there are three things I dislike about your story: they are the beginning, the middle, and the end.

ex: There is one key rule in my life: Keep on smiling whatever happens.



3. A series ( adjectives, nouns, modifiers) without a conjunction

ex: With passion, determination, purpose, Lincoln condemned slavery.

ex: Mr. B enjoys three sports: swimming, biking, running.

The sentence ( 1, 1A, 1B)

Sentence = complete idea.

Phrase = no verb, not a complete idea.

Clause : 1. independent clause (IC) = subject, verb, complete idea.

2. dependent clause (DC) = verb, not a complete idea.

compound sentence = 2 IC.

simple sentence = 1 IC.

• S = subject
• V = verb
• C = connector
• P = preposition
• M = modifier
• DO = direct object
• IO = indirect object (I gave it : to who? to what?)
• SC = subject complement ( ex: I am a teacher. teacher = SC)

S V M DO P

ex: Cegep SL has talented students in different programs, which are interesting.

(-------Independent clause---)(------phrase--------)( --dependent clause-)

Sentence pattern

SP 1: Compound ( 2 ICs), semicolon ; no conjunction.

C

ex: Cegep SL has 3150 students; many are smart and talented (; some are lazy.)

-alternative is putting a . at the end of first sentence and capital letter on the last.

-using a , is not ok = run-on.

SP 1 A: Compound, semicolon with a conjunctive adverb.

S V C CA S V

ex: Cegep SL has 3150 students; however, some will drop out.

'' '' ; therefore, it is not that crowded.

- other CA : thus, then ( usually no comma after then)

SP 1 B: Compound, semicolon, coordinating conjunction

S V C (---pattern 1---------) CC

ex: Cegep SL has 3150 students; many are taking music, but some are studying danse.

-other CC: and, yet, so, or.

Practice:

Sentence Pattern 1, 1a, and 1b:

Complete the sentences: (Sentence Pattern 1)

1. Last week, I went back to Gatineau; the city was deserted and burning.

2. The old man slowly got into bed ; we heard him snoring shortly after .

3. The cat's tail began to switch back and forth ; it was growing impatient.

Complete each sentence using an appropriate conjunctive adverb: (Sentence Pattern 1a)

4. The crisis had passed; however, we decided to wait until help arrived.

5. Robert would never admit; however, he was definitely guilty.

6. Jean was older than Grace ; thus his knowledge of the world was more reliable.

Complete each sentence using an appropriate subordinating conjunction: (Sentence Pattern 1b)

7. Edgar Allan Poe was primarily an author of horror stories , but he also wrote detective stories.

8. The Silence of the Lambs is one of the most macabre movies ever produced, but the special effects cannot be compared with the one's in horror movies created these days.

9. The "Tell-Tale Heart" is a short-story written by Edgar Allan Poe, and '' Politician'' is the only drama he ever wrote.

Writing a thesis statement

• A thesis is a sentence that gives your opinion on a story and explains the ways used to prove it.
• It encourages the reader to ask questions like "How?" or Why?"
• The language used is specific. For example, there are no «it seems».
• The thesis is also specific. It has to captivate the reader's interest with a clear and strong subject.
• It should not use the first person. No «I».
• It is located usually at the end of the introduction.
• The thesis is not stated as a question.
• It's important to do research to have a good and strong thesis.
• It's written in 1 sentence and is not a fact. It is an opinion.
• It should be controversial and/or provocative.
• We must be able to defend the text through the text or outside the text * through the biography).

Thesis statement for Poe's «Tell-tale heart»

Ex 1: Edgar Allan Poe recognized himself in the narrrator.

- Paint a portrait of the narrator (use the text).

-Paint the portrait of the author ( research).

- Related to the character.

Ex 2: Poe uses the «vulture eye» as the main symbol in the story.

- Show eye = paranoia

Formative work 1: September 26

• course 1: Grammar practice exercise 1

1. Interest level: It was quite interesting. It helped me see what were my biggest difficulties.
2. Difficulty level: It wasn't very hard, even though I didn't get a great score. It was a perfect degree of difficulty to discover what are the things I have to improve, as I said at number 1.
3. What you learned ( examples) : I learned that I have to use "my" in front of the verb taking, as it's considered a noun in this specific context. I also learned that I have to use the adjective " fewer" if I can count the objects. In general, I learned that I have a lot of trouble with punctuation and no trouble at all with verbs. I still have some improvements to make on my use of adjectives, adverbs and pronouns. I also have to review the basic rules for capitalization.
4. Score: I got 77%, which is not bad for someone who hasn't worked on her english skills for the past 2 years and a half. But, I do wish to have at least 80% by the end of my exercices.

RATING: 6/10

• course 2 : Grammar Skills 1: Using Punctuation in Sentences

1. Interest level : One of the things I liked less was that there were a lot of parts that had to be printed out to do the exercices. I don't think it was worth the trouble. The course was divided in five lessons and was very long to finish. Also, at the end of the lessons we don't get a score. In other words, I didn't officially finish the course.
2. Difficulty level : In general, it was much too easy for me. However, I did find it interesting to review some of the basic rules of punctuation. Still, I wouldn't recommend this particular course to anyone in this class.
3. What you learned ( examples) : I reviewed my capitalization rules, which was very useful. I also learned that a restrictive clause is not set off by commas, and a nonrestrictive clause is. I also realized that I am lacking the skills to use commas correctly in sentences. I will have to keep on working on that particular problem.
4. Score : As I said before, there isn't a score in this course; there are only numerous small exercices that are corrected right after you've finished them.

RATING: 3/10