Here it is.  It will be revised for next year, though.

Peer and Self Checklist x 2

Here are six options for writing a conclusion.

conclusions

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Thesis Stataments

Here are 13 ways to introduce a paper or speech.

grabber examples

Here is a wonderful example of a magazine style research paper.

Medical Assistant Magazine[1]

Gotta do a speech?

There are a variety of ways to start a speech, but here are a few:

1. Question
   1. How would you feel if….?
   2. What would you do if……?
   3. Do you think it is fair when….?
2. Quote
   1. Shakespeare said, “All’s fair in love and war.”
   2. “No man is an island.”
3. Shocking statement – This information must be true and verifiable, and it doesn’t need to be totally new to your readers. It could simply be a pertinent fact that explicitly illustrates the point you wish to make. If you use a piece of startling information, follow it with a sentence or two of elaboration.
   1. All prisoners condemned to life should be used for medical testing.
   2. Three headed baby born to German woman.
   3. A duck’s quack doesn’t echo. Some people might find a deep and mysterious meaning in this fact …
   4. Have a minute? Good. Because that may be all it takes to save the life of a child—your child. Accidents kill nearly 8000 children under age 15 each year. And for every fatality, 42 more children are admitted to hospitals for treatment. Yet such deaths and injuries can be avoided through these easy steps parents can take right now. You don’t have a minute to lose.
4. Anecdote – Be sure your anecdote is short, to the point, and relevant to your topic. This can be a very effective opener for your speech, but use it carefully.
   1. Last Tuesday a man was walking down the street during rush hour in New York City…….
   2. Every Saturday the old man went into the same coffee shop and order the same breakfast as the previous Saturday…
   3. Yesterday morning I watched as my older sister left for school with a bright white glob of toothpaste gleaming on her chin. I felt no regret at all until she stepped onto the bus …
   4. Mike Cantlon remembers coming across his first auction ten years ago while cruising the back roads of Wisconsin. He parked his car and wandered into the crowd, toward the auctioneer’s singsong chant and wafting smell of barbecued sandwiches. Hours later, Cantlon emerged lugging a $22 beam drill-for constructing post-and-beam barns—and a passion for auctions that has clung like a cocklebur on an old saddle blanket. “It’s an addiction,” says Cantlon, a financial planner and one of the growing number of auction fanatics for whom Saturdays will never be the same.
5. Fact or statistic
   1. Sixty-five percent of all prisoners will be jailed at least one more time after they are released.
   2. More women than men attend college
6. Definition
   1. Webster defines privacy as….
   2. The definition of insane is best taken from Merrian Webster who says…..
   3. A homograph is a word with two or more pronunciations. Produce is one example …
7. Famous Person – People like to know what celebrities say and do. Dropping the name of a famous person at the beginning of a paper usually gets the reader’s attention. It may be something that person said or something he or she did that can be presented as an interest grabber. You may just mention the famous person’s name to get the reader’s interest. The famous person may be dead or alive. The famous person may be a good person like the Pope, or he or she may be a bad person like John Wilkes Booth. Of course, bringing up this person’s name must be relevant to the topic. Even though the statement or action may not be readily relevant, a clever speaker can convince the audience that it is relevant.

1. The most widely read writer in America today is not Stephen King, Michael Crichton or John Grisham. It’s Margaret Milner Richardson, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, whose name appears on the “1040 Forms and Instructions” booklet. I doubt that Margaret wrote the entire 1040 pamphlet, but the annual introductory letter, “A Note from the Commissioner,” bears her signature.

Thank you notes are written for a variety of reasons such as receiving a gift or being given an interview.  Here are some student-made examples of thank you notes.

tyou note examples

Here is the ppt on close reading.  It includes diction, syntax, and the three styles of analyzing.

Close Reading

Here is the Clinton speech, the vocab assilgnment based on your name, and the vocab example I did.  :)

vocab chart for which students get which words

bill clinton speech

opening week vocab I mode

Read article number 8 (four small articles) from the summer reading article options.  Discuss the purpose of each text and how the interaction of speaker, audience, and subject affects the text.  Consider how effective each text is in achieving its purpose.  Type or write your response to be brought into class to share, please.