LAST CLASS 1.3.12

This is the last class for BEL260 in this semester. Thank you to Miss Zuraidah Sumery because teach us, outdoor and indoor activities. I do hope that miss will comtinue teaching us. She is very understanding and have a lot of patience.

PURPOSE AND TONE 29.2.12

Purpose  

Many reasons can motivate a writer to write. The writer’s reasons can range from the need to take a stand on a hotly debated issue to the desire to entertain an audience with an amusing story. In general, the author's purpose falls into one of three general categories:

To inform. When setting out to inform, a writer gives information about a topic. Authors use facts to teach or explain the main idea to readers. Most textbook passages are written to inform.

The following topic sentences reflect the writer’s desire to inform:

-Lou Gehrig’s disease causes the body to shut down while the mind remains sharp and clear.

Preparing garden beds for spring planting requires several steps.

To persuade. A writer who sets out to persuade tries to convince the reader to agree with his or her view on the topic. Authors combine facts with emotional appeals to sway the reader. Politicians and advertisers often write and speak to persuade.

The following topic sentences reflect the writer’s desire to persuade:

Someone you know or love will die from Lou Gehrig’s disease unless a cure is found, so make a generous donation to the Lou Gehrig’s Disease Foundation.

Chemicals that control weeds in gardens, such as dioxin, should be banned from use because they are human health hazards.

To entertain. A writer whose purpose is to entertain sets out to amuse the audience. Authors appeal to the reader’s senses, emotions, and imagination. Both fiction and nonfiction writers seek to entertain.

 The following topic sentences reflect the writer’s desire to entertain:

It is pleasant even to be ill when you know that there are people who are looking forward to your convalescence as to a holiday.

Tone

Tone is the emotion or mood of the author’s written voice. Purpose and tone are so closely related that they work together. Purpose and tone are established with word choice. To identify tone and purpose, you need to build on several skills you have already studied: vocabulary, inference, and main ideas.

      An author chooses the words that make an impact on the reader, words that will help the author convey the intended purpose .Sometimes an author wants to appeal to reason and just gives facts and factual explanations. At other times, an author wants to appeal to emotions and stir the reader to feel deeply.

      Tone clues the reader to the author’s primary purpose. The main purpose of textbooks is to share reliable information; therefore, textbooks strive for an objective tone. An objective tone usually presents facts and reasonable, un-biased explanations. Adjectives such as matter-of-fact and factual describe this neutral tone. A subjective tone allows a writer to share his or her personal worldview through fiction and personal essays. The subjective or emotional tone words describe senses, feelings, personal experiences, judgments, biases, or opinions. Study the following list of basic tone words.

PASSIVE VOICE 28.2.12

In a passive voice sentence, the subject and object flip-flop. The subject becomes the passive recipient of the action.

Because the subject is being "acted upon" (or is passive), such sentences are said to be in the passive voice.

Passive Verb Formation

The passive forms of a verb are created by combining a form of the "to be verb" with the past participle of the main verb. Other helping verbs are also sometimes present: "The measure could have been killed in committee." The passive can be used, also, in various tenses. Let's take a look at the passive forms of "design."

Tense	Subject	Auxiliary		Past  Participle
		Singular	Plural
Present	The car/cars	is	are	designed.
Present perfect	The car/cars	has been	have been	designed.
Past	The car/cars	was	were	designed.
Past perfect	The car/cars	had been	had been	designed.
Future	The car/cars	will be	will be	designed.
Future perfect	The car/cars	will have been	will have been	designed.
Present progressive	The car/cars	is being	are being	designed.
Past progressive	The car/cars	was being	were being	designed.

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY 23.2.12

Definition: In this kind of essay, we not only give information but also present an argument with the PROS (supporting ideas) and CONS (opposing ideas) of an argumentative issue. We should clearly take our stand and write as if we are trying to persuade an opposing audience to adopt new beliefs or behavior. The primary objective is to persuade people to change beliefs that many of them do not want to change

BEFORE WRITING

-Brainstorm ideas on the subject.

-Identify the main topics.

-Use these topics as headings for organising your notes.

-Decide which side you are on i.e. which arguments are most convincing. Make sure you choose the side that you can fully support.

-Plan and write an outline for your essay noting down the information you will include in each paragraph.

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

Your introduction should:

* Introduce the topic with a general statement

* State why it is important

* State there is a difference of opinion about this topic

* Thesis statement must state what YOUR claim is and can include the  “parts” of the argument you are going to state

REFUTATION PARAGRAPH

-This is also used to support your claim.

-Use the counter arguments to show that your idea is the stronger one.

-Do not focus only on the opposing ideas

CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH

Your conclusion should:

*Restate the main claim

*Present one or two general sentences which accurately summarise your arguments which support the main premise

*Provide a general warning of the consequences of not following the premise that you put forward and/or a general statement of how the community will benefit from following that premise

For samples of argumentative essay. click on this link

http://www.custom-essays.org/samples/by_type/Examples_of_Argumentative_Essays.html

DRAWING CONCLUSION 22.2.12

Drawing conclusions is a form of critical thinking. It is relating what you see, hear and read to what you already know.

Follow these steps :

1.    Read  the paragraph and identify the topic sentence and main idea.

2.    Look for supporting details as evidence that you can use to reach a conclusion (E.g of evidences are: facts, statistics, reasons, definitions and descriptions.

3.    Combine your prior knowledge with the supporting details to draw conclusions.

4.    Ask these questions:

       - What is the writer trying

          to prove?

       - What is the consequences       

         of these events?

       - What is going to happen 

         because of these actions?

       - What can I conclude from

         the paragraph?

But sometimes conclusions are pointed out in the paragraph itself

Here are some expression that point to a conclusion:

ü  Prove that

ü  Thus

ü  It is believed that

ü  In fact / Because of this

ü  It follows that

ü  It concludes that

ü  As a result

ü  Therefore

ü  We can conclude that

ü  Points to the fact that

SIMPLE PAST TENSE AND PAST CONTINOUS TENSE 16.2.12

SIMPLE PAST TENSE can ne used:

1.    To talk about actions that happen at a specific time in the past. You state when it happened using a time adverb.

2.    It can be used to described events that happened over a period of the time in the past but not now.

3.    It is also used to talk about habitual or repeated actions that took place in the past.

BE CAREFUL!

The Simple Past in English may look like a tense in your own language, but the meaning may be different.

Affirmative	Negative	Interrogative
I walked	I didn’t walk	Did I walk?
You walked	You didn’t walk	Did you walk?
He,she,it walked	He didn’t walk	Did he walk?
We walked	We didn’t walk	Did we walk?
You walked	You didn’t walk	Did you walk?
They walked	They didn’t walk	Did they walk?

Note: For
the negative and interrogative form of all verbs in the simple
past, always use the auxiliary ‘did”.

Refer to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttjAMb3II_Q&feature=player_embedded

PAST CONTINOUS TENSE

Use

1.   Duration in the past

2.   Interrupted actions in progress

3.   Actions in progress at the same time in the past

4.   Irritation

5.   Polite question

USE 1: Duration in the past

We use the Past Continuous to talk about actions or situations that lasted for some time in the past, and whose duration time is unknown or unimportant.

Examples:

• I was watching TV yesterday in the evening.
• She was sleeping on the couch.
• The dog was barking.

USE 2: Interrupted actions in progress

The Past Continuous is often used when one action in progress is interruped by another action in the past. We usually use when or while to link these two sentences.

Sentence in Past Continuous	+	WHEN	+	Sentence in Past Simple
e.g. I was singing				e.g. my wife came home

1.  
2.  

WHEN/WHILE	+	Sentence in Past Continuous	+	Sentence in Past Simple
		e.g. I was singing		e.g. my wife came home

Examples:

• I was talking with James when the telephone rang.
• While Angelica was playing tennis, the plane crashed .
• When Bob was painting windows, it started raining.

USE 3: Actions in progress at the same time

We also use this tense to talk about two or more activities happening at the same. We usually usewhen or while to link the two sentences.

Sentence in Past Continuous	+	WHEN/WHILE	+	Sentence in Past Continuous
e.g. I was singing				e.g. She was cooking

1.  
2.  

WHEN/WHILE	+	Sentence in Past Continuous	+	Sentence in Past Continuous
		e.g. I was singing		e.g. She was cooking

Examples:

• I was watching TV and Barbara was reading a book.
• The family was eating the dinner and talking.
• When Bob was painting windows, Mary was working in the kitchen.

USE 4: Polite questions

If we want to ask a polite question, we can use the Past Continuous.

Examples:

• I was wondering if you could open the window.
• I was thinking you might help me with this problem.

Even though the sentences have a Past Continuous form, they refer to the present moment. Their meaning is similar to the "could you" sentences, but they are more polite.

USE 5: Irritation

Remember that you can also express irritation over somebody or something in the past.

Examples:

• She was always coming late for dinner!

Form

To form a sentence in the Past Continuous, you need:

1. The proper conjugation of the auxiliary verb "to be" in the past form
2. The Present Participle of your verb (verb + ing)

1. Auxiliary verb "to be"

The past form of the auxiliary verb "to be" is:

1. For the first and third person singular: "was"
2. For all others: "were"

Examples:

• She was always coming late for dinner!
• You were always coming late for dinner!

2. The Present Participle

The present participle is of a verb is a verb form that appears with the present tenses. The present participle is formed by adding -ing to the verb.

• talk + ing = talking
• be + ing = being