Review Essay 1 Prompt Lets read the full

Review Essay 1 Prompt • Let’s read the full prompt together carefully. • Highlight things you need to remember, and take notes of any ideas you have. • This essay is a example/illustration essay that may use narrative elements. • This means it will use both narrative and examples to illustrate the significance of what we are writing about. • You will be focusing your essay on a main point that you are making regarding something that has had an impact on your identity • Identity = how you see yourself and the world around you.

What are some of the major factors that influence our identity? • Let’s brainstorm a list together! • We probably came up with quite a variety of factors and issues that have an impact our identity. Some of the ones we will be talking about in connection with Essay 1 are: • Culture • Also subcultures (discuss) • Language • Our fluency or lack of fluency in a language and the struggles that come with it. • Our Bodies • Gender/Physical Sex • Body Image (discuss) • Able-bodied/Disabilities (discuss)

Read and Discuss: “The Secret Latina” • What is the point of this narrative? Why did the author write it? • What are some of the details that help you to understand the text? • The author does a good job of focusing on the most important/interesting parts of the story. Find a place where she has a lot of detail and tell me why you think she decided to focus there.

Freewrite: • Tell me about one of the cultures you belong to. • What are some of the special or unique things about that culture that a reader from a different culture might be interested in reading about? • Remember, culture is not only your race or ethnicity. • It can definitely those things, but it can also be the “culture” you share with your friends—your “subculture” relating to your passions, your hobbies, your interests. • Culture can be where you come from, but it can also be what you love.

Break Time!

Online Readings: Discuss Language and Identity • “Saying Adios to Spanglish” • “English: Friend or Foe? ” • What are some of the different ways in which language and language proficiency (or other issues relating to words/reading/writing) can have an impact on how we see ourselves, how other people see us, and how we see the world? • What are the specific ways language impacted identity for the writers of these two essays? • Remember, you should try to back up your observations with specific examples from the readings.

The Basic Parts of an Essay • First Paragraph: Introduction • The purpose of an introduction is to set your reader up for the rest of the essay: • Catch your reader’s attention, and get them interested in the topic. • Give the some BREIF background on the topic if they need it to understand your main idea. • Give them your main idea (thesis) that you will be expanding on and supporting in the rest of the essay.

Body Paragraphs • This is the main part of your essay. • This is where you expand on your topic and support you thesis with vivid description, background and explanations, and reflection on the significance of the events you are describing. • Organize your body paragraphs so that each body paragraph has a main point that connects to the main point (thesis) of your entire essay. • Make sure that the paragraphs are organized in a logical manner. Remember: you can move your paragraphs around!

Conclusion • The purpose of a conclusion is to conclude your essay in a way that lets your reader understand in a BREIF FORM what they have just read. • Imagine it this way: You have just taken your reader on a journey in your essay. The purpose of the intro is to give your reader a mental "map" or preview of where you are going to take them. • The purpose of the conclusion is to show them where they have been, yes, but also to emphasize the basic essential points you want them to walk away with. • What do you really want them to remember and think about AFTER they are finished reading? THAT is the purpose of a conclusion.

GRAMMAR: Fragments: Dependent and Independent Clauses

Fragments • A fragment is a group of words that is punctuated like a sentence, but is either missing a subject or a verb or cannot stand alone. • An Independent Clause: has a subject and a verb AND stands alone as a sentence • Dependent (Subordinate) clause: has subject & verb, but does NOT stand alone, usually because of a word at the beginning of the clause called a subordinating conjunction.

Dependent Clause Fragments • Dependent clauses that are punctuated like sentences and are NOT connected to an independent clause are fragments. • Ex: When the rain started falling. • This is a FRAGMENT because it does not express a complete thought.

How to Fix a Dependent Clause Fragment • Take away the subordinating conjunction, making the dependent clause into an independent clause (complete sentence). • Ex: The rain started falling. (We got rid of “when. ”) • Join the fragment to a nearby related independent clause. • Ex: When the rain started falling, we went inside. • We went inside when the rain started falling.

A word of caution… • Make sure that you connect your subordinate clause to a nearby sentence that makes sense. • How would you fix the following passage? Would you connect the fragment to the first sentence or the second one? • I took the bus home. When I got to my house. I saw that the door was open.

Correct fix: • I took the bus home. When I got to my house, I saw that the door was open. • It makes more sense to connect the second and third sentences because they are the ones that happened at the same time.

Commas and Dependent Clauses • When a dependent clause comes before an independent clause, you must put a comma in between them. • When the rain started falling, we went inside. • When an independent clause comes before a dependent clause, you SHOULD NOT put a comma between them. • We went inside when the rain started falling. • So… • Dependent clause first = need a comma • Independent clause first = no comma

Dependent Clauses and Relative Pronouns • Some dependent clauses start with words called “relative pronouns. ” Who, that, and which are three common relative pronouns. (See list on p. 110) • Dependent clauses that start with relative pronouns cannot stand on their own as sentences. • I have a next door neighbor who had nine children. • Connect the fragment to the nearby independent clause:

Textbook Practice: • Do Questions 1 -5 in Exercise 4 -9 on p. 109 • Do Questions 1 -5 in Exercise 4 -10 on p. 111 • Continue with questions 6 -10 for both exercises if you have time.