Red Space Rocket

Thanks to Jasmine for this colourful and vivid work.

Thanks to Telana for this work. I think it’s very Willy Wonka.

I am using last week’s word since they went unused.

Philistine

Juxtapose

Taciturn

Premise

We are now well into the second half of term and most of you will be completing assessment tasks this week. Year 11 students will be completing their essays about Montana 1948 under test conditions. Students in Morphing English will be presenting their letter research and handing in IPA letters and Pictogram Stories. Students in The Power of English are completing their Top Five pieces and sitting the test about the book Missing.

Students in The Power of English should have this task finished by Wednesday this week.

All time top five pieces of English – Red Space Rocket Wiki

Thanks to Lewis for the cheese.

Thanks to Ethan for this terrific hair.

Well, it’s nearly the end of this short week.

The word for today is premise.

Today quote is I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.” It is by an English writer, Edward Verrall Lucas.

The final quiz questions for the week. Who was the original drummer for The Beatles?

Here is some of Bianca’s good work from our Morphing English class.

Today’s word is taciturn.

The quotation today is from Paul Klee.

“Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.”

The quiz question is this. What did Paul Klee do for a living and what year did he die in?

Last night I wrote the first draft of my Montana 1948 essay. This morning I did two editing tasks on it. The first was that I read through it. This enabled me to fix some obvious mistakes and clean up some writing. Then I got someone else to read it and give me some feedback. I then made more improvements based on that feedback.

You can see the differences between the first and final versions by following this link.

Montana 1948 Example Essay: Changes

Today’s word is juxtapose.

Today’s quote is “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated”

Which brings us to the quiz question. Who is thought to have said today’s quotation?

I thought students in my Year 11 class might be interested in this sample essay. It’s not an example of a perfect essay but it should give you some idea of what a complete essay would look like.

Montana 1948: Example Essay – Red Space Rocket Wiki

The word for today is philistine.

Today’s quote is from Evan Esar, 1899 to 1995, an American humourist.

“A signature always reveals a man’s character – and sometimes even his name.”

And the quiz question is which artist sings “loose lips might sink ships” on the Juno soundtrack? Leave your answer as a comment on this blog entry.

No bullet points. Bullet points don’t belong in formal writing like an essay. Write your points as full sentences in the context of meaningful paragraphs.

Finish your essay. It’s very difficult to pass with only the first two or three paragraphs. A completed essay requires an introduction, three paragraphs about relevant points and a conclusion. Spend all the available time either writing or reading and improving your work. Staring into space is a waste of your valuable time.

Use specifics. Mentions names, places and specific incidents. If your writing sounds like you might not have read the book then this is a problem.

The topic sentence is king. Your introduction needs to spell out what your main points are. Each point then becomes a topic sentence in your three paragraphs. These topic sentences do not retell the story; they explain your answers to the essay question.

Maintain the order of your points. Keep the order of your main points the same in your introduction, the order of your paragraphs and in the introduction. This makes your whole essay easier to follow.

Use capital letters correctly.

Avoid fluff. Don’t use phrases like “in this essay”, “in this quote”, and “in the following section”. The person marking your work can recognise these elements without you having to say it.

Write about the content not yourself. “I believe that David starts this story as an innocent” is inappropriate for an essay. “David is an innocent at the beginning of this story” is better.

Define your terms. If you are writing about justice then you need to briefly explain what justice means in your introduction. Ideally each following paragraph with further examine what your key terms do and don’t mean.

Use formal standard English. Don’t use words like u and gunna.

Plan your essay. Planning is not a waste of time. It’s the cornerstone of your work. Once you have this structure stick to it as you write.