Choosing a Style: Writing Paragraphs

8/12/2019 Choosing a Style: Writing Paragraphs

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ENGL 106Originally from Yunjung You


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What is a style?


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something you have or you dont have

flowery language or ornamentation

about sprinkling in a few adjectives to

make dull sentences more interesting or

colorful


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A way of expressing your attitude and

feelings about a topic

The quality of your writing


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BestStyle

Topic

GenreRhetorical

situation


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Original

Seven months after our Spring Break trip to Vail in which a

bunch of us travelled around the front range of the Rockies,

my roommatesfondmemories of the trip were enough to ignore

the nagging reality that the trip itself had yet to be fully

paid for.

Clarify what or who the sentence is about

RevisedSeven months after our Spring Break trip to Vail,

my roommates and I still have fond memories of travelling

around the front range of the Rockies, which helps us ignore

the nagging reality that we havent paid for the trip yet.


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Original

On Monday morning, the report was completed just in time by

Sheila.

Make the doer the Subject of the Sentence

Revised

On Monday morning, Sheila completed the report just in time.


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Original

If the Sandia Mountains ecosystem experiences another drought

like the one observed from 200-2009, black bears will suffer

severely from a lack of available food and water.

Put the subject early in the sentence

RevisedBlack bears will suffer severly from lack of available food

and water if the Sandia Mountains ecosystem experiences

another drought like the one from 2000-2009.


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Original

The detective is the person who conducted an investigation

into the homicide that happened last night on 4thAvenue.

State the action in the verb

RevisedThe detective investigated last nights homicide on 4t

Avenue.


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Original

This years increase in the success of the basketball team

called the Hokies of Virginia Tech offered a demonstration of

the importance of a coach with a national reputation for the

purposes of recruiting.

Boil down the prepositional phrases

Revised

This years successful Virginia Tech Hokies basketball team

demonstrated the importance of a nationally known coach for

recruiting.


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Original

We are demanding important, significant changes to university

policies.

Eliminate Redundancies

Revised

We are demanding significant changes to university policies.


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Use sentences that are breathing length

Long vs. Short

Then, how to make it better?

Long sentenceshorten

Short sentences - combine with others


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Similes Comparison

Ex) She runs like a deer.

Analogies Similes at two levels

X is like Y, as A is like B.

Ex) Like police keeping order in a city, white bloodcells patrol your bodys blood-stream controllingviruses and bacteria that want to do you harm.


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Metaphors

Simple metaphor X is Y.

Ex) My bike is now my carbecause I cant afford gasanymore.

Cultural metaphor Ex) Time is money.

Ex) War on drugs

Shape the way people think about issues

Become so standard

Urges us to think of a subject in a certain way.


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[ Individual activity]

Come up with two examples of your own simile ormetaphorone for the right example and one forsomething absurd.

[ Group talk ]

Share your work with your group.

Does the simile or metaphor give you any newinsights?

At what point does the simile or metaphor becomefar-fetched or absurd?


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1. On the internet, find a text that you areinterested in.

2. Then, try to analyze the text in terms ofthe style. Plain style? If not, what is the style like?

Pace: Long vs short sentence?

Tropes: similes, analogies, metaphors

3. Post the original text as well as youranalysis on the Blackboard.

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Choosing a Style: Writing Paragraphs