Mr. McLaughlin's Classes

Welcome to Mr. McLaughlin's Classes Blog

2012-02-15T05:30:00.000-06:00

Welcome to this blog created for students who take classes with Mr. McLaughlin. I hope that this is going to be a great way to share photos, calendars, student testimonials, archived work, models, "hands-on" work done in conservatory based classes, homework in academic based classes, etc. This is also a great tool to share class information with students who miss class or do not have vital class information.

Please keep in mind that this is intended to be a site primarily to archive our work, assist students who have been ill and to serve students in cases or real emergency. This site is not intended to shift responsibility from you to the teacher when it comes to take class notes, write assignments down, etc.

We've used this for a few years and it's proven to be an effective a tool for learning and promoting excellence in student achievement. I hope this is easy to manage and useful. Welcome to class. Students who wish to receive some extra credit should post a note here or in the classroom only chat box located here.

Thanks for visiting. We hope you come back often.

Mr. M.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD College/ACT/SAT Vocabulary

2012-01-14T05:39:00.002-06:00

To Kill a Mockingbird: Vocabulary with Definitions

Chapters 1-2

1. apothecary—one who prepares and sells medicines
2. assuaged—made less severe or burdensome
3. indigenous—occurring or living naturally in an area
4. malevolent—having or exhibiting hatred
5. mortification—a feeling of shame or humiliation
6. piety—religious devotion and reverence to God
7. sojourn—a brief, temporary stay
8. unsullied—spotlessly clean and fresh
9. vexations—irritations or annoyances
10. wallowing—heavily indulging in; rolling in
Chapters 3-4

1. abominable—detestable; unpleasant
2. amiable—pleasant; good-natured
3. auspicious—presenting favorable circumstances
4. contentious—tending to fight; quarrelsome
5. dispensation—a special allowance; privilege
6. expansively—with a willingness to talk, share
7. fractious—inclined to make trouble; unruly
8. persevere—to persist in a purpose, idea, or task
9. tranquility—state of calm, peacefulness, serenity
10. tyranny—a government in which a single person assumes absolute control

Chapters 5-6

1. aloof—distant; unfeeling
2. benevolence—inclination to perform charitable acts
3. benign—compassionate; incapable of causing harm
4. bewilderment—condition of being confused
5. cherub—a winged, chubby angel
6. ensuing—following immediately afterward
7. morbid—gruesome, gloomy, or dark
8. obliged—under force of necessity; obligated
9. prowess—superior skill or ability; strength or courage
10. tacit—unspoken; understood without being expressed

Chapters 7-8
1. aberrations—deviations from the proper course
2. accosted—approached in a harsh manner; assaulted
3. ascertaining—discovering with certainty; determining
4. cleaved—adhered to closely; clung to
5. embalming—treating with preservatives to prevent decay
6. feeble—physically weak from age or sickness; frail
7. meditative—given to contemplation or deep thought
8. unfathomable—difficult or impossible to understand
9. vigil—wakefulness maintained in reverence to another person, usually after one’s death
10. whittle—to carve or shape

Chapters 9-11

1. analogous—possessing connections, similarities
2. antagonized—created an enemy or an antagonist
3. articulate—to speak clearly and in distinct syllables
4. contemporaries—those who exist/live at the same time
5. evasion—an act of escaping or avoiding
6. inconspicuous—not noticeable or prominent
7. ingenious—characterized by cleverness or originality
8. nauseating—causing nausea or upset stomach
9. mausoleum—a magnificent, decorated tomb
10. provocation—causing aggravation or annoyance

VOCAB: PART TWO
Chapters 12-13

1. acquired—obtained possession of something
2. altercation—an angry dispute; quarrel
3. compensation—something given to make up for something else
4. contemptuously—showing contempt; scornfully
5. ecclesiastical—having to do with the church or the clergy
6. formidable—hard to overcome or deal with
7. inconsistent—not consistent; not in agreement
8. permanence—being permanent; lasting
9. prerogative—a right or privilege
10. qualms—sudden, disturbing feelings of uneasiness

Chapters 14-15

1. edification—intellectual, spiritual, or moral improvement
2. inaudible—not audible; cannot be heard
3. indulged—gave in to one’s pleasures; had what one wanted
4. obscure—not clearly expressed; hard to understand
5. peculiarities—strange or unusual qualities
6. penitentiary—a prison for criminals
7. perish—to be destroyed; die
8. placid—pleasantly calm or peaceful; quiet
9. quarrel—an angry dispute or disagreement
10. resignation—the act of resigning, withdrawing

Chapters 16-17

1. acrimonious—bitter, stinging, or caustic in nature or speech
2. corroborating—making more certain; double-checking; conspiring
3. countenance—appearance; face
4. frank—direct and unreserved in speech
5. grudge—a feeling of resentment or ill-will
6. gullet—the esophagus; throat
7. lurched—staggered; stumbled
8. profane—hold contempt for, usually towards God or sacred principles
9. scrutiny—a thorough searching; a close examination or inquiry
10. subpoena—a summons for witnesses or evidence before a court

Independent Novel Menu 1: Novel Specific Vocabulary

2012-01-03T08:46:00.000-06:00

Part One: Novel Specific “Student-Chosen” Vocabulary Assignment

Choose ONE of the following assignments. Include a title and any necessary headings.

• 1. Vocabulary Log (quote the page number for each word used). Choose 20 words that you do not know the meaning of. Record the dictionary definition for each word. Write each word in a context sentence.

• 2. Create a crossword with 10 words across and 10 down. Provide a clue for each word and the answer key. http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/create.html http://www.edhelper.com/crossword.htm

• 3. Create a Thesaurus. List 20 words that seem overused or boring. Rewrite the sentence from the book in which the word was found with a better one.

• 4. List 20 interesting, important or unusual words from your book and explain your reasons for choosing each word. Rewrite the sentence from the book in which the word was found with a better one.

• 5. Complete 10 Frayer Models of unusual or new words for you. Write each word in a context sentence. http://www.longwood.edu/staff/jonescd/projects/educ530/aboxley/graphicorg/fraym.htm
http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/frayer.htm

• 6. Complete 10 Vocabulary Frames of unusual or new words for you. Write each word in a context sentence.
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/resources/PDF/GOOD_TV_3_6_pdf_s/62177_InRCd_77.pdf
• 7. Make a quiz. Create a multiple choice or matching quiz using the words that you learned.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/multiple-choice-test-or-survey-kit-for-creating-3-4-or-5-answer-questions-TC010244480.aspx?pid=CT101435311033

http://www.easytestmaker.com/

• 8. Create your own assignment using 10-20 words in a creative way that shows you understand the meaning and are learning new vocabulary.

Independent Novel Menu 2: Vocabulary, Literary Terms

2012-01-03T08:45:00.000-06:00

MENU TWO: LITERARY TERMS: If you know all of these terms and can prove it with Mr. McLaughlin, you do not need to complete this menu. Everyone will take a paper/pencil exam on these terms at the end fo the two weeks and two weekends.

stream-of-conscious
inciting action
limited omniscient
omniscient
static character
dynamic character
characterization
protagonist
antagonist
exposition
dramatic irony
symbol
mood
external conflict
internal conflict
dialogue
falling action
climax/reversal
metaphor
rising action
point of view
theme
fiction
plot
setting
narrator

• 1. Literary Term Log (quote the page number for each word used). Choose the literary terms that are unfamiliar to you. Record the dictionary/text definition for each word. Find an example of this literary term.
• 2. Create a crossword with 10 words across and 10 down. Provide a definition or an example for each literary term and the answer key.
http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/create.html
http://www.edhelper.com/crossword.htm

• 3. Complete Frayer Models for terms that you do not know. Find an example of each term used in your novel or write a sentence where the meaning of the term is clear based on the context clues that you use.
http://www.longwood.edu/staff/jonescd/projects/educ530/aboxley/graphicorg/fraym.htm
http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/frayer.htm

• 4. Complete Vocabulary Frames for terms that you do not know. Find an example of each term used in your novel or write a sentence where the meaning of the term is clear based on the context clues that you use. http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/resources/PDF/GOOD_TV_3_6_pdf_s/62177_InRCd_77.pdf
• 5. Show us two examples of this term from the novel. Write down the example and in 10 words or less, tell us why this is an example of the definition.

• 6. Create your own assignment using the literary terms that you do not understand in a creative way that shows you understand the meaning and are learning new vocabulary.

Independent Novel Menu 3: The Journal Entries

2012-01-03T08:43:00.000-06:00

PART THREE: RESPONSE TO LITERATURE JOURNAL ENTRIES

Your task is to complete 10 JOURNAL RESPONSES (single-spaced, half-page, minimum in 12 point font and full-page maximum)to what you are reading. Divide your novel roughly into 10-14 sections (you have two full weeks and two weekends to complete the novel). For each entry include the date and the pages read.

To receive an "A" on this section of the menu, the student must complete 10 journal entries at an "A" level To receive a "B" the student must complete "8" journals at a "B" level. To receive a "C" the student must complete a minimum of "6" journal entries at a "C" level.

Here are some topics, ideas, activities to choose from (or you may create your own): Choose a variety! You may use one or more per entry.

• 1. Describe an experience you (or someone else you know) had that was like the experience of a character in the book.

• 2. Explain how a character in the book changed or is starting to change in the section you are using for your prompt.

• 3. Explain why you would like to have one of the characters as a friend.

• 4. Explain why you would not like to have one of the characters as a friend.
• 5. Create a diagram showing the setting(s) of the story or find some landscape images in a computer search that capture the essence of how you view the setting. Write a brief description of the role that you think the setting plays in the novel.

• 6. Sketch a scene in the book depicting a part of the plot and explain why you chose to draw this scene.

• 7. Describe a feeling or emotion that you experienced as you were reading this section and what caused this feeling.

• 8. Write your opinion to a character’s action or reaction. What would you have done the same way? What would have done differently?

• 9. Write about a connection to another book, movie, film or personal experience that you have had (think of similar characters, plots, settings and themes).

• 10. Write down a quote or passage that appeals to you. Describe why.
• 11. Write down three or four descriptive sentences that appeal to you and explain why.

• 12. Make a prediction of what is going to happen next.
• 13. Give your opinion of the author’s writing style? What images captured your interest? How did the author create suspense, mood, theme, etc.?

• 14. Chapter Naming: If your author does not provide titles for each chapter(s), how would you name the chapter in this section? What title would you provide for each

chapter that you read? List two important events (note page number and use quotes where applicable) that would be evidence to support your choices.

• 15. Quotable quotes: Identify a meaningful quote from each chapter read and explain in at least three sentences why you believe it to be significant within the novel.

• 16. If the protagonist of the novel had dinner the next day with a family member or a friend, would he/she say about the events experienced in the chapter? – use dialogue to make this come alive.

• 17. If the antagonist of the novel had dinner the next day with a family member or a friend, would he/she say about the events experienced in the chapter? – use dialogue to make this come alive.

• 18. One word: Pick one word that captures the theme or main ideas of the novel across the assigned reading for that night. Write one paragraph that incorporates textual proof and explains why selected this word.

• 19. Connection: Consider how the reading connects to a previous piece of literature read in school. This may connect to literature read in previous years.

• 20. Analyze the Writing: Using the Creative Writing/Personal Writing Rubric for 6 Trait, plus 1 Writing, analyze the section and show how you would score the section with examples from the novel.

• 21. How does the author use setting to enhance the theme of the chapter in this section of the novel? Provide specific examples.

• 22. Consider the list of the literary terms in the Literary Terms Hide and Go Seek. Choose a term and discuss how the author uses the term effectively in this section of the reading.

Tip: Do not summarize the novel here but do give examples from the novel to back up your opinion or thought.

Independent Novel Menu 4: The Project

2012-01-03T08:42:00.000-06:00

PART FOUR: THE FINAL PROJECT

After you have finished your novel choose one project to complete. This project is a chance to challenge your creative side and show what you learned, enjoyed, or pondered on as you were reading. Each student must also complete a writing assignment based on the novel. A grade specific set of criteria can be seen following the list of projects.

1. Create a research project based on a topic that is related to the novel that is new to you or interests you. In your introductory paragraph explain how the topic relates to the book.

2. Draw, paint, sculpt in detail a color map of where a major part of the story takes place. Label the major landmarks or points of interest and describe what parts of the plot take place

3. Create a brochure to promote the book. Include a review of the novel wherein you try to get someone else to read it, a summary and a picture.

4. Write the next part to the story.

5. Change the ending to the story.

6. Explain how you would make your book into a movie-- who would
play the main characters, where would you film it, what would you want to emphasize. Would you make any changes to the plot? What special effects would you need to create? You must explain your choices.

7. Write two articles for a newspaper published at the time of a major event in your book. Use the proper format for a newspaper article.

8. Write an interview with one of the major characters of at least 10 questions.

9. Write several diary entries made by one of the major characters.

10. Do a collage of a major theme of your novel and explain in a well-written paragraph (link) what you are depicting in your collage.

11. Write a poem or series of poems (to equal 30 lines) inspired by
your novel (examples)

12. Find THREE songs that seem to relate to your novel. Provide
the lyrics and then write an explanation of how they relate.

13. Character Box. In a shoebox include 5 objects that would be meaningful to the main character. On a separate piece of paper, in a paragraph, explain why you have chosen each object

14. Create a powerpoint presentation of the book.

15. Choose an important scene in the book, write a script for the scene and produce the scene on video.

16. Create a series of original art in any medium (min 3 pieces) about the novel. Include a short description for each piece.

17. Create an attractive, interesting board game that incorporates parts of the novel (characters, setting, theme, plot)

18. Do an Internet search specific to you novel to get ideas for a project. Example (The Giver novel study). Email me first with the link to approve it.

19. Find a movie which dealt with a similar theme or subject and write a review of it explaining why it is like your novel.

20. Create your own original and creative assignment based on the novel.

Independent Novel Menu 5: Writing the Literary Analysis

2012-01-03T08:41:00.001-06:00

GRADE SPECIFIC CRITERIA FOR THE WRITING COMPONENT

Your final review must be typed in 12 point Times New Roman font. Your margins must be 1” maximum and the review/theme analysis must be double-spaced. You need to have an MLA heading on the paper. In the opening paragraph, you must include the title and the author of the novel.

Theme

What exactly is this elusive thing called theme?

The theme of a fable is its moral. The theme of a parable is its teaching. The theme of a piece of fiction is its view about life and how people behave.

In fiction, the theme is not intended to teach or preach. In fact, it is not presented directly at all. You extract it from the characters, action, and setting that make up the story. In other words, you must figure out the theme yourself.

The writer's task is to communicate on a common ground with the reader. Although the particulars of your experience may be different from the details of the story, the general underlying truths behind the story may be just the connection that both you and the writer are seeking.

What theme is:

• Theme is the meaning released by the work when we take all aspects of the work in its entirety into account.
• It is an aspect of human experience that the author wishes to express.

An important part of studying literature is analysis of text. Examining an author’s techniques—diction, syntax, tone, symbolism, imagery, and other useful devices—in communicating the all-important theme can give a reader deep appreciation for both the writer’s skill and the impact of the work of literature.

HOW TO WRITE A LITERARY ANALYSIS

An analysis is a specific form of essay writing in which a piece of literature is explained.

The best way to begin an analysis is to focus on the theme expressed in the passage: What does the author want the reader to understand? Once you identify the message of the text, then you may begin to explicate how the author communicates that theme.

PREWRITING STEP I.

Discovering theme: What is the theme this author is analyzing? Which of the following words best describes the novel: courage, cowardice, prejudice, tolerance, guilt, innocence?

Now ask yourself the essential question several times as you consider each of these parts of the novel.

Characters: What kind of people does the story deal with?
Plot: What do the characters do? Are they in control of their lives, or are they controlled by fate?
Motivation: Why do the characters behave as they do, and what motives dominate them?
Style: How does the author perceive reality?
Tone: What is the author’s attitude towards his subject?
Values: What are the values of the characters in the story? What values does the author seem to promote?

Theme can be discovered only by becoming aware of the relations among the parts of a story and of the relations of the parts to a whole:

PREWRITING STEP 2

After thinking about your answers, is your theme statement still accurate? Have you learned anything that might cause you to change your definition of the theme of your piece of literature? Rewrite your statement of theme if necessary.

PREWRITING STEP 3

Identify several crucial passages in your novel that develop the theme you've identified. Choosing a different types of examples including the bolded terms above, will provide you with some variety in your analysis.

This is how you know if you've found the right passages: Without these passages, the novel would have a completely different meaning. The passages you identify should be so important that the story would be nothing without them. This is hard, so think for a while.

THE FIRST DRAFT
Paragraph 1: Introduction - Introduction Methods: An anecdote, startling fact or opinion, quotation, background information, simple statement of thesis
Get the reader's attention. Set the tone of the essay. State the controlling idea (thesis) of the essay.

Paragraph 2: Give specific examples from the text which show how the device is used...Clearly identify the topic of the paragraph—not just the device but how it relates to the theme. Give specific examples from the text which show how the device is used, explain how those examples fit the definition of that device, and show how those examples help to communicate the theme of the passage. A good concluding (clincher) sentence may help to pull together your ideas and make a transition to the next paragraph.
The pattern used to explicate the first literary element/device should also be used for explaining the remaining devices.

Paragraph 3: The pattern used to explicate the first literary element/device should also be used for explaining the remaining devices. Analysis of 2nd literary device - Clearly identify the topic of the paragraph—not just the device but how it relates to the theme. Give specific examples from the text which show how the device is used, explain how those examples fit the definition of that device, and show how those examples help to communicate the theme of the passage. A good concluding (clincher) sentence may help to pull together your ideas and make a transition to the next paragraph.

Paragraph 4: The pattern used to explicate the first literary element/device should also be used for explaining the remaining devices. Analysis of 3rd literary device - Clearly identify the topic of the paragraph—not just the device but how it relates to the theme. Give specific examples from the text which show how the device is used, explain how those examples fit the definition of that device, and show how those examples help to communicate the theme of the passage. A good concluding (clincher) sentence may help to pull together your ideas and make a transition to the next paragraph.

Paragraph 5: Conclusion - Why is this literary work important to us? This should tie together the main ideas of the essay. It should not simply summarize or repeat the ideas, but should extend them by establishing a relationship between the passage and why we should understand it. It's often helpful to think of this as the answer to the "so what" question—why is this passage important to us?

Simple or sophisticated?

Do you absolutely have to discuss precisely three literary devices?

Of course not. There may be only two devices used extensively enough in the passage for you to evaluate. Or perhaps there are four important devices which you need to analyze. The difference between following a strict five-paragraph formula and adapting that structure to fit the passage you are analyzing again becomes a question of sophistication: how do you need to structure your argument to fit what you need to say about the text? There is no magic number of paragraphs or examples, just as there is no magic number of words you must write in order to have an excellent essay. The length of your paper—the number of paragraphs, the number of examples, and the number of words—is determined by what you have to say and how you say it. You should always organize your ideas so that they are clear to the reader and they all add up in the end to prove your argument. (It's something like doing a Geometry proof. How many steps do you need to prove the theorem and in what order do they need to be addressed to solve the problem?)

Independent Novel Sample Paper

2012-01-03T08:41:00.000-06:00

This paper demonstrates a good use of support to prove its point. The paper, however, could afford to have a stronger attention getter/lead/hook. So, if you use this paper as a model, be aware that it still needs work.

Be aware, that this typed paper needs to be in Times New Roman 12 pt. font, should be double-spaced, should have an MLA heading and the pages should have a 1" margin.

Hit the "READ MORE" link for some other helpful hints, directions and models. One doesn't need to read all of the links. Please browse them and find one that best fits your style.
SAMPLE YEATS PAPER
WRITING THE PAPER CHECKLIST
STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO REVISING YOUR PAPER TO WRITE A STRONG LITERARY ANALYSIS

MODEL HAMLET LITERARY ANALYSIS

DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING A LITERARY ANALYSIS

Montgomery Bus Boycott

2011-12-08T16:00:00.002-06:00

"My feets is weary, but my soul is rested."
The Montgomery Bus Boycott officially started on December 1, 1955. That was the day when the blacks of Montgomery, Alabama, decided that they would boycott the city buses until they could sit anywhere they wanted, instead of being relegated to the back when a white boarded. It was not, however, the day that the movement to desegregate the buses started. Perhaps the movement started on the day in 1943 when a black seamstress named Rosa Parks paid her bus fare and then watched the bus drive off as she tried to re-enter through the rear door, as the driver had told her to do. Perhaps the movement started on the day in 1949 when a black professor Jo Ann Robinson absentmindedly sat at the front of a nearly empty bus, then ran off in tears when the bus driver screamed at her for doing so. Perhaps the movement started on the day in the early 1950s when a black pastor named Vernon Johns tried to get other blacks to leave a bus in protest after he was forced to give up his seat to a white man, only to have them tell him, "You ought to knowed better." [2] The story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott is often told as a simple, happy tale of the "little people" triumphing over the seemingly insurmountable forces of evil. The truth is a little less romantic and a little more complex.
The simple version of the story leaves out some very important people, such as Jo Ann Robinson, of whom Martin Luther King, Jr., would later write, "Apparently indefatigable, she, perhaps more than any other person, was active on every level of the protest." [3] She was an educated woman, a professor at the all-black Alabama State College, and a member of the Women's Political Council in Montgomery. After her traumatic experience on the bus in 1949, she tried to start a protest but was shocked when other Women's Political Council members brushed off the incident as "a fact of life in Montgomery." After the Supreme Court's Brown decision in 1954, she wrote a letter to the mayor of Montgomery, W.A. Gayle, saying that "there has been talk from 25 or more local organizations of planning a city-wide boycott of buses." By 1955, the Women's Political Council had plans for just such a boycott. Community leaders were just waiting for the right person to be arrested, a person who would anger the black community into action, who would agree to test the segregation laws in court, and who, most importantly, was "above reproach." When fifteen year old Claudette Colvin was arrested early in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat, E.D. Nixon of the NAACP thought he had found the perfect person, but Colvin turned out to be pregnant. Nixon later explained, "I had to be sure that I had somebody I could win with." [4]

Enter Rosa Parks.Rosa Parks is probably the most romanticized personage in the Montgomery cast of characters. She is often portrayed as a simple seamstress who, exhausted after a long day at work, refused to give up her seat to a white person. While this is not untrue, there is more to the story. Parks was educated; she had attended the laboratory school at Alabama State College because there was no high school for blacks in Montgomery at that time, but had decided to become a seamstress because she could not find a job to suit her skills. She was also a long-time NAACP worker who had taken a special interest in Claudette Colvin's case. When she was arrested in December 1955, she had recently completed a workshop on race relations at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. And she was a well-respected woman with a spotless record.
On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a city bus and sat with three other blacks in the fifth row, the first row that blacks could occupy. A few stops later, the front four rows were filled with whites, and one white man was left standing. According to law, blacks and whites could not occupy the same row, so the bus driver asked all four of the blacks seated in the fifth row to move. Three complied, but Parks refused. She was arrested.

When E.D. Nixon heard that Parks had been arrested, he called the police to find out why. He was told that it was "[n]one of your damn business." He asked Clifford Durr, a sympathetic white lawyer, to call. Durr easily found out that Parks had been arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus. [5] Nixon went to the jail and posted bond for Parks. Then he told her, "Mrs. Parks, with your permission we can break down segregation on the bus with your case." [6] She talked it over with her husband and her mother, then agreed.

That night, Jo Ann Robinson put plans for a one-day boycott into action. She mimeographed handouts urging blacks to stay off the city buses on Monday, when Parks' case was due to come up. She and her students distributed the anonymous fliers throughout Montgomery on Friday morning. That evening, a group of ministers and civil rights leaders had a meeting to discuss the boycott. It did not go well. Many ministers were put off by the way Rev. L. Roy Bennett took control of the meeting. Some left and others were about to leave. [7] Those remaining, however, agreed to spread word of the boycott through their sermons on Sunday, then meet again on Monday night if the boycott went well to decide whether or not to continue it. [8]

Martin Luther King, Jr., minister at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, thought that "if we could get 60 percent cooperation the protest would be a success." He was pleasantly surprised when bus after empty bus rolled past his house that morning. "A miracle had taken place," King would later write. "The once dormant and quiescent Negro community was now fully awake." [9] The group from Friday night met again that afternoon and decided to call themselves the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). They elected King as president. The next decision was whether or not to end the boycott. Some ministers wanted to end it as a one-day success. Then E.D. Nixon rose to speak:

What's the matter with you people? Here you have been living off the sweat of these washerwomen all these years and you have never done anything for them. Now you have a chance to pay them back, and you're too damn scared to stand on your feet and be counted! The time has come when you men is going to have to learn to be grown men or scared boys. [10]

The MIA decided to let the people vote on whether or not to continue the boycott at the mass meeting that night. There, the decision was unanimous. The boycott would continue.

When the boycott began, no one expected it to last for very long. There had been boycotts of buses by blacks before, most recently in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1953. A one-day boycott, followed three months later by a week-long boycott, resulted in buses that were more desegregated but that still had some seats reserved for whites as well as some for blacks. On Thursday, December 8, the fourth day of the boycott, King and other MIA officials met with officials and lawyers from the bus company, as well as the city commissioners, to present a moderate desegregation plan similar to the one already implemented in Baton Rouge and other Southern cities, including Mobile, Alabama. The MIA was hopeful that the plan would be accepted and the boycott would end, but the bus company refused to consider it. In addition, city officials struck a blow to the boycott when they announced that any cab driver charging less than the 45 cent minimum fare would be prosecuted. Since the boycott began, the black cab services had been charging blacks only 10 cents to ride, the same as the bus fare, but this service would be no more. Suddenly the MIA was faced with the prospect of having thousands of blacks with no way to get to work, and with no end to the boycott in sight.

In response, the MIA worked out a "private taxi" plan, under which blacks w ho owned cars picked up and dropped off blacks who needed rides at designated points. The plan was elaborate and took a great deal of planning; consequently, the MIA appointed a Transportation Committee to oversee it. The service worked so well so quickly that even the White Citizens Council (whose membership doubled during one month of the boycott) had to admit that it moved with "military precision." [11]

Whites tried to end the boycott in every way possible. One often-used method was to try to divide the black community. On January 21, 1956, the City Commission met with three non-MIA black ministers and proposed a "compromise," which was basically the system already in effect. The ministers accepted, and the commission leaked (false) reports to a newspaper that the boycott was over. The MIA did not even hear of the compromise until a black reporter in the North who received a wire report phoned to ask if the Montgomery blacks had really settled for so little. By that time it was Saturday night. On Sunday morning Montgomery newspapers were going to print the news that the boycott was over and the city's blacks were going to believe it. To prevent this from happening, some MIA officials went bar-hopping to spread the word that the stories were a hoax, that the boycott was still on. Later, the black ministers told King that they hadn't understood the proposal.
When that effort to break up the boycott failed, whites turned to violence. King's home was bombed on January 30, and Nixon's home was bombed on February 1.
Next, whites turned to the law. On February 21, 89 blacks were indicted under an old law prohibiting boycotts. King was the first defendant to be tried. As press from around the nation looked on, King was ordered to pay $500 plus $500 in court costs or spend 386 days in the state penitentiary.

Whites also tried to break down the "private taxi" system that many blacks relied on as their only means of transportation to and from work. Some churches had purchased station wagons, usually called "rolling churches," to be used in the private taxi service. Liability insurance was canceled four times in four months before King found insurance through a black agent in Atlanta, underwritten by Lloyd's of London. The police also arrested drivers for minor traffic offenses. When King dropped by a pickup point to help transport blacks waiting there, he was arrested for driving thirty miles per hour in a twenty-five mile per hour zone.

Despite all the pressures to end the boycott, blacks continued to stay off the buses. One white bus driver stopped to let off a lone black man in a black neighborhood. Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw an old black woman with a cane rushing towards the bus. He opened the door and said, "You don't have to rush auntie. I'll wait for you." The woman replied, "In the first place, I ain't your auntie. In the second place, I ain't rushing to get on your bus. I'm jus' trying to catch up with that nigger who just got off, so I can hit him with this here stick."
By this point, some members of Montgomery's business community were becoming frustrated with the boycott, which was costing them thousands of dollars because blacks were less likely to shop in downtown stores. Although they were as opposed to integration as the next white Montgomery resident, they realized that the boycott was bad for business and therefore wanted the boycott to end. They formed a group called the Men of Montgomery and tried negotiating directly with the boycotters. Eventually, however, these discussions broke down, and the boycott continued.
But blacks had already begun to fight to end the boycott in court. They would no longer settle for the moderate desegregation plan that they had first proposed. Now, they would accept nothing less than full integration. The city was fighting a losing battle. The blacks were armed with the Brown decision, less than two years old, which said that the "separate but equal" doctrine had no place in public education. Surely it must follow that the doctrine had no place in any public facilities. In addition, the city was not in the prejudiced local courts but in federal court, where even a black man could hope to have a fair trial. When the city defended segregation by saying that integration would lead to violence, Judge Rives asked, "Is it fair to command one man to surrender his constitutional rights, if they are his constitutional rights, in order to prevent another man from committing a crime?" [12] The federal court decided 2-1 in favor of the blacks, with the lone dissent coming from a Southern judge. The city, of course, appealed the ruling, but on November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal court's ruling, declaring segregation on buses unconstitutional. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was officially over.
Blacks continued, however, to stay off the city buses until the mandate from the Supreme Court arrived. During that time, MIA officials tried to prepare blacks as best they could for integrated buses. But, as Martin Luther King, Jr., noted wryly, "not a single white group would take the responsibility of preparing the white community." [13]
Blacks returned to the buses on December 21, 1956, over a year after the boycott began. But their troubles were not over. Snipers shot at buses, forcing the city to suspend bus operations after 5 P.M. A group tried to start a whites-only bus service. There was also a wave of bombings. The homes of two black leaders, four Baptists churches, the People's Service Station and Cab Stand, and the home of another black were all bombed. In addition, an unexploded bomb was found on King's front porch. Seven white men were arrested for the bombings, and five were indicted. The first two defendants, Raymond D. York and Sonny Kyle Livingston, were found not guilty, even though they had signed confessions. The remainder of the bombers were set free under a compromise that also canceled the cases of blacks arrested under the anti-boycott laws, although King still had to pay his $500 fine.
The KKK also tried to scare the blacks, but "it seemed to have lost its spell," King wrote. "...[O]ne cold night a small Negro boy was seen warming his hands at a burning cross." [14] The violence died down after several prominent whites spoke out against it, and the integration of the Montgomery buses was ultimately successful.
On January 10 and 11, 1957, ministers from the MIA joined other ministers from around the South in Atlanta, Georgia. They founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and elected Martin Luther King, Jr., as president. SCLC would continue to work in various areas of the South for many years, continuing the nonviolent fight for civil rights started in Birmingham.
Although the gains of the Montgomery Bus Boycott were small compared with the gains blacks would later win, the boycott was important start to the movement. The lasting legacy of the boycott, as Roberta Wright wrote, was that "It helped to launch a 10-year national struggle for freedom and justice, the Civil Rights Movement, that stimulated others to do the same at home and abroad." [15]

SWEET POTATO PIE by Eugenia Collier

2011-12-03T09:19:00.002-06:00

Sweet Potato Pie by Eugenia Collier
BEFORE READING
Background

When the Civil War ended, many owners of large Southern plantation split their land up into small plots and set up sharecropping arrangements with former slaves and poor whites. The sharecroppers farmed the land, turning over a share of the crop to the landowners. In return, the landowners gave them seed, tools, and a place to live. Most sharecroppers worked very hard but lived in great poverty, subject to the whim of landowners, weather, and insect blights.

In this selection, Eugenia Collier gives readers a glimpse of what life was like for a family of sharecroppers.
About the Authors

Eugenia Collier (b. 1928), African-American educator and writer, was born in Baltimore, MD. Her father, Harry Maceo, was a physician. Her mother, Eugenia, was an educator.

In the 1940s and 1950s, few African-American women were pursing professional educations. But Collier was one of the pioneers. In 1948, she earned a B.A. from Howard University, graduating magna cum laude. Two years later, she was awarded an M.A. from Columbia University. In 1976, she earned a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.

After finishing her M.A., Collier worked for the Baltimore Department of Public Welfare as a caseworker (1950-1955). In 1955, she began to teach at Morgan State College in Baltimore. Over the years, she worked her way up from assistant instructor to assistant professor of English. Collier has taught at a number of other colleges and universities, too, including University of Maryland, Howard University, Morgan State University, Southern Illinois University, and Atlanta University. In addition, she has lectured and worked as a consultant.

In the late 1960s, Collier began contributing her writing and editing to books such as Impressions in Asphalt: Images of Urban America (1969); A Bridge to Saying It Well (1970); Langston Hughes: Black Genius (1971); Afro-American Writing: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry (1972); and Modern Black Poets: A Collection of Critical Essays (1973). In 1973, she published a one-act play called Ricky (performed 1976), based on her short story of the same title. Other works include Spread My Wings (1992) and Breeder and Other Stories (1993). Collier has contributed stories, poems, and articles to Negro Digest, Black World, TV Guide, Phylon, College Language Association Journal, and The New York Times and her work continues to appear in anthologies. A televised lecture of Collier's was included in the series called "The Negro in History," produced by Morgan State University. Collier currently is working on a collection of autobiographical sketches.

Collier is a member of the College Language Association, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Middle Atlantic Writers Association, and African American Writers Guild.

Vocabulary

(Tested vocabulary words used in the online vocabulary quiz are underlined.)

plait—braid of hair.
gingham—cotton fabric, often checkered, striped, or plaid.
entities (EHN-tih-tees)—people or things that exist.
edifice (EHD-uf-fuhs)—building.
nuances (NOO-ahn-sehs)—slight degrees of difference.
gaunt—thin and bony.
pallet—narrow, hard bed.
ubiquitous (yoo-BIHK-wih-tuhs)—present or seeming to be present everywhere at the same time.
futiley (FYOO-tih-lee)—without useful results.
brackish—somewhat salty.
collage (kuh-LAHZH)—collection of diverse things.
valedictory (val-ih-DIHK-tuh-ree) address—closing or farewell statement or speech, usually delivered at graduation ceremonies by the top student in the graduating class.
lithograph—type of print.
apex (AY-pehks)—highest point; peak.
GI Bill—U.S. government program to help veterans get higher education, home loans, and so forth, at the government's expense.
Harlem—New York City's African-American district.
id—in psychoanalysis, the part of the mind that is the source of instinctual impulses and primitive urges.
saunter—stroll.
Garvey Day—annual celebration of the birthday (August 17) of African-American leader Marcus Garvey (1887-1940).
akimbo (uh-KIM-boh)—bowed outward.
guffawed (guh-FAWD)—laughed heartily.
garish—flashy.

DURING READING

Use the STUDY GUIDE below as a way to work through the selection and improve your comprehension of the essay.

AFTER READING

Answer the Questions to Consider questions in the book as a way to deepen your interpretation of the selection.

1. What types of sacrifices should the members of a family be expected to make for each other?

2. How did being sharecroppers shape the lives of the members of Buddy's family?

3. In what ways does Buddy consider himself the "luckiest" in his family?

4. How do Buddy's feelings about his parents compare to his feelings about Lil and Charley?

5. Why do you think Charley brought Buddy the pie?

6. The tone of a literary work expresses the writer's attitude toward a subject. What is the tone of this story?

7. What do you think should be the role of older children in raising their younger brothers and sisters?

Literature Connection

1. What were the external conflicts faced by the narrator's family?

2. What internal conflicts do you think might have been faced by the narrator's parents? by Charley and Lil?

Bibliography

Eugenia Collier

Impressions in Asphalt: Images of Urban America (1969, co-author)

A Bridge to Saying It Well (1970, co-author)

Langston Hughes: Black Genius (1971, contributor)

Afro-American Writing: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry (1972, 1985, co-editor)

Modern Black Poets: A Collection of Critical Essays (1973, contributor)

Ricky (performed 1976)

Spread My Wings (1992)

Breeder and Other Stories (1993)

Multicultural America-Part 4: Families

Judith Ortíz Cofer. The Line of the Sun (1989). A coming of age story in a Puerto Rican immigrant family.

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar (1973). Memoir of a Japanese-American family's experiences in a World War II internment camp.

Maxine Hong Kingston. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts (1976). Award-winning biography about conflicts between traditional Chinese family values and those found by immigrants in America.

Sandra Jackson-Opoku. The River Where Blood Was Born (1997). Evocative novel that traces one family's life from 18th-century Africa to America in the present day.

Gus Lee. China Boy (1991). Semi-autobiographical novel about a Chinese-American boy's hardships growing up in San Francisco.

Simon Ortiz. From Sand Creek (1981). Poetry about Native American life from a well known Acoma Pueblo poet.

Danzy Senna. Caucasia (1998). An important novel about what it means to be a biracial woman in America today.

Sweet Potato Pie Resources

2011-12-03T09:06:00.000-06:00

Harlem: A History in Pictures

To the narrator, visiting the Harlem area of New York City is like returning "to some mythic ancestral home." This Web site provides a glimpse into the history and importance of Harlem. After reading the information, record in the Web Links Activity Log some of the reasons why Harlem is considered by many to be the cultural and political center of the African American world.

Cooking African American Style

African American food, especially sweet potato pie, plays a central role in Eugenia Collier's story. Visit this site to learn more about the origins of African American cooking. Be sure to click on the Desserts link at the bottom of the page and try out the recipe for sweet potato pie.

6 Trait Writing: Great Writing is Intentitional, It's No Accident

2011-11-26T16:44:00.001-06:00

There is absolutely no better way to understand the 6+1 Trait® Scoring analytical model than to use it yourself. Whether you are a teacher or a student, this instructional tool will help you better understand each of the six traits of writing.

You will first have to select which area of writing you want to focus on. Select from the list below to further study an individual trait.

Ideas

The Ideas are the heart of the message, the content of the piece, the main theme, together with all the details that enrich and develop that theme. The ideas are strong when the message is clear, not garbled. The writer chooses details that are interesting, important, and informative–often the kinds of details the reader would not normally anticipate or predict. Successful writers do not tell readers things they already know; e.g., "It was a sunny day, and the sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy white …" They notice what others overlook, seek out the extraordinary, the unusual, the bits and pieces of life that others might not see.

Click here to learn more about IDEAS, the heart of the message, the interior decoration of writing

Organization

Organization is the internal structure of a piece of writing, the thread of central meaning, the pattern, so long as it fits the central idea. Organizational structure can be based on comparison-contrast, deductive logic, point-by-point analysis, development of a central theme, chronological history of an event, or any of a dozen other identifiable patterns. When the organization is strong, the piece begins meaningfully and creates in the writer a sense of anticipation that is, ultimately, systematically fulfilled. Events proceed logically; information is given to the reader in the right doses at the right times so that the reader never loses interest. Connections are strong, which is another way of saying that bridges from one idea to the next hold up. The piece closes with a sense of resolution, tying up loose ends, bringing things to closure, answering important questions while still leaving the reader something to think about. Click here to learn more about ORGANIZATION, the internal structure of the piece, the architecture of writing

Voice

The Voice is the writer coming through the words, the sense that a real person is speaking to us and cares about the message. It is the heart and soul of the writing, the magic, the wit, the feeling, the life and breath. When the writer is engaged personally with the topic, he/she imparts a personal tone and flavor to the piece that is unmistakably his/hers alone. And it is that individual something–different from the mark of all other writers–that we call voice.

Click here to learn more about VOICE, the personal tone and flavor of the author's message, your personal style--the fingerprints you leave on the writing

Word Choice
Word Choice is the use of rich, colorful, precise language that communicates not just in a functional way, but in a way that moves and enlightens the reader. In good descriptive writing, strong word choice clarifies and expands ideas. In persuasive writing, careful word choice moves the reader to a new vision of things. Strong word choice is characterized not so much by an exceptional vocabulary that impresses the reader, but more by the skill to use everyday words well.

Click here to learn more about WORD CHOICE, the vocabulary a writer chooses to convey meaning, some of the strongest tools we have to build our writing
Sentence Fluency

Sentence Fluency is the rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of word patterns, the way in which the writing plays to the ear, not just to the eye. How does it sound when read aloud? That's the test. Fluent writing has cadence, power, rhythm, and movement. It is free of awkward word patterns that slow the reader's progress. Sentences vary in length and style, and are so well crafted that the writer moves through the piece with ease.

Click here to learn more about FLUENCY, the rhythm and flow of the language, the Feng Shui of our writing

Conventions

Conventions are the mechanical correctness of the piece–spelling, grammar and usage, paragraphing (indenting at the appropriate spots), use of capitals, and punctuation. Writing that is strong in conventions has been proofread and edited with care. Handwriting and neatness are not part of this trait. Since this trait has so many pieces to it, it's almost a holistic trait within an analytic system. As you assess a piece for convention, ask yourself: "How much work would a copy editor need to do to prepare the piece for publication?" This will keep all of the elements in conventions equally in play. Conventions is the only trait where we make specific grade level accommodations.

Click here to learn more about CONVENTIONS, the mechanical correctness, our manners and accepted custom in our writing
Presentation

Presentation combines both visual and verbal elements. It is the way we "exhibit" our message on paper. Even if our ideas, words, and sentences are vivid, precise, and well constructed, the piece will not be inviting to read unless the guidelines of presentation are present. Think about examples of text and presentation in your environment. Which signs and billboards attract your attention? Why do you reach for one CD over another? All great writers are aware of the necessity of presentation, particularly technical writers who must include graphs, maps, and visual instructions along with their text.

CLICK HERE to access WRITING FIX's Picture Book-Inspired 6-Trait Lessons
59 free-to-use Lessons: created by Northern Nevada teachers for teachers everywhere
Click here for some other wonderful 6 Trait resources. Thanks to L. Jacoby for these 6 Trait Resources

Initiation by Sylvia Plath

2011-11-23T06:54:00.000-06:00

"Initiation" by Sylvia Plath- Hazing Links
Please comment on the following article in relation to our reading of "Initiation." What do initiation rites reveal about human nature? What are your thoughts/ reactions to this article? Feel refer to refer to the short story as well.

The quest to stamp out hazing Initiation rites have deep roots in human history, psychology By STEVE URBON, Standard-Times senior correspondent
http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/09-06/09-03-06/02topstories.htm
Hazing Defined:

“Hazing” refers to any activity expected of someone joining a group (or to maintain full status in a group) that humiliates, degrades or risks emotional and/or physical harm, regardless of the person's willingness to participate. In years past, hazing practices were typically considered harmless pranks or comical antics associated with young men in college fraternities.

Today we know that hazing extends far beyond college fraternities and is experienced by boys/men and girls/women in school groups, university organizations, athletic teams, the military, and other social and professional organizations. Hazing is a complex social problem that is shaped by power dynamics operating in a group and/or organization and within a particular cultural context.

Hazing activities are generally considered to be: physically abusive, hazardous, and/or sexually violating. The specific behaviors or activities within these categories vary widely among participants, groups and settings. While alcohol use is common in many types of hazing, other examples of typical hazing practices include: personal servitude; sleep deprivation and restrictions on personal hygiene; yelling, swearing and insulting new members/rookies; being forced to wear embarrassing or humiliating attire in public; consumption of vile substances or smearing of such on one's skin; brandings; physical beatings; binge drinking and drinking games; sexual simulation and sexual assault. (StopHazing.org)

"The Quest to Stamp Out Hazing"
http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/09-06/09-03-06/02topstories.htm

"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

2011-11-21T04:45:00.001-06:00

"Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical, dystopia.

Satire uses of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc, Satires are literary compositions, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.

is a vision of an often futuristic society, which has developed into a negative version of Utopia, in which society has degraded into a repressive, controlled state. A dystopia is often characterized by an authoritarian or totalitarian form of government.

As a genre, it is a short story and a piece of science fiction.
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books.

Science fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature.

The author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was an American novelist who wrote works blending satire, black comedy, and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five , Cat's Cradle , and Breakfast of Champions . H

e was known for his humanist beliefs as well as being honorary president of the American Humanist Association.

Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story was re-published in the author's collection, Welcome to theMonkey House which is an assortment of short stories written by Kurt Vonnegut, first published in August 1968. The stories range from war-time epics to futuristic thrillers, given with satire and Vonnegut's unique edge in 1968.

In the story, social equality has been achieved by handicapping the more intelli
The politics of Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" - Critical Essay

gent, athletic or beautiful members of society.
A dystopia

Active Listening & Improving Listening

2011-11-11T22:33:00.000-06:00

How to Make a Handout

2011-10-17T05:54:00.000-05:00

Making Handouts

Have you ever created a handout at the last minute before teaching a session? We often hastily prepare them without considering what elements make them most effective, but a first-rate handout can make a successful session even better.

Why should you make handouts?
Help students remember your presentation long after it is over.

Present information visually, which meets the needs of visual learners.

Allow students to concentrate on your presentation rather than trying to write down everything you say.

Provide students with a guide to help them with future research.

Give you something to refer back to when planning future sessions.

When should you create them?

Handouts should be created at the same time that you are planning your session. This ensures that the information you include will be tailored to that specific course. It's a good idea to make copies of your handouts ahead of time to avoid problems such as copier jams five minutes before your session begins.

When do you hand them out?
Opinions differ on when to pass out your handouts - some think it's best to give them out at the beginning or end of the session, and others prefer the point at which the information is most relevant. Just remember that your students will probably look at them right when they receive them and will miss whatever you say in the next several minutes.

What information should you include?

An outline of the key ideas in your presentation.

Specific information from your session to which your students will want to refer in the future.

Further information or a bibliography for further research.

Illustrations, charts, graphics, etc.

Make part of your handout an activity guide that provides directions, steps or a worksheet.

Remember, say no more than what is necessary - the urge to say too much can ruin a good handout.

What are some design tips?
Recommended Font Size for

Titles 14-16 point
Subtitles/subdivisions 12-14
Body 10-12

Set off distinct parts of the handout using italics, shading, bolding, boxed headlines or underlining.

Bullet lists to make them easier to scan and understand.

Leave at least a .75" margin on every side.

Try organizing information into a two-column format.

Serif fonts (such as Times New Roman) are more distinctive in print than sans serif fonts (such as Arial).

Use no more than three fonts in a single handout.

Make sure to leave plenty of white space to avoid confusion.

If you do have multiple handouts, make them distinguishable from each other by using multiple colors.

When you are done, look at your handout and ask yourself the following questions:
Does the information flow?

Is the handout visually appealing?

If a student were to forget everything you presented, would the information included in the handout help him/her recall the main ideas?

Is your contact information included?

Are helpful Websites or tips for finding additional information needed/included?

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE. Wallace, Marie. "Guide on the Side: Why and How to Avoid Trashy Handouts." LLRX.com May 1999. 10 Mar 2003.

Extra Credit Opportunity--Leave a Comment Here

2011-09-02T05:52:00.000-05:00

Congratulations for showing the initiative to earn some extra credit in your Speech I class. That's the way to start!

You need to go down to the pencil icon on the bottom of this post. Click on it and leave a comment after you take a look at the blog. Let us know what you think about it.

Please make sure that you leave your full name and the class period that you are in. I am excited to have you in class. Just think...you already have an "A+". Way to go.

Mr. McLaughlin

Demonstration Speech Packet Materials

2011-09-02T04:16:00.000-05:00

THE DEMONSTRATION SPEECH

Electronic Version of Handouts that You'll Receive in Class

Checklist

Here's a check list to help you prepare for your speech. CLICK HERE for a Demonstration Speech Checklist for Students Master.doc

Pre-Formatted Outline Made Easy

We've made doing an outline easy. These don't need to be typed, but you can use this if you need extra help and choose to type your outline. It's really easier to use this tool.
CLICK HERE for a Demonstration Speech Pre-formatted outline.doc

CLICK HERE to view the Demonstration Teacher Evaluation, page 1.doc

CLICK HERE to view the Demonstration Teacher Evaluation, page 2.doc

Your Self-Evaluation

CLICK HERE to view Demonstration Student Self-Evaluation.doc

Teacher Evaluation Form

Listening Inventories with Improvement Plans

2011-09-01T05:29:00.000-05:00

Listening Self-Analysis Part I

______1. I have always considered listening an automatic process not a learned behavior that I could work to improve.

______2. When I think a topic is uninteresting, I stop and think about something else.

______3. I react so emotionally to certain topics that it is hard for me to listen to speeches about them.

______4. Certain words trigger extreme responses in me.

______5. I am easily distracted by noises or movement in the room where someone is speaking.

______6. I don’t like to listen to speakers unless they are experts on their topics.

______7. Certain types of people are so objectionable that I don’t like to listen to them.

______8. I tend to feel sleepy when someone talks in a monotone.

______9. I become so dazzled by an impressive presentation that I often don’t listen to what the speaker is really saying.

______10. I don’t like to listen to speeches that run counter to my values.

AREA 1 AREA 2 AREA 3

AREA IDETIFIED

WHY DO YOU
PERCEIVE THIS
AS A PROLEM

HOW WILL YOU SOLVE
THIS PROBEM WITH
SPECIFIC STRATEGIES...
TWO SPECIFIC STRATEGIES
FOR EACH ARE CHOSEN.

Listening Self-Analysis Part II

______11. When I disagree with a speaker, I try to think up counterarguments during the
speech.

______12. I know so much about some topics that I can’t learn anything else from a speaker.

______13. I consider the speaker to be the one responsible for the effectiveness of communication.

______14. I usually have so much on my mind that I find it hard to listen to others.

______15. I often stop listening when a difficult subject is being discussed.

______16. I can look as though I’m listening even when I’m not.

______17. I listen only for the facts and ignore the rest of a message.

______18. I try to write down everything a speaker says.

______19. I get so caught up with a speaker’s appearance that I often don’t attend to the message.

______20. I often jump to conclusions and put words in a speaker’s mouth.

AREA 1 AREA 2 AREA 3

AREA IDETIFIED

WHY DO YOU PERCEIVE
THIS AS A PROLEM

HOW WILL YOU SOLVE
THIS PROBEM WITH
SPECIFIC STRATEGIES...
TWO SPECIFIC STRATEGIES
FOR EACH ARE CHOSEN.

English 10B ACT/SAT Vocabulary Preparation: Unit One

2011-08-31T17:25:00.000-05:00

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2008 Period 4,
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008 Period 1

1.1 ALOOF (uh LOOF) distant, reserved in manner, uninvolved.Memory Link: ROOF--the aloof cat on the roof

Most everyone though Theodore ALOOF when actually he was only very shy.

Nothing ruins a fine dinner at a good restaurant like an ALOOF waiter who makes the entire experience uncomfortable.

At the wedding reception, the bride's relatives were very ALOOF, hardly speaking to the groom's guests and family.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2008 Period 4,
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008 Period 11.2 AUSTERE (aw STEER) stern, as in manner; without excess, unadorned, severely simple and plain.
Memory Link: STEER--a plainly dressed steer at a fancy party

Jill's father was AUSTERE, rarely smiled and was always stern with her about having dates with boys that he didn't know.

The AUSTERITY of life in the village was understandable. Many were jobless and evidence of poverty was everywhere.

Her home was AUSTERELY decorated, very plain furniture without frills and only items that were necessary.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008
1.3 BULWARK (BULL wurk) a defensive wall; something literal or figurative serving as a principal defense.
Memory Link: BULL WORK--bulls working to build a wall

Quebec City is the only city in North America with a BULWARK built entirely around it.

The budget for national defense is an economic burden for all taxpayers, but we must never forget our armed services are the BULWARK of defense for the nation.

Our mother was a BULWARK against bad times; no matter how bad things became, she always wore a smile and had a cheerful word.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008
1.4 CACOPHONY (kuh KAFH uh nee) harsh sounds.
Memory Link: COUGH--a bunch of smokers hacking and coughing in a smoking lounge
A CACOPHONY isn't noise alone, it is disturbing noise such as when people shout all at once.

Gene thinks all rock music is a CACOPHONY to be avoided whenever possible.

An unpleasant CACOPHONY of sound was produced when the orchestra tuned their instruments. But once they began to play together the sounds became euphonious.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 20, 2008
1.5 CEREBRAL (suh REE brul) of or relating to the brain; an intellectual person
Memory Link: CEREAL--a skinny little boy eating his Cheerios to be a smart guy like his dad

CEREBRAL for a football player, the wily Kansas quaterback rarely called a play that wasn't well planned and thought out.

Dr. Clark was too CEREBRAL to be a boy scout leader. Instead of saying "pitch your tents overy by the cliff," he would confuse everyone with his big words and say, "construct the canvas shelters in the proxity of the promonotory."

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008
1.6 CONNOISSEUR (kahn uh SUR) an expert, particularly in matters of art and taste
Memory Link: KING OF THE SEWER--the rat, king of the sewer, examining all the great garbage to eat
My uncle is a CONNOISSEUR of fine wines.

Art dealer, Jorge Guizar, is a CONNOISSEUR of Mexican art of the 19th century.

When it came to coins, Jerry proclaimed he was a CONNOISSEUR, because he had collected them all his life.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2008
1.7 FORBEAR (for BAYR) to refrain from; to abstain; to be patient or tolerant
Memory Link: FOUR BEARS--forbear from feeding the four begging bears at Jellystone Park
To FORBEAR your opinion on any controversial matter until you have first heard all of the facts is generally the wisest course of action.

Jonathan said his motto was to never FORBEAR a good party for another time when you can have one today.

Henry FORBORE his decision to close the store, deciding to wait until after the Christmas season.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2008
1.8 INCONGRUOUS (in KAHN grew us) not appropriate, unsuited to the surroundings; not fitting in
Memory Link: IN CONGRESS--the Alaskan senator wearing a fur cap, a jacket with fringe, knee high boots and a a bowie knife around his well dressed colleagues

Ed appeared INCONGRUOUS wearing his tuxedo to on an old-fashioned hayride.

The INCONGRUITY with Joseph's chosen career was that he had a Ph.D in chemistry, but preferred to work as a mullet fisherman.

INCONGRUOUSLY, Dianne speant several days a week at the library, even though she professed that she didn't like to read.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2008
1.9 LAMENT (la MINT) to express sorrow or regret; to mourn
Memory Link: CEMENT--mobsters mourning the burying of a friend in cement shoes

The song, "Cowboy's LAMENT," is a ballad about the lonely life of those who drive cattle for a living.

The nation LAMENTS the passing of the President while at the same time celebrating his achievements while in office.

It is LAMENTABLE that Roscoe quit college in his sophomore year; his professors considered hime the brightest engineering student in his class.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2008
1.10 LANGUISH (lang GWISH) to become weak or feeble: sag with loss of strength.
Memory Link: LAND FISH--a fish walking in the desert

An outdoorsman all his life, Mr. Franklin quickly LANGUISHED in his job as a night watchman.

It was so hot in the theatre, Charolotte soon began to LANGUISH.

(To LANGUISH is to be LANGUID) The fish in the aquarium hardly stirred, moving LANGUIDLY when they moved at all.

YOUR DICTIONARY WORD OF THE UNITMONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2008
1.11 ORATOR:
Memory Link:

Please write three sentences using the following derivatives of the words: ORATE, ORATION, ORATOR

Idea & Content Writing Excercise

2011-08-31T09:05:00.000-05:00

Special thanks to http://www.writersdigest.com/WritingPrompts/ for this material.

Rewrite a nursery rhyme (Three Blind Mice, Jack and Jill, etc.) from a character's point of view.
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

If you could take a trip anywhere in the world where would it be and why?
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

Write a 26-line poem using all the letters of the alphabet, where the first line starts with the letter "A," the second "B," the third "C," etc., culminating with the final line starting with "Z."
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

You bump into an ex-lover on Valentine's Day—the one whom you often call "The One That Got Away." What happens?
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

What was the first CD (or record or cassette) you ever purchased? Write about the way that particular album made you feel then. Write about how it makes you feel now.
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

You were recently laid off. Instead of moping around, you've viewed it as a chance to start fresh. Pick a new career and write about your first day on the job.
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

What's your number one pet peeve? Develop a punishment for anyone caught in the act.
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

Take a character from one of your stories and examine his or her ipod playlist. What 10 songs best describe the character?
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

You're at a U2 concert when you receive a text from a friend that says, "You'll never believe what just happened to me!" In the form of a text chat, find out what happened to your friend.
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

What's the worst present you've ever received? How did you react and what, ultimately, did you do with the gift?
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

A man buys a parrot, and is horrified when he discovers the only thing it can say is, “If you ever tell anyone what you saw, I’ll kill you.” (submitted by Khara House)
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

You've been hired by a bumper sticker manufacturer to come up with ideas. Write a clever or witty phrase you'd love to see on a bumper sticker. (If you want, write several.)
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

You head to the mall for some holiday shopping and, just as you're about to park, someone steals your parking spot. Do you do something for revenge or do you stay in the holiday spirit and not let it bother you—and let karma do the dirty work?
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

If you had to choose between yesterday and tomorrow, which would you pick and why?
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

You're cleaning out your garage and, hidden away in a back corner, you find an old shoebox. The box is heavier than it should be. When you open it up, you find cash—$40,000, to be exact. Where did the cash come from, who hid it there and why?
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

You're walking through a cemetery and you pass the grave of a World War II veteran. Write a scene from his life story.
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

You're taking a business trip and, as luck would have it, you're upgraded to first class—something you've never done before. As you sit down in your new, more comfortable chair, you notice that the person sitting next to you is a famous musician. Write this scene.
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

Thinking back to your childhood and the many Halloween costumes you wore, which costume was your favorite and why?
You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here

PEER BIOGRAPHY SPEAKER'S KIT

2011-08-30T22:13:00.000-05:00

Putting the Pieces Together

You've given your Mobile Speech and probably have learned who in your small group is your partner. Now it's time to put your first prepared speech for the entire class together. You'll remember the picture of the crazy tree from class? One branch grew watermelons, one branch grew cherries, one branch grew plums and one branch grew cherries. Remember?

Well, that's a comparison of a good speech and a good piece of writing. Each main point is like one of the tree branches. Although each branch grows fruit, it is a different type of fruit (a main point). Your job is to choose the two best pieces of fruit (supporting information stories) for that main point. Remember, it's your job to choose THE BEST fruit for your audience. Whenever, we speak, we are preparing something for someone else to eat (hear/process).

Use the skills of delving, open ended questioning, wait time, rephrasing and rapport skills to gather the other stories you need to harvest the best pieces from this tree (person).

Here are the pieces that you will need to be eligible to speak:

Checklist and PreSpeaking Block.doc

Peer Biography Checklist & GP SP AAS.doc

Teacher Peer Biography Evaluation Sheet.doc

Peer Biography Student Self Evaluation.doc

Here is what you will be allowed to carry up to the podium with you. Your partner will sit to your right. Go the link below the picture for a full page electronic version of this.

CLICK HERE for Graphic Organizer Large Note Card for Peer Biography Speech.doc

An Explanation and Examples of Clinchers

2011-08-29T04:03:00.000-05:00

Types of Clinchers:

1. Appeal to Specific Audience Action(s) or Actuation

Some argue that all communication is persuasive. If persuasion is the act of changing or reinforcing a belief, an attitude or a value, few could effectively argue otherwise. Actuation or an appeal to audience action is a vital part of any overtly persuasive speech. Often this appeal occurs in the conclusion of a speech or at least is restated there.
An effective appeal for action comes in the conclusion of this speech on the dangers of light trucks, vans, and minivans:

"The government and the industry are not looking out for us; we must protect ourselves. So often we take our mode of transportation for granted. We can no longer afford to be so foolish, especially when the price could be our lives. Only by examining the inherent dangers in these vehicles and who is responsible for them can we begin to establish safer transportation for everyone. So as you head home tonight look at the light truck you are in or those light trucks on the road beside you, consider what little protection there is, buckle up, and hope for a safe trip home."
Combining a call to action with a reference to his introduction, another speaker urged his audience to act on the issue of pesticide control. Note how the speaker uses fragments effectively to plant thoughts:

"The Pied Piper fooled his prey. We are also being fooled. Fooled by the Federal Government and fooled by chemical lawn spray companies. There is no reason that 800 people should die or 800,000 people injured every year as a result of these chemical poisonings. One brief letter. One small action. These can help better insure that we are not led to our unsuspecting injuries or deaths. Meagan Connelley recovered from her chemical poisoning. Bur now she must hide from the Pied Piper of Pesticides as he plays on. She can only hope that legislation will be enacted to provide better control over the use of these pesticides in our lawns. For Meagan's sake, and for our own personal safety, can't we be that hope?"

Speeches classes and teachers have been notorious in using "write your congressman/woman" as a means of actuation. This is an effective appeal. However, audiences of today have grown accustomed to many requests for action. These range from buying a product on television to opening a piece of "junk mail." The effective speaker offers his/her audience a buffet of possible actions which reflect the audience member's commitment to the issue. In a speech on environmental awareness and recycling, one speaker effectively chose the following clincher statement for her audience:

"Our landfills are filling up at a record-breaking pace. Our water is being polluted intentionally and unintentionally. Each of us can do small things to protect our environment for those that follow. What can each of us to help protect our environment? There's plenty of choices for each of us.
The most obvious is to not litter in our community. Even the best of us is guilty of occasionally littering. It is a sad state of affairs when our quick personal needs infringe on the rights of others. Or the next time that the convenient store clerk tries to place two items in a sack, carry them in hand. Or if the bagger at the superma rket asks you "paper" or "plastic" choose paper. Paper biodegrades in landfills much more quickly than plastic.
The same is true for protecting our water supply. Take, for example, brushing your teeth in the morning. If everyone in the United States would simply fill up a glass of water vs. leaving the water running, we could preserve 26 million gallons of water a year. Paying attention to our cities and municipalities when it comes to watering our lawns in the dead heat of August, we would save almost 400 million gallons of water a year. Both of these require little effort on our part and imagine the benefits we could gain as a society.
And for those of you who really want to help in a more active way, please consider joining Green Peace. I have brought membership applications with me today and stamped envelopes. All you need to do is fill out the form and drop it in the mail in one of the stamped envelopes I'm providing this morning. As a member of Green Peace, 96% of your donation will be used to make our planet a cleaner place to live.
And for those of you who want to really help out in our community, please join us this Saturday morning as we take our turn in walking a two-mile stretch of highway and cleaning up the mess that others have left for our children. We always have donuts and coffee for our volunteers--bring your own cup--and usually go do something fun after we're done. This weekend we'll be going to see the movie Pay It Forward.
Only with a strong commitment from individuals, single households and citizens with good conscience can we stop this problem once and for all.
One wise man said that 'the environment is not ours, we are borrowing it from our children." For our children's sake, I hope you join this worthwhile cause."

This speaker has given the audience all kinds of choices in the above clincher. She has made the choices easy for members of her audience to choose depending on his/her level of commitment. There are also some "hidden" or "implied" benefits to adopting the speaker's plan of action. One is a relief from "cognitive dissonance" or the guilt we might feel for our own poor choices in the past. Another is the chance to become a part of a valued group.

Although writing our congressman/woman or senator are still important with some issues, there are other more "meaty" and realistic ways to use actuation.

Depending on audience, occasion, and your own interests and purposes, you can effectively and memorably end your speech by drawing on an effective clincher.

2. Reference to the Introduction: Bookends

Reference to the Introduction. In our discussion of closure, we mentioned referring to the introduction as a way to end a speech. "Finishing a story begun in the introduction, answering a rhetorical question posed in the introduction, or reminding the audience of the startling fact or statistic you presented in the introduction is each an excellent way to provide closure. Like bookends at either side of a group of books on your desk, a related introduction and conclusion provide unified support for the ideas in the middle."

The following speaker's topic dealt with personal problems caused by the current farm crisis. She had opened her speech with an illustration of an Iowan named Dale Burr, whose anguish had led to a murder-suicide. Her conclusion was this:

"Just think . . . if someone had helped Dale Burr cope with the stress he was facing, maybe he and three others might not have died on that cold December day."

Another speaker had begun his speech on the need for catastropic health insurance by quoting Robert Browning an explaining the significance of the quotation to the audience:

"Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made."
He concluded his speech by referring to that Browning quotation which by that time in the speech had gained a new significance to the audience. His clincher statement was:

"Robert Browning tells us the last of life is as precious as the first. While the future will always hold uncertainty, with catastrophic health insurance we can more fully prepare for whatever is yet to be."
A third speaker had introduced his speech by talking about the downfalls inevitably suffered by the heroes of Greek mythology. He drew an analogy between the risks they faced and the risks inherent in the use of antibiotics-the dangers of overuse. Here is how that speaker ended his speech:

"The demise of Medusa carries with it one final message. With her death, Perseus received two drops of blood. One drop had the power to kill and spread evil; the other, to heal and restore well-being. Similarly, antibiotics offer us two opposite paths. As we painfully take stock in our hubris, in assuming that we can control the transformation of nature, we may ponder these two paths. We can either let antibiotics do the work of our immune systems and proper farm management which may return us to the times when deathly plagues spread across the world, or we can save these miracle drugs for the times when miracles are truly needed."

3. Inspirational Appeal or Challenge
Although summarizing a speech is a fairly straightforward task, reemphasizing the thesis in a memorable way, motivating the audience to respond, and providing effective closure to the speech may require more creative thinking and planning.
Any of the methods of introduction discussed earlier can help you conclude your speech.

Startling statistics, startling facts and a fear appeal are used in this conclusion on emissions from motor vehicles:

"I'm frightened. Frightened that nothing I could say would encourage the 25% of emissions tampering Americans to change their ways and correct the factors that cause their autos to pollute disproportionately. Frightened that the American public will not respond to a crucial issue unless the harms are both immediate and observable. Frightened that the EPA will once again prove very sympathetic to industry. Three simple steps will alleviate my fear: inspection, reduction in lead content, and, most importantly, awareness."

Quotations, for example, are frequently used in conclusions, as in this speech on geographical illiteracy:

"For in the words of Gilbert Grosvener, President of the National Geographic Society, 'A knowledge of geography-where you are in relation to the rest of the world is essential for an understanding of history, economics and politics. Without it, the prospects of world peace and cooperation, as well as a grasp of human events is beyond our reach. With it, we not only understand others, but we can berter understand ourselves.'"

You may also turn to illustrations, personal references, or any of the other methods of introduction to conclude your speech. Go back and look at them. Although considering audience, purpose and occasion are vital, you are really only limited by your own imagination. "The sky's the limit."

Guided Practice: Supporting a Literary Analysis Theme in HARRISON BERGERON

2011-08-27T16:31:00.009-05:00

Harrison Bergeron Themes

The following are acceptable themes that Vonnegut pursues in his short story, HARRISON BERGERON. Do your best to find FIVE explainers, pieces of dialogue, literature to support this as a valid LITERARY ANALYSIS.

Freedom
As a theme, freedom remains in the background of the story, emerging when Harrison escapes from jail. In the story's futuristic society, freedom is no longer a bedrock American value; enforcing the law that makes those who are "above normal'' equal to those who are "normal" has become the major social value. Forced equality by handicapping the above-normal individuals evolved as a response to the demonized concept of competition (which existed in ‘‘the dark ages’’) in all its possible forms. Vonnegut suggests that freedom can be taken away relatively easily, especially since the forced equality in the story has been authorized by Amendments to the Constitution.

Civil Rights
Civil rights have become extinct in "Harrison Bergeron.’’ The culture values mediocrity to the point that the people accept oppressive measures in the name of equality. Ironically, no one really benefits from these misguided attempts to enforce equality, except perhaps the incompetent, such as the television announcer who, "like all announcers, had a serious speech impediment.’’ In Hazel's words, the announcer's incompetence should be forgiven because his attempt is "the big thing. He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard.’’ Should anyone in that society dare to become above average, he or she is immediately punished, as is Harrison, who is executed for shunning mediocrity and attempting to excel. By creating a society where the goal of equality has resulted in a grotesque caricature of humanity, Vonnegut implies that individual civil rights should never be sacrificed, not even for the alleged common good.

Knowledge and Ignorance
Everyone above average in any way has been forced by the government to bear a physical handicap that makes him or her "normal." People who are more intelligent or knowledgeable than the average person have had their knowledge subverted by such devices as the mental handicap ear radio. This device emits various noises every twenty seconds or so to prevent people from taking "unfair advantage of their brains." "Normal" in the story can best be described as subnormal, incompetent, and ignorant. Hazel is a case in point; as a normal person, she wears no handicaps, and she has a good heart, yet she knows very little about anything and cannot remember what she just saw or heard a moment ago. At the end of the story, she takes literally George's intensifying statement, ‘‘You can say that again,’’ by repeating what she just said. Vonnegut suggests that an authoritarian government thrives on the ignorance of the people and on the suppression of intelligence and knowledge.

Law and Order
In addition to the critique of authoritarian government in the form of the Handicapper General agents (H-G men), Vonnegut discusses the ways in which the Handicapper General uses the fear of competition to make obeying the laws an ethical decision. Hazel feels sorry for George, who has to wear forty-seven pounds of birdshot around his neck, so she invites him to lighten his load. He rejects the idea of cheating (breaking the law) with a recital of the punishment: "two years in prison and two thousand dollars for every [lead birdshot] ball'' taken out. He continues by describing the bandwagon effect: other people would try to break the law if George could do so. He asserts that backsliding would result in a return ‘‘to the dark ages, with everybody competing against everybody else.’’ Cheating on laws, George claims (or is about to claim when a siren blast through his mental handicap radio shatters his concentration), would reduce society to chaos. Here, Vonnegut satirizes the fear of change and of uncertainty: victims of the oppressive law want to enforce it rather than take their chances without it.

Strength and Weakness
One of the implied reasons Harrison may want to overthrow the government has to do with strength and weakness. He recognizes the inequality of forcing strong people (those mentally, intellectually, and physically strong) to give up their strength for an orderly society of equal, law-abiding citizens. Of course, the enforcers of the law do not have to submit to forced equality themselves; they have no handicaps, which could signify their inherent mediocrity, as does the implied physical resemblance of Hazel to Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General herself. Vonnegut shows what extraordinary strength can do: defy the laws of gravity and motion. But Vonnegut also shows that strength can be used to oppress the weak, even in the name of protecting the weak against the excesses of the strong.

Ubermensch (‘‘Superman’’)
The idea of the superhuman materializes in the character of Harrison. Though only fourteen-years-old, at seven feet tall with a high intellect, he exceeds the physical and intellectual abilities of anyone else in the story. Likewise, his physical appearance, judged by the kinds of handicaps he must wear, suggests an Adonis-like figure. His handicaps include thick, wavy-lens spectacles; a red rubber clown nose; and snaggle-tooth black caps for his teeth. His natural abilities do not make him immortal, however; like other human beings, he can die from an antiquated weapon like the ten-gauge double-barreled shotgun of Diana Moon Glampers. Harrison's attempt to assert his authority neither lasts long nor has any real effect on anyone. Truly befitting the superman concept, he declares himself emperor, "a greater ruler than any man who ever lived’’ (even with his handicaps). He does not recognize, however, his human flaw: replacing one authoritarian government with another. Like so many other revolutions, Harrison's short-lived attempt to overthrow the ruthless totalitarianism that has become the American government becomes totalitarian itself. Vonnegut suggests that power, whether invested in the government or in the individual figure, corrupts.

American Dream
The American Dream, best described as upward social and economic class mobility through hard work and education has become an American Nightmare in "Harrison Bergeron.'' No one, except the Handicapper General agents, can achieve upward mobility, either because they bear artificial handicaps or because they are naturally mediocre. In a scheme that brings anyone who is above normal in any aspect down to the level of a person who is normal in all aspects, no one can dream about moving upward.

Media Influence
Vonnegut suggests the powerful influence of broadcast media in the story. Radio is the medium of the mental handicap noises used to prevent anyone with the ability to think from doing so. But television accomplishes the same thing for normal people like Hazel, who ‘‘had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts.’’ This lack of concentration has come to be known as short attention span, or attention deficit disorder. Many critics credit television for the decreasing attention span of the population. They also suggest television programming desensitizes people to real life, in part because it requires nothing of the viewer. Significantly, approximately five months before publication of the story in 1961, Newton Minow, new chair of the Federal Communications Commission (a government agency that regulates broadcast media), called television a "vast wasteland'' of mediocrity in programming. Vonnegut suggests the importance of television as a means of controlling information by having Harrison Bergeron take over the television studio and proclaim himself emperor. Vonnegut also shows the numbing influence of television by having Hazel forget what she has seen—her son's killing—even though she reacts by recognizing that something sad has happened.

The Essential Question in English 10A: START HERE

2011-08-26T04:30:00.000-05:00

10A Important words within the ESSENTIAL QUESTION FOR THIS COURSE

es•sen•tial [i sénshəl] ADJECTIVE

1. necessary: of the highest importance for achieving something "It's essential that we arrive on time." "an essential ingredient"; 2. basic: being the most basic element or feature of something or somebody "reinforcing the essential organizational framework" ; 3. defining: constituting the property or characteristic of something that makes it what it is

self-i•den•ti•ty [sĕlfˌī-dĕnˈtĭ-tē] NOUN

1. Oneness of a thing with itself. 2. Awareness of and identification with oneself as a separate individual.|

in•teg•ri•ty [in téggrətee ] NOUN|
1. possession of firm principles: the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards; 2. completeness: the state of being complete or undivided ( formal ) "the territorial integrity of the nation" ; 3. wholeness: the state of being sound or undamaged ( formal ) "public confidence in the integrity of the voting process"

char•ac•ter [kárrəktər] NOUN

1. distinctive qualities: the set of qualities that make somebody or something distinctive, especially somebody's qualities of mind and feeling "It's just not in my character to behave that way." ; 2. positive qualities: qualities that make somebody or something interesting or attractive "an old house full of character"; 3. reputation: somebody's public reputation "an attack on his good character that ended in court"; 4. unusual person: somebody with an unusual or eccentric personality; 5. individual: somebody considered in terms of personality, behavior, or appearance "a flamboyant character"

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

What Is an Essential Question?

Your literature studies in this English 10A course are aimed at answering an essential question for you and for us in your independent study. This might be new to you. As a member of our learning community, we value each learner’s contribution to our collective learning. You have a responsibility to your own learning and what you learn becomes valuable to the learning of the larger group.

When learning with an essential question, you have to think critically. Instead of simply looking up answers, you must study, conduct independent research based on what interests you, you must think, and create original answers that are meaningful to you. An essential question:

1. provokes deep thought.

2. solicits information-gathering and evaluation of data.

3. results in an original answer.

4. helps students conduct problem-related research.

5. makes students produce original ideas rather than predetermined answers.

6. may not have an answer.

7. encourages critical thinking not just memorization of facts.
This term we will be focusing on the following essential question:

How does one find and preserve one’s self-identity, integrity & character amidst life’s challenges?

We will begin to construct new understandings of this concept by exploring our personal definition and understanding of self-identity, integrity and character.

DIRECTIONS: The “PIECES OF ME” Essay is designed to be a writing pretest but also a first snapshot of your own “self-identity”, integrity and character. You will use your “PIECES OF ME” in-class writing as a brainstorming piece for the SELF-IDENTITY BOXES that will take this a step further.

For this portion of the study, you must find 5 objects that define your self-identity, your integrity and your character. These objects must show a deeper, symbolic understanding of who you are. They must NOT be literal representations of your interests or personality.

For example, if you love baseball and play every day, DO NOT include a baseball in your bag or PowerPoint. This would be a literal (exact, straightforward) definition of who you are. If you are
passionate about music, do NOT include an iTunes card in your bag. This only focuses on your interests—not how you see yourself.

Please look beyond what you do with your time and look into who you really are, what you stand for, what you believe, your culture, and more. Please look at the definitions at the top of the unit menu. Think about the questions that were used to prompt your PIECES OF ME Essay:

• What experiences in your life help to define you?

• Is there one moment or event in your life that defines you?

• Which word or words best describe you?

• Do you have strong opinions on certain subjects?

• Do you have guiding principles that you live by?

• Have you ever been treated differently by others for any reason?

One example of a strong choice would be a scrap of metal. You could explain that throughout your life you have been strong and rigid, able to stand up under great emotional and physical burdens. Note the

symbolic and figurative (metaphorical, emblematic) nature of this choice. You will be sharing your objects with your classmates and writing about the connection between these objects and your identity. Make sure to have a valid justification for WHY you chose this object.

FORMAT: You can present your objects in one of the following ways:

• A PowerPoint Presentation (must be eventually sent to Mr. McLaughlin; must have 5 different slides with a picture of your symbol with a short paragraph included that explains how your selection symbolizes a piece of your identity)

• Bag of artifacts (you must bring a bag that contains your items, which must have a short paragraph attached to each item that explains how this item symbolizes a piece of your identity. This bag of objects must be photographed and the photographs need to be sent to Mr. McLaughlin.)

The Frayer Model: A Concept, Definition, Vocabulary Learning Strategy

2011-08-25T05:22:00.000-05:00

Frayer Model
Word Categorization

The Frayer Model is a type of graphic organizer that helps students develop relationships and categories associated with vocabulary. It provides students an opportunity to explain and elaborate with examples their understandings of a concept, issue or word. The concept or word is entered into the central circle and supporting examples, explanations, etc and written into the boxes. The example below uses categories of definition, characteristics, examples and non-examples. This can be modified with other categories appropriate to the concept.
Here is an example of a Frayer Model as it might be used in a math class to learn the concept of "Democracy":

Here is an example of a Frayer Model as it might be used in a math class to learn the concept of "Composite Number":

Here is an example of a Frayer Model used to understand the idea behind a sonnet in an English class:

Purposes of the Introduction

2011-08-25T04:22:00.000-05:00

Purposes for Good Introductions:Introducing Your Topic/Subject Quickly
1. Introduce/Reveal the Topic of the Speech

Introduce the Subject. Perhaps the most obvious purpose of an introduction is to introduce the subject of a speech. Within a few seconds after you begin your speech, the audience should have a pretty good idea of what your speech topic. Do not get so carried away with jokes or illustrations that you forget this basic purpose. There is not much point in telling a joke or a story and thcn failing I to relate it to your topic. Few things will frustrate your audience more than having to wait through half your speech before figuring out what you are talking about!
The best way to ensure that your introduction does indeed introduce the subject of your speech is to include a statement of your central idea in the introduction. In the introduction to a speech on geriatric medicine, the speaker left little room for doubt about the subject of her speech: After opening the speech with an illustration about her grandfather's poor health care at the hands of a doctor who misdiagnosed the disease, the speaker said that:

"Doctors have simply not been provided with proper medical training in the care of the elderly."
In a speech on the importance of listening, another speaker offered this statement of her central idea near the end of her introduction:

"Listening is the interpretation and evaluation of what we hear. Today I'd like to talk about listening…"
In both cases, the speakers made certain that the subjects of their speeches were announced in the introductions.

In short, don't get so carried away with trying to open with an interesting, creative, empathetic, or funny introduction that you forget the foremost purpose of the introduction: It should introduce the subject of your speech.

2. Gain Favorable Attention

Gain Favorable Attention. You are exposed to countless verbal messages every day, both from the media and from other people. For you to focus on anyone message, something about it has to grab your attention and put you in a receptive mood. So a second purpose of the speech introduction is to gain favorable attention for your speech. This concept is called several different names including attention getter, lead and hook.

Think about how long it takes you to decide whether to watch the channel you're on or to surf further. Think about how long it takes your parents to sort through junk mail. The people who design these mailings spend millions of dollars on "favorability gimmicks" to get their audience to read. Think about how long it takes you to decide if today's class is going to be fun or a bust.

Because listeners form their first impressions of the speech quickly, if the introduction does not capture their attention and cast the speech in a favorable light, the rest of the speech may be wasted on them. The speaker who walks to the podium and drones, "Today I am going to talk to you about. . ." has probably lost most of the audience in those first few boring words. Your peers will be discussing some of the ways to specifically gain favorable attention. Most people can be "hooked" by a good illustration, humor, a startling fact or statistic, or one of the other methods we will discuss. Why do we emphasize favorable attention? For one very good reason. It is possible to grab an audience's attention but in so doing to alienate them or disgust them so that they become irritated instead of interested in what you have to say. For example, a student began an anti abortion speech with a graphic description of the abortion process. She caught her audience's attention but made them so uncomfortable that they could hardly concentrate on the rest of her speech.

Another student gave a speech on the importance of donating blood. Without a word, he began by savagely slashing his wrists in front of his stunned audience. As blood spurted, audience members screamed, and one fainted. It was real blood, but not his. The speaker worked at a blood bank. Using the bank's blood, he placed a device under each arm that allowed him to pump out the blood as if from his wrists. He certainly grabbed his audience's attention! But they never heard his message. The shock and disgust of seeing such a display made that impossible. He did not gain favorable attention.

3. Preview the Body of the Speech

Preview the Body of the Speech. The second purpose of a speech introduction is to preview the main ideas of your speech. As you saw in Chapter 8, the preview statement usually comes near the end of the introduction, often immediately following a statement of the central idea. It outlines for the audience what the main ideas of your speech will be. The preview statement "tells them what you're going to tell them." It allows your listeners to anticipate the main ideas of your speech, which in turn helps ensure that they will remember those ideas after the speech. After opening with an illustration, a speaker talking about political prisoners of conscience offered this preview statement:

"I'll begin with a definition of a prisoner of conscience. I'll present a rough outline as to their numbers and locations. I'll examine some of the reasons for their abuse; and finally, I'll offer some solutions to ease their suffering."

This preview statement makes clear to the audience what the main points of the speech are going to be.

An effective introduction not only introduces the subject of the speech, but it also previews the main ideas that will be presented in the body of the speech.

4. Motivate the Audience to Listen--Relevance

Establish a Motivation or Relevance for Listening. Even after you have captured the attention of your audience, you have to give them some reason to want to listen to the rest of your speech. An unmotivated listener quickly tunes out. You can help establish listening motivation by showing the members of your audience how the topic affects them directly.
Relevance is the concept that listeners will be most attentive to information that affects them directly. Relevance is important in introductions because most people decide very quickly if a presentation applies to them and their lives. "This concerns me" is a powerful reason to listen. Notice how this speaker involves her audience with the problem of toxic silver dental fillings:

"It's estimated that 90% of the American population has silver fillings. That's some 225 million Americans with mercury in their teeth. Because this number is so large and many of us are counted in this number, I'd like to tell you about mercury, the toxic poison, and show you why we must escape its contamination."

Yes, the significance of the statistics is attention-getting, but it also motivates her audience to listen further by pointing out their personal susceptibility to the potential dangers.
After introducing the problem of unfair political asylum, another speaker observed:

At this point, you are probably asking yourself:

"Why should I be concerned about a problem involving only foreigners?" First of all, our government makes the decisions--it represents us. As a nation, we assumed the responsibility of political asylum. Therefore, we must deal with it, however complex. Finally and most importantly, the problem deserves our attention, because the policy serves humanity. We know that it is only right to correct the inconsistencies within the system."
In this passage, the speaker made an impersonal problem-political asylum-morally relevant to her listeners. She motivated her audience by placing on them a burden of personal responsibility; she told them why the problem-should be of interest to them. Demonstrating that your topic is of vital personal concern to your audience is an effective motivator.

5. Establish Credibility

Establish Your Credibility. Credibility is the attitude listeners hold toward a
speaker. A credible speaker is one whom the audience judges to be a believable authority and a competent speaker. A credible speaker is also someone the audience believes in and can trust.

You should be mindful of your listeners' attitude toward you. When thinking of your listeners, ask yourself, "Why should they listen to me? What is my background with respect to the topic? Am I personally committed to the issues about which I am going to speak?" Many people have so much admiration for a political or religious figure, an athlete, or an entertainer that they sacrifice time, energy, and money to be members of an audience to which one of these admired persons is speaking. When Pope John Paul II came to the United States during the summer of 1987, people traveled great distances and stood for hours in intense heat to celebrate Mass with him.

Most people cannot take their own credibility for granted when they speak. If you can establish your credibility early in the speech, it will help motivate your audience to listen. One way to build credibility in the introduction is to be well prepared and to appear confident. Speaking fluently while maintaining eye contact does much to convey a sense of confidence. If you seem to have confidence in yourself, your audience will have confidence in you. A second way to establish credibility is to tell the audience of your personal experience with your topic. If you are an expert on your topic, don't let modesty keep you from letting the audience know. Instead of considering you as boastful, most audience members will listen to you with respect. Notice how the following speaker opened his speech on Boy Scouting:

"I come before you today representing one out of fifteen million people in over 67 countries throughout the world who belong to a very special organization, an organization designed I to help prepare youth for their future life. The organization is Boy Scouting, the world's best known youth movement."
Learning that the speaker was someone who was actively involved in scouting undoubtedly helped motivate the audience to listen to his point of view. Another student opened her speech with this personal illustration:

"Within the last year, two members of my family were diagnosed by their doctors as having skin cancer, caused by the sun. In my mother's case, she had purposefully, although naively subjected herself to the sun, laying out, tanning in tanning salons, etc. In my, grandmother's case, she was diagnosed by her doctor as having skin cancer from her I normal exposure to the sun. This woman had never sought the sun. Both of these cases made me realize that even though I don't subject myself as my mother does; I certainly get more unintentional exposure than my grandmother. So, I came face to face with the fact that I too could contract this disease."

Because she revealed her personal involvement with the topic, the speaker undoubtedly gained authority in the eyes of her audience. Her listeners would probably say to themselves, "She really knows what she's talking about." By enhancing her own credibility, the speaker established a strong motivation for the audience to listen to her.

A speaker should not take for granted some variables in his or her control. One of these considerations is personal appearance. Like it or not, how we dress plays a role in how people listen to us. Take, for example, the student who shows up in tattered jeans and a "holey" t-shirt to talk about a serious social issue. It might be difficult for the most objective listener to fully overlook this type of dress. The person simply hasn't considered how he/she is presenting themself. In like fashion, take the example of the man who shows up in a full suit to apply for a job in dry-wall installation. The foreman interviewing him and the other on-lookers might have quite a chuckle at his expense. Dressing for audience, occasion and purpose are always important considerations if the speaker is to be taken seriously.

The audience's speaking experience begins much sooner than when the first words come from the speaker's mouth. Some speakers underestimate their audience(s). Audiences are very observant and smart. By enlarge, they want speakers to succeed. However, certain behaviors seem to stick with the audience and their perception of the speaker.

Take, for example, the Olympic medal winner who was caught "picking his nose" in front of an auditorium of high school students before he spoke. Weeks after the speech when a teacher made reference to his speech, one of the students chimed in, "you mean the guy who kept picking his nose." Audiences use all sorts of information to judge a speaker. We need to be aware of our behavior and our dress when we are in front of an audience.

Speech introductions, then, should introduce the subject, preview the body of the speech, gain favorable attention for the speech, establish a motivation for listening, and establish your personal credibility. All this-- brevity too-may I seem impossible to achieve. But it isn't!

Purposes of a Good Introduction

2011-08-23T05:00:00.000-05:00

Purposes for Good Introductions

1. Introduce/Reveal the Topic of the Speech

Introduce the Subject. Perhaps the most obvious purpose of an introduction is to introduce the subject of a speech. Within a few seconds after you begin your speech, the audience should have a pretty good idea of what your speech topic. Do not get so carried away with jokes or illustrations that you forget this basic purpose. There is not much point in telling a joke or a story and thcn failing I to relate it to your topic. Few things will frustrate your audience more than having to wait through half your speech before figuring out what you are talking about!
The best way to ensure that your introduction does indeed introduce the subject of your speech is to include a statement of your central idea in the introduction. In the introduction to a speech on geriatric medicine, the speaker left little room for doubt about the subject of her speech: After opening the speech with an illustration about her grandfather's poor health care at the hands of a doctor who misdiagnosed the disease, the speaker said that:

"Doctors have simply not been provided with proper medical training in the care of the elderly."

In a speech on the importance of listening, another speaker offered this statement of her central idea near the end of her introduction:

"Listening is the interpretation and evaluation of what we hear. Today I'd like to talk about listening…"

In both cases, the speakers made certain that the subjects of their speeches were announced in the introductions.
In short, don't get so carried away with trying to open with an interesting, creative, empathetic, or funny introduction that you forget the foremost purpose of the introduction: It should introduce the subject of your speech.

2. Gain Favorable Attention

Gain Favorable Attention. You are exposed to countless verbal messages every day, both from the media and from other people. For you to focus on anyone message, something about it has to grab your attention and put you in a receptive mood. So a second purpose of the speech introduction is to gain favorable attention for your speech. This concept is called several different names including attention getter, lead and hook.

Think about how long it takes you to decide whether to watch the channel you're on or to surf further. Think about how long it takes your parents to sort through junk mail. The people who design these mailings spend millions of dollars on "favorability gimmicks" to get their audience to read. Think about how long it takes you to decide if today's class is going to be fun or a bust.

Because listeners form their first impressions of the speech quickly, if the introduction does not capture their attention and cast the speech in a favorable light, the rest of the speech may be wasted on them. The speaker who walks to the podium and drones, "Today I am going to talk to you about. . ." has probably lost most of the audience in those first few boring words. Your peers will be discussing some of the ways to specifically gain favorable attention. Most people can be "hooked" by a good illustration, humor, a startling fact or statistic, or one of the other methods we will discuss.

Why do we emphasize favorable attention? For one very good reason. It is possible to grab an audience's attention but in so doing to alienate them or disgust them so that they become irritated instead of interested in what you have to say. For example, a student began an anti abortion speech with a graphic description of the abortion process. She caught her audience's attention but made them so uncomfortable that they could hardly concentrate on the rest of her speech.

Another student gave a speech on the importance of donating blood. Without a word, he began by savagely slashing his wrists in front of his stunned audience. As blood spurted, audience members screamed, and one fainted. It was real blood, but not his. The speaker worked at a blood bank. Using the bank's blood, he placed a device under each arm that allowed him to pump out the blood as if from his wrists. He certainly grabbed his audience's attention! But they never heard his message. The shock and disgust of seeing such a display made that impossible. He did not gain favorable attention.

3. Preview the Body of the Speech

Preview the Body of the Speech. The second purpose of a speech introduction is to preview the main ideas of your speech. As you saw in Chapter 8, the preview statement usually comes near the end of the introduction, often immediately following a statement of the central idea. It outlines for the audience what the main ideas of your speech will be. The preview statement "tells them what you're going to tell them." It allows your listeners to anticipate the main ideas of your speech, which in turn helps ensure that they will remember those ideas after the speech. After opening with an illustration, a speaker talking about political prisoners of conscience offered this preview statement:

"I'll begin with a definition of a prisoner of conscience. I'll present a rough outline as to their numbers and locations. I'll examine some of the reasons for their abuse; and finally, I'll offer some solutions to ease their suffering."

This preview statement makes clear to the audience what the main points of the speech are going to be.

An effective introduction not only introduces the subject of the speech, but it also previews the main ideas that will be presented in the body of the speech.

4. Motivate the Audience to Listen--Relevance

Establish a Motivation or Relevance for Listening. Even after you have captured the attention of your audience, you have to give them some reason to want to listen to the rest of your speech. An unmotivated listener quickly tunes out. You can help establish listening motivation by showing the members of your audience how the topic affects them directly.
Relevance is the concept that listeners will be most attentive to information that affects them directly. Relevance is important in introductions because most people decide very quickly if a presentation applies to them and their lives. "This concerns me" is a powerful reason to listen. Notice how this speaker involves her audience with the problem of toxic silver dental fillings:

"It's estimated that 90% of the American population has silver fillings. That's some 225 million Americans with mercury in their teeth. Because this number is so large and many of us are counted in this number, I'd like to tell you about mercury, the toxic poison, and show you why we must escape its contamination."

Yes, the significance of the statistics is attention-getting, but it also motivates her audience to listen further by pointing out their personal susceptibility to the potential dangers.

After introducing the problem of unfair political asylum, another speaker observed:

At this point, you are probably asking yourself: "Why should I be concerned about a problem involving only foreigners?" First of all, our government makes the decisions--it represents us. As a nation, we assumed the responsibility of political asylum. Therefore, we must deal with it, however complex. Finally and most importantly, the problem deserves our attention, because the policy serves humanity. We know that it is only right to correct the inconsistencies within the system."

In this passage, the speaker made an impersonal problem-political asylum-morally relevant to her listeners. She motivated her audience by placing on them a burden of personal responsibility; she told them why the problem-should be of interest to them. Demonstrating that your topic is of vital personal concern to your audience is an effective motivator.

5. Establish Credibility

Establish Your Credibility. Credibility is the attitude listeners hold toward a
speaker. A credible speaker is one whom the audience judges to be a believable authority and a competent speaker. A credible speaker is also someone the audience believes in and can trust.

You should be mindful! of your listeners' attitude toward you. When thinking of your listeners, ask yourself, "Why should they listen to me? What is my background with respect to the topic? Am I personally committed to the issues about which I am going to speak?" Many people have so much admiration for a political or religious figure, an athlete, or an entertainer that they sacrifice time, energy, and money to be members of an audience to which one of these admired persons is speaking. When Pope John Paul II came to the United States during the summer of 1987, people traveled great distances and stood for hours in intense heat to celebrate Mass with him.

Most people cannot take their own credibility for granted when they speak. If you can establish your credibility early in the speech, it will help motivate your audience to listen. One way to build credibility in the introduction is to be well prepared and to appear confident. Speaking fluently while maintaining eye contact does much to convey a sense of confidence. If you seem to have confidence in yourself, your audience will have confidence in you. A second way to establish credibility is to tell the audience of your personal experience with your topic. If you are an expert on your topic, don't let modesty keep you from letting the audience know. Instead of considering you as boastful, most audience members will listen to you with respect. Notice how the following speaker opened his speech on Boy Scouting:

"I come before you today representing one out of fifteen million people in over 67 countries throughout the world who belong to a very special organization, an organization designed I to help prepare youth for their future life. The organization is Boy Scouting, the world's best known youth movement."

Learning that the speaker was someone who was actively involved in scouting undoubtedly helped motivate the audience to listen to his point of view. Another student opened her speech with this personal illustration:

"Within the last year, two members of my family were diagnosed by their doctors as having skin cancer, caused by the sun. In my mother's case, she had purposefully, although naively subjected herself to the sun, laying out, tanning in tanning salons, etc. In my, grandmother's case, she was diagnosed by her doctor as having skin cancer from her I normal exposure to the sun. This woman had never sought the sun. Both of these cases made me realize that even though I don't subject myself as my mother does; I certainly get more unintentional exposure than my grandmother. So, I came face to face with the fact that I too could contract this disease."

Because she revealed her personal involvement with the topic, the speaker undoubtedly gained authority in the eyes of her audience. Her listeners would probably say to themselves, "She really knows what she's talking about." By enhancing her own credibility, the speaker established a strong motivation for the audience to listen to her.

A speaker should not take for granted some variables in his or her control. One of these considerations is personal appearance. Like it or not, how we dress plays a role in how people listen to us. Take, for example, the student who shows up in tattered jeans and a "holey" t-shirt to talk about a serious social issue. It might be difficult for the most objective listener to fully overlook this type of dress. The person simply hasn't considered how he/she is presenting themself. In like fashion, take the example of the man who shows up in a full suit to apply for a job in dry-wall installation. The foreman interviewing him and the other on-lookers might have quite a chuckle at his expense. Dressing for audience, occasion and purpose are always important considerations if the speaker is to be taken seriously.

The audience's speaking experience begins much sooner than when the first words come from the speaker's mouth. Some speakers underestimate their audience(s). Audiences are very observant and smart. By enlarge, they want speakers to succeed. However, certain behaviors seem to stick with the audience and their perception of the speaker.

Take, for example, the Olympic medal winner who was caught "picking his nose" in front of an auditorium of high school students before he spoke. Weeks after the speech when a teacher made reference to his speech, one of the students chimed in, "you mean the guy who kept picking his nose." Audiences use all sorts of information to judge a speaker. We need to be aware of our behavior and our dress when we are in front of an audience.

Speech introductions, then, should introduce the subject, preview the body of the speech, gain favorable attention for the speech, establish a motivation for listening, and establish your personal credibility. All this-- brevity too-may I seem impossible to achieve. But it isn't!

Types of Attention Getters

2011-08-23T04:45:00.001-05:00

Types of Attention Getters, Leads, Hooks

1. Personal Reference

Personal Reference. A reference to yourself can take several forms. You may express appreciation at having been asked to speak. You may share a personal experience. Or you may reveal your authority on the subject of your speech.
British statesman Winston Churchill, whose mother was American, used this personal statement of appreciation to open his address to the U.S. Congress shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941:

"Members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives of the United States, I feel greatly honored that you should have invited me to enter the United States Senate Chamber and address the representatives of both branches of Congress.

The fact that my American forebears have for so many generations played their part in the life of the United States, and that here I am, an Englishman, welcomed in your midst, makes this experience one of the most moving and thrilling in my life, which is already long and has not been entirely uneventful.

I wish indeed that my mother, whose memory I cherish across the vale of years, could have been here to see. By the way, I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British, instead of the other way around, I might have got here on my own. In that case, this would not have been the first time you would have heard my voice. In that case, I should not have needed any invitation; but, if I had, it is hardly likely that it would have been unanimous. So perhaps things are better as they are."

Reminding his audience of his own American roots helped Churchill to establish a strong common bond on which he drew as he urged the cooperation of Congress in the war effort.

Here is an example of a personal anecdote meant to arouse audience empathy:

"As I was working my way through the public school system, I, like my peers, believed that I was receiving a fine education. I could read and write, and add and subtract-yes, all of the essentials were there. At least that's what I thought. And, then, the boom lowered: 'Attention class-your next assignment is to present an oral report at your paper in front of the class next week.'

My heart stopped. Panic began to rise up inside. Me? In front of thirty other fourth graders giving a speech? For the next five days I lived in dreaded anticipation of the forthcoming event. When the day finally arrived, I stayed home. It seemed at the rime to be the perfect solution to a very scary and very real problem. Up to that rime, I had never been asked to say a word in front of anyone, and, more importantly, had never been taught anything about verbal communication skills."

The third type of personal reference, that which establishes your authority, was illustrated earlier in this chapter by the introduction to the speech on Boy Scouting. In another example, a speaker draws on his military experience to establish his credibility:

"After 20 years in the army during peace and war, and after having made master sergeant twice and been busted back to buck private three rimes, I think I learned something about military discipline. Let me tell you, it's irrational."

Personal references, then, can serve a variety of purposes. But what they do most of all-in all circumstances-is establish a warm bond between you and your audience.

2. Rhetorical Questions, Q&A, Questions

Questions. When raising a question to open a speech, you will generally use a "rhetorical question," the kind you don't expect an answer to. Nevertheless, your listeners will probably try to answer mentally. Questions prompt the audience's thinking process. This speaker opened a speech on geographical illiteracy with a series of question:

"Can you name the states that border the Pacific Ocean? What country lies between Panama and Nicaragua? Can you name the Great Lakes?"

And another speaker opened his speech on teenage suicide with this simple question:

"Have you ever been alone in the dark?"

Using just one or two questions, though, is not enough. It is best to use a series of questions if used by themselves. Questions are commonly combined with another method of introduction. In fact, the last speaker went on to tell a poignant story about a young suicide victim and, after that, to relate some rather startling statistics about the problem. Another speaker opened a speech on the inadequacies of our current driver's license renewal system with three startling brief examples followed by a question:

"In 31 states a blind man can be licensed to drive. In 5 states, just send in your check and they will send back your renewed license, no questions asked.

In 1916 my grandfather got his license for the first time. No exam was required; no exam has been required since. Ever wonder why our highways seem a bit unsafe today?"

Either by themselves or in tandem with another method of introduction, questions can provide effective opening for speeches.

Attention Getters, Leads or Hooks:
Making the Audience Smile, Chuckle, Laugh

3. Humor

Humor, handled well, can be a wonderful attention getter. It can help
relax your audience and win their goodwill for the rest of the speech. The following anecdote, for example, could be used to open a speech on the importance of adequate life insurance:

"If you were to lose your husband," the insurance salesman asked the young wife, "what, would you get?" She thought for a moment, and then ventured: "A parakeet."

Humor need not always be the stuff of Drew Carey's "Whose Line is it Anyways?" routine or a Jim Carey slapstick comedy. It does not even have to be a joke. It may take more subtle forms, such as irony or incredulity. Here is another quietly humorous opening of a speech on deception in education:

"Sassafras Herbert proudly displays her certificate from the American Association of Dietary Consultants. This certificate entitles Herbert to a listing in the Official Directory of Nutrition and Dietary Consultants and special rates on malpractice insurance. She'll probably need those rates. Sassafras Herbert is an ll-year-old poodle."

Humor can be used in many circumstances and for many topics, but certain subjects do not lend themselves to a humorous introduction. It would hardly be appropriate to open a speech on teenage suicide, for example, with a funny story. Nor would it be appropriate to use humor in a talk on certain serious crimes. Used with discretion, however, humor can provide a lively, interesting, and appropriate introduction for many speeches.

4. Quotations/Using Explaining Famous Words on the Topic

Quotation Using an appropriate quotation to introduce a speech is a common practice. Often a past writer or speaker has expressed an opinion on your topic that is more authoritative, comprehensive, or better stated than what you can say. In a speech on the proliferation of "super babies," one speaker turned to Scripture to introduce her speech:

"'Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding, for the wisdom is more profitable than silver, and the gain she brings is better than gold.' This quotation, as taken from the New English Bible, Proverbs, Chapter III, is the cry that was uttered to the children of the earth. Today, the cries are coming. . . from the mouths of parents."

The passage quoted possesses both poetic beauty and scriptural authority, providing an interesting and effective introduction to the speech.

A different kind of quotation, this one from an expert, was chosen by another speaker to introduce a similar topic, the disappearance of childhood in America:

"As a distinctive childhood cultUre wastes away, we watch with fascination and dismay." This insight of Neil Postman, author of Disappearance of Childhood, raised a poignant point. Childhood in America is vanishing."

Because the expert was not widely recognized, the speaker included a brief statement of his qualifications. This authority "said it in a nutshell"--expressed in concise language the central idea of the speech.

It is vital that the speaker tie the quote to the topic if it is not so obvious. I'll never forget the speech where the young man began his speech in the following manner:

"'Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, and wealthy and wise.' Those of you with chips in the windshield of your car should get it taken care of immediately."

There are several questions that one should ask this student: (1) Is this the best attention getter for this topic?; (2) What does this quotation have to do with chipped windshields?; (3) Who said this? Speakers must explain the relevance of the quotation with the audience. They must also always tell the audience where the quote originated. If they don't, they are guilty of "academic dishonesty."

After asking these questions, the student came up with the following attention getter:

"'Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, and wealthy and wise.' I'll bet Ben Franklin never thought his quote would be used in a speech on car maintenance. When Franklin penned these words, he was really telling us to be more prepared and proactive in our daily lives. He was telling us that by being prepared for the unexpected, we really save ourselves lots of time and money. In 2005, one way to save your money is to make sure that you practice 'preventative maintenance' on your vehicles. Those nasty little chips in your windshield are one example of a small problem that can quickly become a large one if you're not careful."

Although a quote can effectively introduce a speech, do not fall into the lazy habit of turning to a collection of quotations every time you need an introduction. There are so many other interesting, and sometimes better, ways to introduce a speech that quotes should be used only if they are extremely interesting, compelling, or very much to the point.

5. Startling Statistic/Series of Facts

Startling Fact or Statistic. One method of introducing a speech is the use of a series of startling facts or statistics. Startling an audience with the extent of a situation or problem will invariably catch their attention as well as motivate them to listen further to what you have to say. This opening of a speech on teenage pregnancy must have caused the audience to sit up and take notice:

"There's a disease lurking in this country. A disease that quietly strikes one American teenager every 30 seconds--over one million a year. A disease that could be controlled . . . hasn't been; a disease that could be eliminated. . . isn't. It will affect 40 percent of today's 14-year-olds at least once before they reach 20. It's not contagious, not incurable; but once you catch it-you'll suffer from its effects for the rest of your life. What is it? The disease is teenage pregnancy."

The statistical information on teenage pregnancy is indeed startling. In addition, the speaker employed the technique of suspense, withholding the topic until she had relayed the statistics. Almost in spite of themselves, audience members must have found themselves guessing the cause of such alarming figures. And because they invested mental energy in thinking about the answer, the speaker had their attention. A similar example comes from a speech on the common cold:

"Americans get 500 million per year. This disease makes us lose 32 million days of work and makes us spend 105 million days in bed. We spend over 1 billion dollars in over the-counter drugs to help alleviate its symptoms, which include a sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, high temperature, and headaches. What is it? It is the oldest and most common ailment own to man-the common cold."

Like the methods of organization, the methods of introduction are not mutually exclusive. Very often, two or three are effectively combined in a single introduction. For example, the following speaker combined the methods of illustration and startling statistic for this effective introduction to a speech on geriatric medicine:

"Although my grandfather continued to struggle against dying, he did not go gentle into that good night. He died in an Arkansas hospital of what doctors officially termed as 'old age.'My grandfather was a member of one of the fastest growing groups in America: those over 65. Between the years 1900 and 1980, the number of people over 65 has tripled. By the year 2040, most of us will not be short of companions our age, because by then the elderly population will be at least 45%."

6. Illustration

Illustration. Not surprisingly, since it is the most inherently interesting type of supporting material, an illustration can provide the basis for an effective speech introduction. In fact, if you have an especially compelling anecdote that you had planned to use in the body of the speech, you might do well to use it instead in your introduction. A relevant story often effectively introduces a subject. An interesting illustration invariably gains an audience's attention. And a personal anecdote can help establish your credibility. Here is how one speaker opened a speech on the problems associated with diplomatic immunity:

"In 1982, Jane Doe was raped at gunpoint in her apartment. Three weeks after the incident, Ms. Holmes identified her offender as he walked down the street, and she then notified the New York police while her boyfriend subdued the man. After 45 minutes of questioning, Manuel Aryee, the accused assailant, was released a free man."

This story has drama, is relevant, and arouses the indignation of the audience. In short, it is an effective way to open the speech.An inherently poignant illustration was offered by this speaker in the opening of a speech on organ donation:

"On October 28, 2002, doctors told Jamie Fiske's grief stricken parents that their 11 month-old daughter could not survive until Thanksgiving. Jamie's hope lay in finding a suitable human liver donor. Only a liver transplant could save Jamie's life.

Some of you may remember the name, Jamie Fiske. You may even recall the dramatic televised appeal which her father, Charles Fiske, made to the American Academy of Pediatricians that day in October. For me, and I hope for some of you, the real hero of the Jamie Fiske saga was not the famous transplant surgeon but a baby boy named Jess Bellon. Why? Because less than a week after Charles Fiske's plea for an organ donor, Jess Bellon's liver was successfully transplanted to Jamie Fiske."

Here is a final example of an illustration, this one used in an introduction to a
speech on the value of autopsy:

"My middle name should have been Imelda. Mother always gave her children the middle name of a godparent. Instead, I became Mary Beth. I thought of my mother's naming system when my godmother and aunt, Imelda, died last summer, an event the family viewed as a blessing. Imelda had suffered throughout her adult life from insanity. Intensive work with psychiatrists and the latest drugs failed to offer Imelda help. No one in our family really understood her plight-we only knew that she was crazy.

We finally understood Imelda-after her death. Doctors performed an autopsy and found that Imelda had suffered from a rare disease in which her body's muscles grew uncontrollably, cutting off blood circulation to her brain, causing her insanity. We felt guilty about the way we had treated Imelda. We were also relieved to discover that her illness was not hereditary."

This personal Illustration captured the attention of the audience. In addition, the speaker established her own involvement and expertise in the subject.

7. Curiosity

Curiosity. There is an old saying, "Curiosity killed the cat." There's even a reference to being to curious in the Bible. Lot's wife was told not to look back, but she couldn't follow that simple instruction and was turned into a pillar of salt. Perhaps with these examples you might want to think twice about using curiosity as an attention getting device. However, keep in mind what's behind both of these examples: that there is an innate curiosity in all living things. We want to know what's going on, we enjoy figuring things out for ourselves. An attention getter that appeals to most of the audiences curiosity is a good thing.

Take, for example, this informative speech given in a Kansas classroom:

"This crop is the number two cash crop in the state of Kansas. This crop's value per bushel is more than soybean, corn and wheat's values combined. Many have seen this crop as an answer to their problems. This crop has saved many family farms. This crop is also viewed as evil by many others. There are many farmers who would rather burn this crop than see what its evil effects could do to their families. This crop is illegal. Growing this crop can land you in prison. This crop is marijuana."

Notice how each time the speaker refers to "this crop" that you try to figure out what it is in your head. In this instance curiosity is used masterfully to focus the audience's attention to the topic at hand, an informative speech on farmers who've resorted to illegal means to keep their family farms.

8. Guided Imagery

Guided Imagery. Asking an audience to close their eyes and imagine something is used frequently as a way to begin speeches. Just make sure to ask them to open their eyes again. Believe it or not, many speakers forget to do this and the audience is confused after the "guided imagery" has finished and the speaker continues.

In this attention getting device the speaker creates an image that he/she guides the audience members through. It can be used more effectively than visual aids as our imaginations can produce far more vivid images than even most films can be.

One student used a set of cymbals and guided imagery in a great informative speech of "The Big Bang Theory." She opened here speech in the following manner:

"Close your eyes. Come one, everyone close your eyes. Now imagine you are weightless. There is no gravity and you find yourself suddenly out of your chair. Your friends are next to you and they're weightless too. You decide to investigate and push yourself out the school door, you float up past the flag pole, past the trees, you find yourself in the middle of a cloud. You keep moving upward….You find yourself in space, floating towards the stars and all of the sudden a group of asterorids race toward you. You try to avoid them, you weave in and out, they are getting thicker and thicker, one is headed your way (she takes out the cymbals and creates a loud clang, audience members jump out of their seats). That is how some people say the planet Earth was created…"

The speaker craftfully and slowly involved her audience in a topic that some might wave off as boring or murmur, "Oh no…". Instead, as she started her informative speech on what might be chalked off as an boring, topic there were laughs from the audience and adrenaline racing in their veins.

Imagine in just how many situations you can ask your audience to place themselves before speaking. There are many great applications for this type of attention getter.

9. Hypothetical Example

Hypothetical. A hypothetical is a type of anecdote. Usually they are a "composite" sketch of what is known about topics ranging from shark attacks to child abductions, from identity-theft to getting to know people. Much like guided imagery, they ask audience members to imagine some sort of scenario. Unlike guided imagery they do not ask audience members to close their eyes and imagine. Speakers who use a hypothetical may or may not let the audience know that it is an imaginary situation before disclosing it.

One young man described with graphic detail the situation that a childe abuse victim dealt with on a daily basis. The picture that he created was a composite of situations he had researched in a speech on the same subject. His attention getter focused the attention of the issue on their school. He also masterfully used curiosity and questioning to get the audience fully submerged in the topic.

"He shows up to school everyday. He never misses. He's thin, pale and almost invisible to many of us. He doesn't talk much in his classes. I'll bet that many of you even know him. He doesn't appear to take very good care of himself and rarely has his homework done on time. You'll notice him sitting alone at lunch. He always seems angry and doesn't mind telling other kids what he thinks of them. Little do we know, though, that he goes home to uncertainty every night. Once last week his dad, drunk again, got up from the dinner table, threw his plate against the wall and punched him in the face. Last week his father pulled him out of bed and kicked him for15 minutes. How many of you think you know who this kid in our school is? (waits for a response) Well, although he's just a hypothetical example of an abused kid, his story is all too familiar to teachers, counselors and law enforcement. That is, if he's discovered in time."

10. Reference to a Recent News Event

Reference to Recent News Event. If your topic is timely, a reference torecent news event can be a good way to open your speech. An opening taken from a recent news story can take the form of an illustration, a startling statistic, or even a quotation, gaining the additional advantages discussed under each of those methods of introduction. Moreover, referring to a recent event will increase your credibility by showing that you are knowledgeable about current affairs.

"Recent" does not necessarily mean a story that broke just last week or even last month. An occurrence that has taken place within the past year or so can be considered recent. Even a particularly significant event that is slightly older than that, such as the 1989 removal of the Berlin Wall, can quality. Here is how one speaker used an anecdote drawn from a contemporary news story to open a speech

"It was another beautiful day at the amusement park. Warm sunshine, the smell of cotton candy, the kids, and the rides surrounded all those who ventured out for a day of fun. The roller coaster's whooshing 60 mile per hour speed was accompanied by the familiar screams of delight from kids of all ages. Another ride, the Comet, was flying gracefully through the heavens when suddenly a chain broke flinging one of the gondolas 75 feet into the air before it crashed, killing a man and seriously injuring his son. This accident, on May 26 in Pontiac, Illinois, was just one of many in 2004--one that many that could have been avoided."

Another speaker turned to a news story for some startling statistics on kidnapping by parents: I
"The October 23rd, 2005, issue of the New York Times reported some startling facts. It reported the findings of the Gallup Poll Organization that there are about 500,000 incidents each year in which kids are kidnapped from one of their parents by the other parent. That's a half million parental kidnappings per year."

The first speaker delivered his speech in 2004; the second, in 2003. These events were only several months old and therefore fresh in the minds of people who knew them. They also pointed up the fact that the problems discussed in the speeches were current and urgent ones.

11. Reference to Occasion

Reference to Occasion. Instead of referring in your introduction to a historical event, you can refer to the occasion at hand. This way of introducing your talk is especially well suited to occasions that are noteworthy and are the reason you were asked to give your talk. For example, when a neighborhood elementary school celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, its first principal might open her remarks this way:

"It is a special joy for me to be here this afternoon to help celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Crockett Elementary School. How well I remember the excitement and anticipation of that opening day so many years ago. How well I remember the children who came to school that first day. Some of them are now your parents. It was a good beginning to a successful twenty-five years."

References to the occasion are often used at weddings, birthday parties, dedication ceremonies, and other such events. It is customary to make a personal reference as well, placing oneself in the occasion. The audience at the school probably expected the principal to do just that. The reference to the occasion can also be combined with other methods of introduction, such as an illustration or an opening question.

Attention Getters, Leads or Hooks:
Referring to a Moment in History

12. Reference to an Historical Event

Reference to an Historical Event. What American is not familiar with theopening line of Lincoln's classic Gettysburg Address:

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal"?

Note that this opening sentence refers to the historical context of the speech. You, too, may find a wav to begin a speech by making a reference to a historical event. Every day is the anniversary of something. Perhaps you could begin a speech by drawing a relationship between a historical event that happened on this day and your speech objective. How do you discover anniversaries of historical events? Three sources should prove useful. First, consult Jane M. Hatch's American Book of Days; this resource lists key events for every day of the year and also provides details of what occurred. Another source, Anniversaries and Holidays, by Ruth w. Gregory, identifies and describes key holidays. Finally, many newspapers have a section that identifies key events that occurred on "this day in history." If, for example, you know you are going to be speaking on April 6, you could consult a copy of a newspaper from April 6 of last year to discover the key commemorative events for that day.

We are not recommending that you arbitrarily flip through one of these sources to crank up your speech; your reference to a historical event should be linked clearly to your speech purpose. Note how Carl Sandburg began a speech on March 4, 1961, the hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's first inaugural:

"Here one hundred years ago to the day were 10,000 people who hung on the words of the speaker of the day. Beyond this immediate audience were 30 million people in 34 states who wanted to know what he was saying. Over in the countries of Europe were more millions of people wondering whether the American Union of States would hold together or be shattered into fragments."

Attention Getters, Leads or Hooks:
Referring to a Previous Speech

13. Reference to Preceding Speech

Reference to Preceding Speech. Referring to an earlier speech is the sole impromptu method of attention getter. This method occurs most often when your speech is one of several being presented on the same occasion. The occasion might be speaking day in a speech class, a symposium, or a lecture series in which your talk is one of many on the same topic.
You must decide on the spot whether referring to one of these previous speeches will be better than using the introduction you originally prepared. As a rule, you are better off sticking with your planned introduction. Occasionally, however, a reference to a previous speech may work well, either by itself or in combination with the prepared introduction. And sometimes it is a virtual necessity.

Few experiences will make your stomach sink faster than hearing a speaker just ahead of you speak on your topic. Worse still, that speaker may even use some of the same supporting materials you had planned to use. When this situation happens, you are better off to acknowledge the previous speaker's efforts than to "play ostrich".

Another time when it might be wise to refer to a preceding speech occurs when another speaker has spoken on a topic so related to your own that you can draw an analogy. In a sense, your introduction becomes a transition from that earlier speech to yours. Here is an example of an introduction delivered by a student speaker under those circumstances:

"Kate did a fantastic job of telling you about problems with the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. She was 'right on the money' when she told you how our civil liberties are at risk of being lost once and for all. The Patriot Act is just one of the many "wolves in sheep's clothing" that I plan on sharing with you this afternoon. The decay of our civil liberties is easily wrapped up in the American flag. However, that flag is the very reason that we as responsible Americans must put our feet down and say 'enough is enough.'

The Mobile/Show & Tell Speech

2011-08-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Mobile/Show & Tell SpeechGetting to Know Some of Your Stories & Learning How to Use the Podium

What You Need: Two Hangers, Some Creativity, Five Objects & Five Stories
Helpful Hints: Bring Your Objects on Time, Stay Away from Lists of Facts, Have Fun

The Mobile Speech is the second different speech you will give. You have already given the first and second day Ice-Breaker Speeches. Most have you spoken at least three times already. Nice work.

You will build a mobile and hang objects that represent different aspects of you. You should work to choose objects that are creative and unique. Please keep valuable items off of the mobile. The mobile will be built entirely in class.

The main points for the speech are:

Value (Center): Choose an object that represents one of your values. Then, tell us a story that would "show us" that this is true in how you behave. Please stay away from values that most of us already hold important: family, activities, religion, education. Make your value an idea and not a thing. Usually when we value a thing, it's because there's something else behind it. Try to choose some other abstract idea like: liberty, the environment, peace, etc.

Embarrassing or Proud Moment (First Arm): Embarrassing moments need to be appropriate for a class room. They should also be something that's sort of funny as you look back on it. Stay away from bad embarrassing moments. We all have these stories. Tell the story of your embarrassing proud moment.

Hobby, Past Time or Activity (Second Arm): Tell us a story about what you like to do.

A Favorite OR a Pet Peeve (Third Arm): A favorite vacation, a favorite day, a favorite pet, a favorite place etc. You can also choose a "Pet Peeve" <--something that really bugs you. Personality Trait (Fourth Arm): Would your friends and family say that you are moody, funny, loyal, honest, flexible? What is one of your personality traits?

Double Click Here for an Electronic Version Evaluation Sheet You Were Given in Class.

Academic Dishonesty Policy

2011-08-15T17:30:00.000-05:00

Academic Dishonesty
“Academic dishonesty occurs when a student uses or attempts to use unauthorized information in the taking of an exam; or submits as his or her own work themes, reports, drawings, laboratory notes, or other products prepared by another person; or knowingly assists another student in such acts or plagiarism. Such behavior is abhorrent to the university, and students found responsible for academic dishonesty face expulsion, suspension, conduct probation, or reprimand. Instances of academic dishonesty ultimately affect all students and the entire university community by degrading the value of diplomas when some are obtained dishonestly, and by lowering the grades of students working honestly.

Examples of specific acts of academic dishonesty include but are not limited to:

a. Obtaining unauthorized information. Information is obtained dishonestly, for example, by copying graded homework assignments from another student, by working with another student on a take-home test or homework when not specifically permitted to do so by the instructor, or by looking at your notes or other written work during an examination when not specifically permitted to do so.

b. Tendering of information. Students may not give or sell their work to another person who plans to submit it as his or her own. This includes giving their work to another student to be copied, giving someone answers to exam questions during the exam, taking an exam and discussing its contents with students who will be taking the same exam, or giving or selling a term paper to another student.

c. Misrepresentation. Students misrepresent their work by handing in the work of someone else. The following are examples: purchasing a paper from a term paper service; reproducing another person's paper (even with modifications) and submitting it as their own; having another student do their computer program or having someone else take their exam.

d. Bribery. Offering money or any item or service to a faculty member or any other person to gain academic advantage for yourself or another is dishonest.

e. Plagiarism. Unacknowledged use of the information, ideas, or phrasing of other writers is an offense comparable with theft and fraud, and it is so recognized by the copyright and patent laws. Literary offenses of this kind are known as plagiarism.

One is responsible for plagiarism when: the exact words of another writer are used without using quotation marks and indicating the source of the words; the words of another are summarized or paraphrased without giving the credit that is due; the ideas from another writer are borrowed without properly documenting their source.

Acknowledging the sources of borrowed material is a simple, straightforward procedure that will strengthen the paper and assure the integrity of the writer. The Student's Guide to English 104-105, provides guidelines to aid students in documenting material borrowed from other sources, as does almost every handbook on writing style.

Academic dishonesty is considered to be a violation of the behavior expected of a student in an academic setting as well as a student conduct violation. A student found responsible for academic dishonesty or academic misconduct is therefore subject to appropriate academic penalty; to be determined by the instructor of the course in accordance to his/her course policies” (“Academic Dishonesty”).

Students who are guilty of academic dishonesty will receive and "F" for the paper and the course. Please seek clarification if any of the material you use and how to properly cite it, falls into question.

“Academic Dishonesty.” 2005-2007 Courses & Programs: Iowa State University Catalog. Iowa State
University. 15 Jan 2007 .

Sample Literary Analyis for Independent Novel

2011-03-10T06:58:00.000-06:00

Alyssa Ensminger
Mr. McLaughlin
Literary Analysis
11 September 1998

Deep Desires that Transcend Time

      William Butler Yeats wrote two poems which are together known as the Byzantium series. The first is "Sailing to Byzantium," and its sequel is simply named "Byzantium." The former is considered the easier of the two to understand. It contains multiple meanings and emotions, and the poet uses various literary devices to communicate them. Two of the most dominant themes of this poem are the desire for escape from the hardships of this world and the quest for immortality. These are circumstances of the poet's life that influenced the composition of the poem. Those personal experiences and Yeats's skillful use of words come together to emphasize the need, or at least desire, that many people have for escape and immortality.

      The first stanza of "Sailing to Byzantium" describes a society of people who live for the moment but ignore the wisdom and intellect that the poet finds important. In his frustration, the poet says in lines 21-22 that his heart is "sick with desire / And fastened to a dying animal." He is ready to leave this world of apathy and arrive in his holy land of Byzantium, which is a sort of paradise in his mind (Kennedy and Gioia 866-67). This is evidence of his desire for escape. In the second stanza, Yeats describes an aged man as "a paltry thing, / A tattered coat upon a stick" (9-10). It is believed that the poet is describing his own condition in these lines. The physical weariness he is experiencing causes him to want to be able to sing through poetry to keep his spirit alive. He believes that his poetry can help him to transcend time and old age, and that it will take him to his ideal city of Byzantium (Thorndike 1852). He prays that the sages of God will "be the singing-masters of my soul" (20). In other words, he wants to be taught how to write the poetry that will sustain his spirit. This is the poet's attempt at achieving immortality. As long as his poetry still exists and is read, a part of his soul continues to live.

      These two major themes in the poem are enhanced by the writer's use of symbolism. Byzantium, as mentioned before, is a sort of ideal land, comparable to the scriptural heaven. This is obviously one of the most predominant symbols in the poem. Another symbol that carries throughout the work is that of a bird. There is a reference to a bird in each stanza, but perhaps the best indicator of its meaning is found in stanza 4. Yeats uses the image of a bird "set upon a golden bough to sing" (30) to refer to the timelessness and spirit he craves. The bird that is set in gold is there forever, singing for all time, and the poet longs to be able to sing similarly through his poetry and therefore achieve immortality. Finally, the metaphor of singing is present in each stanza and reinforces the poet's desire to be able to create timeless music in poetry. He says that reading poems is a kind of "singing school" (13) where he can learn to step into that world of immortality (Thorndike 1853).

      Similar to the way Yeats uses symbols to enhance this poem, he uses personal experience to inspire it. Twenty years prior to writing "Sailing to Byzantium," he was first exposed to Byzantine art. He saw mosaics that are regarded as the basis for most of the imagery in stanza 3. Also, when Yeats was nearly sixty years old, he suffered high blood pressure and had difficulty breathing. His wife took him on a Mediterranean tour to help him relax, and on that tour he saw mosaics that contrasted art with nature. This would explain his statement in the poem that "Once out of nature I shall never take / My bodily form from any natural thing, / But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make" (25-27). In addition, Yeats did not regret leaving his home on this excursion because he was depressed about his health and dissatisfied with the political situations at home. Therefore, it is probably that the imaginative voyage the man takes in the poem from one place to a more appealing one is directly influenced by the poet's feelings at that time (Allen 3728).

      "Sailing to Byzantium" is a poem packed with emotion and meaning. It depicts a man striving to reach a better place while leaving a piece of his soul behind for all time. It expresses the weariness and frustration that everyone experiences at some point, but especially with the aging process. It is a poem that encompasses human desires and emotions and presents them almost as though they were in a dream. However, it is almost as though the imaginative wording of the poem makes it easier to see the reality behind its message. The poem refreshes the craving people have for a better world with no hardships, and the need they have to leave a part of themselves here to sing eternally "Of what is past, or passing, or to come" (32).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Works Cited

Allen, James Lovic. "William Butler Yeats." Critical Survey of Poetry: English Language Series. Revised ed. Vol. 8. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Englewood Cliffs: 1992. 3709-3729.

Kennedy, S. J., and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. 866-868.

Thorndike, Jonathan L. "Sailing to Byzantium." Masterplots II: Poetry Series. Vol. 5. Ed. Frank N. Magil. Englewood Cliffs: 1992. 1852-1854.

Alyssa Ensminger, 1998

Winning Essay for Literary Analysis,

Beulah Davis Outstanding Freshman Writer Award

(Poetry) Write Now

2011-02-15T14:55:00.000-06:00

Def Poetry - Al B Back - Super Negro

2011-02-15T14:54:00.000-06:00

Now Hear This!

2010-08-25T18:44:00.003-05:00

Teaching to Build Better Listening Skills
Listening is an important skill to cultivate. It helps you learn, develop friendships, and show your good manners by being attentive and sharing the talking time.

But not everyone has the same idea of what good listening behavior is.

This article offers some ideas for building better listening skills. As you read them, think about how you teach good listening practices in your classroom. If you teach in a multicultural classroom, you probably teach some of these ideas with sensitivity because for some of your students, some of these practices are actually considered bad listening practices. In fact, bad manners.

Read the article and then tell us what you think.
Listening Helps You Learn

Listening is a lot like reading - it's an opportunity to learn something new and it requires focusing on what's being said. You have to pay attention to the ideas and details that the speaker is telling you about. Unlike reading, when you're listening, you have a chance to ask the speaker questions to help you understand or to get more information. Asking such questions is an important part of listening. It tells the speaker what you've learned and what more you'd like to know. And by answering your questions, the speaker can help you and others learn more.

Listening Helps Build Friendships

Listening is a good way to build a friendship. Good listeners know that others like to be heard, that they enjoy sharing stories about themselves, and they like the sense of connectedness when they share information, confidences, and jokes with another person.

Listening Attentively Is Sign of Good Manners

Listening to people when they're speaking to you shows them that you respect them. So, how do you learn to become an attentive listener? Start by looking at the behaviors of a poor listener and a good listener.
A poor listener:

Interrupts the speaker
Thinks only about what he or she is going to say next
Looks away from the person speaking
Pays attention to other things going on
Makes side comments to others

A good listener:

Focuses on the person talking and allows him or her to finish talking
Looks at the other person - to indicate readiness to listen, and to observe the person's body language to learn more about how the speaker is feeling
Gives nonverbal signals to show he or she is listening - a nod, smile, or frown, for example
Uses verbal signals to show interest in what the speaker is saying or to give feedback, with phrases such as
- "Uh huh" or "I didn't know that." (showing encouragement)
- "I'm not sure what you mean." (asking for clarification)
- "You said that…" or "If I understand you correctly…" (showing an understanding of what the speaker said)
Tries to use the same energy and emotional level as the speaker, to show an understanding of what the speaker is feeling

Effective listening skills are important - whether you're in a classroom with thirty people or in a conversation with one. As with any skill, listening takes practice, so keep these four things in mind as you begin:

Look the speaker in the eye
Encourage the speaker with smiles, nods, and "uh-huhs"
Pay attention to the facial expressions and body language as well as the words
Remain interested in understanding the speaker

Tell Us What You Think

How do you teach good listening skills?

Are you being culturally sensitive as you help students understand the cultural "norms" of the United States?

In fact, Is it politically correct to teach the dominant cultural "norms"?

To Kill a Mockingbird--Key Facts

2009-07-28T05:41:00.000-05:00

Key Facts

FULL TITLE · To Kill a Mockingbird

AUTHOR · Harper Lee

TYPE OF WORK · Novel

GENRE · Coming-of-age story; social drama; courtroom drama; Southern drama

LANGUAGE · English

TIME & PLACE WRITTEN · Mid-1950s; New York City

PUBLICATION DATE · 1960

PUBLISHER · J. B. Lippincott

NARRATOR · Scout narrates the story herself, looking back in retrospect an unspecified number of years after the events of the novel take place.

POINT OF VIEW · Scout narrates in the first person, telling what she saw and heard at the time and augmenting this narration with thoughts and assessments of her experiences in retrospect. Although she is by no means an omniscient narrator, she has matured considerably over the intervening years and often implicitly and humorously comments on the naïveté she displayed in her thoughts and actions as a young girl. Scout mostly tells of her own thoughts but also devotes considerable time to recounting and analyzing Jem’s thoughts and actions.

TONE · Childlike, humorous, nostalgic, innocent; as the novel progresses, increasingly dark, foreboding, and critical of society

TENSE · Past

SETTING · 1933–1935 · The fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama

PROTAGONIST · Scout Finch

MAJOR CONFLICT · The childhood innocence with which Scout and Jem begin the novel is threatened by numerous incidents that expose the evil side of human nature, most notably the guilty verdict in Tom Robinson’s trial and the vengefulness of Bob Ewell. As the novel progresses, Scout and Jem struggle to maintain faith in the human capacity for good in light of these recurring instances of human evil.

RISING ACTION · Scout, Jem, and Dill become fascinated with their mysterious neighbor Boo Radley and have an escalating series of encounters with him. Meanwhile, Atticus is assigned to defend a black man, Tom Robinson against the spurious rape charges Bob Ewell has brought against him. Watching the trial, Scout, and especially Jem, cannot understand how a jury could possibly convict Tom Robinson based on the Ewells’ clearly fabricated story.

CLIMAX · Despite Atticus’s capable and impassioned defense, the jury finds Tom Robinson guilty. The verdict forces Scout and Jem to confront the fact that the morals Atticus has taught them cannot always be reconciled with the reality of the world and the evils of human nature.

FALLING ACTION · When word spreads that Tom Robinson has been shot while trying to escape from prison, Jem struggles to come to terms with the injustice of the trial and of Tom Robinson’s fate. After making a variety of threats against Atticus and others connected with the trial, Bob Ewell assaults Scout and Jem as they walk home one night, but Boo Radley saves the children and fatally stabs Ewell. The sheriff, knowing that Boo, like Tom Robinson, would be misunderstood and likely convicted in a trial, protects Boo by saying that Ewell tripped and fell on his own knife. After sitting and talking with Scout briefly, Boo retreats into his house, and Scout never sees him again.

THEMES · The coexistence of good and evil; the importance of moral education; social class

MOTIFS · Gothic details; small-town life

SYMBOLS · Mockingbirds; Boo Radley

FORESHADOWING · The Gothic elements of the novel (the fire, the mad dog) build tension that subtly foreshadows Tom Robinson’s trial and tragic death; Burris Ewell’s appearance in school foreshadows the nastiness of Bob Ewell; the presents Jem and Scout find in the oak tree foreshadow the eventual discovery of Boo Radley’s good-heartedness; Bob Ewell’s threats and suspicious behavior after the trial foreshadow his attack on the children.

Mr. McLaughlin's English 10B Vocabulary: Unit 4 SAT/ACT Words

2009-05-19T05:44:00.000-05:00

4.1 ASTUTE ( ) quick in descernment; shrewd, clever, keen.
Larry thought a new SUIT would make him appear more ASTUTE for his job interview

Louisa has a natural ASTUTENESS in dealing with angry people and winning them over to her view, thereby settling matters amicably.

4.2 BLATHER ( ) to talk nonsensically
Karen and Allison BLATHERED until their mouths LATHERED.

Everything the media reported about the supposed plane disaster never happened. It was a bunch of BLATHER by uninformed journalists.

4.3 CONGENIAL ( ) pleasant to be around; social, agreeable
Folks in JEANS are very CONGENIAL.

Miss Florida was voted Miss CONGENIALITY in the Miss America pageant.

Dr. Armstrong was very CONGENIAL, always a smile and a kind word for his patients, and candies for the children.

4.4 DOLDRUMS ( ) a period or condition of depression or inactivity
All covered with dust, the DOLL DRUMS were in the DOLDRUMS.

Ever since Jackie’s dog died, the little fellow has not touched his toys, moping around day after day in the DOLDRUMS.

For thirteen days we were becalmed in the Horse Latitudes near the equator, out ship drifting in the DOLDRUMS without the faintest breeze to fill the sails of out vessel.

4.5 DRACONIAN ( ) hard, harsh, severe, cruel
Count DRACULA often behaved in a DRACONIAN manner.

Mr. Jeb had a DRACONIAN personality. Nothing his students did pleased him, and rarely did half of his students get passing grades.

Judge McNamara handed down a DRACONIAN sentence to the defendant, sixty days for littering.

The word DRACONIAN did not originate with the fictional character, Count Dracula, but with an ancient Greek official named Dracula who crated a harsh code of laws.

4.6 MARTYR ( ) someone willing to sacrifice and even give his/her life for a cause; also one who pretends suffering to gain sympathy.
It’s HARDER to be a MARTYR.

She was a professional MARTYR, all- suffering for her children, or so she would tell them ten times a day.

Joan of Arc was undoubtedly the most famous MARTYR in modern history, burned at the stake because she refused to go against her beliefs.

Jack was a MARTYR to his job; he worked seven days a week and rarely took a day off.

4.7 MISNOMER ( ) an incorrect or inappropriate name
What a MISNOMER, our little MISS HOMER struck out five times in a row.

A nickname like “Speedy” is a MISNOMER when directed toward one who is slow at what they do.

We usually have dinner at this very small Italian restaurant called The Spaghetti Factory, obviously a MISNOMER of major proportions.

It was no MISNOMER when the called Harry Houdini, “ The Great HOUDINI,” as he was the greatest escape artist of his time.

4.8 MUSTER ( ) to collect or gather; the act of inspection or critical examination.
Each morning the MUSTARD troops are MUSTERED for roll call.

In 1836 the Texans at the Alamo MUSTERED all the troops available to defend against the invading Mexican Army.

The restaurant owner inspected the kitchen and said the eating utensils did not pass MUSTER, and for the dish washer to wash them all over again.

He was MUSTERED into the army at the age of eighteen.

4.9 OBTUSE ( ) insensitive; block- headed, slow in comprehension.
Don’t be OBTUSE, the gorse-thief gets the NOOSE, not the horse.

Hazel was so OBTUSE she thought a watched pot of water never boils.

The OBTUSENESS of some people is due to their unwillingness to accept new ideas.

Don’t pretend to be so OBTUSE. You know the idea of business investing is to buy low and sell high.

4.10 SCRUTINIZE ( ) to look very carefully; to examine
U.S. Customs officials have SCREW EYES when they SCRUTINIZE baggage.

Newspaper proof readers SCRUTINIZE an entire newspaper each day.

Each soldier’s uniform is SCRUTINIZED by his commanding officer.

I SCRUTINIZED all the books in the library and found several I had wanted.

Final Examination Speech Downloadable Tools

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TOOLS TO ASSIST YOU IN YOUR WORK'S CITED PAGE

It is my advice to you that you create your work's cited page as you do your research. It will be easier to complete, it will provide you with a reference to the sources that you have used and it will be completed when you're finished researching your topic.

Hints:

(1) When you copy each entry into Word, make sure that you copy the entry in the gray box, not the copy in white below. They are labeled.
(2) Copy the entire entry, including the period at the end.
(3) When you paste, a small box will appear. Click on it and choose "text only."
(4) Make sure that you indent every line after the first. You have to tab these lines over to make them line up the right way.
(5) Sometimes you have to hit "enter" at the beginning of these lines and then tab over.

CLICK HERE to go directly to the Landmark Project's SON OF CITATION MACHINE. Please choose MLA in the upper left hand corner. Then choose the type of entry that you would like the machine to create.

CLICK HERE to go directly to the SON OF CITATION MACHINGE to create a WORK'S CITED entry for a web page.

PRE-FORMATTED MLA OUTLINE

CLICK HERE for a copy of a pre-formatted MLA Outline for the Persuasive speech.

FINAL EXAMINATION RUBRIC

Final Examination Speech Rubic page 1.doc

Final Examination Speech Rubic page 1.doc

Final Examination Speech Curriculum Draft page 3.doc

Monroe's Motivated Sequence Used to Persuade an Audience

2009-05-18T09:27:00.000-05:00

Originally posted 11/14/2007

Monroe's motivated sequence is a technique for organizing persuasive speeches that inspire people to take action. It was developed in the mid-1930s by Alan H. Monroe. It consists of five steps:

Attention--Accomplished in the Introduction
Get the attention of your audience using a detailed story, shocking example, dramatic statistic, quotations, etc.

Need--Prove the Problem!
Show that the problem about which you are speaking exists, that it is significant, and that it won't go away by itself. Use statistics, examples, etc. Convince your audience that there is a need for action to be taken.

Satisfaction--Show What Others Plan on Doing or Have Done.
Show that this need can be satisfied. Provide specific solutions for the problem that the government and community can implement as a whole.

Visualization--Show Us What We Get
Tell the audience what will happen if the solution is implemented or does not take place. Be visual and detailed.

Action--Accomplished in the Clincher
Tell the audience what action they can take personally to solve the problem.
For Instance, a more generalized format may be;

Monroe’s Motivation Sequence

1. Attention: Hey! Listen to me, I have a PROBLEM!
2. Need: Let me EXPLAIN the problem.
3. Satisfaction: But, I have a SOLUTION!
4. Visualization: If we IMPLEMENT my solution, this is what will happen.
5. Action: You can help me in this specific way. Are YOU willing to help me?

The advantage of Motivated Sequence is that it emphasizes what the audience can do. Too often the audience feels like a situation is hopeless; Monroe's motivated sequence emphasizes the action the audience can take.

Persuasive Speech Ideas

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Persuasive speech ideas, a list of 200+ ideas. I also help you to make a choice by finding specific angles of approach. Review the list of speech topics and ideas below. Make a personal short list by selecting three persuasive speech topics you perhaps could use. For now just make a rough inventory. Tickle your imagination, associate and be creative.

# Which of the speech topics are you interested in?
# Do you know something about?
# Would you like to research and persuade your audience about?

These speech topics can be turned into persuasive speech ideas for a public speaking topics assignment. Of course this persuasive speech topic list isn't exhaustive.

25 Free Persuasive Speech Topics

These free persuasive speech topics are for instant use or vary on them and write your own persuasion statement for public speaking or speech class purposes. Start with this sentence I want to persuade the audience that ... and than take one of the speech topics of my general list of persuasive speech sample topics, or select one out of the following 25 pre-fab instant free persuasive speech topics for public speaking:

1. The government should be persuaded to pay for all healthcare. By the way you can fill in other verbs and nouns in most of the free persuasive speech topics in this list. Just tweak.
2. Teachers are not safe in schools.
3. We are better off today than we were eight years ago.
4. We are killing the rainforest.
5. Children in ... fill in the nation of your choice ... are living better.
6. Continue the war on drugs by attacking the ingredients needed.
7. DNA databases jeopardize our privacy.
8. Vanity is not a valid reason for cosmetic plastic surgery.
9. The rich pay, don't pay enough taxes.
10. Return extra taxes collected to those who paid.
11. All MP3 music belong in the free public domain.
12. Needle exchange programs help to prevent.
13. Mothers should be persuaded to avoid fighting in militairy combat front lines.
14. Free speech don't include, include hate speech.
15. Spam e-mails should be, should not be outlawed.
16. We need a single food safety agency. Remember, replace the nouns and you can write easily other free persuasive speech topics.
17. Downloading copyrighted MP3s is not, is wrong.
18. Gay couples should be, should not be allowed to marry.
19. Higher energy prices is a sacrifice we have to make for cleaner fuels.
20. Home schooling provides a better education, is worse for your child.
21. Honesty, integrity and a persuasive mentality are the most important qualities of an elected official. Or vary on the qualities and create your own free persuasive speech topics on gouvernement, state or local politicians.
22. Zero tolerance is a useful instrument to prevent violence.
23. Babysitters younger than 16 years should be forbidden.
24. Human cloning is bad, is good.
25. Restrict every household to 60 gallon can on trash a week.

All persuasive speech topic statements above are not reflecting my personal opinion! These just are samples of free persuasive speech topics.

30+ Instant Persuasive Speech Topics for Free

Persuasive speech topics for free, this is a list with instant persuasive speech topic ideas for public speaking speech assignments. Example persuasive speech topics for free on various society issues:

Gay marriage should be an issue for the states
Flag burning should be prohibited.
Military service should be based on conduct, not sexual orientation.
Education, housing, and hiring must be equal for all.
The Ten Commandments are inherent values in schools.
The Patriot Act violates civil liberties.
The 1st Amendment is not a shield for hate groups.
Support affirmative action in governmental organisations.
Limiting immigration is limiting opportunities.
The police always should investigate all complaints of wife assault.
The amount of spam you see in your mailbox is just the tip of the iceberg.
Ban same-sex marriages.
Academic dishonesty should always be santioned by termination of student status for a specified term.
Wildcat strikes should be legalized.
What you need to know to prevent serious complications with body piercings.
Only buy energy efficient household appliances.
Outsourcing is a good solution for small business owners.
Every citizen should commit to 2,000 hours of voluntary national service in lifetime.

Persuasive speech topics for free on foreign policy and international issues:

No-fly lists of airliners do have a lack of accuracy.
Mankind is responsible for the large loss of biodiversity.
We need an international forestry agency.
Water is a hot issue in the Middle East.
An international certification system for diamond exploration prevents conflict-diamonds trade.
Never negotiate with terrorists.
Water saving methods work in several regions of Africa.
Russia is a growing threath.
Jerusalem must remain an undivided city.
America should stop being the world's policeman.
We need a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan.
The civil rights movement is a success.
Keep talking to the North Koreans.

List of 200+ Persuasive Speech Ideas

Find a persuasive speech topic idea with a specific point of view.

Abortion
Abuse Of The Elderly
Abused Women
Academic Dishonesty
Academic Freedom
Acid Rain
Addiction
Adoption
Affirmative Action
Afghanistan
Africa
Age Discrimination
Aging Population
Agricultural Policy
AIDS/HIV
Air Pollution
Airline Safety
Alcohol Abuse
Aliens and UFO's
Alternative imprisonment
Alternative Medicine
American Education Reform
Amnesty
Animal Experimentation
Animal Rights
Animal Welfare
Anorexia Nervosa
Anti-Semitism
Arab-Israeli Conflict
Armed Conflicts
Arms Control
Arms Trade
Asylum
Atomic Energy
Ballot Initiatives
Battered Women
Beginning of Life Issues
Bermuda Triangle
Bigamy
Bilingual Education
Biodiversity
Biological and Chemical Weapons
Bird Flu
Birth Control
Body Piercings
Breast Feeding in Public
Bulimia
Cameras in Courtrooms
Campaign Finance Reform
Capital Punishment
Censor Hate Speech
Censorship
Chain Gangs
Child Labor
Church State Issues
City Curfews Civil Rights
Climate Change Policy
Condoms In Schools
Creationism vs. Evolution
Cuba
Dating Campus Issues
Death Penalty
Depression
Dieting
Disabilities Act
Domestic Violence Drug Policy
Drunk Driving
Endangered Oceans
Endangered Species
Espionage and Intelligence Gathering
Ethnic Violence
Euthenasia
Family Violence
Fat Tax On Food
Feminism
Foreign Oil Dependence
Foreign Policy
Foster Care
Fraud
Gambling
Gangs
Gay Marriage
Gay Rights
Genetic Engineering
Genetically Engineered Foods
Genocide
Global Resources
Global Warming
Government Fraud and Waste
Gun Control
Hate Crime
Health Care Policy
Home Schooling
Homeland Security
Homeless in America
Human Cloning
Immigration
Infectious Diseases
Inner City Poverty
Internet Chatrooms
Iraq
Islamic Fundamentalism
Juvenile Crime
Language Policy
Legal System
Littering
Marriage and Divorce
Media Violence
Medical Ethics
Medicinal Marijuana
Medicine Abuse
Minimum Wage
Missile Defense System
National Tobacco Settlement
Nonproliferation
Nuclear Technology
Organ Donation
Organized Crime
Peace
Physician-Assisted Suicide
Polygamy
Pornography
Poverty
Prison regime
Race Relations
Racial Profiling
Rain Forests
Recycling
Religious Right
Reproductive Technologies
Russia
School Uniforms
School Violence
Sex Education
Single Parent Families
Smoking
Social Security Reform
Social Welfare
Space Exploration
Stadium Taxes
Stem Cell Research
Tax Reform
Teen Pregnancy
Term Limits
Terrorism
Tobacco Industry
Trade with China
Transportation
US Budget
US War on Drugs
Urban Terrorism
Vaccinations
Violent Video Games
Voluntary National Testing
War Crimes
War On Drugs
Water Resources
Weapons Disarmament
Welfare Reform
Women in the Military
Women's Rights
Working Women
World Trade

Narrow Down 3 Persuasive Speech Ideas

Review your short list with persuasive speech ideas and narrow your choices:

* Do you know global, national, state, community, job or school related problems and solutions, issues or controversies, related to the persuasive speech ideas?
* Historical or current events, places, processes, organizations or interesting people?
* Concerns, opinions, beliefs, attitudes or values?
* What did you see about the persuasive speech ideas in the news or read in books?
* Is there a link with personal experiences, professional or personal goals?

The answers help you to find your angle of approach for a persuasive speech. So, select a few specific angles. Those can serve as main points of the persuasive speech ideas.

Julius Caesar Reading Discussion Questions

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Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Study Guide
Discussion Questions

Directions: After reading each act out loud in class, the following questions will be discussed/answered in small groups in class. Each student must write the answers to the following questions in complete sentences on a separate sheet of paper. All answers should be numbered and headed with the proper act and scene numbers! Most responses will require several sentences in order to be answered completely. Be sure to rephrase the question in your answer.

Act I, Scene 1

1. What is the situation at the beginning of the play?
2. Identify Flavius and Marullus. What are they doing?
3. What is Lupercal?

Act I, Scene 2

4. What warning is given to Caesar? By whom? How does he react?
5. What are the two incidents Cassius tells to Brutus? What is his purpose in telling them?
6. What kind of person does Brutus seem to be? Cassius?
7. What is Caesar's opinion of Antony? of Cassius?
8. What is the report given by Casca?
9. How does Cassius feel about his talk with Brutus?

Act I, Scene 3
10. What is the effect of the storm? It's purpose?11. How does Cassius say he can escape tyranny?12. What is the next step in convincing Brutus?

Act II, Scene 1

1. Explain Brutus' speech that begins: “It must be by his death…”
2. Why do the conspirators want Cicero and then leave him out?
3. Why won't Brutus take an oath?
4. Why does he oppose the assassination of Antony?
5. How has Caesar changed?6. What are some of Portia's characteristics?

Act II, Scene 2

7. Describe the night.
8. What has Caesar decided to do when Decius comes? What reason does he give?
9. Why does he change his mind?
10. What are the two interpretations of the dream?

Act III, Scene 1

1. What was each of the following characters to do at the capitol: Trebonious, Cimber, Casca, Brutus?
2. How do the conspirators react to the assassination?
3. How can you prove the dream was fulfilled?
4. What prophecy is made?
5. What message does Antony's servant bring?
6. What does Antony ask of the conspirators if they plan to kill him?
7. Of what do they assure him?
8. Who doubts the wisdom of answering Antony's request?
9. Summarize Antony’s soliloquy.

Act III, Scene 2

10. How does Brutus justify Caesar's murder when he speaks to the people?
11. How is the point proven to the people?
12. How does Antony arouse the people to mutiny?
13. How does Antony show he understands the people better than Brutus?
14. What three examples does Antony give to prove that Caesar was not ambitious?
15. What are the provisions of Caesar's will?
16. Who is prepared to take control of the government of Rome now?

Act IV, Scene 1

1. What is the Second Triumvirate? Who composes it?
2. What is the new triumvirate planning to do?

Act IV, Scene 2

3. Where are Brutus and Cassius?

Act IV, Scene 3

4. Who quarrels? Why?
5. What does Brutus think of himself?
6. Why does Cassius say he is aweary of the world?
7. What alibi does Cassius use?
8. What news do we hear of Portia? What is Brutus' reaction?
9. Give the arguments pro and con for marching to Philippi. Why does Cassius think the army should be held at Sardis? Why does Brutus think they should march?
10. Why does Caesar's ghost appear to Brutus? What does it say to Brutus?

Act V, Scene 1

1. Where does the scene take place?
2. What do Brutus and Cassius do?

Act V, Scene 3

3. How does Cassius die?
4. How does Pindarus earn his freedom?
5. What happens to Titinius?

Act V, Scene 4

6. How does Brutus die?
7. What do Antony and Octavius say about Brutus?
8. Who wins and becomes ruler of Rome?

In-Text Citations

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MLA Parenthetical Citation Formats

The following are a few examples of parenthetical citation formats. For more detailed information, consult the MLA Handbook (6th edition) located on our bookshelves at 808.02 GIB. Please note: When using online resources, page numbers are omitted from the parenthetical citation.

*When you omit the author’s name in your sentence:

One research has found that dreams move backward in time as the night progresses (Dement 71).

*When you mention the author’s name in your sentence:

Freud states that “a dream is the fulfillment of a wish” (154).

When you use a website and mention the author’s name, OMIT the page number:

Smith states that “we are all individuals, similar but different.”

*When you cite more than one work by the same author:

One current theory emphasizes the principle that dreams express “profound aspects of personality” (Foulkes, “Sleep” 184). But investigation shows that young children’s dreams are “rather simple and unemotional” (Foulkes, “Dreams” 78).

*When the work has two or three authors:

Psychologists hold that no two children are alike (Gesell and Ilg 68).

*When the work has more than three authors:

(Rosenberg et al. 14)

*When the work has no author, begin with the word by which the title is alphabetized in the Works Cited:

Random testing for use of steroids by athletes is facing strong opposition by owners of several of
these teams (“Steroids” 22).

*When you quote or paraphrase a quotation from a book or article that appeared somewhere else:

Bacon observed that “it is hardly possible at once to admire an author and to go beyond him” (qtd. in Guibroy 113).

*When you cite a personal interview:

“Drinking milk made me a better person,” stated the artist (Vanilli). (Note: If you mention the name of your interview subject in your text, no parenthetical citation is necessary.)

*When you are citing several sources for a single passage:

There are negative implications to computerizing commercial art (Parker 2; “Art Nonsense” 43).

When you cite a character in a literary work:

Chai explains, “I reached out and smoothed out the frown lines on his forehead” (Pan 105).

When you cite a long quotation (five lines or more) that is set off from the text (Note that the quote is indented, double spaced, and without quotation marks):

No one is really certain about the origins of the term “Dust Bowl”:

H.L. Mencken in a footnote to the first supplement (1945) to his

monumental The American Language traces the term...to an Associated

Press dispatch sent by staff writer Robert Geiger on April 15, 1935. (French 3)

*When you paraphrase a whole passage or several passages, begin your citation with the author’s or article’s name and end it with the page number:

According to Brown, everytime you read an essay, you are preparing to write one. Therefore, you should pay careful attention to content and form (9).

When quoting from a website, use author (same format as print citation) or, if no author, title. Include page number, if given.

To identify the source of a quotation, paraphrase, or summary, place the author's last name in parentheses after the cited material (Harnack and Kleppinger). b Web pages number in the billions! (SearchQuest).

*These examples have been borrowed from Chico High School Library (CA) and the Purdue University On-Line Writing Lab.

Julius Caesar Characters: Keeping Them Straight

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Julius Caesar Characters guide studies each character's role and motivation in this play.

Julius Caesar: The victorious leader of Rome, it is the fear that he may become King and revoke the privileges of men like Cassius that leads to his death at the hands of Cassius, Brutus and their fellow conspirators.

The threat that Caesar was moving away from the ideals of the Roman republic towards an Empire ruled directly by himself is the chief reason so many senators, aristocrats and even

Caesar's friend Brutus, conspired to kill him.

Introduced early in the play as a great (and arguably arrogant) leader who fears nothing, Caesar is warned by Artemidorus, The Soothsayer and wife (Calphurnia) alike not to go to the Senate on the "ides of March" the very day he is assassinated.

Caesar later returns in the play as a ghost which haunts Brutus in Act V. Easily flattered by Decius Brutus (not to be confused with Brutus), Caesar appears to us as a man almost guided not so much by his own will but what he believes are the expectations his people have of "Caesar." This is why he is reluctant to show fear, Caesar, as he frequently refers to himself in the third person, fears nothing and can show no sign of weakness or indeed mortality...

Note: The "ides of March" is the fifteenth of March (See Act II, Scene I, Line 58).

Octavius Caesar: The adopted son of Caesar, Octavius by history, ultimately became ruler of the Roman Empire following his defeat of Mark Antony in Egypt (See Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra). In this play, Octavius with Mark Antony and Lepidus (The Second Triumvirate), destroy the forces of Brutus and Cassius on the Plains of Philippi, which results in the death of both these conspirators (Act V).

Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony): One of the Triumvirs (leaders) who rule Rome following Caesar's assassination. Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius) is famous in this play for his speech, which turns the Romans against Brutus following his group's assassination of Caesar. Famous for the immortal lines "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;" (Act III, Scene II, Line 79), Mark Antony with fellow Triumvirs, Octavius and Lepidus later defeat Brutus and Cassius on the Plains of Philippi in Act V.

M. Aemilius Lepidus: The last of the Triumvirs, this old man holds little real power and is used in Mark Antony's own words as a loyal, trusted man "Meet [fit] to be sent on errands:" (Act IV, Scene I, Line 13).

Cicero: A well-known orator (public speaker) and Senator, Cicero is killed by the Triumvirs (Mark Antony, Octavius and Lepidus) following Caesar's assassination.

Publius: A Senator who travels with Caesar to the Senate House the day Caesar is killed, he witnesses Caesar's assassination. Though deeply "confounded" or confused and shaken by the assassination of Caesar (Act III, Scene I, Line 86), he is used by Brutus to tell the citizens of Rome that Caesar aside, no one else will be hurt (Act III, Scene I, Lines 89-91).

Popilius Lena: The Senator who terrifies Cassius by telling Cassius that he hopes his "enterprise [assassination attempt] today may thrive" or be successful just as Caesar goes into the Senate house on the "ides of March" (Act III, Scene I, Line 13).

Marcus Brutus: The most complex character in this play, Brutus is one of the men who assassinate Caesar in the Senate. Brutus is complex, because he does not kill Caesar for greed, envy nor to preserve his social position like so many of the other conspirators against Caesar. This Brutus makes very clear in his speech in Act III, Scene II (Lines 12-76), when he explains his actions as being for the good of Rome.

Unlike the other conspirators, Brutus is in fact a dear friend of Caesar's but kills his beloved friend not for who he is, but what he could become as a King. It is for this reason that when Brutus dies by suicide in Act V, Mark Antony describes his bitter enemy by saying "This [Brutus] was the noblest Roman of them all;" (Act V, Scene V, Line 68).

Mark Antony recognizes with these words that Brutus acted from a sense of civic duty, not malice, nor greed nor envy.

In academic circles, Brutus is still a source of much heated debate; does assassinating a leader for the good of the people constitute bravery worthy of a tragic hero or can the end never justify the means? The controversy on whether Brutus is tragic hero or villain still rages...

Ironically, though it can be argued that Brutus assassinated his friend to prevent one man ruling the Roman Empire, history was later to make this a reality. Octavius, one of the Triumvirs who defeated Brutus and Cassius, was later to become a Roman Emperor ruling the entire Roman Empire alone following his victory over Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

Cassius: One of the original conspirators against Caesar. Like the other conspirators he fears what life under King Caesar's rule could mean for him and the privileges he has.

Unlike the other conspirators however, Cassius plays a leading role in Caesar's assassination. It is he who gathers those against Caesar around him and it is Cassius who carefully manipulates Brutus to their cause by appealing to Brutus' sense of civic duty which believes that Caesar as a King would be bad for the people of Rome and by Cassius' clever use of forged letters.

The great thinker of the conspiracy, his advice is continually overruled by Brutus with tragic results for the conspirators.

First, his advice to kill Mark Antony as well as Caesar is ignored leading to Mark Antony becoming their greatest enemy.

Later at Caesar's funeral, Cassius' advice that Mark Antony should not speak at the funeral is also ignored leading to Antony turning the masses against the previously popular conspirators.
Finally in Act V, Brutus ignores Cassius' advise to stay on high ground, leading to a battle in the plains of Philippi, a battle favored by Mark Antony and Octavius, their enemies. Like Brutus, he dies by suicide in Act V, when fearing Brutus dead, he commits suicide.

Casca: One of the conspirators against Caesar, he starts the actual assassination of Caesar by stabbing first from behind.

Terminus: The only conspirator who does not actually stab Caesar, he is the man responsible for saving Mark Antony's life following Caesar's assassination. He leads Mark Antony away from the Senate house following the assassination and he backs up Brutus' suggestion that Mark Antony's life be spared.

Ligarius: The reluctant assassin, Caius Ligarius at first hesitates in killing Caesar, but later enthusiastically follows the others in killing Caesar after Brutus restores his conviction.

Decius Brutus: A man who lures Caesar to his death by his deep understanding of Caesar's true vanity...

Not to be confused with Marcus Brutus, who is referred to in Julius Caesar simply as as Brutus. It is Decius Brutus who convinces Caesar to turn up to the Senate on the "ides of March" after Caesar announces that he is unwilling to attend the day's Senate because of his wife Calphurnia's dream foretelling doom. Decius Brutus turns Calphurnia's dream into a reason to attend the Senate by cleverly reinterpreting its negative imagery to instead symbolize Caesar's triumph.

Metellus Cimber: A conspirator against Caesar, it is his petition or request to Caesar for his brother's banishment to be overturned, that allows the conspirators to move close to Caesar, before they assassinate him with multiple stab wounds...

Cinna: A conspirator against Caesar, who plays a key role in enlisting Brutus to their cause. It is Cinna who suggests to Cassius that Brutus join their conspiracy. Also assists Cassius' manipulation of Brutus by placing Cassius' letters responsible for manipulating Brutus where Brutus is sure to find and read them... Indirectly responsible for Cinna, the poet's death; since it is he the mob originally wished to kill...

Flavius and Marullus: Two Tribunes introduced to us at the beginning of the play. Their conversation reveals the deep mistrust and fear many in Rome have about Caesar's growing popularity, which eventually leads to Caesar's assassination. These two men criticize Rome's citizens for praising Caesar almost without reason and are later put to death or "put to silence" for "pulling scarfs off Caesar's images," (Act I, Scene II, Line 291) during the Feast of Lupercal in Act I, Scene I (Note: Flavius the Tribune is not the same person as Flavius, a soldier whom appears in Act IV).

Artemidorus: The man who nearly saves Caesar, he presents Caesar with a letter warning warning Caesar that he will be killed (Act II, Scene III). Caesar however does not read the letter and so proceeds to his doom...

Cinna, the Poet: A humble poet, this man dies because he has the wrong name at the wrong time. After Mark Antony incites (angers) the people of Rome against Caesar's assassins, Cinna who shares the same name as one of the assassins, is killed despite his explaining his identity as a poet. The mob, eager for blood, kill him regardless and use the excuse that they never liked his poems much anyway (Act III, Scene III, Lines 1-43).

Lucilius, Titinius, Messala, Young Cato and Volumnius: Friends to Brutus and Cassius.

Varro, Clitus, Claudius, Strato, Lucius and Dardanius: Servants to Brutus.

Pindarus: A servant to Cassius, he is also the messenger bearing the wrong news... In Act V, Pindarus misreports to Cassius that Titinius, a scout sent to Brutus' forces was captured by the Triumvir's forces when he was actually welcomed by Brutus' army. On Pindarus' information, Cassius assumes that Brutus has been defeated and so thinking all is lost, decides to kill himself, using Pindarus to hold a sword out which he runs onto, the very sword, Cassius used against Caesar...

Calphurnia: The wife of Caesar, she begs her husband not to go to the Senate on "the ides of March" (March 15) when she cries out "'Help, ho! They murder Caesar!'" three times in her sleep, the day before Caesar's death. This and strange occurrences such as a lioness whelping in the streets of Rome,"Fierce fiery warriors" fighting in the clouds (Act II, Scene II, Lines 12-24) and graves yawning and yielding up their dead, convince Calphurnia that her husband Julius Caesar, must stay home on the "ides of March" (the fifteenth of March). Unfortunately just as Calpurnia convinces Caesar to stay home and avoid the death that awaits him, Decius Brutus (not to be confused with Brutus), arrives at Caesar's home convincing him that these images mean that Rome will be revived by Caesar's presence at the Senate the following day. Caesar ignores his wife's pleas and meets his bloody destiny at the hands of Brutus and company the very next day.

Portia: The wife of Marcus Brutus, she tries to learn from Brutus the assassination conspiracy he is hiding from her. She is later assumed to have committed suicide at the end of the play when her death is reported as being under strange circumstances...

Senators, Citizens, Guards, Attendants and others...

Julius Caesar Quotes? Who Said It?, What Makes it Important?

2009-05-01T15:30:00.000-05:00

A Shakespearean quote such as "To be, or not to be" and the famous "O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?" quote form some of literature's most celebrated lines and if asked to recite one of Shakespeare's most famous quotations the majority of people would choose one of these. However, many expressions that we use every day originated in Shakespeare's plays. We use the Bard's words all of the time in everyday speech, however, we are often totally unaware that we are 'borrowing' sayings from his work - we frequently quote Shakespeare! Will Shake-speare is attributed with writing 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 5 other poems and used about 21,000 different words. Shake-speare is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with the introduction of nearly 3,000 words into the language. It's no wonder that expressions from his works are an 'anonymous' part of the English language.

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him". Quote (Act III, Scene II).

"But, for my own part, it was Greek to me". - Julius Caesar Quote (Act I, Scene II).

"A dish fit for the gods". Quote (Act II, Scene I).

"Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of war". Julius Caesar Quote (Act III, Sc. I).

"Et tu, Brute!" Quote (Act III, Scene I).

"Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings". - (Quote Act I, Scene II).

"Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more". Quote (Act III, Scene II).

"Beware the ides of March". - (Quote Act I, Scene II).

"This was the noblest Roman of them all". - (Quote Act V, Sc. V).

"When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff". - (Quote Act III, Sc. II).

"Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous" Julius Quote (Act I, Scene II).

"For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men". - (Quote Act III, Sc. II).

"As he was valiant, I honour him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him" . Quote (Act III, Sc. II).

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear;Seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come". Julius Caesar Quote (Act II, Scene II).

Having Problems Reading Julius Caesar

2009-05-01T07:17:00.000-05:00

Check out SPARKS NOTES PARALLEL VERSION OF JULIUS CAESAR by CLICKING HERE which puts Shakespeare's words next to more common language to make reading easier.

Making In-Text or Parenthetical Citations

2009-05-01T06:28:00.000-05:00

Many high school teachers will require students to use MLA Style for their papers. You should check with the instructor for information about line spacing, margins, and a title page, since teachers may have their own preferences.

Your teacher will probably provide a style guide of some sort to address these parts of the paper.

As you write your paper in MLA style, you will be talking about things you found in your research. Therefore, you will have to indicate in your text exactly where you found the information.

This can be done with parenthetical citations.

When you make reference to someone else's idea, either through paraphrasing or quoting them directly, you provide the author’s name and the page number of the work in the text of your paper.

This is the parenthetical citation, and it is the alternative to using footnotes (like you will do if you use other styles found elsewhere on this site).

Here is an example of parenthetical citations:

Even today, many children are born outside the safety of hospitals (Kasserman 182).

This indicates that you are using information found in a book by somebody named Kasserman (last name) and it was found on page 182.

You may also give the same information in another way, if you want to name the author in your sentence. You might want to do this to add variety to your paper:

According to Laura Kasserman, “many children today do not benefit from the sanitary conditions which are available in modern facilities” (182). Many children are born outside the safety of hospitals.

Be sure to use quotation marks when quoting someone directly.

MLA Bibliography Tutorial and Guide

Suggested Reading
Electronic Source Writing a Research Paper Using a Library

Related Articles
Books About MLA Style

Julius Caesar: Historical Background

2009-04-30T13:10:00.000-05:00

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Study Guide
Background Information

Setting

Ancient Rome 44 B.C.

The play takes place before Rome developed into an empire. Julius Caesar has just defeated Pompey after a long civil war. He returns to Rome triumphantly and is in a position to take power. Some people are concerned because dictators have taken power before.
Julius Caesar, was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in world history. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. His conquest of Gaul extended the Roman world all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, and he was also responsible for the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC.
Leading his legions across Rubicon, Caesar sparked civil war in 49 BC that left him the undisputed master of the Roman world. After assuming control of the government, he began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He was proclaimed dictator for life, and he heavily centralized the bureaucracy of the Republic. This forced the hand of a friend of Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus, who then conspired with others to murder the dictator and restore the Republic. This dramatic assassination occurred on the Ides of March (March 15th) in 44 BC and led to another Roman civil war. In 42 BC, two years after his assassination, the Roman Senate officially sanctified him as one of the Roman deities.
Caesar's military campaigns are known in detail from his own written Commentaries (Commentarii), and many details of his life are recorded by later historians, such as Appian, Suetonius, Plutarch, Cassius Dio and Strabo. Other information can be gleaned from other contemporary sources, such as the letters and speeches of Caesar's political rival Cicero, the poetry of Catullus and the writings of the historian Sallust.

BRUTUS

Marcus Junius Brutus (85 BC – 42 BC), or Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, was a Roman senator of the late Roman Republic. Though in popular culture, it is believed that Brutus was the sole assasin of Julius Caesar, historically he was not alone in the dictator's assasination conspiracy, but was among possibly up to sixty men.

Other Brutus Links
1 Life
2 Chronology
3 Brutus in popular culture
3.1 Influence
3.2 Fiction
3.3 Drama
4 Family tree
5 Notes
6 External links

Drama

In Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, actors such as James Mason, Jason Robards and Richard Pasco have played the role of Marcus Brutus in television productions and films.

In Julius Caesar he is portrayed by Ian Duncan.

A fictionalised Marcus Junius Brutus appears in the 2005 television series Rome, played by
Tobias Menzies.

Marcus Brutus also appears in the highly fictionalised 2005 six-part mini series Empire played by James Frain.

Characters

Julius Caesar
A great Roman general who has recently returned to Rome after a military victory in Spain. Julius Caesar is not the main character of the play that bears his name; Brutus has over four times as many lines, and the play does not show us Caesar's point of view. Nonetheless, virtually every other character is preoccupied with Caesar—specifically, with the possibility that Caesar may soon become king. If Caesar were to become king, it would mean the end of Rome's republican system of government, in which senators, representing the citizens of Rome, wield most of the power. To noblemen like Brutus and Cassius, who consider themselves the equals of Caesar or any other citizen, Caesar's coronation would mean they would no longer be free men but rather slaves. Caesar never explicitly says that he wants to be king—he even refuses the crown three times in a dramatic public display—but everything he says and does demonstrates that he regards himself as special and superior to other mortals. In his own mind, he seems already to be an absolute ruler.

Brutus
A high-ranking, well-regarded Roman nobleman who participates in a conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. Brutus is motivated by his sense of honor, which requires him to place the good of Rome above his own personal interests or feelings. Thus, he plots against Caesar in order to preserve the republic even though he loves and admires Caesar personally. While the other conspirators act out of envy and rivalry, only Brutus truly believes that Caesar's death will benefit Rome. Brutus's sense of honor is also his weakness, as he tends to assume that his fellow Romans are as highminded as he is, which makes it easy for others to manipulate him.

Antony
A loyal friend of Caesar's. In contrast to the self-disciplined Brutus, Antony is notoriously impulsive and pleasure-seeking, passionate rather than principled. He is extremely spontaneous and lives in the present moment. As resourceful as he is unscrupulous, Antony proves to be a dangerous enemy of Brutus and the other conspirators.

Cassius
A talented general and longtime acquaintance of Caesar. Cassius resents the fact that the Roman populace has come to revere Caesar almost as a god. He slyly leads Brutus to believe that Caesar has become too powerful and must die, finally converting Brutus to his cause by sending him forged letters claiming that the Roman people support the death of Caesar. Impulsive and unscrupulous like Antony, Cassius harbors no illusions about the way the political world works. A shrewd opportunist, he acts effectively but lacks integrity.

Octavius
Caesar's adopted son and appointed successor. Octavius, who had been traveling abroad, returns after Caesar's death, then joins with Antony and sets off to fight Cassius and Brutus. Antony tries to control Octavius's movements, but Octavius follows his adopted father's example and emerges as the authoritative figure, paving the way for his eventual seizure of the reins of Roman government.

Casca
One of the conspirators. Casca is a tribune (an official elected to represent the common people of Rome) who resents Caesar's ambition. A rough and blunt-speaking man, Casca relates to Cassius and Brutus how Antony offered the crown to Caesar three times and how each time Caesar declined it. Casca insists, however, that Caesar was acting, manipulating the populace into believing that he has no personal ambition. Casca is the first to stab Caesar.

Calphurnia
Caesar's wife. Calphurnia invests great authority in omens and portents. She warns Caesar against going to the Senate on the Ides of March, for she has had terrible nightmares and heard reports of many bad omens.

Portia
Brutus's wife and the daughter of a noble Roman (Cato) who took sides against Caesar. Portia, accustomed to being Brutus's confidante, is upset to find him so reluctant to speak his mind when she finds him troubled.

Flavius and Murellus
Two tribunes who condemn the plebeians for their fickleness in cheering Caesar when once they cheered for Caesar's enemy Pompey. Flavius and Murellus are punished for removing the decorations from Caesar's statues during Caesar's triumphal parade.

Cicero
A Roman senator renowned for his oratorical skill. Cicero speaks at Caesar's triumphal parade. He later dies at the order of Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus.

Lepidus
The third member of Antony and Octavius's coalition. Though Antony has a low opinion of Lepidus, Octavius trusts Lepidus's loyalty.

Decius
A member of the conspiracy. Decius convinces Caesar that Calphurnia misinterpreted her dire nightmares and that, in fact, no danger awaits him at the Senate. Decius leads Caesar right into the hands of the conspirators.

Another Look at Key Characters

Julius Caesar
Although Caesar was one of the strongest individuals in history, Shakespeare presents him with a number of weaknesses. In spite of all of these weaknesses, it is the spirit of Caesar that pervades the whole play. At the end of the play, Brutus says, "Caesar, thou art mighty yet."

Brutus
Brutus is the epitome of all that is gentle and good in man. His sterner qualities make him admirable; his gentler qualities make him lovable. He is one of the finest characters in all of Shakespeare's writing. Had Brutus been less idealistic and less merciful, he no doubt would have been successful in crushing the powerful forces of Caesar. His three mistakes cost him his life, but Brutus feels no enmity, even in death.

Cassius
If ever Shakespeare presented characters in contrast, he does it in molding the conspiracy around Cassius and Brutus. Cassius is the realist, the shrewd contriver, the ambitious one. He is the clever psychologist who knows just how to manipulate Brutus' thoughts and how to bring him into the conspiracy. Cassius is a strong leader, but he has one weakness—his admiration for Brutus. That admiration overrules his better judgment and culminates in his downfall. Without Brutus in the play, Cassius would have emerged as a much stronger leader.

Marc Antony
At the time of Caesar's assassination, Antony was thirty-seven years old. Never taking life very seriously, he led a pleasure-loving existence. Because he was reckless, careless, and handsome, the people loved him. Antony proves himself to be clever when he addresses the crowd after Caesar’s murder and convinces them that Caesar was not ambitious.

Octavius
Octavius was nineteen when Caesar was assassinated and only twenty-one when he and Antony defeated the conspirators at Philippi. Eleven years later, he sent Antony and Cleopatra to defeat and death. Shakespeare wrote about that subject in his play Antony and Cleopatra. Octavius ruled Rome for forty-one years (until 17 A.D.). He was called the august, the grand, the magnificent (Augustus).

English 10B Vocabulary: Unit 3 SAT/ACT Words

2009-04-21T23:05:00.000-05:00

3.1 AMBIANCE (AM bee uns) mood, feeling; general atmosphere
Memory Link: Ambulance George did not enjoy the AMBIANCE in the AMBULANCE.

The AMBIANCE of the locker room after the team lost the championship was depressing.

For their daughter's birthday party, the Jeffersons' created an AMBIANCE of gaiety, decorating the gardent with bright balloons and ribbons.

The AMBIANCE in the Italian restaurant was delightful, there was soft music, candlelight and singing waiters.

3.2 GRANDILOQUENT (gran DIL uh kwunt) attempting to impress with big words or grand gestures
Memory Link: Grand Elephant The GRAND ELEPHANT made a GRANDILOQUENT speech.

It was another GRANDILOQUENT political affair; the candidates made the same old promises for lower taxes and more free services.

They may be eloquent, but here is nothing grand about pompous GRANDILOQUENT speakers.

The new teacher's GRANDILOQUENCE didn't fool the class one bit. She really knew very little about South American History.

3.3 GOSSAMER (GOSS uh mer) delicate floating cobwebs; a sheer gauzy fabric; something delicate, light, flimsy
Memory Link: CUSTOMER The spider's GOSSAMER captured many unhappy CUSTOMERS.

The bride wore a white silk wedding dress which touched the floor as she proceeded up the aisle to the altar. A GOSSAMER of fine Italian lace gently touched her face.

Between the audience and the actors on the stage hung a thing GOSSAMER of fabric, heightening the feeling that the actors were in a dream-like setting.

3.4 HARROWING (HARE roe ing) extremely distressed; disturbing or frightening
Memory Link: HARE ROWING A HARROWING experience for a HARE ROWING.

After the HARROWING experience when Eddies main parachute didn't open, and his emergerncy chute save him only at the last minute, he vowed never to jump again.

(HARRIED is to be troubled or bothered while HARROWING is to be frightened to the extreme.) At first we were HARRIED by the gang members and insulted, but later it became a HARROWING experience as they chased and threatened us with knives.

3.5 IRASCIBLE (i RAS uh bul) easily angered, irritable
Memory Link: WRESTLE BULLS When he became IRASCIBLE, the Masked Marvel would WRESTLE BULLS.

Normally, Rose was a pleasant wife and mother but if a member of her family prevented her from watching her favorite "soaps," she could become quite IRASCIBLE.

Uncle Tim was a real grouch, even on his birthday he would find a way to become so IRASCIBLE as a spoiled child.

The school principal became so IRASCIBLE even his teachers avoided speaking to him.

3.6 LASSITUDE (LAS uh tood) listlessness; torpor, weariness
Memory Link: LAZY DUDE A LAZY DUDE with LASSITUDE.

After eating three servints of Thanksgiving dinner, George succumbed to a feeling of LASSITUDE and fell asleep on the couch.

Having worked for the cannery for twenty years without a raise, Charles became discouraged with his employers and approached his daily work with unenthusiastic LASSITUDE.

3.7 LACONIC (luh KAHN ik) brief, using few words
Memory Link: Grandma was laconic when giving grandpa his TONIC.

3.8 MYRIAD (MIR ee ud) an extremely large number
Memory Link: The trick MIRROR ADDs a myriad of reflections.

3.9 NOXIOUS(KNOCKS ee us) physically or mentally destructive, or harmful to human beings
Memory Link: Her overdose of perfume was so noxious that it knocked us off the bench.

3.10 QUEUE (Q) to form or to wait in line
Memory Link: The "Q's" formed a Q to jump into the alphabet soup.

In-Text Citation Examples & Resources

2009-04-20T09:56:00.001-05:00

"How To" Appropriately Use MLA In-Text Citations in a Variety of Documented Writing Situations from Your Valuable Research & Research Cards

Your research cards should contain the information that you need to handle the "in-text" citation appropriately. I recommend that you not only provide a "slug" or "sub-headling" but--eventually--where this information will fit into your MLA Outline (i.e. II.A.1.) Notice that this sample is numbered in the right hand corner and that they page number(s) are in the bottom right hand corner. This card is a tad too thin in the amount of information that is included on it. Moreover, types of support include: direct quotations, an indirect quote, a paraphrase or a summary. Remember, though, that types of evidence include: facts, inferences, expert opinions, charts/graphs, statistics, personal experiences, interviews, and much more. I suggest that researchers include what type of evidence is being researched in the bottom right hand corner.

SAMPLE NOTECARD (ABOVE) TAKEN FROM:Denny, Rialta. "evasive4.tripod.com/notecardformat.gif." evasive4.vze.com. 13 Jan 2007. tripod.com/&h=550&w=750&sz=9&hl=en&sig2=R9Lgl_aUaYmJdkOLREQz2w&start
=2&tbnid=_Sg-Oe6fObkXNM:&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;tbnh=103&tbnw=141&ei=egipRYCFNJSCjAGD4pmLBg
&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMLA%2BNotecard%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D>.
NOTE: After the first line of an MLA Work's Cited entry, the author is to indent the subsequent lines. This blog will not allow me to do so for you.
Correct Ways to Handle "In-Text" Citations
Single author named in parentheses.
Example: The tendency to come to terms with difficult experiences is referred to as a "purification process" whereby "threatening or painful dissonances are warded off to preserve intact a clear and articulated image of oneself and one’s place in the world" (Sennett 11).

Note: The punctuation here uses a direct quotation. Notice that the end quotation mark ends prior to the "in-text" citation in parentheses. Notice that there is no commo, nor an abbreviation for page number. Also notice that the parentheses are followed by the appropriate punctuation mark.
Single author or Sinlge Source named in a signal phrase.

Example: Social historian Richard Sennett names the tendency to come to terms with difficult experiences a "purification process" whereby "threatening or painful dissonances are warded off to preserve intact a clear and articulated image of oneself and one’s place in the world" (11).

Note: If you introduce the author or source in the text of your paper (and there is no duplicate in the author's name or a book with the same exact title (not likely but possible), you need only include the page number of that source and not the source itself.
Two or more authors.

Example. Certain literacy theorists have gone so far as to declare that "the most significant elements of human culture are undoubtedly channeled through words, and reside in the particular range of meanings and attitudes which members of any society attach to their verbal symbols" (Goody and Watt 323).

Corporate author (organization, association, etc.).

Example. The federal government has funded research concerning consumer protection and consumer transactions with online pharmacies (Food and Drug Administration 125).

Works with no author.
Example. Several critics of the concept of the transparent society ask if a large society would be able to handle the complete loss of privacy ("Surveillance Society" 115).

Two or more works by the same author.

Example. In his investigation of social identity, The Uses of Disorder, Sennett defines adulthood as a stage where people "learn to tolerate painful ambiguity and uncertainty" (108).

Note: The author can identify which of the two works is being referenced by signaling it in his or her writing.
In a surprising move, Richard Sennett combines the idea of power with that of virtue: "the idea of strength is complex in ordinary life because of what might be called the element of its integrity" (Authority 19).

Note: In this situation, the author signifies which of the two works is being referenced--not in the text of the writing--but by using the title of the source in the in-text citation.
Work found in an anthology or edited collection.

Note: For an essay, short story, or other document included in an anthology or edited collection, use the name of the author of the work, not the editor of the anthology or collection, but use the page numbers from the anthology or collection.
Lawrence Rosenfield analyzes the way in which New York’s Central Park held a socializing function for nineteenth-century residents similar to that of traditional republican civic oratory (222).

Bible passage.

Unfortunately, the president could not recall the truism that "Wisdom is a fountain to one who has it, but folly is the punishment of fools" (New Oxford Annotated Bible, Prov. 20-22).

Note: The author needs to include the specific Bible in the in-text citation.
Secondary source of a quotation (someone quoted within the text of another author).

As Erickson reminds us, the early psychoanalysts focused on a single objective: "introspective honesty in the service of self enlightenment" (qtd. in Weiland 42).

Note: If one author is quoted by another, this is the appropriate way to handle it.

Web page.

Abraham Lincoln's birthplace was designated as a National Historical Site in 1959 (National Park Service).

Note: Internet citations follow the style of printed works. Personal or corporate author and page number should be given ONLY if they exist on the website itself.

Other Awesome Online Sources for In-Text Citations and Work's Cited Style

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite5.html

http://www.library.unr.edu/depts/bgic/guides/government/cite.html

http://www.lib.montana.edu/instruct/guides/

http://www.mla.com/

Works Cited Entries & Source Card Style

2009-04-15T09:29:00.000-05:00

Works Cited Entries & Source Card Style

Duke Universities Libraries Site

This is a great site to help you understand how to handle "in-text" citations and "works cited" entries. Please make sure that you choose the Modern Language Association (MLA) entry. This site shows students how to handle "works cited" entries for a variety of other styles: APA, Chicago, Turabian and CSE. Scroll down for web-site link.

Pay close attention to the guidelines given at the bottom of each entry for specific important information that you must gather for each of the different types of sources.

Note: I would recommend that you letter and not number each of your souces. I think it is easier to keep them separate. Then, when you tie a notecard to a source you can use a letter and a number in the upper, right hand corner to indicate "which" source your note cards came from. Also note that the second line (and all others after it) of this MLA Entry should be indented. I also find it important to list the ISBN number, call number or location in the bottom left corner if one needs to find the source again for reference.

Journals: Printed Journals, Journal Article with Multiple Authors, Information from an Online Journal, Full-Text Article from a Database.

Magazines: Printed Magazines, On-Line Magazines, Full-Text Article from a Database.

Books: Book with a Single Author, Book with Two Authors, Book with Three or More Authors, Electronic Book, Article from Within a Book, Encyclopedias and Other Multi-Volume Books.

Newspaper Articles: Printed Newspapers, Online Newspapers, Full-Text Article from a Database.

Primary Sources: Letters, Interviews, Motion Picture, Online Digitized Collection.

Other Materials: Web Page, Online Posting, Email Message, Book Reviews, Government Documents

http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

Do you want even more help? See Noodle Tools and Son of Citation Machine below.

Noodle Tools

Noodle Tools is a free tool to easily create MLA Works Cited pages. You need to go to the homepage, sign up for a free account and the site will take you through all of the other steps. Try it! You'll love it.

http://noodletools.org/

Son of Citation Machine

Citation Machine is one of many on-line cites that will assist a student who has gathered all of the "vital" information about sources: journals, books, newspapers, primary sources, other sources. Please have all of the important information collected if you want this "short-cut" to work for you. Also, make sure that you choose MLA as your "style".

http://citationmachine.net/

DAILY ORAL LANGUAGE: ACT Preparation--Grammar, Usage & Mechanics & Rhetorical Skills Quiz 1

2009-03-03T18:30:00.000-06:00

Daily Oral Language Assignments

Each day of Mr. McLaughlin's English 10B Class will begin with a short "sponge" activity. On some days we will begin with the ACT preparation assignments like the ones listed in this entry.

On other days we will be working with ACT/SAT Vocabulary words. For your convenience & for your study, these are being posted here for your convenience and to study for our in class quizzes.

Your learning of this material will be covered on our quizzes. We will have a quiz each two weeks.

COMPLETE AC T T EST PREPARATION.doc

ACT Test Preparation Passage I.1, Day 1.doc

ACT Test Preparation Passage I.2, Day 2.doc

ACT Test Preparation Passage I.3, Day 3.doc

Purposes of a Good Conclusion

2009-01-05T04:05:00.000-06:00

Purposes for the Conclusion:

1. Signaling the End of the Speech

Verbal techniques for signaling the end of a speech include using such
transitions as "finally," "for my last point," and "in conclusion." Speakers need
to be careful in their use of signals in their conclusion. For one thing, such a
cue gives an audience unspoken permission to tune out. Notice what students
do when their professor signals the end of the class session. Books and
notebooks slam shut, pens are stowed, and the class generally stops listening.

The challenge for a good speaker is to let the audience know that they've
reached the end of a speech and still hold the audience's attention. This takes
some craft for the speaker.

2. Summary of the Major Ideas or Main Points

Summarize the Speech Remember the golden rule of public speaking: "Tell them what you're going to tell them; tell them; then tell them what you've told them." Conclusions fulfill the final third of that prescription. They are a speaker's last chance I to repeat his or her main ideas for the audience. Most speakers summarize their speech as the first part of the conclusion or perhaps even as the transition between the body of the speech and its end. The summary is to the conclusion what the preview statement is to the introduction. It is important in both the preview and the summary to allow present your main points with a point-of-view. The point-of-view should be stronger in the conclusion than it is in the introduction.

One speaker summarized his speech on emissions tampering in an effective way, casting the summary as an expression of his fears about the problem and the actions I that could solve his fears:

"I'm frightened. Frightened that nothing I could say would encourage the 25 % of emissions tampering Americans to change their ways and correct the factors that cause their autos to pollute disproportionately. Frightened that the American public will not respond to I a crucial issue unless the harms are both immediate and observable. Frightened that the EPA will once again prove very sympathetic to industry. Three simple steps will alleviate my fear: inspection, reduction in lead content, and, most importantly, awareness."

3. Restate the Thesis in a Memorable/Strong Manner

Restate the Thesis in a Memorable or Strong Manner. Speakers
frequently leave this portion of the conclusion out of their speeches. If he/she
has done his/her job in the speech, this should be a portion of the speech that
is a cinch to include. After providing the main points, reasoning, support and
all of the other fantastic elements of their speeches, what would possess them
to leave this powerful step of the process out.

Imagine how successful an attorney would be in his/her closing statements if
he/she left out the vital statement in their concluding remarks that, "John Doe
is a ruthless and cold-blooded murderer." If he/she has done his/her job well,
it should be a natural progression for them to restate the main idea of their
entire case in front of the jury.

The same should be true for you in your speech. Whether you're letting us know that Jane Smith is a funny person that is a great asset to the school or that Council Bluffs curfew is outrageous and causes more problems than it solves, whether you're letting us know that making a piñata at home is cheap, easy to make and fun or that we can't live without the new and improved X-14 Modulator, it is something that any good speaker needs to include as part of his/her conclusion.

4. Motivate the Audience to Respond

Motivate the Audience to Respond. One of your tasks in an effective speech introduction is to motivate your audience to listen to your speech. Motivation is also a necessary component of an effective conclusion-not motivation to listen, but motivation to respond to the speech in some way.

If your speech is informative, you may want the audience to think about the topic or to research it further. If your speech is persuasive, you may want your audience to take some sort of appropriate action-write a letter, buy a product, make a telephone call, or get involved; in a cause. In fact, an action step is essential to the persuasive organizational strategy which some of you will use in your final persuasive speech using Monroe's Motivated Sequence.

In a speech on auto mechanic fraud, the speaker motivated her audience to wield their consumer power to stop the abuse:

". . . with every dollar we spend, we're telling Mr. Badwrench that it's good to be bad. If we close our wallets and start spending some common sense, we can say goodbye to Mr. Badwrench. . . and get the monkey wrench out of our lives."

Another speaker ended a speech on protection of child witnesses with this motivational conclusion:

"Given the increased frequency with which children appear in trials, our chance of personal involvement is likely. As relatives of children who may need to testify in court, we need to help them as they prepare for what may be a traumatic event. As potential jurors, we need to understand that a child witness can provide accurate, essential information. By protecting the child witnesses and accepting vital information they may present, we can achieve a more complete justice."

Just as the conclusion is your last chance to reemphasize your main idea in a memorable way, so is it your last chance to motivate your audience to respond to your message.

5. Provide Closure with a Clincher

Provide Closure. Probably the most obvious purpose of a conclusion is to let the audience know that the speech has ended. Not only should the audience know that they've reached the conclusion, once the final words are spoken, speeches have to "sound finished." A speaker can attain closure both verbally and nonverbally.

Nonverbal closure can be achieved by such means as a pause between the body of your speech and its conclusion. You can also slow your speaking rate, move out from behind a podium to make a final impassioned plea to your audience, or signal with falling vocal inflection that you are making your final statement. The most effective closure is both verbal and nonverbal. The bottom line is, make sure your speech sounds finished.

English 10B Vocabulary: Unit 2 SAT/ACT Words

2008-12-01T23:11:00.008-06:00

2.1 ARDUOUS (Ahr joo us) hard, difficult, tiresome
Memory link: the arduous snow covered trail is hard on us

It was an ARDUOUS climb up the 5 mile hill.

The pace of the track meet was ARDUOUS and left many runners tired and ready to go to sleep.

The assignment given the recruits was ARDUOUS, twenty miles with full packs in the hot sun.

Swimming three miles was the most ARDUOUS excersize Jeannie ever had.

The long, ARDUOUS boat trip was made even worse by stormy seas and much seasickness.

It was the most ARDUOUS puzzle I had to ever solved, it took days to solve it.

2.2 ASUNDER (uh SUN dur) separate parts; apart from each other in position
Memory link: The thunder tore the young lovers asunder
Friday, December 5, 2008

The big storm made the houses all ASUNDER. Nothing was one piece anymore.

When the earthquake stopped, and we came up from our shelter, we found the city had been torn ASUNDER and not one single building was left standing.

Our team lost its unity and became a group of individuals who played entirely for themselves, ASUNDER from each other.

Bowling pins ASUNDER from each other when the ball hit them.

Their relationship was brought to an ASUNDER; they couldn’t be together any longer.

2.3 ASKEW (uh skew) to one side; crooked; awry; a sidelong look of contempt
Memory link: Curlys pool cue had become askew.Friday December 7, 2007
Thursday, December 4, 2007

Our backbones have an ASKEW bend to them.

After the flood receded, the bridge was found to be ASKEW of the road which connected to it.

The tire wouldn't fit on the car beacause in the accident the axle had been bent ASKEW.

The speaker looked ASKEW at the heckler at every interruption.

Marcy looked at Jan with an ASKEW look because she said a rude comment.

The picture was too ASKEW; nothing fit together.

2.4 BELEAGUER (be Lee gur) to besiege; beset; surround, harass
Memory link: the little leaguers beleaguered the big leaguers.
Friday, December 5, 2007.

The ants BELEAGUERED the ham sandwich at the picnic.

In World War II, the Russian city of Staligrac was BELEAGUERED by the German ARmy for five months before it fell to the Germans.

During his last year in office, Richard Nixon was a BELEAGUERED president, struggling to fight off the Watergate scandal.

In the midst of important negotiations, the union official asked his staff not to BELEAGUER him with insignificant details.

Tom BELEAGUERED Jimmy at recesses all day long. Jimmy cried.

My mom was BELEASGUERING me with many questions so I told her to back off.

2.5 DULCET (DULL set) melodious, soft, soothing
Memory link: If you don’t like opera, even the most Dulcet tones of the finest sopranos make for a dull sit.

The DULCET sound of her voice could put any baby to sleep.

Senator Kramer was a political campaigner who could hypnotize an audience with sweet words and DULCET tones.

Jeff's parents declared there was nothing DULCET about the rock-and-roll music that shook the house from his room every morning as he dressed for school.

The radio therapists voice was DULCET and calmed her listeners down and made them comfortable sharing their problems on the radio with thousands of listeners.

Some people need "white noise" to sleep as they find it DULCET. It doesn't work for me and drives me crazy. I need the room to be silent to sleep.

2.6 EFFACE (uh FACE) to rub away
Memory link: how to efface a face by erasing it

Sometimes people who commit crimes will EFFACE all evidence.

We came upon a cemetary by the sea. Many of the headstone inscriptions had been EFFACED by the ravages of time, but we could make out many that were well over two hundred years old.

To assure that he left no clues, the thief EFFACED his fingerprints from the stolen car.

Someone vandalized the museum paintings by EFFACING each one with red spray paint.

Over the years, the color on the pictures started EFFACING slowly.

I EFFACED the dirt off my arms.

2.7 HISTRIONIC (his tree AHN ik) overly dramatic, theatrical
Memory link: Professor Bradley likes his history on the histrionic side

Jess was always HISTRIONIC about everything. Even about the littlest things possible.

As soon as you would mention thw word wrinkle the middle-aged actress would fall into a state of HISTRONIC tears.

Everything Michael said was on the swaggering, HISTRONIC side, as if he were the coolest guy on campus.

The children's HISTRONICS when they couldn't find their toys made everyone uncomfortable.

The HISTRIONICS within the movie made it more exiting.

The movie was too HISTIONIC for me too handle.

2.8 MILIEU (mill you) environment or surroundings
Memory link: the boys’ locker room showers were a milieu of mildew

After a long sea journey, a sailor on land for the first days feels out his MILIEU.

The proper MILIEU for raising a family is a home setting with loving parents who understand child rearing; something every parent must work at and not take for granted.

I always love the MILIEU in an airplane; its always friendly.

Its always a good MILIEU when the house is clean.

The New York Stock Exchange is a MILIEU of frenzied activity during trading hours.

2.9 PORCINE (pore sein) reminiscent of or pertaining to a pig
Memory link: it was a poor scene when mark arrived with his porcine date
Thursday, December 4, 2007

Her skin had a PORCINE color that bugged me.

After an around the world cruise, where each meal is a grand feast, Bob and Helen returned home with PORCINE figures.

She had a PORCINE attitude about food; that is to say she would eat anything and everthing.

Over the college years he has gotten the PORCINE. look.

Bob was a PORCINE when it came to food but he was still skinny.

2.10 QUIXOTIC ( kwik SAHT ik) idealistic and totally impractical
Memory link: Jim, the messenger, is not idiotic, he’s just quixotic.
Wednesday, December 3, 2007

Her freinds thought her QUIXOTIC when planning big parties; she just loved to dream big.

Professor Callan said it is QUIXOTIC of society to ignore the world's environmental problems.

Puttingall taxpayers on the honor system is a QUIXOTIC suggestions.

Sue had the most QUIXOTIC ideas of what her life would be like if she ever won the lottery.

The man's behavior was QUIXOITIC, he sat outside of mcdonalds thinking he would get free big macs everyday.

Demonstration Speech Topic Selection

2008-10-26T20:51:00.001-05:00

CRITERIA FOR CHOOSING A DEMONSTRATION SPEECH TOPIC

The goals of your demonstration speech could be: to demonstrate a process and give the audience information while using visual aids; or to show how to do something; or how something is done; or how to make something; or how something works.

Choose a topic that you know and enjoy. Your speech will be more successful and easier to do if you use this criteria. If you can't come up with good public speaking topics for a demonstrational presentation speech, then use the subjects listed below for inspiration.

Before You Take that Step, Consider the following:

-Is it something you know how to do well?
-Is it something your audience would like to learn?
-Is it a process that can be done in the classroom with the materials that we provide? (table, blocks, cutting board, knives, refigerator, freezer, microwave--please DO NOT bring knives to schooo)
-Is it a process that will result in a finished product?
-Is it something you can accomplish in the allotted time? (5-7 minutes)
-Is it something you can safely accomplish in the room?
-Is it something you can do legally in school? (no weapons, animals, alcohol or controlled substances)
-Which of your choices have enough potential to offer your audience valuable information?

Remember audience when you choose your topic.

Who are they?

What are their interests?

What do they like?

What are their needs?

Use these lists of demonstrative speech topics to develop your own topics for a demonstrative speech. It can be anything you like. As long as you are able to present the steps of the demonstration or process speech topics.

Topic Ideas--Food--Demonstrate HOW TO:

bake a pie,

decorate a cake,
make a non-bake cookies,
make a favorite family cookie,
make a better than hitting the lottery cake,
make different flavors of beef jerkey,
make an icee,

make puppy chow,
make a fruit cake,
make blueberry pancakes,
make muffins,
grill a steak,

make seven-layer dip,

make a Caesar salad,

make an Orange Julius,

make variations on grilled cheese,

make an omelette,

make a smoothie,

make homemade ice-cream,

Topic Ideas--Non Food

HOW...

to set a dinner table for a formal dinner,

to plan the perfect date,

to make a pinata,

to pot or repot a plant,

to make a birdhouse,

to arrange flowers,
to polish shoes,
to stencil glass,
to make stationary,
to stamp greeting cards,
to make ornaments,

to color eggs,

to scrapbook,

to make a photo album,

to paint a shirt,

to make paper flowers,

to do wood burning,

to frame a picture,

to make boxes,

to make a dream catcher,

to finish furniture,

to hang wallpaper,

to make a basket,

to make a spool doll,

to make an Easter tree,

to make a dryer vent pumpkin,

to fix a bike tire,

to iron clothes,

to cross stitch,

to make a terrarium,

to set up a fish tank,

to tie a tie,

to make a wreath,

to wrap a package creatively,

to silk screen,

to carve wood,

to tool leather,

to repair a lamp,

to make a winter survival kit,

to carve a pumpkin,

to make a centerpiece,

to make a beaded necklace,

to make paper,

to tie dye,

to braid a belt,

to make candy airplanes or trains,

to make a wooden stool,

to make Playdough or Silly Putty,

to make a planter,

to dry flowers

to be a vegetarian

to fix a flat tire

to create a Halloween mask

to clean your car

to play piano

to change a bank cheque

to dress for a dance

to play a computer game

to make a blog

to make a web site

to organize a surprise party

to print a digital photo

to eat oysters

to register for voting

to make special coffee drinks

to read music notes

to learn playing guitar

to use your breath when you sing

to make your own root beer

to make your garden full of flowers year around

to build a resume

to clean your swimming pool

to clean your golf clubs

to make a fast summer salad

to make a new candle of old ones

to make your own wedding dress

to organize your wedding

to make a water-colour

to build a shed

to prevent injury

to develop the best serve in a tennis game

to knot a carpet

to manage stress

to relax

to become a good actress

to become a famous filmstar

to write a filmscript

to write a business-like letter

to harvest honey

to serve breakfast in bed

to blow a glass

to train your brains

to make a genealogical tree

to start a bed & breakfast

to become a policeman

to climb a building

to planning a party

to run a formal meeting

or demonstration speech topics related to yóur favorite sports
And so on ...

Other Ways to Get Ideas

Another way of inventing demonstration speech topics is by associating. Look at the general categories below. Can you come up with any good how to demonstrative speech ideas?
Food and Drink, Household, Sports, Recreation, Health & Beauty, Home Improvement, Decoration, Cars, Government Science, Nature, College Games, Culture, Etcetera ...

Delivery Of Your Demonstration Speech Topics

First and for all: think about the rules and time limit of the public speaking assignment. And apply these eight public speaking speech tips for delivering your demonstration speech topics:

1. Visual aids, like objects, actual items, models or drawings can help you.
2. Include personal stories and examples to illustrate your topics for a demonstrative speech.
3. Provide each audience member materials and ingredients to practice with.
4. Insure everyone is participating.
5. Look around you and see if your audience is following you.
6. Ask yourself if someone in the audience has to assist with your demonstration.
7. Close your speech with a memorable summary.
8. Ask if there are any questions about your demonstrative speech topic ideas.

By now, you developed a blueprint for a good demonstration speech topic.

CLICK HERE for a cool on-line topic selection tool. Or scroll down for Mr. McLaughlin's list of topics.

Didn't get your topic in the book? CLICK HERE to send an email reserving your topic.

Have another idea to add to the list? CLICK HERE and if it's good, we'll add it to the list.

The Communication Cycle

2008-10-09T22:37:00.000-05:00

Why Communications Skills Are So Important:

The purpose of communication is to get your message across to others clearly and unambiguously.

Doing this involves effort from both the sender of the message and the receiver. And it's a process that can be fraught with error, with messages often misinterpreted by the recipient. When this isn't detected, it can cause tremendous confusion, wasted effort and missed opportunity.

In fact, communication is only successful when both the sender and the receiver understand the same information as a result of the communication.

By successfully getting your message across, you convey your thoughts and ideas effectively. When not successful, the thoughts and ideas that you send do not necessarily reflect your own, causing a communications breakdown and creating roadblocks that stand in the way of your goals – both personally and professionally.

In a recent survey of recruiters from companies with more than 50,000 employees, communication skills were cited as the single more important decisive factor in choosing managers. The survey, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Business School, points out that communication skills, including written and oral presentations, as well as an ability to work with others, are the main factor contributing to job success.

In spite of the increasing importance placed on communication skills, many individuals continue to struggle, unable to communicate their thoughts and ideas effectively – whether in verbal or written format. This inability makes it nearly impossible for them to compete effectively in the workplace, and stands in the way of career progression.

Getting your message across is paramount to progressing. To do this, you must understand what your message is, what audience you are sending it to, and how it will be perceived. You must also weigh-in the circumstances surrounding your communications, such as situational and cultural context.

Communications Skills - The Importance of Removing Barriers:

Problems with communication can pop-up at every stage of the communication process (which consists of sender, encoding, channel, decoding, receiver, feedback and context - see the diagram below) and have the potential to create misunderstanding and confusion.
To be an effective communicator and to get your point across without misunderstanding and confusion, your goal should be to lessen the frequency of these problems at each stage of this process with clear, concise, accurate, well-planned communications. We follow the process through below:

Source...
As the source of the message, you need to be clear about why you're communicating, and what you want to communicate. You also need to be confident that the information you're communicating is useful and accurate.

Message...
The message is the information that you want to communicate.

Encoding...
This is the process of transferring the information you want to communicate into a form that can be sent and correctly decoded at the other end. Your success in encoding depends partly on your ability to convey information clearly and simply, but also on your ability to anticipate and eliminate sources of confusion (for example, cultural issues, mistaken assumptions, and missing information.) A key part of this is knowing your audience: Failure to understand who you are communicating with will result in delivering messages that are misunderstood.

Channel...
Messages are conveyed through channels, with verbal including face-to-face meetings, telephone and videoconferencing; and written including letters, emails, memos and reports.

Different channels have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, it's not particularly effective to give a long list of directions verbally, while you'll quickly cause problems if you criticize someone strongly by email.

Decoding...
Just as successful encoding is a skill, so is successful decoding (involving, for example, taking the time to read a message carefully, or listen actively to it.) Just as confusion can arise from errors in encoding, it can also arise from decoding errors. This is particularly the case if the decoder doesn't have enough knowledge to understand the message.

Receiver...
Your message is delivered to individual members of your audience. No doubt, you have in mind the actions or reactions you hope your message will get from this audience. Keep in mind, though, that each of these individuals enters into the communication process with ideas and feelings that will undoubtedly influence their understanding of your message, and their response. To be a successful communicator, you should consider these before delivering your message, and act appropriately.

Feedback...
Your audience will provide you with feedback, verbal and nonverbal reactions to your communicated message. Pay close attention to this feedback, as it is the only thing that allows you to be confident that your audience has understood your message. If you find that there has been a misunderstanding, at least you have the opportunity to send the message a second time.

Context...
The situation in which your message is delivered is the context. This may include the surrounding environment or broader culture (i.e. corporate culture, international cultures, etc.).

Removing Barriers At All These Stages

To deliver your messages effectively, you must commit to breaking down the barriers that exist in each of these stages of the communication process.

Let’s begin with the message itself. If your message is too lengthy, disorganized, or contains errors, you can expect the message to be misunderstood and misinterpreted. Use of poor verbal and body language can also confuse the message.

Barriers in context tend to stem from senders offering too much information too fast. When in doubt here, less is oftentimes more. It is best to be mindful of the demands on other people’s time, especially in today’s ultra-busy society.

Once you understand this, you need to work to understand your audience’s culture, making sure you can converse and deliver your message to people of different backgrounds and cultures within your own organization, in your country and even abroad.

The LCHS Opinion/Conviction Speech

2008-10-01T03:55:00.001-05:00

YOUR OPINION & CONVICTION SPEECH IN SPEECH I

Originally Posted September 24, 2007 this term. Posting date changed to place the article higher on the blog for student's convenience.

Choose a topic about which you have a strong opinion. Remember, topics are first-come, first-served. Only one speech per topic, per class.

It is our goal in this speech to teach you how to support an opinion and make an argument with support. Don't be afraid of this, though. You already do this all the time. Everytime you reach a conclusion about something, your personal experiences or the experiences of others lead you to your conclusion.

You will share your opininion for the rest of your life. We want to make sure that our graduates know how to share valid opinions in public. Remember, an opinion by itself without support may let others see you as uneducated. Years from now when you're on a church council, a scout leader, a member of the PTA, local government or you're just visiting with family, what we learn here will serve you. THIS IS EASIER THAN MANY OF YOU WILL WANT TO MAKE IT. RELAX, YOU CAN DO THIS!

This IS NOT a researched speech. It is a speech that you will support with your own experiences, the experiences of friends, of family members or others. You will need three "reasons" why your opinion is valid. Then you will need to support your reasons with stories or personal experiences.

ON-LINE VERSIONS OF THINGS WE LEARNED IN CLASS

Don't understand the Introduction, Conclusion or How to Build a Main Point? Click here for more information.

ELIGIBILITY: To be eligible for this 3-6 minute Opinion Speech you need to have the following pieces complete that are listed as REQUIRED. Some of these links are to help you find information quickly on our blog to help you and are not required.

TOPIC SELECTION

(1) CLICK HERE to send an E-Mail to Mr. M. with your topic if it is not in the book. It must be put in the book and compared to other topics there. Remember, first come, first served. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: Your topic must be in the classroom book and must be approved by the instructor.

PRE-SPEAKING BLOCK

(2) CLICK HERE for a "review" on how to write a Pre-Speaking Block with a General Purpose and a Specific Purpose (known as the Pre-Speaking Block). REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: A Pre-Speaking Block done before you begini writing your speech. This helps you make good speech writing choices.

(3) CLICK HERE for a "review" on how to write an Audience Analysis Statements as we taught in the last speech. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: An Audience Analysis Statement of an audience that is made up of students, teachers, parents, administrators, school board members and citizens.

INTRODUCTION

(4) CLICK HERE for a "review" of the five goals one should achieve in writing a good introduction. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: A manuscripted Introduction.

(5) CLICK HERE for a "review" of the types of Attention Getters (with examples) that we learned in class during the Peer Biography Speech. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: Three Attention Getters that are at least four sentences long each.

(6) CLICK HERE for a "review" on how to write a thesis statement as was taught in class. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: A thesis statement made with a salutation, thesis base and strong preview.

(7) CLICK HERE for a "review" of how to write a relevance statement. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: A relevance statement that includes three different reasons for the audience to listen. This is a minimum. More is fine.

(8) CLICK HERE for a template showing how to complete the three required bulletin boards. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: A completed bulletin board for each of your main points.

(9) CLICK HERE for the required manuscripted Introduction Template. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: A one-sheet manuscripted introduction.

BODY

(10) CLICK HERE for the required T-Chart/Template for MP I of your Opinion Speech. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: An important reason (T-Chart) for the "more important argument that you will offer."

(11) CLICK HERE for the required T-Chart/Template for MP II of your Opinion Speech. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: A more important reason (T-Chart) for the "more important argument that you will offer."

(12) CLICK HERE for the required T-Chart/Templage for MP III of your Opinion Speech. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: The most important reason (T-Chart) for the "most important argument that you will offer."

(13) CLICK HERE for another copy of the rubic given to you in class. You need this signed by a parent/adult showing that you discussed or delivered this speech for an adult.

(14) CLICK HERE for the required manuscripted Conclusion Template. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: A manuscripted conclusion of the speech.

(15) CLICK HERE for a "review" of the things any good speaker/writer should accomplish in a good conclusion as we learned in class.

(16) CLICK HERE for a "review" of the types of clichers with examples that one might use for a speech. These were recently taught in class. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: A strong clincher that effectively leaves the audience with a final thought or a series of final thoughts.

(17) CLICK HERE for examples of the types of evidence and support that one should us to support his/her opinions with evidence. The opinion speeches should be supported by evidence. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: Two pieces of support at minimum for each of the Main Points in the speech.

GENERAL

(18) CLICK HERE for an overview of what each TEMPLATE should contain. REQUIRED FOR THIS SPEECH: Five template styled pages to carry to the podium with you that encourages "extemporaneous speaking."

ELECTRONIC COPIES OF SPEECH OPINION RUBRICS
TO BE USE IN SELF, PARENT AND INSTRUCTOR EVALUATION

Opinion Speech Self-Evaluation.doc

Opinion Speech Teacher Evaluation page 1.doc

Opinion Evaluation Speech Teacher Evaluation page 2.doc

Opinion Speech Packet

2008-10-01T03:30:00.000-05:00

Your Opinion Speech Packet

In order to be eligible to give this speech, students need to have all pieces of their packet completed. Missing any major speech will disqualify students from performance and, thush, a late grade will be issued.

(1) Your Topic Must Be Listed in the Speech Master Topic Speech on the Podium (due 12/16/2007).
(2) The Opinion Speech Pre-Writing Block (please see the blog posting on this topic for the Opinion Speech--due 12/16/2006
(3) A manuscripted Introduction following the criteria taught in class.

(4) Your graphic organizers that demonstrate your Order of Importance Organization of this Speech.

(5) A Manuscripted Conclusion of Your Speech Showing All of the Arguments and Support.

Opinion Speech Pre-Speaking Block

2008-10-01T02:30:00.000-05:00

Opinion Speech Pre-Speaking Block & Modified Thesis

For today's homework you need to write a GP, an SP and an AAS for you Opinion Speech. I also need you to brainstorm on a web/map 5 reasons that your opinion should be supported by others. And by others we mean that you should consider other students, teachers, school administrators, parents, community patrons and school board members.

For the first speech we taught you to write a thesis the following way:

Today I will insert general purpose (entertain, inform, persuade, convince, etc.) you that insert subject and opinion of subject by insert -ing word (examining, discussing, studying): (1) insert first main point; (2) insert second main point; (3) insert third main point; and (4) insert fourth main point.

For this speech you will need to write a revised thesis (without the "Today I will and GP")

The revised and less rigid thesis should look like this. This is closer to what a thesis should look like in your writing:

Start by stating your subject and your opinion of your subject--Thesis Base (short and to the point) as can be seen by insert -ing word (examining, discussing, studying): (1) insert first main point; (2) insert second main point; (3) insert third main point; and (4) insert fourth main point.

Monroe's Motivated Sequence Model/Sample Paper

2008-01-22T10:03:00.000-06:00

IMPORTANT NOTE--PLEASE READ: Please take a look at the following persuasive speech manuscript to help you understand how to put Monroe's Motivated Sequence together. It is important to note the use of pronouns in this speech. Although "I", "me", "mine", and "you" may be appropriate for a speech, USING THESE IS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR A FORMAL MLA RESEARCH PAPER. Avoid using these pronouns in your paper which should be more expository in nature.

An example of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
A Friend in Need

Sandy Hefty

Paragraph 1--Loretta Olson sometimes gets confused and does some pretty bizarre things. For instance, sometimes she puts her ice cream in the refrigerator instead of the freezer, and sometimes she feeds her cat chocolate chips instead of cat food. You see, Loretta is an 85-year-old woman who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. She was preceded in death by her husband and only child and now is trying to live on her own the best that she can. You may be wondering how somebody as confused as Loretta could possibly keep living on her own, but she does.

Paragraph 2--During my freshman year, I volunteered six hours a week to help Loretta remain independent in her home. Due to the forgetfulness associated with Alzheimer’s disease, my main duty as a volunteer was to help Loretta with her cooking and house cleaning, which she often forgot to finish on her own.

Paragraph 3-- Since I started volunteering time with Loretta, I’ve learned that there are millions of elderly Americans who need help to remain independent in their homes. According to the United States Census Bureau, our elderly population is the fastest growing segment in the nation. This trend is even seen in my class survey, in which all but two of you said you have living grandparents and seven of you said you have grandparents living alone.

Paragraph 4-- Although the elderly are no longer the poorest segment of American society, according to the Poverty and Wealth Branch of the United States Census Bureau, 1.8 million Americans in the 75-plus age group fall below the poverty line. One point eight million—that’s roughly the populations of Seattle, Indianapolis, and Boston combined.

Paragraph 5-- Today, I would like to persuade each of you to help solve the problems facing more advanced and less fortunate elderly Americans by volunteering time to help them remain independent in their homes. Let’s begin by addressing the problems that can occur among this group of people.

Paragraph 6-- There are two problems that can occur when elderly people living alone do not get the companionship and care they need. The first problem is that elderly people may not be able to meet all of their physical needs. Before I met Loretta, I was a caregiver for an 87-year-old woman who suffered from arthritis. This woman often needed help buttoning her blouse and tying her shoes, as well as needing help cutting vegetables for meals and doing light house cleaning. This is not unusual for many people of advanced age. Like Loretta, they can continue living at home, but need help with certain physical tasks such as house cleaning, food preparation, and transportation.

Paragraph 7-- Not only is there the problem of elderly people not meeting all of their physical needs, but there is a second, more tragic problem that can occur. That second problem is suicide. According to the National Center for Vital Statistics, persons age 75 and older have the highest rate of suicide compared to all other age groups. Anthony Boxwell, author of the article entitled “Geriatric Suicide: The Preventable Death,” says that suicide among the elderly stems from three main causes—helplessness, hopelessness and haplessness. Helplessness describes the feelings of impotence some elderly people feel after retirement or upon realizing they’re losing their physical and mental vigor. Hopelessness is associated with depression caused by the realization of the onset of old age. And haplessness refers to a series of repeated losses, such as loss of earnings, friends, and family.

Paragraph 8-- Now that we have talked about the two major problems facing elderly people who do not get the companionship and care they need, let’s talk about what we can do to help solve these problems.

Paragraph 9--We as individuals can’t do everything, of course. Some responsibility lies with families, government, and charitable agencies. But there is something we can do, and that is get involved with a volunteer program that assists elderly people who need help living at home. Here in Wisconsin, we have a Community Options Program, which is an individually tailored financial assistance method to help keep the elderly and people with disabilities out of nursing homes. Right here in Madison, Independent Living has a Friendly Visiting Program in which volunteers provide companionship and household assistance for elderly people who live at home. You can contact Independent Living by calling the number on this handout, which I will be giving you after my speech.

Paragraph 1o-- Now I’m sure you have some questions about this kind of work. For instance, how much time does it take? It takes as much time as you want to put into it. You can volunteer as little as one to two hours a week or as many as forty hours a week. You decide how much time you want to volunteer based on your own schedule. But no matter how much time you spend, you will certainly experience great personal gratification. I know I have. I have been a volunteer for six years, and volunteering time with people who are less fortunate than I makes me feel good about myself. Volunteering time with the elderly has also taught me unique ethnic traditions, as well as American history.

Paragraph 11--You should also know that this kind of volunteer work can have benefits for you beyond feelings of personal gratification. Some volunteer organizations such as the state-run Community Options Program and the federally funded Title 19 Program offer financial assistance to people who participate. This can run from reimbursement of your travel expenses to an actual salary for certain kinds of work.

Paragraph 12-- In closing, I am urging you to volunteer time to help needy elderly people remain independent in their homes. Remember that spending time with elderly people living alone can help them meet their physical and emotional needs. You can adjust the time spent to fit your needs, you can get great personal gratification, and you can even receive monetary benefits as well. But most important, Loretta Olson—and millions like her—will be forever thankful for your efforts.
A Friend in Need by Sandy Hefty

Commentary

“A Friend in Need” is a persuasive speech on a question of policy. In addition to illustrating many of the methods of persuasion discussed in the textbook, it provides a helpful model of how students can use Monroe’s motivated sequence to organize persuasive speeches that seek immediate action. Here is a synopsis of it.

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience to volunteer time to help needy elderly people remain independent in their homes.

Central Idea: By participating in a volunteer program, college students can help needy elderly people continue to live independently in their homes.

Method of Organization: Monroe’s motivated sequence

Introduction: The introduction consists of paragraphs 1-5. The opening story about Loretta Olson gets the audience’s attention and also contains a gentle trace of humor. When the speech was delivered in class, several members of the audience chuckled as they identified Loretta Olson’s forgetfulness with the memory lapses experienced by some of their elderly relatives. In paragraph 2 the speaker explains her personal involvement with the topic and, at the same time, establishes her credibility and good will.

In paragraphs 3 and 4 the speaker uses statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau to establish the importance of the topic. Her comparison, in paragraph 4, between the 1.8 million Americans in the 75-plus age group who fall below the poverty line and the combined populations of Seattle, Boston, and Indianapolis is an excellent illustration of how speakers can translate large numbers into figures that are more meaningful to the audience. It is also worth noting how, in paragraph 3, the speaker relates the topic to her audience by mentioning the results of her class survey, which showed that almost all of her classmates had living grandparents. Paragraph 5 ends the introduction by stating the speaker’s central idea and providing a clear lead-in to the body of the speech.

Body: After getting the attention of her audience in the introduction, the speaker begins the body of her speech in paragraphs 6 and 7 with the second step in Monroe’s motivated sequence—showing the need for a new course of action. In paragraph 6 the speaker explains that many elderly people cannot meet all of their physical needs, and she illustrates the point with an example of an 87-year-old woman whom she helped as a caregiver. Had she had more time, she could have provided more support for this point, but, as in most classroom speeches, she had to develop her points crisply and concisely.

In paragraph 7 the speaker continues with the need step of Monroe’s motivated sequence by discussing the tragic problem of suicide among the elderly. After presenting figures from the National Center for Vital Statistics showing that persons age 75 and older have the highest suicide rate in the U.S., she provides testimony from Anthony Boxwell about the causes of suicide among the elderly. As in other parts of the speech, the speaker uses credible evidence and identifies her sources for the audience.

After an excellent transition in paragraph 8, the speaker moves to the satisfaction step of the motivated sequence by explaining, in paragraph 9, how students can participate in volunteer programs to help the elderly. Rather than talking in abstract terms, the speaker relates her plan to her classmates at the University of Wisconsin by focusing on state and local programs in which they can get involved. After the speech, she provided her audience a handout identifying volunteer agencies they could contact.

Of course, getting an audience to agree that something should be done and getting an audience to do something are two different matters. In paragraphs 10 and 11, therefore, the speaker turns to the visualization step of the motivated sequence by showing the audience the practicality of getting involved in a volunteer program to help the elderly. She explains that students can readily adapt their volunteer work to their personal schedules, that they will experience substantial personal gratification from volunteering, and even that they might be able to receive financial assistance for their efforts. Had the speaker failed to address these issues, her speech would have been much less effective.

Conclusion: The speaker concludes with the final step in Monroe’s motivated sequence—an appeal to the audience to take action. After quickly summarizing her main points, she closes with the poignant statement that “Loretta Olson—and millions like her—will be forever thankful for your efforts.” The emotional appeal of this line, in combination with the sense of psychological unity gained by referring back to the opening example, closes the speech on a strong note.