Essay on Summer Reading

Let’s take a look at how you did on your first essay….

How to Cite a Book

Follow MLA guidelines for citations within the body of the text:

• No footnotes, use endnotes.• For single author, simply cite page

numbers: (43).• For multiple sources, use last name and

page number: (Haruf 43).

Let’s chat for a bit about

QUOTES!!!

Context Means Everything!

• Imagine that in each of the following situations, an individual exclaims, “I like eggs!”

• Does the egg-loving mean the same thing in each situation?

• Why does context matter?

“I Like Eggs” – Scene #1– This lovely lass loves finding eggs!

“I Like Eggs” – Scene #2

• This poor person was driven crazy…too many summer essays to write??? What does she mean when she exclaims…”I like eggs!”

“I Like Eggs” #3

• Lucky Louie has inherited 500 Faberge Eggs from his rich Russian relatives. He exclaims: “I Like Eggs!”

So Remember….

• Give background for quotes

• Tuck in the quote with your own words

• Use the right amount: not too few, not too many!

Use of 3rd Person

• In formal essays, stick to 3rd person

• This means, avoiding I, me, my (1st person)

• Also avoid you, we, our (2nd person)

Yeah, but what about…

Q. When I want to show that it’s my own opinion? A. Just state it. Your opinion matters!

I think community centers were important in helping Luis Rodriquez leave gang life.

versusCommunity centers were crucial in helping

Luis Rodriquez change his life in a positive direction.

Punctuation Puzzles

• You are word processing your paper and you want to refer to a book title. Which of the following is correct?

• English is Awesome (underline)• “English is Awesome” (quotations)• English is Awesome (italics)• “English is Awesome” (underline +

quotes)

Yes, That’s Right:

• English is Awesome

• When you word process a book title, you put it in italics.

• Now imagine you are writing a paper in class (not typing it). What do you do?

Yes, that’s right!

You underline book titles because (unless you have freakishly neat handwriting) you cannot make it look like italics.

Tell Me Some More(this is fascinating!)

• When you put your own title at the start of a paper, simply write it with capital letters and no other special punctuation (NO quotations, italics, bold, etc.)

• Individual essay titles, short story titles, short poems, newspaper articles and other short works are in quotation marks

This Will Not Be on the Test…

Pesky Pronoun Problems

• Find the grammar crime:

• Someone must have left their pet aardvark behind because a sad, lonely and strangely elegant pet is squatting in the corner of the classroom. Oops, someone will have to clean up after their pet!

Do You Get a Grammar Star?

•If you identified the problem with those sentences as the incorrect pronoun (their) then you deserve a grammar star!

Here’s the problem…

• Unfortunately, English does not have a singular, gender neutral pronoun.

• So when you need to use a single pronoun, and the antecedent is gender neutral (someone, the reader, the audience member, etc.) you must use:

• he/his • she/her• He or she or his or hers

Wow!!! That Was A Lot!

• Your first essay is merely a starting point. Don’t be discouraged if you did not do as well as you had hoped. Try to learn from this essay, and as the semester goes on, you will be amazed at the growth of your analytical and writing abilities.

• Good Luck!!!

And Finally….

• For sitting through all of this information, you deserve a funny animal picture….