Write an essay stating your position on which is more important: what a person thinks or what a person does. Be sure to —At the end of the essay please answer the following question: What are 2 clues in the prompt/"be sure to..." that inform you that you should write a persuasive, rather than an expository, essay? (Bullet points are fine.)
- state your position clearly
- use appropriate organization
- provide specific support for your argument
- choose your words carefully
- edit your writing for grammar, mechanics, and spelling
Showing posts with label Timed Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Timed Writing. Show all posts
Friday, March 22, 2013
Pre-AP English II: Persuasive Essay / Thoughts vs. Actions
If you missed class today, you missed an opportunity to write an End of Course-style Persuasive Essay. In approximately 45 minutes (and 26 lines) please respond to the following prompt:
English I (Pre-AP): Timed Writing / Forgiveness
If you missed class today, you missed an opportunity to participate in an End of Course-style timed writing. In approximately 45 minutes (and 26 lines) please respond to the following prompt:
Write a story about the power of forgiveness. Be sure that your story is focused and complete and that it has an interesting plot and engaging characters.At the end of the story please answer the following question: Besides the word "story" in the prompt, what are 2 other clues that you should not respond with an expository essay? (Bullet points are fine.)
Thursday, February 14, 2013
English Students: "Moving" Expository Essay Prompt
Read the information in the box below.
Did you read the information in the box above? Think carefully about your shame, and your shame for reading this paragraph, too.
Write an essay explaining the effect moving to a new place can have on a person’s life. Be sure to —
| Why are you reading the information in this box? You are wasting time. Even if there were something relevant in this box, it would not help you write your essay successfully. It would only result in your essay sounding like everyone else’s essay, and that will hurt your score. |
Did you read the information in the box above? Think carefully about your shame, and your shame for reading this paragraph, too.
Write an essay explaining the effect moving to a new place can have on a person’s life. Be sure to —
- clearly state your thesis
- organize and develop your ideas effectively
- choose your words carefully
- edit your writing for grammar, mechanics, and spelling
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
English Classes: Timed Writing (Perseverance)
Read the information below.
Write an essay exploring the role perseverance plays in success.
Be sure to
“I think I can ― I think I can ― I think I can. ... I thought I could. I thought I could. I thought I could”Although many people quit when things get difficult, others keep trying until they accomplish what they set out to do. Think carefully about this statement.― The Little Engine That Could
( ^ link to book ^ )
Write an essay exploring the role perseverance plays in success.
Be sure to
- clearly state your thesis
- organize and develop your ideas effectively
- choose your words carefully
- edit your writing for grammar, mechanics, and spelling
Friday, October 19, 2012
Pre-AP English II: Timed Expository Writing (Tienanmen Square)
Read the information in the box below.
Although many people obey all laws, some people choose to disobey those they feel are unjust. Think carefully about this statement.
Write an essay explaining whether people should follow the law regardless of whether they feel the law is right or wrong.
Be sure to —
Maximum length: 26 lines
| In 1989, when the Chinese government declared a protest in Tienanmen Square illegal, one man chose to stand in front of a column of tanks to stop them from advancing on the protesters. |
Although many people obey all laws, some people choose to disobey those they feel are unjust. Think carefully about this statement.
Write an essay explaining whether people should follow the law regardless of whether they feel the law is right or wrong.
Be sure to —
- clearly state your thesis
- organize and develop your ideas effectively
- choose your words carefully
- edit your writing for grammar, mechanics, and spelling
Maximum length: 26 lines
English I (Pre-AP): Timed Literary Writing (Batboy)
Look at the "photograph."
Write a story about a terrifying event. Be sure that your story is focused and complete and that it has an interesting plot and engaging characters.
Maximum length: 26 lines.
Write a story about a terrifying event. Be sure that your story is focused and complete and that it has an interesting plot and engaging characters.
Maximum length: 26 lines.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Pre-AP English II: Timed Writing ("By the Waters of Babylon")
In a well developed essay, identify the tone of the passage (see this post) and analyze how the author establishes the tone using techniques such as diction, imagery, details, figurative language, and point-of-view. Support your answer with evidence from the text.
Time limit: 25 minutes.
Time limit: 25 minutes.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Pre-AP English II: Text for Tomorrow's Timed Writing
Below is the text from Stephen Vincent Benét's "By the Waters of Babylon" that you will have to analyze for tone in class tomorrow. You will have just under 30 minutes to write, so please use the graphic organizer on the back of your packets to prepare for your essay.
* * * * *
Now I tell what is very strong magic. I woke in the midst of the night. When I woke, the fire had gone out and I was cold. It seemed to me that all around me there were whisperings and voices. I closed my eyes to shut them out. Some will say that I slept again, but I do not think that I slept. I could feel the spirits drawing my spirit out of my body as a fish is drawn on a line.
Why should I lie about it? I am a priest and the son of a priest. If there are spirits, as they say, in the small Dead Places near us, what spirits must there not be in that great Place of the Gods? And would not they wish to speak? After such long years? I know that I felt myself drawn as a fish is drawn on a line. I had stepped out of my body—I could see my body asleep in front of the cold fire, but it was not I. I was drawn to look out upon the city of the gods.
It should have been dark, for it was night, but it was not dark. Everywhere there were lights—lines of light—circles and blurs of light—ten thousand torches would not have been the same. The sky itself was alight—you could barely see the stars for the glow in the sky. I thought to myself "This is strong magic" and trembled. There was a roaring in my ears like the rushing of rivers. Then my eyes grew used to the light and my ears to the sound. I knew that I was seeing the city as it had been when the gods were alive.
That was a sight indeed—yes, that was a sight: I could not have seen it in the body—my body would have died. Everywhere went the gods, on foot and in chariots—there were gods beyond number and counting and their chariots blocked the streets. They had turned night to day for their pleasure-they did not sleep with the sun. The noise of their coming and going was the noise of the many waters. It was magic what they could do—it was magic what they did.
I looked out of another window—the great vines of their bridges were mended and god-roads went east and west. Restless, restless, were the gods and always in motion! They burrowed tunnels under rivers—they flew in the air. With unbelievable tools they did giant works—no part of the earth was safe from them, for, if they wished for a thing, they summoned it from the other side of the world. And always, as they labored and rested, as they feasted and made love, there was a drum in their ears—the pulse of the giant city, beating and beating like a man's heart.
Were they happy? What is happiness to the gods? They were great, they were mighty, they were wonderful and terrible. As I looked upon them and their magic, I felt like a child—but a little more, it seemed to me, and they would pull down the moon from the sky. I saw them with wisdom beyond wisdom and knowledge beyond knowledge. And yet not all they did was well done—even I could see that ? and yet their wisdom could not but grow until all was peace.
Then I saw their fate come upon them and that was terrible past speech. It came upon them as they walked the streets of their city. I have been in the fights with the Forest People—I have seen men die. But this was not like that. When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do not know. It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned. It was the time of the Great Burning and the Destruction. They ran about like ants in the streets of their city—poor gods, poor gods! Then the towers began to fall. A few escaped—yes, a few. The legends tell it. But, even after the city had become a Dead Place, for many years the poison was still in the ground. I saw it happen, I saw the last of them die. It was darkness over the broken city and I wept.
All this, I saw. I saw it as I have told it, though not in the body. When I woke in the morning, I was hungry, but I did not think first of my hunger for my heart was perplexed and confused. I knew the reason for the Dead Places but I did not see why it had happened. It seemed to me it should not have happened, with all the magic they had. I went through the house looking for an answer. There was so much in the house I could not understand—and yet I am a priest and the son of a priest. It was like being on one side of the great river, at night, with no light to show the way.
Now I tell what is very strong magic. I woke in the midst of the night. When I woke, the fire had gone out and I was cold. It seemed to me that all around me there were whisperings and voices. I closed my eyes to shut them out. Some will say that I slept again, but I do not think that I slept. I could feel the spirits drawing my spirit out of my body as a fish is drawn on a line.
Why should I lie about it? I am a priest and the son of a priest. If there are spirits, as they say, in the small Dead Places near us, what spirits must there not be in that great Place of the Gods? And would not they wish to speak? After such long years? I know that I felt myself drawn as a fish is drawn on a line. I had stepped out of my body—I could see my body asleep in front of the cold fire, but it was not I. I was drawn to look out upon the city of the gods.
It should have been dark, for it was night, but it was not dark. Everywhere there were lights—lines of light—circles and blurs of light—ten thousand torches would not have been the same. The sky itself was alight—you could barely see the stars for the glow in the sky. I thought to myself "This is strong magic" and trembled. There was a roaring in my ears like the rushing of rivers. Then my eyes grew used to the light and my ears to the sound. I knew that I was seeing the city as it had been when the gods were alive.
That was a sight indeed—yes, that was a sight: I could not have seen it in the body—my body would have died. Everywhere went the gods, on foot and in chariots—there were gods beyond number and counting and their chariots blocked the streets. They had turned night to day for their pleasure-they did not sleep with the sun. The noise of their coming and going was the noise of the many waters. It was magic what they could do—it was magic what they did.
I looked out of another window—the great vines of their bridges were mended and god-roads went east and west. Restless, restless, were the gods and always in motion! They burrowed tunnels under rivers—they flew in the air. With unbelievable tools they did giant works—no part of the earth was safe from them, for, if they wished for a thing, they summoned it from the other side of the world. And always, as they labored and rested, as they feasted and made love, there was a drum in their ears—the pulse of the giant city, beating and beating like a man's heart.
Were they happy? What is happiness to the gods? They were great, they were mighty, they were wonderful and terrible. As I looked upon them and their magic, I felt like a child—but a little more, it seemed to me, and they would pull down the moon from the sky. I saw them with wisdom beyond wisdom and knowledge beyond knowledge. And yet not all they did was well done—even I could see that ? and yet their wisdom could not but grow until all was peace.
Then I saw their fate come upon them and that was terrible past speech. It came upon them as they walked the streets of their city. I have been in the fights with the Forest People—I have seen men die. But this was not like that. When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do not know. It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned. It was the time of the Great Burning and the Destruction. They ran about like ants in the streets of their city—poor gods, poor gods! Then the towers began to fall. A few escaped—yes, a few. The legends tell it. But, even after the city had become a Dead Place, for many years the poison was still in the ground. I saw it happen, I saw the last of them die. It was darkness over the broken city and I wept.
All this, I saw. I saw it as I have told it, though not in the body. When I woke in the morning, I was hungry, but I did not think first of my hunger for my heart was perplexed and confused. I knew the reason for the Dead Places but I did not see why it had happened. It seemed to me it should not have happened, with all the magic they had. I went through the house looking for an answer. There was so much in the house I could not understand—and yet I am a priest and the son of a priest. It was like being on one side of the great river, at night, with no light to show the way.
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