As I've said many times, extensive reading (it doesn't matter what, at first) is one of the best ways to become a more effective writer. In fact, I'll go as far as saying you can't become an effective writer without extensive reading. This assignment, then, is intended to help you discover and experiment with material you might like to read for pleasure.
The assignment is this: Find something to read that might interest you. This might be a novel, a short story, a magazine article, some poems, a biography, a non-fiction book--anything at all that you wouldn't otherwise be reading. You don't need to finish an entire book, but pick something substantial enough to spend a minimum of an hour reading. (If you choose a book, hopefully you'll finish later on your own.)
Once you finish about an hour's worth of reading, write a paragraph length (200 words or so) introduction for the rest of the class to read. Your purpose is provide a quick overview of the work that will help others in the class determine whether they might be interested in reading the work themselves.
In addition, your paragraph should utilize the skills we've been discussing in class.
- It should be focused and use detailed examples to support its claims.
- It should include the work's title and author (remember we refer to authors by last name).
- It should maintain consistency of verb tense (we'll talk about a possible exception to this in class).
- It should follow all other guidelines for grammar, mechanics, and punctuation we covered in class so far.
- Most importantly, your introduction should do more than summarize. A fair amount of summary will be required, of course, but your paragraph's primary purpose is to make and support some claim about the work (e.g. it was easy to read, it was gory, it was funny, it gave me nightmares, it might be confusing to someone who knows little about fishing, etc).
Pick something fun, and have fun writing about it.
The Easy Way to Stop Smoking
ReplyDeleteBy Allen Carr
This is not a book written to tell us the health risks, money wasted or calling us idiots. Nobody would think twice about lighting up if that information worked. It instead explains the brainwashing nicotine does and how hard we work to get addicted. Why, when we take that first drag, we yack and say gross, yet, continue to smoke? Getting down to the nitty gritty of what enjoyment comes from lighting up and the real reasons we do it. Allen, encourages you to puff away while reading the book. Teaching smokers how to overcome the little nicotine craving monster living inside of us. Allen Carr's, method is being used world wide in clinics with a five percent failure rate. The book consist of forty- four short chapters. One hundred eleven pages long. Wow! Not a very big book for such big life prices. What do you really have to loose? You could just become part of the other ninety- five percent who has success!
Zodiac
ReplyDeleteRobert Grayson
There really isn't much i can say about this book. i could that that it is somewhat easy to read, but it also takes time to build up alot of suspense. This book is about the zodiac killer, a sadistic serial killer who terrorized California for 11 months. it was written by Robert Graysmith, who was on staff at the San-Francisco Chronicle at the very beginning of the killings. it chronicles each and every single one of the killings, deciphers his codes, and even tells of possible victims based on the others. the book was recently adapted into a movie, which i really want to watch. all in all, if u like books on mystery, or ones that involve gore and death, this would be a good read. i, myself have not yet finished it, but it seems very good.
The Last Lecture
ReplyDeleteRandy Pausch
Professor, Carnegie Mellon
with Jeffrey Zaslow
Honestly, i generally do not read books, but my son is in a class that he has a lot of readings to do so he has a selection and the reason for me picking up this book was simply because it had a picture on the back cover with a dad and his 3 sons, such as my life, i have a husband and 3 boys,i know you are thinking what a way to choose a book. But what i did not realize is what the book was going to be about. This book is about a Professor who was offered to do a lecture in school, the lecture was called, "Last Lecture Series" and he obviously knew it was going to truly be his "last lecture." Professor Pausch was diagnoised with pancreatic cancer and had 10 tumors and only given a few months to live. He wanted his children to know so much after he was gone and be able to read it so he incorporated that into his last lecture, If you notice at the top, i listed an additional name under his name, this is a person he had chosen to help him put his lecture together due to his sickness. The professor would take bike rides to work on his lecture a total of 53 to be exact, citing to his helper Jeff over a cellphone,they worked together to turn these citings into 53 chapters in his book. I got so wrapped up in the book once i started reading it i wanted to know more. There are only 189 pages in the book but the book has so much meaning. He uses a lot of cliche's in his book, one of my favorites being, "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?", it means do not focus on little issues and ignore the major ones. If only i had knew that when my kids were at home! I did not get the book finished but i do intend to definately finish it, for not reading books i found myself saying i wished it was longer! Families are like books, we look the same on the outside but on the inside, like chapters we are different.
Echoes
ReplyDeleteBy Maeve Binchy
This book is very complex. The very descriptive details about characters and the little Irish village will have you confused in the first part of the book. Binchy goes into such great detail about the characters that you actually feel acquainted with them but you’ll have no idea what the point of the book is. I’ve only read part one of four and I hope there’s actually a connection between the characters. The children visit their town’s legendary cave to shout out their questions in hopes of hearing an answer instead of an echo. The author paints a vivid picture of the landscape and shoreline of the Irish country side. Binchy centers her characters on the traditional Irish Catholic upbringing and Irish wit. If you enjoy colorful characterizations and descriptive dialog you would really enjoy this book.
Vanishing Acts
ReplyDeleteJodi Picoult
This book, along with other Picoult books, was very intriguing. Her books are very easy to relate to, no matter what the content. Her writing is easy to picture and it draws the reader in and makes he/she want to keep reading. Vanishing Acts is about a woman who has grown up with her father, believing her mother died when she was 4. She lives her life experiencing flashbacks of a life she never lived. Until one day, when it is revealed to her that her father kidnapped her and created a whole new identity for the both of them. Throughout the book the reader follows the main character on her journey as she discovers her "old life."
Catch Me If You Can
ReplyDeleteBy: Frank Abagnale
Most of you may have heard of the movie Catch Me If You Can. Well this movie is based on a book which is a true story about Frank Abagnale. It came out in 2002. The basic summary of the book is basically an FBI agent tracks down and catches a young con artist who impersonated an airline pilot, doctor, assistant attorney general and history professor, cashing more than $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in 26 countries. He did this under many different fake names. In my opinion, it's truly a great book because it's fascinating how Frank was able to pull this whole thing off. It is a book that will most certainly keep your interest.
I recently finished reading The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner. It starts out with a reporter running from the law, he picks up a stuffed animal from a New York City sidewalk that a little girl dropped and he hid a flash drive inside and took it to the Grand Central Station lost and found and then he was arrested. The book then goes on to tell you stories of many different people that are affected by this animal and the flash drive that no one really knows is inside it. One of those people is the father of the little girl who lost the animal, he takes it to her and thats when the trouble begins! This book has murder and kidnapping in it and it will keep you guessing till the end! It is very interesting, I couldn't put it down!
ReplyDeleteI just finished a book called Married With Zombies by Jesse Petersen. I starts off with a couple who have been going to marriage counceling for months, but still are not getting along. One afternoon they go to their counseling sessioin, only to find out that their once beautiful couseler had turned into a flesh eating zombie. The book then goes on and explains how all of their couseling help them survive together though this zombie apocalypse.
ReplyDelete