English

REMEMBERING AN EVENTREADINGS 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 entrance, my heart began to race. I just had to get out of that store. Only a few more yards to go and I’d be safe. As we crossed the threshold, I heaved a sigh of relief. I was […]

Vivid Description of People and Places Read for the author’s description of people and places. In the essays in this chapter, notice the specific details describing what people look like, how they dress, gesture, and talk; the sensory images showing what the narrator saw, heard, smelled, touched, and tasted. Autobiographical Significance Read also to understand

A Well-Told Story Read first to enjoy the story. Remembered event essays are autobiographical stories that recount an important event in the writer’s life; the best ones are first and fore- most a pleasure to read. A well-told story arouses curiosity and suspense by structuring the narrative around conflict, building to a climax, and leading

A Collaborative Activity: Practice Remembering an Event BASIC FEATURES 17 Compare your thoughts with the others in your group on what was easiest and hard- est about telling the story: for example, making the story dramatic; balancing your account of what happened with your feelings and thoughts about it; deciding how much to tell about

REMEMBERING AN EVENT People write about their experiences in various contexts, for different purposes and audiences. For example, you may keep a private diary, a Facebook page for friends, or a public blog where you write about important events in your life. The scenarios opening this chapter show people from different walks of life reflecting

  Your Literacy Experience, through Metaphor and Simile Write two or three similes (comparisons using like or as) or metaphors (implied com- parisons, not using like or as) that express some aspect of your literacy experience. Then write a page or so explaining and expanding on the ideas and feelings you expressed in one or

Thinking Critically As we said at the beginning, reflecting on your literacy experiences helps you become a better, more versatile writer. Reflecting makes you aware of what you already know and what you still need to learn. Reflecting enhances metacognition, which is a scholarly word for awareness of your own thinking processes. As young children,

What did you write, and when? Who were you writing for, and why were you writing? What did you hope to accom- plish? What technologies did you use (a computer? a pen?), and how do you think using these technologies affected the way you wrote? What kinds of planning did you do, if any, before

Using the Guides to Writing As you have seen, students learning to write need to be flexible and yet systematic. The Guides to Writing in Part One of this book are designed to meet this need. The first few times you write in a new genre, you can rely on these guides. They provide scaffolding

Strategies for Drafting and Revising While composing a draft, writers benefit from frequent pauses to reread what they have written. Rereading often leads to further discovery — adding an example, choosing different words that unpack or separate ideas, filling in a gap in the logic 10 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: THINKING ABOUT WRITING of an argument.