Final Review

1. Final Review

2. The author’s purpose answers the question: Why did the author write the text, article, or story?

3. Author's Purpose: To Entertain • When writing to entertain, one goal may be to tell a story or to describe characters, places, or events (real or imaginary). • Examples of entertaining texts include: plays, poems, stories, jokes, or even comic strips.

4. Author's Purpose: To Inform • The author's goal to enlighten the reader with subjects that are typically real and factual. Few opinions are expressed. • The facts are used to teach, not to persuade. Examples of informative texts include: cookbooks, textbooks, and historical accounts. • What is the author trying to teach me about?

5. Author's Purpose: To Persuade • When writing to persuade, the goal is to get the reader to agree with the writer's opinion. This type of writing is opinionated, but the author may provide facts and examples to support the opinion. What is the author trying to get me to buy or do? • Examples of persuasive texts include: commercials, advertisements, and editorials

6. Author's Purpose: To Describe • When writing to describe, the goal is to get the reader to feel like they are part of the action, in the location, or know the character very well. Lots of imagery and descriptive language are used. What does the writer want me to visualize? • Examples of descriptive texts include: narratives, stories, and poetry.

7. HINT Reading only the first or last few sentences of an article or story might mislead the reader about an author’s purpose. Titles can be misleading. This is a good reason for always reading the entire article before deciding the author’s purpose. Remember to pick the BEST answer.

8. What do you do with aluminum cans? Do you throw them in the trash, or do you recycle when you are finished with them? At the rate we are filling our landfills, we will not have anywhere else to put our trash. If you recycle, you will help the environment. The next time you throw away your Coke can, think about putting it in a recycling bin. Your effort will help save your community. • The author's purpose is toa. entertain.b. persuade.c. inform.d. create a mysterious mood.

9. The hot July sun beat relentlessly down, casting an orange glare over the farm buildings, the fields, the pond. Even the usually cool green willows bordering the pond hung wilted and dry. Our sun-baked backs ached for relief. We quickly pulled off our sweaty clothes and plunged into the pond, but the tepid water only stifled us and we soon climbed onto the brown, dusty bank. Our parched throats longed for something cool--a strawberry ice, a tall frosted glass of lemonade. a. inform.b. entertain c. persuade d. describe

10. The impressive eagle is a national symbol in the United States for patriotism and freedom. Because the bald eagle was once hunted for sport, it is on the verge of extinction. If you kill a bald eagle, you can go to jail. Unfortunately, the bald eagle still maybe become extinct. • The author's purpose is toa. entertain.b. persuade.c. inform.d. create a mysterious mood.

11. Cup Holder Tech Rep: "Yes, it is. How may I help you?" Caller: "The cup holder on my PC is broken and I am within my warranty period. How do I go about getting that fixed?" Tech Rep: "I'm sorry, but did you say a cup holder?" Caller: "Yes, it's attached to the front of my computer." Tech Rep: "Please excuse me if I seem a bit stumped, it's because I am. Did you receive this as part of a promotion, at a trade show? How did you get this cup holder? Does it have any trademark on it?" Caller: "It came with my computer, I don't know anything about a promotion. It just has '4X' on it." At this point the Tech Rep had to mute the caller, because he couldn't stand it. The caller had been using the load drawer of the CD-ROM drive as a cup holder, and snapped it off the drive. • The author's purpose is toa. entertain.b. persuade.c. inform.d. create a mysterious mood.

12. Point of View: Who’s Talking??

13. What is Point of View? Point of View is the vantage point from which a writer tells a story. In broad term there are three possible points of view: omniscient, first-person, and third-person limited. (p 975, 218-219)

14. First-Person In the first-person point of view, one of the characters is actually the narrator telling the story, using the pronoun “I.” We get to know this narrator very well, but we can only know what this character knows, and we can only observe what this character observes.

15. All of our information about the events in the story must come from this one character. We only learn what “I” chooses, or is able, to tell us.

16. Third-Person In third-person point of view, the narrator, plays no part in the story. We observe the action as if through the eyes of a camera. The narrator uses the pronouns he, she, and they.

17. Omniscient Omniscient means “all-knowing.” The all-knowing narrator is not a character in the story. He or she never refers to himself or herself with the first-person pronoun “I.”

18. The omniscient narrator is able to tell us everything about every character, including how each one thinks and feels. He or she can also tell us about the past, the present, and the future of all the characters. He or she can tell us what is happening in other places.

19. The Main Idea Why?

20. You can use Reading for the 2w’s. Who + what should give you a clear, simple statement of the main idea. Example--Fiction Who is the movie about? Luke Skywalker What does the Who do? Saves the rebel alliance Main Idea—Luke Skywalker saves the rebel alliance

21. The main idea is the main reason that the story or article was written. In other words: “What does the author want me to learn or understand?”

22. You are on your way to class, and your friend asks you about the movie you saw last night. Your friend doesn't have time to hear about the whole two hours of the movie, but you can tell you friend in a few sentences what the movie is about. What's it all about? The answer to this question is the main idea. The Main idea refers to what a paragraph or an article is about. "Main" means what is important, or key, the heart of the matter. "Idea" means the thought, the thesis or the topic.

23. IMPLIED OR INFERRED MAIN IDEA: • The main idea within a written passage that is not directly stated by the author and left up to the reader to draw conclusions in order to find the central idea.

24. LOOK FOR SUPPORTING DETAILS: • Information used to supply evidence or back up the main point the author is making in the passage. There will probably be three or more supporting details to any main idea. If not, the reader needs to rethink the main idea.

25. FINDING AN IMPLIED MAIN IDEA • 1. FIND THE TOPIC. Look at the heading or title. Read the first and last sentences. • 2. WHAT DOES THE AUTHOR SAY ABOUT THE TOPIC? Look at what the details say about the subject. Decide what the details add up to. • 3. SORT THE TOPIC FROM THE MAIN IDEA. Infer what the main point is that the author wants you to know about the subject. This is the main idea.

26. Cause and Effect

27. CLUE WORDS FOR “CAUSE” • because due to the reason for • led to since on account of • while whereas as a result of

28. CLUE WORDS FOR “EFFECT” • as a result consequently hence • therefore for this reason outcome • then the effect thus

29. Melissa was chosen as homecoming queen, due to her beauty and personality. What is the cause? What is the effect?

30. As a result of voter fraud, the election had to be held again. What is the cause? What is the effect?

31. When Cinderella ran out of my arms into the night, she really looked clumsy. I wasn’t surprised she lost that shoe. Who wouldn’t stumble out of those five-inch glass heels? I really liked her a lot, but I couldn’t help wondering why someone so smart would wear those shoes. While we were dancing, she kept stepping on my feet. Those glass heels would grind into my toes, and since I’m the Prince, I had to act like it didn’t hurt. We had such a great time talking while we danced, but sometimes her face would contort because her feet were in such pain. I want to have a date with her when she is wearing some sensible shoes. What is the cause? What is the effect?

32. Researching • Keyword: A word used as a reference point for finding other words or information from search engines • If your keywords are too general, you get too many results. • If your keywords are too specific, you may not get any or enough results

33. Jerry is writing a research paper on the importance of recycling. Where would he find general information on the subject? • A. dictionary (all words - not informational) • B. encyclopedia (much general information on many subjects) • C. newspaper (information changes daily) • D. almanac (many brief facts)

34. Plagiarism & Citations The purpose of citations is to give credit to sources that you use and avoid plagiarism. It also allows others to find your sources and lends credibility to your paper.

35. What is Plagiarism? • Using another person’s idea, opinion, or theory without giving that person credit for the information is plagiarism. • Using any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings (any pieces of information) that are not common knowledge without crediting their source is plagiarism. • Quoting or paraphrasing another person’s written or spoken words without giving credit to that person is plagiarism. • When researching make sure you write down the author and publisher information so you can give credit.

36. Quoting Whether you quote, paraphrase, or summarize, you must cite your source. • Quotations are indicated by punctuation (quotation marks). Quotations must match the source document word for word, and must be attributed to the original author.

37. Paraphrasing is putting the ideas of another person into your own words using your own sentence structure. A paraphrase simplifies a selection, it does not necessarily shorten it. Paraphrased material must also be attributed to the original source. • Paraphrased material is often somewhat shorter than the original, and summarized material usually significantly shorter.

38. Summarizing • To summarize, you must put the main thoughts or ideas into your own words, but it is only necessary to include the "main points." Its purpose is to shorten a passage without sacrificing its basic meaning. Once again, it is necessary to attribute the ideas to the original source.

39. Research Skill:Finding Sources .

40. I have a topic for my research.What’s Next? Once you have an overview of your topic, first think about what kinds of information you need. Do you need biographical information, quotations, maps, diary entries, political cartoons, song lyrics, diagrams, narratives, statistics, etc?

41. Once you know the kinds of information you need, you can make a list of all the possible sources in which you think you can find that information. These could include any of the following, or others: Books/Text Books Expert People Radio Shows Television Shows Magazine Articles Sound Recordings Journal Articles Video Recordings Newspaper Articles Electronic Databases Maps/ Atlases Websites Site visits (i.e. museums)

42. The World Wide Web The emergence of the World Wide Web has created another information resource for conducting research. The World Wide Web is a wonderful tool for individuals that want to reach large numbers of people. It is also a great resource for finding information on current events. However, the lack of traditional gatekeeping such as editors and peer reviewing, is for the most part missing on the World Wide Web. This puts the users of the Web in the position of having to be their own gatekeepers of information since anyone can post information on the internet.

43. Evaluate the Sources • When you have some materials in front of you, either from the library or the internet, it's time to critically analyze them. Part of analyzing means sifting the good resources from the bad. And what's the point of taking notes on sources you won't be using?

44. Structure • If you're starting with a book, look at the table of contents. • Glance at any appendices, diagrams, tables, or figures and see what kinds of things make it into the Endnotes section if there is one. • For a journal article, read the "abstract" for a summary.

45. Purpose • What is the author trying to do? • What is his or her bias? • Any assumptions to be challenged? • Does the person have a vested interest in swaying you one way or another?

46. Audience • Who does the intended audience appear to be? • Are there a lot of technical words? • And finally, what stake does the target audience have in the issue? In other words, why would the audience be reading the text?

47. Author • Is it someone your teacher has mentioned or whom you've come across in your course readings? • Has the person been mentioned in other texts or bibliographies of other texts? • Is the person a teacher or researcher from a reputable academic institution? • Does the person have knowledge of what he or she is talking about?

48. Evaluation You should answer yes to each of the following three questions: Does the date of the source match the level of currency you need for your paper? Is the author a credible source? Is the source relevant to your thesis or question, i.e., useful?

49. Hints from URLs • .edu = educational institution • .gov = US government site • .org = organization or association • .com = commercial site • .net = personal or other site

50. Take notes in your own words: Paraphrase don’t Plagiarize Be succinct in whatever you write, but don't rely too heavily on mental notes because you're afraid of writing too much down. Even if it's just background data, boil it down to a short phrase on paper and save the taxing of your memory for exams, not research papers. Remember, notes are a bit like drafts: you will not end up using everything you write down.