Entry n°8 Peer assessment: immigration

Immigration all over the world

        Immigration has been always the first option for people from different countries to escape from their hopeless situation. For example, people from Spain migrated to Argentina and others countries, because of the Spain Civil War. As another example, people from Bolivia and Paraguay usually migrate to neighbor countries in order to escape from their countries’ devastating economic situation.  As still another instance, most people in Argentina decided to migrate to USA and Spain in 2001, as a result of the social, political and economic crisis the country was suffering at that moment. Clearly, most of the people around the world choose to be exiled from their origin country when they are living a desperate situation.

My new version taking into account Ana's suggestions

Immigration has been always the first option for people from different countries to escape from their hopeless situation. For example, people from Spain migrated to Argentina and others countries, because of the Spain Civil War. As another example, inhabitants from Bolivia and Paraguay usually migrate to neighbor nations in order to escape from their countries’ devastating economic situation.  As still another instance, most of the population in Argentina decided to migrate to USA and Spain in 2001, as a result of the social, political and economic crisis their native land was suffering at that moment. Clearly, most of the citizens around the world choose to be exiled from their motherland when they are living a desperate situation.


My mate (Ana Lia Alonso) has some problems to upload her comment in the comment section, so she sent it to me by email.

The paragraph written by you is clear, correct and it shows a real knowledge of the subject.
I believe that to improve it, you should use more synonyms, since your group of words contain a repetition of some items as: people, from, country.
If I were you, instead of people I would sometimes use:  person, inhabitants; population
Instead of country: land, nation, the place were they came from, their native place, the place were they lived before

Instead of people from USA, USA´s people.

I really expect my suggestions will help you as I am  sure yours will improve my writing.

Entry n°7 My paragraph and my mate's version of it. Metacognitive analysis

My paragraph

 The success in cooking a delicious cake usually depends on the selection of the way to prepare it. For example, we can decide to cook it in the oven, as most of the people do. As another example, we can take advantage of the technology by using the microwave-oven. As still another example, we can make use of the typical pot everybody has in our houses, the famous pot “Essen”. Clearly, there are different ways of preparing an exquisite cake but its success is directly related to the method we choose for heating it.

My mate's version (Alonso, Ana Lia)

There are some different possibilities to cook a cake, we only have to choose the most  useful to us. For example, we can decide to cook it in the oven, as most of the people do. As another example, we can take advantage of the technology by using the microwave-oven. As still another example, we can make use of the typical pot everybody has in our houses, the famous pot “Essen”. In conclusion, we have enough possibilities to choose when we decide to cook a cake.

Metacognitive analysis

To start with, I have to say that it was an interesting experience, since it lets us know the other person’s point of view and her way of expressing it. As you can see in the last paragraph, my classmate, Ana, modifid the topic and closing sentence of my own paragraph. However, the overall meaning of the extract did not vary, the idea is the same. On the other hand, I can observe that in Ana’s version there are not synonyms, antonyms, and hyponyms neither in the topic sentence nor in the closing one, which are very useful to avoid repetition. I tried to reflect those aspects in my version, for example, by using the words “delicious” and “exquisite”, as another example, “cook” and “heat”, as still another example, “different ways” and “different methods”. I really think it is a good task to help one another to improve our writings, so Ana: I am looking forward to your corrections of my paragraph!!!

Entry n°6 Structured Paragraph Writing

Structured Paragraph Writing

Academic writing implies writing well structures paragraphs.

Here, there are some interesting videos which can help us learn 

different steps to write well strucured paragraphs.

Parts of a paragraph: English Academic Writing: Most important issues discussed in this video:

1. TOPIC SENTENCE: Here, we have to make clear what our subject is, what we are going to write about.

2.      BODY: Here, we have to support our topic by providing details and arguments about it. We can order them chronologically (firstly, secondly, finally), or we can order them according to their importance.

3.      CLOSING SENTENCE: It has 2 functions:

·         Remind our audience what we are talking about.

·         Restate the topic but in a different way, by adding something. The aim is to keep people thinking about the topic.

Academic Writing: Most important issues discussed in this video:

Structure of a paragraph:

·         The style: in Academic Writing is formal.

·         The correct punctuation.

·         Paragraphing: expresses organized thoughts( the most important one)

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What is a paragraph?

·         A distinct section in a piece of writing.

·         A number of related sentences.

·         Only one idea (the most important one).

Elements of the Paragraph:

·         Unit: is a distinct of writing easy to identify.

·         Coherence: must be focused on one main idea, supported by examples or  evidence.

·         Development: the paragraph must be well organized, must be coherent.

Qualities of a successful paragraph:

·         Unity: all the sentences must be focused in the main idea.

·         Coherence: each sentence must be related to the other.

·         Development: the main idea is supported by enough details and examples to make it valid.

Unity

·         Start a paragraph with a topic sentence.

·         Topic sentence: main idea, contains a topic and a controlling idea.

·         Controlling idea: comment about the topic sentence.

·         Other possibilities, wh questions: who, what, where, when, why, how.

Coherence:

·         Create logical bridges from one sentence to another.

·         Use of key words.

·         Use of synonyms.

·         Use of pronouns.

·         Use of transition words.

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Development: Provides details and evidence to support the topic. Illustrates the point  with examples, to convince the reader that  your writing is valid.

TEE rules:

T: topic, the most powerful sentence.

E: explains why this is the powerful sentence.

E: examples, evidence.

Introductory paragraph (most important paragraph)

·         State main argument.

·         How you intend to answer the question.

Concluding paragraph ( next most important one)

·         Summarize the main points in few sentences

·         State main conclusion..

·         Must satisfy the reader (has the question been answered?).

DO NOT

·         Introduce new material.

·         End with a generalization.

·         End with a quotation.

DO: let your opinion let through.

Sources: 

AlexESLvid, Parts of a Paragraph - English Academic Writing Introduction. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cCuExRE6N-4#! Retrieved: May 27, 2013

Massey University, Writing Structured Paragraphs. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w183qB0KDFg Retrieved: May 27, 2013

 

Members of the group: 

Alonso, Ana Lia

Torrecillas, Xoana Soledad

ISFD N°41

Entry n° 5 "She is a writer"

Who is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie?

She is a writer, she is the author of three novels, Purple Hibiscus(2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah(2013), of a short story collection, The Thing around Your Neck (2009).

She has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007) and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2008).

Some interesting facts about her life

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born September 15, 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria. She was raised in Nsukka near the University of Nigeria. Her father, James Nwoye Adichie, was a professor of statistics and later became the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University. Her mother, Ifeoma Aidichie, became the first female registrar at the University. Adichie is the fifth child in a family of six children. She is of Igbo descent and her ancestral home is in Abba.

 Adichie was an A student who often butted heads with her teachers. Despite her reputation, she received several academic awards. Adichie enrolled in medical school at the behest of her father. She soon dropped out to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. When she was 19, she left Nigeria on a scholarship to Drexel University in Philadelphia. She studied communication at Drexel and earned a degree in communication and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University. She graduated summa cum laude in 2001. Later that year, she began MFA courses in literature at Johns Hopkins University.

Adichie credits Chinua Achebe, Igbo author of Nigerian masterwork  “Things Fall Apart”, with her literary success. She once lived in Achebe’s house and believes his halo surrounded her. After reading his book at 10 years old, she realized that people who looked like her could exist in books. Her desire to write was sparked by his work.

In 2003, “Purple Hibiscus” was published to wide acclaim. It was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and awarded the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. She was awarded with the Orange Prize in 2007 for her second novel, “Half of a Yellow Sun”, about the Biafran War. In 2008, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. A collection of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck, was published in 2009.

Adichie tries to combat the image of Africans as portrayed by Western media. Choosing to write first from her experience as an affluent and educated Nigerian, she was often criticized for shying away from the “real” Africa. But she struggled to write characters who were not “starving, or begin bullied by [Zimbabwean dictator] Mugabe, or dying of AIDS.” As reflected in her writing voice, Adichie is a staunch feminist and uses her work as a way to work through the misogyny and condescension she has faced as an African woman in the global literary community.

She splits her time between the Unites States and Nigeria, married to a Maryland-based doctor. Her next novel will chronicle the Nigerian immigrant experience in America.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's quotations

“To be humans is to want to be valued”

“Books are immensely powerful. A power that often transcends the creator of the book himself.”

“Logic can convince us but it is in fact emotions that lead us to act. We are emotional beings.”

“I write because I have to.”

“I love creating characters who sometimes speak to me.”

“I love the possibility of touching another human being with my work.” 

“I think my writing is magical, it is a whispering of the spirits, it is an inexplicable gift I had been blessed with.”

“Literature is not just words.”

“We should read human stories not only to be delighted but also to remain ourselves that we are not alone, that we, in the words of Pablo Neruda, belong to this great mass of humanity, not to the few, but to the many.”

It is an interesting intervew, in which Chimamanda talks about her books.

Here, there is another interview, in which she talks about her country and her feelings for it.

To visit her official website, please, click here.

I also found this site which provides interesting information about her life.

Sources:

Gradesaver, Biography of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Available at: http://www.gradesaver.com/author/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/. Retrieved: May 15, 2013

Nairaland Forum, Chimamanda Adichie: 16 Things You Did Not Know About Her.

Available at: http://www.nairaland.com/1154513/chimamanda-adichie-16-things-did. Retrieved: May 15, 2013

Youtube, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Commonwealth lecture 2012. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vmsYJDP8g2U. Retrieved: May 15, 2013

My paragraphs summarizing her arguments: paragraphs by listing and by examples

         Chimamada Ngozi Adichie is a famous writer born in Nigeria, she not only loves writing but also reading others writers’ books. For example, as a child, she read ‘The Dark Child’ by Camara Laye, a book of startling beauty, defiant optimism, and the most layered nostalgia. As another example, she also enjoyed Chinua Achebe’s novels “Things Fall Apart” and “Arrow of God,” it was those kinds of novels that made her realize that while she may very well know the facts, she did not really know the truths. As still another instance, she fell in love with Sri Lanka after she read Romesh Gunesekera’s beautiful novel, “Reef”, with its evocation of friendship, love and politics in a country about to be torn apart by war. Clearly, this writer takes pleasure in reading her colleagues’ works as well as in expressing herself in her own books.

         Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian writer, confesses the fact that she wrote different kinds of writings throughout her experience as a writer. Firstly, she affirms that when she was a child, at the age of seven, she wrote the kind of stories that she had read. This meant that she wrote stories about blue-eyed white children who played in the snow and ate apples. Then, Adichie started believing that she had no place in books since they did not represent her at all. This changed when she discovered African writers such as Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye. She realized that books could also tell the stories of people like her. Finally, she started writing “realist literature” which, to her mind, transmits sensibility, both for the reader and the writer. This kind of art represents real people in real situations, in real places. Clearly, some particular facts in her personal life made her change her style of writing.

Entry n° 4 MLA Citation style

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MLA Citation style

MLA style citation: This stands for Modern Languages Association, and it is the preferred style to use when writing about literature, humanities, or arts. In MLA style, writers place references to sources in the paper to briefly identify them and enable readers to find them in the Works Cited list. These parenthetical references should be kept as brief and as clear as possible.

Generally speaking, it is an alphabetical list of the books, papers, or resources used in your paper must be included at the end of your report. These resources should be cited throughout the paper (with the use of brackets) and explained in greater detail on this list (known as the bibliography).

Mla citation rules – Pclav is very useful to students and professionals. It is a good way to avoid plagiarisms. This is where you use same information as original information as original context without author's permission.

There are general guidelines to follow and specific rules to be aware of. Below you'll find basic rules for creating MLA bibliographic entries, as well as example citations. 

·         All entries are cited alphabetically by the author's last name. If there is no author, the title of the resource is used instead. The title of the resource is not underlined, but it put in italics instead. The publication medium (DVD, magazine, book, website, CD) should be included as well. The entire page should be double-spaced.

The basic format is as follows:

Author last name, first name. Title of the book in italics. Location of publication: publisher name, year published. Publication medium.

In Mla citation rules – Pclav, it is preferable you use long names rather than abbreviations. It also requires that you italicize word titles instead of underlining them.

  

Guidelines for formatting MLA style work

·         Clarkson's Guidelines on Formatting in MLA Style

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8xAc4yZ8VSA

·         Double-space the text of your work and use Times New Roman.

·         Font size should be 12pt.

·         Set the margins of your work to 1 inch on all sides.

·         For paragraphs indent the first line a half an inch from the left margin. MLA recommends you use the Tab key.

·         Create a header for all pages of the document that numbers all pages in the upper right-hand corner at one-half inch from the top.

·         Include endnotes on a separate page before your Cited Works page. Name this section Notes and centre on the document.

When creating your Works Cited Page, remember to:

·         Begin the Works Cited on a new page, but number consecutively (i.e., if the last page of your essay is page 3, the Works Cited is page 4)

·         Alphabetize each entry by first letter

·         Use italics for all titles of books, magazines, films, etc.

·         You do NOT need to include the URL on internet sources unless specifically required.

·         Put quotation marks around the titles of poems, short stories, and articles

·         Indent the 2^nd line, the 3^rd line, and all subsequent lines of each citation

·         Double-space all entries

Examples of MLA Citations

Type of citation and correct citation:

·         Book (One author)

Gorman, Elizabeth. Prairie Women. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.

·         Book (Two authors)

Caper, Charles and Lawrence T. Teamos. How to Camp. Philadelphia:    Doubleday, 1986.

·         Book (Three or more authors)

Ellis, Doris et.al. History of Japan. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1989.

·         Book (One editor)

Vanderkirk, Pamela, ed. Ten Short Plays. Los Angeles: Nowell Book Co., 1982.

·         Book (Two editors)

Lockhard, David J. and Charles Heimler, eds. The Oregon Trail. New York: Bonanza Books, 1992.

·         Web page (Professional Organization)

     Schrock, Kathleen. "Digital Gadgets." Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators. 20 February 2002. Discovery Channel. 11 March 2003. <http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/gadgets.html>.

Sources:

 MLA Citation Style. [ONLINE] Available at: 

http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla [Last Accessed May 3, 2013].

 MLA Sample citations. [ONLINE] Available at: 

http://www.tarleton.edu/departments/library/userhelp/document_mla_lh.html [Last Accessed May 3, 2013].

MLA Style ciation.[ONLINE] Available at: 

http://mlastylecitation.com/ [Last Accessed May 3, 2013].

MLA Format:Examples of MLA Works Cited [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.studyguide.org/MLAdocumentation.htm [Last Accessed May 3, 2013].