Eng 10 Notes-Jan 19 at Pearson ALC, School District 40, New Westminster

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PM Class Notes (AM Notes)

The Most Common Errors in the Compositions:

Topic sentences (60% okay but note the following)

Asking a question in the first sentence. “Have you ever gone skiing before?” This is rare, used normally in oral lecture as a technique for teachers. One student asked a question (rhetorical question) in a correct manner, but it was not the topic sentence.

People make a kind of introduction instead of topic sentences. (cross between essay and paragraph) “When I lived in Siberia, it was too cold to go out in winter.”

People began with a good topic sentence and then changed the topic later. This I called “out of focus”.

	Articles missing (a, an, and the)
	Use of tense (particularly use of the present, present perfect, and continuous tenses)

What is your first reaction to the story, The Witch?

	It was unusual to see a man who spoke to a child on the topic the child has chosen, about witches.
	It is a funny story and should not be taken seriously. It is a kind of entertainment.
	It is shocking or scary and I felt that he shouldn’t have spoken about these things to a child.
	It is clear that the man and the boy are somehow mentally disturbed.
	Kids love stories like that. The mother should have stopped it before it went so far as it did.
	I was surprised by what the man said.

Do we (as parents) ever talk about or tell stories about things like what the man said to the boy?

Yes, we do. For example, boys are told scary or violent stories. Fairy tales can be quite scary and violent and we often tell them to our children. In cartoons, heads are chopped off, people are blown up, crushed by cars. Hansel and Gretel is about two children taken into the forest by the father because he cannot feed them anymore.

If we do, why do we?

	To show our children about good and evil and to say that good will win.
	The man said, “Once upon a time”, remember, so he meant his words to be a kind of fairy story.

AM Notes

Common Errors in English 10 Composition

1. Paragraph focus (multiple topics in a single paragraph) Many people spent time and words to say, “We have no snow where I come from”.

2. Some people started with a question or ended with a question. These have a name: rhetorical questions. They are quite uncommon in English composition.

3. Topic sentence and its match to content

4. Many people leave out “the”, “an” and “a”.

5. Use of present tense for everyday activities versus past tense for one-time things. Example: I brush my teeth; I like to ski. Careful of shifting your tense back and forth.

What is your first reaction to the story, The Witch?

	First off, many were very shocked and surprised.
	He seemed (the old man) to be very nice and normal, but he, in Patricia’s opinion, was actually an evil man.
	Generally, the setting (where the story is in time and place and manners) is completely normal at first.
	We should not scare our children with stories, such as the one the old man told the little boy. But, after we think about it, we know that we do tell our children scary stories.
	The story probably does not harm the boy, but it is dangerous to say such things to a child because children do not see the difference between fantasy and reality.
	We do not scare our children with stories such as this one.?? I don’t think that this is true.
	He uses the verb “pinch” instead of “choke” or “strangle” just like a child. He says he cuts her up and then he hits with a stick and kills her. This couldn’t be true, could it? It is clearly a story and not the truth.
	We tell little children about Red Riding Hood and that could be a very disturbing story, which concerns eating grandmothers and scary wolves.
	Also many parents warn of a creature called in English, the bogeyman. He will get you if you disobey or run outside at night, or leave your bedroom after bedtime.