Week 5: Nearly mid-quarter: Next week, that is week 6, we will have a short essay to do in class that will serve as the midterm exam. You will compose and finish the piece within class time, and you'll have a least one hour to do so. Your midterm grade will appear in your online account a week or so later; the grade is only an indicator of current progress and serves to let you know where you stand as of midterm. I calculate this grade on the basis of work completed and the class essay done week 6. I expect you all to be there and to have submitted all outstanding work by that day.
Today's class will start with a freewriting aimed, ultimately, at generating material for an essay that is structured along the lines of what is called process analysis or, alternately, cause and effect analysis.
The process mode of organization is used when explaining how a thing happens or is done or made. It includes description of the steps, stages, or procedures involved in any natural occurrence or phenomenon, or in any that involve human endeavor. Such writing addresses the question how? For example, how do bees find their way to the hive, how does photosynthesis work, how does one change a tire on a steeply ascending road, make a cheesecake or keep houseplants alive and happy?
We all, to some degree, understand how things proceed, and can describe the procedures by which things get done or made. We have followed directions and read instructions from a young age and we have learned how to do a thing or two ourselves; in fact, there are certain skills we could actually teach: how to saddle a horse, how to sweep a floor, build a boat or house, sew a hem, design an advertisement, paint with oil colors. There are certain life experiences we could coach others through; for example, we have all experienced pain, sadness, and loss and so have learned a thing or two about healing, happiness, getting along, starting over. The stages or steps involved in bettering our health, our outlook, our lives in general always involves a specific method, a means, a process.
We all, to some degree, understand how things proceed, and can describe the procedures by which things get done or made. We have followed directions and read instructions from a young age and we have learned how to do a thing or two ourselves; in fact, there are certain skills we could actually teach: how to saddle a horse, how to sweep a floor, build a boat or house, sew a hem, design an advertisement, paint with oil colors. There are certain life experiences we could coach others through; for example, we have all experienced pain, sadness, and loss and so have learned a thing or two about healing, happiness, getting along, starting over. The stages or steps involved in bettering our health, our outlook, our lives in general always involves a specific method, a means, a process.
Cause and effect mode sets out to explore the probable reasons why certain events, actions, or manifestations occur or have occurred, and the effects or consequences of these happenings. We may explore why we behave in a certain way or the effects of certain kinds of behavior on ourselves and others. We may explore the sources of our satisfactions, for instance, as causes. We may look at all manner of natural and social phenomena whose causes or effects interest us. Why are flowers brightly colored? Why do birds sing? Why do young animals play? Why do humans make war? What effects do our lifestyle choices have on our environment? And what effects have the decisions of policy makers (who decide whether, for instance, gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry) and powerful corporations (whose industry practices may harm or hurt us)? Bear in mind, a short paper should be limited to either cause or effect, rather than both.
Assignment #4: In a step-by-step or stage-by stage description show the means by which some thing or another happens or gets done, made, or developed. Alternatively, discuss the known or probable cause or effect of some particular occurrence, as of disease, pollution, job loss, fame . . . or happiness, kindness, regular exercise and a healthy diet. Write 350 words, using an introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs. Title the essay. Double space the lines.
A few paragraph examples follow here:
One holds the [surgical] knife as one holds the bow of a cello or a tulip–by the stem. Not palmed nor gripped nor grasped, but lightly, with the tips of the fingers. The knife is not for pressing. It is for drawing across the field of skin. Like a slender fish, it waits, at the ready, then, go! It darts, followed by a fine wake of red. The flesh parts, falling away to yellow globules of fat. Even now, after so many times, I still marvel at its power–cold, gleaming, silent. More, I am still struck with a kind of dread that it is I in whose hand the blade travels, that my hand is its vehicle, that yet again this terrible steel-bellied thing and I have conspired for a most unnatural purpose, the laying open of the body of a human being.
from "The Knife," by Richard Seltzer
Wear loose and comfortable clothing when working out. Because a warmed muscle is believed to be more flexible and pliant, you will often see people wearing sweat suits and woolen socks. You should also be sure to position yourself as comfortably as possible to reduce the tension and make the stretching more enjoyable. –from The Science of Stretching, by Michael Alter
When a farmer calls in a cheetah capture, it is CCF's job to retrieve the animal from a field trap, gather biological information, and then relocate or release it. Normally the work is done in the field and not in a farmer's kitchen. Until last night, there had not been a call in a month–proof that that farmers are learning to co-exist with cheetahs rather than to shoot first and ask questions later.
from "Blur: Cheetahs. Ranchers. Hope.," by Susan Zimmerman
For centuries, it was assumed that honey bees simply visited flowers and collected the honey ready-made, bringing it back to the hive and storing it there. The truth of the matter is that honey making is an elaborate and complicated process. The first step is the collection of floral nectar from the gullets of colorful and fragrant blossoms. Floral nectar starts out as sugar water enriched with a few amino acids, proteins, lipids, phenolics, and other chemicals. While it sits in floral ponds, waiting to be sampled by pollinators, the nectar takes on the aroma of the flowers that produced it. Though the scent of the nectar itself is faint, the aromas are intensified once it is concentrated into honey. Excess water is driven off and the complex volatile oils and other chemicals from the flower are magnified, becoming part of the honey and adding to its appeal. Single-source honeys reveal their characteristic aromas best at room temperature, especially when drizzled across a warm piece of toast.
—from Secrets of the Bee
Contemplating our food for a few seconds before eating and eating in mindfulness can bring us much happiness. In our practice centers, we use the Five Contemplations as a way of reminding ourselves where our food comes from and its purpose.
The first contemplation is being aware that our food comes directly from the earth and the sky. It is a gift of the earth and the sky, and also of the people who prepared it. The second contemplation is about being worthy of the food we eat. The way to be worthy of our food is to eat mindfully—to be aware of its presence and thankful for having it. We cannot allow ourselves to get lost in our worries, fears, or anger over the past or the future. We are there for the food because the food is there for us; it is only fair. Eat in mindfulness, and you will be worthy of the earth and the sky.
—Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness
There are few things humans are more dedicated to than unhappiness. Had we been places on earth by a malign creator for the exclusive purpose of suffering, we would have good reason to congratulate ourselves on our enthusiastic response to the task. Reasons to be inconsolable abound: the frailty of our bodies, the fickleness of love, the insincerities of social life, the compromises of friendship, the deadening effects of habit. In the face of such persistent ills, we might naturally expect that no event would be awaited with greater anticipation than the moment of our own extinction.
—Alain De Botton, How Proust Can Change Your Life
The fundamental pathology of Alzheimer's disease is the progressive degeneration and loss of vast numbers of nerve cells in those portions of the brain's cortex that are associated with the so-called higher functions, such as memory, learning, and judgment. The severity and nature of the patient's dementia at any given time are proportional to the number and location of cells that have been affected. The decrease in in nerve-cell population is in itself sufficient to explain the memory loss and other cognitive disabilities, but there is another factor that seems to play a role as well–namely, a marked decrease in acetylcholine, the chemical used by these cells to transmit messages.
— Sherwin B. Nuland, How We Die
Approaches to take in preparing a draft:
Freewrite: Make a list of all the things you can do. Zero in on those you feel most "expert" at doing, or those you are only now learning to do.
Free associate. Imagine the times and places and people these things you do have involved so that you have some context and entertaining anecdotes.
Choose one or two from the list as a possible subject of description in process mode.
Break the process down into its constituent steps or stages.
Brainstorm and/or research the causes or effects of a recent event or habitually observed phenomenon, for example, the Gulf oil leak, obesity, Lindsey Lohan's troubles, freckles, the red-orange hues produced at sunset, the blue of the sky).
Grammar Practice: Review verb work and introduce pronoun use guidelines for practice.
Do the following exercise/practice work:
Review the material on pronoun use here:
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