In Class Writing Exercises

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In Class Writing Exercises

• Ted Goertzel

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Instructions

• Each slide will contain a sample sentence or
  paragraph which is a paraphrase of a famous
  quotation
• You should rewrite this paragraph following the
  principles of Effective Style and Language
• You can then compare your work to that of the
  original writer

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• In the entire long history of conflict and
  warfare between human beings, this is the first
  time that a tremendous number of people have owed
  their very survival to a quite small number of
  brave men.

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Never in the field of human conflict was so much
owed by so many to so few. Winston Churchill
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Instead of being self-centered and asking what
you can get for yourself, focus your energies on
making a contribution to the country as a whole.
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Ask not what your country can do for you ask
what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy
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It is not so important what we say as what
technology we use to say it with.
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The Medium is the Message Marshall McLuhan
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The biggest mistake a teacher can make is to try
to shove material down students throats when
they arent ready for it.
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(No Transcript)
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A woman can live a perfectly happy and successful
life without a man.
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A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.
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Cigars are better than sex.
Or try...
Good food is better than sex.
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A woman is only a woman, a good cigar is a smoke.
Kissing dont last, cooking do.
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We arent finished yet, we arent even close to
being finished, but at least we may be finished
getting started.
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Now this is not the end. It is not even the
beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the
end of the beginning. Winston Churchill
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Life is boring and dreary, its just the same
thing over and over and over forever.
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Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in
the petty pace from day to day, To the last
syllable of recorded time. William Shakespeare
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None of us can really be free to enjoy our own
lives while other people are suffering, such as
poor people, criminals or people in jail.
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While there is a lower class, I am in it, while
there is a criminal element I am of it while
there is a soul in prison I am not free. Eugene
Victor Debs
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We really do not need to be afraid of anything
except our own irrational tendency to be afraid
of things.
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(No Transcript)
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About 33 of our people do not have enough to eat
or adequate clothing or a decent place to live.
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I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad,
ill-nourished. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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All the nations of the world are going to disarm,
convert all their weapons to civilian uses, and
not fight any more wars.
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They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruning-hooks nation shall
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more. Isaiah II, 4
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He loved to work in local politics where he was
able to keep close track of everything that was
going on understand and manipulate all the power
relationships.
For this exercise, make an analogy to a
watchmaker who enjoys working with watches.
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He took a watchmakers delight in the close, the
intricate, the small, the tensely sprung he
liked to feel power ticking in his hands.
Edmund Morris Dutch A Memoir of Ronald Reagan
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His mind had a fundamentally childlike, bipolar
quality...a tendency to see all moral questions
in terms of opposites.
Make an analogy using a magnet and iron filings
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His mind was like a magnet among iron fillings,
it either concentrated acceptable facts in a
tight cluster, or repelled them and kept itself
clean.
Edmund Morris in Dutch
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Now lets try some sentences from student papers.
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Desperate Housewives has an affect on how body
images are portrayed because all the main
characters on the show are attractive.
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All the characters on Desperate Housewives are
slender and attractive, so women believe that is
how they should look.
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Through watching sporting events and sports
shows, my life has transformed into a motivated
lifestyle with aspirations of wealth and
happiness.
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Watching celebrity athletes on television made me
believe that wealth and fame were the royal road
to happiness.
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Social Conflict goes on all around us everyday,
so television is good because it helps people to
deal with situations that they are experiencing
by relating to what happens on the show
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Watching people work out their conflicts on
television programs helps people learn how to
solve their own problems.
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News Radio overtly reports the Presidency as
neutral bystander however, covertly, the news
station exhibits the Presidency and itself in a
hidden agenda to indoctrinate Americans.
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News radio appears to be neutral and objective
but it subtly indoctrinates listeners with a
biased view of itself and of the Presidency.
Note this would have to be followed by an
explanation of what the bias is.
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1. Individualism and Personal Choice 2. Absence
of Social Conflict 3. Traditional Gender Roles I
feel these three ideas are relevant to my topic
because each of them exist in all television
shows..
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Each of the television programs accepts
traditional gender roles and assumes that
peoples problems arise from personal choices
rather than from problems in society.
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All of these cases have shown different ways to
deal with situations at different stages in a
persons life, and have shown traditional roles,
diversity, and individualism throughout each case.
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Each of these cases posits that individuals can
resolve their problems with personal effort,
without having to challenge traditional gender
roles or ethnic stereotypes.