Nonfiction

1. Nonfiction

2. SOAP Strategy Notes • S: Subject • The subject of a text is the general topic of the text. • When you identify the subject it should be free from opinion. • Looking at the title and details in the text can help you determine the subject.

3. SOAP Strategy Notes • O: Occasion • Occasion is The term used to describe what has inspired the author to write a text. • You will need to read between the lines to determine the occasion of a text. • Ask yourself what has occurred or what is happening that has compelled the author to write the text when you try to determine the occasion.

4. SOAP Strategy Notes • A: Audience • Audience is a term that refers to the people who the text’s message is directed toward or who the author believes will care about what he or she has written. • To determine audience, think about who the text will affect or impact. • “Everyone” is never an acceptable response for the audience of the text. You want to be more specific than that. • Audience is another aspect of a text that you will need to determine of reading between the lines.

5. SOAP Strategy Notes • P: Purpose • Purpose refers to the reason that an author has written a text. Most often, purpose can fall into three general categories: To inform, to entertain, or to persuade. • When an author informs, he or she wants to teach the audience something. • How-to books, directions, explanation of processes or personal experiences, textbooks, documentaries, and some newspaper and magazine articles can be written to inform.

6. SOAP Strategy Notes • P: Purpose continued • When an author entertains, he or she wants to amuse, humor, or touch the audience in some way. • Humorous essays, personal narratives, some blogs, comics, short stories, novels, and some newspaper and magazine articles can be written to entertain.

7. SOAP Strategy Notes • P: Purpose continued • When an author persuades, he or she wants to convince the audience to think or act the same way that the author thinks or acts. • Editorials, formal essays, and opinion pieces found in newspapers and magazine articles or in books can be written to persuade. Some pieces of fiction can also be written with a persuasive message.

8. SOAP Strategy Notes • When you identify the purpose of a text, you will want to explain what the author wants to inform the audience, entertain the audience with, or persuade the audience to do.

9. SOAP Tone • Academic Definition of Tone: • The attitude a writer takes toward his or her subject, characters, and audience. • Word choice, imagery, and sentence structure help to show us tone. • “Don’t use that tone with me!” • Sound familiar???

10. Tone…for example… • Clip #1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRE7gINaS5o • Think about the tone, the creator’s attitude, as we view the clip. Be prepared to support the tone with details from the clip. • Clip #2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLDx-BPgxxA

11. Tone…for example… Ode to a Toad I was out one day for my usual jog (I go kinda easy, rarely full-hog) When I happened to see right there on the road The squishy remains of a little green toad. I thought to myself, where is his home? Down yonder green valley, how far did he roam? From out on the pond I heard sorrowful croaks, Could that be the wailing of some of his folks? I felt for the toad and his pitiful state, But the day was now fading, and such was his fate. In the grand scheme of things, now I confess, What’s one little froggie more or less? Tone: Humorous

12. LA Times Article: Help the Planet: Stop Wasting Food http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/07/opinion/la-oe-bloom-food-waste-20101107

13. Mood Review • The emotional affect that the text creates for the audience, also known as, atmosphere. • Often described using one or two adjectives. • A writer produces atmosphere, or mood, through images, word choice, and events that convey a particular feeling.

14. Mood Example: For a moment Greg thought he heard something that sounded like a scraping against the wall. He listened carefully, but it was gone. Outside the wind had picked up, sending the rain against the window with a force that shook the glass in its frame. A car passed, its tires hissing over the wet street and its red taillights glowing in the darkness. Greg thought he heard the noise again. His stomach tightened as he held himself still and listened intently. There weren’t any more scraping noises, but he was sure he had heard something in the darkness—something breathing! Mood?

15. Tone • I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. • Pages 678-679; Elements of Literature • August 28, 1963 • As we read search for indications of SOAP Tone.

16. Writer’s Workshop • You may write based on the following prompt, or you may write about anything else that interests you. You might want to write a letter, poem, story of fiction, or a piece of nonfiction; the choice is yours. YOU MUST WRITE FOR 10 MINUTES! • Prompt: Some people believe it's better to grow up in a small town. Other people think it's better to grow up in a big city. What is your position on this issue, and what reasons support your position?

17. Writer’s Workshop • All good stories have conflict, either internal or external. Using proper paragraph structure write a story about a time in your life when you experienced either and internal or external conflict. You will brainstorm for 5 minutes and write for 15 minutes.

18. Digital Detox by Nancy Trejos • Detox- (detoxification) removing toxins from the body. • Abstain – to keep oneself from doing something.

19. Independent Writing • View the video at the link and then respond in you writer’s notebook/journal. (10 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Hzgzim5m7oU&vq=medium Write about a time when words had great power. Love, laughter, heroism, friendship, and virtually every emotion we feel as human beings can be inspired by words. Unfortunately, fear, anger, and hatred, can also be invoked by words.