Enhancing Writing Skills Through Parallelism and Vocabulary Enrichment

1. Parallelism (Bellwork 1/28) Make all parts of the following sentences parallel. • There's nothing I like better than finding a good trout stream, setting up camp, and to spend a couple of days fishing. • It was both a long ceremony and very tedious. • My income is smaller than my wife. • In English class, Tashonda learned to read poems critically and she appreciated good prose.

2. Greek & Latin Word Parts 16 clam, cur, grat, tox, vol

3. clam,claim(Latin) • declamation—act of making a formal speech • acclaim—to announce or welcome with excited approval • clamor—a loud uproar, as from a crowd of people • Other words: disclaim, exclaim, reclaim means shout

4. cur(s), cour(Latin) • precursor—something or someone that comes before something else • incur—to come into or acquire • courier—a messenger or delivery service • Other words: current, concurrent, concur, course, recur, occur, cursive means run

5. grat(Latin) • congratulate—to express pleasure to a person, as on a happy occasion • gratuity—money given in return for some service or favor • ingrate—an unthankful person • Other words: gratification, grateful, gratify, gratis means pleasing, pleased

6. tox(Greek) • intoxicate—to affect temporarily with diminished physical and mental control by means of alcohol, drugs, etc. • antitoxin—a substance, formed in the body, that counteracts a specific poison • detoxify—to rid of poison or its effects • Other words: toxicologist, toxic means poison

7. vol(Latin) • malevolent—ill-willed • benevolence—goodwill • volition—faculty or power of using one's will • Other words: volunteer, involuntary, voluntarily means will

8. Summary • clam—cry out • cur—run • grat—pleasing • tox—poison • vol—will

9. Bellwork 1/29/13Use sentence combining techniques to combine each of the following sets into sentences. • A saxophone player stands on the sidewalk.He stands there each afternoon.He is in New York.He is rather seedy.He plays Danny Boy. • He plays in a sad way.He plays in a sensitive way.He soon has half the neighborhood peeking out of windows.They toss nickels, dimes, and quarters at his feet. • Some of the coins roll under parked cars.Most of them are caught in his hand.His hand is outstretched. • The saxophone player is a street musician.He is named Joe Gabler.

10. Bellwork1/30/13:Strong Word Choice Create your own sentences that contain more vivid versions of the words below (you can replace these words with words alone or with figurative language, phrases, etc.). • Thing • Bad • Ugly • Big • Walked

11. Essay Pointers • Use literary present tense for movies, books, stories, etc. • Avoid “I think,” “I believe,” “in my opinion,” etc. • Re-address your thesis to sum up each paragraph. (Clincher) • Underline book titles and movies; put short stories in quotes (“The Devil and Tom Walker”). • Move the period to after the parentheses when citing pages. Don’t write page, pg., or p. • Don’t mention the assignment within the assignment.