Dear Juniors,
We completed the following on Friday, August 27th:
1. Students submitted their Disclosure Documents (50 points).
2. Students submitted their "Where I stand/Introductions." (80 points)
3. A1 and A4 completed the writing and reading assessments in order to determine if their placement in junior English is accurate. I can have you take these when you return to class.
4. We reviewed some "Writing No-No's." Please cut and paste the following aspects into WORD and then place them in the "Vocab./Mechanics" section of your notebook.
NO-NO #1: The following words are called "Dead Words" and they should not be used in your formal writing work: got, get, very, a lot, cool, stuff, sort of, kind of, like, really, good, thing,and pretty.
NO-NO #2: Please avoid the use of SECOND PERSON when writing. Second person includes the following words: you, your, yourself, and yours.
NO=NO #3: Avoid passive voice in formal writing. Active voice adds clarity, where as passive voice makes writing flat and dull. Passive voice uses the "be verbs" (is, was, were, be, been, being). For example, the following sentence uses passive voice: The check was cashed at the bank. It is not difficult to use the active voice in re-writing the sentence. Molly cashed her check at the bank.
NO-NO#4: Avoid redundant phrases such as In my opinion...., I believe that....., I think that....., I am going to write about.....
NO-NO #5: Avoid absolute terms such as never, always, everyone, all, always, none.
NO-NO #6: Make sure that your structure in writing is parallel. For example the following sentence is NOT parallel. Sarah loves playing volleyball, readying poetry, and to study history. This sentence is easy to correct with by doing the following: Sarah loves playing volleyball, readking poetry, and studying history.
HOMEWORK:
You have no homework for Tuesday, August 31st.
Enjoy your weekend. I look foward to seeing you on Tuesday, August 31st.