Instructions on the Readings

The following readings deal with something that is common to all of us.  The day may come when I will include different sets of readings, but until that day comes, you are stuck with the subject of language and how it is used.

Each of these articles were taken from the book Language Awareness, edited by Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark, and published by St. Martin's Press in New York in 1994.  Permission for copyright use pending.  This information will be important when you do your annotated bibliography.

Read through each of the articles and take notes on the subject matter as you see fit.   What you are looking for in each article is some aspect of language upon which you can base your 3-4 page essay.  What you are writing, then, is a synthesis, whereby you take material from all four articles, make a point concerning that material and then back that point up with around half a dozen associated ideas that explain or prove your point.

To insert quotes into the body of your essay, remember to use MLA format.  For long quotes, quotes over two lines, that is, hit enter from the line you started on and then double tab and type the quote.  You do not need to use quotation marks.   Keep the entire quote flush with the double tab and type all the way to the right margin.  Make certain you end the quote with a period and then follow up with parentheses to include the last name of the author and the page number.  Like:

          XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. ( author # )
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

For short quotes, just include the quote in the text, but do not end a short quote with a period.  Instead, follow up the quote with the parentheses and then put your period after the parentheses.  You do use quotation marks on this one.  Like:

            XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" (author #).  XXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

As part of this tutorial involves determining how well you can comprehend written material, please do not email me for clarification of the points addressed in these articles.  I will, however, answer questions concerning your content development, should you have any   sebastian@mahfood.com and I will post the responses I make on my message board within 24 hours of receiving your question.   (Look there first, before submitting the question.)

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