This PowerPoint is for San Juan College English 111 students

1. Practice, Practice, Practice! How do I become a better writer?

5. As you work through the Think Pieces, and later the timed essays, remember that the prompt asks you to reflect on a personal experience, using a provided reading to supplement your ideas. This is called synthesis– using another’s writing to reinforce and illustrate your own .

6. As you complete this week’s Think Piece, work on incorporating the reading in a manner to support your response. As you gain strength, you can experiment with the way you choose to use the reading, such as this skillful incorporation (the following is a compilation of ideas): Author Maya Angelou expresses her deep admiration for her grandmother in her essay “New Directions.” She describes how her grandmother becomes a single mother and needs to find resources to care for her two young children. She is unable to find a job with the local industry and paves a new path to make ends meet. My grandmother too, lived a hard life, which leaves me to believe she is to be revered as well. Mrs. Willie Lee Reagler was born in Reagan, Texas in 1919. At the tender age of twelve she took a bus to the city of Dallas with nowhere to go. A Caucasian family took from the Greyhound bus station and let her stay in their servants quarters. While they worked my great- grandmother cared for their two boys…