This document outlines the agenda for an English writing class. It includes a vocabulary game, a presentation on using appositives in writing, and an in-class writing assignment to draft a concept essay. Students will learn how to focus their concept, develop categories and types, and create an outline to structure their essay. The goal is for students to leave with an outline to guide their writing.

1. CLASS 10
EWRT 1A

2. AGENDA
 Presentation Vocabulary (14-18)
 Vocab Game (1-18)
 Presentation:
 Appositives: Explaining the concept 178-79
 Anecdotes
 Discussion:
 Reviewing The Focus
 Reviewing the Basic Features
 Reviewing the outline
 In-Class Writing: Drafting the Concept Essay

3. The Game
• With your group, discuss the words on the
next slide for five or so minutes and prepare
to compete
• Each team will send one member to the
board in rotation.
• I will read a definition
• The first team member to write the correct
definition on the board scores a point for
their team.
• The team with the highest score at the end
of the game earns not only the glory of
winning but also five extra participation
points.

6. Writing
Appositives: A sentence
strategy

7. A Sentence Strategy: Appositives
177-79
 An appositive is a noun or pronoun that, along
with modifiers, gives more information about
another noun or pronoun. Here is an example
from Ngo’s concept essay (the appositive is in
italics and the noun it refers to is underlined):
 Cannibalism, the act of human beings eating
human flesh(Sagan 2), has a long history and
continues to hold interest and create
controversy. (Ngo paragraph 5)

8. By placing the definition in an appositive phrase
right after the word it defines, this sentence locates
the definition exactly where readers need it. Writers
explaining concepts rely on appositives because
they serve many different purposes needed in
concept essays, as the following examples
demonstrate. (Again, the appositive is in italics and
the noun it refers to is underlined.)
Defining a New Term
 Some researchers believe hyperthymics may be at
increased risk of depression or hypomania, a mild
variant of mania (Friedman, Paragraph 5).
 Cannibalism can be broken down into two main
categories: exocannibalism, the eating of outsiders
of foreigners, and endocannibalism, the eating of
members of one’s own social group (Shipman 70).
(Ngo paragraph, 6)

9. Introducing a New Term
 Each person carries in his or her mind a
unique subliminal guide to the ideal
partner, a “love map.” (Toufexis,
paragraph 17)
Giving Credentials of Experts
• “Love is a natural high,” observes Anthony Walsh,
author of The Science of Love: Understanding Love
and Its Effects on Mind and Body. (Toufexis,
paragraph 10)

10. Identifying People and Things
When I was in high school I read the Robert Browning
Poem ‘My Last Duchess.’ In it, the narrator said he
killed is wife, the duchess, because . . .(Friedman,
Paragraph 2).
Giving Examples or Specifics
Some 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates proposed that a
mixture of four basic humors—blood, phlegm, yellow
bile, and black bile—determined human
temperament…(Friedman, paragraph 6)

11. Practice writing appositives:
Try to write five good
sentences
 Cannibalism, the act of human beings eating human
flesh(Sagan 2), has a long history and continues to hold
interest and create controversy. (Ngo paragraph 5)
 Each person carries in his or her mind a unique subliminal
guide to the ideal partner, a “love map.” (Toufexis,
paragraph 17)
 Some 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates proposed that a
mixture of four basic humors—blood, phlegm, yellow bile,
and black bile—determined human
temperament…(Friedman, paragraph 6)

12. Anecdotes

13. Extended Anecdote

14. Short Anecdotes
 [S]ome South American tribes kill their victims to
be served as part of funeral rituals, with human
sacrifices denoting that the deceased was held
in high honor.
 Unlike the Bangalas, however, the Indians
sacrifice only one victim instead of many in a
single ritual.

15. Brainstorming
Write down some ideas for what
kind of extended anecdote you
might include in your essay
introduction.
Write down two or three short
anecdotes you might use to
support your body paragraphs.

16. Do you have a
plan to focus
your essay?
Take a look at what you have so
far: do you have a Concept? A
Definition? A focus for your
concept? Categories? Types?

17. Focusing your Concept
Remember, choose your concept, and then limit it. For example, if you
are writing your essay about the concept of games, focus on one kind of
game, like playground games.
Then split your limited concept into two or three categories: Using the
games example, we might say games with a ball and games without a
ball.
Then identify two or three types that fall under each of the categories.
For example, you might use kids games with a ball, teenager’s games
with a ball, and adult games with a ball. You could use the same three
type for “games without a ball.”

18. Concept: Games
Limiter: Playground Games
Category 1:
Games with a ball
Types
 Kids’ games with a ball
 Teenagers’ games with a
ball
 Adults’ games with a ball.
Category 2:
Games without a ball
Types
 Kids’ games without a ball
 Teenagers’ games without
a ball
 Adults’ games without a
ball.

19. Then provide an example of each kind.
.
Games: Playground games:
With a ball (kids, teens, adults);
Without a ball (kids, teens, adults)
Find examples of each type:
 a kids game played with a
ball (kick ball; four square;
tether ball)
 a teen game played with a
ball (basketball, soccer,
baseball or fast pitch)
 and an adult game with a
ball (slo-pitch or lawn
bowling).
 a kids game played
without a ball (tag, hide
and go seek)
 a teen game played
without a ball (kick the
can, red rover)
 an adult game played
without a ball (cribbage,
chess, checkers at the
park)

20. Concept Essay: Basic Features
 A Focused Explanation
 Effective writers narrow the general concept, providing an explanation that is
focused on an aspect of the concept likely to be of interest to readers.
 A Readable plan
 divides the information into clearly distinguishable topics
 forecasts the topics
 presents the topics in a logical order
 gives readers cues or road signs to guide them, such as topic sentences,
transitions, and summaries
 Appropriate Explanatory Strategies

21. Tips for writing your essay
 Begin with a long anecdote to draw the reader into your essay.
 Write a thesis that includes all of the categories you will discuss.
 Use examples and definitions to make your point.
 Use appositives to describe nouns and eliminate wordiness.
 Take a look at what you have so far: do you have a Concept? A
Definition? A focus for your concept? Categories? Types?
 Do you have your thesis?

22. Work on your outline for the
in-class essay at our next
meeting
Introduction
Extended Anecdote
Thesis
 Category 1
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Category 2
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Repeat if Necessary
Conclusion

23. Homework
 Read: HG through chapter 24
 Post #12 Post a list of five appositive phrases you wrote to use in
your essay.
 Study: Vocab (1-18)
 Bring: A one page outline for your in-class essay, pen or pencil,
and paper.