Non-Fiction Conclusion Strategies

What do you notice about this mentor text conclusion?  What craft strategies did Burleigh use?

A love potion.  A high-energy snack.  The "food of the gods."  But maybe there's something simpler still. Experts say that chocolate contains nearly 300 different flavors.  Perhaps, to the person about to bite into a banana split with double hot fudge topping, this is really the secret of its charm.  Maybe, if so many flavors are hiding in it - chocolate has a little something for everyone!

~ Chocolate:  Riches from the Rainforest by Robert Burleigh

How about this conclusion from Catherine Thimmesh?  What strategies does she use?

Today, the mystery continues:  Where did we come from?  Luckily, we now have a three-and-a-half-foot-tall, long-armed, short-legged clue.  A clue that sported primitive jaws - like a chimpanzee's - but boasted a modern pelvis - very much like a human's.  A clue that shocked with the unimaginable:  a small (chimp-like) brain along with the (human-like) ability to walk upright.

Where did we come from?  The answer is still unknown...but now we have a magnificent clue.

Because somewhere deep in the past, near the beginning, lived Lucy.

~ Lucy Long Ago:  Uncovering the Mystery of Where We Came From by Catherine Thimmesh

Research Paper Lead Strategies

Good historians pay attention to craft, especially for their lead paragraphs.

What strategies did these writers use?

Once upon a time in America, when automobiles were black and looked like tanks and laundry was white and hung on clotheslines to dry, there were two wonderful baseball leagues that no longer exist.  They were called the negro leagues.

Teammates:  How Two Men Changed the Face of Baseball

by Peter Golenblock

Let's look at another mentor text.  This was one is quite different.  What strategies does Burleigh use?

Chocolate.  It is that dark, pleasantly bittersweet, creamy, luscious, mouthwatering, impossible-to-forget taste.  Mmmmm.

Chocolate.  Hot chocolate on a cold night, chocolate cake topped with chocolate ice cream at a birthday party, or chocolate chip cookies plucked from the cookie jar before bed.  Chocolate.  Chocolate milk, chocolate brownies, chocolate fudge, chocolate pudding, chocolate cheesecake, and chocolate candy bars...

It is not surprising that there are so many chocolate goodies - most people in our country say chocolate is their favorite flavor.  What is really surprising is the story of chocolate itself.

Chocolate:  Riches from the Rainforest by Robert Burleigh

And one more!  You should know by now that I do everything in threes...

What strategies does Thimmesh use?

"Nothing quite like it had ever been discovered," explains paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson.  "The camp was rocking with excitement.  The first night we never went to bed at all.  We talked and talked.  There was a tape recorder in the camp, and a tape of the Beatles song 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' went belting out into the night sky, and was played at full volume over and over again out of sheer exuberance."

Its resurrection began on a hot, sticky day in Hadar, Ethiopia, in November 1974.  The scientist who stumbled upon it, who discovered that first bit of elbow jutting out of the sediment, was, in fact, searching for it.  Had, in fact, traveled to the other side of the world hoping to find it.  Or somone like it...he wasn't that picky.  He was hunting hominids:  skeleton bones of human ancestors.

Lucy Long Ago:  Uncovering the Mystery of Where We Came From by Catherine Thimmesh

               

Non-Fiction Titles

Guns, Germs, and Steel:  The Fate of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond

Chocolate:  Riches from the Rainforest by Robert Burleigh

Band of Brothers:  E. Company, 506^th Regiment, 101^st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose

Undaunted Courage:  Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose

Mornings on Horseback:  The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David G. McCullough

Non-Fiction Title Craft Strategies

• power of 3!
• hint at topic OR be direct
• COLON with a subtitle
• alliteration
• theme - bold language
• scene - bold language

Transitions

Good writers of non-fiction use carefully chosen transition words and carefully crafted topic sentences.


Transition words and phrases:

• tie a sentence to a paragraph
• connect "the dots" for the reader
• provide organization and flow

Here are some sites with lists of transition words:

     Homework Center

     The Writing Center - University of Wisconsin

Topic sentences:

• tie a paragraph to the thesis
• summarize for the reader
• provide organization and flow

You should already have topic sentences from your outline, but you may need to revise and reconstruct some.

Parenthetical Citation in MLA Format

Wahoo it's drafting time!  We're in the home stretch my precious pop-tarts.

Parenthetical Citation QUICK Overview:

• EVERY fact, quote, stat, story, etc. that is not your original idea (basically everything BUT your thesis and your crafty leads which we'll work on next week) needs to be cited

• The author's last name goes in parentheses after the fact and before the ending punctuation.  Put the page number - if there is one - one space after the name and before the ending parentheses.  Do not write page, p., # or anything else like that.  If there is no author, use the title of the book (italics) or article/web site (quotes).
•  Blah blah blah (Sanchez 36).
• "Blah blah blah" (Sanchez 49).
• Blah blah blah (Sanchez and Kelly 45). <-- 2 authors
• Blah blah blah (Sanchez, Kelly and Smith 89). <-- 3 authors
• Blah blah blah (Sanchez et al. 342) <-- more than 3 authors
• Blah blah blah (The World According to Sanchez). <-- book without author (very unlikely)
• Blah blah blah ("Top 10 Reasons I Love Kristen Sanchez"). <-- article or web site without author (more likely)

• If you quote someone who was quoted by someone else, do it like this:
• "Blah blah blah" (qtd. in Sanchez 47).
• "Blah blah blah" (qtd. in "Top 10 Reasons I Love Kristen Sanchez").

• If you SAY the author's name in your set up for the quote or for the fact, you don't need to put his or her name in parentheses.  You just need to put the page number.  If there is no page number, you don't put anything.
• According to world famous historian Kristen Sanchez, "Blah blah blah" (47).
• In her book The World According to Sanchez, Kristen Sanchez argues that blah blah blah (89).

• When you have multiple facts, quotes, stats, etc. in a row from the same source, you do not repeat the citation in full.  If it's a book with page numbers, you just put the new page number like this:
• Blah blah blah (Sanchez 36).
• Blah blah blah (48).
• If it's a book with page numbers and it's from the SAME page, you write Ibid like this:
• Blah blah blah (Sanchez 36).
• Blah blah blah (ibid).
• If it's an article or web site without page numbers, you just write ibid like this:
• Blah blah blah ("The World According to Sanchez").
• Blah blah blah (ibid).

Purdue OWL MLA Formatting and Style Guide

Searcheeze

You are going to use Searcheeze to store, organize, and share resources for your research paper.  Today we want you to set up your Searcheeze account and learn how to use it.

First we'll watch this introductory video about Searcheeze.

Now to set up your account:

1.  Go to www.searcheeze.com

2.  Create an account with a username and password that you will remember

3.  Set up your topic

4.  Make your topic PUBLISHED

5.  Invite Kristen and Mr. Kelly to be collaborators so that we can help you!

The next thing you need to do is put the Searcheeze bookmarklet on your browser bar.  Follow the directions on Searcheeze.  You will want to repeat this on your home computer too!

Now you're ready to start searching for resources and adding them to your Searcheeze topic.  There are some really useful general sites for historical research that you should visit early on.  Be sure to check them out in the glog below.  

Research Paper - Statement of Purpose

EMAIL YOUR STATEMENT OF PURPOSE TO BOTH TEACHERS BY 7 PM ON WEDNESDAY 3/21!

A statement of purpose is a beefy paragraph or two which states, in some detail, what you want to learn about in your research project and how you plan to learn it.   As you can see in the example below, a statement of purpose often includes many questions.

Statement of Purpose Example

I will be researching the Crusades for my research paper.  I’ve often heard them mentioned when people talk about fighting in the Middle East now.  I’ve always been fascinated with the Middle East; this is an area of the world that I’d love to see someday.  I don’t know too much about the Crusades other than that it involved Europeans and Arabs and that they were fighting over the Holy Land.  This happened a long time ago, I think in the 1200-1300s.  I want to know why Christians and Muslims fought so hard with each other during the Middle Ages.  I want to know what exactly they were fighting about, how they fought, where they fought and what the results were.  What kinds of weapons did they use?  How did the Crusades affect life at home for both Europeans and Arabs?  Did any women fight?  What about children?  I also want to how, if at all, the Crusades have influenced Muslim-Christian relations today.  For example, did 9-11 have anything to do with the Crusades?  Is the Israel-Palestine conflict shaped by this history too?  Are we still fighting over stuff from the 1100s?  That is kind of what I have inferred from things people have said, but I want to decide for myself if this is true.

I will rely on primary and secondary sources for my research.  Because the Catholic Church was involved, I’m pretty sure I can find some documents from priests and popes that will relate to this topic.  I also think there are pictures of the weapons and armor that I can find, as well as maps.  My father used to teach a Sunday School class about the Crusades so I will also ask him for help.   He might know some good books that I can read.  I will also look on YouTube.  Even though it’s not always the most reliable, it helps me to visualize things and sometimes I can find documentary excerpts there.  Finally, I found a young adult book called Babylonne that takes place in the Middle Ages and involves events from the Crusades.  This always helps me to understand the history that I am trying to learn.  I am going to order the book from Barnesandnoble.com.