Diagnostic Writing Diagnostic Writing ActivityActivity

Diagnostic Writing Diagnostic Writing ActivityActivity

The purpose of this assignment is

• To accustom you to following directions in preparing and submitting assignments to me;

• To show you how to summarize both oral and written texts;

• To give me an idea of your writing ability.

Step One• Go to The Moth website and

choose a story to listen to. – The link is http://www.themoth.com– I’ve included in this presentation

images from the site, but you’ll have to leave the presentation to access any of the live links on the site.

Home page

Click here

Then click hereto see a listof stories

Here are the stories—youmay want to listen to

more than one before youchoose the one to summarize

You should listen to the one you choose more than once and record the details to help retell the story,

while keeping in mind the following:

– What would someone who doesn’t know the story need to know in order to understand what happened? These are major details.

– What was interesting or entertaining but could left out of the story without confusing the audience? These are minor details.

– You should be able to write the story in a paragraph of about seven to ten sentences.

Once you have your paragraph written

• Email it to me as a file attachment, no later than midnight, Sunday, June 3rd;

• Additionally, post your paragraph on the Blackboard discussion board and read your classmates’ summaries as well.

THEN. . .

Read a short article from the following list and apply the same summarizing process to this reading that you used for the story, which means that you will. . .

– Read the article once and then reread to highlight major details.

– Pull the highlighted information from the article to create an outline of major and minor points and then use the outline to write a brief (7 to 10 sentence) summary of the article.

Articles you can choose from:

• The articles on this page come from Fastweb, an online resource to help students find financial help and adjust to college;

• The page below is an index page, listing short, informative essays aimed at entering college students--http://www.fastweb.com/fastweb/resources/index?id=ZMQ6OE7K7SNQ.909a4268eea8699e4124af93cd7c2b65 – (you can hit “back” to return to the PowerPoint show)

• Pick an article that interests you and write a summary.

For example. . .

Since I’m sending a child off to collegethis link on “save money” looksinteresting.

I’m interested in how tosave money on textbooks

• Click on this link to see an example of this piece of writing; there’s narration attached if you want to turn on your computer’s speakers.– You should be able to hit “back” on the

toolbar to return to the PowerPoint show.

Once you’ve written the summary

• Email it to me as a file attachment, no later than midnight, Sunday, June 3rd;

• Additionally, post your paragraph on the Blackboard discussion board and read your classmates’ summaries as well.

Summary for Week One’s Activities

• View the Orientation PowerPoint• Enroll in Blackboard

– Take a quiz over the policy;– Take the diagnostic grammar test;

• Write two summaries– One over the story you listened to on The Moth– One over the article you read on FastWeb

• Email me both summaries as RTF attachments;• Post both summaries on the discussion board on

Blackboard;• Read the summaries posted by your classmates.

If you get confused or want more clarification• Get in touch with me!

– Email: dsmith@odessa.edu– Telephone: 335-6548

Don’t wait till the last minute;

He (or she) who does will probably be

LOST!