Paragraph # 1: "Smart House".
Schenker, in her article "Smart House", houses will be networked making people´s life easier and more comfortable. The electronic devices will be connected to internet and have special chips to control housework, communications, shopping, bills or people´s social life. The disadvantages of having a networked home do not seem to be very significant. People will just have to pay some extra dollars for the chips, the connection to internet and the security to protect the system against pirating. The mainteinace will not have to be afforded because the services will repair themselves. The author concludes that the money that people will not mean much considering benefits of having a smart house.
Paragraph # 2: Monica has sent her summary to the evaluative committee of the magazine "Tesol Quarterly" to be considered for future publication. However, it was sent back because the word limit was 115.
(1) This study went through over 1,600 marginal and end comments written on 110 drafts of essays by 47 university ESL advanced students, considering the pragmatic goals and the linguistic features of each comment. (2) Draft of each individual essay were examined to observe the influence of the first draft commentary on the students´revisions and assess the changes that were made in response to the teacher´s feedback improve the essays. (3) A significant proportion of the comments led to substantive student revision, and there were particular types of commentary that were more helpful than others. (4) The final results are suggestive of several important implications for L2 writing instruction and for future studies on a vital neglected topic.
sábado, 29 de enero de 2011
What is a Topic?
The topic (or theme) is informally what is being talked about. In other words a topic is a noun phrase that expresses what a sentences is about, and to which the rest of the sentence is related as a comment.
Main Idea
Main Idea is an important information that tells more about the overall idea of a paragraph or section of a text. The main idea is basically the overall idea of a paragraph.The main idea of a paragraph is the point of the passage, minus all the details.
How to Find the Main Idea
Summarize the Passage
After you've read the passage, summarize it in one sentence that includes the gist of ever idea from the paragraph. A good way to do this is to pretend you have just ten words to tell someone what the passage was about. You'd have to think broadly, so you could included every detail in just a short statement.Look for Repetition of Ideas
If you read through a paragraph and you have no idea how to summarize it because there is so much information, start looking for repeated words, phrases, ideas or similar ideas.Summary
Finding the main idea can be challenging, but if you use the tools above and practice, you'll be well on your way to the score you want on the verbal or reading sections of those standardized tests.What does this picture express?
This picture express a black and sad sky. Also, this picture show in my personal opinion when a person has a empty life, a bad situation or sad situation so, he sees a life without solution. In addition this picture express a vision of problems, sadness and surrender situations.
lunes, 3 de enero de 2011
Paraghrasing
Exercise 1
Paraphrase each sentence. There may be more than one way to rewrite each one. Remember to change vocabulary, phrases and sentence structure wherever you can.
1 Despite their massive size, elephants are known for being agile.
Those animals are larges, elephants are known for being agile.
2 Because elephants consume up to 500 pounds of food a day, they are able to strip a forest bare in no time.
Elephants are capable of destroying the forest quickly by the large amount of food eaten per day.
3 Over the centuries, lions have been used in art to represent power and magnificence.
Times through the lions have been used to represent the strength and power.
4 lions are social animals with one dominant male in each pride.
Proud beasts lions are gregarious and dominant.
5 George Washington Carver was a dedicated teacher, in addition, he was known as a talented artist, musician, and researcher who made valuable contributions to his people and his country.
Because of his qualities George Washington Carver made many contributions to his country.
6 Archibald McLeish, known for his poetry, was appointed head of the Library of Congress by President Roosevelt in 1939.
Archibald McLeish in 1939 was appointed director of the library of congress by President Roosevelt because of the success he got for his poetry.
Exercise 2
Read each paragraph and state the main idea in your own words. If you find the main idea stated directly in the paragraph, be sure to use the paraphrasing techniques that you practice in exercise one.
1 There is plenty of water on the earth. In fact, there is enough water in this planet for everyone to have a huge lake. The trouble is that the water is not always found in the place where it is needed. In addition, much of the water is polluted or salty. Because of these problems, there are many people without sufficient water.
Main idea: Problems with the water in all the world.
2 New oil supplies need to be found to replace those that have been used up. There is a constant search for new oil fields. Oil hunters sink their wells wherever there are signs of oil. Each of these drillings costs thousands and thousands of dollars, and often there is not enough oil to make it profitable. Nevertheless, the search for new oil never ends.
Main idea: The necessity of replace old oil
3Quakers, a religious group known as the Society of Friends, have always worked for human causes. Before the Civil War in The United States, they were against slavery and led the movement to help slaves escape from the southern part of the United States and seek freedom in the northern part. Today, they fight hunger and disease around the globe and still aid people fleeing tyranny and war. Their beliefs are based on the principles of pacifism and simple living.
Main idea: The principal purpose of Quakers is to fight against slavery and hunger in the world.
Exercise 3
Fill in the outline. Next, write a 100 word summary
Thesis: Students should participate in the affairs of the university
I Main idea: Students deserve to be participant on the decision regarding to principla election at the university
II Main idea: students would be a great help to develop flexible schedules to meet the needs of those.
III Main idea: Students must fight for their rights like in the past.
Paraphrase each sentence. There may be more than one way to rewrite each one. Remember to change vocabulary, phrases and sentence structure wherever you can.
1 Despite their massive size, elephants are known for being agile.
Those animals are larges, elephants are known for being agile.
2 Because elephants consume up to 500 pounds of food a day, they are able to strip a forest bare in no time.
Elephants are capable of destroying the forest quickly by the large amount of food eaten per day.
3 Over the centuries, lions have been used in art to represent power and magnificence.
Times through the lions have been used to represent the strength and power.
4 lions are social animals with one dominant male in each pride.
Proud beasts lions are gregarious and dominant.
5 George Washington Carver was a dedicated teacher, in addition, he was known as a talented artist, musician, and researcher who made valuable contributions to his people and his country.
Because of his qualities George Washington Carver made many contributions to his country.
6 Archibald McLeish, known for his poetry, was appointed head of the Library of Congress by President Roosevelt in 1939.
Archibald McLeish in 1939 was appointed director of the library of congress by President Roosevelt because of the success he got for his poetry.
Exercise 2
Read each paragraph and state the main idea in your own words. If you find the main idea stated directly in the paragraph, be sure to use the paraphrasing techniques that you practice in exercise one.
1 There is plenty of water on the earth. In fact, there is enough water in this planet for everyone to have a huge lake. The trouble is that the water is not always found in the place where it is needed. In addition, much of the water is polluted or salty. Because of these problems, there are many people without sufficient water.
Main idea: Problems with the water in all the world.
2 New oil supplies need to be found to replace those that have been used up. There is a constant search for new oil fields. Oil hunters sink their wells wherever there are signs of oil. Each of these drillings costs thousands and thousands of dollars, and often there is not enough oil to make it profitable. Nevertheless, the search for new oil never ends.
Main idea: The necessity of replace old oil
3Quakers, a religious group known as the Society of Friends, have always worked for human causes. Before the Civil War in The United States, they were against slavery and led the movement to help slaves escape from the southern part of the United States and seek freedom in the northern part. Today, they fight hunger and disease around the globe and still aid people fleeing tyranny and war. Their beliefs are based on the principles of pacifism and simple living.
Main idea: The principal purpose of Quakers is to fight against slavery and hunger in the world.
Exercise 3
Fill in the outline. Next, write a 100 word summary
Thesis: Students should participate in the affairs of the university
I Main idea: Students deserve to be participant on the decision regarding to principla election at the university
II Main idea: students would be a great help to develop flexible schedules to meet the needs of those.
III Main idea: Students must fight for their rights like in the past.
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