The book report essay: Inform and persuade

     Remember that there are three main reasons that we write: to persuade, inform and entertain (PIE). In a book report you want to inform and persuade the reader.  Inform the reader of what the book is about by summarizing it. Then share your opinions about the book, what you liked and didn't like, to persuade the reader whether to read the book, or not.

Listening, reading and speaking on TED.com

     Another way to combine listening, reading and speaking is to go to TED.com.  On TED.com you will find many, many interesting presentations on a variety of topics.  Find a presentation that you are interested in and click on it. You will see and hear the presenter speaking and you can also see a written transcript of what the person is saying, word for word. Click on Interactive Transcript below the screen you are watching to see the transcript. You can listen to the presenter and read the transcript at the same time. Try listening to the presentation once, with or without looking at the transcript.  Then listen again, using the transcript, speaking along with the presenter and trying to sound just like him or her. Some people have found that this is an excellent way to improve their pronunciation. And it's free, so you have nothing to lose! Click on TED.com right now to check it out.

Be a bookworm

     Educators say that reading is FUNdamental, meaning that it  is a basic learning skill and it is also fun. We call people who always have their noses in a book "bookworms."  You've seen the person I'm talking about. They are constantly reading.  I knew a guy in the Navy who was always reading paperback books. He liked science fiction.  He would even read while we were eating instead of talking to the people at the table. We would say something to him, but he wouldn't even hear because he was lost in the story.  I guess he took it a little too far; even too much of a good thing can be bad. The best advice I could give to students at any level is read, read, read.  But more than anything, read for pleasure and let your imagination run free. Get lost in a book.

Reading and speaking

     Yesterday I wrote about the many benefits of reading.  Today, I'm going to describe another benefit.  Reading can help your speaking and pronunciation in English.  How?  Most popular books published these days have an audio book version that you can listen to.  You can get a copy of  the book (print or ebook) and audio book at a bookstore or library.  Listen to the audio book while you follow along in the print or ebook. Try reading along with the voice on the audio book, and you might be surprised how this will help your pronunciation, especially in the important areas of intonation, stress, rhythm and timing. This is called "reading out loud" instead of silently, which is the way we usually read. Reading along out loud while you listen to the voice is also called "shadow reading."   It will make your English sound more American. If you like the book and want to take this a step further, check to see if there is a movie version of the book. Many popular books are made into movies. Rent the DVD and watch it. You will understand the movie much better after reading the book, and you will probably find that the book is better than the movie! Why's that? Because it is not possible to put on the screen in a one and a half or two hour movie what you can imagine in your mind as you read a book. Give it a try!

Reasons to read

     If you are learning English as a second language and want to become fluent as quickly as possible, read! Read a lot, every day.  Read newspapers, information on the Internet, magazines, advertisements, signs, books, anything that is interesting to you. Whatever you are interested in, read about it!! How will this help you? Most importantly, it will help you learn. Many people say reading is the best way to learn. But it will also help your English in many ways. When you read you will see what writing by native speakers looks like and how they organize and express their thoughts in writing.  You will notice how the grammar and vocabulary you are studying are used. You will see words spelled correctly. You will see how punctuation is used. You will see words that you already know used in sentences and understand these words even better, including how and when they are used. You will learn new words without even using your dictionary. You will usually be able to figure out, or guess, the meanings of new words just from the context, the other words around them.  As a result of all of this, your writing will improve greatly, and your overall fluency in English will, too. Studies have shown that, in general,  the most fluent ESL speakers read a lot, and often. Reading is something that you can do anywhere, anytime. Reading is fun. Reading can make your imagination run wild. Does this sound like Mister Rogers? Carry a magazine or paperback book with you and read whenever you are waiting somewhere or have a free moment. You might even get hooked on reading, and that's a good addiction to have.

Summary/Response essay

     Your professor in a college class might ask you to read Chapter 2 in the textbook and write a summary/response essay about the chapter.  In the essay, you will write a summary of the main points of the chapter and then write your response to the chapter.  The summary part is objective. You write the main points from the chapter as the author presents them. The response part is subjective. This is where you write your opinions and ideas about the chapter. Do you agree with the author?  Is there information missing? Is there too much information on a particular topic? Is the chapter easy or hard to understand?  

     Your Book Report Essay is a type of summary/response essay. In the first part of your essay you will summarize what the book you read is about. You need to give an objective summary of the main points of the book in about one typed page.   In the second part of the essay you will write your subjective response about the book; what you liked about the book, what you didn't like about the book, would you recommend the book to someone else, and so on. Your essay could also be called a Book Review. If I am looking for a new book to read or a movie to watch, it is helpful to read a short book or movie review first to decide if I want to read/see it.  

Writing a summary: KISS

     Keep it short and simple. KISS. That's what you do when you write a summary of a longer piece of writing, whether it is a summary of an essay, article, chapter, report, or  book. A summary might just be one paragraph long and include only the main ideas of the longer writing.  The summary shouldn't include details, specifics, or examples. Summary writing is important in college. A professor might ask you to read a textbook chapter or a long lab report and write a paragraph summary.  In the business world, leaders often don't have time to read long reports, so they ask one of their employees to read the report and write an executive summary of it. An executive summary is often not longer than one page. When you write a book report essay, you will need to be able to summarize what the book you read is about in less than a page. That might seem difficult, but it isn't so hard if you just focus on the main ideas, plot and characters in the book. Just remember,  KISS.

Benefits of journal writing

     If you develop the habit of writing in a journal a few minutes each day, you will find it brings you many benefits. For ESL students, you will improve your writing. Writing is a skill and, like any other skill, you improve the skill by doing it. Journal writing also has other benefits besides improving your written English. When you have a problem or are worried about something, if you put your thoughts down in words, you will find that it will be easier to come up with a solution, or stop worrying about that thing that is bothering you. Some psychologists have their patients keep a journal and then discuss what they wrote down in their journal when they meet. Sometimes it just helps to get bad thoughts or feelings out by talking to someone about them or writing about them. Journals can even help you remember when you did certain things in the past. If you forget when you went to Chicago, you can look back in your journal and find what day you wrote about that trip. One final tip. If you write in your journal just before you go to sleep, your subconscious mind will think about what you wrote while you sleep. The subconscious mind never sleeps. You might find that you wake up in the morning with some new ideas about what you wrote about. You can thank your subconscious mind for that!

All's Well That Ends Well

     This is the name of one of Shakespeare's plays.  All's Well That Ends Well. In the play, there are some good things and more bad things that happen, but the play has a happy ending. Like many of the things that Shakespeare wrote, this has become a common expression in modern English,  meaning that the most important thing is the ending or the outcome. The end of an essay is the conclusion paragraph.  A conclusion paragraph shouldn't be long, but it should be interesting. After summarizing the main points that you wrote about in your essay, finish the conclusion by leaving the reader with something to think about, or pointing towards the future. Another clever way to end an essay is to write something that relates to the hook at the beginning of the essay. This is like completing a circle from the end back to the beginning, a way of tying up the essay into a nice package.

      If you look at my post yesterday about the introduction paragraph, you might say, "All's well that begins well," And today's post is about  "All's well that ends well."   This is also supported by psychologists' studies of what people pay the most attention to and remember. They find that people usually remember the first and last things that they hear or read, and don't remember the middle part (body) as well.

First impressions: The hook

     First impressions are important.  Psychologists say that your first impression of a person you meet is very difficult to change later. In fact, they say that it only takes a minute or less for you to decide if you like the new person, and what he/she is like. After that, it is hard to change your mind about that person. Think about a job interview. If a person comes to the interview dirty and not appropriately dressed, has a sweaty handshake, and looks nervous,  this makes a bad first impression,  and the interviewee will probably not have a good interview and get hired, even if his/her answers are very good. The interviewer didn't get a good first impression, which killed the interview.

     It's the same with writing, whether it is a paragraph, essay, article, or book.  If  your writing has a strong and interesting beginning, the reader will probably be eager to continue reading.  That is why the introduction paragraph of an essay is so important. The very first sentence should grab the reader's attention. We call this the "hook."  If you are writing a process essay about how to wash a car, don't begin with:  "This is an essay about how to wash a car." This might put the reader to sleep! Instead, start with a question or some interesting comment that will make the reader curious to read on.  For example:  "There is nothing more enjoyable than washing your car on a hot summer day."  Or, "Have you ever noticed how much cleaner your car is when you wash it by hand instead of taking it to the drive-through car wash?"  Once you have the reader's attention with a strong hook sentence, go on to write more interesting things about washing a car in the first paragraph. If you write a strong introduction paragraph, you will make a good "first impression" on your reader that you know what you are writing about. Then you can go on to explain the process of how to wash a car, from beginning to end, in the second paragraph and the rest of the body paragraphs. First impressions are important, and you don't get a second chance to make a first impression!

Organizing a process essay

     When you write a process essay, you will describe the steps of the process in the body paragraphs of the essay, after the introduction paragraph and before the conclusion paragraph. Depending on the process that you are describing, you might choose to organize the steps of the process either chronologically or by priority/importance. Organize the steps of the process chronologically if following the steps in exact order is important to complete the process successfully. This is usually the case in describing how to make something. A recipe is an example of this; if you don't follow the steps in order, and complete each step exactly, the dish probably won't turn out well.  On the other hand,  there are some "how to" processes that don't have a series of steps that have to be followed in exact order. It would be better to describe the steps of these processes by priority; giving the most important steps first, followed by the less important steps.  For example, if you write an essay about how to be successful,  there aren't specific steps that you have to follow in order to be successful. People define success in different ways, have different paths to success, and have different ideas about how to get there. So you could start by thinking about what, for you, are the most important steps to success, and start with those first. If you read my post yesterday, you know that I would start with "showing up and following directions."  Whether you describe the steps of a process in order or by priority, be sure to add details and examples with the steps to spice up your writing and make it more interesting to read.

The importance of showing up and following directions

     There is a saying that the key to success is showing up and following directions. This sounds so simple, but you would be surprised how many people aren't successful because they don't do these two simple things. Of course, to be successful it also helps to be smart, have good ideas, get along with people, work hard, and have a little luck.   But none of these things will make you successful unless you show up and follow directions.  Maybe you have observed this in your own experience.  The worker who doesn't show up for work and doesn't call in. The worker who always messes up orders because he/she doesn't follow the directions about how to prepare orders. This is also true in school. Usually, the students who do the best in class are the ones who attend class every day and follow the instructions for assignments. So we see the importance of process, understanding the process, and following the process all around us.  And being there.  

An outline is a map

     Think of an outline as a map to follow when you write your essay. If you are writing a five-paragraph essay, you can just start with a simple five-point outline on a piece of paper, with one point for each paragraph. In your outline, don't write sentences, just write words. Number 1 will be your introduction  paragraph. Think of an interesting hook,  some background information, and a thesis statement next to number one. For numbers 3-5, write down some ideas that you will write about in each of your body paragraphs. For number five, write down some ides about how you will summarize your essay and end it in an interesting way.

      Now you can follow your outline like a map to write your essay, adding some examples and details to support your main points. Some people compare an outline to a skeleton. You start with the skeleton and add muscles, organs, and flesh to the skeleton to make it into a complete body.

Everything's a process

     As I have been thinking more about writing about processes, it occurs to me that almost everything we do or make, or anything that happens in the world, is a process. Think about it. Brushing your teeth. Going to work. Fixing a flat tire. Getting a college degree. Getting married. Going on a vacation. A snow storm. The waves of water on the beach. These are all processes, some more complicated than others. They all involve steps, or stages, in a certain order, from beginning to end. Can you think of anything that isn't a process?

A day at the beach

     I lived in San Diego for four years. At first I loved it because the weather was always  so nice, not hot and not cold. There really weren't distinct seasons. After a couple of years I started to miss the four seasons that I had grown up with in northern New Mexico. I didn't want to go to the beach on Christmas Day. I wanted to play in the snow. Having no change of seasons got boring for me after a while.  I guess it's possible to have too much of a good thing. What do you think about the weather? Do you ever miss the weather back home where you grew up?

The weather and seasons as a process

     You could say that the weather is a process. Seasons are pretty predictable and follow each other in a familiar way. I like to live in a place with four seasons because of the variety. You look forward to the first snow of winter, but about the time you are tired of cold and snow in March, the spring arrives with green and many colorful plants and flowers. Then the summer follows with warm days and fun. August and the end of the summer can be so hot and humid that the cool fall air feels good and the trees change colors. Then it's winter again and time for holidays and playing in the snow. Each season comes with its own kind of weather; snow in the winter, rain and tornadoes in the spring, warm rain, thunder showers and hot sun in the summer, and cool nights and wind in the fall.

     Then there's Indiana, where the weather and seasons don't seem so predictable. In the spring, it can be warm and sunny one day, and cold and snowy the next. As we say in Indiana, if you  don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes! But the weather all over the world seems to be getting less predictable. It must be global climate change.

A five-paragraph process essay

     You might be asking yourself how you are going to write a five-paragraph essay about a process that includes, say, 12 steps. Remember that you have the three  body paragraphs to write about the steps of the process. But first, in the introduction paragraph you are going to begin by grabbing the reader's attention with a good hook in the first sentence, give some general background information about the process, and end with a thesis statement. In the conclusion paragraph,  you will summarize the process and end your essay in some interesting way.

     So how do you write about 12 steps in the three body paragraphs? Before you begin writing,  arrange the 12 steps in chronological order, from beginning to end. Then look at the steps and see how you could divide them into three groups that would make sense. Those three groups will be your three body paragraphs. For example, let's say that you have decided that  there are 12 steps to wash a car. The first four steps might be about preparing the things that you need to wash the car, the second four steps about getting the car wet with the hose and washing the car, and the final four steps about rinsing off the car and drying it. Those are your three body paragraphs, with four steps in each paragraph.

Process essays

     Writing about a process is easy. Just think about something  you know how to do and write down the steps in order, using transition  words like first, second, then, and finally to help the reader follow the steps. There are two kinds of processes, directional and informational.

     A directional process essay gives directions on how to do or make something. For example, how to ride a bicycle or how to make a cake. Think of giving someone directions on how to do or make something, step by step, from beginning to end. Usually, the first step of a directional process essay is to write about the ingredients, tools, or materials you will need. An informational process is about something that occurs in the natural world and follows certain steps, such as how a tornado forms , or how a drug works in the body.

     Writing about processes is a common form of academic, business, and scientific writing.  It will be helpful for you to know how to write about processes in your college studies and career.

Sports in the springtime

     I love to watch sports on TV and live.   I was just thinking today that sports used to all have their separate seasons during the year, but it seems like the seasons have gotten longer now and you can see different sports all year long. Spring is an especially good time for sports.  Right now the baseball season is starting, the basketball season is ending, we're in the middle of the hokey season, the winter Olympics just ended, and you can even follow the off-season activities, draft, and trades in football. You can watch college and professional teams. You can watch soccer pretty much all year round.  I'm a big fan of the Indianapolis teams, the Pacers and the Colts. There is even a minor-league professional baseball team in Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Indians. Their season just started last week. My wife and I like to go to a few games each year. They play at Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis. It's a beautiful stadium and the tickets are inexpensive. Even if you don't understand baseball, you would enjoy going out to watch a game. Someone said that you can't really understand Americans unless you understand baseball. You can even get a discount on Indians tickets as an Ivy Tech student. If you're a sports fan like me, you can enjoy watching lots of sports right now, and maybe even play some sports yourself.

What are your favorite sports? Do you like to play, watch, or both?

Rabbit Hunting Essay

Today I am writing a six-paragraph narrative essay that is based on the paragraph that I wrote in my post yesterday. It is about hunting rabbits with my Dad and brother. Notice that the essay has a lot more detail than the paragraph.

                                            Family Rabbit Hunting

     Have you ever eaten rabbit meat?  Have you ever hunted the rabbit that you ate?  I have done both. When I was a kid we used to live on a farm in southern Colorado, near Durango. We had quite a few acres of farm land behind the house and then more land with cedar trees and a little lake. (1) I  loved to hunt rabbits with my Dad and brother, Harold, when I was a kid,  because we hunted together as a team and each of us had a special role on the team.

     (2) So here is how it always began, with my Dad, my brother and I going hunting in the woods behind our house. We would start out walking next to each other with my Dad in the middle with his rifle. My Dad had a small .22 caliber rifle, which was good for shooting rabbits, squirrels and other small animals. We enjoyed being out there together and talked, but only in whispers so we wouldn't scare the rabbits until we got close to them.

     (3) Harold had the first job, which was to spot a rabbit and point at it so my Dad could see where it was. We called Harold "Eagle Eye" because he was so good at this. Usually, not long after we started walking, a cottontail rabbit would jump out of a bush in front of us,  about 50 yards way,  and start running like crazy, jumping high in the air with each bound.

     (4) Then, my Dad would shoot the rabbit with his rifle. My Dad was a good shot and would usually hit the rabbit on the first shot, sometimes in midair. It's not easy to hit a running rabbit over 50 yards away. The rabbit would fall to the ground, twitch and wiggle around for a little and then lie still. My Dad had finished his part of the job, and he would look over at me. That was my signal to take action.

     (5) Finally, it was my turn to run out and grab the dead rabbit and then we would all head home, where my Mom would clean and roast the rabbit for dinner. My Mom would usually complain when she saw us coming with the bloody rabbit and tell us not to come in the house with it.  As she complained she would smile a little; she knew we were just being boys and having fun. She also knew that we liked to eat roasted rabbit, and so did she. So she would grab the rabbit, cut off its head, skin it, and clean out the insides in less than a minute. Then she washed it off good with the hose and took it into the house and roasted it in the oven, and we'd have roasted rabbit for dinner. It was one of our favorite dinners.

     (6) In conclusion, family rabbit hunting was fun and a good way for me to learn the importance of teamwork at a young age. I learned that with a lot of things in life a team can get a job done easier than a single person. We had a spotter, a shooter, and a retriever, and somehow it seemed like none of us could have done it alone. I got my own rifle when I was a little older and would go rabbit hunting by myself, but it was never as fun as going with my Dad and brother, bringing the rabbit home for dinner.

Family rabbit hunting

I am going to write a short story today about a nice memory of my childhood hunting rabbits with my father and brother and what I learned from the experience.  Today I will write the story as a six-sentence paragraph and in my post tomorrow I will expand the paragraph into a six-paragraph narrative essay.


                            Family Rabbit Hunting

     (1) I loved to hunt rabbits with my Dad and brother, Harold, when I was a kid,  because we hunted together as a team and each of us had a special role on the team.  (2) So here is how it always began, with my Dad, my brother and I going hunting in the woods behind our house on the farm where we lived.  (3) Harold had the first job, which was to spot a rabbit and point to it.   (4) Then, my Dad would shoot the rabbit with his rifle.  (5) Finally, it was my turn to run out and grab the dead rabbit and then we would go home,  where my Mom would clean and roast the rabbit for dinner. (6) In conclusion, family rabbit hunting was fun and a good way for me to learn the importance of teamwork at a young age.

Free writing

Free writing is a technique in which you just write down whatever is going through your mind. Sometimes this is called stream-of-consciousness writing. Think of your thoughts as a river running through your head.  As we have discussed in class, the first step in writing is always thinking and brainstorming to organize your thoughts on a topic.  In free writing, you are still thinking first and letting your thoughts guide your writing. When you free write, your writing probably won't be very organized and coherent, but your writing will document to some extent the random thoughts that are flowing constantly through your mind. You might discover something about yourself that you didn't know because we are not always aware of the thoughts that are going on in our heads.  One thing is for sure, we all have thousands of thoughts every day, so there are always plenty of thoughts to write down. You may try this technique in your daily journal for this class, especially if you have writer's block.  Give it a try and see what you think!

What is writer's block?

Have you ever sat down to write and you can't think of anything to write about?  Maybe you had a case of writer's block.  This happens to many people, including famous authors. There are at least two solutions. First, go do something else and come back to writing later. Don't pressure yourself looking at the blank computer monitor wondering what you should write. Second, just write about anything that is going through your mind---and there are always thoughts flowing through your mind, even when you are asleep--and before you know it, you might "break the ice" and start writing up a storm.  It's like jumping into a cold swimming pool. You hate to do it, but after you are in the water, it feels fine. I chose the second approach today. I couldn't think of what to write, so I decided to write about writer's block. And now I am finished with my post for the day and I have overcome writer's block, for now.   What do you do when you have writer's block?

Here is a link to some information on Purdue University's OWL (Online Writing Lab) with some ideas about writer's block. Click on the following link to learn more:  Purdue OWL Writer's Block

The power of a story

Everyone likes a good story. Narrative is a big word for story. Stories, or narratives, can be entertaining and educational. They can make you laugh or cry, or both.  They can teach you about history and culture. Storytelling began as a way for the older generation to pass along their ideas and beliefs about the world to the younger generation.  Stories can be real or make-believe, or a combination of both. Sometimes true stories can be the most powerful kind.

We have all had a lot of interesting experiences in our lives that we can tell or write about.  If you have travelled or lived in a foreign country, I'm sure you will have many interesting, and sometimes funny, stories to tell.  You can write a five-paragraph about an interesting experience from your life. It will include an introduction paragraph that that sets the stage for the story, three body paragraphs that tell the story, and a conclusion paragraph.  Your story should include a setting, the place where it happened, a plot, what happens in the story,  characters, the people in the story, and a climax, probably at the end of your story, which is the high point of the story, followed by the conclusion. The conclusion might include what you, or others, can learn from your story. We call this kind of ending "the moral of the story."

Storytelling is more of an art than a science. The success of your story is based on how the people who hear or read it react to it. If it makes them laugh and cry, or scratch their heads, it's probably a good story. It's about feelings and emotions. Remember that there are three main reasons that people write. It's as easy as P.I.E.  People write to Persuade, Inform, or Entertain. A good story can entertain and inform, and maybe even persuade. That is the power of storytelling.

So what should I write about?

Many students ask that question.  I can't answer the question for you. You need to look within yourself to find the answer.  Think about what you know about, are interested in, and would like to learn more about. Then you will discover the answer to your question:  What should I write about?  Don't write about something that you are not interested in and is boring to you. In your daily journals, write about things you are interested in and want to share with me, your reader. I'm interested in knowing something about your daily routine, but not about what you do every day. I'm more  more interested in knowing what you are thinking about, your plans, your memories, your fears, your joys.  Think about "growing the garden of your mind" as Mister Rogers used to say.  Here is another Remix video about the wonderful Mister Rogers. Mister Rogers Remix, Side B

Thinking about writing, writing about thinking

Everything begins with a thought.  This is what my mother used to tell me. Anything we do in life first starts in our heads as a thought, idea, or concept.  Some of these thoughts become reality when we act on them and do or make something. A house, a vacation, an academic degree, a new car:  all of these things began in the mind as thoughts.  It is the same with writing. No matter what kind of writing it is--a letter, an email message, an essay, a blog post, an article, a tweet, a book--they all began in the mind.  When you have a writing assignment in school, first spend some time thinking about what you are going to write before you start writing. If you do the thinking step first, the writing will be better. Fred Rogers used to have a children's show on television called Mister Rogers. Maybe you used to watch  it when you were a child.  He talked about thinking, creating, imagining, and being curious. He called it "the garden of your mind."  I am attaching a video remix of Mr. Rogers for you at the following link:  Mister Rogers Remix