Group Report #2

We have decided to a "how to" dance to Michael Jackson's song "Billie Jean." Another group member Darryl is going to teach everyone how to do the dance moves. We are also going to try to get side to side video of Darryl doing the dance and Michael Jackson's original music video.

Darryl is going to teach the video, but at the end everyone in the group is going to come on and say something together remembering Michael Jackson. Our video is coming along and I believe it's going to be fun to film and watch, when we are finished!

Group Project

My group consists of Tessa, Darryl, and Natalie. We had to pick from creating a website or a video. We had to have a "how to" or persuading people to believe something. We are going to do a 60 second video on the music and dancing of Michael Jackson.

Darryl is a telecommunications major and knows how to edit videos and can get us a video camera to use. That is great because I am not the best with editing videos, so there is always time to learn something new!

Let's see what we get done this week and another update will be coming soon.

Guiding Your Reader

Chapter 29

Have you ever read something that had no point at all, someone was just rambling on? That is why when writing titles, thesis statements, topic sentences, and transitions are used to create a point to writings.

Titles: If the title is interesting or controversial people will pick it up to read.

Thesis Statements: Helps identify what the writing is about, when there is a question to be answered many people will read just to find out the answer.

Topic Sentences: These are very similar to thesis statements except these announce your topic and position for each paragraph. If the topic sentences are interesting and have something to get the reader to keep reading, then you will have no problem gaining interest.

Transitions: These are key to form flow within a paper. If there are no transitions and the paragraphs move from one thing to another, then most people will put the writing down because it is choppy. 

Comparing and Contrasting

Everyone compares things, like movies, food, athletic teams, and many other everyday objects. People compare and contrast things to persuade people into liking what they like or to figure out what the best deal for your money is. 

There are two main ways to compare and contrast things, one is to just list information about each thing and then compare. That is the block method. I like to use this method because you have all the information in front of you instead of having certain points. The other way to compare and contrast things are to just pick certain things and compare those instead of comparing the item in general. This is called the point-by-point method and it works when you are trying to sell something to someone else. 

What do you use to compare and contrast?