English Composition
Milestone 1
Challenge 1 – Intro
Academic Writing
Writing driven by research-based argument that expands human knowledge.
Expository Writing
Writing designed to explain, define, or describe.
Narrative Writing
Writing that is driven by story.
Persuasive Writing
Writing designed to sway its audience to accept a specific proposition or take an action.
The Writing Process
- Brainstorming
- Prewriting
- Thesis Development
- Researching
- Drafting
- Revising
- Editing
- Proofreading
Brainstorming
Techniques to generate thinking in order to clarify thoughts and ideas.
Draft
An iteration of a writing project.
Editing
Improving a piece of writing by focusing on issues of style, clarity, and redundancy.
Plagiarism
Presenting someone else’s ideas or writing as your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally
Prewriting
Techniques, including outlining or other organization strategies, for planning a writing project.
Research
Information gathering with the goal of understanding and supporting an argument or topic.
Revising/Revision
Critically evaluating a writing project’s ideas, structure, and support and making relevant changes that improve the work.
Thesis
In English composition, a single sentence that explains the main argument or point of a piece of writing.
Writing Process
A recursive approach to writing that accepts multiple, recurring steps including brainstorming, prewriting, thesis development, research, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading.
Modes
Argumentative Mode
Writing that takes a clear position on a debatable question, and backs up claims with evidence and reasoning.
Descriptive Mode
Writing that provides details concerning a specific person, place, or thing.
Informative Mode
Writing designed to inform, describe, or explain.
Informing
Giving the reader the facts without offering an opinion about them.
Narrative Mode
Writing that is driven by a story.
Purpose
The intended goal or value of a text.
Reflecting
Relating what the writer “gets out of” an experience.
Tone
A writer’s attitude toward the subject, as conveyed through a piece of writing.
Purpose & Audience
Purpose
The intended goal or value of a text.
Challenge 2 Writing Effective Sentences
Clause
A group of words that includes a subject and a verb.
Compound Sentence
A sentence that contains two or more independent clauses.
Conjunction
A word or phrase that connects parts of a sentence.
Coordinating Conjunction
A conjunction that connects two independent clauses in a compound sentence.
Dependent Clause
A clause that cannot stand on its own as a sentence.
Independent Clause
A group of words that can stand alone as a sentence, although it does not have to do so.
Phrase
A small series of words that convey some meaning.
Subordinating Conjunction
Words and phrases that connect an independent clause to a dependent clause.
Challenge 3 – Writing Effective Paragraphs
Concluding Sentence
A sentence that either summarizes the paragraph or creates a transition to the next paragraph.
Paragraph
A collection of sentences within a piece of writing, connected by a single focusing idea.
Supporting Sentences
The sentences of a paragraph that offer examples, explanation, detail, and analysis to develop the idea presented in the topic sentence.
Topic Sentence
A sentence expressing the main idea of a paragraph.
Paragraph organization
Chronological Paragraphs
Paragraphs that tell what happened in the order in which the events occurred.
Emphatic Paragraphs
Paragraphs that organize concepts based upon importance.
Paragraph
A collection of sentences within a piece of writing, connected by a single focusing idea.
Spatial Paragraphs
Paragraphs that examine the details in a particular setting or of a particular person or object.
TEE Paragraphs
Paragraphs that relay a set of facts, explanations, and analysis; they contain a topic sentence, explanation, and examples.
Transitions
Words, phrases, or sentences that clarify connections between ideas.
Challenge 4 – Narrative Writing
at this point I realized I didn’t need these notes