1. News Reports
Long Answer EQAO

2. Stakeholders, other paragraphs
5 W’s + H, introduction
2 people, quotes
Stakeholders, other paragraphs
Add in vivid details
Final thought or point
Organize
Write

3. Guest speaker’s message inspires students
An EQAO question

5. Guest speaker’s message inspires students

6. Guest speaker’s message inspires students
Yesterday, on Monday April 1, 2013 (WHEN), the students at Turner Fenton Secondary School in Brampton (WHO, WHERE), had the opportunity to listen to the guest speaker Tim Burr (WHAT, WHO). Burr's uplifting speech about his work in the timberjack trade helped students learn to set goals and see them through. (WHY)

7. Storm Shuts Down Region
You try it: write the opening paragraph for this picture:
Storm Shuts Down Region
Yesterday, on Monday April 1, 2013 (WHEN), the students at Turner Fenton Secondary School in Brampton (WHO, WHERE), had the opportunity to listen to the guest speaker Tim Burr (WHAT, WHO). Burr's uplifting speech about his work in the timberjack trade helped students learn to set goals and see them through. (WHY)

8. Stakeholders, other paragraphs
5 W’s + H, introduction
2 people, quotes
Stakeholders, other paragraphs
Add in vivid details
Final thought or point
Organize
Write

9. Student volunteers improve school grounds
An EQAO question

10. I am the school principal of Middlewood Elementary.
You need two specific characters with quotes for your article.
My name is John Smith.
I am the school principal of Middlewood Elementary.
The students are my school are exceptional: they are always looking for ways to give back to their community.

11. Quote Detailed position Proper Name
Make up another character for the story.
Proper Name
Detailed position
Quote

12. Mind your P’s and Q’s
“Mr. Frank,” I can hear you saying, “you’re crazy. There aren’t any quotation marks on this page.”
I say, “Look again. You will see some.”
“Unhand that damsel in distress!” commanded Quixote.
“Make me, you cardboard-wearing, half-dead horse-riding, long-word-using wimp!” said the salesman.

13. Mind your P’s and Q’s
Punctuation
Quotation Marks
“Mr. Frank,” I can hear you saying, “you’re crazy. There aren’t any quotation marks on this page.”
I say, “Look again. You will see some.”
“Unhand that damsel in distress!” commanded Quixote.
“Make me, you cardboard-wearing, half-dead horse-riding, long-word-using wimp!” said the salesman.

14. Mind your P’s and Q’s
Punctuation
Quotation Marks P Q P Q
“Mr. Frank,” I can hear you saying, “you’re crazy. There aren’t any quotation marks on this page.”
I say, “Look again. You will see some.”
“Unhand that damsel in distress!” commanded Quixote.
“Make me, you cardboard-wearing, half-dead horse-riding, long-word-using wimp!” said the salesman. P Q P Q P Q P Q

15. Stakeholders, other paragraphs
5 W’s + H, introduction
2 people, quotes
Stakeholders, other paragraphs
Add in vivid details
Final thought or point
Organize
Write

16. Students Participate in Important Election
An EQAO question

17. Stakeholders Employees Customers - Users Vendors General Public
Government Regulators
Professional Organizations
Industry experts – Academic institutions
Vendors
General Public
Competitors
Volunteer Organizations
Media
Shareholders – investors
Board of Directors
Employees
Programmers - Testers

18. Primary Secondary Remote Customers - Users Shareholders – investors
Employees
Secondary
Board of Directors
Programmers - Testers
Vendors
Competitors
ISP
Remote
Government Regulators
Professional Organizations
Industry experts – Academic institutions
Volunteer Organizations
Media
General Public

19. Be Specific. University of Washington University
University of Washington’s Dept of Biology
University

20. Students Participate in Important Election
Who are some stakeholders in this “election”?
They can lead to paragraphs.

21. Stakeholders, other paragraphs
5 W’s + H, introduction
2 people, quotes
Stakeholders, other paragraphs
Add in vivid details
Final thought or point
Organize
Write

22. Get the name of the dog.
Dig for the concrete and specific, details that appeal to the senses.

23. At the St. Petersburg Times, editors and writing coaches warn reporters not to return to the office without “the name of the dog.” That reporting task does not require the writer to use the detail in the story, but it reminds the reporter to keep her eyes and ears opened.

24. When Kelley Benham wrote a story about a ferocious rooster that attacked a toddler, she not only got the name of the rooster, Rockadoodle Two, but also the names of his parents, Rockadoodle and one-legged Henny Penny. (I cannot explain why it matters that the offending rooster’s mother had only one leg, but it does.)

25. Before the execution of a serial killer, reporter Christopher Scanlan flew to Utah to visit the family of one of the murderer’s presumed victims. Eleven years earlier, a young woman left her house and never returned.
Scanlan found the detail that told the story of the family’s enduring grief. He noticed a piece of tape over the light switch next to the front door:
BOUNTIFUL, Utah—Belva Kent always left the front porch light on when her children went out at night. Whoever came home last turned it off, until one day in 1974 when Mrs.Kent told her family: “I’m going to leave that light on until Deb comes home and she can turn it off.” The Kents’ porch light still burns today, night and day. Just inside the front door, a strip of tape covers the switch. Deb never came home.
Here’s the key: Scanlan saw the taped-over switch and asked about it. His curiosity, not his imagination, captured the great detail.

26. An exercise:
The name of my dog is Rex—and he is the king. Ask a group of colleagues or students to share stories about the names of their pets. Which names reveal the most about the personalities of the owners?

27. Storm Shuts Down Region

28. An exercise:
Most writers appeal to the sense of sight. In your next work, look for opportunities to use details of smell, sound, taste, and touch.

29. Storm Shuts Down Region
Most writers appeal to the sense of sight. In your next
work, look for opportunities to use details of smell, sound, taste, and touch.

30. Stakeholders, other paragraphs
5 W’s + H, introduction
2 people, quotes
Stakeholders, other paragraphs
Add in vivid details
Final thought or point
Organize
Write

31. Last Sentences
“Last sentences are more constrained in their possibilities. They can sum up, refuse to sum up, change the subject, leave you wanting more, put everything into perspective, or explode perspectives.”
“They don’t have to start the engine; all they have to do is shut it down.”

32. “Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so
“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” –Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926)
Is it possible for anyone in Germany, nowadays, to raise his right hand, for whatever the reason, and not be flooded by the memory of a dream to end all dreams? –Walter Abish, How German Is It? (1980)
It was the nightmare of real things, the fallen wonder of the world. – Don DeLillo, The Names (1982)
But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union. –Jane Austen, Emma (1816)
“Like a dog!” he said, it was as if the shame of it must outlive him. – Franz Kafka, The Trial (1925; trans. Willa and Edwin Muir)

33. Movie Closing lines
"There was a crime, there was a victim, and there is punishment.” Presumed Innocent (1990)
"Kevin, what did you do to my room?” Home Alone (1990)
"Do I still have to sleep in the cupboard?” Beauty and the Beast (1991)
"Ernest Hemingway once wrote: 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part."Se7en (1995)
"Vanity - definitely my favorite sin.” Devil's Advocate (1997)
"You met me at a very strange time in my life." Fight Club (1999)

34. Quotations
“Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” Mark Twain
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Benjamin Franklin
“It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.” Oscar Wilde
“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” Oscar Wilde
“People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.” Eleanor Roosevelt
“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.” James A. Froude
“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” B. F. Skinner
“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” Will Durant

35. Prepare! Come up with a few proverbs/quotations Happy Sad Unfortunate
Uplifting
Education

36. Stakeholders, other paragraphs
5 W’s + H, introduction
2 people, quotes
Stakeholders, other paragraphs
Add in vivid details
Final thought or point
Organize
Write

37. Stakeholders, other paragraphs
5 W’s + H, introduction
2 people, quotes
Stakeholders, other paragraphs
Add in vivid details
Final thought or point
Organize
Write

38. Car wash a success

39. Stakeholders, other paragraphs
Car wash a success
5 W’s + H, introduction
2 people, quotes
Stakeholders, other paragraphs
Add in vivid details
Final thought or point
Organize
Write