1. Diagnostic Writing Activity

2. The purpose of this assignment is To accustom you to following directions in preparing and submitting assignments to me; To show you how to summarize both oral and written texts; To give me an idea of your writing ability.

3. Step One Go to The Moth website and choose a story to listen to. –The link is http://www.themoth.comhttp://www.themoth.com –I’ve included in this presentation images from the site, but you’ll have to leave the presentation to access any of the live links on the site.

4. Home page Click here

5. Then click here to see a list of stories

6. Here are the stories—you may want to listen to more than one before you choose the one to summarize

7. You should listen to the one you choose more than once and record the details to help retell the story, while keeping in mind the following: –What would someone who doesn’t know the story need to know in order to understand what happened? These are major details. –What was interesting or entertaining but could left out of the story without confusing the audience? These are minor details. –You should be able to write the story in a paragraph of about seven to ten sentences.

8. Once you have your paragraph written Email it to me as a file attachment, no later than midnight, Sunday, June 3 rd ; Additionally, post your paragraph on the Blackboard discussion board and read your classmates’ summaries as well.

9. THEN...

10. Read a short article from the following list and apply the same summarizing process to this reading that you used for the story, which means that you will...

11. –Read the article once and then reread to highlight major details. –Pull the highlighted information from the article to create an outline of major and minor points and then use the outline to write a brief (7 to 10 sentence) summary of the article.

12. Articles you can choose from: The articles on this page come from Fastweb, an online resource to help students find financial help and adjust to college; The page below is an index page, listing short, informative essays aimed at entering college students-- http://www.fastweb.com/fastweb/resources/index?id=ZM Q6OE7K7SNQ.909a4268eea8699e4124af93cd7c2b65 http://www.fastweb.com/fastweb/resources/index?id=ZM Q6OE7K7SNQ.909a4268eea8699e4124af93cd7c2b65 –(you can hit “back” to return to the PowerPoint show) Pick an article that interests you and write a summary.

13. For example...

14. Since I’m sending a child off to college this link on “save money” looks interesting.

15. I’m interested in how to save money on textbooks

16. Click on this link to see an example of this piece of writing; there’s narration attached if you want to turn on your computer’s speakers.this link –You should be able to hit “back” on the toolbar to return to the PowerPoint show.

17. Once you’ve written the summary Email it to me as a file attachment, no later than midnight, Sunday, June 3 rd ; Additionally, post your paragraph on the Blackboard discussion board and read your classmates’ summaries as well.

18. Summary for Week One’s Activities View the Orientation PowerPoint Enroll in Blackboard –Take a quiz over the policy; –Take the diagnostic grammar test; Write two summaries –One over the story you listened to on The Moth –One over the article you read on FastWeb Email me both summaries as RTF attachments; Post both summaries on the discussion board on Blackboard; Read the summaries posted by your classmates.

19. If you get confused or want more clarification Get in touch with me! –Email: dsmith@odessa.edudsmith@odessa.edu –Telephone: 335-6548

20. Don’t wait till the last minute; He (or she) who does will probably be LOST!