This week, we’re going to talk about “research.”
Day 1 Materials
For Lesson 1, I’ll be discussing research, specifically the difference between Undirected and Directed Research, as well as some specific techniques you can use when you’re preparing to write about an unfamiliar topic. Then we’re going to discuss your chosen topics for this week’s Paragraph Blog, and I’ll offer any advice I think you need. Please come prepared to discuss your ideas.
Day 2 Materials
On Day 2, we’re going to continue with small-group meetings. We’ll talk about someone’s paragraph, and I’ll also answer any questions you have about research.
Non-Textbook Videos and Materials
The Non-Textbook Video for this week consists of the following:
- A discussion of methods for Preparing to Write about an Unfamiliar Topic. (~30 min.) I include a link for a PDF containing my teaching notes for this lesson.
If you’re not watching the videos, skip the link below and go straight to the homework explained beneath it.
Textbook Videos and Materials
For Week 10, there are several Textbook-Related Videos in the folder linked below, all about the grammar and vocabulary you need to write about the future:
- Writing about the Future: Be Going To (~14min)
- Writing about the Future: Will (~11 min)
- Future Time Expressions (~5 min)
- Complex Sentences About the Future (~10 min)
Complete any videos you like (or none) but make sure, either way, that you complete the accompanying textbook exercises that reinforce your learning.
This is the first Supplementary Video for Unit 5. It Covers the use of Writing in Future Tense using the Be Going to + Verb structure.
In Great Writing 1, do the following:
- Read Using Be Going to and Will (pg. 106)
- Complete Activity 1 (pg. 106)
- Read Grammar: Be Going to and the Writer’s Note about Going to vs. Gonna (pg. 106-107)
- Complete Activities 2-4 (pg. 107-109)
This is the second Supplementary Video for Unit 5. It covers the use of Writing in Will for writing in the future. In Great Writing 1, do the following:
- Read Grammar: Will (pg. 106)
- Complete Activities 5–6 (pg. 110-111)
This is the third Supplementary Video for Unit 5. It covers the grammar point of Future Time Expressions.
In Great Writing 1, do the following:
- Read Grammar: Future Time Expressions (pg. 112)
- Complete Activity 7 (pg. 112)
This is the fourth Supplementary Video for Unit 5. It covers the grammar point of Complex Sentences about the Future.
In Great Writing 1, do the following:
- Read Grammar: Complex Sentences about the Future (pg. 113)
- Complete Activities 8–9 (pg. 114–115)
Paragraph Blog Post for Week 10
We are living in a very weird time in history. For the first time, people have access to instantaneous communication with almost anyone on Earth. Most money we spend is just an idea, just zeros and ones in computers. We can listen to almost any music, or see almost any movie, on call, for very little money or even for free. AI is rapidly developing, and upsetting not just work but even creative industries like art and game-making.
The climate is rapidly shifting planet-wide. Many species have gone extinct since you were born, and many more are going to go extinct throughout the rest of your life. Large parts of the planet will likely become impossible to inhabit by the time you’re middle-aged or elderly, unless something incredible happens to halt or reverse climate change and the poisoning and acidification of our oceans. We will be facing massive economic and refugee crises.
Money and power are more concentrated in fewer hands worldwide than ever before. According to a recent estimate by NGO Oxfam, right now eight men own as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people on Earth—that is, eight rich men own as much wealth as half of humanity. Politically, literal fascism is returning to the mainstream in many places were this seemed impossible a few decades ago; women are facing increased misogyny and legal challenges to their rights; racism and ethnonationalism are worsening in many places.
We’re closer to curing countless diseases than we’ve ever been, even if some existing cures are not being made available because they’re not profitable. We’re struggling with a mishandled pandemic that killed more people last year (the year it was declared “over” in many of the world’s richest and most powerful countries) than in the two years prior. This is the second pandemic in your lifetime that governments have mishandled, by the way: HIV was the first, and it was still being mishandled even in your lifetime. We’re living in a world where people are more willing to buy cheap shoes made by a third world worker than to offer refugee status to them when they face being victims of horrific human rights crimes. We will probably have self-driving cars in a few years. We already have partly self-driving airplanes. We still burn horrendous amounts of gasoline. World shipping gets disrupted when a single ship gets stuck in a single canal.
Things are already weird, and it’s only 2025. It’s going to get a lot weirder in the future, though.
When you think about the future, what jumps out at you? What excites or worries you? Think about it. Think about why it’s interesting to you. Also, think about what you actually know about this topic. Go find some articles, some videos, some information about it out there. Ask yourself if you trust that information, and look for more.
In other words, I’m asking you to do some undirected research about the state of the world right now, in terms of wealth, technology, problems, and so on. Take notes, and try to find trustworthy sources.
After doing some reading, it’s time for a decision. Chose specifically what you want to write about, and do some Directed Research focused on the specific topic you plan to write about. Read up on it in good, trustworthy sources about this topic, and gather the ideas you will need to write a paragraph. Keep track of your sources and who said or wrote what.
Now, start at the beginning of the writing process, with Brainstorming.
- Do Free Writing, and then What’s Interesting Here? to determine what is most interesting about your topic.
- Build a Mind Map that contains your Topic Sentence, several major “nodes” for Primary Supporting Sentences, and references to your research that can be used in the Secondary Supporting Sentences.
- If you don’t have enough material for this, return to Lesson 2, Homework 1 and do more Directed Research. It’s not unusual to sometimes need to do a little more research while writing, so don’t worry if this happens to you.
- Review your Topic Sentence to see if it still makes sense. Adjust it if necessary.
- Look over the Template Sentences you extracted while researching. Look at a paragraph in Unit 5 of the textbook to extract more Template Sentences. When you have enough, move on.
- Build a Paragraph Skeleton for your paragraph.
- Make sure that the Topic, Concluding, and Primary Supporting Sentences are all your ideas, and that the material from your research is in the Secondary Supporting Sentences! Your research is supposed to help you support your ideas, not supposed to be the source of all your ideas!
- Expand your Paragraph Skeleton into a rough draft of a Paragraph.
- While you are editing the paragraph, make sure that you use the grammar covered in the Textbook-Related Videos for this week. That is, you need to use both will and be going to, utilize some future time phrases, and include at least one complex sentence about the future in the final draft of paragraph. You may need to edit or expand it to include some of these structures.
- Proofread your paragraph, looking for any problems we’ve discussed before, or anything from your feedback on past assignments or the midterm exam.
When your Paragraph Blog post is finished, post a copy of it to your Paragraph Blog. Include (as an attachment) a copy of the research notes you wrote, your brainstorming and other process content, along with and anything else you write in the process of developing the paragraph. (Please attach this to the blog post as a PDF file.)