Solution Manual For Writing Today, 5th Edition by Richard Johnson-Sheehan Charles Paine

Solution Manual For Writing Today, 5th Edition by Richard Johnson-Sheehan Charles Paine

The Corequisite Support Workbook for Writing Today Fifth Edition

Charles Paine, University of New Mexico Richard Johnson-Sheehan, Purdue University

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CONTENTS The Corequisite Support Workbook Walkthroughs…………………………………………..

Workshop 1: Getting Your Edge ……………………………………….2 Workshop 2: Reading to Strengthen Your Writing…………………....8 Workshop 3: Inventing Ideas Before You Write………………...…....13 Workshop 4: Writing a College Paper………………...…………….....19 Workshop 5: Writing Stronger Sentences.…………...…………….....24 Workshop 6: Revising Paragraphs.…………...…………………….....30 Workshop 7: Doing Research and Citing It…………….……..……....36 Workshop 8: Fixing the Dirty Dozen Grammar Errors………….…....42 Workshop 9: Punctuating Correctly.…………...………………..….....60

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The Corequisite Support Workbook Walkthroughs In this part of this instructor‘s guide, we will walk through each workshop of The Corequisite Support Workbook, providing with you with an overview, strategies for teaching these materials, and the answers for each activity. Of course, there isn‘t a right way to teach students in corequisite-supported classes, so this guide will show you some possible strategies that you can build upon. We will help you succeed with the over 60 activities in The Corequisite Support Workbook that you can use in your classroom.

Something to keep in mind is that students receiving corequisite support are not all the same, and each will benefit from various kinds of activities. One student may need a full introduction to post-secondary education with basic approaches for succeeding in college. The student sitting right next to this student may only need a brush-up on sentence writing and perhaps some new techniques for prewriting and drafting.

We like to begin with the assumption that all students can succeed in college if they are given the appropriate support and they are motivated to continue their education. Their successes and their struggles are as varied as the students themselves. Your role as an instructor is to facilitate their progress and possibly identify what motivates each of these unique individuals. That‘s a tough task.

Admittedly, you won‘t be able to reach all students, even if they have chosen to be in a college course that uses corequisite support. Some of your students, albeit only a few, just aren‘t ready to attend college at this time in their lives. They may be giving college a try because their parents, mentors, advisors, or a coach persuaded them to do so.

Maybe you can ignite a passion for succeeding in college, but don‘t take it as your personal failure if you cannot. Going to college is ultimately something of a choice for each student. Attending college is not compulsory like much of their education to this point. There are many paths to success in life, and universities and colleges only offer a few of those paths. You may not be able to reach each and every student in front of you.

Before you begin each workshop, look over the walkthrough in this part of the instructor‘s guide. These walkthroughs should help you come up with various ways to reach out to these students in constructive and even fun ways.

The Corequisite Support Workbook and Writing Today are designed to work hand in hand. Each workshop in The Corequisite includes a Helpful Hint cross-reference that will help you pair it up with chapters in Writing Today. You can also use the Quick Start Guides in both Writing Today and The Corequisite Support Workbook to help you determine what will fit the needs of each of your students.

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Workshop 1: Getting Your Edge In this workshop, your students will learn some strategies for succeeding in college.

Something to keep in mind is that for various reasons, many of these students have a limited framework for understanding what college is for. College may be, at best, an abstraction. High school may be the closest thing to a university or college that anyone in their family has experienced. So, they are reacting to what is happening around them by falling back on what worked in high school. Sometimes those high school behaviors don‘t work at college.

Moreover, first-generation college students, who usually make up many of the students receiving corequisite support, often don‘t have family members or friends to turn to for advice. In a way, that‘s the purpose of this workshop—to offer some general advice for ―doing college.‖ To you, these strategies may seem like common sense. But, again, what appears to be common sense is often based on a person‘s background and prior experiences.

Each of the sections in Workshop 1 is designed to be completed within 10-30 minutes.

You can use them in the classroom, or you can assign them as out-of-classroom activities that students should complete on their own. We will recommend including a reflective component to each of these activities, whether you spend some time discussing each activity in class or you ask students to write a small reflection on what they learned from the activity. These reflections will help them better understand what they learned and let that material sink in.

Module 1.0 Why Do People Succeed in College (and Some Don‘t)?

This is the basic question that many of your students are already asking themselves, perhaps in a different form. They may be asking ―Am I going to be able to make it here?‖ or ―Do I even belong here?‖ You can help them answer these kinds of questions with a ―yes.‖ They can make it and they do belong, but they need to show up, arrive on time, participate in the course, and hand in their work on time. In Module 1.0, you‘re primarily laying the groundwork for learning how to be there, be active, and get their work done.

Your students will respond in a variety of ways to Activity 1.0.1. Some students may already have their whole futures laid out in front of them. Others will express anxiety and hesitation about whether they belong in college or even want to be here. Your goal is to get them to reflect on what they want in the future and how college fits into the future that they want.

Our suggestion is that you ask the students to complete this module in the classroom.

To begin, ask them to discuss their responses in small groups, and then with the full class. They will learn that they each have many of the same goals in life and similar anxieties and doubts about how college will help them reach those goals. There are no right or wrong answers here, but don‘t be surprised when students express doubt about whether college is for them. The idea is to listen and offer encouragement. You‘re not going to be able to convince them that college is what they need in their lives. They 2 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

need to figure that out for themselves. This reflective exercise should help them start seeing how college can help them reach their goals.

Module 1.1 Managing Your Time Time management is a struggle for almost all college students, but students receiving corequisite support can struggle even more with figuring out how much time to devote to their studies, activities, and just hanging out with friends (possibly in addition to other family or work responsibilities). This module should provide them with some time-tested techniques for time management.

Have them create their calendar and work out their first task list. Make sure you talk about where fun fits into their college lives. You want them to understand that college isn‘t all work, and it‘s not running from one scheduled activity to another. You can show them that time can be allocated in a way that allows them to get their work done, leaving time for fun and friends.

They may be new to college, so they may not fully understand the kinds of distractions that can keep them from getting their work done. If they have just graduated from high school, until now, someone has probably been checking up on whether they have completed their work. In college, that person probably isn‘t around. These students will need to learn how to use their calendar and task list to manage and allocate their own time.

If you have your own time management strategies, share them with your students. You can also admit to your own struggles with time management. We all have these struggles, and your students will appreciate knowing that even a successful person like yourself can find that it‘s a challenge to get things done.

Module 1.2 Reading Smarter for Classes The purpose of this module is to give students some quick reading strategies for their college classes. If they just started college, they may be feeling overwhelmed by the amount of reading their instructors are asking them to do. This ―Five-W and How‖ analysis should help them better understand that they can manage all of the reading by focusing on what they need to do tomorrow and by the end of the week. Plus, they can use reflection to figure out what places and times of day are best to do their reading for classes.

Activity 1.2.1 is designed to help them recognize their personal habits and strengths.

They will have different answers to many of these Five-W and How questions. That‘s an opening for them to discuss their answers in small groups, and then perhaps write them up on a whiteboard for a full-class discussion.

Try to avoid sermonizing to them. Your approach to reading may be different from one that works for them. Plus, keep in mind that they are just learning how to read for college classes. They are more likely to internalize strategies for reading if they figure them out themselves.

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Workshop 2, ―Reading to Strengthen Your Writing,‖ in The Corequisite Support Workbook offers a much more thorough approach to reading for college classes, so this module is just a way to open the discussion about reading strategies. Get them started with this activity, and encourage them to talk through their ideas. You want to get them through this first week or two of college classes. You can go into more depth about reading strategies later in the course.

Module 1.3 Taking Good Notes in Class Until college, many of your students may not have taken thorough notes in classes.

They may have been one of the smartest students in their classes, and they could learn by just paying attention. Or, maybe they were never taught how to take notes, so they did more doodling than actually writing down what their instructors were saying. Notetaking is not a skill people are born with. It‘s a skill that needs to be learned.

They are probably taking other courses in addition to your course, so encourage them to practice in your classes and others. Teach them the outline system and the concept map system. Have them practice these note-taking systems in your class for a 10minute lecture. Then, ask them to use the outline and concept map system in their other classes. When they return, put them in small groups to compare what happened. You can then ask them to list five strengths and five weaknesses of each system. Maybe you can make a ―Top 5‖ list of the strengths and weaknesses on the whiteboard. They can debate which items should appear on that list.

The idea is to get them to try out these systems to see what works for them. Some of the visual learners will gravitate toward the concept-mapping system. Your students who are linear thinkers will probably prefer the outline system. Some students may come up with a hybrid of the two systems. That‘s great. The idea is to get them taking notes and coming up with something that will work for them.

Module 1.4 Coping with Stress in College Even if your students are happy and looking forward to their futures in college, they are still under an increased amount of stress. For most of them, college is new and exciting, but it‘s also a large change all at once. Think about how you felt when you started college. Where will you get food? What‘s the best way to get somewhere? What happens if something goes wrong? Now, put yourself in your students‘ places.

Everything they knew before has been upended, and they need to learn new ways of doing even the basics. That can be very stressful.

In this module, you can show them some common ways to manage stress. The ―good stress vs. bad stress‖ approach is especially memorable, because it allows them to see that some of the tension they are feeling may actually be good and a way of tapping into their creativity. This dichotomy between good and bad stress also helps them recognize when the tension they are feeling may be destructive to them. They can learn to identify what triggers their negative stress reactions and then manage those reactions in constructive ways.

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Even more importantly, this module will help them identify moments at which they have reached the limits of managing stress on their own. To this point in their lives, they may have had teachers, counselors, coaches, or other mentors they could turn to for help. In college, they may not know where those mental health supporters can be found.

Activity 1.4.1 will help you facilitate a discussion of good stress vs. bad stress, and then come up with some ways to manage those bad stress moments. You can then transition to situations in which your students may need more support from professionals on campus. To be completely honest, we don‘t imagine your students will write or print out this document and post it in their room. They might, but the activity here is to show them how to search for the kinds of mental health support they need. Finding phone numbers and websites to these services will show them that these services are available nearby.

Typically, they can use the Internet to find these resources.

Module 1.5 Starting a Study Group Many of your students have never been in a study group. As the semester moves forward, they may notice that other students seem to be grouping together in the libraries, dorms, or classrooms. What are those students doing?

Study groups are one of those learning strategies that students who come from collegeexperienced families and communities often know about. First-generation students and students from underrepresented backgrounds often don‘t know about this tool for success. The five-step approach that we offer in this module may be more formal and structured than you remember. That‘s fine. The idea is to show your students some common steps for forming study groups.

You might spend some extra time talking about the ―ground rules‖ for study groups.

Often, students receiving corequisite support aren‘t sure what is supposed to happen in study groups, and they grow frustrated when the ―rules‖ for behavior aren‘t obvious.

These kinds of ground rules help them understand what is typical behavior in study groups, and when a problem may exist.

Your students may balk at these kinds of rules, and that‘s fine. Let them push back against the idea of having rules for doing something informal like a study group. They will likely benefit by finding a happy medium between a formal rule-bound study group experience and an informal social approach.

Module 1.6 Talking to Your Instructors If you‘re like most writing instructors, you have probably wondered why more students don‘t stop by your office hours for some support or even just to chat. Admittedly, some of us didn‘t do that when we were college students. Visiting our college professors seemed scary when we were college students, and that‘s still true today. Also, today, students have many avenues to communicate with us, including e-mail, learning management systems, and even social media. So, they don‘t need to stop by with questions about assignments, the syllabus, and policies.

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One of the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic is that video conferencing will likely be much more common and even normal. Many instructors are offering online office hours and doing conferencing online. We‘re hoping that students will connect more, one-on-one, when they can do so through their laptop, from their dorm room or somewhere else on (or off) campus.

In any case, talking to instructors is still scary and something students need to learn how to do. In this module, you can see what kinds of questions students receiving corequisite support often ask themselves. We brought together groups of students and asked them what kinds of questions they had in their classes, and what they‘ve learned about interacting with professors.

You can go through these questions with your students. We have provided the obvious answers, and you can elaborate by adding your own communication tips that are perhaps unique to your campus or college.

Figures 1.7 and 1.8 in this module are especially important. Some of the items in the ―Don‘t Ask This!‖ column may seem obvious, but many students don‘t know the codes for interacting with college instructors—and they may not have any family members or friends to turn to for advice. You might ask them to cover up the ―Do This Instead‖ side of these figures and have them work in groups to come up with their own answers.

Then, have them check their answers against the ones in the ―Do This Instead‖ columns.

You might even play a Family Feud-style game in which they need to come up with ―Five Things You Don‘t Ask a Professor‖ and other similar topics. They can have some fun while they are learning the codes of behavior for interacting with college instructors.

Of course, there are no right answers, and professors will accept a wide range of behaviors from students. What you really want to do with this module is open a conversation. You can swap advice with your students about how to interact with people who have power over them. Your students will appreciate your advice, even if it feels like you‘re telling them something obvious that everyone should know. They might not.

Module 1.7 Getting Help on Campus In some ways, this module may be the most important one in Workshop 1. Students in corequisite courses will have many of the same struggles as other students, but they often don‘t have the same experienced support networks of family and friends to fall back on. Students from college-bound backgrounds are more likely to be aware that these supports are available, and feel at liberty to use them if needed. First-generation students and students from underrepresented backgrounds may hesitate, only reaching out for help when they are experiencing a crisis.

You should talk through the kinds of support on campus that are listed in this module.

Activity 1.7.1 is one you should ask your students to complete, probably in class. If you 6 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

can, make this a game, perhaps a scavenger hunt, in which they use the Internet to locate this information themselves. You could even create a real scavenger hunt in which they need to take a picture of specific buildings or even the front door of these services. That will help them locate and learn about these services, so they won‘t be too hesitant to visit.

If you are teaching in a summer program, that‘s a good opportunity to bring in speakers from some of these organizations. Over the summer, the campus is a bit quieter and slower-paced, so these speakers may have time to talk to your class about the services they provide. They can also talk about adjacent services that are also available on campus.

Your students can post this information in their dorm room, in case they need it. Just the act of filling it out will encourage them to reach out to these offices and resources if they need support. Some of your students may even go a step further and begin to register with offices like your university‘s accessibility/disability resource center or your campus‘s counseling center. Plus, they should always know how to contact their advisor or the student health center in case they run into a problem or an illness that they cannot handle themselves.

Module 1.8 Succeeding in Online and Hybrid Writing Courses As directors of writing programs ourselves, the authors of The Corequisite Support Workbook like to say that one of the positives of the COVID-19 pandemic was that we gained some new superpowers. Of course, online and hybrid courses existed before the pandemic, but we all ramped up our computer-aided teaching skills. Now we have some new ways to teach writing in online and hybrid forms.

In this module, your students should learn some of the strategies for learning online and in hybrid classrooms. Many students have not had opportunities to work and learn online. And yet, their careers in college and the workplace will almost certainly require them to do so. The advice offered in this module is rather standard and probably not new to you. But this advice may be new to many of your students. If you are teaching your class in an online or in a hybrid form, here is an opportunity to help them build the skills and self-discipline they need to succeed in these kinds of digital environments.

You could pair this module with some in-class Internet searches about working remotely. As we have witnessed, the pandemic revealed that people from economically stressed communities were inordinately impacted due to a lack of access and experience with technology. You can use this module as a way to teach your students how to succeed in these environments while raising their awareness of the inequities that we need to work toward overcoming.

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Workshop 2: Reading to Strengthen Your Writing Reading is something your students do every day—they are probably reading something on their phone or laptop just about every hour—so the ability to read is not in question. In this workshop, your students will learn how to read more mindfully and analytically, so they better understand the material and how it connects to things they already know. Moreover, the ability to read closely and critically is also related to strong writing skills. Good readers are more aware of what works and doesn‘t work in their own prose.

In Workshop 2, your students will learn how to both ―look at‖ and ―look through‖ text to better understand the rhetorical choices that authors make while writing. This will help them be more aware of what will work in their own texts.

Module 2.0 What Is Different about College Reading?

Activities 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 are designed to get them thinking and talking about what they read, why they read specific kinds of texts, and what analytical strategies they use to unpack and interpret texts. Some of your students will admit that they don‘t really like to read and that they haven‘t read a book in a long time. What we want to do in these activities is help them realize that reading is something they do every day. Reading isn‘t necessarily about reading novels or great works, just like experiencing music isn‘t about exclusively listening to Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven. Reading comes in many forms and situations, and we need to be more aware of the who, what, where, when, how, and why we tend to read. That allows us to think more deeply about the elements of text we experience and their meaning.

That said, close and critical reading is vital, whether someone is reading for school, the workplace, civic life, or pleasure. In this workshop, your students will learn techniques that should help them become stronger readers.

Module 2.1 Previewing a Text Previewing a text is one of those ―work smarter, not harder‖ kinds of activities. Before diving right into a text, students can learn a great amount by stepping back and paying attention to some of the high-level features of a text.

In Activity 2.1.1, we have suggested you use an article from NASA as an example of a text that can be used to practice previewing. You might also choose a text of your own.

Ask your students to go through and answer the questions in small groups. Then, work up to a full-class activity where they share their ideas.

If you‘re not interested in using this text from NASA, you can choose a text that you believe would work better for your students. You might find an article from a popular culture website or magazine. Some of the articles reprinted in Writing Today may be good ones to try with your students. Or, you can have students bring in a book that they can preview. An idea that you should reinforce is that their first responses while previewing a text are surprisingly accurate. People often say, ―You cannot judge a book 8 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

by its cover,‖ but readers do have a surprising ability to size up a text by looking over its cover, table of contents, chapter titles, headings, and images.

If you do use the NASA article (or use one article to replace it), you will have the advantage of using one text across the many activities in this workshop. That will help your students build on their existing learning in each activity without needing to figure out the meaning of a new article for each one. Then, the summative activity at the end of this workshop can bring all of their learning together into one place.

In the ―Note Your First Responses‖ area of this module‘s activity, your students will have the opportunity to work on their ability to meta-analyze a text. They may not be able to size up a novel in five minutes, but they can certainly skim an article and answer the questions we provide. If you do want them to preview a longer text, such as a book, you might give them twenty minutes. They will be surprised at how much they can learn about the text by using the previewing methods in this module. Then, as they read the book itself, they will see that a brief period of pre-reading will help them better understand the text when they are reading it page by page.

Module 2.2 Highlighting and Annotating Interestingly, highlighting and annotating are skills evolving in real time right now. Not long ago, college students read books with a pen or highlighter in their hands. With ebooks, especially e-textbooks, students have the ability to highlight and annotate as much as they like. And, in some cases, learning environments like Pearson+ allow them (and you) to share highlighting and annotations. We have the feeling we‘re just now figuring out what these new abilities will allow us, as readers, to do with texts.

This module allows them to practice the ―looking through‖ and ―looking at‖ method of highlighting and annotating texts at two different levels. Have them first read for meaning (looking through), highlighting sentences that seem to present important evidence or ideas. Then, have them pay attention to the author‘s craft (―looking at‖), highlighting moments where the author is making choices about rhetorical techniques, diction, or formatting in specific ways. Finally, ask your students to type or write annotations in the margins in which they respond to the text. What do they agree with?

What do they disagree with? What connections did the author make to their lives? What was confusing and needed more exploration? What did the author mess up?

In Activity 2.2.1, your students should go back to the reading provided in Module 2.1 from NASA. The takeaway from this activity is that students learn that there are several different ways to read a text analytically and critically. Previewing the text, which was covered in Module 2.1, offers a specific kind of macro-level analysis. Highlighting and annotating gives them an opportunity to toggle between ―looking through‖ and ―looking at,‖ demonstrating that texts can be approached from different perspectives.

The key is to encourage your students to do more than review the text. They can use highlighting and annotating to become engaged with the text and respond to the author‘s ideas and rhetorical techniques for expressing those ideas.

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Module 2.3 Playing the Believing and Doubting Game We always hope that students aren‘t too disappointed when they realize that the Believing and Doubting Game, invented by Peter Elbow, really isn‘t really a game to play against others. Nevertheless, while playing this ―game,‖ they usually find the activity more fun than they expected.

The Believing and Doubting Game encourages your students to approach a text from two different perspectives, that of a ―believer‖ and that of a ―doubter.‖ Your students should then create a synthesis of these two perspectives, which will show them that they will gain a much deeper understanding of the author‘s motives and beliefs. Before college, most of your students were taught to read for comprehension—just figure out what the text means and absorb that meaning as much as possible. If your students were ever asked to adopt a position on a text, they were probably only expected to decide whether they agreed with it or not.

The Believing and Doubting Game helps them see the text through the eyes of another person. The two sides of the game will encourage them to notice different features of the text. This goes beyond simply consuming the text and deciding whether they agree with it or not. The Believing and Doubting Game urges them to take two opposing stances in reference to the text. Suddenly, new aspects of the text will appear that they may not have noticed when they read it straight on.

Synthesis encourages them to then put these two different stances together into one.

Reading becomes an activity of sorting through the various shades and textures of the author‘s ideas and letting students figure out where their own beliefs fit with—or go against—the author‘s position. Ultimately, the Believing and Doubting Game encourages them to suspend judgment long enough to see at least two stances on an issue. Then, when they put those two stances together, they can see how competing stances on a topic negotiate meaning together.

Module 2.4 Analyzing the Reliability of an Author‘s Evidence Concerns about the influence of social media have heightened our attention to the socalled Internet ―evidence‖ that is designed to mislead or deceive others. Conspiracy theories are common on social media, as well as skepticism about public health initiatives, such as vaccines for COVID-19 and other illnesses. Today, when someone says they ―did their research‖ about a topic, we wonder whether they merely checked their favorite partisan sources and had their pre-existing biases confirmed.

In this module, your students will learn a modern method for researching the ethos (reputation or authority) of a source‘s evidence. The three-part approach of factual evidence, authoritative testimony, and personal experience is a good way to talk about where another author‘s evidence is coming from and whether it can be considered reliable. The STAR Method, which is discussed at length in Writing Today, is then repurposed for students who are in courses that have corequisite support.

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The STAR Method is primarily useful because it is easy to remember. STAR refers to sufficient, typical, accurate, and relevant. You want to urge your students to get into the habit of challenging the evidence offered as support for other authors‘ arguments.

Activity 2.4.1 is simple by design. It guides your students through the process of identifying another author‘s evidence, in this case the NASA article at the beginning of this workshop. Then, they apply the STAR Method to help them explore whether the evidence is sufficient, typical, accurate, and relevant. Let your students challenge the evidence in the NASA article and find places where the evidence could be stronger.

While teaching this module, you want your students to get into the habit of adopting a constructive skepticism toward sources. In this case, the NASA article isn‘t really pushing a political agenda or being deceptive in any way. Nevertheless, there are places where the author‘s biases can be found. Your students can see that even a straightforward use of evidence still needs to stand up to scrutiny. An evidence-based argument will tend to hold up to this kind of scrutiny, whereas arguments that are not based on solid evidence tend to fall apart.

Module 2.5 Evaluating the Validity of an Author‘s Reasoning In this module, your students will learn to use the ancient rhetorical triad of logos (reasoning), ethos (authority), and pathos (emotion) to determine whether an author‘s proofs hold up to scrutiny. Ask them to look for examples of all three kinds of proofs in the NASA article at the beginning of Workshop 2. They should be able to highlight a variety of ways in which the author, Steven J. Dick, supports his argument.

The idea in this module and Activity 2.5.1 is to help your students use the logos, ethos, pathos triad like a toolkit to get past the surface of this pro-NASA argument. Show them that they can go beyond the evidence offered by the author to explore his use of reasoning, authority, and emotion to influence the readers. You will find it especially helpful to ask your students to rate the persuasiveness of these proofs on a 1-10 scale.

Some proofs, such as statements that use logical statements and examples, will tend to rate high on the scale. Emotional proofs, they will see, tend not to rate as highly.

They should see that a good argument draws from all three types of proofs, but that some kinds of proof can be stronger and more persuasive than others. In the case of a NASA article that features science and technology, logos proofs tend to be stronger. But you can point out that there are situations were ethos and pathos proofs would be more persuasive than logos proofs.

Module 2.6 Responding to a Text by Reflecting on Your Reading Process You will want your students to get into the habit of reflecting on the skills they learn, not only in your class but in other classes as well. These reflections allow them to step back and see where the concepts and skills they have learned fit into their lives and what they already know and believe.

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Ultimately, mindful reading is skill that they are developing, so you want them to reflect on what it really means to approach a text in a mindful way. Mindfulness in reading means previewing to gain a big-picture understanding of the text. It means engaging the text by taking pro and con stances toward an author‘s argument. It means challenging the author‘s evidence and proofs to determine whether the argument itself is reliable and valid.

The purpose of Activity 2.6.1 is to put all these mindfulness reading skills together at the same time. To this point in the workshop, your students have been learning various ways to read closely and analytically. This activity asks them to put all these skills into action at the same time. If you have been using the NASA article at the beginning of this workshop throughout, this work will be mostly a summative exercise for your students.

They can use their comments from the previous activities here. This will bring all of these close reading methods together, so they can better understand how to unpack an article, especially one that is making an argument.

Of course, your students won‘t be able to do this kind of close reading analysis with every text they read or want to use as evidence in their own papers. However, this workshop will provide them with a variety of tools they can use to break open an argument to see if its evidence is supported, valid, and ultimately trustworthy.

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Workshop 3: Inventing Ideas Before You Write Often, writing instructors use the term ―prewriting‖ when they talk about the activities used to generate ideas before drafting. Students usually associate prewriting with freewriting, concept mapping, and making an outline of their paper. That‘s a good start, but these kinds of pre-writing tools don‘t offer the full range of creative techniques that students can use to generate the content of their arguments.

The broader term for this generative process is ―invention,‖ and it comes from the Latin term inventio, which means ―discovery.‖ In Workshop 3, your students will learn how to use a full range of invention techniques to think about their topic and generate the content they need for their arguments. In our experience, all students struggle to generate content, but students receiving corequisite support can struggle more than others. They know what they want to write about, and they have a sense of how their paper will be organized. But they struggle to just get that content out of their brains and onto their screens.

With this workshop you can help them practice using several invention techniques that go beyond what they have already learned about prewriting. They may not find all of them useful. That‘s fine. They should, however, find that some of these invention techniques work better than others for them, and these techniques can be—dare we say it—fun to use.

Being creative is something that all of us enjoy—including students. The techniques described in this workshop will help your students express their creativity in new and potentially surprising ways.

Module 3.0 What‘s Your Writing Process?

The first thing students should learn is that writing is a process, and that creative process is not the same for everyone. Each writer eventually figures out their own process for themselves. However, you can teach students some typical steps or stages, such as prewriting and revision, that will be useful in their personal writing process.

The problem, as we discuss in this workshop, is that many new college students don‘t really have a workable writing process for college writing. Often, high school assignments could be written the night or even the morning before they were due. So, many of your students‘ writing process can be summed up with 1. Read the assignment.

2. Write a draft.

3. Clean up the draft and hand it in.

This rushed approach just isn‘t a useful writing process for college papers or workplace projects, which tend to be much longer and more complex. First-year students often grow frustrated with college writing courses because the writing process that has worked for them for years—probably the only writing process they know—doesn‘t seem to do the job anymore.

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This module gives you an opportunity to encourage your students to reflect on their existing writing process and add to it. The ―starter‖ writing process shown in Figure 3.1 of this workshop may seem complex, but it does just that. The trick is to encourage your students to develop a writing process of their own. As the workshop states, there is no correct writing process. Rather, we all figure out what works for us and what doesn‘t.

For college writing, students need to add some new steps into their existing writing process, such as audience analysis, choosing a style, and designing the document.

Activity 3.0.1 is intended to help your students reflect on their existing writing process.

Get them to articulate their writing process and don‘t judge whatever they write down.

Describing their existing writing process is a starting place for building upon what they already know about writing.

In the middle and end of the course, you can return to this exercise to show them that their writing process has evolved since their first days of class. They will see the progress that they have made toward developing a writing process that will work throughout college and into their careers.

Module 3.1 Analyzing Your Rhetorical Situation More than likely, the term rhetorical situation will be new to your students. They have probably heard the word rhetoric before, and they likely associate it with empty arguments or spin. You may need to explain what rhetoric means in college. Most instructors would define rhetoric as the ―art of persuasion‖ or perhaps a way of ―managing change‖ in social settings.

A challenge you are facing is that most students haven‘t learned how to do things like define a topic, come up with a new angle on that topic, analyze their readers, and anticipate the contexts in which their writing will be used. At most, they may have been taught to pick a topic and come up with a thesis statement about that topic. Their audience and context has typically been their high school teachers.

College and workplace writing require more forethought about how the rhetorical situation will shape their writing and how they want their writing to influence the rhetorical situation.

A good start is to begin each writing assignment by asking your students to identify five basic elements of the rhetorical situation for their paper: 1. Topic 2. Angle 3. Purpose 4. Readers 5. Context of Use

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At first, these five elements may sound a bit strange to them. What‟s an angle? Is my purpose the same thing as my thesis? What if my readers aren‟t anyone specific but include everyone?

Activity 3.1.1 should help you slow your students down and get them thinking more deeply about the rhetorical situation. This activity should probably be completed in class, because your students will have questions about what you expect them to write down. Encourage them to put something down, even if they aren‘t sure if that information is correct. Just the process of writing down their ideas will get them thinking about the five elements of the rhetorical situation. As they begin inventing their ideas, they will begin to see how the rhetorical situation is shaping their ideas and what kinds of information they need to collect or generate.

Module 3.2 Using Prewriting to Get Ideas Out of Your Head By far, the hardest part of writing for all college students, but especially students receiving corequisite support, is just getting their ideas on the screen or piece of paper.

Many students will just stare at a blank screen or a piece of paper, waiting for the words to come out.

Spend some time talking about how writing is a creative act, not something that happens after the creativity is finished. Almost all students like to be creative. It‘s fun to come up with new ideas and new ways of seeing the world. What you need to do is get them to turn off their internal skeptics. Some students in corequisite-supported courses may already feel like their ideas are not valued and that they aren‘t being listened to.

So, as this module suggests, show them that creativity is something they can try out without judgment. Put the emphasis on fun, and tell them you value whatever they come up with. Encourage them to be creative.

Explain that being creative is by definition inefficient. While creating something new, we keep trying stuff out, and much of it ends up not being used in the final version of the paper. That‘s fine. Students are often overly concerned about wasting time, wanting everything they write to be used in their papers. You can assure them that even those words, sentences, and paragraphs that don‘t end up in their paper will still help them make progress toward finishing the assignment.

What they will discover is that prewriting opens up many unexpected ways to think about their paper‘s topic, angle, purpose, readers, and context of use. Eventually, if they use their creative instincts, they will almost always come across ways to present their ideas in new and original ways.

Module 3.3 Concept Mapping (or Mind Mapping) Concept mapping is one of the more popular invention tools. You will find that students who are visual or spatial learners tend to gravitate toward this approach. It offers a way to see how ideas fit together rather than worry about whether those ideas can be turned into sentences. Students in corequisite-supported courses sometimes find concept

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mapping to be very helpful because they are better able to see relationships among ideas than by writing them in linear prose.

Activity 3.3.1 offers a standard step-by-step approach to creating a concept map. Ask your students to put their topic in the center of the sheet and then circle it. Then tell them to branch out, writing and circling their ideas on the sheet and connecting them with lines. Encourage them to keep working and not to erase, delete, or cross anything out as they are being creative.

Then, put your students into small groups and have them show off their concept maps.

This will allow them to begin verbalizing their ideas and connecting them into larger clusters of ideas, which will eventually become paragraphs or sections in their papers.

You might also try this technique by having students work on each other‘s topics in small groups. Ask one or two members of each group to volunteer their topic. Then, each group begins throwing out their ideas, while a group member writes them down on the sheet. A whiteboard or chalkboard can be an especially good place to do this kind of group invention. If you have a full classroom, it‘s going to get a little noisy, so be prepared!

Many software tools exist that can help your students brainstorm. A few are listed in the workshop, but your students can find others by doing an Internet search for ―concept mapping‖ or ―mind mapping.‖ These tools can be powerful and helpful to students who sometimes find it challenging to be creative in sentence form.

Module 3.4 Freewriting Your students most likely have some experience with freewriting. Their high school teachers probably taught them how to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and just start writing. In this module, your students will learn a couple of tips and tricks to keep the words flowing.

Ask your students to freewrite on their topic for five minutes. If you see them pause or stop working, ask them to finish the phrases ―What I mean is…‖ or ―The point I want to make is….‖ That will keep them moving. You can also remind them to answer questions, such as ―Why do I think…?‖ or ―The reason I think this is important is because….‖ You can also let them use Internet search engines to gather information that they can add to their map. That will also help them keep moving forward.

A nice technique is to ask them to darken their screen completely while they type. That way, they won‘t be tempted to go back and revise. You want them to keep writing for the full five minutes without stopping. After five minutes, they will be surprised at how much text they actually created.

When they are finished freewriting for five minutes, ask them to go through their freewrite to highlight or make note of the best three to five ideas they came up with.

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That will help them focus their ideas on some items that might be the real topic of their college essay.

Activity 3.4.1 offers some instructions for doing some freewriting with your students.

Frankly, a piece of paper or a blank document on a computer will do just fine. Then, you can go over these instructions again before they start their freewriting for their next assignment.

Module 3.5 Brainstorming Lists of Ideas Brainstorming is the simplest and perhaps the most powerful way to generate new ideas. In this module, your students will learn how to use a two-column (or two-step) approach to brainstorming. In the left column, they should list out everything they know or associate with their topic. You can allow your students to use Internet search engines if they say they don‘t know much about their topic already. Ask them to brainstorm for at least five minutes, maybe ten.

But then—and here‘s the important part—ask them to star three to five of the top ideas in their brainstorming list. Then, in the right column, ask them to brainstorm specifically about those starred ideas. This approach will encourage your students to go deeper into the topic and narrow the scope of their argument. That will help them come up with a topic that can be handled in a college-length paper, while developing an angle that will make this topic new and interesting to readers.

You can do this two-column approach in a variety of ways. One way that works well is to have students fold a piece of paper in half length-wise. Keeping the sheet folded, they should brainstorm their first list on the left folded side of the paper. Then, have them star those three to five top ideas, flip the folded paper over, and brainstorm about those items in the other column. Then, ask them to unfold their sheet of paper and look at both columns. They can share their ideas in small groups.

Students will discover that they a) know more about their topic than they expected and b) are able to narrow down their topic to something they can actually handle over the next week or two.

Activity 3.5.1 offers an exercise that you can use with your students. However, like most pre-writing tools, brainstorming can be done on a blank sheet of paper or a blank document on a screen. You want your students to see that brainstorming can be done just about anywhere at any time. They don‘t need a worksheet or special software to generate new ideas. Just get started!

Module 3.6 Using the ―Five-W and How‖ Questions Writers of all kinds, but especially journalists, use the Five-W and How Questions to figure out the basic facts of a story. A chart, like the one shown in Figure 3.5, can be helpful for getting those facts out on a sheet of paper or a screen.

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Your students might find the Internet helpful here. They can concentrate on answering each of the who, what, when, where, why, and how questions by running searches.

Your students will also have their own ideas about how these five questions can be answered. Have them write whatever they find or know about the topic in Activity 3.6.1.

You may need to tell your students that it‘s all right to take guesses or put question marks by the Five-W and How Questions that they cannot answer right now. These guesses and question marks will signal areas where they will need to do some research. Activity 3.6.1 will help them get started, whether on paper or in their Pearson+ version of The Corequisite Support Workbook.

What you‘re really after is teaching them that getting into the habit of asking the Five-W and How Questions is a good way to start understanding any topic. Not only do these questions help a writer better identify the facts regarding a topic, but they can also help that writer better understand the story that can be told with these facts.

Workshop 4: Writing a College Paper Students who recently graduated from high school often know a version of the fiveparagraph essay (introduction paragraph, three topic paragraphs, conclusion paragraph). They‘ve also been taught that the thesis statement should appear at the end of the introduction, and they will often begin the conclusion paragraph with a transition like ―In conclusion,….‖ It might surprise you that we, the authors of Writing Today and The Corequisite Support Workbook, are not resistant to teaching the five-paragraph essay at the high school level. The five-paragraph essay is an artificial and sometimes rigid school genre, but it provides students with a basic sense of structure for a genre. With the five-paragraph paper, students learn how to write an introduction, body, and conclusion. They learn how to craft a thesis and to place it near the end of the introduction. In other words, high school students who have learned the five-paragraph essay genre have a general sense of how writing can be structured.

College papers need to be much more complex and flexible in structure, so the fiveparagraph essay usually won‘t work except for essay exams. Nevertheless, students‘ knowledge of the five-paragraph essay can be used as a starting point for talking about more complex genres that are used in college and careers.

In this workshop, your students will begin this process of moving beyond the fiveparagraph essay and learning how to use other genres. They will learn about how to write effective introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions that are more complex.

Finally, they will learn how headings can be used to signal the structure of the text.

Module 4.0 How Should You Put Your Paper Together?

After you have done some pre-writing exercises with your students, you can transition to drafting their papers. Here is a good time to talk again about writing as a process. Now that they have their ideas down in the form of freewriting, concept mapping, 18 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

brainstorming, or the Five-W and How Questions, they can begin using drafting techniques to shape those ideas into sentences and paragraphs.

A good way to start this process is to use the old speechwriter‘s guideline, ―Tell them what you‘re going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them.‖ Your students may have heard this before, but they probably haven‘t connected this familiar pattern to writing papers. Nevertheless, it‘s a very helpful tool for recognizing that almost all college papers will have a beginning, middle, and end, and that introductions, bodies, and conclusions each serve an important purpose.

Activity 4.0.1 is designed to encourage students to talk about public speaking. A few of them will say they enjoy public speaking. Maybe they were on the debate team or just like getting up in front of an audience. The majority of them will say that they don‘t like to speak in public or are even scared of doing so. The activity will give them an opportunity to realize that most people don‘t like to speak in public.

As they are reflecting on their own experiences with public speaking, turn the discussion toward writing. The ―Tell them what you‘re going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them‖ pattern is a useful tool for helping both public speakers and writers. Many of their anxieties about public speaking also underlie their anxieties about writing college papers. They will see that they can use the speechwriters‘ three-part guideline to start figuring out what the introduction, body, and conclusion of a college paper are supposed to achieve.

Module 4.1 Writing Your Introduction (Tell Them What You‟re Going to Tell Them!)

As you know, students often struggle with writing the introductions of their papers. The usual advice is to skip the introduction and start drafting the body of the paper. Then when the rest of the draft is finished, return to write the introduction. That‘s not bad advice, but it often means students are drafting before they have a full grasp of their topic and purpose.

A better way is to ask students to write one or two sentences for each of the five ―moves‖ described in this module. Activity 4.1.1 will guide them toward making these five moves:  Identify their topic (what the paper is about).  Write down a couple sentences of background information about that topic.  Explain why this topic is important to the readers.  State the purpose of the paper.  State the main point (the thesis) they want to support or prove in the paper.

The magic of this activity is that your students will essentially be writing down the content of their introduction paragraph. Of course, the sentences they write down will need to evolve, especially after they have completed the body of the paper. But making these five moves is a great start toward composing that introduction. Meanwhile, they 19 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

will have a good sense of their paper‘s purpose and main point, which will help them develop a better rough draft of their papers.

Module 4.2 Writing Your Thesis Statement The thesis statement is perhaps the most important but also the most overrated feature of a college paper. Students often obsess about the thesis statement to the point that they cannot move forward with writing a first draft. You mighthear them say something like ―I can‘t start writing until I figure out what my thesis is going to be.‖ The thesis statement becomes a roadblock to getting a draft written.

In this workshop, we try to bring the concept of the thesis statement back down to earth.

The division of thesis statements into ―informative‖ and ―argumentative‖ categories is admittedly a bit rudimentary, but we want to encourage writers to get past the thesis as a barrier to writing their drafts.

Using this informative vs. argumentative distinction, begin by asking your students what kind of paper they need to write for this assignment. Are they informing their readers by describing, comparing, defining, notifying, or demonstrating something? Or are they persuading their readers by arguing a point, recommending action, advocating for a cause, defending an idea, or supporting something or someone? If they are informing the readers, then they will need to craft an informative thesis statement. If they are persuading the readers, an argumentative thesis statement will be needed. The idea is to simplify the decision and then provide some common keywords that students can use to craft a first version of their thesis statement.

Activity 4.2.1 will help them draft that first version of their thesis statement. Your students can work with starter phrasings for the two types of theses. And they can try out some of the keywords that may serve as the key verbs in these statements. You can ask them to try out both informative and argumentative versions of their thesis statement and then see which one works best for the paper they envision.

In Writing Today, a third type of thesis is mentioned called a ―question thesis,‖ which is discussed in Chapter 2, ―Topic, Angle, Purpose.‖ We recommend teaching the informative and argumentative thesis statements to students in corequisite-supported courses because posing a thesis as a question can be confusing to writers who are still unsure about what a thesis statement is. That said, if they want to try using a question thesis, because they see that option in Writing Today, you can encourage them to try it out. All three types of thesis statements are effective, and they each do different kinds of work, depending on the type of paper your students need to write.

Module 4.3 Organizing the Body of Your Paper (Tell Them) Students who struggle to draft the body of their papers are often trying to compose linearly (in sentences) rather than spatially (in paragraphs and sections). Thinking linearly means they are trying to string sentences together, which can feel like walking in the dark or a fog. Thinking spatially means figuring out what kinds of paragraphs will

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be needed to write the paper. This is more like filling bins or spaces with ideas, which is much easier.

The genre diagrams in each of the Writing Today genre chapters (Chapters 6-15) can be helpful toward figuring out what kinds of paragraphs and sections are needed. In these genre diagrams, paragraphs and sections do things like describe something, compare and contrast two or more things, explain causes and effects, narrate a story, categorize or classify things, among other tasks. Genres tend to string together paragraphs and sections that perform these kinds of tasks.

In this module, students essentially learn to think of paragraphs as ―bins‖ into which they will put information. They can look at their concept map, freewriting, or brainstorming lists to see what kinds of content will fit in each of the bins in the genre diagram. This might sound a bit complicated, but these bins will help them visualize how their prewriting and research can be transformed into paragraphs. Just fill those bins with ideas and evidence!

Activity 4.3.1 will help them think spatially about their paper. Again, have them look at the genre diagram and figure out how the content can be organized into these bins. You don‘t want them to view the genre as a strict pattern to be followed, but the genre diagram will give them hints about how to organize their ideas in a logical and meaningful way.

Then, they can work bin by bin and turn each bin into a paragraph. Your students shouldn‘t feel like each bin needs to be only one paragraph. In some genres, like a research paper, a bin can become a whole section in their paper. If a bin grows rather large, you might encourage them to think of ways to divide that content into a few different paragraphs rather than one.

Module 4.4 Writing Your Conclusion Paragraph (Tell Them What You Told Them) Generally, the conclusion of a typical college paper will be one paragraph. Of course, the conclusions of longer documents, especially workplace documents, may include multiple paragraphs; but it‘s a good idea to encourage college writers to keep their conclusions to one paragraph. If a student‘s concluding paragraph grows too long, you can explain that it is probably too long for a college-length paper and may contain either too much repeated information or new information that should have appeared in the body of the paper.

The conclusion paragraph is often a reflection of the introduction, and it has many similar moves to the introduction. The work in Activity 4.4.1, just like the work you asked them to complete for the introduction, asks them to answer some questions about the purpose, main point, and importance of the topic. Your students can look back at what they wrote for the introduction and bring those items forward into the conclusion.

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The new features in a conclusion are a transitional phrase and a ―look to the future.‖ Encourage your students to try using a transitional phrase other than ―In conclusion,….‖ In the activity, they will find a few other transitional phrases to try out that signal the beginning of the conclusion. The look to the future, meanwhile, asks them to think ahead to what should happen next with this topic. What might the future look like regarding this topic? What do they expect or hope to happen with this topic?

Something you might talk about is not introducing any new information in the conclusion, except perhaps the look to the future. If they think the new information is vital to their paper, then that material should appear in the body, not at the last moment in the conclusion. New information tends to distract or redirect the readers in ways that undermine the purpose of the paper.

Module 4.5 Using Effective Headings in Your Papers Unfortunately, many first-year college students have been told they cannot use headings in their papers. They may have had teachers who forbade them from using headings, or they were just never taught how to use them. In today‘s college and workplace documents, headings are almost standard features, so students should be allowed to use them in their first-year writing papers, too.

In this module, students learn how to use phrase headings and question headings in their papers. Of course, one-word headings can be used, but they tend to lack the energy and detail of phrase headings and question headings.

Headings do two things for the readers. First, they help the readers recognize the organizational structure of the paper. The headings will often reflect the genre that the paper is using. Second, they help writers make transitions among larger sections of their documents. Each paragraph does not need a heading, of course, but every few paragraphs a heading can be used to represent some kind of turning point in the paper.

In Activity 4.5.1, students can come up with single-word, phrase, and question headings. Ask them to look for those larger turning points in their papers and add headings to signal those moments. This exercise will help them see those headings together, so they can observe how the headings work together to signal the structure of the paper.

Workshop 5: Writing Stronger Sentences Your students have been writing sentences of one kind or another since they were five or six years old. So they already know how to write sentences and how sentences tend to function. But your students may not have thought about how sentences work or what sentences do for some time.

This workshop goes back to basics to draw your students‘ attention to some basic concepts that will allow them to write plainer and stronger sentences. Sentences are indeed the building blocks of writing. If those building blocks are not solid, though, the paragraphs, sections, and documents in which they are used will not be solid either.

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Some back-to-basics review of sentences can help your students better understand higher-order issues with style and grammar. Even though they‘ve been writing sentences for years, they should now take a closer look at how these building blocks of writing actually work and do their magic.

Module 5.0 Why Is This Sentence So Hard to Read?

Surely, you can imagine the eyerolls from your students when you begin talking about the elements of a basic sentence. Are we really talking about subject-verb-object elements in a sentence? What‘s next, writing ―The cat sat on a mat‖?

This module reminds your students of some syntactic concepts they learned long ago but may not have used for years. The module then ramps up to talking about why some sentences are so difficult to understand. The ―When crossing the street…‖ example shows how long sentences can create confusion as the subject-verb-object pattern is expanded into a sentence that has many possible subjects, verbs, and objects.

You might ask your students to find complex sentences in their textbooks or on the Internet. They can then explore why these sentences are hard to understand by identifying the subject and verb at their core. More than likely, they will see that these sentences are hard to read because that subject-verb core is difficult to find or the existing one is not really what the sentence is about.

Activity 5.0.1 asks your students reflect on a type of writing that they will be familiar with—texting. They have most likely experienced situations in which the person they are texting responded with confusing or ambiguous texts. The exercise in Activity 5.0.1 of explaining to an older family member why texts might be confusing will help your students think in simpler terms about when sentences become hard to understand.

Module 5.1 Finding the Doer and the Main Action of the Sentence The key to clear sentences is to clarify who is the ―doer‖ in the sentence and what they are doing. If the doer is not the subject of the sentence, your students can revise the sentence to ensure that the sentence is clear about who is doing what.

Activity 5.1.1 gives your students a series of sentences to practice revising. In this exercise, ask your students to highlight or underline the subject and verb in the sentences. Below is an answer key with these features underlined. From 1-9, the sentences become harder to understand. You can show your students how sentences become harder to understand as the subjects and verbs become harder to find in the sentence.

Answer Key to Activity 5.1.1: 1. Jose cruised around town on his longboard.

2. The cedar trees on campus cause my allergies to flare up each spring.

3. The food courts here at Bristol College need more options for vegetarians.

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4. Instead of partying this weekend, my roommates drove to Chicago for a Cubs game.

5. If you want to do well in your classes, you should go to class!

6. Calculus was easy in high school, but it‘s much harder in college.

7. When Steph yells at her dog Bella, the poor thing sulks in her crate for hours.

8. The cause of Anita‘s success is tenacity.

9. The entire pizza was eaten by my Saint Bernard, but Christina did not think that was as funny as I did.

Module 5.2 Putting the Doer of the Main Action in the Subject of the Sentence To make a sentence clearer, your students should practice moving the doer in the sentence into the subject of the sentence. When your students run into a complex sentence, they should ask themselves, ―Who is doing something in this sentence?‖ Then, move that doer into the subject of the sentence.

Below is an answer key to Activity 5.2.1that shows a likely answer to each prompt. The hints at the end of each sentence are designed to help them find the doer so they can revise the sentences. When you discuss answers with your students, show them how moving the doer into the subject slot of the sentence makes the sentence easier to understand.

Answer Key to Activity 5.2.1: 1. My dog caught the Frisbee.

2. The icy roads caused the driver to swerve.

3. My roommate ate my cookie, which made me really unhappy.

4. Julie could have said that better in a variety of ways.

5. Juwan realized that working with Jamie is difficult when he‘s hungry.

6. The storm blew the tree over.

7. The Chicago Tribune often highly ranked my high school‘s football team.

8. Some students enjoy a dip in the hot tub after a rough test.

9. Caleb realized that making new friends in college is harder than it looks.

10. My friends and I always have fun running out for ice cream at midnight.

Module 5.3 Stating the Main Action of the Sentence as a Verb This exercise is complementary to the one they completed in Module 5.2.. Here, your students will learn to look for the action in the sentence in order to revise for clarity.

Finding the action will help them identify who is doing something in the sentence. Then, they can revise the sentence to help the reader understand who is doing what.

Activity 5.3.1 will give your students practice with finding the action in the sentence.

Then, they can revise the sentence to put the action into the verb of the sentence.

When you discuss your students‘ answers with the class, reinforce that putting the action in the verb of sentence will usually make it easier to read.

Answer Key to Activity 5.3.1: 24 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

1. The police investigated the burglary.

2. The team was confused because the coaches‘ directions were confusing.

3. When diving underwater, you should save enough breath to get back to the surface.

4. The work crews always compete to be done first.

5. He confessed to breaking the window accidentally.

6. Elise did not like to admit mistakes.

7. Yusaf hosted parties at his house.

8. My dog was obsessed about the lost ball.

9. The scientists presented an analysis of the data.

10. We concluded that Nutella is really good when mixed with peanut butter.

Module 5.4 Turning Passive Sentences into Active Sentences Passive voice is not wrong, but often sentences are clearer if they are rewritten into active voice. This module gives your students an opportunity to practice revising passive sentences into active sentences. These revisions should demonstrate that active voice is often easier to read and more concise.

The trick to turning passive-voice sentences into active-voice sentences is finding the doer and the main action of the sentence. So, keep asking them ―who is doing what‖ as they try to figure out who is the doer and what action that doer is doing.

In many cases, some of your students may have been taught that passive voice should always be avoided. That‘s unfortunate, because many sentences are easier to read in passive voice. So, after they have revised the sentences in Activity 5.4.1, ask them to discuss whether the original or the revised sentence is clearer and easier to read. In most cases, their active-voice revision will be clearer, but in some cases, they may decide that the passive-voice original was clearer.

Answer Key to Activity 5.4.1: 1. The colorful parrots perched on the trees.

2. Jeremy completed the video game, Thor‟s Revenge, in only three hours.

3. The principal addressed the students‘ concerns a few days too late.

4. I still like the soundtrack from Hamilton best.

5. The presidents of China and the United States signed the trade agreement.

6. Last Friday, a tornado destroyed a house in our neighborhood.

7. After leaving the harbor, the captain steered the sailboat to Cuba.

8. Two volunteers, Gina and Lars, stocked the food pantry overnight.

9. Several people from my family attended the football game.

10. After the half marathon was over, the runners gobbled up the granola bars.

Module 5.5 Making Sentences Breathing Length One of the main reasons why sentences are hard to read is they go beyond ―breathing length.‖ For many students, figuring out whether a sentence is too long can be difficult.

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Explain that the period, as a punctuation mark, was originally invented to signal ―take a breath‖ when a book or other document was being read out loud. Thus, a sentence should be comfortably readable out loud in one breath. If a sentence is difficult to read out loud in one breath, it should be shortened or divided into two (or more) sentences.

Activity 5.5.1 gives students some opportunities to turn an excessively long sentence into shorter sentences that are breathing length. A variety of answers are possible, but below is an answer key that shows a good answer to each prompt. When discussing your students‘ answers, point out that the breathing-length sentences are easier to understand.

Answer Key to Activity 5.5.1: 1. The history of rapping can be traced back for centuries to the African continent, where chanting stories musically was common. The hip-hop movement began in the streets of America as young Blacks were trying to break out of the restrictive boundaries that controlled the pop, soul music, and rhythm and blues genres that dominated urban music.

2. Coming down from a thunderstorm cloud with wind speeds of about 300 miles per hour, a tornado is a rotating column of air that typically forms when warm moist air and cool dry air meet. The warm and cool air cause a spinning movement in the atmosphere below the cloud, which sends an updraft through the tube to the cloud itself.

3. Perhaps the reason why people are so fascinated by zombie movies is that they reveal weaknesses that we perceive in our societies and political systems. Zombie movies do so in a way that is clearly fictional with zombified people collectively walking (or maybe running) around looking for brains or human flesh in a mindless and relentless way.

4. As a kid growing up in small town Idaho, playing soccer and being a passionate fan meant that I was out of step with most of the people in my town. They tended to follow the major sports like football, basketball, and baseball, so I always found it challenging to explain my favorite sport, which is the most followed around the world, to people who tend to think of the sport as boring or even confusing.

5. With a smile, people in my Puerto Rican New York neighborhood often remember our tito‘s obsession with pizza. Even though he still had a strong Puerto Rican accent, he was always known to make some of the best Neapolitan pizza in the south Bronx. Even my Puerto Rican friends somehow thought he was Italian.

Module 5.6 Combining Sentences Sentence combining was a common teaching tool a few decades ago. Unfortunately, writing instructors began to obsess about the merits of sentence combining, turning a useful tool into a chore for students.

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You can still use sentence combining to help your students turn a couple or more short sentences into a more meaningful longer sentence. When you are teaching sentence combining to students, explain that sentences should be comfortable to read out loud. A string of very short sentences, while appropriate at times, will often cause the reader to feel like they are breathing quickly (taking many short breaths). Combining sentences allows a writer to slow down the reading pace for the readers. Meanwhile longer sentences (if not too long) allow writers to form more complex thoughts for the readers.

With Activity 5.6.1, you can show students how to use conjunctions and other grammatical devices to combine two or more short sentences into a longer sentence.

These revised sentences will be easier to read and carry more meaning.

Answer Key to Activity 5.6.1: 1. Henri went to the store, because he needed to buy some milk.

2. Bike commuting is good for the environment and also good for your health.

3. Wolves are amazing animals, but they are often misunderstood, while many myths about wolves are wrong.

4. Country music and the blues have similar lyrics, because both types of music tend be about loss and love. They also tell stories about working-class struggles.

5. Zoos are unethical, because they keep animals in cages where they don‘t have the freedom to roam. Maybe we should put people in cages, so they can better understand how that feels.

6. The beach is great, because people are always having fun. They like to play beach volleyball, lie out in the sun, and wade and swim around in the water.

My favorite thing to do at the beach is watch other people.

7. An earthquake can be dangerous, because it shakes buildings around and stuff falls off shelves. During an earthquake, you need to move as quickly as possible to get under a desk, look for a doorway, and stay calm.

8. I needed to make a choice between basketball and affording college. I love basketball, and I was good enough to play at a Division III college, but those colleges don‘t offer scholarships for sports. I decided to go to a state university, because it was cheaper. Even though I couldn‘t make the basketball team, I‘m still happy with the choice I made.

9. I find that hunting is fun as a woman, because I like to be with my father and brothers. Few women hunt, but they might like it because it‘s outdoors.

Hunting helps you respect nature, and it helps you understand how animals live and think.

10. The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call, and the government was not ready. People did whatever they wanted, and they didn‘t take it seriously. The pandemic went on much longer than it should have with many people dying who could have survived.

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Workshop 6: Revising Paragraphs Many writing instructors point to good paragraphing when asked to identify a top habit of successful writers. The purpose of a paragraph is to group sentences together that support or prove a major point. On their own, each sentence offers a fragment of the main point, maybe one or two ideas. Together, the paragraph is the whole that is greater than the sum of these fragments. Assembled in a cohesive way, these sentences gel together to make larger points possible. A group of paragraphs, similarly, can be put together in a way that supports or proves a larger thesis statement or overall main point for the document.

Students often struggle with paragraphing. Of course, they are able to make breaks in the prose when they feel like it‘s time for a new paragraph. Maybe they have even been told that a paragraph must have five or perhaps seven sentences. These kinds of rules are arbitrary shortcuts designed to urge students to add paragraph breaks in their writing. Unfortunately, many standardized-test-taking tricks, such as the number of sentences required for a paragraph, have morphed into rules whose origins have been lost.

By the way, a paragraph can have any number of sentences, depending on what is needed to make its major point. Five sentences in a paragraph is reasonable, but that‘s not a rule.

Students have also been taught some rather rigid ideas of where the topic sentence of a paragraph should appear. They may have heard that ―the topic sentence must appear in the first sentence, third sentence, or the last sentence in the paragraph.‖ But some students are now taking whatever they think they learned previously and using it as a law of writing. You may need to help them understand that these rules were probably not intended to be used rigidly.

Module 6.0 What Do Paragraphs Do? Figure 6.1 in this workshop gives your students an overview of four different types of sentences in a basic paragraph: transition sentence, topic sentence, support sentence, and point sentence. Our intention is to simplify the terminology of paragraphs in a way that students can remember, not to replace old rules with new rules. You may have your own advice, and we welcome you to expand on what we offer.

Activity 6.0.1 asks your students to share what they have been told about paragraphs in the past. This activity should help you talk about what paragraphs are for and dispel some of the myths that have formed around these important features of text.

Finally, keep in mind that Workshop 6 is about body paragraphs in documents, not about introduction or conclusion paragraphs. Body paragraphs tend to be ―top down,‖ meaning the topic sentence tends to be placed early in the paragraph (except for narrative paragraphs). Introduction and conclusion paragraphs were discussed in Workshop 4, ―Writing a College Paper.‖ 28 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This workshop is designed to support Chapter 21 of Writing Today, ―Developing Paragraphs and Sections.‖ You can turn to that chapter for more information about paragraphing.

Module 6.1 Identifying the Topic Sentence of a Paragraph Students sometimes struggle with the concept of a topic sentence. Until now many of them have been simply breaking for a new paragraph when they feel it‘s time or they want to move to a new topic. For students in courses with corequisite support, we suggest defining the topic sentence as ―a sentence that announces the paragraph‘s subject and makes a statement or claim that the rest of the paragraph will support or prove.‖ Generally, we advise students to put the topic sentence early in a paragraph, usually the first or second sentence. However, narrative paragraphs, especially in fiction, regularly put the topic sentence at the end of the paragraph.

These guidelines aren‘t rules, but they will often help students in corequisite-supported courses understand how to better construct paragraphs. In college, most students will need to write texts that are top-down in structure, meaning a paragraph‘s topic sentence tends to be early in the paragraph. It will make a statement or claim that the remainder of the paragraph can support or prove. As your students become stronger writers, they can innovate with topic sentences, but while they are still learning, they will have more success constructing clear paragraphs if they follow the advice that ―topic sentences should appear early in the paragraph, preferably the first or second sentence.‖ Answer Key to Activity 6.1.1: This activity is asking them to find and highlight the topic sentence and then move it to an early place in the paragraph.

In Paragraph 1, the topic sentence is ―It is easy to distinguish grizzlies from black bears as the physical features of the grizzly are noticeably different.‖ Point out to your students that the rest of the paragraph is talking about the features of grizzly bears. So they can move this sentence up front in the paragraph.

In Paragraph 2, the topic sentences is ―Although the loss of habitat poses a significant threat to the grizzly, it is human activity that poses the greatest threat to their survival.‖ Again, as in Paragraph 1, you will notice that Paragraph 2 is essentially about this specific claim. The remainder of the sentences are offering proof for this claim.

When your students have cut and pasted the topic sentence at the beginning of these paragraphs, ask them to revise each topic sentence to better lead off the paragraph.

This will show them how a topic sentence establishes a statement or claim that the remainder of the paragraph will support or prove.

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Module 6.2 Using Support Sentences in Paragraphs Support sentences are used to support or prove the statement or claim in the topic sentence. You might look for example paragraphs in magazines or on the Internet that show how support sentences are used to back up topic sentences.

Again, keep in mind that this workshop is discussing paragraphs in the body of a college paper, not the introduction paragraph or conclusion paragraph, which tend to be written differently (see Workshop 4 in The Corequisite Support Workbook).

Support sentences tend to provide the following kinds of support or proofs for topic sentences:        

Examples Details Reasoning Facts Data Narrations of events Definitions Descriptions

A combination of these sentences can be used to construct a paragraph. Of course, your students don‘t need to use all of these sentences. Usually, a few support sentences are enough to support or prove the topic sentence.

In Activity 6.2.1, your students are being asked to find support sentences that support or prove these two topic sentences. They can find any number of sentences that would support either of these topic sentences. To avoid teaching them to copy full paragraphs (i.e., patchwrite), we suggest teaching them to paraphrase the sentences they find in other sources. This will show them how a few support sentences can be used to support or prove a statement or claim.

You can ask your students to turn to Chapter 17 in Writing Today, ―Citing, Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing Sources‖ to learn more about how to paraphrase information from other sources.

Module 6.3 Using Transitional Words and Phrases to Bridge Sentences Teaching students how to use transitions can be one of those ―two steps forward, one step back‖ kinds of moments in a writing class. Of course, transitions are a useful feature in all forms of writing. Transitions help bridge sentences, and writers use them to redirect the flow of the reading. For example, when readers see the transition ―In addition,‖ they know that the writer is going to add an additional example or other kind of support to the previous sentence. We all use transitions when speaking, for example, to signal the direction of our discussions.

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The one step back, however, is that your students may tend to overuse transitions after you explain how they work. Students who rarely used transitions in previous papers will now start inserting transitions between most sentences, whether those transitions are warranted or not.

That‘s fine. Overusing something they learned recently is a way for your students to try out something new. This allows them to figure out how that new thing can be used appropriately.

You might draw your students‘ attention to the transitions in a reading, perhaps an example text from Writing Today or an article on the Internet. You might talk about how transitions work similarly to road signs or arm signals by traffic cops. Transitions show the readers what direction the argument is taking. While you‘re showing how these work, you can ask your students to determine whether each transition in the reading is a good use of transitions or a bad use of transitions.

Activity 6.3.1 will give your students an opportunity to insert transitions in prose. Using transitions may seem obvious to an experienced writer like yourself, but many students have not had practice in using these devices for bridging and redirecting the flow of writing. Their previous instructors may have been concentrating on the subject-verbobject aspects of the sentences and not ―extras‖ or flourishes like transitions. In this activity, your students can see how choosing the appropriate transition can smooth out the gaps between sentences and properly direct the flow of information.

You can pair this workshop‘s coverage of transitions with Chapter 21, ―Developing Paragraphs and Sections,‖ in Writing Today.

Answer Key to Activity 6.3.1: Sentence Set 1: Therefore/Consequently and In addition Sentence Set 2: For example and Therefore Sentence Set 3: For instance and If necessary

Module 6.4 Bridging Two Paragraphs with Transitions This module uses what your students learned in Module 6.3 and shows them how transitions, transitional phrases, transitional sentences, and transitional questions can make bridges between paragraphs. Transitions between paragraphs are helpful when a writer is trying to change the topic significantly or redirect the flow of the discussion.

We like to say that a transition is usually needed when the gap between two paragraphs feels like a ―kerchunk‖ to the readers. In these situations, the reader is moving through the prose and the gap between two paragraphs feels sudden or sharp. This feeling is hard to describe in technical terms, so kerchunk is the way we describe it. To show examples, you can remove transitions between paragraphs in professionally written texts to demonstrate to your students how this kerchunk moment feels.

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Activity 6.4.1 gives your students an opportunity to practice using transitions between paragraphs by inserting the transitions and transitional sentences that seem to best bridge the gap.

Answer Key to Activity 6.4.1: Paragraph Set 1: To clarify, the terms “take” and “harm” are defined in the following ways.

Paragraph Set 2: Nevertheless or perhaps To illustrate

Module 6.5 Types of Paragraphs This module should be paired with the information on paragraphing in Writing Today, Chapter 22, ―Using Basic Rhetorical Patterns.‖ You won‘t be able to teach students fully how to use these six types of paragraphs with this module alone. Rather, our hope is that students learned some of these rhetorical terms in high school, such as ―cause and effect‖ and ―comparison and contrast,‖ so they have a general sense of what different kinds of paragraphs can accomplish.

Each of the types of paragraphs described in Figure 6.2 achieves a different purpose.

They all contain a topic sentence and support, but the patterns they follow do a different kind of work. A narrative paragraph tells a story. A cause and effect paragraph explains the cause(s) of something and then its effect(s). And so on with the other types of paragraphs.

These types of paragraphs can be used to construct an argument, as shown in the example of writing a review. You can show students how these paragraphs become building blocks to develop the structure of an argument.

Admittedly, this use of paragraphs is a higher-order skill that more advanced students may be more ready to try. If a student is still learning the concept of topic sentences and support sentences, teaching them about the different types of paragraphs may be a bit confusing at this point. So, we recommend using this activity with students who are already feeling comfortable with the basics of paragraphing. Learning about the types of paragraphs is the next level for these students, giving them a new challenge.

Activity 6.5.1 asks your students to use paragraph-stacking to create a paper. Stacking is a more advanced form of outlining that helps them see how the paragraphs guide the reader through an argument. In this case, your students are being asked to compare and contrast the pros and cons of living on campus or off campus.

There are, of course, many ways to fill out the boxes on the left and lines on the right, but here is a possible answer to this activity.

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Answer Key to Activity 6.5.1 Introduction Paragraph Description Paragraph—This paragraph will describe a few types of oncampus housing options.

Description Paragraph—This paragraph will describe a few types of offcampus housing.

Comparison and Contrast Paragraph—This paragraph will compare and contrast the various advantages of living on campus or off campus.

Comparison and Contrast Paragraph–This paragraph will compare and contrast some of the disadvantages of living on campus or off campus.

Conclusion Paragraph

Your goal is to demonstrate to your students that stacking paragraphs allows them to develop an overall sense of how their argument might be structured. Meanwhile, they can see how various kinds of paragraphs do different kinds of work in a written text, allowing them to better and more quickly draft out their papers.

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Workshop 7: Doing Research and Citing It Most composition courses today include some form of a research project, whether it‘s a traditional research paper, a workplace-like research report, or a research proposal.

Research-centered mini-genres such as a briefing, white paper, research poster, or infographic are also commonly taught in composition classes.

Module 7.0 Why Do Research?

We recommend teaching students how to do research in a methodical way.

Unfortunately, the statement ―I did my research‖ has become a meme in our society, because it usually means that someone scrolled through social media to confirm whatever they already believe. Doing research, as we all know, involves so much more than a quick Internet search to find sources that we already agree with. Some of those sources are dubious at best.

Doing research, as your students will learn in Chapters 25-29 of Writing Today, is a methodical process that needs to be learned with practice. In this part of Writing Today, your students can learn the steps for doing research properly and then citing that research accurately in their written work. You can use the modules in this workshop to strengthen that process.

Activity 7.0.1 is designed to raise your students‘ awareness of the downfalls of using social media as a basis for ―research.‖ When doing this activity, you might ask your students to describe the difference between using reputable sources for research and simply looking for sources that confirm pre-existing biases.

You might ask your students to first write down what they believe are legitimate sources of information. Then, you might contrast those sources with sites they believe are fake news, promoters of conspiracy theories, or sites for humor. Put your students into groups and ask them to come up with a Top 5 or perhaps a Top 10 list of ―Trustworthy Sources.‖ Then, have them come up with a Top 5 list of ―Not Trustworthy Sources.‖ They can put their lists on a whiteboard or a shared online document.

More than likely, the lists will cause some debate. Are Fox News and HuffPost reliable news sources? What about so-called mainstream news, such as ABC, NBC, or Public Television (PBS)? What are the ways to tell reliable news sources from unreliable news sources?

Module 7.1 Is This Real News or Fake News?

Generally, students are rather savvy about distinguishing real news from fake news, but not always. The purpose of this module is to encourage them to look for the telltale signs that a source is not trustworthy. A few of your students may believe that fake news is evidence that they just don‘t want to believe. Your goal in this module is to help them tell the difference between their own personal biases and evidence that may be true but doesn‘t fit their biases.

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The website FactCheck.org offers some helpful strategies that you and your students can use to test whether a source is providing real news or fake news. Activity 7.1.1 asks your students to go online and find a news story that they believe is ―fake news.‖ Then, they should use the FactCheck list to put that news story to the test.

You are going to get some interesting responses to this exercise and probably some debate about what can be counted as a legitimate source. Are conservative or liberal blogs reliable sources for information? Or are they too biased to stand up to scrutiny by the FactCheck list? What about highly partisan news sources like the One America News Network (OANN) or Daily Kos? The purpose of this activity is to get students discussing what they find acceptable as real news and why other sources are fake.

Keep asking them why they accept these sources as reliable.

To avoid accusations regarding your own biases, you should probably avoid confirming or denying whether you believe that a source is reliable or not, true or fake. Instead, ask students to talk through the FactCheck list and come to a consensus if they can.

Module 7.2 Focusing a Research Question Surprisingly, many students have never really formed a research question to lead off a research project. They may have identified a topic in the past, and they may have come up with a thesis statement about that topic. Maybe their teachers have told them what research question to answer.

If they were allowed to choose their own topics, they have probably been too broad to address in a college paper. Their thesis statement may have been something they already believed to be true, so they didn‘t subject it to a thorough examination from two or more sides.

In this module, your students will learn how to pose and then narrow down a research question that they can answer in a college paper. Activity 7.2.1 walks them through a process of narrowing down that research question. They are asked to think about the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the topic, using each of these questions to sharpen their research question and come up with something more specific. That way, they will actually begin with a question that they can answer in the small amount of space they have available in their paper.

Students will often push back against the idea that they need to narrow their research question. A college research paper or report, after all, is a large document, probably the largest document they have ever written. So they will want to leave open any and all opportunities for collecting evidence. As they collect sources and evidence, though, you should keep pointing out how a more focused research question actually saves them time.

On just about any topic for a college paper, there will be plenty of information and evidence available—too much, actually. You want them to see that the narrower the research question, the better they can focus on the argument they want to make. A 35 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

narrower research question keeps them from growing overwhelmed by the amount of information and the various voices available on this topic.

Module 7.3 Turning a Research Question into a Working Thesis or Hypothesis Converting your students‘ research question into a working thesis or hypothesis is the next step in the research process. The word ―hypothesis‖ sounds rather exotic, so we recommend using the term ―working thesis,‖ even though they basically mean the same thing. The idea of a working thesis will help them understand that their original thesis is something that will change and evolve while they are completing their research project.

To develop their working thesis, ask them to do some informal research on the Internet.

Then, have them come up with a statement that they believe answers their research question. Of course, their working thesis won‘t be the final version of their thesis, but it will provide a direction that they can follow. Their working thesis can and should evolve as they find sources and uncover new evidence. Indeed, you should encourage them to view their working thesis as a work in progress, not something they are trying to prove.

That will help them keep an open mind as they do their research.

Chapter 25 on ―Starting Your Research‖ in Writing Today has plenty of good advice about these first steps toward collecting evidence.

Activity 7.3.1 is designed to help your students make the pivot from a research question to a working thesis. Then, your students can identify five types of sources for finding information that supports or challenges their working thesis. They can write down specific sources, like articles from magazines or journals, or they can write down types of sources, such as interviews with experts or surveying people.

Hold off on telling them what might be the best kinds of sources for their projects.

Rather, let them trade ideas in class with their groups. They will discover that others in the class have some good ideas about where they can find sources and evidence.

Sharing ideas will give them a better sense of the kinds of sources that are available.

Module 7.4 Triangulating Sources Triangulation is a way to encourage your students to slow down and crosscheck their sources. Of course, some students are in a rush, so they grab the first five sources that pop up in an Internet search. If you are requiring them to also find one journal article or maybe a couple books, they will use the first ones that come up on your library‘s search engine.

This approach to finding sources lacks rigor or even effort, but students do tend to focus on meeting the expectations of the assignment. If you say ―five print articles and two books,‖ that‘s usually what they will try to find. The first ones that pop up in a search probably seem just as good as the others. Engaging in real research requires more open-minded exploration of sources and evidence.

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To urge them to do better research, triangulation asks them to find evidence across various kinds of sources, specifically electronic, print, and empirical sources. The purpose of this module is to learn that the evidence provided in one kind of source, say something they find on a blog or something they learned on television, may or may not be trustworthy. But, if they find similar kinds of evidence in electronic, print, and empirical sources, they can feel more confident that this evidence can be trusted.

Does that mean anything found in all three types of sources is true? Of course not. The purpose of triangulation is to slow students down and invite them to challenge their sources and the evidence in those sources. It‘s completely possible to find bad information in three different types of sources. Triangulation is not completely foolproof.

Activity 7.4.1 is designed to help students track down and triangulate their sources. This work is best done with a group. Ask each group to identify a source presenting information as a ―fact‖ or ―evidence.‖ Then, ask each group to look for a similar fact or evidence in another type of source. Ask the groups whether all three sources are drawing from one common source. If so, ask them if they trust that one common source, or would it be a good idea to dig deeper for more support?

Mostly, you want to encourage students to talk about how triangulation helps them doublecheck information among multiple sources. They will notice that the evidence they could find only in one source looks rather shaky when they can‘t find something similar in other sources. In some cases, you will hear students say something like, ―My biology professor might be able to tell us if this is true,‖ or ―Let‘s see if someone has written something like this in an article or book.‖ At that point, your students will be digging a bit deeper to confirm what they have found. That‘s good!

Module 7.5 Using an In-Text Citation Honestly, first-year college students often haven‘t learned to properly cite their sources in MLA or APA style. They may have been taught to use in-text citations in high school, but their teachers were probably satisfied if they cited sources at all. In college, professors will expect their in-text citations to be properly formatted and used correctly.

In this module, your students have an opportunity to practice using in-text citations. We recommend letting them use a citation generator from the Internet or their word processing program. Granted, these software tools don‘t require writers to go through the full process of generating the citation, but they are helpful in teaching students how to recognize when they have crafted their citation correctly.

Admittedly, these generators are not always accurate (i.e., garbage in, garbage out).

And there is a benefit to crafting full citations out by hand. That said, citation generators are becoming quite accurate, and it‘s unlikely writers will be creating their own full citations much longer. Your students are probably better off learning to use the tools they will use in the future.

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Activity 7.5.1 provides full bibliographic citations. Ask your students to create in-text citations for these sources, preferably with a citation generator. That will give them an opportunity to practice using citation generators and creating the in-text citations they need to include in their college papers.

Answer Key to Activity 7.5.1: Reference Abel, Daniel and Grubbs, R. Dean. Shark Biology and Conservation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2020.

Armstrong, Sue. ―Great White Sharks Defy Hollywood Image.‖ New Science, 144, 1994: p. 16.

Benchley, Peter. ―Great White Sharks.‖ National Geographic, 197(4), 2000: pp. 2–29.

Broad, William J. ―Uncovering the True Nature of a Great White Hunter.‖ National Wildlife, 37,1994: pp. 48–51.

Klimley, A. Peter. ―The Predatory Behavior of the White Shark.‖ American Scientist, 82, 1994, pp.

122–133.

Monterey Bay Aquarium. ―Sharks.‖ Montereybayaquarium.org, https:// www.montereybayaquarium. org/animals/animals-a-to-z/ sharks#siteWrapper.

Accessed 15 Sept. 2020

Page Number 52

MLA In-Text Citation (Abel and Grubbs 52)

APA In-Text Citation (Abel & Grubbs, 2020, p. 52)

16

(Armstrong 16)

(Armstrong, 1994, p. 16)

15

(Benchley 15)

(Benchley, 2000, p. 15)

48-50

(Broad 48-50)

(Broad, 1994, pp. 48-50)

125

(Klimley 125)

(Klimley, 1994, p. 125)

No page number

(Monterey Bay Aquarium)

(Monterey Bay Aquarium, n.d.)

Module 7.6 Creating a List of Works Cited or References As with in-text citations, your students may need some re-learning about how to construct full bibliographic references for their Works Cited (MLA) or References (APA).

More than likely, they were taught in high school, but they may not remember the details.

You should pair this workshop with Writing Today Chapters 28 and 29 on using MLA and APA style. Those chapters will help your students learn how to craft good citations.

In this module, your students will learn a step-by-step method for gathering and citing their sources in MLA and APA bibliographic style. Activity 7.6.1 asks them to sort out the bibliographic information provided by the source itself. Will they need to do this for every source? No, of course not. The purpose of this activity is to get them to slow down and look for these features of the source. After a few tries, they will get used to finding 38 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

this bibliographic information and figure out where to look for these details in their sources.

You can then move on to Activity 7.6.2, in which they will practice correcting inaccurate bibliographic citations, which are in MLA format. Citation generators will sometimes spit out a reference that is not quite correct. This exercise will help them identify these imperfections and correct them. Students will often find that they can more easily see the problems in someone else‘s Works Cited than in their own.

To complete this exercise, ask your students to use the examples in Chapter 28, ―Using MLA Style,‖ of Writing Today or an online sourc e like the Purdue OWL. Answer Key to Activity 7.6.2: Works Cited Bamford, James. Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency from the Cold War through the Dawn of a New Century. Doubleday, 2001.

Erdrich, Louise, The Night Watchman. Harper Collins, 2020.

Gioe, David V., et al. ―Can United States Intelligence Community Analysts Telework?‖ Intelligence and National Security, vol. 35, no. 6, 2020, pp. 885–901, doi:10.1080/02684527.2020.1767389. ―Iran at Center of Cyber Crime Charges in Three Cases.‖ FBI, 18 Sept. 2020, www.fbi.gov/news/stories/iran-atcenter-of-cyber-crime-charges-in-three-cases-091820.

Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. "United States Secret Service." Government Agencies, edited by Donald R. Whitnah, Greenwood, 1983, pp. 12–28.

Knott, Stephen F. Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American Presidency. Oxford UP, 1996.

McMahon, Adam M. ―Layering and the Foundations of the Modern American Surveillance State, 1970-2020.‖ Intelligence and National Security, vol. 35, no. 6, 2020, pp. 823–839.

Ransom, Harry H, ―Secret Intelligence in the United States, 1947-1982: The CIA's Search for Legitimacy.‖ The Missing Dimension: Governments and Intelligence Communities in the Twentieth Century, edited by Christopher M. Andrew and David Dilks. Macmillan, 1984, pp. 199–226.

Watner, Carl. ―Computers and Privacy: National Identification Revisited from a Voluntaryist Perspective.‖ The Voluntaryist, no. 190, 2021, pp. 1–6. ProQuest, https://search.proquest.com/docview/2376705804?accountid=13360.

Zegart, Amy, and Morrell, Michael. "Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: Why U.S. Intelligence Agencies Must Adapt or Fail." Foreign Affairs, vol. 98, 2019 (pp. 85–96).

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Workshop 8: Fixing the Dirty Dozen Grammar Errors For strategies that address responding to and evaluating students‘ grammar, consult the section titled ―Dealing with Issues of Grammar and Issues of Correctness‖ in Part I of the Writing Today instructor‘s manual, ―Responding to and Evaluating Student Work.‖ This workshop and Workshop 9 (―Punctuating Correctly‖) describe several strategies for teaching students to construct sentences that adhere to the conventions of what we‘ll call here ―Standard Written English‖ (SWE).

Principled Decisions About Grammar Instruction in Your Writing Class All of us writing teachers understand that there‘s more to becoming a fluent writer than simply writing sentences that adhere to the conventions of SWE. In fact, decades of scholarship have made it abundantly clear that teaching grammar alone does not improve students‘ writing. For an excellent and highly accessible review of research into teaching grammar, plus helpful ideas for incorporating grammar instruction into effective teaching, consult Mark Blaauw-Hara‘s article, ―Why Our Students Need Instruction in Grammar, and How We Should Go about It.‖ As the authors of The Corequisite Support Workbook, we recognize that SWE is just one of many standards—many dialects and accents—for writing and speaking. SWE tends to be the one used in many colleges and workplaces. The last thing we want to do—or indeed, need to do—is suggest that students‘ home dialects are less valued.

Instead, like all dialects, SWE has its uses in particular contexts, including academic contexts and many workplaces.

Students should learn to shift conventions to reach readers specific to the contexts in which they are communicating. Their ideas will be judged on whether they fit the needs of those readers and their contexts.

The role of grammar is contested space in writing studies. Students from diverse linguistic backgrounds may not have learned SWE conventions, let alone write with them fluidly. SWE uses grammatical conventions, but it is just one of countless English grammars. Traditionally, it has been what writing teachers considered ―correct,‖ with violations considered ―errors.‖ As Matsuda advises, we should not ―assume that all writers share more or less the same intuitive knowledge of language structures and functions.‖ In reality, however, the knowledge language held by individual language users varies. No one is a perfect language user, and writers from distinct sociolinguistic contexts (i.e., regional, socioeconomic, ethnic) often come with noticeably different language features in their heads—and in the writing. (68–69) While not all writing instructors come from backgrounds in which SWE was the dominant dialect, most can ―follow its rules‖ almost unconsciously. It has become their accustomed way to write in academic contexts. However, this is not the case for many 40 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

students, who have come from diverse linguistic backgrounds in which the dominant dialect may not be SWE, even at school. Adhering to its conventions requires deliberate, conscious decisions. Gaining fluency requires practice and time.

As a writing instructor, you will need to decide where you stand on issues of grammar and correctness. You might consider the following questions about grammar instruction: 1. How will I explain to my students what ―correct grammar‖ is (and what it is not), and how will I explain why it‘s important in academic and other contexts to become more fluent with SWE? 2. How will I incorporate grammar instruction into my overall teaching—in the classroom, as homework, and for grading?

3. How will I understand and negotiate the fact that many—or even all—of my students come from a diverse range of language backgrounds and practices, whose home dialects differ from SWE? 4. How can I help them understand that some former attitudes they may have experienced—e.g., someone telling them that their home dialects are ―not correct English‖ and that struggles with SWE are the result of mental and cultural ―deficits‖—are no longer tolerated?

There are no simple, straightforward responses to these questions, and you should discuss the contested nature of grammar and usage with your students. As Matsuda advises, teachers should carefully consider these questions and make thoughtful and ―principled decisions.‖ We don‘t want to give the impression that a universal correct grammar exists; however, we can acknowledge that SWE is common in academic contexts and workplaces.

Practical Strategies for Using Workshops 8 and 9 Now let‘s take a look at some strategies for incorporating Workshops 8 and 9 on grammar and punctuation into your overall instruction, and for helping students gain fluency in grammar conventions.

Supplement these modules with other instruction. Use these activities to begin or supplement your discussions of other modules. If your campus has a writing center, help students find it for additional small-group or individual instruction on grammar and punctuation.

Keep it simple, and teach grammatical concepts in small, short doses. To keep students from losing interest, mix in the grammar instruction with the higher-order elements of writing (e.g., content, organization, style, design).

Teach grammar as one part of the writing process. For a developing writer, anxiety about correctness will impede creativity, invention, and drafting. Neither you nor they should focus on grammar or even proper punctuation during the invention and early drafting stages.

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Teach grammar as a rhetorical strategy. Grammar is a rhetorical concept and therefore open to argument. Using a grammar appropriate to the rhetorical situation is a matter of establishing ethos. They should recognize that using a community‘s grammar is a way to join and/or speak to that community.

Strategies for Encouraging Students to Continuously Improve College is supposed to be a waypoint in life, not a destination. Only a few students will ―master‖ the very complex (and sometimes contradictory) codified rules of English grammar. Most of your students will be struggling with some issues even when the semester ends, and that‘s fine. Learning to use grammar and punctuation conventions in academic and workplace contexts is a process, because they are evolving all the time.

Teach them how to ask for help with final editing. Because many students may need editing help throughout their college careers and even beyond college, it‘s important for them to learn how to find help—and that it‘s okay to ask for help. Students who grew up learning SWE may hear a grammatical problem when they read the sentence aloud. However, writers from more diverse linguistic backgrounds and practices may not be able to hear that problem. An editor or tutor can help them recognize where improvements could be made.

Teach them how to use grammar checkers. Students should understand that grammar checkers can help them spot errors, but grammar checkers don‘t recognize all problems, and they sometimes flag items that are not problems. Today‘s grammar checkers do a pretty good job, but they‘re still not perfect.

Finally, you should welcome conversations with your students about grammar and punctuation. In some situations, you will need to be the judge of what will work and what doesn‘t work with specific readers in a given context. That said, students should understand that grammar and punctuation conventions are evolving and open to discussion and even debate. That‘s part of the fun of becoming a stronger writer. They can join those conversations.

Works Cited and to Consult These resources offer additional insights into and practical strategies for teaching grammar and correctness in the writing classroom.

Bean, John C. ―Dealing with Issues of Grammar and Correctness.‖ In John C. Bean, Engaging Ideas: The Professor‟s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, Jossey-Bass, 2011, pp. 66–88.

Blaauw-Hara, Mark. ―Why Our Students Need Instruction in Grammar, and How We Should Go about It.‖ Teaching English in the Two-Year College, vol. 34, no. 2, 2006, pp. 165–178.

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Horner, Bruce, and Laura Tetreault, editors Crossing Divides: Exploring Translingual Writing Pedagogies and Programs,” Utah State UP, 2017. ―Introduction to Translingual Writing.‖ Purdue Writing Lab, owl.purdue.edu/owl/teacher_and_tutor_resources/translingual_writing/index.html, Accessed 31 July 2021.

Matsuda, Paul Kei. ―Writing Involves the Negotiation of Language Differences.‖ Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts in Writing Studies, edited by Linda AdlerKassner and Elizabeth Wardles, UP of Colorado, 2016, pp.68–71.

Tchudi, Steven, and Diane Mitchell. Explorations in the Teaching of English. 3rd ed, Harper, 1989.

Module 8.0 Why Is Grammar Important Anyway?

As discussed in the previous section, students need to understand why it‘s in their own interest to become fluent in the grammatical ―rules of the road.‖ They may see them as arbitrary, something that is cared about by ―other people, not me, and not the people I know.‖ But a college education aims to prepare them for a broader world where the people they need to interact with do care about these conventions.

It might be helpful for students to notice that there are conventions everywhere and that conventions vary with the context. Here are some topics you might choose to talk about in a mini-lecture to prepare them for thinking about Activity 8.0.1. 





Judging people on appearance: What happens when people are judged by their appearance? You might foreground this discussion with an illuminating short video you can find by searching the Internet for ―judging people by their appearance.‖ (You‘ll find several excellent short videos.) Maybe you weren‘t wearing the appropriate clothes. Maybe you were or were not wearing the ―correct‖ jewelry for the context. Was it fair for people to judge you for something that you didn‘t know or that was beyond your control? The point is, it‘s not fair, but it happens, and it‘s best to always understand the conventions you‘ll be judged by.

The nature of conventions: Which side of the road is the “correct” side? It‘s a convention that drivers in the U.S. and most countries drive on the right side of the road and steering wheels are on the left side of cars, but in Great Britain, Australia, Japan, and other countries, everything is turned around. Do an Internet search ―Driving on the left side of the road,‖ and you‘ll find several short videos that illuminate how strange it is for Americans to drive on the left side of the road.

Show one of these in class. Afterward, explain that in these contexts it‘s literally a matter of life and death to follow the conventions, and that conventions are always a matter of context—or the rhetorical situation.

Students’ own experiences: Were they ever judged harshly for something that was beyond their control—e.g., their appearance or the language they used? Yes, of course they were. Everyone has experienced this. You might do this as a write-pair-share exercise that goes like this: o Write. For three to five minutes, write about a time when someone judged you unfairly for something you could not control. That might be your

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appearance or your language. What happened? Why did that person judge you, and how did it make you feel? o Pair. Now for five to eight minutes, share your writing with one or two of your classmates in small groups. Each person should read their writing out loud followed by a small-group discussion. o Share. Bring the discussion to the larger group, asking for volunteers to share what they themselves wrote or what someone in their group wrote. o Follow-up to discussion of grammatical conventions. Now your students should be in the right frame of mind for understanding why the conventions of correctness are important.

While the suggested activities above ask students to explore concrete or personal experiences, Activity 8.0.1 asks students to reflect on something broader, more abstract, and more closely related to rhetoric and writing. In this activity, students consider using a person‘s grammatical errors as an argumentative strategy. Of course, this is not a valid strategy but instead a logical fallacy that occurs when someone uses an irrelevant point to attack an argument. (For more on this topic, consult ―Avoiding Logical Fallacies‖ in Chapter 23 of Writing Today.) Afterward, consider devoting some class time to exploring their responses, either in a plenary group or in an activity like a write-pair-share.

Note: You can find an abundance of strategies for conducting group work in Part I of the Writing Today instructor‘s manual, ―Conducting Group Work and Peer Review.‖ Another excellent resource is chapter 10 of John Bean‘s Engaging Ideas: The Professor‟s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. (Jossey-Bass, 2011).

Module 8.1 Comma Splice A comma splice happens when two independent clauses are joined with only a comma.

There are three ways to easily fix a comma splice:  Divide the two independent clauses with end punctuation (covered in Module 9.1)—a period, question mark, or exclamation point.  Begin the second clause with one of the seven coordinating conjunctions in English—for, and, nor, but, or, yet, or so (summarized in the acronym FAN BOYS).  Divide the two with a semicolon (covered in Module 9.4)—which is grammatically correct but should be used sparingly.

First, help your students recognize an independent clause. A clause is ―independent‖ when it can stand by itself—independently. If either side of the sentence can stand alone by using a period, the sentence needs something stronger than just a comma.

Then in group work or a participatory class discussion, have students examine several sentences. Ideally, you could come up with sentences that address a topic the students are currently writing about.

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Many people—including some well-educated people—believe that however and therefore can join two independent clauses. (Some other ―conjunctive adverbs‖ include thus and furthermore.) That‘s not the case unless you include the word and before therefore.

Your students may ask, ―What about words such as because, when, as, and since?‖ It‘s true that these conjunctions can make a sentence grammatically correct, but adding a conjunction to a clause renders it a dependent clause. (Using conjunctions to combine sentence is covered in Module 5.6, ―Combining Sentences.‖) They might even ask, ―What about a colon or a dash?‖ Again, it‘s true those could work to make a sentence grammatically correct. (They‘re covered in Modules 9.4 and 9.6.) If they don‘t ask about these, it‘s best to keep it simple so your students aren‘t overwhelmed with information.

The answer key for Activity 8.1.1 below offers one possible correction for each sentence, but none of these corrections is the only possibility. With your students, play around with these, exploring different ways to correct. You might ask your students for other possibilities and then ask them to weigh in about which they prefer and why.

Answer Key to Activity 8.1.1: 1. The tree was hit by lightning, but it missed hitting the trailer home.

Alternatives: a. Delete the comma and use a period instead (or a semicolon, though we caution students to use them sparingly). b. Add a coordinating conjunction after the comma. c. Make one of the clauses dependent (see Module 5.6), e.g., “When the tree was hit by lightning,. . .”

The same alternatives could apply to other questions.

2. Our trip to Florida was amazing! We spent most days on the beach.

3. Woody‘s, our favorite restaurant, recently had problems with food poisoning, and therefore many people won‘t eat there anymore.

4. The weather was perfect for hiking in the mountains, but my feet were in too much pain.

5. Our Labrador retriever leaped into the pond. It grabbed the stick and swam back.

6. The ball flew straight up in the air, and Yolanda spiked it over the net.

7. I felt something hit my hair as the bird flew over me, but I was afraid to see if it had pooped on me.

8. Shopping for clothing is not my favorite thing to do. Carey made it fun, though.

9. The canoe was hit by the big wave, so we held on for dear life!

10. We had a choice: eat the pizza with ants crawling on it, or we could spend our last 20 dollars on a new pizza.

Note: This one is more complex. We could correct the sentence simply by eliminating the comma and adding “or”, but a comma plus “or” would be incorrect.

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Module 8.2 Fused Sentence A sentence is ―fused‖ when two independent clauses are joined without a comma. Like a comma splice, a fused sentence can be corrected with end punctuation, a comma plus a coordinating conjunction, or (less commonly) a semicolon.

Use Activity 8.2.1 to give your students additional practice with correction. This can be done in small groups or by way of a participatory discussion.

The answer key below offers one possible correction for each sentence, but none of these corrections is the only possibility. With your students, play around with these, exploring different ways to correct. You might ask your students for other possibilities and then ask them to weigh in which they prefer and why, or which might be best, say, in a certain context.

Answer Key to Activity 8.2.1: 1. My mom made us dinner. She never liked to cook, though.

Alternatives: a. Use a period instead of a comma (or a semicolon, though we caution students to use them sparingly). b. Add a comma and a coordinating conjunction. c. Make one of the clauses dependent (see Module 5.6), e.g., “Although my mother….”

Note that the “though” becomes redundant when “however” is added. The same alternatives could apply to other questions.

2. The roofers were hammering away, and then I heard them gasp and start shouting.

3. Sam‘s dog was barking in the back yard, so they knew something was wrong.

4. The earthquake shook the house, and stuff was falling and breaking all around us.

5. It seemed like we were going to be fine after the storm. The wind had stopped, and we didn‘t see much destruction in the house, but then we went outside.

(Note that this sentence has three independent clauses and needs three fixes.)

6. We were a bit disappointed with the ending of the movie Frozen II. Too many issues weren‘t explained.

7. Drake doesn‘t always get the credit he deserves, but he‘s clearly one of the best hip-hop artists of his generation.

8. Living in the suburbs might seem like an ideal life. However, many dark secrets are hiding inside those tidy houses, though.

Alternative: Living in the suburbs might seem like an ideal life, but many dark secrets are hiding inside those tidy houses, though.

9. Skateboarding was the best way for me to express myself, but my grandmother never really understood that.

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10. Hitting a curveball isn‘t as hard as people think. Just keep your eye on the ball.

Alternative: Another possibility is to change the period to a colon (covered in Module 9.4).

Module 8.3 Sentence Fragment In some cases, sentence-fragment issues result from carelessness, but many students may not have learned what counts as a fragment in SWE. With practice, most students can learn to identify them by reading them aloud, so you may wish to take some time in class to give your students that practice. You can read the examples out loud, or you can ask for a student to read an example.

After they‘ve read, ask them ―Is this a fragment?‖ If it‘s recognized, then ask ―What‘s missing here?‖ With a little practice, most students will get the hang of it. The first two answers in the answer key below simulate a discussion that you might have in class or in a student conference.

Because there are so many possibilities for correcting these sentences, this can be a fun classroom activity, as students can make silly but grammatically correct suggestions.

Answer Key to Activity 8.3.1: 1. Must have been a great place to go.

You: Is this a fragment?

Student: Yes. Y: Why? What‟s missing?

S: You can‟t tell what would be a great place to go.

Y: Right. So it‟s missing a subject. How could you fix it? What needs adding here?

S: You could add “your house.”

Y: So now read the sentence with the subject added.

S: “Your house must have been a great place to go.”

Y: That‟s great. What other subjects would work? [etc.]

2. The explosion about a mile away.

You: Is this a fragment?

Student: Yes. Y: Why? What‟s missing?

S: What about the explosion? What happened to it?

Y: Right. So what is it missing, a subject or a verb?

S: A verb?

I: Yes, a verb describes what a subject does or what happens to it. So how could you fix it? What would you add here?

S: You could add “was.”

I: How would the sentence read then?

S: “The explosion was a mile away.”

I: Perfect. What other verbs could we add? [etc.]

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3. The guys who were watching from the sidelines saw the game.

4. Because the truck broke down, we missed class.

5. Our dog ran into the garage completely terrified, with the bear on his tail.

6. The car twisted in the air, as we saw it coming down with a large crunching noise.

7. I knew I was going to be a swimmer when they put that medal around my neck.

8. Life can be a challenge in a small town, especially when you‘re different.

9. As a person who needs to be with others, I thought measles were the worst thing that could have happened to me.

10. The sand and water, tan and blue, swirled around us.

Because sentence fragments are often the result of carelessness, this would be a good time to reinforce the idea that final drafts should be read out loud to find any errors.

Module 8.4 Subject-Verb Disagreement Note: Some or many of your students may come from backgrounds where the subjectverb-agreement conventions differ from SWE. For these students, this grammar convention has not been internalized and must be self-consciously considered in order to spot a problem. For them, simply reading a sentence out loud may not help them identify an issue. That is, it may take them time and practice to get the hang of it. Make a principled and context-sensitive decision about how important mastery is, even by the end of the semester. Determine whether it‘s appropriate and helpful for you to count them as errors that lower their grade—whether at all or substantially.

Even for native English speakers, there‘s a lot here, probably too much to cover in a single classroom mini-lecture—and remember that students‘ ability to focus on grammar is limited to a short while, probably around 10 to 15 minutes, even if you‘re incorporating active-learning strategies. Therefore, handle this subject in shorter sessions, sequencing them together across several sessions as you see fit.

As you‘re covering this in class, remember that some of your students must consciously remember, consider, and apply the codified rules, which ―just sound right‖ for some. The point is many students will need time and practice before they become fluent with these rules. Make a principled choice about how you would correct these errors, i.e., how much—if at all—you will penalize a student grade-wise for making them. We recommend that if you do impose a penalty, it should be very minor.

The corrections for the questions in Activity 8.4.1 are straightforward. That is, usually a best response is available. Still, keep in mind that not all students will have internalized these rules, and it may be difficult for them to master this codified rule.

Answer Key to Activity 8.4.1: 1. My dad, who really hates to mow lawns, struggles with the lawnmower each Spring.

2. The bakery that we love in town opens at 7:00 sharp every morning.

3. Jane and Maria loves the way the light shines on the lake each evening.

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4. If the neighbors really care about the environment, they needs to put the cans in the recycling bin, not in the trash.

5. The eagle that lives by the two rivers scoops up fish right in front of our eyes.

6. Painting houses all summer are is a difficult job.

7. Your collection of posters from Taylor Swift concerts needs to be put in the basement, or I‘m putting up my Phish posters.

8. When I‘m on campus, I often finds myself wondering how people make friends with people they don‘t know.

9. I decide right there that the pie or the cookies isare going to be dessert tonight.

Remember, when two or more subjects are connected with “or,” the verb should agree with the last item in the list of subjects.

10. Every year, Lionel‘s frat brothers or the house mother declares loudly that they can‘t stand Valentine‘s Day.

Module 8.5 Pronoun-Antecedent Disagreement Note: As with subject-verb agreement, this grammar issue is another one that may be less difficult for someone who has thoroughly internalized the conventions of SWE. However, for a student who has not internalized this rule, this grammar convention must be consciously considered in order to spot a problem. Reading a sentence out loud may not help them identify an issue. Make a principled and context-sensitive decision about how important mastery is, even by the end of the semester. Determine whether it‘s appropriate and helpful for you to count these as errors that lower their grade—whether at all or substantially. We suggest highlighting pronoun-disagreement problems and keeping the penalties to a minimum.

For more ideas, read the introduction in the previous section, ―8.4 Explain why a sentence has a subject-verb disagreement.‖ Answer Key to Activity 8.5.1: 1. Any artist would be pleased to have his their work displayed in the Tuttle Gallery.

Alternative: Change “his” to “his or her.”

2. After the team scored a goal, they it met at the midfield line to celebrate.

Alternative: Change “they” to “the players” or something similar.

3. Before you jump out of the plane, everyone needs you need to double-check these straps.

Alternative: It‟s possible to imagine a context in which “everyone needs” would be correct, e.g., a parachuting class where indeed everyone needs to check a certain person‟s straps.

4. I asked all violinists in the orchestra to bring her their own chair.

Alternative: Change “her” to “her or his.”

5. When you fall while skiing, anyone you should expect a little pain.

Alternative: “When anyone falls while skiing, they should expect a little pain.”

6. Val and Yunghee like to go shopping at Thrifttown because she they always gets the best deals.

Alternatives: Change “she” to “Yungee,” “Val,” or “shoppers there.”

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7. Each of our rockets experienced broken fins when they were it was launched.

Alternative: All of our rockets experienced broken fins when they were launched.

8. All of the dollar bills had something weird written on it them.

Alternative: Each of the dollar bills had something weird written on it.

9. Some of the mint plants, including my peppermint, lost its their pleasant scent.

Alternative: Each of the mint plants, including my peppermint, lost its pleasant scent.

10. After we lost the game, you we just knew the coach was going to be disappointed.

Alternative: Change the “you” to “I.”

Module 8.6 Apostrophe Errors There are two uses for an apostrophe covered here: to make a contraction or to signal possession. (There are some other uses we don‘t cover here.) The module begins, however, with the its/ít‟s distinction, which is a common confusion for many writers.

As with other modules, if you‘re going to cover these three principles in class, consider spreading the lessons over two or three sessions.

Activity 8.6.1 gives your students a chance to practice using these grammar principles.

Answer Key to Activity 8.6.1: 1. The horse had a mind of it‘s its own.

2. Theyv‘e They‘ve decided to go to the beach this summer rather than the mountains.

3. Haley picked up Pablos‘ Pablo‘s skateboard and threw it over the fence.

Alternative: Is it possible there are two Pablos? If so something like this would be called for: “Haley picked up the two Pablos‟ skateboard…”

4. The childrens‘ children‘s mother was very upset at the speeding car. This one might be tricky, especially for translingual writers. Children is already a plural, and therefore the apostrophe should be placed between the “n” and the “s.”

5. When Chris is angry, shes she‘s really difficult to talk to. The word “she‟s” is a contraction of “she is.”

6. Whats What‘s really making me upset is that people never stopped to help.

Another contraction.

7. When I reached over to get the dogs dog‘s bone, it growled at me.

8. Somethings Something‘s seriously wrong with that professor.

9. Because he speaks softly, its it‘s difficult to understand what he‘s saying.

10. The ships ship‘s mast snapped when it hit the bridge.

Module 8.7 Misused Commas The misuse of commas is among the most common errors for students. In fact, the misused comma before a dependent clause is listed among the most common errors even for more experienced writers.

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Note that we have chosen to greatly simplify the very complex rules governing comma use. When students are learning these principles, more is not better but instead just more confusing. We writing teachers tend to be grammar aficionados, and we love the complexities. Most of our students, however, are usually best served by keeping it simple.

For instance, note that some dependent clauses do require a comma to set them off. In this sentence, the second clause is made dependent by although and yet needs a comma to set if off: ―The ice cream was delicious, although it melted quickly.‖ Another example from among countless other possible complications involves the word because. A comma sometimes makes all the difference in meaning. These two sentences have entirely different meanings.

I am not marrying you because you have a strong personality. (I am marrying you, but the reason is not your strong personality.)

I am not marrying you, because you have a strong personality. (Because of your strong personality, I have decided not to marry you.)

Activity 8.7.1 can serve as helpful homework or as a classroom activity.

Answer Key to Activity 8.7.1: 1. To play disc golf, I need my new discs, that aren‘t chewed up by my dog.

Misused comma before “that.”

2. Jimmie wanted to hang out at the courthouse, and then go to Faye‘s house.

Misused comma before a dependent clause.

3. My grandparents, were hesitant to even ask us about school.

Misused comma between the subject and verb.

4. To open the door, I leaned my shoulder into it, and pushed as hard as I could.

Misused comma between the subject and verb. Note that the first comma is not grammatically necessary, and some style guides would advise not using one here.

5. The bear, that finished eating the food on the picnic table, started shaking the camper.

Neither comma should be used. The first misuse is the comma before “that.” It might be helpful to remind your students that “The bear that finished eating the food on the picnic table” is the subject, although a long and complex one.

6. The final sandwich sat alone on the plate, and was never eaten.

Misused comma between subject and verb. The clause before that comma is the subject.

7. The phrase dead as a doornail, is something I never understood.

Misused comma between subject and verb. The clause before that comma is the subject.

8. As they say, where there‘s smoke, look for fire.

The first comma is probably necessary here. But it‟s true that a case could be made for keeping the second comma. Sometimes, when done deliberately, sidestepping the exact rules for rhetorical effect is the smart thing to do.

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9. Life in high school, can be a real challenge when you‘re different.

Misused comma between subject and verb. The clause before that comma is the subject.

10. The bicyclist saw my truck in the dark, but he still rammed into the tailgate.

The second clause in the original is dependent; adding the word “he” makes it independent. Simply deleting the comma altogether is another correct possibility.

Module 8.8 Dangling Modifiers Writing or saying a sentence with a dangling modifier is one of those mistakes that probably everyone makes at some point or another. Rarely do they result in a serious misunderstanding of the writer‘s meaning. In other words, this is not among the most serious missteps that a writer can make, although this issue may be something you want to be sure that your students understand and know about. On the other hand, because it rarely results in a communication breakdown, this is a module you may choose to skip over.

Note that dangling modifiers are one of the few grammar issues that rarely would be identified by grammar checkers.

Humor can be a powerful tool for learning. Playing around with dangling modifiers can be fun—even funny—and that‘s one reason you may choose to take some time in class covering them. Here are a few humorous dangling modifiers: One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don‘t know. –Groucho Marx in the movie Animal Crackers Driving slowly in our car along the forest highway, an enormous grizzly bear and her cubs came upon us. (And this is why you should always lock your car doors when camping.)

After finishing our mediocre meals and then sitting far too long before a table full of dirty dishes, the waiter finally appeared and rudely presented the check. (I hope they complained to the manager about that gluttonous waiter.)

Panting heavily and barking loudly, I could tell that my dog was ready for me to throw the frisbee one more time. (The speaker seems more excited about this than the pet. Pant, pant!)

Have some fun with the dangling modifiers in Activity 8.8.1. Obviously, there are many ways to modify these dangling modifiers. Ask your students to come up with a variety of remedies.

Answer Key to Activity 8.8.1: 1. Shouting loudly that I would be late, I realized my keys were nowhere to be found.

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2. While we were riding horses through the forest, our dogs were searching for squirrels.

3. Almost tearful with her sadness, I put back the old wedding dress and tuxedo were put back in the attic.

4. When we‘re hungry, even disgusting food starts to sound good.

5. After we had finished enjoying our dinner, the video games were the main attraction for the rest of the night.

6. Getting to class one minute late, I saw the professor glared at me as I took my seat.

7. Hoping to get a free lunch, I met my parents at the restaurant was where I met my parents.

8. After I heard Hearing that bit of gossip, the rest of my day was devoted to figuring out if it was true.

9. As we were hiking Hiking down the mountain, the car suddenly came into our view.

10. Watching her chow Chowing down on her bowl of cat food, Jana sat there admiring the beautiful cat.

Module 8.9 Faulty Parallelism Note: As with other grammar issues, faulty parallelism is one that may be less difficult for someone who has thoroughly internalized the conventions of SWE. However, for a student who has not internalized this rule, this grammar convention must be consciously considered in order to spot a problem. Reading a sentence out loud may not help them identify an issue. Make a principled and context-sensitive decision about how important mastery is, even by the end of the semester. Determine whether it‘s appropriate and helpful for you to count these as errors that lower their grade—whether at all or substantially. We suggest highlighting faulty-parallelism problems but keeping the penalties to a minimum.

Activity 8.9.1 will give your students some practice with identifying and fixing a sentence with faulty parallelism. Note that our explanations use grammar terms that are not going to be important or helpful to most students, but we‘ve included them because you may have some students who are interested in these issues.

Answer Key to Activity 8.9.1: 1. All day, we went swimming, hiking, and eating great food.

The first three items are gerund nouns while “eat” is a verb. Alternative: “All day, we swam, hiked, and ate great food.”

2. In the hot sun, the carnival had too many people, too much noise, and too many smells.

Although the list elements (“people,” “noise,” and “smell”) are all nouns, they are not parallel. Alternative: “In the hot sun, the carnival had too many people and too much noise and food.”

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3. Hating and to loveloving the same person has always been one of my problems with dating.

The first item, “hating,” is a gerund noun, whereas “to love” is an infinitive verb.

Alternative: “To love and to hate the same person is one of the problems I‟ve always had with dating.”

4. That summer we worked hard, studied hard, and did other things I can‘t tell you.

Because “worked” and “studied” are verbs, the third item in the list also needs a verb.

5. The parrot sat on the perch and sayssaid some naughty stuff.

While “sat” and “says” are both verbs, their tense is different. Alternative: “The parrot sits on the porch and says some naughty stuff.”

6. Being a housepainter and mowing lawns will make you look forward to going to class again.

Because “being” is a gerund, the word “mowing” must also be a gerund.

Alternative: “Being a housepainter and a mower of lawns will make you…”

7. Someday, I want to see the Sistine Chapel, throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, and visiting the Roman Colosseum.

All three of the verbs in the list must be in the same tense or case. Alternative: “Seeing the Sistine Chapel, throwing a coin in the Trevi Fountain, and visiting the Roman Colosseum are things I want to do someday.”

8. Patiently, quietly, and firmly, she showed us how to sew our own quilts.

All three items must be the same part of speech. (The first two are adverbs while the last is an adjective.)

9. Sebastian‘s favorite sports are baseball, soccer, and to bowling.

All items in a list should be the same part of speech. Here the first two are nouns and the final item is an infinitive verb.

10. My roommate walked quickly, circled the corner, and acted unpredictably.

Because “walked” and “circled” are verbs, the third item in the list also needs a verb.

Module 8.10 Pronoun-Case Error Note: The pronoun-case rule is another grammar concept that may not be difficult for someone who has thoroughly internalized the conventions of SWE. However, for a student who has not internalized this rule, this grammar convention must be consciously considered in order to spot a problem. Reading a sentence out loud may not help them identify an issue. Make a principled and context-sensitive decision about how important mastery is, even by the end of the semester. Determine whether it‘s appropriate and helpful for you to count them as errors that lower their grade—whether at all or substantially. We suggest highlighting pronoun-case problems and keeping the penalties to a minimum.

Activity 8.10.1 will give your students some practice with identifying and fixing pronouncase errors. Note that in some of the answer explanations, we‘ve explained why the structures are not parallel using grammar terms that are not going to be important or helpful to most students. We‘ve included them because you may have some students interested in those issues.

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Answer Key to Activity 8.10.1: 1. Damian will be stopping by later to see you and Ime. Using “you and I” in the objective case is an example of “hypercorrection,” the result of trying to sound correct and adhere to the rule. On the other hand, in some regions and groups of speakers, it adheres to the norm.

2. Eventually, an accident will happen to weus drivers.

This is another example of hypercorrection.

3. Julian and hershe were walking towards us on the sidewalk.

“Julian and she” are the sentence subjects, so the pronoun needs to be in the subjective case.

4. Jamie and myselfI will be attending the party tonight.

“Jamie and I” are the sentence subjects, so the pronoun needs to be in the subjective case. This is another hypercorrection error that even highly educated fluent English speakers often make.

5. Xavier insisted that we stop off to visit sheher, his sister, and their family the next day.

6. My roommate predicted that Jamel and meI would be dating within a week.

7. While flying back from Brazil, Gina and themthey started planning their next adventure.

8. Between you and Ime, we can agree that smoking is bad for people.

9. The honest truth is that me and Sharon and I just never really got along well.

10. As for she and hehim and her, they aren‘t people you will really miss after college is over.

Module 8.11 Shifted Tense Note: The shifted-tense rule is another grammar concept that may not be difficult for someone who has thoroughly internalized the conventions of SWE. However, for a student who has not internalized this rule, this grammar convention must be consciously considered in order to spot a problem. Reading a sentence out loud may not help them identify an issue. Make a principled and context-sensitive decision about how important mastery is, even by the end of the semester. Determine whether it‘s appropriate and helpful for you to count them as errors that lower their grade—whether at all or substantially. We suggest highlighting shifted-tense problems and keeping the penalties to a minimum.

Activity 8.11.1 will give your students some practice with identifying and fixing shifted tense errors.

Answer Key to Activity 8.11.1: 1. They are eating ate calamari as an appetizer, and then they gobbled down a full dinner.

Alternative: “They were eating calamari….”

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2. I will finish my assignment tonight when I hadhave finished studying for my math test.

3. My teacher wasis confused, because Ethan is asking ridiculous questions.

4. Everyone thought our strategy willwould win this time against the state champions.

Alternative: Although this sentence would mean something different, it would be grammatically correct: “Everyone thought our strategy won this time against the state champions.”

5. The deer leaps in front of our car, which causedcauses me to swerve and drovedrive into the ditch.

Alternatives: “The deer leapt in front of our car, which caused me to swerve, and I drove into a ditch.”

6. Last night, we seesaw the planet Jupiter near the moon, and then we spotted an even brighter planet, Venus, near the horizon.

7. The Spanish Flu iswas really bad in 1918, and many people around the world died.

8. The reporter was pressing the candidate about the scandal before she will even haveeven had a chance to say something.

9. My doctor is concerned that I had a concussion, especially after I knocked my head into the wall.

10. My mother walks five miles, and then she wentgoes shopping at the mall.

The suggested correction implies the mother‟s walking and shopping habits occur regularly, but if the writer intended to describe a single occurrence, the correction would be: “My mother walked five miles, and then she went shopping . . .”

Module 8.12 Vague Pronouns Note: As with other grammar issues, it may not be difficult for a person who has thoroughly internalized the conventions of SWE to recognize vague-pronoun issues.

However, for a student who has not internalized this rule, this grammar convention must be consciously considered in order to spot a problem. Reading a sentence out loud may not help them identify an issue. Make a principled and context-sensitive decision about how important mastery is, even by the end of the semester. Determine whether it‘s appropriate and helpful for you to count them as errors that lower their grade—whether at all or substantially. We suggest highlighting vague-pronoun issues and keeping the penalties to a minimum.

Activity 8.12.1 will give your students some practice with identifying and fixing vague pronoun errors. Unlike some of the other grammar issues we‘ve covered, vague pronouns are not just a matter of grammatical etiquette, but can often lead to genuine confusion.

If you cover these in class or in a conference, be sure to ask prompt students with a dialogue, such as: You: Where are the pronouns in this sentence?

Student: [responds, may need prompting help] 56 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

You: And what might a reader get confused about? [etc.]

Answer Key to Activity 8.12.1: 1. David and Gino were really upset about the comedian‘s racist jokes, so heGino called the management to complain.

Alternatives: change “he” to “David” or “they.” Similar alternatives could be applied to all of these questions.

2. Emily and Fran worked equally hard on their projects, so sheFran was disappointed when they earned very different grades.

3. Angela told Dana herthat Dana‘s pants had a huge rip at the knee.

4. I had a choice of root beer, orange juice, or water, so I decided to pick up a glass of iteach one on the way out the door.

5. Dogs and cats can behave quite differently around water, so I was surprised when itthe cat just jumped right in.

6. Having a good time and drinking are not necessary, so I avoided itthe drinking.

7. Brad picked up both his towel and his hat, and then he tied itthe towel around his waist.

8. Enrique drove his little brother to the game after heJaime finished eating his dinner.

9. The badger and the rabbit eyed each other before itthe rabbit scurried back into its hole.

10. The sheriff and a local reporter called the house, but theythe owner didn‘t answer.

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Workshop 9: Punctuating Correctly Note: Please see the introduction to Workshop 8, where we recommend several practical strategies for using the grammar and punctuation workshops (8 & 9) and offer guidance about making principled and context-sensitive decisions about the overall role of grammar instruction.

Module 9.0 What Does Punctuation Do, and Why Is It Important?

Note: In Module 8.0 of this manual, we offer a variety of practical strategies for introducing grammar and punctuation issues and helping students understand why they are important for writers. There you will find classroom strategies, including ideas for your mini-lectures and for conducting small-group work. Most of those principles and strategies can be used effectively when teaching punctuation concepts.

First, it‘s important that students see how appropriate punctuation helps and is often essential for conveying the meaning that the writer intends. Before or after assigning one or more of the punctuation workshops, in class you might ―act out‖ sentences that are similar to those offered in Workshop 9.0. This will help them see how a written text differs from the spoken word, and how punctuation can help a writer ―fill in the gaps‖ that are unavailable when using the written word.

Activity 9.0.1 asks students about a time they were misunderstood in a text or email.

Because text messages and emails are often misunderstood—even when exchanged among highly literate individuals, such as professors—all your students should be able to recall an instance when they encountered this situation. Some may prefer to discuss a time when they received a text that they misunderstood.

Incorporating this as a class activity, either in a plenary group or write-pair-share, can lead to an enjoyable and enlightening learning experience. If you do, you may find that some students will describe how emojis help them get their intentions across. That could lead to a productive comparison between emojis and traditional punctuation. In fact, emojis are most often used because they can prevent the misinterpretation of texts (of course you will want to explain to them that in many kinds of formal writing, emojis are simply not appropriate).

Module 9.1 The Period, Question Mark, Exclamation Point One of the most common mistakes made by students and many others is misplacing commas, periods, question marks, and exclamation points, placing them invariably outside instead of inside. And not only are the rules a little complicated, but the conventions are also different in British English, used not only in Great Britain but also in many other Anglophone nations. In addition, these writers use single marks for a first quotation and double marks for quotations inside of quotations; it‘s exactly the opposite in American English.

Activity 9.1.1 gives your students practice using the three kinds of end punctuation. For any of the sentences shown ending in a period or exclamation point, they could just as easily end with an exclamation point or period. It all depends on the context of the 58 Copyright © 2025 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

situation and what the writer or speaker intended. If incorporated into a classroom activity, this may lead to an engaging discussion.

Answer Key to Activity 9.1.1: 1. What should we have for dinner tonight?

2. First, take out the garbage and then rake the leaves.

This sentence might also be ended with an exclamation point, depending on the context and the writer‟s intentions.

3. I‘m absolutely delighted with the grade I received in computer science!

This sentence might also be ended with a period, depending on the context and the writer‟s intentions.

4. The weather forecast looks okay today, so I‘m not bringing an umbrella.

5. You‘re Johnny Fontaine‘s little brother, aren‘t you?

6. What‘s on the schedule in today‘s chemistry lab?

7. How wonderful! That‘s such exciting news!

Decide whether the appropriate end punctuation should go inside or outside the quotation marks.

8. Jeremy walked into the room and asked, ―Has anyone seen my pants?‖ Inside: The quoted words form a question.

9. And then Robert exploded with this news: ―I‘ve won the lottery!‖ Inside: The quoted words are an exclamation.

10. Did Maria really say, ―I‘m going to the party with or without you‖?

Outside: It is the writer who is asking the question, not the speaker whose words are quoted.

Module 9.2 The Comma Comma usage is a complex and difficult subject. Garner‟s Modern English Usage points out that the comma, among all the punctuation marks, ―is the one used in the greatest variety of circumstances‖ and that the accepted conventions of some uses have varied across history and writers‘ tastes.1 To keep it simple, we have listed just six of its uses.

(For instance, we do not cover the conventions for handling restrictive vs. nonrestrictive clauses.)

Because comma-usage rules are varied, complex, and even disputed among wellpublished authors, we suggest attending to errors but keeping the penalties to a minimum.

Activity 9.2.1 gives your students practice with the various uses of the comma.

Answer Key to Activity 9.2.1: 1

th

Garner, Bryan A., Garner‟s Modern English Usage, 4 ed., Oxford University Press, 2016. p. 748.

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1a. And then she said ―I can‘t find the faucet valve!‖ 1b. And then she said, ―I can‘t find the faucet valve!‖ 1b is correct. Use a comma to set off quotations from the words that introduce them.

2a. Abe Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin.

2b. Abe Lincoln was born on February 12 1809, in a log cabin.

2c. Abe Lincoln was born, on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin.

2a is correct. Use a comma in addresses and dates.

3a. I was going to tell you but then I decided you didn‘t care anyway, so I kept it to myself.

3b. I was going to tell you but then I decided you didn‘t care anyway so I kept it to myself.

3c. I was going to tell you, but then I decided you didn‘t care anyway, so I kept it to myself.

3c is correct. Use a comma to join independent clauses.

4a. The ingredients for making French bread are, flour, salt, water, and yeast.

4b. The ingredients for making French bread are flour, salt, water, and yeast.

4c. The ingredients for making French bread are flour, salt, water and yeast.

4b is correct. Use a comma to separate items in series, but do not use one before the beginning of the series.

5a. Our company‘s CEO the engineering genius, is scheduled to meet with us tomorrow.

5b. Our company‘s CEO, the engineering genius is scheduled to meet with us tomorrow.

5c. Our company‘s CEO, the engineering genius, is scheduled to meet with us tomorrow.

5c is correct. Use a comma with an introductory phrase, also called an “appositive.”

6a. My grandmother, is still alive and kicking, and she still dances every Sunday.

6b. My grandmother is still alive and kicking, and she still dances every Sunday.

6c. My grandmother is still alive and kicking, and, she still dances every Sunday.

6b is correct. Use a comma to join independent clauses.

7a. Whenever he visited, the house ended up totally trashed.

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7b. Whenever he visited the house ended up totally trashed.

7c. Whenever he visited the house, ended up totally trashed.

7d. Whenever, he visited the house ended up totally trashed.

7a is correct. Use a comma with transitions and introductory phrases.

8a. For great pizza, you need to go to Uncle Pete‘s in Naperville, Illinois.

8b. For great pizza you need to go to Uncle Pete‘s in Naperville, Illinois.

8a is correct. Use a comma with transitions and introductory phrases.

Module 9.3 The Apostrophe It is understandable that many of our students are confused about the uses of apostrophes. After all, you can walk down almost any busy sidewalk and find an abundance of apostrophe-usage errors. First, shop signs and poorly edited published works often overuse them to indicate simple plurals (e.g., ―Three Pizza‘s for the Price of Two!‖). Another common error, covered in Module 8.6, is using a comma to indicate the possessive of it (e.g., ―The dog licked it‘s paws.‖). It‘s easy to understand why our students are often confused. Today‘s grammar checkers spot some of these but certainly not all of them.

Activity 9.4.1 will give your students practice with apostrophes and/or serve as a helpful exercise for a productive class discussion.

Answer Key to Activity 9.4.1: 1a. That dog wont hunt.

1b. That dog won‘t hunt.

1b is correct. Use an apostrophe to signal a contraction.

2a. Cal‘s essay on the new law is excellent.

2b. Cals essay on the new law is excellent.

2c. Cals‘ essay on the new law is excellent.

2a is correct. Use an apostrophe to signal possession.

3a. The young bear cub lost it‘s mother and did not survive.

3b. The young bear cub lost its mother and did not survive.

3b is correct. The word its is the possessive form of it; the word it‘s always means “it is.”

4a. Our‘s may not be the best pizza, but it‘s pretty good.

4b. Ours may not be the best pizza, but its pretty good.

4c. Ours may not be the best pizza, but it‘s pretty good.

4c is correct. The word ours is the possessive form of our; our‘s is not a word and should never be used.

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5a. This week‘s newsletter will be a little late.

5b. This weeks‘ newsletter will be a little late.

5c. This weeks newsletter will be a little late.

5a is correct. The word week‘s is the possessive form of the word week. 5c would be correct if the sentence were “The last two weeks‟ newsletters will be late.”

6a. Three days later, the strangers‘ luggage and all their belongings were found in a closet.

6b. Three days later, the stranger‘s luggage and all their belongings were found in a closet.

6c. Three days later, the strangers luggage and all their belongings were found in a closet.

6a is correct. This is a tricky one, possibly a subject for class discussion, depending on the context of your class. The words their belongings suggest there was more than one stranger. However, in many style sheets, it is increasingly acceptable to use their as the non-gender-specific pronoun, instead of “his,” “her,” his or her,” or “her or his.”

7a. Three days later, the strangers‘ luggage and all his belongings were found in a closet.

7b. Three days later, the stranger‘s luggage and all his belongings were found in a closet.

7c. Three days later, the strangers luggage and all his belongings were found in a closet.

7b is correct. This is more straightforward than question #6 because the words “his belongings” implies—without any ambiguity—that there was only one stranger.

Module 9.4 The Semicolon and Colon You can explain the colon‘s function as ―a signal that something begun will now be completed.‖ You can explain the semicolon as a ―super comma‖ that breaks a sentence into parts that need greater distinction from the other parts. You might explain too that a period could be substituted for a semicolon in most cases. However, the semicolon signals that the two separated parts are so highly related to each other that a period would be too distinct a break.

In other words, the colon and semicolon might be thought of as ―advanced punctuation.‖ It‘s easy to imagine a well-written and sophisticated essay that uses neither. Still, depending on the context of your classroom, teaching their proper usage may be a topic you want your students to know about. Activity 9.4.1 can serve as practice for students or as introduction to their usage.

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Answer Key to Activity 9.4.1: Choose the sentence that is correctly punctuated.

1a. That dog is so bad that: he won‘t even fetch.

1b. That dog is so bad that he won‘t even fetch.

1b is correct. While writers should use a colon to lead off a list, in most cases the colon should be used after phrases such as “as following,” “such as the following,” or “as follows” (e.g., “The dog is bad for the following reasons: He won‟t fetch, he bites people, and he growls at everyone ….”)

2a. When I was younger; I never missed a show.

2b. When I was younger I never missed a show.

2b is correct. The usage of the semicolon in 2a is unnecessary. It could be argued that a simple comma might be added after “younger,” and that would not be an error, but the meaning of the sentence is clear without the comma.

3a. Bear cubs continue to suckle nearly until they hibernate in fall, father bears do not help in raising the cubs.

3b. Bear cubs continue to suckle nearly until they hibernate in fall; father bears do not help in raising the cubs.

3b is correct. A semicolon can be used to join together two independent clauses in a sentence. An alternative correction could use a coordinating conjunction such as but: e.g., “Bear cubs continue to suckle nearly until they hibernate in fall, but father bears do not help in raising the cubs.”

4a. During the meeting we came up with this plan: Liz will lead; Jake will research the issues; Kate will do outreach.

4b. During the meeting we came up with this plan; Liz will lead; Jake will research the issues; Kate will do outreach.

4a is correct. A colon is used to lead off lists. Strictly speaking, using a semicolon, answer 4b, is not grammatically incorrect. However, colons, not semicolons, are by convention used to signal that what has been promised in the first part of the sentence will now be completed after the punctuation.

5a. The short story is ―A Rose for Emily;‖ it is one of Faulkner‘s eeriest tales.

5b. The short story is ―A Rose for Emily‖; it is one of Faulkner‘s eeriest tales.

5b is correct. Use a semicolon to join two independent clauses. An alternative would be to use a coordinating conjunction after a comma this way: “The short story is “A Rose for Emily,” and it is one of Faulkner‟s eeriest tales.”

6a. Just before departing; the airplane was ready to go.

6b. Just before departing, the airplane was ready to go.

6b is correct. A comma—not a semicolon—is used to set off an introductory phrase.

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Module 9.5 Quotation Marks and Italics Like commas, quotation marks are often misused in the writing students see every day, such as on shop signs and in billboards. In perhaps the most common misusage, they are used to emphasize words. For emphasis, writers should use italics and sometimes bold typeface.

Another comma–quotation mark error is placing punctuation improperly relative to the quotations—inside when the punctuation should go inside and vice versa. The correct placement of periods, exclamation points, and question marks relative to quotation marks is covered in Module 9.1 of this Workshop.

Use Activity 9.5.1 to give students practice with quotation marks or to frame a class mini-lecture or discussion on the topic.

Answer Key to Activity 9.5.1: 1a. My mother‘s exact words were, ―Eat your vegetables!‖ 1b. My mother‘s exact words were, Eat your vegetables!

1a is correct. The words in quotation marks are a direct quote, the exact words spoken by the mother.

2a. The butcher told us that they are out of ground beef.

2b. The butcher told us that ―they are out of ground beef.‖ 2a is correct because the quote is clearly not a direct quote. The butcher would not have said “they…” but instead “We are out of ground beef.”

3a. My favorite short story is The Monkey‟s Paw. 3b. My favorite short story is ―The Monkey‘s Paw.‖ 3c. My favorite short story is ―The Monkey‟s Paw.‖ 3b is correct. Short-story titles are placed inside quotation marks. Some other kinds of titles are italicized.

4a. Mary Roach‘s recent book of essays is titled My Planet; the strongest essay in it is ―The Way I Can‘t See It.‖ 4b. Mary Roach‘s recent book of essays is titled My Planet; the strongest essay in it is The Way I Can‟t See It. 4a is correct. Book titles are italicized, with chapter titles in quotation marks.

5a. The scientific classification for dogs is ―Canis familiaris.‖ 5b. The scientific classification for dogs is Canis familiaris.

5b is correct. Scientific names in Latin are italicized.

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6a. Alan said to the patient, ―Dr. Jackson asked me to tell you ‗all the tests look excellent,‘ so you should be discharged soon.‖ 6b. Alan said to the patient, ―Dr. Jackson asked me to tell you ―all the tests look excellent,‖ so you should be discharged soon.‖ 6a is correct. Double quotation marks signal a first quote, single quotation marks signal quoted words inside of a quotation. (A complication some students may want to know: If Dr. Jackson, in turn, quoted what someone else said, there would be a return to double quotes—Dr. Jackson asked me to tell you „according to the lab, your results are “negative,”‟ so you should be discharged soon.”)

Module 9.6 Dashes and Hyphens Even some seasoned writers—and not just students—often do not realize that there are important differences between the hyphen and dashes. A subtle, even less understood concept is the distinction between the em dash and the shorter en dash. Is it important for you to teach your students the em-/en-dash distinction? That‘s something you should assess by considering the particular context of your writing class.

One even subtler point: Different style guides vary the ways they stipulate ―em dash‖ and ―en dash‖ should be spelled, some stipulating a hyphen between the words, i.e., ―em-dash‖ and ―en-dash.‖ (Pearson adheres to the stipulations of Merriam-Webster, which does not specify a hyphen between the words.)

We recommend using Activity 9.6.1 as a way to frame a classroom activity about these concepts, having students do the activity before and/or after their classroom experience.

Answer Key to Activity 9.6.1: 1. My Aunt Frieda often uses off hyphen color humor.

The words “off” and “color” are joined to make a compound adjective that modifies the word “humor.”

2. My Aunt Frieda‘s humor could be described as off blank space color.

Here, “off” and “color” are not joined to make a compound adjective. Therefore, no hyphen should be used.

3. She was a door hyphen to hyphen door salesperson.

As in question #1, the words “door,” “to,” and “door” are joined to make a compound adjective that modifies “salesperson.” Therefore, hyphens should be used.

4. She was a salesperson who went door blank space to blank space door.

As in question #3, the words “door,” “to,” and “door” are not joined to make a compound adjective that modifies “salesperson.”

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5. Jeremy glanced at his watch em dash a quick furtive glance em dash as his expression grew more anxious.

An em dash is used to signal the continuation of a thought. Note that commas or even parentheses could be used instead of the em dashes; the em dashes signal a more robust break from the main sentence.

6. The relevant discussion in the journal article appears on pages 664en dash671.

An en dash is used to signal range between numbers or dates (although in most manuscripts, hyphens are considered acceptable).

7. Were you worried about the exam, eager to take it, unsure how you‘d do em dash or was it something else?

An em dash is used to signal the continuation of a thought. As in question #5, instead of the em dash, a comma or parentheses could be used; here even a colon would work. The em dash signals a more robust break from the main sentence.

8. Marie Curie (1867en dash1934) was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

An en dash is used to signal range between numbers or dates.

9. A coupe is a two hyphen door car.

The words “two” and “door” are joined to make a compound adjective that modifies the word “car.”

10. A coupe is a car with two blank space doors.

Here “two” and “doors” do not combine to form a compound adjective.

Module 9.7 Parentheses, Brackets, and Ellipsis Dots Parentheses can enclose words, phrases, and sometimes even entire sentences. If the words inside the parentheses comprise an entire sentence, the period is placed inside the second parenthesis; in all other cases, if the last words of a sentence are parenthesized, the period is placed outside the second parenthesis.

The use of brackets and ellipses in quotations is another fairly subtle concept. Decide whether it‘s important for your students to learn about them by considering the context of your writing classroom.

We recommend using Activity 9.7.1 as a way to frame a classroom activity about these concepts, having students do the activity before and/or after their classroom experience.

Answer Key to Activity 9.7.1:

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1. The campus writing center has posted this on their website : ―We strive to promote growth in the writer and ellipsis emphasize that learning to write is a lifelong process.‖ Ellipses are used to indicate that some of the words in a quotation have been omitted from the quotation. Here, the ellipsis indicates omitted words between “and” and “emphasize.”

2. The manufacturers have worked to improve the sensitivity parenthesis percentage of correctly identified positives parenthesis and specificity parenthesis percentage of correctly identified negatives parenthesis of their assays.

The words inside the parentheses contain additional information: They provide definitions of “sensitivity” and “specificity.” Note that if this this were a quotation (as in question #3), brackets would have been appropriate to indicate additional words were added.

3. Laquan pointed out, ―She bracket the witness bracket could not have actually seen the accident from two blocks away.‖ The words enclosed in brackets indicate that the words have been added to the quoted material.

4. The President stated, ―I have never lied to the public, but my opponent‘s charge that I am insane shows that it‘s my opponent who is in fact insane‖ parenthesis emphasis mine parenthesis.

5. For example, Webster‘s defines the word aardvark as ―a large burrowing nocturnal mammal (Orycteropus afer) of sub-Saharan Africa that has a long snout ellipsis.‖ The ellipsis indicates there were words omitted from the quotation.

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