Three Easy Steps to Writing an Introduction

1. Introduction to your topic (may be a question, fact, or statement)

Ex. Have you ever been blamed for something?

2. Background Information
a. Story titles, the bare bones of what happened

Ex. In William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet...

3. Ends in a thesis statement!

Ex. Benvolio, Mercutio, and Tybalt have the most impact on the play because their combined actions are to blame for Romeo's banishment.

Three Easy Steps to Writing a Conclusion

1. Restate your thesis statement

Ex. Although there were many people who affected the outcome of Romeo & Juliet, Benvolio, Mercutio, and Tybalt are most at fault.


2. Summarize your main ideas

Ex. Benvolio convinces Romeo to crash the party, Mercutio picks a fight with Tybalt and ends up dead, and Tybalt causes Romeo to avenge his murdered friend.


3. What do you want the reader to know? (Bigger Picture/Final Abstraction)

Ex. Without these three characters, Shakespeare's play...
The play would be _____Fill in the blank_____ without....

Spring Break Homework: Question #2

I meant to have this question up early this morning, so I apologize to those of you who have been patiently waiting to respond. Since the last two have been pretty lengthy, here is a shorter question for you:

Now that we are through with Act I, make one prediction of what you think may happen in Act II. Keep in mind that Romeo & Juliet is five acts long, so please do not respond with "Romeo and Juliet will die"--that happens in Act V. Please answer in one complete sentence and use proper grammar and spelling!

Spring Break Homework: Question #1

Reread the part in scene four where Romeo & Juliet meet for the first time. Romeo's actions and his speech are very convincing--Juliet is hooked from the start. Using text to support your claim, in what ways is Romeo's language better than a pick up line? What is it about what he says that has Juliet from the first touch of the hand? Do you think you would ever fall for someone using the same attempt on you?

Romeo & Juliet Discussion Question #1

After you have created a Google Account, click "comment" below and respond (in four or more sentences) to the following question:

Do you believe in love at first sight? Are we fated (meant to be) with someone? If yes, defend why you believe it's possible. If no, defend why you think there is no such thing. You need to use specific reasons/rationale for your answer~make me believe you and your side of the argument!

How to Sign up for a Google Account

We will walk through this together, but this short presentation will explain how to create your own Google account. You will need the following two :

1. An email address (Yahoo, Hotmail, Communicado, etc.)
2. The username and password for this account

If you do not have an email address, let me know. You will need to create one before you can sign up for a Google account.

Weekend Homework

Your homework this weekend is to get the parent permission slip signed by your parents. Be sure that you and your parents read through all of the information and bring the bottom portion of the first page back to school with you on Monday. The rest of the information you can keep at home.

Have a great weekend!

Welcome!

In the last semester of your freshman year, you will become comfortable with using the internet to post to a blog. You will be able to use this website to keep up with class work and homework as well as earn points during our unit on Romeo & Juliet.

I hope you are ready to embrace technology!