Day 4 - What?

Say what?

Yea, say what? Most common expression I have heard in the city. But this is not about that at all. It is the most common question, and holds sometimes elusive answers. For instance, while writing an introduction paragraph or the introduction sentence to a paragraph, the central theme should be the answer to the question what. In my humble opinion of course.

One of the most influential articles I have read on how to organize and write a paragraph, is an article entitled How to write an apple. One of Ben's fifth grade teachers talked about it in open house, and I had to take a copy from him. Corny as it sounds, I go back to it time and again, and talk about it to both my children all the time. Take an apple for example. Think of some words that describe it. Put the words into sentences. Add in words that show and not tell (adjectives), so you get three or four descriptive sentences. Then imagine the paragraph as a gift wrapped box. The container is the introduction sentence. You put in the three or four descriptive sentences about the subject. Then put a bow on it (which is the conclusion). There you have it, a paragraph!

Writing an apple or something like it

One of the homework assignments (you know I had to get here eventually), was to write a paragraph on hydraulic fracturing using an article from the LA Times. I had him complete the work, and then read it. And read it again. Scanned a third time, to see what this thing was about. I didn't have a definitive answer. So of course, I proceeded to ask not so smart questions at it.
"Is this about gardening?"
"No."
"Is this some medical procedure?"
"No"
"Is this about trucks?"
"No! Mom, don't you know anything about drilling for oil?"

Well, we are getting somewhere aren't we? So I said, "But your article doesn't say anything about drilling. It talks about different types of fracturing, and who invented what and when, but nowhere does it state in the beginning what this is all about." I got his attention. He said but everyone knows what this is about. I said not me! Possibly I could put those together, but not the average person. I said always assume the reader doesn't know what you are talking about and start there. Just a small introduction is good. Or a question to pull in the interest... So we reworked the paragraph, around the questions he already had, and most of the answers he already had, and moved around the sentences, and came up with what was a nice article. Then my question was why are we discussing this? and not about the phases of the moon for example. It is also interesting to note that this was an English assignment and not a science one. So he says, well some politicians are pushing for it and it is not "good" for the planet. Where? I don't know. Why? I don't know. I know I have more work to do on this subject, so stay tuned!

I totally enjoyed the football game last night, which completely served as an inspiration for the previous post. If you don't know about Peyton Manning, please read up on him. He is the ultimate comeback athlete, again, in my humble opinion. Ben thinks so too.

Report for the day

Ben has completed all his assignments, and got them checked by me. We actually logged into parent portal this evening, with a lot less dread than usual, and it was all good. No bad news since we drew the proverbial line in the sand on Dec 4... 

Aham Brahmasmi and From this moment on I invite unlimited abundance into my life kept me going. As much as I have asked for abundance, the real treat is to see my Odyssey loaded to the brim with the shopping for a concession stand for a swim meet this Sunday! I counted my walking in BJs and Walmart for 3 hours as a 2 mile trek, and completed another 3 on the treadmill...