4.11 Activities: Developing Ideas with
Different Methods
Each activity will ask
you to expand a sentence into a full paragraph or more by using one of
the methods of development. Each activity will give you the contexts of
the writing in The Situation. For each activity, try to write at least
100 words. Write your answers on separate paper
Activity 1: Comparing and Contrasting ( Click for PDF
Version )
The Situation: In
a psychology unit in your science course, you are studying time,
psychological time. This term refers to how long time seems to whether
time seems to be flying or dragging.
Your Task: You
are to write about these two extremes of psychological time by
contrasting the activities that make time drag with those that make it
fly.
Remember the importance of using specific
details.
Prewrite by making two
lists, one of activities that make time fly and another of activities
that make time drag. (You could also use the Venn diagram for
prewriting.) Draft by writing a paragraph or two showing the
differences between these two groups of activities.
Activity 2: Establishing an Order
( Click for PDF Version )
The Situation: A new student is transferring to
your school. Because you have the same schedules of classes, you have
been assigned to spend the first day with this newcomer as a kind of
guide to your school.
Your Task: In your orientation day, explain to
new person the four or five most important things to know about
attending your school. Write this as if you were talking to the new
student.
Remember the
importance of using specific details.
Activity 3: Defining by Key
Features
( Click for PDF Version )
The Situation: Career Day is being held at your
school. The slogan says, To get a good job, you need to get a good
education. But what is a good job?
Your Task: Each of the student in your group has
been asked to write a definition of good job. Write your definition by
giving four or five key features of a good job, in your view.
Remember the
importance of using specific details.
Prewrite by listing many features of a good job. Then, narrow down your
list to four or five. Draft by writing one or more paragraphs to define
a good job by key features.
Activity 4: Defining by
Familiar Examples
( Click for PDF Version )
The Situation: The Community Service Committee
is made up of students and two teacher advisors. The Committee is
having a publicity problem. Some students asked to join reply that they
dont want to spend their Saturdays picking up garbage along the
highway.
Your Task: Define the work of the Committee by
giving examples of the kinds of work it does besides pick up
road litter on Saturdays. You may wish to talk about the work done at
animal shelters, hospitals and nursing homes, homeless shelters, parks
and playgrounds, and also fundraising work for needy individuals.
Remember the
importance of using specific details.
Prewrite by listing
familiar examples of all the activities of Committee work you can think
of. Then shorten the list to just three or four familiar examples.
Draft by writing a paragraph or two to define the work of the Committee
as being more than picking up roadside garbage.
Activity 5: Using Cause and Effect
( Click for PDF Version )
The Situation:
A college and career survey question has asked you to predict what your
life will be like 10 years from now. Where will you be and what will
you be doing? What events (causes) during the next 10 years will have
led to this result?
Your Task: Project
10 years into the future and show where you will be and what you will
be doing (try to do this with a job or career you have in mind).
Explain how at least three causes resulted in your relative success (or
lack of success).
Remember the
importance of using specific details.
Prewrite by picking
a job or
career and imagining what you, in that position, would be doing ten
years from now. Jot down causes that would lead to great success and
causes that would lead to less success or even failure. Pick a likely
spot along that range from great success to great failure and select
three causes that would be likely causes for such an effect.
Draft by writing a
paragraph that shows how your position (ten years from now) can be
traced back to three main causes.
Activity 6: Illustrating with a Story
( Click for PDF Version )
The Situation: Safety is the subject in your Car
and Driver unit for technology class. Instead of giving a bunch of
safety rules, your instructor has decide to start with stories of what
can go wrong, and then work back to the rules.
Your Task: Using an event that happened to you
or that you witnessed, tell the story of something that went terribly
(and probably dangerously) wrong because someone did not follow a
safety rule. The rule-breaker could be a driver, a passenger, or
someone not in the car, like a walker or bicyclist. Illustrate the
danger with the story you tell.
Remember the
importance of using specific details.
Prewrite by jotting down five or
six ways a person could break a safety rule of the road and put a
person or people in danger. Then pick an event you either saw or were
involved in. Draft by writing that story in a paragraph or two.
Activity 7: Classifying
( Click for PDF Version )
The Situation:
Surveys ask people if they live in urban (city), suburban, or rural
(country) locations. Some characteristics about the locations might be
assumed from the answer.
Your Task: Classify
the place where you live (your community, not just your dwelling) as
being urban, suburban, or rural. Follow up this classification by
telling how specific characteristics of the type of location apply to
your community.
Remember the
importance of using specific details
Preview by deciding
which classification best fits your area: urban (city), suburban, or
rural (country). Then list some characteristics this type of community
will have. Draft by classifying your community and showing how the
characteristics apply to it.
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