ENC1101 notes

For your class on the history of the nuclear age, you have been assigned to give a presentation on Enrico Fermi. In reading about his Nobel Prize in physics, you get curious about how the Nobel Prize is granted. What is the best way to satisfy your curiosity?

A website like Wikipedia that will give you a short, factual digest of the history and selection process for the Nobel Prize

What is the academic consequence of not reading appropriately challenging material through your teens?

You may have to make a greater effort to read as you get older in order to build your working vocabulary, but learning words does not stop when you graduate high school.

You have a borrowed textbook that you can't write in. Your plan is to write out definitions to technical terms on blue stickies and flag the key points and topic sentences in narrow pink stickies, putting the paragraph numbers on each just to be clear. What else should you do to help you understand the reading better in preparation for a test or discussion?

You should annotate more actively, which means you need to write notes about connections that you see and ask questions about what you read.

Jordan is reading about the clean energy project. His reading material has a highly structured and organized text, using headings and subheadings; footnotes and a list of references; and field-specific vocabulary. It describes an experiment. What kind of source is Jordan most likely reading?

A journal article

Using context clues, determine the meaning of the nonsense word. The regular turtledove will biderung when startled; thus, the spewing of feathers creates a diversion.

Using synonyms, you know that biderung means to spew feathers.

Read the following excerpt. Evaluate its traits to determine its type of text from the options below. Vowel features Notice what you do with your mouth when you pronounce the names of the letters "a," "e," "i," and "o." What features of your mouth seem to distinguish these vowels from one another? A complete account of the sounds of a spoken language would have to make reference both to the way sounds are produced, articulation, and the way they are perceived, their auditory properties. Differences in articulation are obviously pointless if they aren't reflected in the way results sound to hearers. In fact, two quite different ways of articulating a sound can sometimes produce the same auditory effect. From the perspective of a hearer, those would have to belong to the same phoneme. In order to understand how vowels and consonants work, we need to know a little bit about the physical apparatus that is used to produce them. The figure below shows a side view of the vocal tract, with labels for some of the parts that we'll be discussing in this section and the next sections.

Based on the traits in the excerpt, this is from a textbook because it contains factual content, visuals to aid understanding, organized text, and it seeks to educate.

Micah's constitutional law professor has assigned him to review case law related to cyberstalking. What should most of his sources be?

Specialized reference books that include the full text of legal decisions

If you had to write a paraphrase of a brief article you read for class, following what advice would get you the best results?

Start with the thesis in your own words, then give your interpretation of the material. Highlight the points you find most interesting. Add quotes and citations when you make comments.

An Earth Science reading assignment involves reading the chapter "Water on Earth." It includes learning objectives, illustrations, vocabulary, graphs, formulas, and problem sets. Which is the most effective way to approach reading it?

Analyze and synthesize after a preview. Look for the patterns in the text--are they problem-solving, experiment-instruction, classification, or process passages--or some combination? Take notes.

You are looking at the textbook and readings for your first 200-level college course. There are a lot of new words to learn. What is the best way to expand your vocabulary for this class?

Note the words and define them, using both context clues and a good dictionary with pronunciations. Write them down in a notebook or on notecards. The key to remembering them is to use them in your own speech during class discussions, meetings with your professor, and group work with classmates.

Thuy is on her school's mock trial team, and she needs to read the case materials to prepare for an upcoming competition. The legal language is difficult, and she's afraid she might lose track of the important parts of what she's reading. How will outlining help her?

Outlining will help her stay organized and create a logical relationship among the pieces of information.

Frankie would rather talk about a topic than read about it. Their friend, Jonah, tells them about questioning as a technique. Why might this be a good way for Frankie to approach their reading assignments?

Questioning the text starts a conversation between the author and the reader, which makes the reading experience more dynamic and productive.

You come across the following visual in your textbook. What is your best approach to reading and understanding it?

Rephrase the title, get an idea of what is measured by looking at labels, determine the units of measurement, check for color-codes and keys, and try summarizing the trends you see in the data.

How does reviewing your reading and notes help you understand a text?

Review is another active reading technique that helps you more deeply understand and make connections with the material, especially as a last step after you've used other active reading strategies.

Which definition is the most correct way to describe rhetorical context?

Rhetorical context refers to the circumstances surrounding an act of reading and/or composition.

Explain which context clue type is going to be most useful in decoding the word zishernosh. Obviously 1 zishernosh is a very small quantity of time compared with a whole week. Indeed, our forefathers considered it small as compared with an hour, and called it "one zishernosh," meaning a zishernosh fraction—namely one sixtieth—of an hour. When they came to require still smaller subdivisions of time, they divided each zishernosh into 60 still smaller parts, which, in Queen Elizabeth's days, they called "second zishernosh" (i.e. small quantities of the second order of zishernoshness). Nowadays we call these small quantities of the second order of smallness "seconds." But few people know why they are so called

Zishernosh most likely means minute. We know this because of the examples and inferences drawn from our prior experience with time.

If you need to build a working vocabulary out of the terms you've been reading and hearing in class, which would be the most effective advice in retaining these words for the long term?

Use the words once you understand their deeper meaning. Keep a notebook of the words, but go beyond drilling yourself on them. Set up a process for yourself, which might include playing games with words.

Dante has been assigned a book for his Psychology class, and the subject of one of the chapters suffers from chronophobia. He hasn't seen the word chronophobia before, but he wants to figure it out based on prior knowledge. What thought process will get him to the correct definition?

He knows a phobia is a fear of something. The prefix chrono- reminds him of the words chronology and chronicle, so it must have something to do with time.

Anansi barely skimmed the journal article about spiders her Entomology professor handed out: too much text, too much small print, too many big words. She rolled it up and shoved it into her backpack, deciding to save it for "later." It is now "later"--how do you advise her to get started with this reading?

"Anansi, you've got this. Before you read, preview. Look at the title, but ask yourself why you need to read this--and why is the author writing in the first place? What do you already know about spiders? Look at how the article is structured and where there are figures and tables. Where do you think the author is going to go with this?"

Archie, your classmate, has been working with you to improve his reading skills. He tells you, "I'm trying to summarize this article for Professor Mehitabel's class. I can't seem to stop myself from just writing out everything in my own words. It's taking forever." Which response should you offer to help him get better with active reading?

"Archie, while working on active reading, don't worry about summarizing. Focus instead on marking words and concepts as you go, and make predictions about what is coming. Create a vocabulary list for the things to define later."

Naomi often has trouble discussing the readings for her anthropology class because her notes are linear, and she has trouble grasping the entire point or argument of a reading. How could summarizing the readings help her?

A summary would condense the whole essay into a single, short block of text that would require her to think through the logical relationship between the initial thesis of the essay and its final conclusions.

Which is the most effective way to read the chapter "What Are Intelligence and Creativity?" from your Introduction to Psychology course textbook? The chapter includes learning objectives, headings and subheadings, definitions in bold text, and history of the concepts, as well as sample exercises at the end.

Classify the reading. Do not rely on underlining or highlighting; instead determine things like concepts, values, and key variables. Determine the problems that the author has solved, and which she hasn't.

To prepare for a linguistics exam, Laurent is reviewing all his Cornell-style two-column notes from his reading. What approach would use these notes to their best advantage?

Covering the right-hand column (his class notes and reading notes) and answering the questions from the left-hand column out loud.

Javonte is starting the research for his paper on nuclear arms treaties. He's tempted to just copy and paste chunks of material from the originals, but instead, he decides to paraphrase in addition to selective quoting. Why is this a good idea?

He will have the gist of each author's ideas on paper, already understood and in his own words.

Abe has found the reading assignments in his Geology class challenging throughout the term. He has come to rely upon previewing, active reading, and annotation strategies to better understand them. Now he is ready to summarize their contents, in order to prepare for his final exam. Which of the strategies below will be the most useful to create successful summaries for this purpose?

Identify the most important features of the text. Draft a summary using his own words to describe the contents. Report only what's in the text--none of Abe's personal opinions should appear. The total summary will be roughly 20% the length of the original

What is the best way to annotate a text?

If you are actively engaged with the reading, consistent, and clear while annotating concepts, questions, and comments, the precise methods you use don't matter.

You just finished reading several scholarly essays on the same topic, and you take a look at the pages of notes you made about it. You see some repeated themes, but you need to make sense of what you just read so that you can speak cogently about the topic as a whole in class. What's your next step?

It is time to take your notes and create a concept map so that you can summarize the material. You read actively, annotating your text and making a vocabulary list, so you can focus on organizing your learning, which is the point of a concept map.

Which type of reading is described by these traits? The top of the page has goals, followed by a subheading and some questions. The tone is formal and neutral. The sentences are longer and more complex.

Textbook

Consider the following scenario: You've been assigned a crisis watch topic in your Contemporary Affairs class, and you need to keep a log of a crisis as it progresses throughout the month. You have chosen a water quality crisis in the area schools—they've found lead in water pipes at a local preschool. Which source is going to be most useful in this assignment?

The news on the web, especially the local news and the school district's page, will be most frequently updated, though sometimes the information might be incorrect.

Tabitha completed the reading process loop by reviewing her Organic Chemistry reading notes. What advantage did she have over her classmates who only highlighted the key terms in the book?

The review helped her recall the content because she made links between the concepts and the material she already knew. Now her new vocabulary terms have context for her.

Which statement below summarizes this chart?

This chart demonstrates that most women who use social media participate in Social Networks. The percentages shown at the top of each bar confirm this.

You receive the following message from your credit card company. Is this an effective way of addressing an unexpected charge? To Whom it May Concern: So, it turns out somebody charged $200 on your card at the All Year Christmas Store in Beaconsville. This does not seem like the kind of place you usually buy stuff at, so we're letting you know there might be a problem. We've put a hold on your card, so don't try and use it. You might embarrass yourself. Give us a call or your credit rating is going to suffer thanks to somebody's $200 worth of Christmas stockings. If that was you making the purchase, our bad. Your friends at XenoCard

This message is ineffective for its audience. It strikes the wrong tone and fails at its purpose: to deliver clear information about potential credit fraud.

Take a look at the following image. How would you apply the content of this graph to reach an understanding of its purpose?

This type of graph shows distinct, separate examples, so you might use it to compare the examples against each other.

Which context clue type is going to be most useful in decoding the word slurryslip in the following passage from Macchiavelli's The Prince? It is not unknown to me how many men have had, and still have, the opinion that the affairs of the world are in such wise governed by chance and by God that men with their wisdom cannot direct them and that no one can even help them; and because of this they would have us believe that it is not necessary to labour much in affairs, but to let chance govern them. This opinion has been more credited in our times because of the great changes in affairs which have been seen, and may still be seen, every day, beyond all human conjecture. Sometimes pondering over this, I am in some degree inclined to their opinion. Nevertheless, not to extinguish our free will, I hold it to be true that slurryslip is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other half, or perhaps a little less.

Slurryslip probably means chance. We know this because slurryslip seems to be used for its synonym, chance, which occurs a few times in the passage.

Terrence has a dense textbook for his Abnormal Psychology class. His professor said that all students in the class will need to read actively, using annotation. What's the main reason annotation is active reading?

Annotation records Terrence's active responses to the text during the act of reading.

On the way out of his Literary Theory and Criticism class, Julian is stopped by a classmate who asks him how he has such a good grasp of the difficult material. Julian explains how he previews his reading, which includes which tactics?

Looking at the unit titles and then the titles of the readings in the table of contents, skimming the editor's notes that precede each reading, scanning for familiar terms to see what connects with his prior knowledge.

Min has an upcoming Anatomy and Physiology class that is making her a bit nervous. You took that class last term and suggest that active reading of course materials is her best route to success. What should she be doing?

Min should annotate her text, marking questions and making comments on what she reads. She should also make sure that she reads in chunks when she is awake, maybe following a daily schedule. She should read assignments twice.

When Becky is shopping for books for her classes, she loves finding a used copy that's already heavily annotated. Is this a good idea? Why or why not?

Not a good idea. Becky needs to start fresh with her own markings and annotations.

Gloria is writing a term paper on the effects of fracking for her Environmental Science class. Based on reports she's seen in the mainstream press, she has some opinions on it already. How can questioning help keep her open minded and aware of her biases while she reads sources for her paper?

She can continuously ask herself whether the arguments made seem reasonable, whether the facts align with her previous reading, and how her existing beliefs are affecting her evaluation of a source.

Assigned to read Life, a memoir by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Aleisha's first step is to preview the book. What should she do in her preview?

She should look at the title, chapter headings, introductory notes, and the illustrations

David and Yesenia are working on their physics project. David notices that as they work, Yesenia has gotten a lot more efficient about getting through each article. What's her secret?

Since the articles are all on a similar topic, and she has been making really good vocabulary flashcards, the terminology is becoming more familiar, so Yesenia is reading more quickly and can take fewer notes.

Kimberly is writing a paper on the use of animals in laboratory experiments, and she wants to find examples of scientific papers based on experiments that did not use animal subjects. Where should she check in a scientific paper to find relatively quickly whether animal subjects were used?

The methods section

Jonas and his friend, Clay, auditioned for the spring operetta. When they look at the cast list, they see that they have both been cast as supernumeraries. They have no idea what this means initially. Using structural analysis and their prior knowledge, what is their most logical thought process?

They recognize the root, -numera-, which looks like the word numeral, so it must have to do with numbers. The prefix "super" means above, like in supervisor, so they conclude it means above the usual number—in other words, they're extras.

Suleimana has to read several essays on the craft of fiction writing for her writing workshop. To prepare for class discussion, she wants to summarize each essay. What should she do while she's reading to ensure she can write accurate, useful summaries?

Underline the overall thesis statement, paragraph topic sentences, and key terms and details. She should also define any unfamiliar terms and take two-column notes to be sure she has understood the essay.

Your Spanish instructor has asked you to explicitly explain why there are differences between New World and Old World Spanish speech patterns and accents. Which of the course readings is most likely to help you answer this question?

a book that discusses the history of the language as well as its variations and includes sub-topics in the index

Jamal is overwhelmed by the number of research articles he found about infectious diseases. Where should he look to get a good idea of the overall topic and purpose of the article?

Abstract

Alexis needs to make an outline for her biology research paper. She studied a lot of information about photosynthesis but she is having a hard time connecting the steps of the process together. Why would an outline be helpful to Alexis?

Alexis can use her outline to show how the photosynthesis steps are connected, which will help her organize her paper.

Using what you know about rhetorical context, analyze the following passage from "A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf, in 1928. Who is Woolf's intended audience? But, you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction--what, has that got to do with a room of one's own? I will try to explain. When you asked me to speak about women and fiction I sat down on the banks of a river and began to wonder what the words meant. They might mean simply a few remarks about Fanny Burney; a few more about Jane Austen; a tribute to the Bronte's and a sketch of Haworth Parsonage under snow; some witticisms if possible about Miss Mitford; a respectful allusion to George Eliot; a reference to Mrs Gaskell and one would have done. But at second sight the words seemed not so simple. The title women and fiction might mean, and you may have meant it to mean, women and what they are like, or it might mean women and the fiction that they write; or it might mean women and the fiction that is written about them, or it might mean that somehow all three are inextricably mixed together and you want me to consider them in that light. But when I began to consider the subject in this last way, which seemed the most interesting, I soon saw that it had one fatal drawback. I should never be able to come to a conclusion. I should never be able to fulfil what is, I understand, the first duty of a lecturer to hand you after an hour's discourse a nugget of pure truth to wrap up between the pages of your notebooks and keep on the mantelpiece for ever. All I could do was to offer you an opinion upon one minor point--a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction; and that, as you will see, leaves the great problem of the true nature of woman and the true nature of fiction Unsolved.

A general audience

Using what you know about rhetorical context, analyze the following passage from a review of the book, "Back to School," by Mike Rose, published in Literacy and Numeracy Studies in 2014. Who is the intended audience of this book review by Pamela Osmond? The book is based on interviews with a number of students and teachers in community colleges and adult education programs across America. Rose's style is anecdotal. He writes movingly of the students who have taken this second chance at learning. Australian language and literacy practitioners will recognise many of our students among the vignettes he presents to us. Rose was once a remedial teacher in the community education sector and the warmth and empathy with which he writes reflects this. The book opens with Henry telling us that 'you might discover somebody you never knew you were. That's basically what happened to me when I started taking classes here'.

Australian higher education professionals

Read the following excerpt. Evaluate its traits to determine its type of text from the options below. Definition and meanings Karma is the executed "deed", "work", "action", or "act", and it is also the "object", the "intent". Halbfass[3] explains karma (karman) by contrasting it with another Sanskrit word kriya. The word kriya is the activity along with the steps and effort in action, while karma is (1) the executed action as a consequence of that activity, as well as (2) the intention of the actor behind an executed action or a planned action (described by some scholars[9] as metaphysical residue left in the actor). A good action creates good karma, as does good intent. A bad action creates bad karma, as does bad intent.[3] Karma also refers to a conceptual principle that originated in India, often descriptively called the principle of karma, sometimes as the karma theory or the law of karma.[10]

Based on the traits in the excerpt, this is from a reference source because it contains factual content, embedded links to related sources or footnotes, clear and unbiased word choice, and it seeks to inform.

You are assigned the chapter "Functions and Function Notations" to read for homework in your Finite Math course. It includes definitions, formulas, worked example problems, and interactive exercises. Which is the best strategy to read this text?

Every word counts. Follow each line, reading with pencil in hand so that you can reproduce the examples as you go. Pay extra attention to the visual illustrations.

Using structural analysis, how would you decode the word binomial?

Examine the root; -nom- means "name," and bi- means two.

Read part of the article by Dora Mekouar, "Why Affluent Americans Chose 'Lifestyle' Renting Over Buying in the 2010s" from VOA news below: After living in a Washington, D.C., suburb for 20 years, Patrick Harrington had had enough. Fed up with the 25-mile commute to work, the Virginia man, along with his wife, Francine, sold their home and moved into a rental located about a 15-minute walk from Patrick's work. "I went from an hour-and-a-half drive every morning to a 15-minute walk," Patrick says. "We've definitely undergone a lifestyle change. No doubt about it." The Harringtons exemplify a key housing trend of the 2010s, a decade that saw renting emerge as a choice. The days of people being forced to rent until they can afford to buy appear to be over for many. An increasing number of more affluent Americans are opting to rent as a way of life. "Renting became a lifestyle option this past decade," Michaela Buzec, a research analyst for RENTCafe told VOA via email. "It offers flexibility and freedom to move around and change neighborhoods or cities. It's also a matter of affordability, since home prices in big, desirable cities increased significantly. This trend is scattered throughout the country, but it's most evident in the expensive markets." "I went from an hour-and-a-half drive every morning to a 15-minute walk," Patrick says. "We've definitely undergone a lifestyle change. No doubt about it." The Harringtons exemplify a key housing trend of the 2010s, a decade that saw renting emerge as a choice. The days of people being forced to rent until they can afford to buy appear to be over for many. An increasing number of more affluent Americans are opting to rent as a way of life. "Renting became a lifestyle option this past decade," Michaela Buzec, a research analyst for RENTCafe told VOA via email. "It offers flexibility and freedom to move around and change neighborhoods or cities. It's also a matter of affordability, since home prices in big, desirable cities increased significantly. This trend is scattered throughout the country, but it's most evident in the expensive markets."... The 2010s saw the largest increase in the percentage of renters since the 1960s, according to RENTCafe, an internet service that lists rental properties. More than 100 million Americans live in rental units. Since 2010, the number of renters increased twice as fast as the number of homeowners. There are 74% more people renting today than in 1960... The number of renters increased "across the board," among the young and the old, in urban areas as well as the suburbs. RENTCafe, which studied data from the past decade, found reasons for the increase include high student loans and home prices, and the need to be flexible in a changing, growing job market. Twenty cities went from a homeowner majority to a renter majority in the past 10 years, including places like Detroit, Michigan; Dayton and Toledo, Ohio; Stockton, California, and Memphis, Tennessee. Today, the cities with the largest share of renters are in the American Northeast... Which of the following is true about the rhetorical context of this piece?

The purpose is to explore a new trend in housing choices

Evaluate the way the second paragraph paraphrases the first. Explain why this is or is not an appropriate paraphrase. Original Source Now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. They -- and let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions, ladies and gentlemen, of equality. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism. Paraphrase People seeking absolute power are only trying to put their ideals on everyone else, even if they are trying to do the right thing. These are the people we should blame for bad governments, like the Nazis did with Hitler. Anybody who wants unchecked influence is suspect because unchecked influence always twists people inside; we need to fight these people. The problem is that these people don't get what equality means. Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin knew what equality meant and it wasn't what these people seeking unchecked influence think it is; the founders knew that equity leads to freedom and the openness to create. It is unfortunate that the other definition leads us now to "conformity" then tyranny.

This paraphrase has a few issues. The writer has some difficulty in stepping away from the original structure and in several places uses synonyms for key words. The writer also adds examples and specifics not in the original.

Is the following email effective for reminding an audience of new car owners about maintenance requirements? Congratulations on your purchase! We at Speedometer Motors want to thank you for your business. Now that you have had your Model RRR coupe for a week, we want to make sure that you have the resources you need to maintain your vehicle and the assurance that we stand behind you and your purchase. Remember to check for tune up indicators on the dash, next to the gas mileage indicator. This will tell you when it is time to make the routine adjustments that keep the car running smoothly. Remember that the free Road Service contact number is in your owner's manual, the emergency tool kit packet, and on the inside of the driver's-side door. This service is available for three years after purchase. Remember to pull to the side of the road when safe to do so if there is any emergency with your vehicle. Remember to check the oil every thousand miles and to change the oil every 3000-5000 miles. Finally, remember that we are here to answer your questions and provide the maintenance needed for speedy motoring.

Yes. This is effective because the tone is friendly, yet professional, and the message addresses issues new car owners may not think of in a brand new car.