01/ 15/ 14 Mariana Rebolledo Section: 001 Journal 2

Evaluative Comments about Files Reading and writing are process which include a lot of strategies, methodologies and abilities to make a correct communication as a foreign language; is helpful for us because the importance of expressing clearly ideas to understand a text for example and grammar structures. This journal contains 9 writing files and 5 reading files, each file contains different strategies and difficulty levels, many details and examples, as well as they have different quality and quantity of examples. File 1: the writing process. Here comprehends the meaning of writing

and its steps to precede writing. Writing takes time because you have to think what you want to write in paper, an essay or write a book so that you have to sit down with a pen and then you start to develop information following these steps (prewriting, drafting and revising). Prewriting is the first stage of writing, includes taking notes about the topic or your ideas then you begin to organize them. Drafting is writing the text, you have your ideas and complete sentences or paragraphs. Revising is the final check where you re-read what you wrote to make the corrections. In this file I learned how I have to organize my ideas to create a topic about whatever I want to write by following the steps mentioned before. For me this file was quite difficult because I have never written a paragraph about in this case a questionnaire where I wrote a paragraph about a classmate (his/ her full name,

age, hobbies, interest, etc.) each one of them with details. I toke notes that collected, but that was the first challenge of this file. File 2: Prewriting. These techniques focus on choosing a subject,

thinking a general idea that you would like to express. In this case was quite easy because the useful strategy to collect information for me is the journalistic question where you ask questions like a newspaper reporter about something you know or you dont know, but you want to, using these steps: who? What? When? Where? Why? How?.

File 3: Structural components of writing (I). This file explains words

that express a complete thought using modifiers for examples phrases to the subject and the verb. For that we use a series of combinations; relative pronouns, clauses, participle phrase, semicolons, key words, dash, correlative conjunctions, colons and appositive. This file was kind of confusing for me, because we had to change a sentence using the combinations before mentioned, but I learned a bit how to managed some of them.

File 4: Structural components of writing (II). This contains the main

meaning of the paragraph (sentences develop in one topic) it tells what the paragraph is about. The topic sentence is the beginning of the text, reveals the subject and what is your plan to say about the subject. I learned how to write a good paragraph, for that you need to be supportive and clear to understand a text. This was as difficult as easy, because I wrote a paragraph word using an abstract word (in this case was the word Horror) which included a definition created by myself and a short story if I had a horror experience.

File 5: Structural components of writing (III). This file explained unity

and coherence to develop a good paragraph; improved the context in which we

have to use it to do not confuse the readers. I was not very clear about this file, but I am going to keep it in mind. So that this file was difficult to me.

File 6: Drafting (Narrative Paragraph). It is a single writing of the text

to support a point of view using facts, examples, personal experiences or description. I learned how to write a short narration using dates, examples, explaining ideas to support the text. This file was more or less difficult to understand it for me.

File 7: Descriptive Paragraph. This means that we have to write

presenting clear things or ideas focusing on details in what it looks like as well as an address, a person or a place. This file was helpful for me because I organized the ideas in one paragraph describing a person, using adjectives, what the person looks like (physical appearance and personality). A descriptive paragraph is easy to create; just you have to be careful organizing the phrases to be clear describing.

File 8: Expository paragraph. This file present text about facts,

definitions, explaining it. The methods are: process (explaining how or what), extended definition (explaining the meaning of), comparison and contrast (why this thing is different from that material for example) and causes and effects (why this happened what was the effects of that for example). In this file I learned how to write an expository paragraph choosing a scientific fact describing the causes and effects, contrasting it. This paragraph was easy to write because the steps are clear.

File 9: Persuasive paragraph. Is support a point of view, prove it,

believe it, so that you have to convince the reader that an opinion is totally true. The strategy in this file is show the reader that X fact or opinion is valid.

Reading file 2: Guessing meaning from context (I).

For reading

sometimes you may confuse trying to understand the text, thats why as writer you have clarifying the meanings grammatically speaking, here are the techniques: nouns (noun is a word use it to expressing things). In a sentence you have to make sure to write a noun at the beginning of the sentence whether about a person, place, object, etc. Verbs (use it to express an action or state of being). Adjectives (phrase use to modify a noun). Adverbs (phrase use it to modify a verb an adjective or another verb). I learned how to identify in a sentence the noun and what the modifiers are. It was quite confusing the adjectives and adverbs part because you have to be careful modifying where it needs. o Reading files 3: Guessing meaning from context (II). The context

here refers to the sentence where the unknown word appears. To support it you have to search the unfamiliar word perhaps in a dictionary or if you have a general knowledge (idea). For this we use the synonyms (is a word that means the same to another word) and definitions (describes the meaning of a word). Examples (inform the reader about unknown words). Antonyms (means the opposite of another word) and Contrasts. General knowledge. I learned basically to identify an unknown word and check it in a dictionary to help me understand a text. o Reading files 4: Scanning, main ideas, topic sentence. This file is

about practically of our skills as readers; some of us are faster o slower than others (skimming and scanning) for skimming is when you read carefully but to

look out for something that interest you. Scanning means the opposite, is when you read something quickly to find a piece or specific information. this file was my favorite because as a reader that I am, my skill is scanning, I always read quickly searching an specific information that I am interest so that this file was easier than all the others files, including writing.

Reading file 5: Making inferences. This means the guessing or the

prediction about something you know or you do not know, based in facts or real information. In this file was quite confusing too because we had to analyze and recognize. Reading and writing have different skills and levels of difficulty, but they are important to us because their methods and strategies are useful to write a long or short text. A piece of advice is that we have to read a lot and carefully for a better understanding of a book or documents.