English Composition Self-directed Assessment
English Composition
Self-directed Assessment
Competency
Identify and illustrate steps of the writing process in composing written exercises.
Instructions
Compose a single body descriptive paragraph in formal written English. Be sure to include the following:
Topic sentence that provides the main idea for the descriptive paragraph.
Body sentences that discuss the main idea for the descriptive paragraph using explanation, examples, details, and of course, descriptive elements.
Transition sentence: Your descriptive paragraph must include the use of at least one or more transitions that move the paragraph along.
Conclusion sentence: Your descriptive paragraph must end with a concluding sentence that wraps up and refers to the main idea of the topic sentence and signals to the reader that the paragraph is over.
Your descriptive paragraph needs to contain a minimum total of five complete sentences.
Reminder: Descriptive refers to a style of writing. Choose your sentences for your descriptive paragraph from the following sentences, and use them together to construct your descriptive paragraph. They will not all be appropriate for this paragraph, so choose only the sentences that result in a complete descriptive paragraph as listed above. Use a topic sentence that provides the main idea for a single well-organized paragraph using the steps of the writing process.
Choose the best sentences to construct your descriptive paragraph, and put them together to make ONE well-organized descriptive paragraph. Remember that not all sentences need to be used.
It’s a soft, blue-sky break before the gray skies of winter begin to reflect the steely cold waters the lake becomes with the first freeze.
Dogs are sometimes fierce protectors that can attack anyone they feel is threatening a family.
In the old days, dogs were not considered companions, but seen more as working animals.
That’s what we can all call a red-letter day!
My dog, Bosco, is a Harlequin Great Dane that outweighs our 10 year old brother, and to the other dogs in our neighborhood he must look like a tall spotted monster because they avoid him at all cost.
Do you think dogs are smarter than people?
Sometimes our dog seems to know when we are laughing at him because he tucks his head down and appears to shrink into a small ball resembling a lumpy soccer ball.
On a beautiful fall day, my family enjoys picnicking at a quiet beach we know that has a blue lagoon surrounded by rustic picnic tables and tall, green pines.
I really like dogs.
The whole family grabs sweaters and corduroys, Mom packs a cheese sandwich picnic basket with all the junk food we never get to taste otherwise, and we jump into Dad’s old blue jalopy and head out for one last day of fun before all the hub-bub of school gets into swing.
My brother is a great Jayvee football quarterback, my older red-headed sister is a cheerleader complete with red pom-poms, and I play cymbals and drums in the school pep band, so we are usually very tied up in school activities soon after school starts.
That dog can open the refrigerator and grab a can of soda!
I really enjoy the pep band; it’s fun to get all dressed up in my red band uniform and beat those shiny drums during a game.
Our big dog needs to stay at home with the cat because he attracts sand and fleas.
On one hand, it is hard to get everything ready for the day trip; on the other hand, nobody in our family wants to miss such a day of fun.
My brother thinks he is smarter and more well-dressed than the rest of us because he is the oldest.
For example, cats can be really pretty, but they don’t seem to love everyone in the family.
At the end of a great day of flying kites, chasing each other around the lagoon, and eating great junk food, we all go home extremely tired and extremely happy.
A day with my dog.
My family comes in all shapes, ages, sizes, and hair colors, but no matter what we look like, we ALL love to eat.
As night falls and my father drives the old beat-up car towards home, most of us finish up the cheese sandwiches and chips and doze off after a day of fun.
SDA45 English Composition
Module 2 Self-directed Assessment
Demonstrate ability to comprehend and summarize in written material.
Instructions
Write a one page analysis of the document provided here following the steps of the writing process, as well as showing the thesis of the article, the main points that support that thesis, and your own response and reaction to the author’s point of view and how it is presented. Do this in complete paragraphs using correct formal English that has been revised, proofed, and edited to show good form.
Counterpoint: Cooling Off
Contents
Introduction
The Science of Global Warming
Increasing the Risk
Slowing Climate Change
Individual Choice
Ponder This
Bibliography
Full Text
Listen
Thesis: While the average citizen of an African nation can do little to lower emissions, it turns out that the American citizen is producing more greenhouse gasses on average than anyone else on earth.
Summary: The world’s scientists no longer have any doubt about the fact that we are changing the chemical concentration of our atmosphere. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), since the Industrial Revolution ushered in a new age of fossil fuel consumption in the nineteenth century, the percentages of the three most common heat-trapping gasses in the atmosphere have increased dramatically. Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have always been components of our atmosphere, and are part of what makes our planet livable. Without these gasses, too much of the heat we gain from the sun would be reflected back out of the atmosphere, making for a much cooler earth. The problem arises when these gasses become too dense, retaining more and more of the sun’s heat and gradually increasing the overall temperature of the earth and its atmosphere. The good news in this story is that there are worldwide efforts in place to slow climate change even as we work to learn more about it. The dangerous increase in greenhouse gas emissions is largely caused by manufacturing processes, the burning of fossil fuels, and increases in agriculture.
Introduction
About twenty years ago, strange stories began trickling into the popular press about a discussion scientists were having on climate change. We were seeing elaborate diagrams and graphs which talked about “the greenhouse effect,” “greenhouse gasses,” and “global warming.” The science quickly unfolded into dramatic predictions about deserts appearing in our wetlands and ferocious lightning storms that alternately reminded us of biblical prophecies and mediocre science fiction movies.
Unable to imagine such things becoming part of our familiar modern world, most of us were unable to believe any of it, at first. The problem was that, unlike predictions of a judgment day on January 1, 2000, these theories didn’t go away. Now, the question is not whether we are helping to change the earth’s climatic temperatures, but what risks we are choosing to take with our world.
The Science of Global Warming
The world’s scientists no longer have any doubt about the fact that we are changing the chemical concentration of our atmosphere. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), since the Industrial Revolution ushered in a new age of fossil fuel consumption in the nineteenth century, the percentages of the three most common heat-trapping gasses in the atmosphere have increased dramatically. Carbon dioxide has increased 30 percent, methane has increased more than 100 percent, and nitrous oxide has increased about 15 percent. Meanwhile, the US National Academy of Sciences reports that the surface temperature of our planet has risen about one degree Fahrenheit in the last 100 years, and that much of that increase has occurred since the 1980s, when we first started talking about the problem. With growing information about how our climate works, scientists are now more willing to say that these two observations are linked.
Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have always been components of our atmosphere, and are part of what makes our planet livable. Without these gasses, too much of the heat we gain from the sun would be reflected back out of the atmosphere, making for a much cooler earth. The greenhouse gasses get their name for their ability to retain some of this solar heat and re-disperse it throughout the earth’s atmosphere, keeping the planet at a comfortable 60 degrees Fahrenheit or so.
The problem arises when these gasses become too dense, retaining more and more of the sun’s heat and gradually increasing the overall temperature of the earth and its atmosphere. Ironically, many scientists believe that we would have seen a larger increase in temperature over the past few decades except for our production of another pollutant, sulfate aerosols, which tend to reflect solar heat away from the earth. Because sulfate aerosols also cause smog, acid rain, environmental damage, and human respiratory problems, we are not considering this as a long-term solution.
Increasing the Risk
In a 2001 report, the National Academy of Sciences found “new and stronger evidence” that human beings were responsible for most of the increase in global temperatures. The report also estimated that, unless we do something about our emissions now, average global temperatures will increase anywhere from 2.2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. Even at the lower end of this estimate, scientists agree that we would likely see some dramatic changes to our world, with early signs already beginning to show.
The year 2001 saw the highest global temperatures in recorded history, and a measurable diminishing of glaciers and ice caps is undoubtedly related. Melting will increase sea levels. As the earth loses its ability to disperse solar heat, we may also see increased rates of water evaporation, so that many regions may dry out. At the same time, the increased movement of water vapors through the atmosphere in the wake of glacier melting and large-scale evaporation may lead to spells of violent, torrential rain. Added to this is a likelihood that warmer ocean temperatures will create stronger, longer lasting hurricanes and monsoons, and contribute to the dramatic shifts in weather pattern associated with El Nino.
While our scientists steadfastly refuse to commit to any of these predictions, they do agree on one thing: the more concentrated we let our greenhouse gasses become, the greater the risks we take. It seems we may have found another way to make our own planet uninhabitable.
Slowing Climate Change
The good news in this story is that there are worldwide efforts in place to slow climate change even as we work to learn more about it. The dangerous increase in greenhouse gas emissions is largely caused by manufacturing processes, the burning of fossil fuels, and increases in agriculture.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was open for ratification by member countries in 1992, and the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997. Under these agreements, signatory nations commit to take steps to lower the emissions of greenhouse gasses to earlier levels in order to contain the threat of global warming. In addition, constant progress in technologies, such as improvements in manufacturing, alternative energy sources, and cleaner burning automobiles all help to make lowering our greenhouse gasses a realistic option for any nation that chooses to make it a priority.
For those of us in the United States, there is more good news. While the average citizen of an African nation can do little to lower emissions, it turns out that the American citizen is producing more greenhouse gasses on average than anyone else on earth.
Individual Choice
We in the US emit approximately 6.6 tons of greenhouse gasses per person per year, reflecting an increase of about 3.4 percent between 1990 and 1997. The experts tell us that about 82 percent of these emissions come from burning fossil fuels (mostly oil) to create electricity and power our cars. If that figure is not enough to rouse us to action, there’s this: the EPA estimates that about 32 percent of the gasses we’re emitting in this country are a matter of individual choice.
In other words, even if we made no effort to further clean up our manufacturing processes, our agricultural techniques, or our industries, we could still cut up to a third of our gas emissions by making some small changes to the electricity we use in our homes, the way we get to work, and the waste we choose not to recycle. The whole world would thank us for it.
Ponder This
1. According to the author, on which aspects of climate change do most scientists agree?
2. On which aspects of climate change are scientists less certain?
3. Give an example of an action the international community has taken to address global warming.
4. According to the author, who has the greatest opportunity to slow the emission of greenhouse gasses? Why?
Bibliography
Periodicals
King, Ralph. “GM’s Race to the Future.” Business 4.9 (October 2003): 9p. Online. EBSCO. 16 October 2003.
Knickerbocker, Brad. “States take the lead on global warming.” Christian Science Monitor 95.222 (10 October 2003): np. Online. EBSCO. 16 October 2003.
Margolis, Mac, Eric Pape, William Underhill, Jimmy Langman, and Melissa Roberts. “Vins d’Angleterre?” Newsweek (Atlantic Edition) 142.14 (6 October 2003): 4p. Online. EBSCO. 16 October 2003.
Perkins, Sid. “On Thinning Ice.” Science News 164.14 (4 October 2003): 2p. Online. EBSCO. 16 October 2003.
Strum, Matthew, Donald K. Perovich, and Mark C. Serreze. “Meltdown in the North.” Scientific American 289.4 (October 2003): 8p. Online. EBSCO. 16 October 2003.
Websites
Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions. The National Academies Press. 16 October 2003. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10139.html.
The Convention and Kyoto Protocol. UNFCCC. 15 October 2003. http://unfccc.int/resource/convkp.html.
Global Warming. Environmental Protection Agency. 16 October 2003. http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/index.html.
Global Warming Dispute. Online NewsHour.Org. 16 October 2003. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june01/bush%5F6-14.html.
These essays and any opinions, information or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.
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SDA45 English Composition
Module 3 Self-directed Assessment
Instructions
Produce a complete 2-4 page paper in which you do a comparison and contrast between driverless cars and/or traditionally driven cars. Be sure to define your reason for writing (thesis), and treat both ideas equally as to pros and cons, costs to promote, validity, efficiency to use, probability of success, and manpower requirements, etc. Your paper should contain an introductory paragraph, thesis statement, body paragraphs each supporting a major idea regarding your point for writing, and a concluding paragraph to wrap-up the paper and signal the completion of your support for your reason for writing.
Although actual research is not a part of this assignment, provide a brief statement at the beginning of the assignment explaining how you would have gone about finding and providing support for your paper.
SDA45 English Composition
Module 4 Self-directed Assessment
Competency
Apply APA documentation techniques correctly in research.
Instructions
Using the Rasmussen College library (online database) for all resources, find a topic you feel is suitable (real world, everyday life) for a brief 2-3 page research paper, and compose an annotated bibliography (not the entire paper) of 100 word annotations from a minimum of five resources from credible academic databases or eBooks. Be sure to employ APA method of documentation.
SDA45 English Composition
Module 5 Self-directed Assessment
Competency
Use collaboration techniques to correct written documents.
Instructions
Show your ability to analyze, correct, and revise the following rough draft, giving your input on the revision necessary to improve the quality of this essay. You will show successful completion of this deliverable by:
Providing feedback for corrections/alterations using the Comments feature in Word (Review tab).
Respond to the six questions at the end of the student rough draft linked above.
Use complete sentences in all of your responses.
SDA45 English Composition
Module 6 Self-directed Assessment
Competency
Show ability to use standard professional English in formal written documents.
Instructions
Familiarize yourself with the strategies of research and produce an original five page minimum persuasive research essay using only the Rasmussen College library to find varied academic resources/databases. Choose five current, varied (by type), and credible sources to use in writing to support your topic which should result in a five page essay that persuades the reader that your perspective on a debatable topic is the correct position to take. Your APA paper should demonstrate your ability to engage the reader, provide a strong thesis with pattern for development, incorporate in-text citations as needed, and include a final reference page listing and using research resources as described above. Here is the topic for your persuasive essay assignment:
What do you think will be the most important debatable economic or social problem facing your field of work 20 years from now? Choose the problem, define it, and defend your position using credible research from the Rasmussen College library databases.
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