--conflicts (suspense, tension)

--climax

--denouement

 2. Main idea

3. Organization：

--introduction

--development

--climax

--conclusion

III. Effective Writing Skills:

1.        making effective use of verbs

2.        using many elliptical and short, simple sentences to achieve certain effect

IV. Rhetorical Devices:

1.        transferred epithet

2.        personification

3.        metaphor

4.        simile

V. Special Difficulties

 Avoiding the following kinds of mistakes:

1.        run-on sentences

2.        sentence fragments

3.        dangling modifiers

4.        illogical or faulty parallelism

5.        unnecessary shifts in point of view

6.        paraphrasing some sentences

7.        identifying figures of speech

VI. Questions

1.        What is the organizational pattern of this piece of narration?

2.        What does the writer focus chiefly on --- developing character, action (plot), or idea (theme)?

3.        Who is the protagonist in the story?

4.        How does the writer build up and sustain the suspense in the story?

5.        Why did John Koshak feel a crushing guilt?

Unit 2: Marrakech by George Orwell

I. Additional Background Knowledge

1.        George Orwell

2.        Morocco

3.        Marrakech

4.        The Jewish people

II. Introduction to the Passage

1.        Type of literature: a piece of exposition

2.        The purpose of a piece of exposition:

     -- to inform or explain

3.        Ways of developing the thesis of a piece of exposition:

--comparision, contrast, analogy, identification, illustration, analysis, definition, etc.

4.        The central thought or thesis

III. Effective Writing Skills:

1.        making effective use of specific verbs

2.        using the methods of contrast, illustration, comparision, etc.

3.        clever choice of words and scenes and tenses

IV. Rhetorical Devices:

1.        rhetorical questions

2.        repetition

3.        metaphor

4.        simile

5.        elliptical sentences

V. Special Difficulties

1.    Making sentences more compact by proper subordination, such as subordinate clauses, appositives, prepositional or verbal phrases.

2.   Discriminating groups of synonyms:

--wail, cry, weep, sob, whimper, moan

--glisten, glitter, flash, shimmer, sparkle

3.   Paraphrasing some sentences

4.   Identifying figures of speech

VI. Questions

1.   Orwell shows the poverty of the natives in at least five ways. Identify them.

2.   Could paragraphs 4-7 just as well come after 8-15 as before? Why or why not?

3.   Does this essay give readers a new insight into imperialism?

4.   Comment on Orwell’s lucid style and fine attention to significant descriptive details.

Unit 3: Pub Talk and King’s English

by Henry Fairlie

I. Additional Background Knowledge

1.        pub/pub-friends

2.        Dumas/Three Musketeers

3.        Carlyle

4.        Charles Lamb

II. Introduction to the Passage

1.        Type of literature: a piece of exposition

2.        The thesis

3.        What makes a good conversation

4.        Seemingly loose organization

a.   title   b. transitional paragraph  c. digression

5.        Highly informal language

a. abundance of simple idiomatic expressions cheeked by jowl with copious literary and historical allusions

b. a mixed metaphor in paragraph 2

III. Effective Writing Skills:

1.        deliberately writing this essay in a conversational style to suit the theme

2.        making effective use of specific verbs

IV. Rhetorical Devices:

1.          metaphor

2.          mixed metaphor

3.        simile

V. Special Difficulties

1. Idiomatic expressions:

--be on the rocks

--get up on the wrong side of the bed

--be on wings

--turn up one’s nose at sth.

--into the shoes of

2.Allusions

--descendants of convicts

--Saxon churls

--Norman conquerors

--musketeers of Dumas

3.The use of transitional devices

   --transitional words and expressions

   --pronoun reference

   --repetition of important words

4. Paraphrasing some sentences

5.Identifying figures of speech

VI. Questions

1.        What, according to the author, makes a good conversation? What spoils it?

2.        What is the author’s attitude of the writer towards “ the King’s English”?

3.        How does the use of words show class distinction?

4.        What does the writer mean when he says, “the King’s English, like the Anglo- French of the Normans, is a class representation of reality”?

Unit 4: Inaugural Address

by John F. Kennedy

I. Additional Background Knowledge

1.        John F Kennedy

2.        His assasination

3.        Inauguration

4.        Inaugural address

5.        Cold war period: socialist camp vs. capitalist camp

II. Introduction to the Passage

1.        Type of literature: political speech

2.        Object of a political speech:

--to explain

--to convince

--to persuade

3.        Well organized and highly rhetorical

4.        Biblical style/language

5.        Often-quoted passages

III. Effective Writing Skills:

1.  Employing suitable rhetorical devices and words to create the desired emotional impact

2.   clear order and appropriate tone to the different groups he is addressing

3.   Employing Biblical style deliberately

IV. Rhetorical Devices:

1.   metaphor

2.   antithesis

3.  parallelism

4.  repetition

V. Special Difficulties

1. Biblical language/quotations/style

2.Using the following methods for force, vividness and emotional appeal:

--Parallel and balanced structure

--Repetition of important words

--Antithesis

3.Paraphrasing some sentences

4.Identifying figures of speech

VI. Questions

1.    Cite examples to show that Kennedy is very particular and careful in his choice and use of words.

2.    Is the address well organized? Comment on the order in which he addressed all the different groups of nations and people.

3.    Is Kennedy’s argument and persuasion based mainly on facts and logic or on an appeal to emotions? Would this type of speech be successful on all occasions?

4.    Is the tone and message suited to the different groups he addresses? Give your reasons.

Unit 5: Love Is a Fallacy

by Max Shulman

I. Additional Background Knowledge

1.   The meaning of Logical fallacies

2.   Logical fallacies:

--Dicto Simpliciter

--Hasty Generalization

--Poisoning the Well

--Ad Misericordiam

II. Introduction to the Passage

1.     Type of literature: a piece of narrative writing

--protagonist/antagonists

--climax

--denouement

2.     The main theme

3.     Well chosen title and words

4.     Style

--a very fast pace with a racy dialogue full of American colloquialism and slang

--employing a variety of writing techniques to make the story vivid, dramatic and colorful

III. Effective Writing Skills:

1.    Employing colorful lexical spectrum, from the ultra learned terms to the infra clipped vulgar forms

2.   Too much figurative language and ungrammatical inversion for specific purposes

3. The using of short sentences, elliptical sentences and dashes to maintain the speed of narration

IV. Rhetorical Devices:

1. metaphor

3.   antithesis

4.   transferred epithet

4.  hyperbole

5.  metonymy

6.  litotes

7.    ellipsis

8.    synecdoche

9.    inversion

10.  simile

11.  mixed metaphor

12.  rhetorical questions

V. Special Difficulties

1.  Analyzing the logical fallacies

2.  Using inverted sentences to achieve emphasis

3. Effectively using many figures of speech

4. Understanding colloquial expressions and slang

5. Allusions:

--Frankenstein

--Pygmalion

6. Paraphrasing some sentences

7. Identifying figures of speech

VI. Questions

1.  Define and give an example of each of the logical fallacies discussed in this essay.

2. Can you find any evidence to support the view that the writer is satirizing a bright but self-satisfied young man?

3. Comment on the language used by Polly. What effect does her language create?

4. Why does the writer refer to Pygmalion and Frankenstein? Are these allusions aptly chosen?

5. In what sense is the conclusion ironic?

Unit 6: Disappearing Through the Skylight

By Osborne Bennet Hardison Jr.

I. Additional Background Knowledge

1.    A brief introduction to O. B. Hardison Jr.

2.    A brief introduction to his views in Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century

3.  International style

4.  Features of scientific English

II. Introduction to the Passage

1.  The central theme of “disappearance”

--nature disappears

--history disappears

--solid banks disappears

2.  The four important ideas put forward

--disappearance

--the universalizing tendency of science and technology

--man as a cosmopolitan

--the playfulness of science

 3. Clearly and logically organized

III. The Stylistic Features

1.  Features of scientific English

--technical terms such as thermodynamics, genetics, genetic mutation, etc.

--short sentences and present tense used to express a universal statement

 2. Using figurative language freely to make ideas more vivid and forceful

IV. Rhetorical Devices:

1. metaphor

2.   analogies

3.   repetition

4.        balanced structures

5.        ellipsis

6.        rhetorical questions

V. Special Difficulties

1.    Some technical terms

2.    Understanding the metaphorical phrase “Disappearing Through the Skylight”

3.    The use of topic sentences

4.    The use of present tense and universal statements

5.    Paraphrasing some sentences

6.    Identifying figures of speech

VI. Questions

1.  How does the writer substantiate his statement that science is committed to the universal?

2.   Why do banks appear to be disappearing through their own skylight?

3.   Sum up the main views of the writer and comment on how they are organized and presented.

4.   What stylistic features of scientific English are to be found in this piece? Cite examples.

5.   Comment on the use of some figurative language. Cite examples.

Unit 10: The Sad Young Men