Day 9
M-Tu Feb. 11-12
Homework
as soon as possible:
➤ Speaker tasks:
If you are a speaker for next class, be ready to tell us:
What “carrier” (object or activity) you chose, and why
What questions you think your chapter could shed light on, and why you think our readers would be interested in knowing your answers to those questions
➤ Decide on one object or activity for your chapter
As soon as you’ve decided what object or activity you want to focus on for your chapter of My Country and My People: 2019 Edition, message me on WeChat and tell me: 1) what the object or activity is; and 2) what questions you think a non-Chinese person might have about it.
due next class:
➤ Start doing some research
Find one interesting source relevant to your object or activity. (A source in Chinese is fine.) Read it.
(Note: I assume your source will be an article—either an academic one or a popular one. If it’s a different kind of source [e.g. interview, film, etc.], tell me—you may need to do Writing Exercise #4 in a different way.)
➤ Writing Exercise #4
In 5 sentences, summarize what you learned from this source. Follow this format:
Sentence 1: Identify the source and tell me generally what it’s about.
Sentence 2: Tell me (in your own words) the author’s main point, or the piece of information you found most illuminating.
Sentence 3: Quote the text, or mention an important example or piece of evidence from the text.
Sentence 4: Explain the quote in your own words, or explain why the example or piece of evidence is significant.
Sentence 5: Explain why what you learned from this source sheds light on your topic or the questions you’re interested in.
Include a reference (in any citation style you wish) that could help me find this source if I wanted to.
Put in bold (黑体) all your reporting verbs (also sometimes called “signal verbs”). These are verbs like “argues,” “states,” “claims,” “asserts,” “describes how,” “cites the example of,” “sheds light on,” etc—verbs that convey information, used frequently in summarizing. I will give you feedback on how accurately you’re using these verbs.
