Frauline C. Tadle

English 10 Section WFY

August 7, 2012

Activity: Precis-Writing and Paraphrasing

1. WRITE A PARAPHRASE OF THE

FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH ON THE

OPPOSITE COLUMN OF THE PAGE.

PROVIDE THE CORRECT MLA

DOCUMENTATION FOR THE SOURCE

INDICATED.

… Typically, when the modern worker is

discussed, the image that comes to mind is that of

an industrial or professional worker who is

regularly employed. One problem with this image

is that it excludes a large number of persons who

work irregularly at a variety of jobs. Included in

this category of workers are the retired, who often

supplement their social security by doing odd

jobs; migrant workers, who harvest crops in

summer and try to find other incomes in winter;

persons holding low-paying and insecure jobs

(such as dishwashers); and finally, some people

involved in crime. These and similar ways of

making a living are classified here as types of

hustling work… An important aspect of such work

is how public welfare, unemployment, and

“rehabilitation” programs influence the lives of

those employed in it.

---from Gale Miller’s It’s a Living: Work in

Modern Society, page 29, published in 1981 by St.

Martin’s Press, in New York.

The present day picture of a worker is someone

who is scholarly and permanently hired. Often

times, this illustration neglected a considerable

number of employees working temporarily at

various jobs. Some of them are those who have

reached the retirement age but are still doing

beneficial jobs for social safe-keeping; those

whose career is nomadic in nature which depends

greatly on the climate pushing them to wander

from place to place for income; persons whose

earnings are cheap and job is unstable and last,

those whose career is involved with illegal doings.

This type of jobs is classified as hustling work and

programs implemented that will affect people with

this type of work are an essential standpoint.

Miller, Gale. It's a Living: Work in Modern

Society. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981. pg.

29.

2. CONDENSE THE FOLLOWING

PARAGRAPH/S INTO WHAT YOU THINK IS

AN EFFICIENTLY SUMMARIZED TEXT.

PROVIDE THE CORRECT MLA

DOCUMENTATION FOR THE SOURCE

INDICATED.

[p. 333] It was at Stanford, one day near the end

of my senior year that a friend told me about a

summer construction job he knew was available. I

was quickly alert. Desire uncoiled within me. My

friend said he knew I had been looking for

summer employment. He knew I needed some

money. Almost apologetically he explained: It was

something I probably wouldn’t be interested in,

but a friend of his, a contractor, needed someone

for the summer to do menial jobs, there would be a

lot of shoveling and raking and sweeping. Nothing

too hard. But nothing more interesting either. Still,

the pay would be good. Did I want it?

I did. Yes, I said, surprised to hear myself say

it.

[p. 334] In the weeks following, friends

cautioned that I had no idea how hard physical

labor really is. (‘You only think you know what it

is like to shovel for eight hours straight.’) Their

objections seemed to me challenges. They

resolved the issue. I became happy with my plan. I

decided, however, not to tell my parents. I

wouldn’t tell my mother because I could guess her

worried reaction. I would tell my father only after

the summer was over, when I could announce that,

after all, I did know what it ‘real work’ is like.

A sudden opportunity came upon him [author]

one day while being in Stanford. A summer

construction job was being offered to him by one

his friends after knowing that he is need of it.

Without further ado, he accepted it despite the

continuous warnings from his friends that the job

might be something that he’s not interested with

because it’s lowly and that he had no idea how

difficult this type of jobs is. Instead, he became

more determined for the challenge it presents and

decided not to inform his parents about his plan.

That summer, he realized so much about the word

“worker”. He learned that there were several types

of worker rather than a sole one. He was surprised

to learn that a plumber could be a part time painter

and fan of Mark Rothko; that there could be

workers who received college diplomas; they

talked about local football teams, planning on

spending the holidays and Las Vegas and examine

the gas damage of makers of camp. He came to

recognize that they were never members of the

poor society just like what his mother stereotyped

about but rather came from the middle-class

American society.

Rodriguez, Richard. “Workers.” The Macmillan

Reader Eds. Judith Nadell and John Langan. New

York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990. pp.

333-339.

… It was with this realization that I took my

first step that summer toward realizing something

even more important about the ‘worker’. In the

company of carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and

painters at lunch, I would often sit quietly,

observant… The more I remember that summer,

the more I realize that there was no single type of

worker. I am embarrassed to say I had not

expected such diversity. I had certainly not

expected to meet, for example, a plumber who was

an abstract painter in his off-hours and admired

the work of Mark Rothko. Nor did I expect to

meet so many workers with college diplomas.

(They were the ones who were not surprised that I

intended to enter graduate school in the fall.) I

suppose what I really want to say here is painfully

obvious, but I must say it nevertheless: The men

of that summer were middle-class Americans.

They certainly didn’t constitute an oppressed

society. Carefully completing their work sheets;

talking about the fortunes of local football teams;

planning Las Vegas vacations; comparing the gas

mileage of various makes of campers--- they were

not los pobres my mother had spoken about.

--- from Richard Rodriguez’s “ Workers”, pages

333-339, in the second edition of The Macmillan

Reader. Judith Nadell and John Langan are the

editors. This was published in 1990 in New York

by the Macmillan Publishing Company.

3. LOOK FOR A BRIEF BUT INTERESTING

INTERNET ARTICLE, COPY AND PASTE IT

ONTO THE LEFT COLUMN OF YOUR

EXERCISE SHEET, AND ON THE RIGHT

Topic: Curiosity is a way of the Scientists to

address habitability issue of Mars.

COLUMN, MAKE AT LEAST A TWO-LEVEL

SENTENCE READING OUTLINE OF IT.

PROVIDE CORRECT CITATION OF THE

ARTICLE’S SOURCE.

ARTICLE:

CURIOSITY STEPS UP SEARCH FOR ALIEN

LIFE ON MARS

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory ratchets up the

quest to the next ingredient in the recipe for life --

organic carbon.

By Irene Klotz 

Sat Aug 4, 2012 02:56

With the arrival of NASA's Mars Science

Lab on Monday, a new chapter begins in the age-

old quest to determine if there is life beyond Earth.

The rover, nicknamed Curiosity, is not a life-

detection mission per se. NASA tried that direct

approach in the 1970s with the twin Viking

landers. Considering what scientists later learned

about the Martian environment, it was no surprise

those experiments didn't lead to a rush of follow-

on missions.

The quest of life on Mars bloomed anew in

the 1990s in the wake of a stunning report that

a Martian meteorite recovered on Earth had what

appeared to be fossilized Martian bacteria. Later

analysis refuted that conclusion, but it stimulated

new ideas about how and where Martian life might

have evolved.

Meanwhile, scientists were making new

discoveries of life in extreme environments on

Earth, opening up a range of potential habitats for

life beyond the planet as well.

I. NASA Science Lab, Curiosity’s arrival

marks a new chapter to look for

possible existence of life outside the

earth

A. Curiosity’s duty is a follow-up to the

mission of the twin Viking landers

during the 1970’s to learn the Martian

environment further.

B. The issue about potential living

organisms in Mars started when a

Martian meteorite recovered from

Earth showed traces of frozen

Martian bacteria which was later

disproved.

C. Discoveries of lives thriving in places

that are thought not suitable to live

gives more reason for scientists to

continue in their search for the

answer for this extra-terrestrial

dilemma.

II. The former environment of Mars could

have supported lives.

A. Scientists are still looking for lives in

Mars through signs of past water on

the planet’s surface for it is essential

for living things.

B. Continuous recovery of Martian

things gave information on

environmental changes from warm to

cold and dry then present acidic state

in the former times of Mars.

C. Curiosity now will look for places

"At least in the past, Mars looks like it could

have supported life," said NASA's lead Mars

Program scientist Michael Meyer.

NASA's revamped quest for Martian life began

with a simple premise: Find signs of past water,

since water is believed to be a key ingredient for

life.

Over the past decade, an increasingly more

sophisticated armada of robotic probes returned

strong evidence that Earth's little sibling

dramatically changed at some point in its past,

transitioning from a warm, wet world to the cold,

dry and acidic desert that exists today.

Curiosity ratchets up the quest to the next

ingredient in the recipe for life -- organic carbon,

which provides structure for living entities. The

key to finding it on Mars, if it exists, is to find

places where it could have been preserved, a

challenging proposition since the same processes

that make rock tend to destroy carbon.

"The challenge for Mars exploration is first

to try to identify environments that might have

been habitable and then to ask, 'Is this the kind of

place where organic carbon could have been

preserved?'" lead mission scientist John

Grotzinger, with California Institute of

Technology, told Discovery News.

On Earth, the earliest record of microbial life

dates back 3.5 billion years, the same time

scientists believe Mars was wet and warm. Single-

celled micro-organisms were discovered in 1958

inside a glass-type rock known as chert.

where organic carbon could have

subsisted as it is one of the many

components of a living thing.

D. They are hoping to find chert-like

structures from Mars for they could

provide information about the

environment in the past just like in

the Earth during the Pre-Cambrian

era millions to billions of years ago.

E. Mount Sharp shows to be probable

starting point for the mission for it

could be holding remains of a basin

which could lead to new information

about history of Mars.

III. The habitability of Mars is now the

main concern.

A. First extensive document of a billion

years of history.

B. Curiosity’s mission is to answer the

problem of being habitable of Mars

C. It is expected that Curiosity would

land on Monday at 1:31 a.m. Earth-

time.

Klotz, Irene. “Curiosity Steps Up Search for

Alien Life on Mars.” Discovery News, 4 August

2012. Web. Retrieved from http://news.

dicovery.com/space/mars-rover- curiosity- alien-

life-120804.html.

"That was the key to the castle," said Grotzinger, a

geologist.

"Everybody went out looking at Precambrian

chert," he said, referring to a period of time

between the origin of Earth 4.6 billion years ago

and about 570 million years ago.

Chert is not life's only preservative, and

Curiosity's landing site, though apparently chert-

free, is rich with other materials, such as clays,

that could do the job.

The rover is designed to spend at least two

years exploring an ancient crater and an unusual,

three-mile high mountain rising from its floor.

Scientists believe the mound, known as

Mount Sharp, is the remains of sediment that once

filled the basin.

"The layers provide an opportunity to rove

up the surface of Mount Sharp and come through

time to see how the environments have changed,"

Meyer said.

It would be the first comprehensive record of

what may be billions of years of time, a record

which on Earth has been disrupted and erased by

tectonic plate movements, weathering and other

natural events that regularly rewrite the planet's

surface.

"We're not just looking for water anymore,"

Grotzinger said. "With this mission, expectations

go up. The scientific challenge is much greater. It's

going to be harder to address this question of

habitability."

Curiosity is due to touch down on Mars at

1:31 a.m. EDT Monday.

4. WRITE A 2-PARAGRAPH SYNTHESIS OF

Joseph C. Pattison’s “ How to Write an F Paper”

and Paul Roberts’ “How to Say Nothing in 500

Words”.

‘Writing Isn't That Hard At All’

Writing formal papers could be one of the

most hated scholarly tasks of a student. It's time

consuming, boring, complicated, demanding and

difficult. You may hate, neglect or curse it yet you

can never avoid it. But with continuous practice

and aid of some techniques, writing can be an easy

activity to anyone.

Firstly, focus on a specific and unusual topic

and cultivate it to become attractive for the

readers. This is one of the primary duties of a

writer. Avoid using broad subjects because they

will require you to wander off to several ides

which prevents you from making an effective

piece. Then make use of rhetorical patterns like

illustrations, examples and descriptions. Except

that they give color to your writing but they also

strengthen your arguments and claims. Lastly, be

brief, direct but clear with your ideas. Refrain

from utilizing fragment, run-on, comma-spliced

sentences or useless phrases that add nothing to

your paper. Choose the closest word that conveys

your idea and go direct to the point. Writing is a

continuous process of editing and rewriting which

could be the reason why it is one of the hardest

things people do. But through some simple

techniques would guide you to become a better

writer. You will soon realize that writing is not that

hard at all.