short reflection

Last week, we composed 2 paragraphs, illustrative and persuasive paragraph. Before composing, actually I was confused how to make good paragraph. So that, I tried to search, browse, and read another references about several types of paragraph. And finally I could composed it.
When we reviewed the paragraphs, my paragraphs were reviewed by Saiful Aris, and I reviewed Fitriyatuz Zakiyah's paragraphs. I think, Zaki's illustrative paragraph had no mistakes in 4 basics of good paragraph, but she just paid attention to the grammar, while her persuasive paragraph, she explain about rubbish,the type of rubbish, and cause and effect of rubbish. The conclusion of her paragraph seemed persuading the readers to keep a clean.

I think, grammar is our common mistake. So that, we must pay attention to this.

Be Careful, Guys!

Last week, we just had a meeting since Friday was holiday. On Wednesday, October 24, 2012, we had workshop, we reviewed about argumentative paragraph. I reviewed Lalang’s work. It was about diet. I think his paragraph had fulfilled 4 basics of good argumentative paragraph. It had motion, didn’t focus on a view, but presented the opposing views. Those included in characteristics of argumentative paragraph. Good job, Lang!

As I said before, our mistakes, including mine, are in grammar and punctuation. So, we must be careful in using those.

Our mistakes….

On Wednesday, October 17, 2012, we reviewed our friend’s work, process analysis. At that time, I reviewed Ainur Riza’s work. It told about how to make Nagasari cake. Over all, it was good paragraph because it presented the sequence order and the essential steps of making Nagasari cake. The mistakes were in grammar and punctuation. It was also our mistakes that always be found in writing. Sometimes we didn’t pay attention to those, whereas those profoundly impacted the meaning and the effectiveness of paragraph or sentence.

On Friday, October 19, 2012, we reviewed about definition paragraph. I reviewed Tryas’ work. It told about definition of honesty. It was good paragraph because it has clear topic sentence that defined the topic, honesty. It also presented the detail examples and concluding sentence. The mistakes were as same as Ainur Riza’s.

I think, not only Tryas and Riza have those mistakes, but also we do!

So that, we must be careful to use grammar, punctuation, etc.

Good luck!

Having a workshop with snacks..

-->

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, we had a workshop. Everybody had a chance to review each partner’s work. At that time, I reviewed Saiful Aris’ work. His paragraph told about big population in Jakarta. Actually at the first time (that) I read it, I felt confused and didn’t understand it because there were many new difficult words that I hadn’t known the meaning.

Last Wednesday, October 10, 2012, we had discussion class. There were 3 presenters at that time. They were Tryas, Lilis, and Zaky. The first presenter was Tryas. She presented about persuasion paragraph but the others didn’t agree with her declaration. She convinced us that the paragraph was persuasive because the source that we got from Miss Vita explained it. Actually she misunderstood. She thought that the last paragraph was sentence that persuaded the readers to take an action after reading the paragraph, such as “Believe it and act!” (in the source, “seven types of paragraph development”), in her paragraph was like “Student, do your home work to make better grades and...(blablabla)!”, I have forgotten the sentence. This context was as same as the example of persuasive paragraph in the source. But the purpose of Tryas paragraph was not like in the source. There was no suggestion and instruction in the paragraph. The whole paragraph explained about the importance of homework. So, her paragraph was exposition because it explained the importance of homework.

The second presenter was Lilis. She presented 2 paragraphs. The first paragraph was classification. Actually the paragraph was not in the form of paragraph, but she modified it by herself with adding some words without changing the meaning till it formed a paragraph. There was no any problem in the first paragraph. She continued the second paragraph. It was process analysis. She explained the topic and topic sentence. The topic sentence was not in the beginning sentence of paragraph. But it was in the middle paragraph. When I read the first sentence, I claimed that the paragraph was definition because it defined “scanning”. Then I read the next sentence. It explained about the steps of scanning with the time order (e.g.: first, second, then, next, etc.). So that, it had been clear that the paragraph was process analysis. But, when Lilis stated the topic,”scanning”, one of our friends didn’t agree. She said that the meaning of “scanning” was not only for reading context, but also in machine. So that, she wanted the specific topic to avoid misunderstanding. Then we agreed that the topic was “scanning in reading”. The last presenter was Zaky. She presented about classification. There was no problem. So she just showed her paragraph, gave us know the type of the paragraph she presented— we agreed, then she closed the presentation.

          The last meeting on last week, Friday, October 12, 2012, we had a workshop again. We reviewed classification paragraph. When that time, I reviewed Nisa’s work. Her paragraph told about the types of friend she had. Once we reviewed our partner’s work, we ate snacks that was given by Octa. Waaaaahhh….if I always have a class with snacks every meetings, I will be fat. Hehe.

"Which one is the topic sentence?"

Last Wednesday, we had a workshop with some snacks given by our kindest lecturer, Miss Vita. Hehe:D. We reviewed our friend’s work about comparison and contrast paragraph. While we were reviewing it, the snacks accompanied us. Haha. Maybe, if all of our lecturers are like Miss Vita, we will always attend the class, wherever and whenever. Hehehe… Am I sure???

Last Friday, September 28, 2012, we had some presentations about some types of paragraph. There were 6 presenters, they are:

1.     Achi

She presented about definition paragraph. She was almost like me because she just showed us her paragraph and we answered what the type of paragraph that was. Our answer and hers are same, definition paragraph.

2.     Aris

He presented about argumentative paragraph. But his paragraph consisted of several paragraphs because he gave space in his paragraph by himself. The reasons and the supporting sentences were separated. Perhaps, he wanted his friends (us) easily understand about the basic of his paragraph. The topic sentence that he chose was wrong. He looked confused. The first sentence in his paragraph was not the appropriate topic sentence. And the definite position in the last paragraph was not appropriate, too.

3.     Rois

He presented about cause and effect paragraph. Some of our friends disagreed that the paragraph was cause and effect. Maybe, because the paragraph just explained the effects in details, they thought that it was not cause and effect. We didn’t realize that the cause in the topic sentence was clear. We knew that the purposes of cause and effect are to explain causes, effects, or both. So, where there is cause, there is effect.

4.     Ima

She presented about argumentative paragraph, but her opinion was not as same as our thinking. We think that the paragraph was report because it informed the reader about the topic, midwife training.

5.     Aida Kajol

She presented about cause and effect paragraph. And everybody agreed that the paragraph was cause and effect.

6.     Aida

She presented about illustration paragraph. But when she chose the topic sentence, it didn’t support the supporting sentence. The whole paragraph told about Craig Jones  as the writer’s true friend.

From the presentations, we know that the topic sentence is not always in the beginning or the last paragraph. The supporting sentence must support the topic sentence. For cause and effect, the purposes are to explain causes, effects, or both. So, where there is cause, there is effect.

Slow But Sure..

          Enjoying writing class with some presentations about types of paragraph is necessary to be felt, done, and so on. Why??? Because we know that even though we have been learning this topic for about 3 weeks and haven’t continue to next topic, this learning system will make us more understand about the topic thoroughly. We are slow, but we are sure that we understand the topic that we learn.

          Last meeting, we discussed in details about comparison and contrast, explanation, argumentation, process analysis, definition, etc. The first presenter, Via, presented about contrast paragraph. It called contrast because the paragraph told the reader about the differences of two objects. The second presenter presented about argumentative paragraph but we didn’t agree with Via’s statement. Some of us stated that it was definition paragraph. But several students still disagreed. Because definition never defined anything by the “according to….” method, while in Via’s paragraph presented an object according to the writer perspective. Finally, Miss Vita asked Via where she got that paragraph. Via said that she got it from literature book which told about the writer’s experiences. It contained opinions about literature but it wasn’t argumentative.

          Not all of argumentative paragraphs are signed by “I”. Miss Vita said that argumentative must have clear motion and need the opposing views. And it’s not only “according to me” in one sense. Finally, we understood that it wasn’t an argumentative paragraph. It was explanation and the sentences “When I was……” were the supporting sentences.

          And the next presenters, we didn’t have any problems to guess what the types of paragraph presenting.

we are confused or it is confusing...

Yesterday, we discussed about types of paragraph that were presented by some of our friends, Putri, Yogi, Qhat, and Okta. Putri presented 2 paragraphs which had different types of paragraph, comparison and process analysis. As she explained about first paragraph, it had been clear that the paragraph was comparison because the subjects had similarities and the supporting sentences showed the readers to help them make decision or understand the subject. The second paragraph was process analysis. But it isn’t in the form of paragraph. Miss Vita suggested her to form it to paragraph and decide the topic sentence.

And Yogi...???? He and his paragraph made our class full of controversy. Hehe..:D. His paragraph showed us many of the main ideas. It made us confused because it was confusing. When we asked him several times, “Did you modify the paragraph by yourself?”, he answered “not”. We tried to understand and decide what type of paragraph is. And finally he admitted that he combine some paragraphs to be one paragraph. So, that’s why his paragraph was confusing. The next presenter was Qhat. She presented description paragraph, but we didn’t agree because description is describe and appeal to the 5 senses. We decided that paragraph was illustration because it had a point and supporting sentences showed or explained the point in detail but not appeal to the 5 senses.

The last presenter was Okta. She explained about description. Yeeaaahh.... it had been clear that the paragraph was description. But the topic which she found was not appropriate with the supporting sentences. Therefore, we had to find the specific and the most appropriate topic in the paragraph so we could find the topic sentence.

After discussing, we more understand and know that we can’t add or detract sentence in paragraph because it will be influential to the paragraph. And we also know that the topic sentence is not always available in the paragraph or in the beginning sentence of paragraph, we can compose it by using our own words based on the content of its paragraph.