Sunday, July 19, 2009

Conclusion Paragraph

Greetings!

I must say, it is thrilling to open up a blogging tracker and notice that in the past four weeks, we have gained over 200 unique views, an unprecedented accomplishment! Our greatest thanks to those viewers that make this possible- along with sending queries and comments to my email. A small note: it doesn’t hurt to leave them here as well!

Now we commence your conclusion paragraph. Remember that this is your final paragraph, and you should end it with (as this is an informative speech) an interesting fact or idea.

Example: Interesting Fact/Idea:

A recent poll taken shows that 65% (CNN-derived from University of Minnesota) of adolescents today get money from their parents for their personal usage. This means they may or may not have had to work for it, and may or may not have even earned that much money in their entire life. Remember: blogging and writing contests help keep your skills up, especially over the summer. Blogging lets you express your opinions, no matter the style or content. Writing contests also offer similar opportunities for exposure and experience. You can also be paid for both.

A brief recap:

In the last paragraph, you might notice that I didn’t include a connecting sentence, supporting detail, background information, or any of the sort. Why? I didn’t need to. Connect your paragraph to what, exactly? To the fact that blogging lets you write about what you wish, and is generally not monitored? Or what about a supporting detail, and background information? In this speech specifically, I made sure to finish up the paragraph quickly and with an “informative” statistic. I tried to extend the paragraph earlier, but it was excessively repetitive and lost my own interest, in all honesty. One thing to remember, bloggers: if you lose your own interest, you’ve definitely lost your audiences’.

As we conclude this week’s release, you may have noticed that there is evidence of an inspirational speech in it. Talking about blogging and writing contests aimlessly as a simply informative speech is doable, but rather boring. In this case, I tried to appeal to you with money, to keep you interested. A paragraph that I cut out because it was too inspirational and not informative was:

Call for Action’ Statement:

So the next time you’re on the internet, talking with a best friend or wishing you had a possible career or cash to donate, spend, invest, or otherwise just simply have, stop and think. Because the solution could be on that very page you’re looking at. Writing contests and blogging could be your key to adolescent success. All you need to do is to have the ambition and curiosity, and you’re already there. Thank you.

Note that if it were an inspirational speech, I could easily add the last paragraph and few more details to switch it around fully to one.
Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you all next week!

-Fresh Writing

Monday, July 13, 2009

Greetings, adolescents and parents alike,

Now we commence your second body paragraph. Remember that it is a speech and not an essay- individual details and parts are not quite as significant (depending upon the length of the speech) as keeping your points and information well-delivered and clean. So, without further ado, let us jump right in:

Example: Connecting Sentence: (To connect this with your last paragraph, you need to talk about blogging. [Reference: “This is, as seen by many, a significantly larger profit than that of blogging.”])

Blogging is still, however, an interesting system. It is nothing new; blogging has been around ever since the computer and internet have.

Example: Supporting Detail: (Just like last time, this supports your preceding sentence with information)
Your profits are decided upon your writing quality, popularity, and revenue that the blogging company makes. On average, they share 50% of their profits they make from your work with you.

Example: Background Information and/or Statistics: (This is where you plant all of your background information and statistics)
Blogging profits are nothing to laugh at, however. The more you work, the more you write, and the quality of your writing decides your profit. Also, like writing contests, money is not the only incentive. Blogging let’s you express your ideas, and your thoughts, no matter the content. This can be a great system if you have a lot of things on your mind.

Now that I look back at what I wrote, you may notice that I leaned rather heavily on blogging profits in this particular paragraph. The main reason I did that was because blogging has often been slammed for its slow-pay-and-hard-work unavoidable aspect, so to speak. The only way to truly make money off of blogging, is, to be honest, to work hard- like any other “job” in the world. If you work hard enough, you can make money. I’m not saying you can make a living off of blogging, but that’s another story.
Thank you for reading this week’s post- we seem to have a growing audience, which is absolutely fantastic! Again, questions and comments (although they can be put in the comments section under each post, many have gone to my email instead) sent to my email at chrisleahy227@gmail.com are always welcome.
See you all next week!

-Fresh Writing

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Hello all,

So, here we have arrived at your first body paragraph. Your first body paragraph should transition smoothly from your introduction and from your transition sentence that you wrote in your intro. (Example: “Essay contests, short story contests, poetry contests, and translations all weighed the possibility of also being published and winning earnings that could range anywhere between $50-$25,000 per win.”)

Example: Connecting Sentence (To connect this with your first paragraph you must talk about contests. Writing contests, to be specific)

Writing contests are probably one of the easiest and most fun ways to gain both skill and experience and money at the same time.
Example: Supporting Detail: (Back up what you previously said with a supporting detail or two)
I have entered two contests so far; I will enter a third in March and a fourth in June. The profit numbers for the contests that I have currently entered are $1,500 and $1,000.


Example: Background Information and/or Statistics:

My work would also be published in the magazines/newspapers by which the contests are run. This is, as seen by many, a significantly larger profit than that of blogging.
This may seem to be a short paragraph, but it got the job done. I talked briefly about contests, but not too long; remember: the objective in an informative speech is not only to inform the audience, but to keep them interested: remember, people won’t be “informed,” or otherwise remember your information unless they’re interested by your information. Keep it condensed and clean- you’ll notice a high grade (if you happen to be graded on your speech by your teacher) on your speech if both the audience and the teacher follow your speech from beginning to end.

Thank you for reading this week’s post; if you have any questions about your speech creation, by all means fire them away at (or really to) chrisleahy227@gmail.com .
This is really great guys- I’ve been getting lots of emails already with questions and tutoring requests. Over the summer is a time that I’m sure will work for all of us!

Kind regards,

-Fresh Writing

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Informative Speech Outline

Hello all,

We have arrived at the outline of your informative speech. Note that we will try to look for your feedback on our posts and, more specifically, the accuracy and helpfulness of our “template” outline. Thanks, and we hope you will enjoy it.
To start us off, you have your:

1. Introduction

And the parts in it:
-Attention Getter (better known as the “hook”)
-Significance (Why is your topic significant, and worth caring about?)
-Credibility (better known as evidence- what can you show your audience that makes your topic “legit,” or in other words interesting and believable? Why should it be worth their time? Why should you be worth their time? Your evidence and credibility should stand behind the significance of your speech. Prove it to them here)
-Thesis Statement (what are you going to talk about? This is slightly similar to your preview, but may contain information such as surprising statistics or other information)
-Preview (this gives an overall “outline” of what you’re going to talk about in your speech. This is also the last parts of information before you go into your transition, and, essentially, your first body paragraph.)
-Transition (your last sentence of your introduction that takes you into your first paragraph)


Example: Hook
(a very valuable part of your speech, if not the most valuable part- this is what pulls your audience in and is the foundation for a good grade or a bad one)
For the example topic, we’ll talk about writing contests and blogging. First of all, an example of the hook:
Imagine. Imagine at a young age, learning and earning more over a weekend than you could over three months of babysitting the kids next door, or your neighbors most loved cat.

Example: Significance (why should your audience be interested)
I notice some people are looking at me with interest, others without. What drives a person to work, to earn, and to learn? It’s their ambition. But why should you, at such a young age, try to learn and earn at the same time?

Example: Credibility (do you really stand behind your topic? This is also known as evidence. Statistics, a story, whatever- just make sure you show evidence, and your credibility that back up your topic)
I remember three months ago, when I was just like you. Just like you, with half the will and drive to go the extra yard and try to get some pocket change, but didn’t have the other half. Three months ago, I was a different person.
I did not know what it was like to submit stories, poetry, talk with publishers both online and by the phone. I did not know what it could possibly be like to feel as though I could actually be making a difference in the world. I liked writing, and I liked to connect with people, but I couldn’t think of one simple way that could turn a young eighth grader into a succeeding entrepreneur fast on the track to a successful career.

Example: Thesis Statement (what do you propose? Parts of your thesis statement could be “startling statements” and interesting background information. This should also describe what you’re going to go into later in your speech)
- And then something clicked.
- I realized that society has undermined the power of the youth. The power of the youth in which can be as strong as a college graduate with a degree in writing, or as professional as a journalist working for the New York Times. I grew frustrated as I went around town, looking for anyone, anyone at all that might at least consider a young writer, and see my true potential. I’d already looked online, and found nothing. Or so I thought.

Example: Preview
- Blogs, when continually written in, could be accepted by publishers and published in magazines/newspapers and could bring in money ranging anywhere from $1.50 to $40.00 a post.
- Essay contests, short story contests, poetry contests, and translations all weighed the possibility of also being published and winning earnings that could range anywhere between $50-$25,000 per win.

Thank you for reading; you now have a basic introductory paragraph with examples and explanations walking you through each step of an informative speech introduction. Comments are appreciated, and, as always, welcomed; next week, we’ll go into your first body paragraph.

Hope to see you next week!

-Fresh Writing

Monday, June 22, 2009

Informative Speeches

Hello all,
This week we are delving into the style and poignant writing of informative speeches.
First objective:
The first objective is to, obviously, select your topic.
Second objective:
The second objective is to do a bit of research. Conduct interviews, chat with your parents, chat with your boyfriend or girlfriend, look through books, search the internet- anything, really, so that you can gather enough Intel and background on your topic to successfully create a high-quality informative speech.
Third objective:
Once you have done enough research, start drawing up some basic ideas, and, essentially, an outline. I personally never have enjoyed writing outlines, as they tend to come out more as basic paragraphs. But full sentences in outlines, remember, saves you from having to do more work later. Either way, an outline of your informative speech will come in handy.
We are taking a pause here as developing your outline is probably the most valuable part of your preliminary speech- next week, we will go through the specifics of writing a helpful outline, whether it has full sentences in it or not. Thanks for reading!
-Fresh Writing

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Overview of Continuation

Greetings!
I am soon going to open up a different blog for humor so that we can all get a laugh off of that at a separate location: here, I will make sure to focus on public speaking only.
We’ve talked about body language, we’ve talked about connecting with your audience, and we’ve talked about being nervous. We have not, however, gone over how to write a speech.
Speech writing is a nerve-racking business. Some argue it’s worse than standing up there and speaking, and some argue that it’s better to be the speaker than the writer. But, in the event that you happen to have to be both (most likely for a school project or business presentation), this production is for you.
There are, to start us off, many types of speeches you can write. You could write:
-An informative speech
-An inspirational speech
-A persuasive speech (can apply to inspirational speeches but not always)
-An impromptu speech (although you won’t really have time to write up an improvisation speech as the key word is improvisation)
In our next post, we will go into detail of each- from how to survive on the podium in an impromptu speech to how to write a blow-away speech that can win both the smiles of your teacher and perhaps a girl in your class you’ve been hoping to impress…?
Looking forward to seeing you next week!
-Fresh Writing

Friday, April 24, 2009

New Template Change!

Hello all,

After deciding to change the template, I must ask for your opinion. Is this more or less appealing than the old one?

Thanks for your feedback!

-Fresh Writing