Difference between revisions of "Introduction to Language Practice: Topic - US Presidential Election - Graydon (Thursday 10-12)"

Latest revision as of 23:47, 3 December 2008

Purdue Online Writing Lab

You can find many good tips on writing as well as exercises and handouts (good for later when you are teachers!)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/678/01/

Assignment for Dec 4th:

Write a good thesis statement on Obama's transition to the presidency.

You can either enter it here or send it to me via email.

Volker Sundermann's thesis statement: Providing the opportunity to improve a variety of crises, the development of new technologies is one of the most crucial challenges.

Fabian Nattkaemper's thesis statement: With a major financial crisis to handle, President- elect Barack Obama has been struggling to find his own way of doing things in Washington.

Annika Willig`s thesis statement: So far, Barack Obama has been busy selecting and recruiting the members of his administration.

Johanna Zielske`s thesis statement: Being elected president of the United States, Barack Obama is currently trying to find a way of implementing his campaign pledges.

Kristina Bucke's thesis statement: Until his assumption of office, Obama has to organize his new appointed delegates as well as getting a general idea about the issues he is going to deal with in his term of office.

Also, please choose one accent in English and compare it to Standard English. Since you only have a few minutes to do this (we might do it in groups instead of in front of the class), stick to just a few features of the two accents.

Assignment for Nov 20th

We will finish the rest of the presentations. In addition, we will discuss the following article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/us/politics/17memo.html

Assignment for Nov 13th

You can use the following website to do the assignment for next week:

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/votes.html

Here is a list of the fifty states. Please find one other person in the class and analyze the election results in two states. Your presentation (five minutes maximum!) should include some graphics (you can use my laptop and a projector or the overhead projector). Include who won and in which part of the state he received the most votes. You might also mention why you think the particular candidate did better or worse in some areas of the state.

And here are the instructions as to how to do this: First, you have to have already created an account (which you can do at the top righthand corner of the page)

Now click on the "edit" tab at the top of the page. Enter your names (first and last) next to the pair of states you will be looking at (If you just enter the following symbol ~~~ , this will automatically enter your name with a link to your user page. Very clever!):

Also, does anyone know how to set tabs and columns without creating a table (so we don't have to use ... in order to create spaces?)?

States:.......................................Names..........................................

• Alabama / Louisiana ............ Dimitri.simons /Daniel Schönwälder

• California/Kansas........................Susan Hobner/Silke Haneborger

• Mississippi/ Arkansas

• California / Colorado ................Kevin Lausen/Kristina Bucke

• Connecticut / Delaware

• Florida / Georgia ................Volker Sundermann/Franziska Tietjen

• Hawaii / Alaska ................

• Illinois / Indiana.............. Dennis Berdou/Felix Ehrke

• Iowa / Kansas ..................... Vera Möhlmann, Alena Mensching

• Kentucky / Missouri....................

• Maine / Maryland......................

.

• Massachusetts / Vermont................

• Minnesota / Michigan...................

• Idaho/ Montana .......................

• Nebraska / Nevada.....................

• New York/ New Jersey ..................Annika Willig , Johanna Zielske

• New Mexico / Arizona...................Josefine Holsten, Valesca Wolfgramm

• North Carolina / Tennessee.............

• Ohio / Wisconsin.......................Per Mielke/Ann Kathrin Loh

• Oregon / Washington...................Marie Kreis, Hilke tom Dieck

• Rhode Island / New Hampshire..........

• South Dakota / North Dakota...........

• Texas / Utah.........................Frank Marquardt/Fabian Nattkämper

• Pennsylvania / Virginia ..............

• South Carolina/ West Virginia.........

• Oklahoma/ Wyoming.....................