ELA Persuasive Writing and Paraphrasing!

ELA Persuasive Writing and Paraphrasing



      In ELA, a few days ago, we did some worksheets that deal with persuasive writing and we also looked over a piece from Abraham Lincoln, in which we had to paraphrase. For our persuasive writing piece though, we looked over an argument that stated the negative effects pesticides have. The argument, I must be honest, wasn't actually that bad because the writer of it had a few points that made it seem as if pesticides were going to cause the end of the world. After we had finished we'd turn the page over and do some questions. Questions like figure out what the thesis is, what are the main arguments? Find places where the writer anticipates the arguments of those pesticides, and so on. Don't forget that we also did paraphrasing. (Worst Transitional Sentence)
      A few classes later, about 1-2, he gave us a speech from, as said before, by Abh. Lincoln. In the beginning it talks about how over 8 decades ago America was founded by it's past fathers, which they'd developed it in a way of ensuring that the people was strong for it's country, and so on. Remember that it was an old speech, spoken in a unique vocabulary, well not that unique but you probably get the point...it was old. It was a perfect for kids to paraphrase. A little random fact about paraphrasing for those who don't know, but everyone who reads/hears it will now, but paraphrasing is a medium sized step away from plagiarizing. So it could be helpful to those who don't want to plagiarize, but have no idea how to avoid it. It helped me because now that I look back I feel as if my old work, from various subjects, was dangerously close to plagiarism.