Technical Writing Class: 07/08/09

Synthesis: July 8, 2009

The first thing Mrs. Manzano discussed was she required all the males in the class to participate in the English Chorus for the voice of male and female be balanced. However, Mr. Oclaret would have to think of joining the chorale because of his spiritual commitment. Next, Mrs. Manzano questioned why is the General Assembly organized by TEC be held on Saturday. She was disappointed about the TEC’s decision; that was vivid in her feedbacks a while ago. She said that Saturday is shaky and crucial. She asked these questions: Is the TEC sure that there would be a perfect attendance? How would they introduce the new teachers? Are the advisers informed? Who will be with you? She ended up the discussion by saying that she won’t ever accept invitations from the TEC anymore.
Then, she explained the types of Pronoun Reference Errors. She stressed that pronouns have referents (people, places, things) that they are referring to. Third personal pronouns including the reflexive pronouns must have antecedents that should appear before them. In ambiguous pronoun reference, there are two or more possible antecedents for the pronoun. In vague pronoun reference, there is no antecedent for the pronoun to refer to but there should be. And in broad pronoun reference, there is an inability to locate a noun acting as the antecedent for a relative pronoun. After each type of pronoun reference error, she gave examples for us to correct; and she had us explain why we had those corrections.
Ms. Aguilar took the floor for the Paragraph Structure. She first gave us a short test. From the paragraph presented through OHP, we chose the topic sentence and wrote the numbers of the supporting sentences. From that activity, she asked us to define paragraph. A paragraph is a collection of related sentences dealing with a single topic. She even explained that paragraph development is a way in which we combine sentences for us to have a detailed explanation for the topic sentence. Then, she discussed one of the methods of paragraph development which is Definition. She stated the difference between informal, formal, and extended definition. Informal definition is a simple statement using familiar terms. Formal definition places the terms into group and then explains the terms’ special features that distinguish it from the group. And, in extended definition, the terms are identified and the individual features are explained. Before the session ended, Mrs. Manzano asked one in the class to define what a table is. No one has given the correct definition for it. She said that in defining an item, we should include the features. Tomorrow will be a continuation of Ms. Aguilar’s report, and we will be expecting a fast pace of presentation. So, we should be always prepared.