Chapter 7 Reflection

               Chapter 7 basically talks about understanding paragraphs using supporting details and transition. Supporting details are those facts and ideas that prove or explain the main idea of a paragraph. While all the details in a paragraph support the main idea, not all details are equally important. The key details directly explain the main idea. Other minor details may provide additional information, offer an example, or further explain one of the key details. The most common types of supporting details are examples, facts or statistics, reasons, descriptions, and steps or procedures. Examples make ideas and concepts real and understandable. The facts and statistics may provide evidence that the main idea is correct. Or facts may further explain the main idea. A writer may support and idea by giving reasons why a main idea is correct. When the topic of a paragraph is a person, object, place or process, the writer may develop the paragraph by describing the object. Descriptions are details that help you create a mental picture of the object. When a paragraph explains how to do something, the paragraph details are often lists of steps or procedures to be followed.
             Transitions are linking words or phrases used to lead the reader from one idea to another. If you get into the habit of recognizing transitions, you will see that they often guide you through a paragraph, helping you read it more easily. Paraphrasing paragraphs is a useful technique for both building and checking your comprehension. By taking a paragraph apart sentence by sentence, you are forced to understand the meaning of each sentence and see how ideas relate to one another. Paraphrasing paragraphs is similar to paraphrasing sentences, it involves the same two steps: substituting synonyms and rearranging sentence parts. When paraphrasing you should concentrate on maintaing the author's focus and emphasis. Ideas that seem most important in the paragraph should appear as most important in your paraphrase. You also have to work sentence by sentence, paraphrasing the ideas in the order in which they appear in the paragraph.

Chapter 6 Reflection

Before reading this chapter on understanding paragraphs I did know that a paragraph, then, is a group of related sentences about a single topic. It has four essential parts: topic, main idea, details, and transitions. I want to know more about how writers leave out main ideas and it is up to the reader to imply the main idea. I believe that by the writer leaving out the main idea and the readers have to imply the main idea, it can cause some people to misinterpret the main idea. I learned from reading this chapter about paragraphs that there is a test you can perform to discover if you inferred a reasonable main idea. The idea you infer to be the main idea should be broad enough so that every sentence in the paragraph explains the idea you have chosen. You have to work through the paragraph, sentence by sentence. I want to know more about why the topic sentence is moved around in the paragraphs. Usually whenever I write an essay my topic sentence is usually at the beginning of the paragraph as well as the ending.

Chapter 5 Reflection

Before reading this chapter I did not know that previewing is a way of quickly familiarizing yourself with the organization on context of written material before reading it. I want to know more about how you can activate your background knowledge by asking questions and trying to answer them. I learned from reading this chapter that after previewing, take a moment to discover what you already know about the topic. I want to know more about why frequently testing yourself after reading is good.

Body Piercing and Tattooing Reflection

Before reading this article I did know that both tattooing and body piercings are most common in young people. Back then tattoos and body piercings were only used if your religion or clan called for it. I want to know more about how getting all these tattoos and piercings cause people to feel like they are trying to fit in. I don't understand why people get their whole body tattooed and pierced. I believe there is a limit of getting tattoos because after a certain point it looks kind of disgusting. I myself would get maybe one or two tattoos, but they would have meaning to them, not because it looks cool. I learned from this article is that people will go out of their way to look for clean, well-lit areas and ask about sterilization procedures. To me this shows that when people go for tattoos they want to make sure everything goes planned. I want to know more why about why people are obsessed with getting tattoos and body piercings.

Chapter 4 Reflection

Before reading this chapter I did know that you used prefixes, suffixes and roots used to describe words. I want to know more about how root words carry the basic or core meaning of a word. I learned from reading this chapter that whenever you hear or read a new word that you intend to learn, jot it down in the margin of your notes. Then after you can go find the meaning of the word and how it relates to the subject you are studying about. I want to know more about why using a dictionary can help you learn new words. I don't understand why people would want to pick up a dictionary and start reading new words.