CHAPTER 6: RECOGNIZE AUTHORS’ WRITING PATTERNS Directions: Read each paragraph, and then decide which pattern has been used to organize the details

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CHAPTER 6: RECOGNIZE AUTHORS’ WRITING PATTERNS

Directions: Read each paragraph, and then decide which pattern has been used to organize the details. Remember to watch for clues words in the main idea sentence, as well as for clue words and signals throughout the paragraph. (Authors do not always use clue words and signals, however.) After you have read each paragraph, ask yourself, “Which pattern has the author used to organize the information in the paragraph?”

 

1. Criminologists have looked closely at situations in which assaults are committed. One researcher identified six stages of a confrontational situation that lead to an assault:

 

1. One person insults another.
2. The insulted person perceives the significance of the insult, often noting the reactions of others present, and becomes angry.
3. The insulted person contemplates a response: fight, flight or conciliation. If the response chosen is fight, the insultee assaults the insulter then and there. If another response is chosen, the situation advances to stage 4.
4. The original insulter, now reprimanded, shamed, or embarrassed, makes a countermove: fight or flight.
5. If the choice is a fight, the insulter assaults (and possibly kills) the insultee.

6. The “triumphant” party flees or awaits the consequences (for example, police response).

 

Source: Freda Adler, Gerhard Mueller, and William Laufer, Criminology, 4th ed., New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2001, pp. 296-97.

 

The writing pattern is ___________________________________________

 

2. The Importance of Effective Design

 

       When document design is poor, both organizations and society suffer. The Challenger space shuttle blew up because its 0-rings failed in the excessive cold. Poor communication--including charts that hid, rather than emphasized, the data--contributed to the decision to launch. The Columbia space shuttle disintegrated during reentry, and poor communication was again implicated in NASA's failure to ensure the spacecraft was safe. After studying transcripts of meetings, Edward R. Tufte, who specializes in visual presentations of evidence, concluded that engineers did offer their concerns and supporting statistics, but they did so using visuals that obscured the seriousness, and that the piece of foam striking the shuttle was far larger than anything they had tested. In 2000, the badly designed "butterfly ballot" confused enough voters to change the outcome of the US presidential election.

 

Source: Kitty Locker, Business and Administrative Communication, 7th ed., p. 128. Copyright © 2006 McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Reprinted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

 

The writing pattern is ___________________________________________

 

3. The great Roman orator Cicero (106-43 B.C.) wrote that the Romans were like other people except in their religious fervor: “In reference for the gods, we are far superior.” Perhaps more than any other ancient civilizations, the Romans saw the world as infused with spirits; in their view, almost every space was governed by some divinity. Rome itself was guarded by three deities that protected the state—Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva—but there were gods for even smaller spaces. There were goddesses for the countryside, for the hills, and for the valleys. There were three gods to guard entrances—one for the door, one for the hinges, and a third for the lintel, the door’s upper supporting beam. The remaining spaces within the home were equally inhabited by spirits that demanded worship and sacrifice.

 

Source: Dennis Sherman and Joyce Salisbury, The West in the World, New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2001, pp. 120-21.

 

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4. Today millions of buyers and sellers are linking up at online auctions, where everything is available from comic books to wines. There are generally two types of auction sites: (1) person-to-person auctions, such as eBay (wwwebay.com), that connect buyers and sellers for a listing fee and a commission on sold items, and (2) vendor-based auctions, such as OnSale (wwwonsale.com), that buy merchandise and sell it at discount. Some auctions are specialized, such as Priceline (www.priceline.com), an auction site for airline tickets and other items.

 

Source: Adapted from Fred Hofstetter, Internet Literacy, 4th ed., p. 83. Copyright © 2005 McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Reprinted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

 

The writing pattern is ___________________________________________

5.  At first encounter with Guernica, Picasso’s 1937 mural protesting the brutality of war, the viewer is overwhelmed by its presence. The painting is huge--more than 25 feet long and nearly 12 feet high--and its stark, powerful imagery seems to reach out and engulf the observer. Picasso used no colors; the whole painting is done in white and black and shades of gray. We cannot misunderstand the scenes of extreme pain and anguish throughout the canvas. At far left a shrieking mother holds her dead child, and at far right another woman, in a burning house, screams in agony. The gaping mouths and clenched hands speak of disbelief at such mindless cruelty.

 

Source: Adapted from Mark Getlein, Living with Art, 7th ed., p. 59. Copyright © 2005 McGraw-Hill. Reprinted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

 

The writing pattern is ___________________________________________

 

6. Committee Chairs: The Seniority Principle

 

     Most of the work of Congress takes place in the meetings of its thirty-five standing (permanent) committees and their numerous subcommittees, each of which is headed by a chairperson. Committee chairs are always members of the majority party, and they usually have the most seniority (the most consecutive years of service on a particular committee). Seniority is based strictly on time served on a committee, not on time spent in Congress. If a member switches committees, the years spent on the first committee do not count toward seniority on the second one.

 

Source: Adapted from Thomas Patterson, The American Democracy, 7th Alternate ed., p. 350. Copyright © 2005 McGraw-Hill. Reprinted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

 

 

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7. In one particular instance, Ben & Jerry's received a large number of complaints that its Cherry Garcia Ice Cream didn't have enough cherries. The complaints were coming in from all over the country, so it wasn't a regional problem. Employees determined that the manufacturing process (from the supplies of raw materials to the mixing) was satisfactory and had no anomalies. Eventually the problem was determined to be that the ice cream container for Cherry Garcia Ice Cream had on it a photo of frozen yogurt, a product with more cherries than ice cream. Simply changing the photo on the carton solved the problem.

 

Source: Stephen Haag, Maeve Cummings, and Amy Phillips, Management Information Systems, 6th ed., pp. 150-51. Copyright © 2007 McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Reprinted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

 

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8. On the basis of observations and previous data, a scientist formulates a hypothesis. The hypothesis is tested by further observations or a controlled experiment, and new data either support or falsify the hypothesis. The scientist may then choose to retest the same hypothesis or to test a related hypothesis.

 

            Source: Sylvia Mader, Inquiry into Life, 9th ed., New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2001, p. 6.

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