Grammar for Writing: Level Gold — Chapter 6

Early to Bed, Early to Rise Photo courtesy of Plimouth Plantation Wearing period dress, people at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts do chores that the original residents would have done. Life in the colonies during the 1600s and early 1700s was very different from the life we lead today in the United States. Colonists rose at dawn and went to bed at dusk. Between sunrise and sunset, men and women spent most of their days doing hard, physical work. Farmers had no tractors, trucks, or other modern tools to lighten their work as they plowed and sowed their fields, tended the farm animals, and harvested crops. Nor did the colonists have modern conveniences such as dishwashers, gas ranges, microwaves, hot water heaters, or central heating. Life was very different from that in the twenty-first century. Imagine yourself as a young colonist living in Virginia, Massachusetts, or one of the 11 other original colonies that were founded in the years 1607 (Virginia) through 1737 (Georgia). Record your activities, thoughts, and feelings in a diary. Imagine that one day, 300 years later, someone will find it and read about your life in this new land. Write four diary entries about your daily life. Incorporate detailed descriptions based on your research. For example, you might write about your chores and activities on one day during the planting time in the spring or during harvest time in the summer; or you might write about the things you do on a weekday or a Sunday. Perhaps you would like to write about a day that was a special occasion. Include details about your family and home and what you did for fun. STEP 1: Initial Search Begin this assignment by collecting descriptions of colonial life. Include chores, occupations, arts, crafts, how the colonists dressed, how they cooked and cleaned, what they ate, and so on. Learn how men, women, and children spent their days in colonial times. Be sure to date your entries in order to make time distinctions clear. Begin your research by visiting the following Web sites: SCORE: The Sign of the Beaver Look under the subtitle "American Colonial Lifestyle Resources—Arts, Crafts, and Games." Search for information about colonial America. Take notes on townships, occupations, and social events. Gather facts and details from the sites to add interest to your diary entries. STEP 2: Focus Your Search Focus your search on one colony and one person, such as a blacksmith, a farmer's wife, a teenager, or a colonial leader. Use cluster diagrams to organize the details you have discovered about the colony and the person you chose. Imagine yourself as that person, and use the first-person point of view in your diary entry. (See the writing strategies in Grammar for Writing, Level Gold, pages 55–56.) Search the Internet for more information on your colony. Visit the following Web site to run a general search on your colony or township: refdesk.com Explore other resources, such as a history books, first-hand accounts, and encyclopedia or newspaper and magazine articles, particularly in American Heritage magazine. The magazine also has archived articles on its Web site. Visit it at: American Heritage Magazine STEP 3: Define Your Audience Your audience is a group of history buffs. (History buffs are people who love learning about the past. History is their hobby; they usually specialize in a specific period or event, such as the American Revolution.) These history buffs may know about your colony, but will they be interested in your diary entries? Try to find ways of incorporating the details of colonial life so that they sound natural. Perhaps your audience will learn something new. STEP 4: Use Freewriting Diary entries are less formal than a magazine article or a documentary film. Try using freewriting about an average day to generate ideas for the kinds of items you might include in your diary entries. (See Grammar for Writing, Level Gold, page 10.) Include (1) meals; (2) chores or obligations; and (3) social interaction with others. Writers sometimes become so engrossed in writing a work of historical fiction that they produce run-on sentences. Review the techniques for correcting this writing problem. (See Grammar for Writing, Level Gold, page 149.) Professional writers often use self-stick notes to organize their research. Try writing each idea, event, conversation, and fact on an individual note. Organize these notes by category and/or chronologically. Organizing your material is an all-important first step in developing an outline. STEP 5: Develop Outlines and Write Your Rough Draft Develop outlines for each diary entry from your organized research material. Review your freewriting and use each outline to write a rough draft for each entry. Thorough planning before you begin to write makes your job easier-and the results more interesting! Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Fife and Drum Corps march, Colonial Williamsburg STEP 6: Revise, Edit and Proofread Your Writing Reread your four diary entries. Be sure that each paragraph has a topic sentence and that all the sentences in the paragraph support that topic. Add historical facts and sensory descriptions to your paragraphs to help the history buffs in the audience "see" and "feel" your character's experiences. Edit your writing for grammatical errors; then proofread your work carefully for spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors. STEP 7: Publish Your Work Present your diary entries to the class. Be prepared to read two entries and answer questions. Copyright ©2007 by William H. Sadlier, Inc. All rights reserved.