Title: Hebron Christian Academy Writing Samples Expository, Narrative, and Persuasive Writings About this site: This digital library of writing samples was created by Judy Robertson media specialist of HCA. The development of this digital library was to meet the requirements of ILS 655 at Southern Connecticut State University by instructor Dr. Yan Liu. The writing samples provided in this library will give students, teachers and parents examples of strong writing skills that can be utilized for classroom instruction, individual assistance, homework assignments, and teacher presentations. The digital library will also provide a location where writing samples can be preserved and viewed by future students and teachers. The hyperlinks will display websites where extra assistance and instruction can be found. Mission Statement: The mission of this digital library is to provide samples of writings from the middle school students of HCA that exhibit exceptional examples of expository, narrative, and persuasive writings. The mission is to also preserve writings of students for future classes, teachers, and families of HCA. Copyright Statement: Permission to display students stories has been acquired from students and parents. The material on this site was created for educational purposes only and the rights of the student authors of this site are reserved. Collection Policy: Students must be enrolled in Hebron Christian Academy Essays must be legible and complete Essays must meet the given criteria for the three types of essays: narrative, expository, and persuasive Permission from students and parents must be given before an essay is published Essays will be collected at the end of 1st and 2nd semester Essays will be selected by the present HCA language arts teachers Criteria for Writing Sample Collection: Narrative Essay: Told from a particular point of view Relies on personal experiences If it is in form of a story, the essay must have a plot, characters, setting, climax, and ending Makes and supports a point (point is often defined in the opening sentence or the last sentence of the opening paragraph Filled with precise details to explain, support, or embellish the story Verbs are vivid and precise Uses conflict and sequence May use dialogue Expository Essay: Thesis statement must be defined and narrow Requires the writer to give information Explains a topic or defines something Uses facts and statistical information States cause and effect relationships or examples Factually written without emotion Usually written in third person without the pronoun I Strong transition words or phrases to connect paragraphs Final paragraph should restate thesis and main supporting ideas Persuasive Essays: Written to convince reader of a given point of view or course of action Limited topic which is well defined and debatable Topic sentence must be a statement of position which is clear and direct At least three reasons to support position stated in introductory paragraph Not personal and no use of personal pronouns Three supporting reasons used as topics for supporting paragraphs Use of specific evidence, examples, and statistics Clearly redefines topic and most compelling evidence in concluding paragraph Organization of Collection: Writing samples will be organized by grade level and type of writing. There will also be a section for hyperlinks that provide additional instruction on writing and types of writings. The collection will be digitized texts of middle school writing samples. Resource Descriptions: The writing samples will be described by title and summary of story content. This metadata method of description will provide searchers with additional information to assist in their selection of a writing sample. Access and Use: This site will be accessed by browsing the writings by grade level and types of writing. The site is free and may be publicly accessed. Services Features: The full text of the writings will be available as well as hyperlinks. These hyperlinks will provide websites that assist in the development of writing skills and teacher aides. Interface Design: The website was designed using the free space provided by the internet venture Angelfire from the Lycos Network. The listings of the collection of writing samples are presented by grade level and type of writing. Researchers may browse the lists and select from the given grade and type. Additional resources and sites will be given in lists of hyperlinks presented on a separate page. Enhancement/Evaluation &/or Maintenance Plan The digital library will be updated every school year with new writings collected by the language arts department. Teachers will also complete a survey to assess the performance of the digital library concerning its usability, assistance to instruction, and amount of aide to students, parents, and faculty. The website will be accessed on the schools homepage to preserve its contents and usefulness to the HCA family. Plans for the future will be to expand the writing collection to include writing samples from grades 8-12 as well as examples of the writing stages for the elementary level students. There will also be continued additions of hyperlinks to include websites for MLA/APA information as well as the writing stages for the writing process.
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