Simple/Complex paragraphs

Simple/Compound

It is hard for roommates to get along. Their personalities are different.  One person may be neat, while the other is messy.  They have different sleeping schedules.   One girl may get up early because she went to bed early.  The other girl may stay up late and want to sleep-in in the morning.  The type of music they listen to could be very different.  These differences make it hard for some roommates to get along. 

Complex/Compound

It can be hard for some students to get along with their roommate.  Since their personalities are so diverse, it can be difficult for them to become friends.  Their sleeping habits are most likely not going to be the same.  One girl might be an early riser while the other girl likes to sleep in.  Their tastes in music could set them apart from each other.  They might have some fights if one likes punk rock and the other likes country.  Some roommates find it hard to get along, but they overcome it and learn to live with each other.    

Thesis Activity

Drug education programs in public schools are not effective.

• Purpose: explain why the programs don't work
• Audience: Teens
• Tone: informative
• Point of View: 3rd person

1. Peer pressure
2. Some teens are already doing drugs
3. Teenagers don't listen

Drug education programs are not effective in public schools because peer pressure is so high. Teens are going to listen to their friends and not some 40 year old man or woman telling their life story about how they over came drugs. They want to be cool and it is imprinted in their brain that the only way to be cool is to do drugs. These programs only work for a day or two and then, they are forgotten about.

Revised Paragraph Chapter 11

Driving down the street in my bright blue sports car, I saw a car coming rapidly around the curve. The car maintained speed as it approached the red traffic light, where a young couple started crossing the street. The woman saw the car and yelled out to her husband who leaped onto the shoulder. Seconds later it was obvious that the man was fine but, the woman was not. I hurried to a nearby emergency phone and called the police. Even though the ambulance arrived within minutes, the woman was already dead. The driver looked terrible, and failed the sobriety test and later the police discovered that he had two previous offenses. It's apparent something more must be done to get drunk drivers off the road.  

In Class Essay

"Chaos and Stranded Tourists after Mexicana Shutdown" By Elizabeth Malkin, published in New York. Mexico's main airline shutdown Friday leaving tourists and locals "stranded" and wondering if they would get their money back. The author uses quotes from frustrated passengers and from the operators of the airline to show both sides of the story. In the introduction it tells you what the problem is, how and when they are going to fix it. To find out what caused the mass chaos in the first place, you have to read the whole article. I feel that since the author lives in America, she sympathizes more with the tourists than the operators of the airline.