CWV POWERPOINT (Origins Reflection)

In this assignment, you will summarize beliefs about the origin of   the universe and life, including what Christians believe, what you   believe, and how people’s beliefs about origins might impact how they live.

After reflecting on chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, create a 15-slide   presentation covering the following topics, paying particular emphasis   on item three:

  1. Briefly explain the Genesis account of creation (first two     chapters). The point is not to retell all aspects of the story in     detail, but just to make the message of the Bible clear.
  2. Explain and support your interpretation of the origin of the     universe. Here you may want to address evolution, age of the earth,     and whether or not it can be reconciled with the message of the   Bible.
  3. Express how your understanding of the origin of the     universe impacts your worldview, specifically your view of God, of     humanity, and responsibility to care for the earth.

The first slide will be the title slide including your name and   course information. The last slide(s) will be your list of references.   You may use the textbook, the lecture, or other scholarly references.   Cite all sources, including the Bible, as you would in an essay. The   in-text citations should be placed on the actual slides in the   presentation so the audience can see them. Put basic content on the   actual slides and elaborate on all your points in the slide notes.   Also, utilize the attached “Origins Presentation Template”   to complete the assignment.

In an effort to keep the file sizes reasonable, use no more than   four low-resolution images. As in all aspects of this course, show   respect for all other views, with no condescension. Keep your   presentation positive and focused on what you believe, not on what you   do not believe.

Use two to four resources, in addition to the Bible.

While GCU style is not required for the body of this assignment,   solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources   should be presented using GCU formatting guidelines, which can be   found in the GCU Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

Origins Reflection

Student Name

Date

CWV-###

Instructor

You can format these slides however you like as long as they include the required content. You may use any colors or images for the slide backgrounds and fonts as long as they are readable for a group presentation.

The first slide should be a title slide. Include the same information that you would include in the heading on a paper – your name, the date, the course, and the instructor’s name.

Delete these instructions on each slide and replace them with detailed notes, showing what you would say if you were giving the presentation to a live audience.

1

 

Creation Account From Genesis 1-2

 

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

This first section (approximately four slides) is worth 25% of the grade.

 

Put the main points on the slides, then elaborate on your content in the slide notes here at the bottom of the slides. In-text citations should be placed on the slides (not in the notes) so the audience could see them if you were giving a live presentation. Use the Bible and scholarly sources.

 

Include citations when appropriate.

 

Delete all these instructions and add in your own notes.

2

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creation Account From Genesis 1-2

 

First section continued

3

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creation Account From Genesis 1-2

 

First section continued

4

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creation Account From Genesis 1-2

 

First section continued

5

 

Personal Beliefs About the Origins of the Universe

 

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This second section (approximately four slides) is worth 25% of the grade.

 

Put the main points on the slides, then elaborate on your content in the slide notes here at the bottom of the slides. In-text citations should be placed on the slides (not in the notes) so the audience could see them if you were giving a live presentation. Use the Bible and scholarly sources.

 

Include citations when appropriate.

 

Delete all these instructions and add in your own notes.

6

 

Personal Beliefs About the Origins of the Universe

 

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second section continued

7

 

Personal Beliefs About the Origins of the Universe

 

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second section continued

8

 

Personal Beliefs About the Origins of the Universe

 

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second section continued

9

 

How My Beliefs About Origins Impact My Worldview

 

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

This third section (approximately five slides) is worth 30% of the grade and should show how your beliefs about the origin of the universe impact your worldview. Write in first person singular and clearly communicate your own beliefs using the Bible and/or other scholarly sources as necessary.

 

Put the main points on the slides, then elaborate on your content in the slide notes here at the bottom of the slides. In-text citations should be placed on the slides (not in the notes) so the audience could see them if you were giving a live presentation. Use the Bible and scholarly sources.

 

Include citations when appropriate.

 

Delete all these instructions and add in your own notes.

10

 

How My Beliefs About Origins Impact My Worldview

 

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third section continued

11

 

How My Beliefs About Origins Impact My Worldview

 

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third section continued

12

 

How My Beliefs About Origins Impact My Worldview

 

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third section continued

13

 

How My Beliefs About Origins Impact My Worldview

 

Main Points

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third section continued

14

References

List two to four references. Prepare these references according to the guidelines found in the Student Success Center. Include the permalink for the GCU Library sources used.

The last slide (#15) should be a reference slide. Format the references the same as you would format them for a paper. Here are samples of references for you. Be sure that you only use scholarly sources for your presentation.

 

All sources used for both content and images should be cited with in-text citations and a reference.

The only exception is the Bible. Content from the Bible should be documented with in-text citations (John 3:16 ESV), but not included on the reference slide.

 

Delete the reference statement and add your references.

 

15

Complete the prewriting for the progress report

1. Complete the prewriting for the progress report:

  • Prewriting prepares you to write and helps you organize your ideas.
  • You may print the lesson and jot notes for yourself on the paper, or you may write notes on your own.
  • You do not have to submit prewriting for any points, but don’t skip this important step!

2. Complete a draft of the progress report:

  • Remember to use the memo format style in typing this progress report.
  • This report should be two or more pages when you are completed.
  • The draft will be much shorter than your final report.
  • Follow a logical structure: introduction, what is finished, what is underway, what is left to do, and a conclusion.
  • Use specifics such as dates, proper names, numbers, costs, etc.
  • Include one or more visuals may such as pictures, graphs, charts, tables, etc.

    Sixth Edition

    Kitty O. Locker Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek

    ISBN 978-0-07-340326-7 MHID 0-07-340326-1

    E A N

    We listened to the increasing demand for more fexibility with teaching materials. This modular format was created to cater to the way in which instructors teach, and students learn.

    Through the author’s modular approach, instructors have the freedom to customize their text and assignments piece-by-piece. By breaking chapters into more manageable, topic-focused sections, instructors have the fexibility to cover and assign the content they want, in the or- der they want to better suit their individual teaching styles.

    Instead of losing students in chapters that are long, unspecifc, or out of order, with this book students move toward an understanding of the foundations and piece together the critical skills needed to become suc- cessful communicators in the Business Communication feld.

    www.mhhe.com/lockerbcs6e

    www.mhhe.comwww.domorenow.com

    Why 30 ModuLar Chapters?

    FreedoM • FLex ib iL ity • FoCused CLassrooM

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    Sixth Edition Business

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    Module 1 Sentence Fragments 18

    Module 2 Comma Splices 36

    Module 3 Using Idioms 58

    Module 4 Using Spell and Grammar Checkers 72

    Module 5 Active and Passive Voice 86

    Module 6 It’s/Its 100

    Module 7 Singular and Plural Possessives 111

    Module 8 Plurals and Possessives 122

    Module 9 Making Subjects and Verbs Agree 141

    Module 10 Dangling Modifers 163

    Module 11 Parallel Structure 186

    Module 12 Expressing Personality 215

    Module 13 Making Nouns and Pronouns Agree 235

    Module 14 Matters on Which Experts Disagree 255

    Module 15 Run-On Sentences 269

    Module 16 Commas in Lists 285

    Module 17 Combining Sentences 295

    Module 18 Delivering Criticism 311

    Module 19 Hyphens and Dashes 323

    Module 20 Choosing Levels of Formality 339

    Module 21 Mixing Verb Tenses 357

    Module 22 Using MLA Style 375

    Module 23 Being Concise 390

    Module 24 Improving Paragraphs 414

    Module 25 Writing Subject Lines and Headings 435

    Module 26 Using Details 448

    Module 27 Proofreading 472

    Module 28 Using You and I 489

    Module 29 Using a Dictionary 506

    Module 30 Who/Whom and I/Me 513

    Why 30 ModuLar Chapters?

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    Module 1 Sentence Fragments 18

    Module 2 Comma Splices 36

    Module 3 Using Idioms 58

    Module 4 Using Spell and Grammar Checkers 72

    Module 5 Active and Passive Voice 86

    Module 6 It’s/Its 100

    Module 7 Singular and Plural Possessives 111

    Module 8 Plurals and Possessives 122

    Module 9 Making Subjects and Verbs Agree 141

    Module 10 Dangling Modifers 163

    Module 11 Parallel Structure 186

    Module 12 Expressing Personality 215

    Module 13 Making Nouns and Pronouns Agree 235

    Module 14 Matters on Which Experts Disagree 255

    Module 15 Run-On Sentences 269

    Module 16 Commas in Lists 285

    Module 17 Combining Sentences 295

    Module 18 Delivering Criticism 311

    Module 19 Hyphens and Dashes 323

    Module 20 Choosing Levels of Formality 339

    Module 21 Mixing Verb Tenses 357

    Module 22 Using MLA Style 375

    Module 23 Being Concise 390

    Module 24 Improving Paragraphs 414

    Module 25 Writing Subject Lines and Headings 435

    Module 26 Using Details 448

    Module 27 Proofreading 472

    Module 28 Using You and I 489

    Module 29 Using a Dictionary 506

    Module 30 Who/Whom and I/Me 513

    Why 30 ModuLar Chapters?

    FreedoM • FLex ib iL ity • FoCused CLassrooM

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    Business Communication BUILD ING CR IT ICAL SK ILLS

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    Sixth Edition

    Kitty O. Locker The Ohio State University

    Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek Columbus State Community College

    Business Communication BUILD ING CR IT ICAL SK ILLS

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    BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: BUILDING CRITICAL SKILLS, SIXTH EDITION Published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10020. Copyright © 2014 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Previous editions © 2011, 2009, and 2007. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.

    Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the United States.

    This book is printed on acid-free paper.

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 DOW/DOW 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

    ISBN 978-0-07-340326-7 MHID 0-07-340326-1

    Senior Vice President, Products & Markets: Kurt L. Strand Vice President, Content Production & Technology Services: Kimberly Meriwether David Managing Director: Paul Ducham Senior Brand Manager: Anke Braun Weekes Executive Director of Development: Ann Torbert Development Editor II: Kelly I. Pekelder Executive Marketing Manager: Michael Gedatus Content Project Manager: Pat Frederickson Senior Buyer: Michael R. McCormick Lead Designer: Matthew Baldwin Interior Design: Matthew Baldwin Cover Design: Laurie Entringer Cover Images: ©Stockbyte/Getty Images/Design Pics/Blend Images/Ingram Publishing/AGE Fotostock Lead Content Licensing Specialist: Keri Johnson Photo Researcher: Teri Stratford/Six Cats Research Media Project Manager: Joyce J. Chappetto Typeface: 10/12 Times Roman Compositor: Laserwords Private Limited Printer: R. R. Donnelley

    All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are considered to be an extension of the copyright page.

    CIP has been applied for.

    The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion of a website does not indicate an endorsement by the authors or McGraw-Hill, and McGraw-Hill does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites.

    www.mhhe.com

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    As revision to the third edition of BCS neared completion, Dr. Kitty O. Locker passed away. She was a mentor for many years, and I will cherish all that she taught me. Kitty’s contributions to teaching and to business communication are far too extensive for proper recognition here. So, it is simply on behalf of the students and colleagues whose lives she touched that I make this special dedication to my friend.

    Kitty, you are missed.

    Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek

    To my husband, Bob Mills, with love. —Kitty O. Locker

    For my father, who always believed in me. —Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek

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    vi

    Kitty O. Locker was an Associate Professor of English at The Ohio State University, where she taught courses in workplace discourse and research methods. She had taught as Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University and the University of Illinois at Urbana.

    She received her BA from DePauw University and her MA and Ph.D. from the Univer- sity of Illinois at Urbana.

    She had also written Business and Administrative Communication (7th ed., McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2005) and The Irwin Business Communication Handbook: Writing and Speaking in Business Classes (1993), and co-edited Conducting Research in Business Communication (1988).

    Her consulting clients included URS Greiner, Abbott Laboratories, the Ohio Civil Ser- vice Employees Association, AT&T, and the American Medical Association. She devel- oped a complete writing improvement program for Joseph T. Ryerson, the nation’s largest steel materials service center.

    In 1994–95, she served as President of the Association for Business Communication (ABC). From 1997 to 2000, she edited ABC’s Journal of Business Communication. She received ABC’s Outstanding Researcher Award in 1992 and ABC’s Meada Gibbs Out- standing Teacher Award in 1998.

    Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek is a Professor of English at Columbus State Community College and a consultant to business and industry. He teaches courses in business communication, composition, creative writing, freshman experience, film and literature, globalization and culture, and public relations, and he co-advises the Phi Theta Kappa chapter at Columbus State. Steve has also taught at The Ohio State University and Ohio Dominican University. He received an MA in English and BAs in journalism and English from Ohio State.

    Steve has presented papers at conferences of the Association for Business Communica- tion (ABC), the College English Association of Ohio (CEAO), the Conference on College Composition and Communication, and the Northeast Modern Language Association. He has served on ABC’s Two-Year College Committee and its Diversity Committee, as well as on the CEAO Executive Council. His freelance articles have appeared in a variety of print and web publications, and he is a book reviewer for The Ohioana Quarterly and The Columbus Dispatch.

    Steve’s consulting clients include Nationwide Insurance, The Ohio Historical Society, The Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums, The Ohio Museums Asso- ciation, Red Capital Mortgage Group, United Energy Systems, The Thomas Moyer for Chief Justice of Ohio Campaign, and Van Meter and Associates. He also advises individual clients on job search and interviewing techniques and is a reader for the College Board’s Advanced Placement Examination in English Language.

    Prior to joining Columbus State, Steve managed staff development and information for the Franklin County, Ohio, Commissioners. He has received an Award of Excellence from the National Association of County Information Officers, as well as awards for his writing projects.

    About the Authors

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    About the Authors vii

    August 20, 2012

    Dear Student:

    Business Communication: Building Critical Skills helps you build the writing, speaking, and listening skills that are crucial for success in the 21st-century workplace.

    As you read,

    • Look for the answers to each module’s questions. Check your memory with the Instant Replays and your understanding with the Summary of Learning Objectives at the end of the chapter.

    • Note the terms in bold type and their definitions. Use the rewind and fast forward icons to go to discussions of terms. • Read the Building a Critical Skill boxes carefully. Practice the skills both in assignments and on your own. These skills will serve you well for the rest of your work life.

    • Use items in the lists when you prepare your assignments or review for tests.

    • Use the examples, especially the paired examples of effective and ineffective communication, as models to help you draft and revise. Comments in red ink signal problems in an example; comments in blue ink note things done well.

    • Read the Site to See and FYI boxes in the margins to give you more resources on the Internet and interesting facts about business communication.

    When you prepare an assignment,

    • Review the PAIBOC questions in Module 1. Some assignments have “Hints” to help probe the problem. Some of the longer assignments have preliminary assignments analyzing the audience or developing reader benefits or subject lines. Use these to practice portions of longer documents. • If you’re writing a letter or memo, read the sample problems in Modules 10, 11, and 12 with a detailed analysis, strong and weak solutions, and a discussion of the solutions to see how to apply the principles in this book to your own writing.

     

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    viii About the Authors

    • Use the Polishing Your Prose exercises to make your writing its best.

    • Remember that most problems are open-ended, requiring original, critical thinking. Many of the problems are deliberately written in negative, ineffective language. You’ll need to reword sentences, reorganize information, and think through the situation to produce the best possible solution to the business problem.

    • Learn as much as you can about what‘s happening in business. The knowledge will not only help you develop reader benefits and provide examples but also make you an even more impressive candidate in job interviews.

    • Visit the Online Learning Center (http://www.mhhe.com/bcs6e) to see how the resources presented there can help you. You will find updated articles, resume and letter templates, links to job hunting websites, and much more.

    Communication skills are critical to success in both the new economy and the old. Business Communication: Building Critical Skills can help you identify and practice the skills you need. Have a good term—and a good career!

    Cordially,

    Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek BusCommBCS@gmail.com

    August 20, 2012 Page 2

    ‘ ‘

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    About the Authors ix

    August 20, 2012

    Dear Professor:

    Business Communication: Building Critical Skills (BCS) is here to help make your job teaching business communication a little bit easier.

    Its modular design makes adapting BCS to 5–, 8–, 10–, or 15–week courses simpler. And, with videos, new media tools, and supplements, it is easy to adapt to Internet courses. The features teachers and students find so useful are also here: anecdotes and examples, easy-to-follow lists, integrated coverage of international business communication, analyses of sample problems, and a wealth of in-class exercises and out-of-class assignments.

    But BCS takes these features a step further. In each module you’ll also find

    • Polishing Your Prose boxes, featuring straightforward instructions to help students correct common writing errors, as well as exercises to test what they know. • Building a Critical Skill boxes, showing students how to apply what they know in the business world. • Site to See boxes that invite students to use the Internet to get timely information available in cyberspace. • Instant Replays to reinforce concepts students are reading. • Fast Forward/Rewind indicators to help students make connections between concepts in different modules. • FYI boxes that provide some lighthearted information about business communication.

    This sixth edition is thoroughly updated based on the latest research in business communication. You’ll find many new problems and examples, new Polishing Your Prose exercises, and new Sites to See. Your students will benefit from timelines that identify the steps in planning, writing, and revising everything from seven-minute e-mail messages to memos taking six hours to reports taking 30 business days. Cases for Communicators at the end of each unit provide individual and group activities.

    BCS also includes a comprehensive package of supplements to help you and your students.

    • An Instructor’s Resource Manual with sample syllabi, an overview of each module, suggested lecture topics, in-class exercises, examples, discussion and quiz questions, and solutions to problems. • A Test Bank featuring hundreds of questions for use in quizzes, midterms, and final examinations—with answers. The Test Bank is in a computerized format (Mac or Windows) that allows you to create and edit your own tests.

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    x About the Authors

    • Videos showing real managers reacting to situations dealing with cultural differences, active listening, working in teams, and the virtual workplace. • An Online Learning Center (http://www.mhhe.com/bcs6e) with self-quizzes for students, a bulletin board to communicate with other professors, current articles and research in business communication, downloadable supplements, links to professional resources, and more.

    You can get more information about teaching business communication from the meetings and publications of The Association for Business Communication (ABC). Contact Dr. Betty S. Johnson Executive Director Association for Business Communication PO Box 6143 Nacogdoches, Texas 75962-6143 Telephone: 936-468-6280 Fax: 936-468-6281 E-mail: abcjohnson@sfasu.edu Web: www.businesscommunication.org

    We’ve done our best to provide you with the most comprehensive but easy-to-use teaching tools we can. Tell us about your own success stories using BCS. We look forward to hearing from you!

    Cordially,

    Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek BusCommBCS@gmail.com

    August 20, 2012 Page 2

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    About the Authors xi

    We’ve listened to your feedback on what you like and what you want improved in BCS, keeping as much of the text intact as possible while also making sure BCS6e accurately reflects changes in the workplace and in the field of business communication. In particu- lar, Module 13 has been renamed “E-Mail Messages, Web Writing, and Technology” and updated to include more discussion on using social networking tools, and Modules 27 and 28 integrate social media into job application documents. Throughout the book, you’ll find hundreds of elements revised or all new, including FYIs, Sites to See, BCS boxes, Prob- lems and Exercises, Polishing Your Prose exercises, and Cases for Communicators.

    Module 1: This critical foundation module underscores the importance of excellent com- munication skills in the workplace. For this edition, it includes a new opener reflecting on the tough economic realities of today’s workplace and how the ability to read and write well gives professionals an edge on the competition. There are also new FYIs on Carnegie Speech’s language training for a global market; vital 21st-century job skills that include oral and written communication; the slow gains in reading skills among elementary and middle school students (the next wave of college students and young professionals); degrees of study and workplace success that correlate in surprising ways; a typo that may have caused stock market chaos; and the most literate cities in the United States. A new Site to See invites students to test their interpersonal skills, and the BCS box has been updated to include information on start-up companies and a new Apple photo. A new end- of-module problem and new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 2: Revisions to the module opener reinforce the importance of audience analysis, and some elements have been moved to improve the flow of the module. New FYIs include discussions on an offensive ad by Nivea that failed to properly analyze its audience; errors by FEMA and subsequent messages that made problems worse for disaster victims; the travails of test takers and a talking pineapple; a politician’s lack of awareness of how audi- ences might view his multimillion-dollar income; public criticism by P. J. Crowley that cost him his job; and the value of role-playing to achieve buy-in from audiences. The BCS box has been updated to note that Zappos was named by CNN/Money as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. A new end-of-module problem and all new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 3: In an ever-shrinking world, this module’s overview of the elements of diversity and culture that help shape the workplace becomes even more critical for 21st-century professionals. New FYIs in Module 3 focus on the rise of interracial marriages in the United States; the value of touch to staying healthy; self-definition by Millennials in the workplace; Nike’s sexist Olympic T-shirt design; women now scoring higher than men on IQ tests; ads that present women and minorities offensively; Baby Boomers being targeted by con artists; and the lack of diversity in U.S. television and what is being done about it. A new Site to See offers reviews and links to apps that can make travel easier. New end-of- module problems and new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 4: This module’s revised opener notes that while the increased pace of the work- place has brought increased pressure to compose faster and faster, writers must still take care to compose effectively. New FYIs discuss how what constitutes revisions changes according to audience; Mortgage Resolution Partners’ plan to keep more people in their homes; errant e-mails that terrified hundreds of employees into thinking they were fired; and tips from experts on overcoming procrastination. Site to See addresses have been updated, and a new Site to See invites visitors to take beginning and advanced Microsoft Word tutorials. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    New and Improved Coverage in BCS6e!

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    xii About the Authors

    Module 5: The module opener has been revised to emphasize that the principles of good design still apply to ever-changing social media, and the BCS box has been updated to ref- erence Google Docs. Two new FYIs discuss the importance of document design—the first being a Pew Charitable Trust study on how checking account documents are too confusing to follow, and the second on how large, multi-touch screens are part of the next wave of technological changes in how we use and format documents. Site to See addresses have been updated, and a new Site to See offers tips on using PowerPoint slides in presenta- tions. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates to the module, and the new Case for Communicators for Unit 1 examines how poor proofreading caused financial headaches for Old Navy.

    Module 6: Modules 6, 7, and 8 detail the cornerstones of good business communication: you-attitude, positive emphasis, and reader benefits. They are briefer than some of the ear- lier modules but are meant to be read as a collective. For Module 6, examples throughout have been updated to reflect more current dates. One new FYI features a study that found a link among prejudices, low intelligence, and social conservatism, while another notes the lack of you-attitude among employees at Goldman Sachs, who, among other things, referred to clients as “muppets.” A new Site to See invites students to test their Emotional Intelligence. New end-of-module problems and new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 7: Understanding the role of positive emphasis in business communication—and contrasting it with negative points of view—is vital to composing effective messages. Revisions to this module include FYIs on the disturbing findings that for the first time, most Americans do not believe today’s young people will have better lives than their par- ents; the effect of optimism on both physical and financial health; the news that happier people make better workers; the role of resilience in helping people cope with stress and life’s challenges; tips on making video apologies; and updates on failed apologies and on the happiest states in the United States. New end-of-module problems and new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 8: Developing good reader benefits can challenge students, so new FYIs focus on creative and interesting ways that benefits affect people. These FYIs discuss how the intrinsic value of self-image may be more important to people than even money; how bou- tique grocery stores provide online shopping and home delivery benefits to customers; the correlation between more education and longer life expectancy; and the counterintuitive patterns of liars and cheaters being unfazed by potential consequences. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates to the module, and the new Case for Com- municators for Unit 2 examines how poor proofreading resulted in embarrassment for The New York Times.

    Module 9: While the formats for memos and letters remain unchanged, technology is influencing how such documents are created and sent. Thus, new FYIs reflect on cloud technology making it easier to store documents but with the added challenge of making sure formats remain intact; indecipherable handwriting on letters and packages thwarted by Post Office scanning equipment; and CEOs Mike Duke and Tom Barrack being embar- rassed by the memos they sent to employees that went viral. Examples throughout this module have been updated to reflect current dates. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 10: This module has been renamed “Informative and Positive Messages” and all examples have been updated to reflect more current dates. In addition, FYIs now include the best out-of-office e-mail reply of all time; a movie trailer that uses a customer’s rant to remind others of its no-talking/no-texting policy; chocolate, indeed, being able to change a person’s mood for the better; customers tweeting complaints and how companies can

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    better manage their image; the earliest appearance of the now-popular word “information”; and the effect of nearly 25% of the world workers’ depression on productivity. A new end- of-module problem and all new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 11: New FYIs include how what most people would consider bad news actu- ally helped shooting victim Petra Anderson; the surprising answer to who was behind a campaign to spread negative information about Google; the potential negative effect on reputation from working at home; types of “toxic” bosses in the workplace; workers want- ing honesty from managers and supervisors; a gay instructor fired by Facebook for daring to give a chatty employee a look; Lego’s attempts to cater to girls; and the most educated employees also facing the most stress on the job. Sites to See addresses have been updated, and examples throughout this module reflect more current dates. A new end-of-module problem and all new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 12: Though we’re surrounded by persuasive messages every day, understanding them and then creating our own effective ones require careful effort. For better flow in the discussion, some elements of this module have been moved, and new FYIs discuss online bullying persuading people to help the victims; former Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy almost being persuaded by sexist salespeople to go somewhere else; “birthers” refusing to be per- suaded by President Obama’s birth certificate; branding’s effect on persuading consumers; the “like me bias” in performance appraisals; and tips for writing effective sales letters. Revisions to existing FYIs involve product placement in James Bond movies, and Block- buster Video CEO Jim Keyes’ public criticism of Netflix failing to persuade consumers. A new end-of-module problem and all new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 13: Of all the modules in BCS6e, this one has been revised the most extensively, reflecting the rapid changes that come with our highly technological age. For starters, it has been renamed “E-Mail Messages, Web Writing, and Technology,” and the body copy has been tweaked to better integrate technology into the discussion while examples have been updated to reflect more current dates. In particular, the discussion on using social network- ing tools has been expanded, and a new photo coordinates with changes to Facebook’s current design. Some elements have been moved to improve the flow of the discussion. New FYIs discuss the ever-increasing use of smartphones for e-mail and web use; a cyber- stalking investment manager’s 1,600-word plea for another date; a study of more than 977 e-mail messages revealing that shorter subject lines attract more clicks; Pew Research Center’s findings that most Americans prefer vocal communication to texting, while a Nielsen survey shows that 13- to 17-year-olds send and receive 10 times as many texts as people ages 45 to 54; signs that the popularity of blogging among young people is waning; tips to use social networking in business; offensive tweets that got their authors in trouble; Latino and Hispanic Americans leading the way in embracing web technology; and a host of tips for better cell phone etiquette. An existing FYI includes more information on e-mail etiquette, and a new Site to See offers 20 tips on using Facebook in business. A new end- of-module problem and new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates to the module, and the new Case for Communicators for Unit 3 examines the problems United Airlines faced when a computer glitch booked flights to Asia at an incorrect price.

    Module 14: This module focuses on the nuts and bolts of using grammar and punctua- tion effectively. New FYIs reveal how 45% of employers surveyed say they are increas- ing training to improve grammar and other skills of employees; how CEO Kyle Wiens requires all job applicants to his companies to take a grammar test; and commentator Andy Rooney’s aversion to apostrophes. There is also an addition to an existing mod- ule regarding a cable TV charge of $16.4 million, and Site to See addresses have been updated. New end-of-module problems and new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

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    xiv About the Authors

    Module 15: Because choosing the right word is as much an art as it is a skill, new FYIs present examples of real-world applications—as well as misapplications: how U.S. presi- dents have managed to misspeak in public; what food label language might actually mean; idiomatic phrases that baffle non-native speakers of English; and the limitations of spell- checkers with common errors. The BCS box has been revised to challenge readers to think about the implications of a study that shows “mean” men do better in the workplace than nicer ones. New end-of-module problems and new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 16: New FYIs in this module include the arrogant style of a college student seek- ing a summer job; missed opportunities for message revision that resulted in athletes being insulted or being dismissed from the field of play; buzzwords on LinkedIn that are over- used; and venerable critic Roger Ebert’s Facebook page being censored for posts during a heated exchange. An existing FYI has been updated to include the 2012 winners of a wacky warning label contest, and the BCS box caption has been updated to note Johnnetta B. Cole’s current position as chair of the institute that bears her name. New end-of-module and new Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates to the module, and the new Case for Communicators for Unit 4 examines how a misspelling on a key road sign proved an embarrassment for the state of Ohio.

    Module 17: This module features new FYIs on how listeners today need a shift in stimula- tion about every 20 minutes; how students learning foreign languages did better after train- ing in listening skills; and how archetypes for bad listeners, including Preamblers, such as the hosts of CNN’s Crossfire were called out by guest Jon Stewart for using the show as a platform to give speeches on their points of view. Site to See addresses and the caption for the photo of Elizabeth Gonzalez-Gann have also been updated.

    Module 18: New FYIs to help students better understand how to be effective on work teams discuss the hidden costs of being on a team; how introverts may suffer from the effects of groupthink; how social networking media is making us lonelier; how to use hip hop as a team-building exercise; ways to keep “digital nomads” connected with the work- place; and how a diverse team of students presented a business plan at Florida Atlantic University. The existing FYI on bad bosses has been revised to include the results of two recent polls. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 19: A new module opener underscores how meetings are viewed by many employ- ees, as well as the importance of choosing whether to hold a meeting in the first place. New FYIs focus on how many hours CEOs spend in meetings; using chocolate and other cre- ative ways to keep meetings on track; tips to be an effective meeting participant; caveats for teleconferencing; companies, such as Nutrisystem, Symantec, and Herman Miller, that are holding annual meetings online; and Twist, an app from investor Bill Lee that helps track where meeting-goers are. One FYI has been revised to include information on using tablet PCs and other tools to make meetings more interactive, and Site to See addresses have been updated. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 20: New FYIs include Kathy Caprino’s tips to avoid mistakes in speeches; gaffes by a university president; Microsoft’s Kirill Tatarinov’s quick recovery from a technical glitch during a presentation; a poetry recitation that went horribly wrong; Steve Carell’s effective use of humor during a graduation speech; a criminal’s conviction being upheld because of his silence; and the importance of rehearsing before a speech. A new Site to See showcases PowerPoint examples and other resources. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates to the module, and the new Case for Communicators for Unit 5 looks at the role of charisma in leadership and whether people can be trained to be more charismatic.

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    Module 21: This module on proposals and progress reports features new FYIs on how feasibility studies on sports arenas show they are money losers for taxpayers; the London Business School’s John W. Mullins’ advice on writing a good business plan; how people are using Twitter to submit business plans; how some successful businesses nevertheless had their business plans lose in-class competitions; the effect of discourse communities on sales proposals; and the results of Apple’s annual Supplier and Responsibility Report. Site to See addresses have been updated, and new Sites to See include sample recommendation reports from the Centers for Disease Control, tips for writing proposals from the Small Business Association, the New York City school system’s progress reports, and progress reports from the World Health Organization on the fight against HIV/AIDS. Examples throughout the module have been updated to reflect more current dates. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 22: Because research is so critical today, a new module opener stresses the impor- tance of research to business and industry, as well as the need to make sure information resources are trustworthy. Minor tweaks have been made to the body copy. New FYIs include a discussion on Splunk, the first “Big Data” company to go public; how a Florida man convicted of murder got a new trial because a stenographer erased records inadver- tently; unusual findings from research, such as how the more debt college students have, the higher their self-esteem; the high number of fake accounts on Facebook; estimates of how much data is consumed annually online; racist tweets that got two Olympians expelled from the London games; and the amount of money spent by corporations for employee training despite a lack of research on its effectiveness. New Sites to See include Survey Monkey and the Purdue OWL website. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 23: Some elements of this module have been reorganized to improve flow. New FYIs include reports from companies questioning the effectiveness of Facebook ads; how younger people are choosing to rent a wide variety of items rather than own them; a Georgetown University report that despite some college majors being more employable than others, research still shows a college degree is worth it; employers scouring credit reports on job applicants; “pink slime” and its effects on consumer perceptions; and how disorganization—not just in documents but in general—costs companies. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 24: The sample student report in this module has been revised to reflect more cur- rent dates. One new FYI discusses an innovative annual report from Austria Solar that uses light to make text on its otherwise blank pages visible. Another new FYI gives examples of how report data helps organizations to strategize. Orbitz, for instance, found that Apple users spend as much as 30% more per night on hotels than PC users. Site to See addresses have been updated, and new Sites to See include Graphis’s Top 100 Annual Reports win- ners and a copy of NASA’s Education Recommendation Report. A new Polishing Your Prose exercise rounds out the updates.

    Module 25: A new module opener emphasizes the importance of charts, graphs, clip art, and other images in this increasingly visual age. New FYIs include technology that allows people to write using eye movements; tips for effective visual note taking; websites like Pinterest and Flickr that are changing the way we share information; how Ambassador Gary Locke became a hit in China for carrying his own bags and getting his own coffee; hidden messages in corporate logos; and the challenges from corporate branding on the 2012 Olympics. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates to the module, and the new Case for Communicators for Unit 6 looks at how waterless car washes are transforming that industry in the Middle East, as well as implications for such businesses in the United States.

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    Module 26: The module opener has been revised to discuss the challenges of finding a job in a bad economy as well as how getting started early and using social networking tools like LinkedIn and Facebook can help. Some elements have been reorganized to improve flow. New FYIs include revelations on how despite younger people embracing information technology, relatively few of them choose it as a career field; location being a major factor in job applicant trends; how unemployment is affecting college graduates and how many jobs that don’t require degrees are going unfilled; the top master’s degrees for income potential and which career requiring a graduate degree women find most satisfying; apps for people looking for a job; states making it illegal to bar the unemployed from applying for jobs; how employees in the middle of the income pack are vulnerable to downsizing; and how unemployment is affecting different generations. New Polishing Your Prose exer- cises round out the updates.

    Module 27: Revisions to the module opener note how technology may be changing how résumés look and are submitted, underscoring the need to adapt to the employer’s expec- tations. Minor tweaks have been made to improve body copy. Examples throughout the module have been updated to reflect more current dates, and several examples now include social networking page addresses. New FYIs discuss a college student who sent a photo of Nicolas Cage instead of her résumé to a prospective employer; résumé gaffes like listing “phishing” as a hobby; how companies use tracking systems to check on applicants’ social networking pages; the proliferation of lies on résumés; and how recruiters and others use Facebook and Google to screen applicants.

    Module 28: The module opener reminds job applicants to use the process employers want, such as a brief e-mail message in lieu of a formal letter in some cases. Examples through- out the module have been updated to reflect more current dates. New FYIs include discus- sions on a 3,000-word rejection letter sent to job applicants that went viral, and debates among experts as to whether the job application letter is going away. New Sites to See pro- vide job application letter examples from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, State University, and Monster. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 29: New FYIs in this module cover employers wanting Facebook passwords from applicants; UBS AG’s stringent dress codes; leaving emotional baggage behind in job interviews; a survey that revealed 70% of hiring managers have experienced odd behavior from interviewees; unusual stress interview situations; how students coming from homes that appreciate in value are more likely to go to more expensive colleges; LinkedIn’s com- pilation of worst questions asked of female job applicants; advice from Jason Fried for hir- ing managers to screen out applicants who ask “how” instead of “why” questions; and tips for making the most of virtual job interviews. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates.

    Module 30: Revisions to this module’s opener remind students to think in terms of careers rather than simply jobs, and to be self-reliant but not mercenary. New FYIs include Jenny Foss’s advice on staying in touch with job interviewers through such resources as Link- edIn; planning carefully for career and early retirement; and how today’s employees are more likely to have many short-term jobs in their careers than previous generations did. Examples throughout the module have been updated to reflect more current dates. New Polishing Your Prose exercises round out the updates to the module, and the new Case for Communicators for Unit 7 looks at how traditional Arts and Sciences programs at universi- ties are starting to incorporate entrepreneurial and other job-related coursework into their curriculums.

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    xvii

    All writing is in some sense collaborative. This book in particular builds upon the ideas and advice of teachers, students, and researchers. The people who share their ideas in con- ferences and publications enrich not only this book but also business communication as a field.

    People who contributed directly to the formation of this sixth edition include the following:

    Frederick C. Alm, Hudson Valley Community College

    Roxanne Bengelink, Kalamazoo Valley Community College

    Danielle Blesi, Hudson Valley Community College

    Mary Young Bowers, The W.A. Franke College of Business-Northern Arizona University

    Marjorie Coffey, Oregon State University

    Donna R. Everett, Morehead State University

    Frances M. Hale, Columbus State Community College

    Anna Haney-Withrow, Florida Gulf Coast University

    Elizabeth F. Heath, Florida Gulf Coast University

    Norma Johansen, Scottsdale Community College Business Institute

    James Katt, University of Central Florida

    Mark Mabrito, Purdue University Calumet

    Marcia A. Metcalf, Northern Arizona University

    Lori Oldham, San Diego City College

    Miri Pardo, St. John Fisher College

    Richard D. Parker, Ph.D., High Point University

    Renee Rallo, Florida Gulf Coast University

    Marcel M. Robles, Eastern Kentucky University

    Kathy Standen, Fullerton College

    Sharron Stockhausen, Anoka Ramsey Community College

    Laura Alderson, The University of Memphis

    Paula E. Brown, Northern Illinois University

    Debra Burelson, Baylor University

    Donna Carlon, University of Central Oklahoma

    Elizabeth Christensen, Sinclair Community College

    Dorinda Clippinger, University of South Carolina—The Moore School of Business

    Linda Di Desidero, University of Maryland University College

    Melissa Fish, American River College

    Acknowledgments

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    xviii Acknowledgments

    Catherine Flynn, University of Maryland University College

    Dina Friedman, University of Massachusetts Amherst

    Canday A. Henry, Westmoreland County Community College

    Sara Jameson, Oregon State University

    Mark Knockemus, Northeastern Technical College

    Gary Kohut, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

    Anna Maheshwari, Schoolcraft College

    Kenneth R. Mayer, Cleveland State University

    William McPherson, IUP

    Joyce Monroe Simmons, Florida State University

    Gregory Morin, University of Nebraska at Omaha

    Christine E Rittenour, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

    Teeanna Rizkallah, California State University, Fullerton

    Joyce W. Russell, Rockingham Community College

    Stacey Short, Northern Illinois University

    Natalie Sillman-Webb, The University of Utah

    Vicki Stalbird, Sinclair Community College

    Jan Starnes, The University of Texas at Austin

    Bonnie Rae Taylor, Pennsylvania College of Technology

    William Wardrope, University of Central Oklahoma

    Mark Alexander, Indiana Wesleyan University

    Laura Barnard, Lakeland Community College

    Trudy Burge, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

    Jay Christensen, California State University-Northridge

    Dorinda Clippinger, University of South Carolina

    Linda Cooper, Macon State College

    Patrick Delana, Boise State University

    Donna Everett, Morehead State University

    Melissa Fish, American River College

    Linda Fraser, California State University-Fullerton

    Mary Ann Gasior, Wright State University

    Sinceree Gunn, University of Alabama, Hunstville

    Diana Hinkson, Texas State University-San Marcos

    Paula Holanchock, Flagler College

    Stanley Kuzdzal, Delta College

    Bill McPherson, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

    Julianne Michalenko, Robert Morris University

    Joyce Russell, Rockingham Community College

    Janine Solberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    Carolyn Sturgeon, West Virginia State University

    Bonnie Taylor, Pennsylvania College of Technology

    Jie Wang, University of Illinois at Chicago

    William Wardrope, University of Central Oklahoma In addition, the book continues to benefit from the contributions of the following people:

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    Acknowledgments xix

    Linda Landis Andrews, University of Illinois at Chicago

    Laura Barnard, Lakeland Community College

    Barry Belknap, University of Saint Francis

    Bruce Bell, Liberty University

    Mary Lou Bertrand, SUNY-Jefferson

    Pam Besser, Jefferson Community College

    Martha Graham Blalock, University of Wisconsin

    Stuart Brown, New Mexico State University

    David Bruckner, University of Washington

    Joseph Bucci, Harcum College

    Donna Carlon, University of Central Oklahoma

    Martin Carrigan, University of Findlay

    Bill Chapel, Michigan Technological University

    Dorinda Clippinger, University of South Carolina

    Janice Cooke, University of New Orleans

    Missie Cotton, North Central Missouri College

    Christine Cranford, East Carolina University

    James Dubinsky, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

    Ronald Dunbar, University of Wisconsin—Baraboo/Sauk County

    Kay Durden, University of Tennessee at Martin

    Sibylle Emerson, Louisiana State University in Shreveport

    Donna Everett, Morehead State University

01.18 Forces Of Nature Post-Test

Question 1 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(MC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt 2
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein continues recounting the influences that lead to his great experiment:

An accident again changed the current of my ideas. When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.

Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me. All that he said threw greatly into the shade Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, the lords of my imagination; but by some fatality the overthrow of these men disinclined me to pursue my accustomed studies. It seemed to me as if nothing would or could ever be known. All that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable. By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge. In this mood of mind I betook myself to the mathematics and the branches of study appertaining to that science as being built upon secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.

What is the main effect of describing key events in the narrative as “accidents” or as happening by chance?

[removed] They suggest the events are not entirely negative in their effects on the narrator.

[removed] They suggest the events cannot be retold objectively by the narrator.

[removed] They suggest the narrator feels a great sense of responsibility for the events.

[removed] They suggest the narrator is not fully responsible for the outcome of his story.


 

Question 2 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(MC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt 2
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein continues recounting the influences that lead to his great experiment:

An accident again changed the current of my ideas. When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.

Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me. All that he said threw greatly into the shade Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, the lords of my imagination; but by some fatality the overthrow of these men disinclined me to pursue my accustomed studies. It seemed to me as if nothing would or could ever be known. All that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable. By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge. In this mood of mind I betook myself to the mathematics and the branches of study appertaining to that science as being built upon secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.

This passage demonstrates use of a first person narrator, where the character tells the story. Why did the author use this writing style?

[removed] It allows readers to focus on events rather than characters or personalities.

[removed] It allows readers to understand the character’s personality while learning about events.

[removed] It allows readers to identify easily with anyone who opposes the narrator.

[removed] It allows readers to understand the secret feelings of other characters the narrator meets.


 

Question 3 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(LC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein recounts the influences that lead to his great experiment:

When I was thirteen years of age we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon; the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn. In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm. A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind, and bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. My father looked carelessly at the title page of my book and said, “Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.”

If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded and that a modern system of science had been introduced which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former were real and practical, under such circumstances I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my former studies. It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin. But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents, and I continued to read with the greatest avidity.

Read this excerpt from the text:

It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin.

What does the author mean by the “fatal impulse” he describes in this line?

[removed] Something happened that set terrible things in motion.

[removed] Someone checked his medical history and found bad news.

[removed] Somewhere in his youth he had a near-death experience.

[removed] Sometime in the future he plans to become famous.


 

Question 4 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(LC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt 2
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein continues recounting the influences that lead to his great experiment:

An accident again changed the current of my ideas. When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.

What does the word choice of this passage suggest about the overall tone of the novel?

[removed] The story is uplifting and joyful.

[removed] The story is romantic and kind.

[removed] The story is factual and true.

[removed] The story is tragic and scary.


 

Question 5 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(LC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt 2
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein continues recounting the influences that lead to his great experiment:

An accident again changed the current of my ideas. When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.

Why does the author use only Victor’s information in this passage?

[removed] Victor is the one who wrote the novel.

[removed] Readers enjoy multiple perspectives.

[removed] It allows Victor to tell the story.

[removed] It prevents readers from knowing the ending.


 

Question 6 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(MC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein recounts the influences that lead to his great experiment:

When I was thirteen years of age we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon; the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn. In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm. A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind, and bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. My father looked carelessly at the title page of my book and said, “Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.”

If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded and that a modern system of science had been introduced which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former were real and practical, under such circumstances I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my former studies. It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin. But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents, and I continued to read with the greatest avidity. When I returned home my first care was to procure the whole works of this author, and afterwards of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. I read and studied the wild fancies of these writers with delight; they appeared to me treasures known to few besides myself. I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. In spite of the intense labour and wonderful discoveries of modern philosophers, I always came from my studies discontented and unsatisfied. Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed that he felt like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored ocean of truth. Those of his successors in each branch of natural philosophy with whom I was acquainted appeared even to my boy’s apprehensions as tyros engaged in the same pursuit.

Under the guidance of my new preceptors I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life; but the latter soon obtained my undivided attention. Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!

Which line from the text explains the effect of the texts of Agrippa on the narrator?

[removed] . . .the theory which he attempts to demonstrate and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm.

[removed] My father looked carelessly at the title page of my book and said, “Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.”

[removed] . . . the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded and that a modern system of science had been introduced which possessed much greater powers than the ancient. . .

[removed] When I returned home my first care was to procure the whole works of this author. . .


 

Question 7 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(MC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt 2
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein continues recounting the influences that lead to his great experiment:

An ardent imagination and childish reasoning, till an accident again changed the current of my ideas. When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.

Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me. All that he said threw greatly into the shade Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, the lords of my imagination; but by some fatality the overthrow of these men disinclined me to pursue my accustomed studies. It seemed to me as if nothing would or could ever be known. All that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable. By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge. In this mood of mind I betook myself to the mathematics and the branches of study appertaining to that science as being built upon secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.

Which of the following topics could be used to write a narrative using supporting details from this excerpt?

[removed] Victor’s experience studying a new science.

[removed] The reason Victor’s childhood heroes are the cause of his destruction.

[removed] Victor sees himself as all-powerful.

[removed] Victor wishing he had a different relationship with his father.


 

Question 8 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(MC)

Read this line from Frankenstein:

When I was thirteen years of age we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon; the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn.

Based on the context, what does the word inclemency mean?

[removed] Imprecision

[removed] Forcefulness

[removed] Unpleasantness

[removed] Wetness


 

Question 9 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(LC)

Read this line from Frankenstein:

And thus for a time I was occupied by exploded systems, mingling, like an unadept, a thousand contradictory theories and floundering desperately in a very slough of multifarious knowledge, guided by an ardent imagination and childish reasoning. . .

An adept is one who is an expert at something.

Why does the author use the word unadept in this line?

[removed] To show frustration

[removed] To show confidence

[removed] To show fear

[removed] To show expertise


 

Question 10 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(LC)

Which synonym describes the greatest degree of regret?

[removed] Apologetic: acknowledging fault or failure

[removed] Contrite: feeling or showing remorse for a shortcoming

[removed] Remorseful: motivated by distress from a sense of guilt

[removed] Repentant: feeling remorse to a degree marked by an extreme change


 

Question 11 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(MC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein recounts the influences that lead to his great experiment:

When I was thirteen years of age we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon; the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn. In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm. A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind, and bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. My father looked carelessly at the title page of my book and said, “Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.”

If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded and that a modern system of science had been introduced which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former were real and practical, under such circumstances I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my former studies. It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin. But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents, and I continued to read with the greatest avidity. When I returned home my first care was to procure the whole works of this author, and afterwards of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. I read and studied the wild fancies of these writers with delight; they appeared to me treasures known to few besides myself. I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. In spite of the intense labour and wonderful discoveries of modern philosophers, I always came from my studies discontented and unsatisfied. Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed that he felt like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored ocean of truth. Those of his successors in each branch of natural philosophy with whom I was acquainted appeared even to my boy’s apprehensions as tyros engaged in the same pursuit.

Under the guidance of my new preceptors I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life; but the latter soon obtained my undivided attention. Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!

Which lines from the text most clearly suggest that the narrator will fight against nature?

[removed] When I was thirteen years of age we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon. . .

[removed] . . .I always came from my studies discontented and unsatisfied.

[removed] I had gazed upon the fortifications and impediments that seemed to keep human beings from entering the citadel of nature.

[removed] . . .what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!


 

Question 12 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(LC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein recounts the influences that lead to his great experiment:

When I was thirteen years of age we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon; the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn. In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm. A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind, and bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. My father looked carelessly at the title page of my book and said, “Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.”

If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded and that a modern system of science had been introduced which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former were real and practical, under such circumstances I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my former studies. It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin. But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents, and I continued to read with the greatest avidity. When I returned home my first care was to procure the whole works of this author, and afterwards of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. I read and studied the wild fancies of these writers with delight; they appeared to me treasures known to few besides myself. I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. In spite of the intense labour and wonderful discoveries of modern philosophers, I always came from my studies discontented and unsatisfied. Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed that he felt like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored ocean of truth. Those of his successors in each branch of natural philosophy with whom I was acquainted appeared even to my boy’s apprehensions as tyros engaged in the same pursuit.

Under the guidance of my new preceptors I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life; but the latter soon obtained my undivided attention. Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!

Read this line from the text:

I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature.

In this line, the author is exploring man versus nature. Which word from this passage best demonstrates the conflict between man and nature?

[removed] Described

[removed] Myself

[removed] Penetrate

[removed] Secrets


 

Question 13 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(LC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt 2
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein continues recounting the influences that lead to his great experiment:

Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me. All that he said threw greatly into the shade Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, the lords of my imagination; but by some fatality the overthrow of these men disinclined me to pursue my accustomed studies. It seemed to me as if nothing would or could ever be known. All that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable. By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge. In this mood of mind I betook myself to the mathematics and the branches of study appertaining to that science as being built upon secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.

Which line from the text states that the narrator was young at the time?

[removed] By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth. . .

[removed] I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation. . .

[removed] In this mood of mind I betook myself to the mathematics. . .

[removed] . . .the branches of study appertaining to that science as being built upon secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.


 

Question 14 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(LC)

Frankenstein Chapter 2, Excerpt 2
By Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein continues recounting the influences that lead to his great experiment:

Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me. All that he said threw greatly into the shade Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, the lords of my imagination; but by some fatality the overthrow of these men disinclined me to pursue my accustomed studies. It seemed to me as if nothing would or could ever be known. All that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable. By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge. In this mood of mind I betook myself to the mathematics and the branches of study appertaining to that science as being built upon secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.

Read this sentence from the text:

In this mood of mind

What does this line say about the narrator?

[removed] He made up his mind after careful consideration.

[removed] He made up his mind based on his annoyance.

[removed] He made up his mind by getting good advice.

[removed] He made up his mind to quit working altogether.


 

Question 15 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(LC)

Read this line from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley:

It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.

Considering the use of the word agitated in this line, what is the most likely meaning of the word convulsive?

[removed] Smooth

[removed] Gentle

[removed] Agile

[removed] Jerky


 

Question 16 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(MC)

Read Article IX of the United States Bill of Rights:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

What is the main effect of setting the phrase of certain rights off with commas following the introductory phrase the enumeration of the Constitution?

[removed] It emphasizes the rights are what should not be misconstrued.

[removed] It emphasizes the rights belong to the people not the Constitution.

[removed] It makes the rights more important than the Constitution.

[removed] It suggests that some rights are more important than others.


 

Question 17 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(MC)

Read this line from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley:

I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.

Which definition of render is most likely suited for this line?

[removed] 14th Century: delivered

[removed] 15th Century: returned

[removed] 16th Century: depicted

[removed] 20th Century: made


 

Question 18 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(MC)

Read this line from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley:

Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly and hardly that I felt the palpitation of every artery; at others, I nearly sank to the ground through languor and extreme weakness.

Which definition of hardly is most likely suited for this line?

[removed] Early 16th Century: With trouble or hardship

[removed] Middle English—Early 19th Century: With energy or force

[removed] Middle 16th Century: Barely, only just; not quite

[removed] Middle 16th Century: Not easily


 

Question 19 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(MC)

Read these lines from Macbeth:

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day:
Now spurs the lated traveller apace,
To gain the timely inn; and near approaches
The subject of our watch.

Which of the following correctly describes how the word gain is used here?

[removed] It suggests an increase of some value.

[removed] It suggests earning something.

[removed] It suggests reaching a place.

[removed] It suggests something owned.


 

Question 20 (Multiple Choice Worth 5 points)

(LC)

Which sentence uses syntax for emphasis?

[removed] Ask not what your country can do for you. . . John F. Kennedy

[removed] Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. . . George Washington

[removed] One man with courage is a majority. . . Thomas Jefferson

[removed] The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it. . . Abraham Lincoln

Underground Railroad Open Thread

Underground Railroad Open Thread

No outside sources 

Take a look at the attachment files from the assignment please 

Your post on the novel is open to any themes or topics you wish to introduce. Your post should be about 200 words in length, clearly state the task you aim to complete, clearly articulate the point you are making, and present specific textual evidence from the readings (including page numbers), making sure to explain explicitly how the evidence relates to your overall point.

In addition to topics of your own design, you can usethe options below to guide your writing and thinking (you can also use these frameworks for the directed threads as well):

Working through Confusion

Share a passage from the week’s reading that confuses you in some way. Describe why you are confused by the passage, and offer a tentative interpretation of what causes you the problems. Extra engagement can be demonstrated by responding to each other and working through confusion collaboratively.

Structure and Meaning

Offer your observation of some particularly striking, strange, or significant surface feature(s) of one of our texts, and explain how that feature(s) contributes to or drives the meaning of the text in that passage or overall.

Offering an Interpretation

Contrive some kind of interpretive statement about a text from the week’s reading and support with an explanation of relevant and strong textual evidence.

Criticizing a Perspective

In all of our texts, you will encounter characters, groups, and authors who seem to be communicating particular perspectives on the world.  Describe whether you agree or disagree with this perspective, and what about the text drives your agreement or proves problematic for the perspective you discuss.

 

Due within 32 hours from now

 

Make sure please No outside sources just use what I attached 

 

ALSO BY COLSON WHITEHEAD

The Noble Hustle Zone One Sag Harbor

Apex Hides the Hurt The Colossus of New York

John Henry Days The Intuitionist

 

 

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 by Colson Whitehead

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.doubleday.com

DOUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Cover design by Oliver Munday

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Whitehead, Colson, 1969– author.

Title: The underground railroad : a novel / Colson Whitehead. Description: New York : Doubleday, 2016.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016000643 (print) | LCCN 2016004953 (ebook) ISBN 9780385542364 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780385537049 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Underground Railroad—Fiction. | Fugitive slaves—United States—Fiction. | United States—History—19th century—Fiction.

BISAC: FICTION / Literary. | FICTION / Historical. FICTION / African American / General. | GSAFD: Historical fiction.

Classification: LCC PS3573.H4768 U53 2016 (print) LCC PS3573.H4768 (ebook)

DDC 813/.54—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/​2016000643

ebook ISBN 9780385537049

v4.1

ep

 

 

Contents

Cover Also by Colson Whitehead Title Page Copyright Dedication

Ajarry

Georgia

Ridgeway

South Carolina

Stevens

North Carolina

Ethel

Tennessee

Caesar

Indiana

Mabel

The North

Acknowledgments About the Author

 

 

For Julie

 

 

Ajarry

 

 

THE first time Caesar approached Cora about running north, she said no. This was her grandmother talking. Cora’s grandmother had never seen the ocean before that bright

afternoon in the port of Ouidah and the water dazzled after her time in the fort’s dungeon. The dungeon stored them until the ships arrived. Dahomeyan raiders kidnapped the men first, then returned to her village the next moon for the women and children, marching them in chains to the sea two by two. As she stared into the black doorway, Ajarry thought she’d be reunited with her father, down there in the dark. The survivors from her village told her that when her father couldn’t keep the pace of the long march, the slavers stove in his head and left his body by the trail. Her mother had died years before.

Cora’s grandmother was sold a few times on the trek to the fort, passed between slavers for cowrie shells and glass beads. It was hard to say how much they paid for her in Ouidah as she was part of a bulk purchase, eighty-eight human souls for sixty crates of rum and gunpowder, the price arrived upon after the standard haggling in Coast English. Able-bodied men and childbearing women fetched more than juveniles, making an individual accounting difficult.

The Nanny was out of Liverpool and had made two previous stops along the Gold Coast. The captain staggered his purchases, rather than find himself with cargo of singular culture and disposition. Who knew what brand of mutiny his captives might cook up if they shared a common tongue. This was the ship’s final port of call before they crossed the Atlantic. Two yellow-haired sailors rowed Ajarry out to the ship, humming. White skin like bone.

The noxious air of the hold, the gloom of confinement, and the screams of those shackled to her contrived to drive Ajarry to madness. Because of her tender age, her captors did not immediately force their urges upon her, but eventually some of the more seasoned mates dragged her from the hold six weeks into the passage. She twice tried to kill herself on the voyage to America, once by denying herself food and then again by drowning. The sailors stymied her both times, versed in the schemes and inclinations of chattel. Ajarry didn’t even make it to the gunwale when she tried to jump overboard. Her simpering posture and piteous aspect, recognizable from thousands of slaves before her, betrayed her intentions. Chained head to toe, head to toe, in exponential misery.

Although they had tried not to get separated at the auction in Ouidah, the rest of her family was purchased by Portuguese traders from the frigate Vivilia, next seen four months later drifting ten miles off Bermuda. Plague had claimed all on board. Authorities lit the ship on fire and watched her crackle and sink. Cora’s grandmother knew nothing about the ship’s fate. For the rest of her life she imagined her cousins worked for kind and generous masters up north, engaged in more forgiving trades than her own, weaving or spinning, nothing in the fields. In her stories, Isay and Sidoo and the rest somehow bought their way out of bondage and lived as free men and women in the City of Pennsylvania, a place she had overheard two white men discuss once. These fantasies gave Ajarry comfort when her burdens were such to splinter her into a thousand pieces.

The next time Cora’s grandmother was sold was after a month in the pest house on Sullivan’s Island, once the physicians certified her and the rest of the Nanny’s cargo clear of illness. Another busy day on the Exchange. A big auction always drew a colorful crowd. Traders and procurers from up and down the coast converged on Charleston, checking the merchandise’s eyes and joints and spines, wary of venereal distemper and other afflictions. Onlookers chewed fresh oysters and hot corn as the auctioneers shouted

 

 

into the air. The slaves stood naked on the platform. There was a bidding war over a group of Ashanti studs, those Africans of renowned industry and musculature, and the foreman of a limestone quarry bought a bunch of pickaninnies in an astounding bargain. Cora’s grandmother saw a little boy among the gawkers eating rock candy and wondered what he was putting in his mouth.

Just before sunset an agent bought her for two hundred and twenty-six dollars. She would have fetched more but for that season’s glut of young girls. His suit was made of the whitest cloth she had ever seen. Rings set with colored stone flashed on his fingers. When he pinched her breasts to see if she was in flower, the metal was cool on her skin. She was branded, not for the first or last time, and fettered to the rest of the day’s acquisitions. The coffle began their long march south that night, staggering behind the trader’s buggy. The Nanny by that time was en route back to Liverpool, full of sugar and tobacco. There were fewer screams belowdecks.

You would have thought Cora’s grandmother cursed, so many times was she sold and swapped and resold over the next few years. Her owners came to ruin with startling frequency. Her first master got swindled by a man who sold a device that cleaned cotton twice as fast as Whitney’s gin. The diagrams were convincing, but in the end Ajarry was another asset liquidated by order of the magistrate. She went for two hundred and eighteen dollars in a hasty exchange, a drop in price occasioned by the realities of the local market. Another owner expired from dropsy, whereupon his widow held an estate sale to fund a return to her native Europe, where it was clean. Ajarry spent three months as the property of a Welshman who eventually lost her, three other slaves, and two hogs in a game of whist. And so on.

Her price fluctuated. When you are sold that many times, the world is teaching you to pay attention. She learned to quickly adjust to the new plantations, sorting the nigger breakers from the merely cruel, the layabouts from the hardworking, the informers from the secret-keepers. Masters and mistresses in degrees of wickedness, estates of disparate means and ambition. Sometimes the planters wanted nothing more than to make a humble living, and then there were men and women who wanted to own the world, as if it were a matter of the proper acreage. Two hundred and forty-eight, two hundred and sixty, two hundred and seventy dollars. Wherever she went it was sugar and indigo, except for a stint folding tobacco leaves for one week before she was sold again. The trader called upon the tobacco plantation looking for slaves of breeding age, preferably with all their teeth and of pliable disposition. She was a woman now. Off she went.

She knew that the white man’s scientists peered beneath things to understand how they worked. The movement of the stars across the night, the cooperation of humors in the blood. The temperature requirements for a healthy cotton harvest. Ajarry made a science of her own black body and accumulated observations. Each thing had a value and as the value changed, everything else changed also. A broken calabash was worth less than one that held its water, a hook that kept its catfish more prized than one that relinquished its bait. In America the quirk was that people were things. Best to cut your losses on an old man who won’t survive a trip across the ocean. A young buck from strong tribal stock got customers into a froth. A slave girl squeezing out pups was like a mint, money that bred money. If you were a thing—a cart or a horse or a slave—your value determined your possibilities. She minded her place.

Finally, Georgia. A representative of the Randall plantation bought her for two hundred and ninety- two dollars, in spite of the new blankness behind her eyes, which made her look simpleminded. She never drew a breath off Randall land for the rest of her life. She was home, on this island in sight of nothing.

Cora’s grandmother took a husband three times. She had a predilection for broad shoulders and big hands, as did Old Randall, although the master and his slave had different sorts of labor in mind. The two plantations were well-stocked, ninety head of nigger on the northern half and eighty-five head on the

 

 

southern half. Ajarry generally had her pick. When she didn’t, she was patient. Her first husband developed a hankering for corn whiskey and started using his big hands to make

big fists. Ajarry wasn’t sad to see him disappear down the road when they sold him to a sugarcane estate in Florida. She next took up with one of the sweet boys from the southern half. Before he passed from cholera he liked to share stories from the Bible, his former master being more liberal-minded when it came to slaves and religion. She enjoyed the stories and parables and supposed that white men had a point: Talk of salvation could give an African ideas. Poor sons of Ham. Her last husband had his ears bored for stealing honey. The wounds gave up pus until he wasted away.

Ajarry bore five children by those men, each delivered in the same spot on the planks of the cabin, which she pointed to when they misstepped. That’s where you came from and where I’ll put you back if you don’t listen. Teach them to obey her and maybe they’ll obey all the masters to come and they will survive. Two died miserably of fever. One boy cut his foot while playing on a rusted plow, which poisoned his blood. Her youngest never woke up after a boss hit him in the head with a wooden block. One after another. At least they were never sold off, an older woman told Ajarry. Which was true—back then Randall rarely sold the little ones. You knew where and how your children would die. The child that lived past the age of ten was Cora’s mother, Mabel.

Ajarry died in the cotton, the bolls bobbing around her like whitecaps on the brute ocean. The last of her village, keeled over in the rows from a knot in her brain, blood pouring from her nose and white froth covering her lips. As if it could have been anywhere else. Liberty was reserved for other people, for the citizens of the City of Pennsylvania bustling a thousand miles to the north. Since the night she was kidnapped she had been appraised and reappraised, each day waking upon the pan of a new scale. Know your value and you know your place in the order. To escape the boundary of the plantation was to escape the fundamental principles of your existence: impossible.

It was her grandmother talking that Sunday evening when Caesar approached Cora about the underground railroad, and she said no.

Three weeks later she said yes. This time it was her mother talking.

 

 

Georgia

 

 

THIRTY DOLLAR REWARD Ran away from the subscriber, living in Salisbury, on the 5th instant, a negro girl by the name of LIZZIE. It is supposed that said girl is in the vicinity of Mrs. Steel’s plantation. I will give the above reward on the delivery of the girl, or for information on her being lodged in any Gaol in this state. All persons are forewarned of harboring said girl, under penalty of law prescribed.

W. M. DIXON JULY 18, 1820

 

 

JOCKEY’S birthday only came once or twice a year. They tried to make a proper celebration. It was always Sunday, their half day. At three o’clock the bosses signaled the end of work and the northern plantation scurried to prepare, rushing through chores. Mending, scavenging moss, patching the leak in the roof. The feast took precedence, unless you had a pass to go into town to sell crafts or had hired yourself out for day labor. Even if you were inclined to forgo the extra wages—and no one was so inclined—impossible was the slave impudent enough to tell a white man he couldn’t work because it was a slave’s birthday. Everybody knew niggers didn’t have birthdays.

Cora sat by the edge of her plot on her block of sugar maple and worked dirt from under her fingernails. When she could, Cora contributed turnips or greens to the birthday feasts, but nothing was coming in today. Someone shouted down the alley, one of the new boys most likely, not completely broken in by Connelly yet, and the shouts cracked open into a dispute. The voices more crotchety than angry, but loud. It was going to be a memorable birthday if folks were already this riled.

“If you could pick your birthday, what would it be?” Lovey asked. Cora couldn’t see Lovey’s face for the sun behind her, but she knew her friend’s expression. Lovey

was uncomplicated, and there was going to be a celebration that night. Lovey gloried in these rare escapes, whether it was Jockey’s birthday, Christmas, or one of the harvest nights when everyone with two hands stayed up picking and the Randalls had the bosses distribute corn whiskey to keep them happy. It was work, but the moon made it okay. The girl was the first to tell the fiddler to get busy and the first to dance. She’d try to pull Cora from the sidelines, ignoring her protestations. As if they’d twirl in circles, arm in arm, with Lovey catching a boy’s eyes for a second on every revolution and Cora following suit. But Cora never joined her, tugging her arm away. She watched.

“Told you when I was born,” Cora said. She was born in winter. Her mother, Mabel, had complained enough about her hard delivery, the rare frost that morning, the wind howling between the seams in the cabin. How her mother bled for days and Connelly didn’t bother to call the doctor until she looked half a ghost. Occasionally Cora’s mind tricked her and she’d turn the story into one of her memories, inserting the faces of ghosts, all the slave dead, who looked down at her with love and indulgence. Even people she hated, the ones who kicked her or stole her food once her mother was gone.

“If you could pick,” Lovey said. “Can’t pick,” Cora said. “It’s decided for you.” “You best fix your mood,” Lovey said. She sped off. Cora kneaded her calves, grateful for the time off her feet. Feast or no feast, this was where Cora

ended up every Sunday when their half day of work was done: perched on her seat, looking for things to fix. She owned herself for a few hours every week was how she looked at it, to tug weeds, pluck caterpillars, thin out the sour greens, and glare at anyone planning incursions on her territory. Tending to her bed was necessary maintenance but also a message that she had not lost her resolve since the day of the hatchet.

The dirt at her feet had a story, the oldest story Cora knew. When Ajarry planted there, soon after her long march to the plantation, the plot was a rumble of dirt and scrub behind her cabin, at the end of the line of slave quarters. Beyond that lay fields and after that the swamp. Then Randall had a dream one night about a white sea that ranged as far as the eye could see and switched his crop from dependable