Expository: Sweet, Sour & Resentful
Overview for Instructors (“Sweet, Sour, and Resentful”)
The essay “Sweet, Sour, and Resentful” by Firoozeh Dumas can be found on Dumas’s website.
In this process analysis essay, Dumas shares the week-long process her mother followed to prepare a traditional Persian meal for family and friends. The inclusion of humor and personal experience/narration add to the engagement. The article would pair nicely with “Why Rituals Are Good for You.”
The following instructional activities, assignments, and documents are included for this reading. They are explained in the chart below and can be found in the module.
| Course Activities, Assignments, and Documents | Goals Addressed |
| Analyzing and Answering Questions with Multiple Parts: A power point and activity to help the students annotate and analyze the directions for assignments (will need to be adapted to the directions/assignments for this particular module.)
How to Analyze a Writing Prompt and create a Strong Thesis Statement activity (will need to be adapted to the directions/assignments for this particular module.) Understanding the Relationship between the Assignment and the Rubric (will need to be adapted to the directions/assignments for this particular module.) |
GOAL 1: Understanding Academic Writing Assignments |
| Vocabulary Preview: A list of challenging words and phrases from the text is identified so that students can build knowledge of vocabulary before reading the article.
Support Activity: A copy of the song lyrics for John Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” which is referenced in the article. This can be used to provide some cultural background. Reading Process Activity: This activity guides students through the reading process – previewing the article, actively reading and annotating the text, and reflecting on the meaning of the text and the reading process. Emphasis is placed on using the title, the author’s background, the introduction, the topic sentences and transitions, and the conclusion to predict the meaning of the text. Summary and Response Activity: This activity provides a set of guided questions to develop a summary and reading response to the article. An example is provided to help with developing a response, as well as providing suggestions to start the writing process. Reading for Comprehension Activity: Through a set of questions, students are guided to understand the author’s main idea, as well as identifying a process analysis is used in writing, and working toward an understanding of an underlying message. Support Activity – Analyzing and Answering Questions with Multiple Parts: A power point and activity to help the students annotate and analyze the directions for assignments.
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GOAL 2: Read and understand college-level texts |
| Sentence Variety activity: (1) comparing paragraphs consisting of choppy sentences and paragraphs containing complex structures
(2) Noticing and using dependent clauses and reduced clauses Grammar behind Sentence Variety: Punctuation of paragraphs with a variety of sentence structures Understanding and noticing Past Perfect Passive Voice and Modal Verbs: noticing and error correction activities
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GOAL 3: Develop Sophisticated Grammatical Structures |
| Vocabulary Preview: A list of challenging words and phrases from the text is identified so that students can build knowledge of vocabulary before reading the article.
One-page essay: description of personal experience with a planner and suggested vocabulary and grammatical structures Sentence Structure and the Power of Three explains the rhetorical strategies of alternating short and long sentences and using lists of three items to illustrate a point. |
GOAL 4: Develop Fluency with Academic Vocabulary |
| The Rhetorical Situation and Evidence explains the rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, and context) and asks students to Google some terms and places from the essay to learn more about the intended audience for this essay and the author’s personal situation and the context of her story. | GOAL 5: Strategies for Using Evidence in Academic Writing |
