Taking a Break

I am taking a break from what I have to do today.

Top of the list was to start the oral report but I decided to put this second and start on the five-page written report first. My thinking is that getting started on the written one would get the details into my mind. They are both, after all, on the same subject  except that the oral report is much shorter and in Italian! I am quite pleased with myself because I have, as my Irish aunt would have said, "broken the back" of the five-pager. {In case you don’t know this expession, it means I have done half or more. } I have done three and a half pages and I will have no problem upping it to five. Actually, since I can be verbose,  I may have to reduce the font size to get it all in!

After this short break, I will tackle the oral report. First, I will make an outline of what I want to say { in English.} I do this with pretty well everything I write or orally report on for this class. I don’t always stick to it. Actually, it would probably be more truthful to say I seldom stick to it, but it is a good reference when I go back to make sure I have got everything in. Then, I will start writing in Italian what I want to say. At this stage, anything I am not sure about is circled. {I circle most prepositions because I find Italian prepositions very difficult.} After that, I will look up anything I have circled. The final step is to transfer the "bones" of this speech to cards and to practice saying it. {I don’t expect tp get to the last two steps today. I will be pleased if I get to the "looking things up" stage.

As a side note here, I read some research once about whether or not most people use that outlining pattern one is taught in high school and college. The answer? Most high school students and especially most college students tend to write the paper first and the outline afterwards! I DO write what I think of as outlines but I actually they are lists, and, as I said, the writing seldom follows the outline rigidly.

So, time to put my shoulder to the wheel and my nose to the grindstone which sounds anatomically rather difficult and somewhat painful.

Until later….