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Given the nature of the 2011 summer reading program, you had significant autonomy in selecting the books you would read. While you were responsible for completing a proposal, you were not given other assignments to complete over the summer. As indicated on your proposal form, you are required to write a letter to your 2011-12 Language Arts teacher that demonstrates your thoughtful reading of your book. We have chosen to break this down further into three focused "Power Paragraphs" for two reasons, one, to introduce you to the idea of a power paragraph, and two, to assist you in covering all aspects of the assignment.

__ Prompt for Paragraph One - A Reflection of Your Choice __ Ziyue Wang Period 1 Summer Reading August 24, 2011 Response To Stephen Hawking’s //The Grand Design// I was not completely satisfied by //The Grand Design.// I wanted to read the book because “I have always had an interest in Stephen Hawking”, and wanted to get some insight into his much revered scientific mind and works; however, I found that his book was extremely biased and anti-religious (Summer reading proposal). He continuously states that science can disprove religion in insensitive statements stating that “regularities in the motion of astronomical bodies…suggested that they were governed by fixed laws rather than being subject to the arbitrary whims and caprices of gods and demons…[and that] Gods or demons couldn’t intervene in the running of the universe”, blatantly dismissing the beliefs of billions of people, and raising himself to a position to judge (Hawking 171). This and other of his brash statements made his work offensive to me, and while his theories may have been too complex for me to understand, that kept me from enjoying this book.

Citation: Be sure that your topic sentence is a direct response to the prompt and sets up the paper. Begin by stating why you chose this book and then discuss your response to it. Good use of quotes in support of your ideas.
 * < Hawking, Stephen. //The Grand Design//. New York: Bantam Books, 2010. Print. ||

__ Prompt for Paragraph Two - A Discussion of What You Gained by Reading Your Book __

Stephen Hawking’s //The Grand Design// challenged my beliefs, but also made me question my societies values. In //The Grand Design,// Hawking attempts to use his theories and ideas about the universes law’s to crush the beliefs of hundreds of millions of religious people around the world, and I realized that it was shocking that our society still looks up to him as a great scientist while ignoring his major faults of egotism. He opens his book with the bold statement that “most of these are [deep] questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead” (Hawking 5). I participate in the philosophy class in our school myself, and I found this statement offensive; however, even on the back cover of the book, the praises from the media and society still ring out for Hawking’s intellect while ignoring his character, leading me to question not only my beliefs, but society's as a whole. Could you cut back on summary and add more about your reaction to the book?

__ Prompt for Paragraph Three - What to do With it... __

//The Grand Design// by Stephen Hawking was a provocative, complicated nonfiction book, and would be ideal for the advanced reader, but also someone with a strong interest in science. //The Grand Design// is a book about the scientific probability of creation, and as such, is filled with advanced theories and ideas. Hawking uses complex ideas such as that “on the scale of the entire universe, the positive energy of the matter can be balanced by the negative gravitational energy”, phrases that would take pondering to decipher (Hawking 180). This book would be best for anyone that likes to think about intricate questions, and would have the patience to reread and ponder complicated theories. Good ideas here!

You have some great ideas here. I'd like to see you work on stronger topic sentences and cleaning out unnecessary words and phrases. // An outstanding response to the prompts will include the following: //
 * Scoring: Your three paragraphs will be given one overall grade, and the timeliness of your posts will be reflected in your "timeliness" grade. **
 * A strong topic sentence that clearly establishes the focus on the prompt
 * Evidence that clearly supports the topic sentence
 * Correct use of internal citations and a properly formatted MLA citation for your book (put this citation at the end of paragraph one)
 * Strict adherence to the Power Paragraph format
 * Mechanics are clean and do not detract from meaning