Student Samples of Patchwriting

Educator Example ONLY. Please DO NOT SHARE the examples on this handout with students.

Sample 1

Source Text: “What U. S. Tourism Means for Cuba” by Ron Claiborne & John Bentley (abcnews.go.com)

“I’ve stood there while the Cuban guide tells his British group, ‘I know why you’re all here, we’re all here to see it before the Americans ruin everything,’ and everybody says yeah, absolutely, so it’s kind of become a joke, but it’s true,” says Tony Pandola, a tour guide from California who’s been leading tours in Cuba for the past four years. “The ad nauseum thing you hear from anyone that you ask why you came to Cuba and why they came now, is ‘I want to see it before it changes,’ So everyone is aware that things are changing and they want to see this last vestige of some period, whether it was the Cold War or the Castro regime. The whole world has its eyes on Cuba and they want to see it.”

Student Writing (Patchwriting):  A Cuban tour guide jokes with his British group that he knows why they are all here and it’s to see Cuba before Americans ruin it. People are coming from all over because they want to see Cuba before it all changes. Everyone has become aware that Cuba is going through a change and people want to see that remnants of periods like the Cold War or the Castro Regime before they’re gone. Everyone is watching Cuba to see how this change will affect their culture.

Sample 2

Source Text:  Claiborne & Bentley

Suddenly, Cuba is one of the hottest destinations on the planet. Ever since the U.S government eased some of the travel restrictions for Americans travelling to Cuba, and President Obama became the first U. S. president to visit the country in over 80 years, Americans have been flocking to the island. The number of Americans visiting Cuba nearly doubled in the first four months of 2016 over last year at the same time, according to the Cuban government, with more than 94,000 Americans visiting from January to May of this year.

Student Writing (Patchwriting):  Cuba has become one of the hottest destinations for people to visit. Tourists have flocked there ever since the American government has lifted some of the restrictions on traveling to Cuba. According to the article, “The number of Americans visiting Cuba nearly doubled in the first four months of 2016 over last year.” In fact, President Obama was the first U.S. president to visit the island in more than 80 years. [maintains sentence structure, though sometimes inverted and sometimes with order of sentences scrambled]

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