What was he thinking?

Having read Thinking as a Hobby, consider the different ways that the statuettes are positioned. Golding is pretty clear that their positioning indicates a philosophy of life held by Golding or the headmaster at various points in time. Think about the elements symbolized by these three statuettes: the thinker, the leopard, and the Venus de Milo.


Your task is to lay out the three different arrangements from the essay. Then explain what each arrangement means in the context of the article.  What philosophy does each arrangement represent?

I would contend he reveals more about himself than perhaps he meant to in the final arrangement. What might he have revealed that he did not intend?

Please blog your writing on this.

High School Confidential: The Present-Tense Moment in American Life

Part 1: For Monday after Spring Break, read pages 707 -714 and blog the Questions for Discussion #3 on p. 714 and Rhetoric and Style questions 1-7; 9-12 on page 715.

If anyone has the time and inclination, watch Election and report back to the class. Is it as good as Denby says it is?

Part 2: Read Corn-Pone Opinions by Mark Twain on page 717. From page 721, blog Questions on Rhetoric and Style numbers 1-11 for Monday after Spring Break. 

If you'd like to try and make some, here's a recipe for corn pone.

 Remember if you wish to rewrite your Orwell paper, it is due at the end of spring break. Also, make a copy of the original to edit. Leave the comments in the original document intact.

Women's Brains

Brains....brains....braaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnssss!

As we wrestle with the unpleasant, but important to understand Women's Brains by Stephen Jay Gould, work on the Rhetoric and Style questions 1-12 on pages 354-55 of the TLC book. They are due Monday.

As you work with this essay, think about the implications of the ideas in the essay -- both those of Gould and of those he quoted. Are there echoes of those ideas alive and kicking today? How? When? Where? To what extent? ;) Append a brief reflection on those questions at the end of questions 1-12.

Next week we'll look at some more gender themed stuff while also hitting the test prep with another timed write and more multiple choice.

A Modest Proposal

Though a disturbing piece, A Modest Proposal is a brilliant argument — in part because it is so disturbing. Let’s take a closer look at how Jonathan Swift crafts his argument.

To that end, blog your responses to the following questions found on pages 920-921 in TLC: Questions on Rhetoric and Style #s 1-5, 7-9.

Where I lived, and what I lived for

Walden Pond

First, in the spirit of Thoreau, turn off all your electronics: phone, TV, radio, iPod, etc.
Second, annotate the heck out of that first paragraph. Look for antitheses, diction (look up words you don't know and write down the definitions), opinions and attitudes (look for layers and subtleties), etc., etc. Wrestle with the first paragraph for half an hour. Suck the marrow out of it.
Third, read the rest of the passage found on page 276 of your book.
Fourth, blog Question on Rhetoric and Style numbers 1-2, 4-9
Finally, reflect on his ideas. Do you agree? Are they extreme? To what purpose might they be extreme? What would it mean for you to do something similar to Thoreau? Reflect on the value in Thoreau's ideas and their practice.

Once More to the Lake

Read Once More to the Lake by E.B. White tonight (yes, he's the guy who wrote Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and Elements of Style). There is a wistful cadence to this piece that makes it rather endearing and a bit haunting. Hopefully it's one you enjoy.

• As you read, mark it up some and note various features of the text.
• Then note your favorite passage. This could be one you find especially well written, or it could be one that interests you for some reason (feature, subject, etc.). 
• Be prepared to explain your favorite passage to the class and to be asked to explain more if your comments stay on the surface.

Be verwy quwiet...we're hunting elephants

This minivan is now "rubbish"

Finish reading Shooting an Elephant on page 979 of TLC. We'll talk about this essay more next week. In the meantime, blog your answers to the questions on page 985.
 

Taking our time...

African or European? Well...I don't know.

Finish reading In Praise of a Snail's Pace on page 221 of TLC and do the following:

1. Answer me these questions three--1, 5, and 8
2. How is this a compare and contrast essay? What is Goodman comparing? Describe the technique the author uses to draw out this comparison.

Education: The Ralph Waldo Emerson Way

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now that you've read Emerson's On Education on page 102 of The Language of Composition (TLC), and now that we have a bit of an idea as to what he is on about, it's time for some analysis of how he does what he does. To that end, thoughtfully respond on your blog to Questions on Rhetoric and Style 1-3, 5-6, and 8-12 on pages 108-109.

And as you do this and your other homework, remember that:

"Not less delightful is the mutual pleasure of teaching and learning the secret of algebra, or of chemistry, or of good reading and good recitation of poetry or of prose, or of chosen facts in history or in biography." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take delightful pleasure in this learning activity up through Wednesday evening (due Thursday November 10). Along with the vocabulary quiz 9, we'll discuss this in class on Thursday.

Though we'll stick with analysis, we'll also start talking about the argument question next week.

Of interest...transcendentalism. If that article proves too heady for you,Wikipedia's is okay.

Some thoughts on argument analysis

1. Published arguments seldom begin with a thesis (and may not end with one). Frequently, the thesis is only implied. 
2. An analysis of an argument is rarely “right” or “wrong,” but some answers are much better than others. The answer that explains the text in the most thorough way is superior. 
3. Thinking of yourself as a member of the intended audience for an argument is essential to analyzing argument. 
4. Often when we reject an argument, it is because we are not part of the intended audience. 
5. The analyst needs to pay attention to assumptions concerning the reader’s race, nationality, and gender. 
6. Pay close attention to pronouns. They shift references. 
7. An analytic explanation rarely occurs in a chronological order; it usually involves moving backward and forward within the text being analyzed. Using chronological order usually moves an analysis to summary. 
8. While knowing Aristotle’s three modes is important, it is also important to know the work of Rogers (the psychologist) and Toulmin (the logician). 
9. Whether or not an argument contains fallacies is not germane to understanding it rhetorically. 
10. Analyses need to measured against the evidence of the text itself. 
11. It is usually more important to consider what is implied. 
12. When you read an argument, you should try to determine why it was written in the way it was written. 
13. The analyst needs to determine whether the thesis is direct, indirect, implied, deliberately hidden, or subversive (A Modest Proposal is an example of a subversive thesis).

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Don't forget to do the assignment in the previous post. Also, check out the link under writing on the left for notes on good writing entitled the YES Writing Guide .

Writing your JFK paper

If you feel like you've been cornobbled by this JFK paper and are lost in a collieshangie with rhetorical devices, remember to step back, take a breath, and reacquaint yourself with the purpose you are dealing with in each paragraph/section. Focus on how he attempts to fulfill each purpose using rhetorical strategies. Remember that rhetorical strategies can include such things as diction & syntax, appeals (both classical and various, i.e. patriotism, pride, compassion, etc.), choice of detail, figurative language, imagery, organization, etc.

Remember the rhetorical situation: speaker, occasion, audience, purpose(s) as well.

Best of luck with this paper. Don't over-think it. Just identify a purpose and show how he tries to accomplish it in his speech.

Who's Lady Di?

Lady Diana

Though most of you likely don't remember Lady Diana, our book does. In the TLC book, do the assignment that begins on page 28. You'll be reading 4 pieces and noting the following:

1. the purpose of each text
2. how the interaction of speaker, audience, and subject affects the text
3. the effectiveness of each text in accomplishing its purpose

Due: Thursday, Sept 15

Einstein Letter

Read up through page 10 in the Language of Composition  and do the assignment that begins on page 9 for tomorrow.

Chapter 8 Questions

These are not required, but they are meant to stimulate your thinking about the chapter so we can have a more productive discussion Monday.

Please do not think that any and everything you say in a discussion must be "right". That isn't what discussion is for. It's NOT to show each other how smart we are. It is a place to build meaning together. No one has the full picture, but working together, we can discover more than we can on our own.

Again, these questions are not required, I simply told 3rd period I'd put up some questions to help them prepare so they could feel more confident. Don't forget the post below about your last bump assignment.

1. How is the tone set for Chapter 8? 
2. Interpret the simile “’Jay Gatsby’ had broken up like glass against Tom’s hard malice…” (Pg. 148/155) 
3. Summarize the beginning of Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship, five years ago. 
4. Why does Daisy give up on Gatsby? How does Gatsby learn of the relationship between Daisy and Tom? 
5. In what ways can the letter from Daisy while Gatsby was at Oxford be considered Gatsby’s salvation? 
6. After all that has taken place, how does Nick say he feels about Gatsby? What does he mean? Is he sincere? 
7. In general, what is Nick’s attitude toward Gatsby? 
8. What does Jordan do the morning following the accident? 
9. What clues give Wilson the idea there is another man? 
10. What conclusion does Wilson come to regarding his wife’s death? 
11. Whom does Wilson associate with the yellow car? 
12. What motif reappears in Chapter 8? What meaning is attributed to it? 
13. Where does Wilson spend the day following Myrtle’s death? 
14. Where do you think Wilson gets the information to track the car to Gatsby? Use evidence from the text. 
15. How do we realize that Gatsby is no longer living in a dream and how is it foreshadowed who his killer may be? 
16. How is Gatsby’s body discovered? 
17. Why does no one find Gatsby earlier? 
18. What do you suspect happened to Wilson?

Everybody Loves Super Bowl Commercials!

While you are hanging around, surfing the internet with nothing to do over mid-winter break, you'll no doubt end up on some site watching Betty White play football or the Doritos dog shocking the guy on the park bench (message -- the importance of sharing?). No doubt as you watch these commercials, chuckling to yourself or perhaps occasionally ROTFLing, you won't be able to help yourself from thinking things like,

"The audience of that commercial is obviously middle-aged men who wish they still played football the morning before the Super Bowl because...." and "the humorous juxtaposition of the guys playing football with their elderly stand-ins in the football game dramatizes the lack of energy experienced during sports when you're hungry...." and "this commercial is/is not effective with its target audience because...." etc.

Well, since you'll likely be doing that already, blog your rhetorical analysis of one of the Super Bowl commercials. Please provide the link in your blog post to the commercial you choose to analyze. You'll find them arranged by quarter on this site.

After the final draft of our paper is due, we'll take a look at these in class.

image credit

Timed Write Wednesday!

Yes it is graded, but keep in mind that the work we've done on Lord Chesterfield will help you succeed.  If you feel that your AP squared chart of the Lord Chesterfield letter was lacking, you may find benefit in redoing it or adding to it to the same level we did in class today.

If nothing else, it will help you develop the habits of mind that will give you success in doing analysis.  Developing those habits of mind will help you a great deal on the AP test as well as in AP Lit next year and in college the year after.  Frankly, the ability to think through something thoroughly, to analyze its parts in relation to its whole, is useful in most careers as well as life as a thinking person in society.

Lord Chesterfield Revisited

Now that we have realized what Chesterfield was really on about in the letter to his son, we're going to dive in a bit more deeply.

Tonight, read pages 57-63 in Everyday Use (you may find it helpful to peruse page 85 as well).

Then annotate Lord Chesterfield's Letter anew.  Bring that in tomorrow on paper as we will work with it in small groups and as a class.

Nicole M, Josilyn, Jacob, Brittany, and Agnes will all be gone at an FCCLA meeting where they will be plotting to overthrow the world and put an end to papers about Lord Chesterfield.  Wish them well.  If they are unsuccessful, you might offer to share your notes with them. ("I do not, therefore, so much as hint to you" that tomorrow is a good time to take some notes.)  Even so, going on an all day field trip seems like an awful lot of trouble just to get out of analyzing a wee little missive from 1746.

Corn-Pone Opinions: Rules of the Herd cont.

Finish what you didn’t get done in class and then blog your responses to the following rhetoric and style questions found on page 721: 1-9, 11

For those of you curious about corn pone, I give you this recipe from southernfood.about.com

Corn Pone

A simple corn bread, generally made only of meal, water, and salt, without either milk or eggs.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cornmeal


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1 tablespoon lard or shortening


• water, enought to make a stiff dough

Preparation:

Mix together cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Cut in lard and add enough milk to make a stiff batter. Form into cakes with hands and place in a greased baking pan. Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 20 to 30 minutes.
Corn bread and corn pone was a staple in the mountaineer diet.  With greens, called “salit greens,” meat and of course, cold milk from the spring house, this was good eating and friends were always welcome.

Rewrite!

If you would like to take the opportunity to rewrite your Lord Chesterfield paper, then your rewritten draft is due on Monday.  Do not, under any circumstances, waste either of our time by simply editing your paper and resubmitting it.  That alone will not get you a better grade and it will make your instructor grumpy.

Some tips for your rewritten essays:

• Answer the prompt.  General analysis that was reasonably capable, but that did not answer the prompt earned up to a C or so the first time around.  The second time around, such papers will receive an F.  I had more than one college professor who used the same type of policy.


• Write a clear, specific thesis that addresses the prompt.  Without this, you're likely to wander aimlessly and end up with a D or worse.


• Write topic sentences including claims that support your thesis.  If your topic sentence is summary, it's hard to write a paragraph that isn't primarily summary.


• Keep Lord Chesterfield's purpose in mind as you analyze the text and answer the prompt.

What to turn in:

1. Rewritten essay


2. Analysis of rewritten essay


3. Original essay

Your write-up on your rewritten essay should explain how you used the feedback and the information above to revise your paper.  What did you consider and where did you focus your attempts to improve?  What do you consider to be the strength of your paper?  Based on your first grade and the revisions you made, evaluate the overall quality of your revised paper. 

Happy revising! 

Remember that tomorrow we have a test on Vocab 3!

Also tomorrow the University of Washington Tacoma, Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Gene Juarez, and Green River Community College will all be on campus during both lunches.  Check out this guide to help you know what to talk about at college fairs (even tiny ones in the school cafeteria).

JFK Rhetorical Devices Database

Here are the posts of your work on the speech thus far!

• Rhetorical Questions: Jeff
• Hortative Sentences: Kyle Tall and Kaylie
• Archaic Words (with definitions!): Robert
• Formal Rhetorical Tropes: Janae and Cody
• Antithesis: Spencer and Jordan
• Anaphora and Zeugma: Hayley R.
• Imperative Sentences: Robyn and Kyle (no more beard)
• Abstract Language: Niko “Go Thundercats”
• Complex Sentences (w/subordinate clauses identified): Kristian and Shyla
• Declarative Sentences: Michiko
• Parallelism: Hayley O.
• Number and Length of Paragraphs: Maverick