Class Notes: October 25-29

Class Notes: October 25-29

This week we began learning about drama and started reading Oedipus Rex.

The Nature of Drama (Perrine: Chapter One)

“Much drama is poetry” (Perrine 1115).

Impact of drama: direct and immediate

Two ways to enter the character’s mind

1.      Soliloquy: characters are speaking to themselves

2.      Aside: characters turn away from the play and speak directly to the audience

“The playwright is not dependent on the power of words alone” (Perrine 1115).

Drama is communal; poetry is individual.  Communal effects are more intense.

Romantic: imbued with or dominated by idealism, a desire for adventure, chivalry, etc.; characterized by a preoccupation with love or by the idealizing of love of one’s beloved

Satiric: a literary style, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule

Protagonist: the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama

Antagonist: the adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama

Foil Characters: a minor character that has traits that are in contrast with main character

Plot: the story line

Suspense: a state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitement

Themes: the unifying or dominant ideas; motifs

Didactic: teaching or intended to teach a moral lesson

Dramatic Exposition: The presentation through dialogue of information about events that occurred before the action of a play, or that occur offstage or between the staged actions; this may also refer to the presentation of information about individual characters' backgrounds or the general situation (political, historical, etc.) in which the action takes place

Realistic and Nonrealistic Drama (Perrine: Chapter Two)

Actors are required “to depart from an absolute realism (Perrine 1160) when they perform on stage.

“All degrees of realism are possible” (Perrine 1161).

Chorus: a group of actors speaking in unison (a chant) while dancing formally; characteristic of Greek drama

Audience members must take on a “temporary suspension of disbelief,” according to Coleridge.

Dramatic Realism: descriptive, not evaluative

“Human truth, rather than fidelity to fact, is the highest achievement of literary art” (Perrine 1164).

Tragedy and Comedy (Perrine: Chapter Three)

Two drama masks represent tragedy and comedy

(Picture: http://www.bellport-playcrafters.com/trivia.html)

Tragedy and Comedy often overlap.  “If we take them too seriously, the tragic mask may laugh, and the comic mask weep” (Perrine 1310).

Perrine’s Archetypal Notion of Tragedy

1.      The tragic hero is one of noble stature

2.      The tragic hero is good, though not perfect, and his fall results from committing what Aristotle calls “an act of injustice” (hamartia) either through ignorance or from a conviction that some greater good will be served

3.      The hero’s downfall is his own fault, the result of his own free choice- not the result of pure accident or someone else’ villainy or some overriding malignant fate (Pathetic vs. Tragic Events)

4.      The hero’s misfortune is not wholly deserved.  It’s seen as a waste of human potential

5.      The tragic fall is not pure loss; results in a change from ignorance to knowledge (ex: death of Romeo and Juliet brings the Montagues and Capulets closer together)

6.      Tragedy, when well performed, does not leave its audience in a state of depression

Comedy

·         Mask can be seen as laughing or smiling, and comedy can thus be scornful or satirical

·         Exposes human folly

·         May be educative, but not too much

·         Characters are usually common, not noble

·         No organic unity typically

Melodrama

·         “Melodrama, like tragedy, attempts to arouse feelings of fear and pity, but it does so ordinarily through cruder means” (Perrine 1309).

·         Good triumphs over evil; villainy is crushed/destroyed

·         Hero marries heroine

·         Is not as complex as tragedy and does not offer such tremendous insights

·         “It is usually commercial rather than literary” (Perrine 1310).

Farce

·         The goal of farce is to make people laugh hysterically

·         Violent, physical conflicts are typical

·         Often seems absurd and impossible

·         “Coarse wit, practical jokes, and physical action are stables” (Perrine 1310).

·         “It is usually commercial rather than literary” (Perrine 1310).

Terms concerning Drama:

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072405228/student_view0/drama_glossary.html

http://quizlet.com/130882/drama-literary-terms-flash-cards/

Tragedy vs. Comedy

http://condor.depaul.edu/~dsimpson/tlove/comic-tragic.html

Class Notes: October 11-15, 18-22

Okay, I think I finally figured this out.  I'm sorry they're late.

Class Notes (October 11-15, 18-22)

Tone (Perrine: Chapter Ten)

·        “Tone, in literature, may be defined as the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject, the reader, or herself or himself” (Perrine 880).

·        “Almost all of the elements of poetry help to indicate [a work’s] tone: connotation, imagery, and metaphor; irony and understatement; rhythm, sentence construction, and formal pattern.  There is therefore no pattern for recognizing tone” (Perrine 880).

·        Recognizing tone correctly is vital to any analysis of literature

http://www.blms.issaquah.wednet.edu/Teachers/greningerh/Tone-Moodwkst.pdf Tone vs. Mood

Style vs. Tone vs. Voice

Style: the language conventions used to construct the story; common styles change over time

·        Refers to the authorial persona’s personality

·        Superficial: “Here’s who I want to be as a writer”

·        Fairly stable, but it shifts infrequently when an author’s persona changes

·        Discussed in terms of character

·        Effect created by an author’s choice of techniques

Tone: the attitude that the story creates towards its subject matter

·        Can and does shift (sometimes often) with mood/subject

·        Refers to the speaker/narrator’s attitude

·        Discussed in terms of emotion

·        Happens in our heads (a deduction or an inference)

·        Effect created by an author’s choice of techniques

Voice: the communicative effect created by the author’s style

·        Does not have to do with the author

·        Belongs to the speaker/narrator’s personality

·        Can and does shift (infrequently) when the narrator is dynamic

·        Discussed in terms of character

·        Effect created by an author’s choice of techniques

http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-voice-and-tone/

1.      Voice can be referred to a writer’s attitude towards his subject or readers. Tone can be termed as that reflects the mood of a writer.
2. While voice can be attributed as a writer’s representation of the truth that he depicts, tone only pertains to his attitude.
3. Voice can be called as authoritative and tone as something that is strong.

Musical Devices (Perrine: Chapter Eleven)

Alliteration: the repetition of initial consonant sounds (ex: pretty in pink)

Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds (ex: mad as a hatter)

Consonance: the repetition of final consonant sounds (ex: all’s well that ends well)

Rhyme: the repetition of the accented vowel sounds and any succeeding consonant sounds

Masculine Rhyme: the rhyme involves only one syllable

Feminine Rhyme: the rhyme involves two or more syllables

Internal Rhyme: the rhyming words are within the lines

End Rhyme: the rhyming words are at the ends of lines

Approximate Rhymes (or Slant Rhymes): words with any sound similarity (close or fairly remote)

“Used skillfully and judiciously, however, musical devices provide a palpable and delicate pleasure to the ear and, ever more important, add dimension to meaning” (Perrine 906).

Rhythm: any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound

Accented/Stressed Syllables: syllables given more prominence in pronunciation than the rest

Rhetorical Stresses: different intended meanings will produce different rhythms even in identical statements

End-Stopped Line: one in which the end of the line corresponds with a natural speech pause

Run-on Line: one in which the sense of the line moves without pause on into the next line

Caesura: a pause that occurs within a line, either grammatical or rhetorical

Free Verse: the predominant type of poetry now being written

Prose poetry: depends entirely on prose rhythms

Meter: the identifying characteristic of rhythmic language that we can tap our feet to

“Rhythm designates the flow of actual, pronounced sound, whereas meter refers to the patterns that sounds flow when a poet has arranged them into metrical verse” (Perrine 918).

Foot: basic unit of meter; usually consists of one accented syllable plus one or two unaccented syllables (ex: Iamb, Trochee, Anapest, Dactyl, and Spondee)

Stanza: a group of lines whose metrical pattern is repeated throughout the poem

Metrical Variations: variations in the meter; call attention to some of the sounds because they depart from what is regular (via substitution, extra-metrical syllables, or truncation.  These are usually very obvious because they deviate from the usual structure)

Substitution: replacing the regular foot with another one

Extra-Metrical Syllables: extra syllable added either at the beginning or end of lines

Truncation: the omission of an unaccented syllable at either end of a line

Scansion: the process of defining the metrical form of a poem

1.      We identify the prevailing foot

2.      We name the number of feet in a line, if this length follows any pattern

3.      We describe the stanzaic pattern if there is one

Generalizations about Scansion:

1.      “Good readers will not ordinarily stop to scan a poem they are reading, and they certainly will not read a poem aloud with the exaggerated emphasis on accented syllables that we sometimes give them in order to make the metrical pattern more apparent” (Perrine 925).

2.      Scansion only begins to reveal the rhythmical quality of a poem.

3.      The divisions between feet have no meaning except to help us identify the meter.

4.      Perfect regularity of meter is no criterion of merit.

Grammatical or Rhetorical Pauses: pauses caused by punctuation or not

Sound and Meaning (Perrine: Chapter Thirteen)

“Rhythm and sound cooperate to produce what we call the music of poetry” (Perrine 941).

Onomatopoeia: the words sound like what they mean (ex: snap, crackle, pop)

Phonetic Intensives: whose sound, by a process as yet obscure, to some degree connects with their meaning (flame, flare, flash, flicker, and flimmer are all associated with moving light)

Euphonious: sounds that are smooth and pleasant sounding (lots of vowels)

Cacophonous: sounds that are rough and harsh sounding (lots of consonants)

Synesthesia: the stimulation of two or more sense simultaneously, especially when one sense perception is described in terms of another

Pattern (Perrine: Chapter Fourteen)

“Art, ultimately, is organization.  It is a searching after order and significance.  Most artists seek to transform the chaotic nature of experience into a meaningful and coherent pattern, largely by means of selection and arrangement” (Perrine 961).

Structure: the arrangement of ideas, images, thoughts, and sentences

Form: an external pattern or shape

Three Kinds of Form:

1.      Continuous: element of design is slight (ex: “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime”)

2.      Stanzaic: the poet writes in a series of stanzas (traditional pattern or not)

3.      Fixed: traditional pattern that applies to a whole poem (rondeaus, rondels, villanelles, triolets, sestinas, ballades, double ballades, and others in French poetry; limerick, sonnet, and villanelle in English poetry)

Limerick: aa3bb2a3.  Freely allows the use of a substitute foot for the first foot in any line but insists on strict adherence to the form for the rest of the line

Sonnet: less rigid than the limerick; fourteen lines in length, and is almost always in iambic pentameter

1.      Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet: divided into an octave (abbaabba) and a sestet (cdcdcd or cdecde), separated by a space of some kind that usually corresponds to a division of thought

2.      English of Shakespearean Sonnet: consists of three quatrains and a concluding couplet (abab cdcd efef gg)

3.      Villanelle: requires only two rhyme sounds; its nineteen lines are divided into five three-line stanzas (tercets) and a four-line concluding quatrain; uses refrain lines (AbA abA abA abA abAA)

Evaluating Poetry (Perrine: Chapters Fifteen and Sixteen)

Sentimentality: the indulgence in emotion for its own sake, or expression of more emotion that an occasion warrants

Rhetorical Poetry: uses a language more glittering and high-flown than its substance warrants

Didactic Poetry: has a primary purpose to teach or preach

Questions to Consider:

1.      How fully has it accomplished its purpose?

2.      How important is its purpose?

“Great poetry engages the whole person- senses, imagination, emotion, intellect; it does not touch us merely on one or two sides of our nature.  Great poetry seeks not merely to entertain us but to bring us- along with pure pleasure- fresh insights, or renewed insights, and important insights, into the nature of human experience” (Perrine 999).

Class Notes: September 20-24

Class Notes (September 20-24)

Figurative Language

Similes/Metaphors: both used as a means of comparing things that are essentially unlike (example: Taking that math test was as hard as flying a plane.)

Personification: consists in giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, an object, or a concept (example: The Barbie stretched as she woke up from a long nap.)

Apostrophe: addressing someone absent or dead or something nonhuman as if that person or thing were present and alive and could reply to what is being said (example: addressing the wind directly. ‘A breeze would be nice, wind.’)

Synecdoche: the use of the part for the whole (example: Shakespeare refers to a married man as a “married ear”)

Metonymy: the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant

Dead Metaphors: where the word metaphor is itself a metonymy for all figurative speech

Symbol: functions literally and figuratively; something that means more than what it is

Allegory: system of related comparisons (example: The Wizard of Oz)

Paradox: an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true (example: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (Dickens 1))

Overstatement (hyperbole): exaggeration in the service of truth (example: That’s only a million miles away.)

Understatement: saying less than one means (example: That looks nice.)

** Overstatements and understatements often depend on the context of a situation.

The top 20 figures of speech and examples: http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/20figures.htm

“We do it because we can say what we want to say more vividly and forcefully by figures of speech than we can by saying it directly.  And we can say more by figurative statement than we can by literal statement.  Figures of speech offer another way of adding extra dimensions to language” (Perrine 786).

Irony

Irony: meanings that extend beyond its use

Verbal Irony: saying the opposite of what one means (often confused with sarcasm and satire)

Sarcasm: simply bitter or cutting speech, intended to wound the feelings (comes from the Greek word “to tear flesh”)

Satire: ridicule with the purpose of bringing about reform

Dramatic Irony: discrepancy between what the speaker says and what is meant

Irony of Situation: discrepancy exists between the actual circumstances and those that would seem appropriate or between what one anticipates and what actually comes to pass

Irony sometimes employs sarcasm and/or satire, but not always (Irony isn’t cruel or kind)

Definitions and examples of the types of irony: http://jbernard.teach-nology.com/Short%20Stories/Lamb%20to%20the%20Slaughter/Three%20Types%20of%20Irony%20-%20Notes.htm

The Rhetorical Situation

The context for an act of communication

Subject: What is your topic?  What are your main ideas?  What details and examples will you use to support them?

Purpose: What do you want to get out of this?  Why are you communicating?  These purposes are often mixed

Audience: Who do you imagine will receive this communication?  What are the limits of the group you are addressing?  Are they limited by vocabulary?  Understanding?  Age?  Biases?  What are the audience’s expectations of you as a communicator?

Speaker (Persona): What kind of a person do you want to seem like as you send this message?  Who are you speaking as?  What will you attitude be?  What personal characteristics will you use to best connect with you audience?  What will help you accomplish your goal as a communicator?

Main Purposes of Communication:

1. To entertain
2. To inform
3. To persuade
4. To reflect

Description of the Rhetorical Situation: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/1

"Rhetoric is a mode of altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action. The rhetor alters reality by bringing into existence a discourse of such character that the audience, in thought and action, is so engaged that it becomes mediator of change. In this rhetoric is always persuasive." – Lloyd Bitzer

“Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. Without any knowledge of it, we are mere pawns in a game played by those with influence.  With it, we may be the influencers or we may be those who choose to resist” (http://mreldridge.net/Rhetoric.aspx)

Argument

One way to accomplish the goal of persuasion

Writers can appeal to one or any number of the following types of arguments.

1. Ethos (our ethics)
2. Pathos (our emotions)
3. Logos (our logic)

Parts of an Argument:

1. Thesis: the one main point a paper; the opinion that you as a writer are trying to prove.  A thesis forms a contract of expectation between the reader and writer; the goal is to establish trust between the two.  Also, a thesis sets a pattern for the author to follow as they write.
2. Claims: the topic sentences of your body paragraphs.  Claims should form a step-by-step breadcrumb trail so that the reader should be able to guess your thesis.  Claim 1 + Claim 2 + Claim 3 (etc) = Thesis.
3. Warrants: the explanation of your reasoning that ties your evidence to your claims.  Warrants explain what your evidence means.
4. Evidence: the facts that show that your claims are reasonable

Necessary: a part of an argument that you must deal with in order to be successful

Sufficient: “enough”; have you given enough evidence for your claims to be accepted?

Details for constructing a thesis: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/

Class Notes: September 27-October 1

Class Notes (September 27-October 1)

We focused on two main things this week: Style and Syntax.

The first thing we looked at was Style.

Clarity:

• Avoid formal, clanky sentences
• Be careful when attaching verbs to subjects
• Do not overuse the passive voice (or the prepositional phrases that can accompany them)
• Use the passive voice when trying to take blame off of someone or when you don’t know who to place the blame on
• Keep in mind that the passive voice is usually more difficult to comprehend than the active voice
• Be careful of nominalizations (actions expressed as nouns)
• Nominalizations are not needed to sound objective or scientific

The Plain Style:

• The ultimate goal as a writer is to be understood
• Being plain is okay!  Not everything has to be fancy and overdone
• The ideas of a piece are what should be impressive, not the syntax and vocabulary
• By utilizing the extensive English vocabulary we can choose words or short phrases that can get across our points concisely (example: “To satisfy her own need of hunger, she ate the bread” vs. “She devoured the bread”).  Sometimes simply changing the word choice makes all the difference
• To be a good writer you have to read a lot
• Keep in mind that readers cannot pay attention to everything at once

Concision:

• Avoid wordiness at all costs!
• Use strong verbs
• Active voice > Passive voice
• Be careful of unnecessary adverbs and adjectives
• Recognize empty words and phrases and eliminate them

Rhetoric:

• Prefer plain to fancy diction in most cases
• Embrace parallelism; it creates a graceful, mature tone
• Get rid of nested lists
• Remember inversion and chiasmus
• Learn to use and love repetition
• Watch tense changes: do not change tenses without a reason.  Most analyses and commentaries are written in the historical present
• Alliteration in moderation
• The rule of three (the third is more important than the first two)
• Ration the use of humor
• Direct questions are useful; exclamations are informal and do not work well
• Link sentences to maximize fluidity

The second main thing we focused on this week was Syntax.

Some Basic Vocabulary:

• Coordinating Conjunction: FANBOYS
• Subordinating Conjunction: because, since, although, however
• Compound Sentence: use of a coordinating conjunction
• Complex Sentence: use of a subordinating conjunction
• Simple Sentence: no conjunctions used at all

The Main Syntax Techniques

• Short sentences: more forceful conveyance (example: The door slammed.  The stairs creaked.  Julie crept upstairs.)
• Sentence fragments: can create a lyrical or distressed sound (example: The gun fired.  Agonizing screams.  Blood everywhere.)
• Imperatives vs. Declaratives: imperatives are more commanding (example: Please take a seat vs. Sit down.)
• -ing form of verbs: create suspense (example: Rounding the corner, she darted into the shadows.)
• Passive voice: places blame on someone other than the one at fault (Mistakes were made.)
• Omission of conjunctions: hurried or sometimes lyrical conveyance (example: She was hopelessly, madly, undeniably in love.
• Inverted syntax: changing up the word order (example: “Death be not proud.”)
• Interrupters: create suspense by dragging the story on (example: Jake, the newlywed, the valedictorian, the young man who had everything he could ever want, was now doomed to a life behind bars.)
• Interrogatives: alter the mood of the piece (example: Why did he think so?)
• Punctuation: can change the tone in a variety of ways.  Exclamation points, for instance, often create an immature, childish mood (example: She couldn’t believe it.  “Stan beat me!  And I studied more!  I hate school!”) while periods enforce the severity of the text (example: She couldn’t stand calculus.  Mrs. James was a horrible teacher.  Math made no sense.)

English Syntax Flashcards: http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/story.php?title=english-literary-syntax-structures

More Syntax Flashcards: http://quizlet.com/218968/syntax-ap-english-style-terms-flash-cards/

Definitions of Syntax Structures: http://mail.baylorschool.org/~jstover/toolbox/syntax.html 

Class Notes: October 4-8

Class Notes (October 4-8)

The AP English Literature and Composition Exam

• 3 hour exam that consists of two parts
• Part One = Multiple Choice Section consisting of passages and questions that follow (one hour; 45% of total AP score)
• Part Two = Essay Section consisting of three prompts (two hours; 55% of total AP Score)

The Multiple Choice Section:

• 4 passages: 2 prose, 2 poetry
• 10-15 questions follow each passage
• Find the passage that seems the easiest and start there
• Quickly read the poem once
• Read the poem a second time, this time in depth: annotate, underline, etc.
• Reading in order to answer questions is not the same as reading to write an essay: don’t overdo it
• Keep a running paraphrase in your head so that if you zone out, you’ll catch it quickly
• Read all the questions quickly and cross out any answers that other questions may eliminate
• Answer the questions: use the process of elimination and keep in mind that some answer options won’t adequately respond to the question

Types of Questions:

• 1-2 Questions: these are basic; similar to the ACT
• 3-4 Questions: more challenging
• 5 Questions: these questions weed out the 5-ers; you will not get all of these right, or even most of them right.  Experts will disagree on these questions; the trick is to narrow the answers down to the expert choices and then guess.  If you can do this every time, statistically you should get about half of them right

The Essay Section

• Three prompts: one closed reading and two open readings
• 9 point scale for each essay: a 7 is considered a respectable score

Closed Readings

• Will be asked about a given passage
• Spend a lot of time analyzing the prompt itself: you HAVE to answer the question or the maximum score you can get is a 3/9
• Skim the passage first, then read a second time in depth.  Let the prompt guide you in your annotations
• In the essay itself, do not summarize the passage
• Don’t forget that you can talk about opposition too

The Open Prompt

• Two main categories: critical theory (make a statement about how a given element of literature sometimes functions and then asks you to show how this true of some piece you’ve already read) and content (present a common thematic element of literature and then ask you to show this theme is developed in some piece you’ve already read)
• Same strategy as closed readings
• You should be able to pull any question from Hamlet or The Invisible Man.  Know these works inside and out!

Details about the exam: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_englit.html

Past free response questions and scoring guidelines: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/english_lit/samp.html?englit

Additional free response questions, scoring guidelines, and sample essays: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_questions/2002.html?affiliateId=APSamp&bannerId=enli

List of helpful AP websites: http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listaplitma.html

There are several AP books that are designed to help students crack the AP exam, also.  A few include Princeton Review, Baron's, McGraw Hill, and Cliffs.

http://www.alibris.com/search/books/isbn/9780071621922 

The big day is Thursday, May 5, 2011.

Allusions (Perrine chapter 8)

Allusion: a reference to something in history or previous literature

“For an allusion… is like a richly connotative word or a symbol, a means of suggesting far more than it says” (Perrine 852).

“Allusions are a means of reinforcing the emotion or the ideas of one’s own work with the emotion or ideas of another work or occasion.  Because they may compact so much meaning in so small s space, they are extremely useful to the poet” (Perrine 853).

When a writer uses an allusion, they are risking the ability of the reader to understand it.  Most allusions are to the Bible or mythology, but some writers venture further and use other literature and popular culture as well. 

Definition and examples of allusions: http://www.worsleyschool.net/socialarts/allusion/page

Modern example:

"I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth." – the then Senator Barack Obama

Meaning and Idea (Perrine chapter 9)

Total Meaning: the experience that something communicates

• Determines the value and worth of a poem

Prose Meaning: the ingredient that can be separated out in the form of a prose paraphrase

• Not necessarily an idea; may be a story, a description, a statement of emotion, a presentation of human character, etc.

 Although this is not a very academically reliable source, I think it does a good job of explaining these two terms.  http://www.blurtit.com/q755270.html 

“But good readers strive for intellectual flexibility and tolerance, and are able to entertain sympathetically ideas other than their own.  They often will like a poem whose idea they disagree with better than one with an idea they accept.  And, above all, they will not confuse the prose meaning of a poem with its total meaning” (Perrine 869). 

Reflective Essay Outside Reading: October 10

Reflective Essay Outside Reading

“Dispatches from a Guy Trying Unsuccessfully to Sell a Song in Nashville” by Charlie Hopper

McSweeny’s October 1, 2010

Charlie Hopper’s “Dispatches from a Guy Trying Unsuccessfully to Sell a Song in Nashville” describes one man’s attempt to make something extraordinary of his life.  On his way back from Nashville, Charlie Hopper prompts a conversation with his twelve-year-old son about this hobby.  Although this discussion eventually produces results that Mr. Hopper deems unfavorable, he is able to effectively communicate through a variety of rhetoric choices.

Perhaps the most prevalent syntax structure that appears in this essay is the use of short sentences.  As he’s explaining the process of selling a song, Hopper continually uses short, choppy sentences.  These propel the story forward, and create a suspense that would not normally be present in a simple narrative.  These short sentences often act as interrupters, as well.  These further the pace of the story even more, and are a big strength of Hopper’s in this essay.

Another thing that Hopper does quite effectively involves relating the story back to the reader.  After his son discovers that selling a song would make his dad a lot of money, Hopper realizes the effect this could have on his son and immediately begins back tracking.  “If those are horses I’m hearing, son, hold them” (5).  This figure of speech makes the story relatable to the reader, because Hopper is speaking in a voice that everyday people are familiar with.  Hopper also directly alludes to popular culture.  As he attempts to justify his hobby, he suddenly dead ends and recognizes that ordinary, everyday parents do not spend their free time writing songs.  “Normal as… what, blueberry pie?  Wait, that’s from a Broadway musical song” (7).  This relation to everyday life once again contributes to the reminiscent, yet common, tone that Hopper exercises throughout the essay.

Because the tone is so common, this essay would not make for a good AP essay.  The informality does not meet the voice standards of the AP Exam, and would therefore not be appropriate in an academic setting.  Hopper also is not very concise and often wanders off on unrelated tangents: both of which are weaknesses that are not suitable in formal writing.  However, I enjoyed this essay as I studied it.  The scatterbrained nature of his writing contributes to the overall tone of the essay; although Hopper’s point is to inform the audience of unimportant facts, he constructed his essay in a way that is pleasant and easy to read.

Editorial Outside Reading: October 10

Editorial Outside Reading

“Twitter, Facebook, and Social Activism” by Malcolm Gladwell

The New Yorker October 4, 2010

“Twitter, Facebook, and Social Activism” by Malcolm Gladwell offers a critique of society’s dependency on social networking systems and its consequent lack of activism.  He argues that a culture based on constant communication tends to shy away from anything involving a risk, and people have thus become more reluctant to stand up for what they believe to be right.  In this editorial, Gladwell employs a strong voice and uses many techniques that ultimately leave little doubt in the reader’s mind of the validity of his argument.

Gladwell’s argument is very well constructed.  He begins with a discussion of the civil rights movement and the ends that Martin Luther King Jr. went to in order to be successful.  He navigates away from this history lesson fairly quickly, but by continually coming back to it his argument is strengthened.  Gladwell also brings in examples of activism, or perhaps attempted activism, in modern society.  He discusses the Save Darfur Coalition that has utilized Facebook in its attempt to rally support, and explains that their efforts have actually done little to help their cause.  “Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated to make a real sacrifice” (4).  As this example illustrates, Gladwell smoothly guides his reader to his thesis; he chooses strong evidence and along with refuting his opposition, is able to construct an argument that is difficult to contend with.

By employing a strong, mostly formal voice, Gladwell is able to smoothly communicate with the reader, but he maintains a slightly informal tone.  Because he occasionally uses the second person, this editorial would not be appropriate for an AP essay.  However, everything else about his argument is crafted in a way that would make for an AP level work.  Gladwell’s strong points include organization, clarity, and voice, while his weaknesses are limited to this use of second person.

Gladwell also uses irony to communicate his point.  At the end of his editorial, he shares a story of a young man who used Facebook to recover his friend’s lost phone.  The author of this story, Clay Shirky, finishes his account with the question, “What happens next?”  Gladwell immediately refutes this.  “What happens next is more of the same.  A networked, weak-tie world is good at things like helping Wall Streeters get phones back from teen-age girls.  Viva la revolución” (6).  This use of irony effectively leaves the reader thinking that any activism prompted by Facebook is absurd and empty, and left me completely agreeing with his editorial.

Book Review Outside Reading: October 10

Book Review Outside Reading

“There Goes the Neighborhood” by Gregg Easterbrook

The New York Times January 30, 2005

            “There Goes the Neighborhood” by Gregg Easterbrook offers a mixed review of Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.  Easterbrook is very complimentary of Diamond and his intellect and dedication, but he also points out the flaws of Diamond’s argument.  By deconstructing Collapse, Easterbrook leaves his reader wondering how accurate Diamond’s argument really is.

            In reviewing this book, Easterbrook employs a blend of New Historicist and Biographical Criticisms.  Easterbrook begins by discussing Diamond’s background and how his education in particular may have influenced Collapse.  Diamond himself is a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, and he therefore is well versed in obscure islands and the societies that once existed there.  Easterbrook is quick to point this out, because most of the places that Diamond analyzes are remote islands.  This book review also looks at Diamond’s initial specialization, which was conservation biology.  Diamond spent a lot of time studying in New Guinea and other Pacific Islands, which continually appear in his book.  Interestingly however, Easterbrook also finds a discrepancy between Diamond’s book and Diamond’s education.  Diamond also studied evolution, but Easterbrook points out that Diamond is slow to analyze the evolutionary capability of the world today.

            Easterbrook’s argument is very well organized.  He adopts a very clear voice and is able to piece together a logical string of claims that easily convince the reader that Diamond’s arguments may in fact be fallacies.  This construction is a great strength of Easterbrook’s.  However, Easterbrook often lets his analysis wander and occasionally spends more time discussing Diamond’s book rather that critiquing it.  This weakness is minimal though, because his claims are so well crafted and supported.

            Easterbrook also employs diction in his attempt to persuade his audience.  His word choice is very sophisticated and he constructs a lot of compound sentences that ultimately create an academic tone throughout his review.  This tone helps to establish the validity of his argument because the reader is quick to trust such a refined review.  By praising Diamond’s strengths and cautiously pointing out his defects, Easterbrook is able to carefully guide his reader through his work and lead them to the conclusion that Diamond’s work actually is fundamentally flawed.

            Overall, Easterbrook constructs a concise argument that challenges the ideas and beliefs that Diamond’s construes in Collapse.  By employing New Historicist and Biographical criticism in addition to carefully choosing his language, Easterbrook creates a sound argument that is difficult to contend with.

Class Notes: September 13-17

Class Notes (September 13-17)

Poetry: language condensed to artistic effect; takes longer to explain the meaning and themes of the poem than it does to read the poem aloud

It’s important to note that there are no answers in literature; we don’t know what the author intended, but we do know what was written, and that’s what we have to analyze.  We always assume that there is meaning, whether that was conscious or unconscious on the author’s part.

“Hidden Meanings” – Dabney Stuart

 Ambiguity: the possibility of interpreting an expression in two or more distinct ways

At the surface level, Dabney Stuart seems to be comparing life to fairytales and suggesting that fables are unrealistic and incongruent with everyday experiences.  However, as we looked at the “hidden meanings” within the poem, we discovered themes of castration, autoeroticism, and molestation.  As we continued to analyze this work, we finally concluded that Stuart is suggesting that women are vampires that control men, and that society reinforces this by revering and continuing to tell fairytales.  However, the themes that we originally noticed were not wrong, thus illustrating ambiguity.

“Kitchenette Building”

Brooks analyzes themes of reality vs. dreaming.

Diction: Why did the author choose this word?

“A primary distinction between the practical use of language and the literary use is that in literature, especially in poetry, a fuller use is made of individual words” (Perrine 757).

Three parts to a word:

1.      Sound: combination of noises and tones

2.      Denotation: the definition of the word

3.      Connotation: the hidden meaning(s) behind the actual definition

“A frequent misconception of poetic language is that poets seek always the most beautiful or noble-sounding words.  What they really seek for are the most meaningful words, and these vary from one context to another” (Perrine 760).

“The poet, we may say, plays on a many-stringed instrument and sounds more than one note at a time” (Perrine 763).

Connotation and Denotation: the difference between the dictionary definition and the cultural baggage attached to it (gaunt, skinny, thin, slender, svelte)

Concreteness vs. Abstraction: the specificity of language and naming (clothes, pants, jeans, levis)

Precision: empty words vs. content-laden words (“nice!” or, “good!” vs. “I’m so relieved you answered that question!”)

Elevation and Colloquialism: the continuum between slang and epic diction

Dialects: only four in the continental United States (west, midwest, northeast, southeast)

Regions: smaller than dialects (the Great Lakes region) ex: pop vs. soda vs. coke

Jargon: like “military jargon”; language specific to a certain group of people

“Naming of Parts” and “The Widow’s Lament”

Reed and Williams both employ diction cleverly to create the tone that they’d like.  It amazes me how changing just one word can alter the entire meaning of a phrase.

Imagery: representation through language of sense experience

Visual: most common; produces a visual picture

Auditory: represents a sound

Olfactory: represents a scent

Gustatory: represents a taste

Tactile: represents touch

Organic: represents an internal sensation

Kinesthetic: represents movement or tension in the muscles or joints

“Poetry is fact given over to imagery.” – Rod McKuen

The diction and imagery worksheets we did in class, plus more: http://mreldridge.net/dailyExercises.aspx