First off, I love prezi. It is so easy to use and much more exciting than power point. I don't think I ever could go back to power point. But even though I loved getting to work on the presentations, I'm not sure I'm revisiting all of the information I should through these presentations. Things like people who talk quietly or people that are hard to follow make learning from the presentations difficult.
Our class time with Death of a Salesman felt too brief, and it left me not knowing some of the big picture points in the play. I also noticed some things that the class didn't notice and I didn't have enough time to either make my case for what I saw and have the class validate my thoughts or contradict them. Really, I just feel that we never wrapped A Death of a Salesman up, and it doesn't sit well with me. At this point, I would not be comfortable using A Death of a Salesman on the AP Exam.
Also, Ceremony needs to stop changing settings, it takes so long to get reacquainted. The stream of consciousness like writing doesn't sit well with me. It's all too random.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Close Readings
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/20/opinion/greene-candidates-appeal/index.html?hpt=op_t1
Our Untelevised Presidents by Bob Greene
The diction in Greene's article is key to understanding his feelings about the media and how it effects our choices in government. Words describing political awareness before mass media like "decipher", "distant", "indistinct", and "rumor" make it clear that Greene believes the mass media has improved our awareness. These words are also sophisticated causing the reader to trust Greene's opinion as fact however not so sophisticated that the average reader cannot understand allowing him to reach a wide audience. The diction surrounding a quote about the disadvantages of mass media is skeptical and negative; words like "believes" instead of "says" imply a lack of fact, and using "devour" to describe reading the newspaper makes the act seem uncivilized.
Greene includes many specific details about how presidents were represented in the public prior to mass media to show just how little the public knew about a president. Four entire paragraphs in the article are devoted to facts about who first what represented in each of the technological media advances. Specifically, Greene highlights that John Adams was never photographed in any way. Greene uses this to support his claim that every vote is a "leap of faith", but by including this detail at the end of the paragraph, we can tell that Greene considers the leap of faith to be less extreme now than it was in John Adam's day.
Greene syntax draws the eyes to certain sentences to highlight his important supporting details. The detail about John Adams follows three repeated sentence parallelisms. The John Adams detail is presented a two sentence question format, completely different from the subject verb predicate form used in the three details prior. The second sentence of the article consists of one word, "Again". This short sentence surrounded by lengthy sentences creates a less formal mood, perhaps even an air of superfluousness. This quickly grabs the attention of non-academic readers, and shows how well acquainted the public is with the candidates.
Our Untelevised Presidents by Bob Greene
The diction in Greene's article is key to understanding his feelings about the media and how it effects our choices in government. Words describing political awareness before mass media like "decipher", "distant", "indistinct", and "rumor" make it clear that Greene believes the mass media has improved our awareness. These words are also sophisticated causing the reader to trust Greene's opinion as fact however not so sophisticated that the average reader cannot understand allowing him to reach a wide audience. The diction surrounding a quote about the disadvantages of mass media is skeptical and negative; words like "believes" instead of "says" imply a lack of fact, and using "devour" to describe reading the newspaper makes the act seem uncivilized.
Greene includes many specific details about how presidents were represented in the public prior to mass media to show just how little the public knew about a president. Four entire paragraphs in the article are devoted to facts about who first what represented in each of the technological media advances. Specifically, Greene highlights that John Adams was never photographed in any way. Greene uses this to support his claim that every vote is a "leap of faith", but by including this detail at the end of the paragraph, we can tell that Greene considers the leap of faith to be less extreme now than it was in John Adam's day.
Greene syntax draws the eyes to certain sentences to highlight his important supporting details. The detail about John Adams follows three repeated sentence parallelisms. The John Adams detail is presented a two sentence question format, completely different from the subject verb predicate form used in the three details prior. The second sentence of the article consists of one word, "Again". This short sentence surrounded by lengthy sentences creates a less formal mood, perhaps even an air of superfluousness. This quickly grabs the attention of non-academic readers, and shows how well acquainted the public is with the candidates.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Prompt #5
2006. Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the country may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. Choose a novel or play in which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole.
Nature is said to be one thing that the human race will never conquer, and because of that nature can be one of the most frightening things to a human being. Shakespeare plays on the fear of the forest in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The forest setting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream adds to the fear featured in the play and solidifies the lack of control the human characters have over their actions.
Fear in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is closely related to woodland setting. The characters are safe until they enter the forest. This forces the audience to associate the woods with danger, and makes the forest seem suspicious. The unseen danger of the forest is supplemented by the choice of play that the actors put on: Pyramus and Thisby meet their deaths in a forest. They parallel Hermia and Lysander who also have forbidden love and run to the forest to escape society. Thus all of the events in the forest are overshadowed by the idea of fear.
Once the four lovers enter the forest it becomes very clear that they have little control over their own actions. The play opens with very clear boundaries in all of the lovers’ relationships, and all of those boundaries fall apart while in the woods. This shows that their preferences do not matter. Also, the fact that Oberon and Titania are completely aware of the lovers’ presence while the lovers are oblivious to the fairies’ highlights the superiority of the fairies. Because the fairies are able to take away the humans’ freewill, their superiority symbolizes the superiority of magic and fate.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in the forest for a reason: nature has often left humans’ powerless. The forest setting emphasizes that the characters have no power over their actions while in the dangerous woods.
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