Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Brave New World : foreword/chapter 1

This book is beginning to become one of those books that are boring to me.The only thing that us still keeping me in is the dark nature of the book.It is very dystopian in my opinion, but it has a slow start. Most of the novel so far is just plain rambling about the hatchery they are at, but don't get me wrong, the book was excellent at setting the setting and the type of society that the book takes place in. The novel hasn't introduced the protagonist yet, and I would have expected the novel to introduc him or her in the beginning. Overall, the book seems interesting but it has a slow start and that makes me lose interest.

I also found it difficult to fully understand when the novel uses anatomy terminology because I have to stop reading to figure out what words those are.

Monday, February 25, 2013

WRITINGAS5PECTATORSPORT

Some of the videos haven't all been uploaded but the source of all the essays I read are located on Christa Weston's Blog.

Ashley- She didn't do a pre-write so that is going to be a problem during the AP test. From past AP tests, pre-writes are really really helpful and I suggest that she get into the habit of doing them. I was told that spending 10 minutes on a good prewrite can save you 20 minutes on an essay.

Mackenzie- She did have a prewrite but I suggest that she go through the whole essay. She needs to write whatever she is going to put into her essay in the prewrite. When I read the prewrite, I should get an outline and not a summary.

Pablo- his prewrite is really like "BAM!". He just put thoughts down, and things that he knows. It's a start but not an effective prewrite. In effect to that, he rambles a little in the beginning before he gets started.

Iliana- although she didn't write the essay portion, I can tell that the essay will be well written because her prewrite was really well done. She took the whole ten minutes to write a good prewrite and that will help her a lot.

Preston- his prewrite makes me a bit lost. I wouldn't know where he is going without being him, but judging from all the scratching out of words and sentences, he was rushed and a little too unprepared.

Myself- I need to work on my prewrites and the fact that I ramble a lot in my writing. I need to get straight to the point without dragging along.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Vocab 101-133

Resolution- point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement

Restatement- idea repeated for emphasis

Rhetoric- use of language, both written and verbal in order to persuade

Rhetorical Question- question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion

Rising Action- plot build up, caused by conflict and complications, advancement towards climax

Romanticism- movement in western culture beginning in the eighteenth and peaking in the nineteenth century as a revolt against Classicism; imagination was valued over reason and fact.

Satire- ridicules or condemns the weakness and wrong doings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general

Scansion- the analysis of verse in terms of meter

Setting- the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur

Simile- a figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things though the use of a specific word of comparison

Soliloquy- an extended speech, usually in a drama, delivered by a character alone on stage

Spiritual- a folk song, usually on a religious theme

Speaker- a narrator, the one speaking

Stereotype- cliche, a simplified, standardized conception with a special meaning and appeal for members of a group; a formula story

Stream of Consciousness- the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character's thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images, as the character experiences them

Structure- the planned framework of a literary selection; its apparent organization

Style- the manner of putting thoughts into words; a characteristic way of writing or speaking

Subordination- the couching of less important ideas in less important structures of language.

Surrealism- a style in literature and painting that stresses the subconscious or the nonrational aspects of man's existence characterized by the juxtaposition of the bizarre and the banal

Suspension of Disbelief- suspend not believing in order to enjoy it

Symbol- something which stands for something else, yet has a meaning of its own.

Synesthesia- the use of one sense to convey the experience of another sense

Synecdoche- another form of name changing, in which a part stands for the whole.

Syntax- the arrangement and grammatical relations of words in a sentence

Theme- main idea of the story; its message(s)

Thesis- a proposition for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or disproved; the main idea

Tone- the devices used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work; the author's perceived point of view

Tongue in Cheek- a type of humor in which the speaker feigns seriousness; aka "dry" or "dead pan"

Tragedy- in literature any composition with a somber theme carried to a disastrous conclusion; a fatal event; protagonist usually is heroic but tragically flawed

Understatement- opposite of hyperbole; sating less than you mean for emphasis

Vernacular- everyday speech

Voice- The textual features, such as diction and sentence structures, that convey a writer's or speaker's persona

Zeitgeist- the feeling of particular era in history






First Quarter Review

I've been slacking a lot lately, so I wouldn't consider my performance the best. I feel like I barely managed to get my assignments posted. Dead Writers Society is still stagnant because there is still a topic out that I have not received enough stories for yet.

I have two main goals for the upcoming semester. One is to get finished with three more stories and post them onto the group blog. The other is to get into school mode once again just for the home stretch. Even though I'm really busy, I want to make sure I get my school work done.

The course is really relaxed right now because we are still in the scholarship phase so I have no complaints but once we get into books and more AP prep, then I'm sure that I will have suggestions.

Monday, February 18, 2013

I Am Here

I'm trying. I really am. Somehow my collaborative group has found itself to the back of my mind. I keep telling myself that I would write stories, but it isn't happening. I feel like I'm giving myself false performative utterances. So far I've made some progress, but that progress is staying stagnant. I can't blame my group for it either because I'm the one being lazy.

We have about two topics of stories written, but that isn't close enough to put into a book.

Ubi, Wake up!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Lit Terms 81-100

Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradicting words or phrases are combined to produce a rhetorical effect by means of a concise paradox.

Pacing:  rate of movement; tempo.

Parable:  a story designed to convey some religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth.

Paradox:  a statement apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really containing a possible truth; an opinion contrary to generally accepted ideas.

Parallelism: the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form.

Parody:  an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist.

Pathos:  the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness.

Pedantry: a display of learning for its own sake.

Personification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or  abstract ideas.

Plot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.

Poignant:  eliciting sorrow or sentiment.

Point of View: the attitude unifying any oral or written argumentation; in description, the physical point from which the observer views what he is describing.

Postmodernism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontraditional forms, multiple meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary.

Prose:  the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern.

Protagonist: the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist.

Pun:  play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications.

Purpose: the intended result wished by an author.

Realism:  writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightfoward manner to reflect life as it actually is.

Refrain:  a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus.

Requiem:  any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead.

Lit Terms 57-80

Genre: a category or class of artistic endeavor having a particular form, technique, or content.

Gothic Tale: a style in literature characterized by gloomy settings, violent or grotesque action, and a mood of decay, degeneration, and decadence.

Hyperbole: an exaggerated statement often used as a figure of speech or to prove a point.

Imagery: figures of speech or vivid description, conveying images through any of the senses.

Implication: a meaning or understanding that is to be arrive at by the reader but that is not fully and explicitly stated by the author.

Incongruity: the deliberate joining of opposites or of elements that are not appropriate to each other.

Inference: a judgement or conclusion based on evidence presented; the forming of an opinion which possesses some degree of probability according to facts already available.

Irony: a contrast or incongruity between what is said and what is meant, or what is expected to happen and what actually happens, or what is thought to be happening and what is actually happening.

Interior Monologue: a form of writing which represents the inner thoughts of a character; the recording of the internal, emotional experience(s) of an individual; generally the reader is given the impression of overhearing the interior monologue.

Inversion: words out of order for emphasis.

Juxtaposition: the intentional placement of a word, phrase, sentences of paragraph to contrast with another nearby.

Lyric: a poem having musical form and quality; a short outburst of the author’s innermost thoughts and feelings.

Magic(al) Realism:  a genre developed in Latin America which juxtaposes the everyday  with the marvelous or magical.

Metaphor(extended, controlling, and mixed): an analogy that compare two different
things imaginatively.
Extended: a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer
wants to take it.
Controlling: a metaphor that runs throughout the piece of work.
Mixed: a metaphor that ineffectively blends two or more analogies.

Metonymy:  literally “name changing” a device of figurative language in which the name of an attribute or associated thing is substituted for the usual name of a thing.

Mode of Discourse:  argument (persuasion), narration, description, and exposition.

Modernism:  literary movement characterized by stylistic experimentation, rejection of tradition, interest in symbolism and psychology

Monologue:  an extended speech by a character in a play, short story, novel, or narrative poem.

Mood:  the predominating atmosphere evoked by a literary piece.

Motif:  a recurring feature (name, image, or phrase) in a piece of literature.

Myth:  a story, often about immortals, and sometimes connected with religious rituals, that attempts to give meaning to the mysteries of the world.

Narrative:  a story or description of events.

Narrator:  one who narrates, or tells, a story.

Naturalism: extreme form of realism.

Novelette/Novella: short story; short prose narrative, often satirical.

Omniscient Point of View:  knowing all things, usually the third person.

Onomatopoeia: use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its
meaning.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

The Time of my Life

I was gone on Friday, so I missed out on a chance to experience the time of my life. I would have probably used that time to rest because the night before, I was up late doing homework and working on my art project.