Monday, October 27, 2014

Creating Satire: A Satirical Dictionary for GHS

Creating Satire: A Satirical Dictionary for GHS

In a Google Doc called "My Contributions to a Satirical Dictionary for GHS" (or using pen/pencil and paper) create five satirical definitions using satirical strategies. Include a standard definition for comparison. Bring these to class on Thursday (10/30).

After sharing and getting some feedback on your satirical definitions. In the comment box below type in a revised, carefully proofread version of your satirical definition. (New and improved! Revised for super-sized satire!) Also, include a standard definition for comparison. Finally, write an explanation: What point are you hoping to make with your satire? How have you used satirical strategies to create an effective satire? This will be due by class time on Monday (11/3).

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Analyzing Satire: The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

We're now going to apply what we've learned about satire by studying "A Modest Proposal" to another satirical literary work: The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.

What is it? Go here to find out.

Where's the text? Go here to get it.

What I'd like you to do before class time on Monday (10/27) is pick five (5)* word entries from Bierce's satirical dictionary that no one else has commented on yet. In the comment box copy a dictionary definition and copy Bierce's satirical definition. Then explain how Bierce satirizes a particular target by deviating from the standard definition.

Try to figure out Bierce's target and how he uses particular strategies to satirize that target. Does Bierce use any of the satirical strategies we've discussed, including irony, satirical inversion (or reversal), understatement (meiosis, litotes), exaggeration (hyperbole), sarcasm, absurd incongruity, and asserting a position by pretending not sweep aside that position (apophasis/paralipsis)?

Explaining satire (like explaining a joke) is difficult, so I'd rather you risk explaining too much than risk not explaining enough.

Monday, October 20, 2014

An Introduction to Satire as Argument: "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift

Here's the text of "A Modest Proposal" with helpful footnotes. (The footnotes were added by an organization called "readthinkwrite".)

Consider the SOAPSToneS elements of rhetorical discourse:
speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject, tone, style.

1. Take SOAPSTone notes*. (Identify and explore the significance of speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject, and tone in the text. Explore the significance means write several thoughtful sentences that interpret the element and make direct references to the text.) Bring your notes (in sentence form) to class tomorrow.

2. While preparing your SOAPSTone notes pay particular attention to how all of the elements contribute to the purpose. In your notes include at least three direction quotations (each from a different part of the text) that helped you figure out Swift's** purpose***.
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Notes:
* WARNING: Stay on your toes, so to speak. Be careful not to take speaker, purpose, and tone at face value. (For example, consider the possibility that the speaker may not present the author's sincere ideas. Then, consider the "purpose" of having the speaker present those ideas.)

**Note on the author: Jonathan Swift (1667-1744) was an Anglo-Irish clergyman, satirist, and poet . He published "A Modest Proposal" as an anonymous pamphlet in 1729.

***David Cody of Hartwick College offers some relevant context that might help you better understand the complex relationship of speaker, occasion, audience, and purpose in "A Modest Proposal".

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Self/Peer Assessment of Comparative Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Self/Peer Assessment of Rhetorical Analysis Essay (Q2) comparing Jamaica Kincaid’s “On Seeing England for the First Time” and James Baldwins "Note of a Native Son"
Prompt: In a well-organized, well-developed essay compare and contrast the ways the two writers use rhetorical strategies to convey their evolving responses to the complex role ethnocentrism and cultural hegemony play in their lives.

Thesis.
Does the introduction end with a clear, bold, nuanced insight comparing Baldwin and Kincaid's responses? _____  Does the introduction include a precise, accurate statement of the rhetorical strategies that Baldwin and Kincaid use to convey their responses? _____
In your draft both parts of the thesis should be identified. The thesis may be more than one sentence. (Look at the prompt for one way to identify the different parts.)

Introduction. (The purpose of the introduction is to engage the reader with a big idea essential to the thesis and to let the reader know what the essay will be about.)
Is there a big idea that leads into the essay? _____  What is the big idea? _____  Is it clearly stated? _____  How is it relevant to the thesis? _________________________________________________ 
Is there an effective transition between the big idea and the thesis? _____  Where? _______________
In your draft the big idea and transition should be identified.

Plan. (The purpose of the plan is to give the essay a provisional structure.)
Have you organized your essay by strategy (strategy 1, strategy 2, etc.) or by working through sections/passages of the two essays (the beginning of the essay, the next section, etc.)? _____  Have you outlined a comparison of how responses to injustice are conveyed by rhetorical strategies? _____  Have you found the specific evidence supporting your comparative ideas? _____  Are you able to explain how the evidence supports your comparative ideas? _____ 
The parts of the plan should be evident in the plan you have in your notes.

Body Paragraph Draft. (The purpose of a body paragraph is to develop and support a part of the thesis.)
Have you kept all the promises made in your thesis? _____  In other words have you developed each part of the thesis in a particular body paragraph? _____ 
Mark your draft to show where you’ve developed each part of the thesis (the attitude and the strategies)?
Is there a statement at the beginning or near the beginning of each paragraph that indicates exactly what part of the thesis (the attitude and the strategies) that paragraph will develop? _____  These statements are called “topic sentences” or “mini-theses” or “body points”. It’s likely that each of your body paragraphs will either focus on comparing Baldwin and Kincaid's use of a particular strategy to convey their responses to injustice or will focus on comparing how they use various strategies to convey the responses to injustice in particular sections of the essays. In other words it is likely that the essay is organized strategy-by-strategy or section-by-section. In the rest of the paragraph have you kept the promise made in your topic sentence/mini-thesis/body point? _____ 
Mark your draft to show the “topic sentences” / “mini-theses” / “body points”.
Within each paragraph you need evidence (including direct quotation) that support your comparison of how Baldwin and Kincaid's convey their responses to injustice with rhetorical strategies. Where is the evidence specific? _____  Where is it precise? _____  Is it thorough or are parts of the essays neglected? _____ 
Mark the evidence.
You also need to explain clearly and convincingly how each piece of evidence supports your comparison of Baldwin and Kincaid's use of strategies to convey their responses to injustice. Is the connection between each piece of evidence and the thesis explained? _____   Is the explanation accurate? Is the explanation well-developed? Is the explanation convincing? _____ 
Mark the explanation.

Conclusion. (The purpose of the conclusion is to drive home the point of the essay and to drive home the significance of that point.)
Do you return to the big idea? _____  Have you woven the big idea together with your thesis? _____  (Consult the example essay JJ1 if you have questions.) Have you given the reader a sense of why the ideas explored in your essay matter? _____ 
Mark where you see the big idea and the thesis in the conclusion.

Style. Have you created a title that indicates the essay topic and your take on the topic? _____  Have you created logical transitions between the paragraphs? _____  Have you varied your sentence structure? _____   Are all your word choices precise and nuanced? _____ 

Conventions. Does the essay have any run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, or homophone errors? _____  _____  _____  Does the essay use third person and present tense when analyzing the text? _____  Does the essay handle all quotations, including block quotes, correctly? _____

Write questions and comments in the space below.

Notes on conventions: (1) In the introduction make sure you mention the author's full name and title of the piece you are analyzing. (2) Use present tense when writing about literature: "Kincaid implies...," "The author illustrates..... " or "Baldwin suggests..." (3) When a quotation ends in a period, place the period inside the last quotation mark: "like this." (4) Avoid stand alone quotations: "Consider using a colon after a complete thought to introduce the quotation."

Friday, October 10, 2014

Update: What makes a good comparative analytical essay?

Over the course of the year, we going to write several analytical essays. Here's the process we're using:
Read & annotate the prompt.
Read the text (or texts) with the prompt in mind.
When possible, discuss the relationship between the text (or texts) and prompt.
Plan your written response to the prompt.
Use the plan, the annotated text, the annotated prompt, and (when possible) model responses to write the response.

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Today we focused on the plan.

Because we're writing a shuttle comparison our plan has to be a bit more complex. So in our notes we had to do something like this:

Prompt: In a well-organized, well-developed essay compare and contrast the ways the two writers use rhetorical strategies to convey their evolving responses to the complex role ethnocentrism and cultural hegemony play in their lives.


What is James Baldwin's evolving response to the role of ethnocentrism and cultural hegemony in his life?


What is Jamaica Kincaid's evolving response to ethnocentrism and cultural hegemony in her life?
What rhetorical strategies does Baldwin use to convey his response?

What rhetorical strategies does Kincaid use to convey her response?
 
Then, we had to ask ourselves: what important, significant, meaningful, nuanced, and subtle similarities and differences do we notice? What are the similarities and differences in the role and responses? What at are the similarities and differences in the strategies?

Now, we have notes on all the major parts of the prompt. But we don't yet have a plan. For the plan we'll need two things: a thesis that fully addresses the prompt and an organizational structure for the body of the essay.
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The Thesis:
Your thesis (which may need to be more than one sentence) will need to indicate how the body of your essay will compare and contrast both the two writers' evolving responses to the role of ethnocentric oppression (or oppressive cultural hegemony, etc.) and the strategies the writers use to convey those responses.

Examples:
Here are some examples of thesis statements that compare and contrast how authors use rhetorical strategies to convey a message. I wrote one of them and one of you wrote the other.

Although both passages convey ideas about problems in education, James Cook's "I Wanna Bore Ya" uses outdated slang to satirize his own failures as a teacher, whereas Kurt Lichtenwald's essay "Are You Kidding Me?" relies upon incendiary taboo diction to convey an aggressive critique of widespread incompetence.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Sir Thomas Browne both use long sentences consisting of lists in order to form their argument. King makes long lists to force the reader to acknowledge the injustices he and his people have faced for too long. Browne inserts a list into his opening paragraph to establish from the beginning his purpose for writing about the futility of all living things in the face of time.

Here is an example of a student comparing strategies and responses to impending death taken from a student's response to a prompt the 2008 AP English literature exam:

Both poems by Keats and Longfellow reflect on unfulfilled reams and the imminence of death, yet the conclusions are somewhat different. Longfellow mourns his inaction and seems to view the past as comfortable compared to an uncertain future. On the other hand, Keats worries that he will not be able to accomplish all that he wants to, but as he recognized the enormity and possibilities of the world, and realizes that his mortal goals are meaningless. Longfellow's ultimate tone about death is fearful and grim, but Keats' tone is more appreciative of the wonder of life and therefore more hopeful.

The rest of this essay, which is a good example of the shuttle comparison strategy, can be found here.

Try creating your own thesis in response to the prompt: In a well-organized, well-developed essay compare and contrast the ways the two writers use rhetorical strategies to convey their evolving responses to the complex role ethnocentrism and cultural hegemony play in their lives

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The Plan:
Take a look at the notes you've taken on Baldwin and Kincaid's evolving responses and the strategies they use to convey the responses. 

Does it make more sense to organize your essay strategy-by-strategy or essay-section-by-essay-section? If you choose strategy-by-strategy the difficult thing is making sure you convey to the reader a sense of the essay as a whole. If you choose section-by-section the difficult things are deciding how to break the texts down into sections and making sure you discuss responses and strategies  as you move from beginning to end.

Examples of ways of organizing:
This example essay from the 2008 AP English Literature exam (which compares two poems) takes the section-by-section approach. The example essay we read earlier in the week that analyzes Kincaid's attitude toward England also takes the section-by-section approach. The second example essay (starting on page 7) at this link uses the strategy-by-strategy approach but not entirely convincingly.

Once you have your plan you're ready to write your draft. Make sure every body paragraph is focused on comparing how Baldwin and Kincaid convey their evolving responses to ethnic and cultural oppression using rhetorical strategies.

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One last thing:
Don't forget to try writing a "big idea" opening like the one in essay about "On Seeing England..." that we read earlier in the week. This kind of opening starts with a big idea related to your thesis, then has a transitional sentence, the hits the reader with the thesis. Try it out. 

We'll work on all of this with self-assessment and peer feedback on Tuesday (10/13). The final draft will be due at pumpkin time midnight [or rather 11:59:59 pm] Friday 10/17.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Update: Process for writing the analytical essay

APers,

So: a complete draft of your comparative rhetorical analysis essay is due five days from now, which means it's a good time to create a plan so we don't get too overwhelmed with the task. I've tried to embed a bit of a plan in our two-day discuss of the two readings; the madness behind the method. (Or, is it the other way around? We'll ask Polonius, a character in Hamlet, next term.)

O.K. Here's what we've done so far:

First, you analyzed the prompt. Here's a summary of what we have said about the prompt so far: We're going to compare and contrast the ways Kincaid and Baldwin use rhetorical strategies to convey their complex reactions to ethnocentrism and cultural hegemony. We should be pretty comfortable with that vocabulary now, which means we should have an ability to use those words and synonyms when we write our essay. (If you're not sure what the prompt is asking, make sure you get clarity tomorrow. Be resourceful. Underline key phrases. Look up words you're not sure about the meaning of. Use the notes that are part of the prompt. Ask questions.

Then, we read and annotated the personal essays with the prompt in mind.

Discussion: Through reading and discussion we developed ideas about the effects of ethnocentrism/cultural hegemony/racism/injustice/oppression and responses to those effects. We examined how the writers use particular strategies to convey the complex effects and evolving responses.



Beginning to plan: At the end of class on Wednesday, you wrote down what you saw as James Baldwin's evolving response to the complex effects of ethnocentrism/cultural hegemony/racism/injustice/oppression. Then, you wrote down very particular strategies he uses to convey that responses. We reviewed and deepened these ideas in the first half of class on Thursday.

More discussion: In the second half of class, we discussed Kincaid's evolving response and some strategies she uses to convey her response; we also suggested a few areas of comparison between the two essays.

Here's what we need to do next:
More planning: At the end of class on Thursday, we didn't have time to write down our thoughts about Jamaica Kincaid's evolving response to the complex effects of ethnocentrism/cultural hegemony/racism/injustice/oppression on her life. And we didn't have time to write down very particular strategies she uses to convey that responses. Do this tonight (Thursday night)!!!!!!!

Even more planning: Then, take a look at what you've written down about the two responses and the two sets of strategies used to convey the responses. Go back and forth between the two: what meaningful similarities and what meaningful differences do you see?  Do this tonight too.

In class tomorrow we'll start with your thoughts about Kincaid's response and strategies
& your thoughts about similarities and differences between the responses and strategies in the two essays.


Last bit of planning and finally writing: Then, we'll make sure we leave class knowing at least two different ways of creating a "shuttle" (back and forth) organization with plenty of well-chosen, well-explained support for our comparison of the two essays and knowing how to write an effective "big idea" introduction and conclusion (of the type we looked at in a student essay earlier in the week) with a thesis that addresses the prompt.





Then, you'll be on your own between Friday after class and class time on Tuesday to work on your draft. (12-point font with serifs, double-spaced, 1200 to 3000 words or so)

O.K. See you tomorrow. Please come prepared.

all the best,
Mr. James Cook
English
GHS

Monday, October 6, 2014

Analyzing Personal Essays

AP English Language and Composition
“Question 2”-style essay
(A Comparative Rhetorical Analysis of Two Personal Essays: “On Seeing England for the First Time” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin)

You will read and annotate two personal essays—“On Seeing England for the First Time” by Jamaica Kincaid and “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin—both of which articulate the essayists’ struggles to deal with the effects of ethnocentric* injustices and cultural hegemony** on their lives.

In her essay, Jamaica Kincaid grapples with the effects of British colonialism on the Caribbean island of Antigua before it became independent from Great Britain in 1981; in his essay, James Baldwin grapples with the effects of racism on his family in mid-twentieth century America. In both essays, the writers deal with the repercussions of one group of people being treated as inferior by another group of people who exercise social, cultural, and economic dominance. What happens inside a person who is made to feel inferior? How can a person push back against the feeling of inferiority in a way that combats the dominant, oppressive culture without also destroying oneself?

In a well-organized, well-developed essay compare and contrast the ways the two writers use rhetorical strategies to convey their evolving responses to the complex role ethnocentrism* and cultural hegemony** play in their lives.  


*Note: For the purposes of this essay, these may be the two most useful definitions of ethnocentrism: “the belief in the inherent superiority of one’s own ethnic group of culture” (dictionary.com) and “the attitude that one’s own group is superior” (Merriam-Webster).
**Note: Cultural hegemony exists when one group—a ruling social class, a prevailing culture, a dominant race, or an imperialist nation—exerts a controlling influence over all aspects of a culturally diverse society it is part of or a “cultural colony” it is separate from.

Due dates:
Read and annotate the prompt and the two essays by class time on Wednesday, October 8.
Write a complete first draft of the essay by class time on Tuesday, October 14.
Self-assess, peer-assess, and revise to create a final draft by Thursday, October 16.