Writingas5pectatorsport

Felicitas Ruiz (http://fruizrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2013/02/spectator-writing-spinx.html): 
Feli does a good job of sticking to the prompt and her analysis is good. 

Matthew Patel (http://mpatelrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/):
Matt went right to work when presented with the prompt and not only wrote a lot but with purpose as well. He has great handwriting which is a plus for the AP readers. His writing is serious and intellectual as compared to his blog writing which is funny and entertaining. 

Eddie Pineda (http://cwestrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/):
Eddie is getting the hang of it although the ten minutes wasn't sufficient because he would've written more if there was more time at hand. The sentences that he does have down are well written and well thought out.
Megan Hardisty (http://mhardistyrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/): 
Well thought out introduction and I agree with Ming in that here second paragraph can be organized better. She did a good job of sticking to the prompt. 

BRAVE NEW WORLD (I)

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

Albert Einstein

I really enjoy reading science fiction books because they transport you to a different world. This one chapter was very interesting, especially the part about 632 AF which I googled and it starts the years when Henry Ford created the Model T. For the author to use AF as a year indicator, it shows that this society sees technology as religious, just as we use AD and BC and our society views Christianity as a large religion. Also in this society, everyone thing is completely controlled and you don't have ownership of your life. It seems like they thought perfection would bring happiness and they forgot that freedom is what fuels happiness. This type of society frightens me and I wonder if it scares me because of the fact that certain aspects might be made reality one day.

FIRST QUARTER REVIEW

a) Evaluate your performance so far this semester by explaining how you've done on required assignments and how you have moved forward on your Sr. Project/BQ/CWG
I think my performance in this class has been good. I have not yet advanced in my senior project but hope to do so soon.

b) List your goals and expectations of yourself for the next quarter
Next quarter I wish to keep up the good work and continue to do my assignments as well as participate in the class work. Overall, to have consistency in my work.

c) Make suggestions for course /process.
I'm not sure I really have suggestions just because I think the course is running great as it is.

I've learned from experience that if you work harder at it, and apply more energy and time to it, and more consistency, you get a better result. It comes from the work.

Louis C. K. 

Trust is built with consistency.
Lincoln Chafee 
 

BOB I

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” 

-Winston Churchill

Doing a fine job :)
IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
Danielle Galindo: http://danig14.blogspot.com/
Reed Conforti: http://rconfortirhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Samantha Garrison: http://sgarrisonrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/Megan Hardisty: http://mhardistyrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Abby Kuhlman: http://akuhlmanrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Alex Lane: http://alanerhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Isiah Mabansag: http://isiahmabansag.blogspot.com/ 
Conor McNamara: http://www.csmrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Josh Ng: http://jngrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Nathan Oh: http://norhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Matthew Patel: http://mpatelrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Felicitas Ruiz: http://fruizrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Erika Snell: http://www.esnellrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Justin Thompson http://jthompson2rhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Dulce Vargas: http://dvargasrhsenglitcomp1.blogspot.com/  
Ashley Wilburn: http://awilburnrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Chanel Yamaguchi: http://cyamaguchirhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Devon Tomooka: http://dtomookarhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Tanner Tuttle: http://ttuttlerhsenglitcomp1.blogspot.com/ 
Ryunhee Kim: http://rkimrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Alicia Hernandez: http://ahernandezrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/


In the Middle: IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
Travis Knight: http://tmkrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Cassidy Ashlock:  http://cashlockrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Sebastian Guillen: http://sguillenrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Haleigh Jones: http://hjonesrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/  
Troy Prober: http://tproberrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Brady Redman: http://bredmanrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/

Has some catching up to do: IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
Brittany Cunningham: http://bcunninghamrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Kristofer Green: http://kgreenrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Carly Koertge: http://ckoertgerhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Lacey Mougeotte: http://lmougeotterhsenglitcomp1.blogspot.com/
Bailey Nelson: http://bnelsonrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
Karianne LaPlante: http://kariannelaplantesblog.blogspot.com/
Colleen Livingstone: http://clivingstonerhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com
Conner Patzman: http://cpatzmanrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/ 
Jason Reinwald: http://www.jreinwaldrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/

I AM HERE

I've posted every post that has been assigned even if some have been late. I have made progress towards my SMART goal, as college creeps closer (alliteration right there!). I find the thought of college very nerve wrecking and I'm not sure what's keeping me from a panic attack O_O. I have in fact been thinking of my senior project but I am not sure if I am going to do it by my self or with my table. My performance has been...foggy and distracted but I want to try harder. I only have one high school experience, one AP English Lit and Comp Experience and I've got 4 months left.

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. 

Abraham Lincoln 

Quote of the Day :D

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.
Jim Rohn

83-108 Lit Terms

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.

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.

A slim crocodile living in the Nile took a child. His mother begged to have him back. The crocodile could not only talk, but was also a great sophist and stated, "If you guess correctly what I will do with him, I will return him. However, if you don't predict his fate correctly, I'll eat him." 

What statement should the mother make to save her child?

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.

I searched for an appropriate parody on youtube but couldn't find one without bad words or something inappropriate.

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.

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

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.

Brain Tricks!

Eyes on the stars

15-year-old invents a new method for diagnosing cancer

LIT TERMS 57-82

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.

Example Credit goes to Hayden. EX:"OMG THERE IS LIKE A BAZILLION LIT TERM TO DEFINE!"


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.

EX: When a poor person says all rich people are greedy, he is implying that poor people aren't greedy.

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.

We infer that she is sick.

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.

The "pen" stands in for "the written word"
The "sword" stands in for "military aggression and force"

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.

EX: "To be or not to be..."

Mood:  the predominating atmosphere evoked by a literary piece.

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

EX: Water in The Fault in our Stars.

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.

EX: Great Expections

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

EX: Pip 

Naturalism: extreme form of realism.



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

Great Expectations LAQ´s

GENERAL 
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
Pip is  a poor counrty boy who helps a convict by stealing supplies and feeding the convict. The convict is detained but lies for Pip and says that he stole the supplies. Pip then is taken to Miss Havisham´s to play. She is a rich, old and scary woman who adopted a girl in order to teach her to break men´s hearts. Pip continues to go to Miss Havisham´s until he is ordered to become a blacksmith. He wishes to become a gentleman so he can be with Estella. He is granted his wish mysteriously and goes to London where he finds out the man who gave him the money was the convict, who is also Estella´s father. The convict dies, Pip wants to go and marry Biddy but he discovers that she is married to Joe. They have a baby and name it Pip. One ending is that Pip finds Estella and they live happily ever after and the other is that he is happy with little Pip and she is somewhat miserable.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

Pay back (Karma)- not just bad pay back but good pay back as well. The story relies on ties and connections the characters have, everyone gets what they deserve in the end and the original ending is a much more accurate ending to this theme. Some examples of pay back are how Miss Havisham was heartbroken by a man and so trains Estella to do the same to men. The negative energy that Estella is feed then comes and bits Miss H when Estella tells her how much pain she caused her. Payback can also be seen in how Pip is repayed by his convict by making him a gentlemen. Karma is also present in how Pip doesn´t give Biddy a chance and is ashamed by Joe, because when he finally goes back to marry Biddy, he discovers Joe and her are married. Joe is a great father figure to Pip because he is the opposite of his father who abused him and his mother. This is payback because he is being a better father than his ever was, making the negative energy into good energy.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

Because Pip is reflecting on his past as he tells his story, the tone is somewhat sad and remorseful. When he speaks of Joe the tone is very loving and admiring.

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

Personification:

"He gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weather cock."

Colloquialism: 

"You fail, or you go from my words in any parickler, no matter how small it is, and your heart and your liver..."

 Simile:

"So, we had our slices served out as if we were two thousand troops on a forced march instead of a man.

"With that, she pounced upon me, like an eagle on a lamb..." 

Foil & Simile:

"By the light of the torches, we saw the black Hulk lying out a little way from the mud of the shore, like a wicked Noah´s ark.  

Allusion:

"...and give us Mark Antony´s oration over the body of Caesar."

 Foil:

Mr. Jigger serves as a foil for Joe and Estella serves as a foil for Biddy.

Apostrophe:

"Ah! poultry, poultry! You little thought," said Mr. Pumblechook, apostrophizing the fowl in the dish,"

Chiasmus:

"Yes a gentleman may not keep a public-house; may he? said I. "Not on any account," returned Herbert; "but a public-house may keep a gentleman."

Anafora:

"...brought you up by hand."

Speaker:

Pip is writing this story when he is older and this allows him to look back without being bias.  He directly talks to the reader when he says "I think it will be conceded by my most disputatious reader..."

 

CHARACTERIZATION 
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

Direct Characterization: 

When the author first introduces a character, he uses direct characterization in order to describe the characters physical features. We can see this when he introduces Joe as a "mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow...". He also uses direct characterization when describing Estella, "She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl, and beautiful and self-possessed; and she was as scornful of me as if she had been one and twenty and a queen."

Indirect Characterization:

The author uses indirect characterization to describe a character´s personality. Examples of this is when Estella slaps poor Pip, who cries and is surpries to see she actually enjoys his pain. This leads the reader to believe she is evil. 

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?
3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

Dynamic: 

Because Pip becomes a gentleman, his surroundings dramatically change, causing his character to learn lessons that he would never have learned as a blacksmith. He becomes a completely different person when he moves to London and at the end of the story is left as a round character because of his dynamic experiences.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.

I didn´t feel as if I met a person maybe because I didn´t become very fond of Pip´s character after he became a gentleman and still kept on pursuing Estella just because I really didn't like her. 

WiFi What?

Let me take a second to talk about my being-in-Mexico problems. I realized that I am SO attached to my phone and Internet in general that when I got to Mexico, I was completely cut off. Boom, just like that! No Internet, no texting, no Instagram, no googling problems, no gps, no blog, no Ifunny (this one hurt me the most). And I realized that it would be like this for a week. I'm alive still though.
I'm joking it's not too bad because I'm in the moment more, I talk more and I'm not absorbed in this screen. I'm looking around more and not just down at my phone. It's kinda like rehab where they only give me small doses of WiFi and Internet at a time. It's crazy to think that I'm so attached.
It's a whole different world here. People have phones but to talk and to text, not to check their 'face' (Facebook in Spanish). Now I'm faced with another problem by the way, I'm leaving my WiFi zone right now which means I need to stop writing. Well, until next time! Bye world.

Time of My Life

Although I wasn't in class Friday I could tell you that I did read Great Expectations and Im well on my way!