Friday, October 29, 2010
AP Essay Goals
My goals for this coming APE year are to become more technologically talented, to be able to write formal essays better and to improve my study habits. I will hopefully become better at the technology simply through repetition, and I will study with friends to achieve better study habits. Writing formal essays is something that I will have to work on over time as well, by repetition and learning through examples of well written and high-scored essays.
AP Essay Reading/Writing in College
In college, I hope to not have to take any or to take very few English classes with heavy reading. I will have difficult classes as is, so an English class would just make this more challenging. I would enjoy taking a creative writing class if I get a chance, though, because creative writing is very fun for me.
AP Essay Weaknesses
My weakenesses in AP English include writing fluency, study habits and definately technology. I am not very good at putting my thoughts into essays - I am better with creative writing than with formal papers. AP English is a much different class to study for than most other classes that I have taken, so it is difficult for me to study for it. Technology is a huge weakness for me because I am not very good at doing things on the computer, which is how most things are handed in.
AP Essay What I have Learned
So far in AP English I have learned about syntax, annotating, and how to find different meanings in literature. I did not even know what syntax was before I began this class, and I have learned a lot of interesting things about the meanings behind poems that I thought that I understood. I have also learned that annotating books and poems make them much easier to understand and analyze.
AP Essay Strengths
My strengths in AP English are annotating, analyzing and organization. I enjoy and am good at finding meanings and literary devices, and I am able to keep my notes well organized and easy to reference.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sarah Kells: Class Notes Oct 11-22
TONE: This refers to the narrator's attitude. It changes often with the mood of the piece. It is based upon what is happening the poem or piece of literature, and it is created by techniques such as syntax and diction used by the author.
VOICE: This refers to the narrator's personality. It seldom changes, but if it does that is due to a dynamic change in what is occuring with the narrator. This is created mostly by diction, especially by descriptions of characteristics such as "smart," "beautiful" or "funny."
STYLE: Style refers to the author's personality. The style does not change very often, even between different pieces written by the same author, but it can change when the author gets older or something happens in their life.
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/fiction/elements.asp?e=5 This website provides more useful information about style and tone.
When evaluating a poem, ask these three questions:
1. What is the main idea of the poem?
2. Has this been accomplished well?
3. Is this important?
A poem does not acheive excellence if:
1. It is overly sentimental.
2. It is overly rhetorical.
3. It is overly didactic (attempts to "lecture" the reader).
A poem has acheived excellence if:
1. It has an important message.
2. It is pleasing and engaging.
3. It enlightens the reader.
Musical Devices: These are techniques that make a poem more pleasing to the listener.
Alliteration: Repeats the sound of the first letter.
Assonance: Repeats vowel sound.
Consonance: Repeats final sound.
Rhyme: Can be masculine (one syllable) or feminine (two+ syllables), and internal (within the line) or end (at the end of a line).
Rhyme and Meter
Rhythm: The natural flow of language, used in a poem to change the tone.
Stress: Used on different syllables to create different effects. 'I love you' puts the emphasis upon the speaker, while 'I love you' puts the emphasis upon the person being spoken to.
Foot: One accented syllable plus a couple of non-accented.
AP ESSAY:
Use a high level of vocabulary, but it is more important to be succinct and to the point. The AP readers are not interested in reading the same thing over and over again.
Be sure to use vocabulary words correctly. It pretty much ruins a paper to use an impressive word in the wrong way.
The opening paragraph should be made up of claims, but no information about technique at all. Use these claims as topic sentences for the rest of the paragraphs, and then use the techniques to prove the claims.
A concluding paragraph is not nearly as important as the rest of the paper - if a paper is well rounded, the score will not go down based upon having no conclusion.
VOICE: This refers to the narrator's personality. It seldom changes, but if it does that is due to a dynamic change in what is occuring with the narrator. This is created mostly by diction, especially by descriptions of characteristics such as "smart," "beautiful" or "funny."
STYLE: Style refers to the author's personality. The style does not change very often, even between different pieces written by the same author, but it can change when the author gets older or something happens in their life.
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/fiction/elements.asp?e=5 This website provides more useful information about style and tone.
When evaluating a poem, ask these three questions:
1. What is the main idea of the poem?
2. Has this been accomplished well?
3. Is this important?
A poem does not acheive excellence if:
1. It is overly sentimental.
2. It is overly rhetorical.
3. It is overly didactic (attempts to "lecture" the reader).
A poem has acheived excellence if:
1. It has an important message.
2. It is pleasing and engaging.
3. It enlightens the reader.
Musical Devices: These are techniques that make a poem more pleasing to the listener.
Alliteration: Repeats the sound of the first letter.
Assonance: Repeats vowel sound.
Consonance: Repeats final sound.
Rhyme: Can be masculine (one syllable) or feminine (two+ syllables), and internal (within the line) or end (at the end of a line).
Rhyme and Meter
Rhythm: The natural flow of language, used in a poem to change the tone.
Stress: Used on different syllables to create different effects. 'I love you' puts the emphasis upon the speaker, while 'I love you' puts the emphasis upon the person being spoken to.
Foot: One accented syllable plus a couple of non-accented.
AP ESSAY:
Use a high level of vocabulary, but it is more important to be succinct and to the point. The AP readers are not interested in reading the same thing over and over again.
Be sure to use vocabulary words correctly. It pretty much ruins a paper to use an impressive word in the wrong way.
The opening paragraph should be made up of claims, but no information about technique at all. Use these claims as topic sentences for the rest of the paragraphs, and then use the techniques to prove the claims.
A concluding paragraph is not nearly as important as the rest of the paper - if a paper is well rounded, the score will not go down based upon having no conclusion.
Sarah Kells: Class Notes Sept 12-18
Poetry: Language condensed to an artistic effect. If a piece of literature has both the intention to create art and takes longer to explain than to read, it is poetry.
Rudyard Kipling's famous poem "If" is not a short poem, but the explanation is even longer. Compare the lengths of the poem: http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Rudyard_Kipling/kipling_if.htm with the explanation: http://www.enotes.com/if.
There is no such thing as a correct answer in literature!
________________________________________________________
The poem Hidden Meanings at first seems to be a strange poem with some pretty messed up facts about fairytales. Reading more into the poem, however, we saw that the theme was actually the differences between women and men - basically that women have easy lives and they are cruel to men, and men have to put up with it. The poem also contains some unpleasant images of impotence, castration and autoeroticism, probably to show more about what the author, Dabney Stuart, thought were the differences between men and women.
_________________________________________________________
Diction is the study of one word at a time. While reading, we must constantly be thinking about why each particular word was chosen. There are so many words in the English language that can technically mean the same thing, but bring about completely different emotions in the reader. This is connotation versus denotation.
Denotation is the definition of a word. For example, 'thin,' 'slender,' and 'skinny' all mean the same thing in a dictionary.
Connotation is the assumed meaning of a word. Culture and history makes words that seem the same actually bring about very different emotions.
gaunt................skinny..................-thin-....................slender................svelte
<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
perjorative/negative honorific/positive
Concreteness versus abstraction is another point where the reader must ask why the author decided to be so specific or so vague.
clothes.............................pants............................jeans.........................Levis
<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
vague specific
Whether a word was intentionally vague/specific does not matter, because even unintended emotions are spread through words. Also keep in mind that if an author uses words that are too specific or too vague, it can add a comical effect.
Precision is the specificity of a word. Good! and Nice! are very empty words. Again, ask why the author chose to use the precise or not precise words.
Elevation versus coloqualism has no real definition. Different people and different sources have different definitions for this word. The levels fade from one word to another.
sure dude..........................................yes.................................................yes sir
<-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
slang epic diction
regionalism: Different areas have different terms for the same idea: 'Pop' is used in the great lakes basin, 'coke' is used in a few areas in the south, and 'soda' is the most common term, used in most areas. The standard dialect in America is Standard American English. There are different dialects within this, however, for different areas in Michigan.
Jargon is a specialized language for people gathered together for one purpose. For example, during marching band everybody understands what is being said, even though an outsider might have no clue. The different command ("Ten Hut" and "Set") make clear sense to the band, but probably not to others.
Rudyard Kipling's famous poem "If" is not a short poem, but the explanation is even longer. Compare the lengths of the poem: http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Rudyard_Kipling/kipling_if.htm with the explanation: http://www.enotes.com/if.
There is no such thing as a correct answer in literature!
________________________________________________________
The poem Hidden Meanings at first seems to be a strange poem with some pretty messed up facts about fairytales. Reading more into the poem, however, we saw that the theme was actually the differences between women and men - basically that women have easy lives and they are cruel to men, and men have to put up with it. The poem also contains some unpleasant images of impotence, castration and autoeroticism, probably to show more about what the author, Dabney Stuart, thought were the differences between men and women.
_________________________________________________________
Diction is the study of one word at a time. While reading, we must constantly be thinking about why each particular word was chosen. There are so many words in the English language that can technically mean the same thing, but bring about completely different emotions in the reader. This is connotation versus denotation.
Denotation is the definition of a word. For example, 'thin,' 'slender,' and 'skinny' all mean the same thing in a dictionary.
Connotation is the assumed meaning of a word. Culture and history makes words that seem the same actually bring about very different emotions.
gaunt................skinny..................-thin-....................slender................svelte
<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
perjorative/negative honorific/positive
Concreteness versus abstraction is another point where the reader must ask why the author decided to be so specific or so vague.
clothes.............................pants............................jeans.........................Levis
<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
vague specific
Whether a word was intentionally vague/specific does not matter, because even unintended emotions are spread through words. Also keep in mind that if an author uses words that are too specific or too vague, it can add a comical effect.
Precision is the specificity of a word. Good! and Nice! are very empty words. Again, ask why the author chose to use the precise or not precise words.
Elevation versus coloqualism has no real definition. Different people and different sources have different definitions for this word. The levels fade from one word to another.
sure dude..........................................yes.................................................yes sir
<-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
slang epic diction
regionalism: Different areas have different terms for the same idea: 'Pop' is used in the great lakes basin, 'coke' is used in a few areas in the south, and 'soda' is the most common term, used in most areas. The standard dialect in America is Standard American English. There are different dialects within this, however, for different areas in Michigan.
Jargon is a specialized language for people gathered together for one purpose. For example, during marching band everybody understands what is being said, even though an outsider might have no clue. The different command ("Ten Hut" and "Set") make clear sense to the band, but probably not to others.
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