Sunday, October 24, 2010

Week 2 Class Notes 9/20-9/24

Chapter Five:
  • Figures of speech (any way of saying something other than the ordinary way) offer another way of adding extra dimensions to language
  • Simile and Metaphor are both used as a means of comparing things that are essentially unlike.
  • Simile is expressed by the use of a word or phrase (like, as, than, similar to, resembles, seems)
  • Metaphor is a comparison not expressed but created when a figurative terms is substituted for or identified with the literal term
  • Literal and Figurative terms can either be both named, both implied, or one of each
  • Personification consists in giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, an object, or a concept
  • Apostrophe consists in addressing someone absent or dead or something nonhuman as if the person or thing were present and alive and could reply to what is being said
  • Synecdoche (the use of the part for the whole); metonymy (the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant)
  • Figurative language gives people imaginative pleasure
  • Figures of speech are a way of bringing additional imagery into verse…
  • Figures of speech are a way of adding emotional intensity to otherwise merely informative statements and of conveying attitudes along with information
  • Figures of speech are an effective means of concentration, a way of saying much in brief compass
  • It is as important, when analyzing and discussing a poem, to decide what it is that figures accomplish as it is to identify them

Chapter Six
  • A symbol is something that means MORE than what it is
  • “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost: two roads…regret? Possible life choices?
  • Image, metaphor, and symbol are very similar to each other
  • Symbols vary in the degree of identification and definition
  • Do not underestimate or overestimate the extent of a symbol; if you must do one, underestimate!
  • Accurate interpretation of the symbol requires delicacy, tact, and good sense
  • Allegory is a narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface
  • Allegory is not as popular now as it was in Medieval and Ren. Writing



Chapter Seven
  • A Paradox is an apparent contradiction that is somehow true; shocks the reader into attention
  • Overstatement (Hyperbole) is an exaggeration in the service of truth
  • Understatement is saying less than one means
  • Irony: a discrepancy or incongruity
  • Verbal Irony: saying the opposite of what one means
  • Sarcasm: simply bitter or cutting speech, intended to wound the feelings
  • Satire: formal, applied to written lit., ridicule of human folly or vice with the purpose of bringing about reform
  • Dramatic Irony: the discrepancy between what the speaker says and what the poem means; demands a more complex response from the reader
  • Situational Irony: when a discrepancy occurs between the actual circumstances and those that would seem appropriate OR between what one anticipates and what actually comes to pass

9/21/10

Class discussion of “Barbie Doll” and “Folding Clothes”

Barbie Doll:
  • Feminism
  • Marriage is bad (stuck).
  • Married to society’s expectations?
  • Consummation= marriage.
  • “her good nature wore out like a fan belt” moving parts cause friction and it breaks!
  • Advised to play coy
  • “The girlchild was born as usual”…how society has affected her?
Alternate Analysis: http://www.helium.com/items/1378411-barbie-doll-marge-piercy

Folding Clothes:
  • Woman folds clothes, goes through her husband’s pockets, sees money, paper clips, forgotten things (memories)
  • See’s her ex-lover’s shirt. Wonders what she would do if her lover were to leave her.
  • She has no other purpose in life. Bad or good? Author doesn’t really say.
  • Should woman be happy in this position?
  • “All those wrinkles/ to be smoothed, or else/ ignored; they’re in style.” Wrinkles of age? Or bad memories/ challenges in life?
  •  “I think of folding you/ into my life” She considers him a part of herself.  
  • Does this poem foreshadow a future break-up or betrayal?
A blog that contains the poem, a biography on Elisavietta Ritchie, and an analysis of the poem: http://sortinglaundry2007.blogspot.com/

9/23/10

The Rhetorical Situation
  • Art of communication; context for an act of communication
  • The word “Rhetoric” is from Ancient Greeks
  • Situation in which the communication takes place
  • Communicating something will always try to analyze the rhetorical situation before beginning to compose a message
  • Analysis will lead to a plan that will lead to more effective communication
ELEMENTS
Subject:
  • What is your topic? Main ideas? Broaden or narrow topic?
  • Details, examples, explanation to develop these main ideas?
  • Background information for message
Purpose:
  • What do you want to get out of this? Why are you engaged in this communication?
  • To Entertain: create pleasure with emotions and imagery (Ex: Video Games)
  • To Reflect: personal response (Ex: Memoir)
  • To Inform: convey information (Ex: Textbooks)
  • To Persuade: change audience’s ideas or behavior (Ex: Political Speeches)
  •  Often mixed together
Audience:
  • Who, exactly, do you imagine will receive this info?
  • Age group? Limits on vocab/reading ability?
  • Social, political, or religious biases?
  • Education background? Specific or broad?
  • Expectations? Looking to you or experience for interaction?
Speaker (Persona):
  • What kind of a person do you want to seem like as you send this message?
  • Speaking as yourself or fictional persona?
  • Which personal characteristics would connect best with audience?
  • Attitude towards subject?
  • Which personal characteristics will help accomplish your goal?

ARGUMENT
  • One way to accomplish the goal/purpose of persuasion
  • Persuasion= purpose
  • Seeks to influence an audience’s ideas, feelings ,behavior
  • Argument: series of ideas that, when “added up,” leads to an audience accepting our thesis (or theme/ main point) as true
  • Persuasion is the purpose for communication
  • Argument is a technique we can use to accomplish the purpose of communication
Types of Arguments:
Ethos: “Ethics”; Arguments of ethics appeal to our morality- our sense of right and wrong
Logos: “Logic”; Arguments are constructed according to certain rules and appeal to our intellect- our ability to reason
Pathos: “Emotion”; Arguments of emotion appeal to our feelings- pity, jealousy, love…etc

Parts:
Thesis: the one main point- always an opinion, not a fact- that we are seeking to prove is correct
Purdue advice on a thesis: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/
Claim: “breadcrumb”; an assertion- an idea that is not a simple fact; a series of claims should be used to support your thesis- great topic sentence
Warrant: an explanation of your reasoning that shows what your evidence means and how it supports your claim
Evidence: facts that show that your claims are reasonable
Conclusion: statement that asks our audience to accept our chain of reasoning
Premise: a combination of information, condensed into a statement, that leads/adds up to the conclusion

Some deeper information on the Logic and Literary Argument from U of M: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~esrabkin/LogicLitArg.htm

Fallacy: bad logic; false reasoning
Necessary: “needed”- necessary elements of an argument are things that can’t be ignored
Sufficient: “enough”- when the condition of sufficiency is met, you have done enough to make your case
Affirm
Deny
Qualify

Common Types:
Proposal
Cause and Effect
Argument of Evaluation
Argument of Fact
 Argument of Definition

No comments:

Post a Comment