Hero Cycle

And, they're off...

We've spent the last week preparing for writing the rough draft of the final project. So hopefully you have a lot of ideas that you want to start working with.

Remember that the rough draft of your project is due Friday.

Since this is the final project of the year, I will be holding you accountable for the skills we've worked on throughout the year. For example, if you're writing a story, I expect a good plot out of you. If you're writing a paper, I expect good logos, ethos and pathos from you.

If you feel that you're ready to have me critique your work, email it to me.

A post especially for Kenny

Hi Kenny,

This post is especially for you. Just you, Kenny. You, you, you.

Answer the following questions:

Why does Kenny like to watch people fight on You Tube?

Why does Kohlby like to watch people fight on You Tube?

Why do girls like to watch people fight on You Tube?

Is watching someone get beat up on You Tube cooler than watching wrestling or boxing? Why?

If you had someone you really hated, would you have someone video you while you beat him up?

Would you put it on You Tube?

Why would you put it on You Tube?

I

Thursday's child is studious

Project 1:
Do any last bits of research you need to do and then start writing. Make sure to send me your progress at the end of the hour.

Project 2:
If you need to read a book in order to refresh your memory of how it proceeds, do that today and tomorrow. Make sure you finish by Monday. If you don't need to read the book again, go through the internet and find opinions on how well the book was made into a movie (or whatever translation you're interested in).

Some good sites to find reviews like these are:

metacritic.com

rottentomatoes.com

You can also find out information about the book and movie at:

http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/movies/

Project 3:

Most of you are ready to start working on your translation. So now's as good a time as any. Probably even a better time than any.

For those of you who are doing poems, take a look at this Wikipedia article. It has descriptions of a number of poetry forms. If you click on the form's name, it will show you an example of that form. Choose three poem forms you think might work best for your translations. Send me these along with you ideas on why they would be especially good for your translations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry#Poetic_forms

Project 4

There are actually many different ways to set up a classroom and to conduct school. Most of us don't know about these alternatives because we've never experienced them. Read the through the following articles about alternative schooling methods. Which methods appeal to you? Which don't? Which might you use in your own class?

Send me in your ideas by the end of the hour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_school

http://www.indypendent.org/2005/06/15/why-the-free-school-rules/

To Do List

Project 1:

1. Come up with your protagonist and a goal for him/her.
2. Come up with an antagonist and how he/she will be opposing the protagonist.
3. Come up with three ideas for events where the protagonist and antagonist clash.

Project 2:

1. If you have not read the book (or if you haven't read it in a long time and can't remember it well) start reading it.
2. If you have read the book, make a list of major points where the movie and the book (or the whatever and the whatever) differ from each other.
3. Then come up with a list of elements that you think are especially good in each medium.

Project 3:

1. You have already sent me a link to the work you are going to translate. So I want you to start your translation now. If you're writing something, begin. If you're drawing something, begin. Please send me your progress at the end of class.

Project 4:

1. Send me descriptions of the following
a. How you would set up your classroom. (What you would have on the walls, how you would arrange the desks. Would you even have desks. Etc.)
b. How you would run the first day of school so that the students will be excited about the class.
c. Ideas for two class projects that would be interesting and exciting.

By the way. Project #4 is going to be for Mrs. Hughes, since you will be in her class next year. I think that she'll have a much better idea of how to teach you if she knows how you would set up your perfect class. So keep her in mind as your audience. You may be influencing how class will happen next year.

Proposal

Today I'd like you to send me a proposal for your project. I'm hoping that this proposal will help you think through your project, and save you some frustration later on.

By the end of class, please send me an email containing the following:

Whether you are doing project 1, 2, 3, or 4. (I know, you did this yesterday, but it will only take one keystroke)

If you are doing project 1, send me the following:

a. A description of the mediums you are most interested in integrating into (or removing from) your story, and a link to a news article on that medium.
b. Ideas for a plot for your story.

If you are doing project 2, send me the following:

a. A description of the work of art you have chosen and which mediums it has been translated into.
b. A link to a review of the original work of art, and a link to a review of the other medium the work was translated into.
c. You initial thoughts on what differences your paper will be focusing on.

If you are doing project 3, send me the following:

a. A link to, or a description of, the work of art you are planning to translate into another medium.
b. The medium you are planning to translate it into.
c. Some ideas on how you plan to approach this translation.

If you are doing project 4, send me the following:

a. The things you think are important to learn in an English class.
b. Methods of teaching that have NOT helped you to learn these things.
c. Methods of teaching that HAVE helped you to learn these things.

Final Project

This term we have been studying how the medium (or tool) affects how we interact with the world around us. Or, to put it in familiar terms, how the medium is the message.

For example, someone who owns a car will interact with distance much differently than a person who has only feet to travel with. The medium of the car sends the message that distance is unimportant, thus a car owner would tend to travel much more frequently, and much longer distances, than the person without a car. While a car owner in Lyman would think of a trip to Salt Lake City as a one-day affair, the walker would see such a trip as a major undertaking. The car owner would perceive the world as a much smaller place than the walker.

A much more comprehensive explanation of “The Medium is the Message” can be found at the following links:

Introduction

Application

Images vs. Text

Analogue vs. Abstract

I’m going to offer you a number of approaches to the project for this unit. Read through them and decide which one would be most interesting to pursue.

1. Go through recent findings in the scientific world, or technological products in the early stages of development. Using Postman’s metaphor of the drop of red dye to guide your thoughts, come up with possible futures where this product or finding has permeated and changed the culture of America. Choose the scenario that most excites your imagination. Write a short story (3000 words at least), complete with a plot and character arcs, showing how the product or finding affects the culture. Or you can go into the past. Find a medium that significantly affected history. What would happen if that medium never arrived? Or what might have happened if another medium came in its place? For example if electric cars had gained ascendancy instead of gasoline powered cars? Some good writers to read on this subject would be Ray Bradbury and Phillip K. Dick.

2. Find a work of art that has been rendered into more than one medium. For example, a book that has been made into a movie, or a movie into a book. Or a piece of music that has been rendered into a dance (anyone here remember the Boot Scootin’ Boogie?). Or a book into a graphic novel. Write a paper analyzing how the difference in medium affected the work of art. What aspects of the original were enhanced by the change in medium? Which parts were diminished? How did the meaning of the original change? What new meanings were added when the medium changed? What meanings were subtracted? How did the work of art benefit from the change? How did it suffer? The analysis should be about 1000 words.

3. Find a work of art and translate it into another medium. For example, translate a painting into a short story, or a piece of music into a dance, or a poem into a drawing. Write a short paper (700 words) talking about the process of translation. Are you pleased with the translation? What qualities of the original piece were enhanced through your work? What parts diminished?

4. The classroom is a medium. The assignment is a medium. The quiz is a medium. The grade is a medium. Each of them sends a different message about what learning is. Some of these mediums help learning, and some of them inhibit learning. Many of them do both. Develop an English class that would cater to your particular learning style. What would actually be important to learn in your class? How would you define learning? How would you set up the classroom? Would you even have a classroom? How would you present information to the students? Would you have assignments? What would they be like? How would you test what the students have learned? Write a paper of about 1000 words describing your class and how your particular design would enhance learning.

Deadlines and point values:

May 6: You have chosen your project. 10 pts

May 9: You email me an outline of your project. 10 pts

May 16: You have emailed your first draft to me. 10 pts

May 21: You have emailed your second draft to me. 10 pts

May 28: You have emailed your final draft to me. 10 pts

There will be a 50-point worth ethic grade.

The final draft of your final project is worth 100 points.

Total points: 200

Since the PAWS test took up so much of our term, your performance on this project will constitute the majority of your grade.

We will be working on these projects during class time. Thus, I will always be available to assist you. Make sure you pick something you’ll enjoy doing. If you have an idea for an alternate project make sure you pitch it to me by May 6.

Jung Typology Test

Click here to take the test.

When you get your result, copy down the letters into a Word document.

Then read the interpretations of your type.

Which parts are right on? Which parts are way off? What parts surprised you at first, but, upon further reflection, you found to be true?

Write on these questions and then email me your responses along with your type.

This is only a test

Today you'll be taking an online test.

Part of this test will require you to write in a Word document, so please call one up now. Make sure your name is at the top and that you follow the instructions in the test. Email the document to me at the end of the test.

carters@uinta6.k12.wy.us

Login information is on the board and pasted below.

To access the test site CLICK HERE

or type achievementseries.com into your URL bar.

Click the "Student" button at the top left corner of the window.

Site ID: 32-2506-0344

Test ID: 

6th Period: 64082

7th Period: 18686

8th Period: 62685

(if one test ID doesn't work for you, try another)

Username: the last two letters of your first name and whole last name (for example Hannah Montana would log  in thus: ahmontana)

You don't need a password.

Have fun.

And, yes, this is worth points.

Now, a word from our sponsors

Yesterday (or Thursday for 7th hour) we talked about how, as the medium of advertisements changed, so did the ads. While the major medium for ads was the magazine or newspaper, ads tended to use a lot of words to persuade your head that you should buy its product. However, as America moved into the age of television around 1939, the focus of advertisement turned to association, trying to persuade the emotions.

So, while a print ad is more likely to explain the qualities of a particular product, television is more likely to associate its product with something exciting without touching on the product's qualities at all.

Today you're going to look at ads and analyze them.

I want you to look at four ads.

Two of them print ads, and

Two of them television ads.

Your job is to (1) Describe the ad and provide the URL where you found it, and (2) Evaluate how well each ad uses its medium.

Find one television and one print ad (for a total of two ads) that does not use its medium well. Describe in a paragraph or more why they don't work.

Find one television and one print ad (for a total of two ads) that does use its medium well. Describe in a paragraph or more why they do work.

You can find some fun vintage (old) ads at the following Web sites:

For print ads:

http://adclassix.com/

For television ads:

http://adclassix.com/classictvindex.htm

Click here to see Super Bowl 2007 ads.

Google Video also has a lot of ads. However, when you do a search, you need to restrict the search to videos hosted by Google only, because You Tube is blocked.

To sum up your assignment:

I want 8 paragraphs out of you. For each of the 4 analyses (two for effective ads and two for ineffective ads) you will

1. Write a paragraph describing the ad and providing the URL where you found it.

2. Write a paragraph analyzing the ad for its effectiveness.

3. Email your analysis to me at carters@uinta6.k12.wy.us by the end of class.

4. Yes. this assignment will be worth points.

Measuring Mountains

Of all practices, it seems like measurement of physical objects should be among the most precise. But as we'll see, such is not always the case.

Ask most anyone and they'll tell you that the highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest. And, indeed, Mount Everest is 29,028 feet tall according to the most recent measurements.

However, that's 29,028 feet above sea level, which seems to be a strange way to measure mountains. After all due to the orbit of the moon, the tides are always going in and out, changing the sea level constantly. Not only that, but because of the shape of the earth, more gravity is concentrated in the polar regions of the earth than at the equatorial regions, pulling more water toward the poles. So sea-level is quite a variable benchmark.

We decided that maybe it would be more productive to abandon the sea-level benchmark and measure the height of mountains from their base to their tip. Then we'd at least have the land to give us a benchmark rather than the ever changing sea.

If we used this measurment we saw that Denali is the world's tallest above water mountain and that Mauna Kea is the world's tallest partially submerged mountain.



But, as we thought about it, how in the world do you tell where the base of a mountain is? Do you start with the shallow inclines that precede the steeper angles? Or do you go right to where the steep slopes really start?

In the end, wouldn't our ideas of what constitutes the base of a mountain be as variable as sea level?

So we searched for a better benchmark. Something unmoving. Something we could all agree on.

We came up with the core of the earth. Since we know the circumference of the earth, we can plot mathematically where the core is. Then we'd just have to find which mountain was furthest from the core of the earth.

That mountain happens to be Mount Chimborazo. It is located in Ecuador. And though it is shorter from base to tip that both Denali and Mount Everest, since the earth is tomato shaped, and the equatorial regions are furthest from the core, Chimborazo is the tallest mountain in the world.
What we're doing here is getting a concrete look at how the medium affects what you see. When we decided that this highest mountain in the world would be the one most elevated above sea level, we came up with Mt. Everest. When decided that base to tip measurement would be better, we came up with Denali. When we took the earth's core as our benchmark we came up with Chimbarozo.

Three different tallest mountains in the world using three different media.

The medium we use changes our perception of the world.

Crazy Gods

As we learned in the previous post, a tool (or medium) can completely color the way we see the world. A good example of this concept is the old saying, "If you're holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

The influence of a medium can go far beyond just affecting our physical actions, though, it can also change our entire worldview.

As an example, Galileo Galilei, armed with a new medium - the telescope - hypothesized that it was not the sun that orbited the earth, but the earth that orbited the sun. Galileo's heliocentric model was a new medium of thought. And boy did it get some danders up. Especially in the Catholic Church.

There was alot hanging on the idea that the earth was the center of the universe and that everything orbited around it. For example, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 include text stating that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." Then Psalm 104:5 says, "the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." Further, Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "And the sun rises and sets and returns to its place, etc."

The Church saw Galileo's theory as being a challenge to the Bible's inerrancy, and therefore the Church's authority.

But it went further than that. The idea of the earth being the center of creation gave Christians the feeling that they were important, that their god's eye was upon them and his hand in their lives. Moving the earth from the center of the universe implicitly questioned this conviction.

In other words, Galileo's theory turned the world on its head, and people didn't know how to deal with its implications, except by silencing him.

You'll also remember that much the same thing happened when Charles Darwin hypothesized evolution. The idea seemed to disprove the story of Adam and Eve, which Christians took literally. Evolution implied that mankind wasn't created specially by the Christian god, but rather, the result of chance. An idea completely incompatible with the Christian worldview.

So, again, an idea turned the world on its head. The Christian world is still dealing with the implications of evolution.

Thus, an idea, as well as an object, can be a medium that colors our entire worldview.


In the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, the peaceful life of an isolated Bushman tribe is upended when the pilot of an airplane throws a bottle out the window. The bottle lands in the Bushman's camp and the people start finding uses for it, rolling dough, smashing roots, music. But soon the people start fighting over the bottle and the chief decides that the gods must be crazy to have sent this tool because it creates strife in the community. He decides to take the bottle to the end of the earth and throw it off.

The bottle was a new medium, and it started to change the Bushman culture.

We did an exercise where we chose one item to drop on a Bushman tribe: a flashlight, a machine gun, an ATV, or a television. What would this new medium do to the tribe?

One group chose the ATV. They decided that the Bushmen would start using it to gather water, and then move on to using it to transport the carcasses of animals they had killed for food. Using the ATV this was would significantly reduce the amount of travel the tribe would have to do, because they would not have to follow the water around and they could get more food with less effort.

Eventually, the tribe would lose its nomadic ways and start to build more permanent housing. They would lose their skill at stalking prey because they could just zip up to an animal on the ATV and kill it. However, they would turn into very good drive-by marksmen.

In other words, the whole structure of these people's lives would change, all because of one medium. They would interact with the world in a completely different way.


Media scholar Neil Postman has compared the introduction of a new medium into a culture to introducing a single drop of red dye into a glass of water.


The result is not a glass of water with one drop of dye floating around, it's a glass of pink water. The dye has spread through and changed the entire glass of water, not just a tiny portion of it.

That's the way a new medium can affect a culture.

The Medium is the Message

Today we explored the concept pioneered by Marshal McLuhan known as, "The Medium is the Message."

A medium is a tool, anything from a screwdriver to a television to a pill. A medium is a tool that helps you do something. Though a medium (tool) helps you, it also colors the way you think about the world.

To clarify this concept I took you on a journey through the history of human language.

Toward the beginning of humankind's languaging time on earth, we did our abstract communication almost exclusively through our mouths. The mouth was our medium of communication.


When we communicate through our mouths, we speak. But oral communication doesn't last very long. It evaporates as soon as we stop speaking. Also, you need to have people nearby to hear the speech if you actually want to communicate. And, happily, if someone has a question about what you're saying, he or she can speak with you immediately.

So, when you use your mouth as a medium of communication, then communication is:

1. Present-oriented (it evaporates immediately)
2. A face-to-face activity (people need to be nearby).
3. A two-way operation (your audience can speak back)

Those three elements are the "message" of the "medium" of your mouth as a communicator.
Then along came written language. Written language as a medium sends a completely different message about communication than oral language sends.
Suddenly writing is future-oriented. Words can now stick around for years, possibly even outlasting their creators. A word that comes from a chisel doesn't just evaporate like speech, rather, it continues on. With the advent of writing language is suddenly durable.

Another important thing has changed as well. When you read something, you usually don't question the text. The reasons being, it won't answer. Writing has made language into a one-way communication: from author to reader. The reader cannot respond the way an audience member can.

So with the medium of written language sends two messages that are very different from the messages speech sends:

1. Language is durable. It is future-oriented.
2. Language is a one-way communication. The reader cannot respond to the author.
   

We've been looking at writing carved into stone. Below we have writing on a piece of papyrus. What's the difference between stone and paper as mediums. What message do these two different media send about the nature of the language inscribed on them?
Well, papyrus is certainly more portable. If I were a king and wanted to send a message, I'd much rather use papyrus than granite. However, If I wanted to inscribe my kingly commandments to rule my kingdom through the ages, I'd use stone. (Is that why Jehovah inscribed the ten commandments on stone instead of Post-it notes?)

Something that is written on a piece of paper has much less weight (literally and metaphorically) than something carved into stone. The fact that you took the time to carve something into stone means that your words are important and should last through the ages.

The medium is the message:

• stone = important
  
• papyrus = not as important.

Here's Seymour the Monk making a copy of the Bible. There are a lot of words in the Bible and he doesn't want to make any mistakes. So he proceeds slowly and carefully. It takes him months, if not years, to complete the copy.

Now it's true that he didn't carve it into stone. But the copying did take a significant portion of his life. And copying a book by hand is the only way to get a copy. It's a do-it-yourself affair. Therefore, books are very valuable.

So valuable, in fact, that books were often chained to their bookshelves, and the owners (often monasteries) would inscribe curses on them directed against anyone thinking about stealing the book.

For him that Stealeth a Book from this Library,
Let it change into a Serpent in his hand & rend him.
Let him be struck with Palsy, & all his Members blasted.
Let him languish in Pain crying aloud for Mercy,
Let there be no Surcease to his Agony till he sink to Dissolution.
Let Bookworms gnaw his Entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not,
When at last he goeth to his final Punishment,
Let the flames of hell consume him for ever & aye.

So, the fact that information was bound up in a book made that information extra special. The medium was the message.

But then along came the printing press.
And then suddenly books became much easier to acquire. A book that once took months or years of dedicated labor to produce could now be produced in a few weeks. And it wouldn't just be one book that was produced, it would be a whole slew.

Suddenly the medium of the book rendered written information less valuable. No longer did you have to make a pilgrimage to a monastery to read a book, you could buy it at a store. Books were suddenly everywhere, which meant that written information was also everywhere. And with that proliferation of books came a proliferation of writing, some of it good, some of it bad. The book's message had changed, it no longer said, "That contained herein be valuable enough to lay a curse upon he who stealeth it," rather "Aw, you can get this information just about anywhere. And if you lose it, no problem!"

• Hand-copied book = valuable
• Printed book = not as valuable
  

And then came the copy machine.
Suddenly the written word could be copied with almost no effort. As written language proliferated its value plummeted. A piece of paper, once the vehicle of a god's holy word, or the immortal utterances of poets and philosophers became the bearer of memos and agendas and fliers for Joe's Eatery.

• Printed book = valuable
• Copied paper = not as valuable
  

And then, the most recent medium in written language: the computer and its attendant Internet.


There is so much written language on the Internet that you could not read 1 percent of it if you spent a lifetime at it. Anyone with access to a computer and at least a nose, if not a finger or two, can post some written language on the Web.

Through the medium of the Internet written information has hit an historical low. It may contain the Bible and the works of the poets and philosophers, but it also contains the endless ramblings of the unwashed masses.

However, the Internet has restored to us what we had lost with the transition from oral to written communication. We can suddenly have a conversation again. We could not converse with books, but the instant nature of written communication on the Internet makes it so we can in fact, query the author of a piece of confusing writing. Two-way communication has been restored to written language.

So. The medium is the message. If you change the medium of communication, you change what communication means. Oral communication says something different than written communication. Paper says something different than stone. That which is copied by a monk says something different about the value of a piece of written communication than that which is copied by a copy machine.

And remember, you read this on the Internet.

Analogue vs. Abstract

Today we looked at a series of paintings reproduced below. As we did, I asked the class to tell me the story behind each painting.







Interestingly, the whole class agreed on the interpretation of the first four paintings. The class told me that the paintings depicted the crucifixion of Jesus. Not only that, but everyone agreed that them man on the middle cross was Jesus. Not only that, but they said that Jesus was in the process of paying for the sins of humanity. EVERYONE agreed on these points.

The class stuck to its guns as we progressed through the paintings. Even though the second picture doesn't actually seem to have a cross, and the third has strange flying objects and people not dressed in the style of ancient Jerusalem, and the fourth has a checkered floor, a weird looking cross, no beard on Jesus and no nails holding him to the cross. Despite these huge differences the class insisted that the paintings were all portraying the same story.

The fifth painting (by Picasso) gave us pause. We weren't quite sure what it was supposed to be. We all noticed a few forms that looked like feet, as well as a horse figure, but beyond that interpretations varied widely. Some of you thought that the central figure (in white) was a crucifixion and concluded that this painting was telling the same story as the others.

Then, along comes Bob the alien.
Bob has just landed on earth. He has no knowledge of earth's cultures or languages. He's completely ignorant of everything on this planet. You decide to show him the first picture of the crucifixion.


As an exercise, we put ourselves in the mind of the alien, what would he think was going on in the painting?

Among us we came up with a number of interesting interpretations. For example: perhaps Bob infers from the painting that people grow on trees and that these three men are being born. Or perhaps he thinks these three men are space travelers about to be launched into space on their tiny little rockets.

Many of us found this exercise to be difficult. We couldn't separate our story about the painting from the painting itself. When a story and an image are inextricably bound together in the minds of a large number of people, we call it an archetype.

As we go further into mass media studies we will start to see how heavily producers of images rely on archetypes to access your emotions and your mind.

Now that we have shown Bob the painting, we next show him this passage of text.

“When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.”

What will Bob make of this? Probably nothing. Since he has no knowledge of human language, the letters would be meaningless black marks to him.

Bob enjoys his tour of earth so much that he brings you to tour his planet. When you arrive he shows you a painting. It looks like this:



Now we are the ailens. We have no knowledge of Bob's culture. How do we interpret this image?

We came up with a number of interpretations. Perhaps it represents the cycles of seasons. Perhaps it is a schema that represents how the government works. Maybe it is a representation of the circle of life.

In fact it is a rendition of a Navajo sand painting called "Whirling Logs." It depicts a river journey a character must make to prove he is a man, and the gods he will meet along the way.

What we established with this exercise is the difference between analogue and abstract. When something is analogous, it represents the subject with great accuracy, such as a photograph of Brad Pitt.


When something is abstract, it codifies the subject. It renders, for example, the person Brad Pitt into eight letters:

B, R, A, D, P, I, T, T

which have no analogous relationship with Brad himself. The more we abstract something, the less analogous it becomes.

It is helpful to think of analogue and abstract as being on a continuum as shown below. (You can click to enlarge it.)

The painting that is most like life is very analogous, while the middle painting is more abstract using distorted shapes instead of analogous shapes. It is the text, however, that is most abstract, bearing no resemblance at all to the event of crucifixion.

Since the Navajo sand art is so abstract, and since we know little of their culture, we had a difficult time even knowing what the figures were meant to represent (just as Bob would would be completely bewildered by Picasso's rendition of the crucifixion). However, a Navajo would be able to see a lot in these abstract images.

As we discussed yesterday, images can't make arguments. Therefore, in order to be able to work an idea or a person into an argument or a series of related thoughts, we need to abstract that idea or person into language or text. Otherwise, the idea or person remains an analogue and we can do nothing but look at it.

The abstract enables thought.

The Essential Difference Between Images and Text

There is an essential difference between what an image can convey and what text can convey.

Text (or language) can convey thoughts and arguments. Images cannot (unless there is text in the picture).

To explore this concept we first read the following text:

"The sky is not blue. The fact is, of all the colors in the visible spectrum of the sun’s light, the only color the atmosphere reflects is blue. It absorbs all the other colors. Therefore, the sky is every color BUT blue."

The text is putting forth an idea that you could argue for or against. If I asked you to argue against it, you could do it by critiquing any one of its assertions.

Next we looked at this painting by Artemisia Gentileschi.

I asked what this painting was arguing. We came up with many ideas such as, "Don't mess with girls," "It takes two women to take down one man," and "Take a look at what happens to men who cheat on their wives."

We looked at some other images as well such as: (you can click to enlarge them)




For each image we came up with a number of different ideas of what it was arguing.

Then we went back to the beginning and I started to give you background information on each image. For example, with the Gentileschi painting, I asked what its argument would be if you found out that the artist had been raped in adolescence. Suddenly the interpretations changed. The painting was suddenly arguing "Men are pigs." Some class members thought that the artist was getting her revenge on the man who raped her.

The same thing happened with each image, the more information I gave you, the more your interpretations changed.

At one point I asked a class member to argue against one of the images. The most common response was, "Argue against what?" It was a very good question. Images contain no arguments. Any argument an image might inspire must be created by the viewer and formed into language.

This is an essential idea to understand as we head into mass media studies: text (or language) can put forth arguments, images can not.

In other words, a picture may be worth a thousand words, but the viewer is the one who must make those words.

PAWS Rubric

Following is the rubric for the writing portion of the PAWS test. We looked at this rubric today and scored a few essays according to it. I suggest you look through the rubric a few times before the test so you can remember what they're looking for.

Click on the rubric pages to enlarge them.

Address to the Prisoners

The following is condensed from a speech given by attorney Clarence Darrow (pictured above) to the inmates of Cook County Jail.

I really do not in the least believe in crime. There is no such thing as a crime as the word is generally understood. I do not believe there is any sort of distinction between the real moral condition of the people in and out of jail. One is just as good as the other. The people here can no more help being here than the people outside can avoid being outside. I do not believe that people are in jail because they deserve to be. They are in jail simply because they cannot avoid it on account of circumstances which are entirely beyond their control and for which they are in no way responsible.

There ought to be no jails, and if it were not for the fact that the people on the outside are so grasping and heartless in their dealings with the people on the inside, there would be no such institution as jails.

I do not want you to believe that I think all you people here are angels. I do not think that. While you would not have the least thing against me in the world you might pick my pockets. I do not think all of you would, but I think some of you would. You would not have anything against me, but that’s your profession, a few of you. Some of the rest of you, if my doors were unlocked, might come in if you saw anything you wanted — not out of malice to me, but because that is your trade.

There is no doubt there are quite a number of people in this jail who would pick my pockets. And still I know this, that when I get outside pretty nearly everybody picks my pocket. When I want to light my house or my office the gas company holds me up. They charge me one dollar for something that is worth twenty-five cents. When I ride on the street cars, I am held up — I pay five cents for a ride that is worth two and a half cents, simply because a body of men have bribed the city council and the legislature, so that all the rest of us have to pay tribute to them. And still all these people are good people; they are pillars of society and support the churches, and they are respectable.

There are a good many more people who go to jail in the wintertime than in summer. Why is this? Is it because people are more wicked in winter? No, it is because the coal trust begins to get in its grip in the winter. A few gentlemen take possession of the coal, and unless the people will pay $7 or $8 a ton for something that is worth $3, they will have to freeze. Then there is nothing to do but break into jail, and so there are many more in jail in the winter than in summer. It costs more for gas in the winter because the nights are longer, and people go to jail to save gas bills.

Long ago Mr. Buckle, who was a great philosopher and historian, collected facts and he showed that the number of people who are arrested increased just as the price of food increased. When they put up the price of gas ten cents a thousand I do not know who will go to jail, but I do know that a certain number of people will go. Whenever the Standard Oil Company raises the price of oil, I know that a certain number of girls who are seamstresses, and who work after night long hours for somebody else, will be compelled to go out on the streets and ply another trade, and I know that Mr. Rockefeller and his associates are responsible and not the poor girls in the jails.

First and last, people are sent to jail because they are poor. No man in his right senses will go into a strange house in the dead of night and prowl around with a dark lantern through unfamiliar rooms and take chances of his life if he has plenty of the good things of the world in his own home. If a man had clothes in his clothes-press and beefsteak in his pantry, and money in the bank, he would not navigate around nights in houses where he knows nothing about the premises whatever. It always requires experience and education for this profession, and people who fit themselves for it are no more to blame than I am for being a lawyer. A man would not hold up another man on the street if he had plenty of money in his own pocket. He might do it if he had one dollar or two dollars, but he wouldn’t if he had as much money as Mr. Rockefeller has. Mr. Rockefeller has a great deal better hold-up game than that.

The more that is taken from the poor by the rich, who have the chance to take it, the more poor people there are who are compelled to resort to these means for a livelihood. They may not understand it, they may not think so at once, but after all they are driven into that line of employment.

There is one way to cure all these offenses, and that is to give the people a chance to live. There is no other way, and there never was any other way since the world began, and the world is so blind and stupid that it will not see. If every man and woman and child in the world had a chance to make a decent, fair, honest living, there would be no jails, and no lawyers and no courts.

The English people once punished criminals by sending them away. They would load them on a ship and export them to Australia. England was owned by lords and nobles and rich people. They owned the whole earth over there, and the other people had to stay in the streets. They could not get a decent living. They used to take their criminals and send them to Australia — I mean the class of criminals who got caught. When these criminals got over there, and nobody else had come, they had the whole continent to run over, and so they could raise sheep and furnish their own meat, which is easier than stealing it; these criminals then became decent, respectable people because they had a chance to live. They did not commit any crimes. They were just like the English people who sent them there, only better. And in the second generation the descendants of those criminals were as good and respectable a class of people as there were on the face of the earth, and then they began building churches and jails themselves.

But finally these descendants of the English aristocracy, who sent the people over to Australia, found out they were getting rich, and so they went over to get possession of the earth as they always do, and they organized land syndicates and got control of the land and ores, and then they had just as many criminals in Australia as they did in England. It was not because the world had grown bad; it was because the earth had been taken away from the people.

If you have ever lived on a farm you understand that if you put a lot of cattle in a field, when the pasture is short they will jump over the fence; but put them in a good field where there is plenty of pasture, and they will be law-abiding cattle to the end of time. The human animal is just like the rest of the animals, only a little more so. The same thing that governs in the one governs in the other.

I will guarantee to take from this jail, or any jail in the world, five hundred men who have been the worst criminals and law breakers who ever got into jail, and I will go down to our lowest streets and take five hundred of the most hardened prostitutes, and go out somewhere where there is plenty of land, and will give them a chance to make a living, and they will be as good people as the average in the community.

The only way in the world to abolish crime and criminals is to abolish the big ones and the little ones together.

To take all the coal in the United States and raise the price two dollars or three dollars when there is no need of it, and thus kills thousands of babies and send thousands of people to the poorhouse and tens of thousands to jail, as is done every year in the United States — this is a greater crime than all the people in our jails ever committed, but the law does not punish it. Why? Because the fellows who control the earth make the laws. If you and I had the making of the laws, the first thing we would do would be to punish the fellow who gets control of the earth. Nature put this coal in the ground for me as well as for them and nature made the prairies up here to raise wheat for me as well as for them, and then the great railroad companies came along and fenced it up.

Make fair conditions of life. Give men a chance to live. Abolish the right of private ownership of land, abolish monopoly; make the world partners in production, partners in the good things of life. Nobody would steal if he could get something of his own some easier way. Nobody will commit burglary when he has a house full. No girl will go out on the streets when she has a comfortable place at home. The man who owns a sweatshop or a department store may not be to blame himself for the condition of his girls, but when he pays them five dollars, three dollars, and two dollars a week, I wonder where he thinks they will get the rest of their money to live. The only way to cure these conditions is by equality. There should be no jails. They do not accomplish what they pretend to accomplish. If you would wipe them out, there would be no more criminals than now. They terrorize nobody. They are a blot upon civilization, and a jail is an evidence of the lack of charity of the people on the outside who make the jails and fill them with the victims of their greed.

CLARENCE DARROW
1902

Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) is most well known for his role in the Scopes and Leopold-Loeb trials, but he also defended Eugene Debs, Big Bill Haywood and many other labor, antiwar and civil rights cases. More extensive discussion of his views on crime and punishment can be found in his books Resist Not Evil (1903) and Crime: Its Cause and Treatment (1922).

Expressive Exercises

If you have not yet gotten your essay to a 3 or above, or if you have not raised your word count to between 600 and 750, you should get those things done.

However, if you have gotten your essay to above 3, and between 600 and 750 words, copy and paste the following exercises into a Word document and. Complete the exercises and then email them to me. Please send the finished exercises in the body of the email rather than as an attachment. Thank you.


Break these long sentences into short, single-idea sentences.

Bobby, Skanky, and me were following our friends to Atlantic City, New Jersey and it was a dumb car ride all the way there and we were hitting and beating each other so when we got to Atlanta and our hotel room wasn’t ready so we went swimming for an hour then we went to the Silk Sleeve to play some foozball. When we got done we went to the room and found a big old bucket of glue on the way so Bobby opened it and took a few sniffs so I took a few sniffs because he called me a weenie and I am not a weenie so I took some. Then we went and ate at Under the Milky Way and it was really good then we went back to the room and got changed to go swimming again.

Skanky took a really big sniff and I took a few more little sniffs and we went swimming till 11 O'clock then we walked over to the Sleeve and played foozball for an hour then me and Skanky walked to the casino and we went to the gift shop and I bought a Pepsi and Skanky got a Dr. then we walked around the casino and avoided the security so we didn't get caught and kicked out of the casino then it got really boring so we walked back to the hotel and went to our room and watched American Idol till 11:45.

Then we paused the movie and watched the ball drop then Sheila came to our room and seen the bucket of glue on the table and Bobbie asked her if she wanted a sniff. She left the room and she went and called my mom and my dad and they called my cell phone and they asked if we had sniffed any glue and I said yes so she got way mad and told us to dump the rest out so we did. But it was kind of funny because that night Bobby got up cause he wanted to whiz and on the way he tripped over the garbage can where the bucket was and it totally spilled all over the floor and the next morning we saw that it had glued the garbage can to the floor.

The next morning we woke up and we ate at McDonald’s and then we were on our way home. When we got home my mom had a big long talk and I got grounded and my dad took my truck away and Bobbie got sent away to the school for glue sniffing kids. Then I saved my money and bought another truck but it doesn’t have wheels yet.

Break this up into paragraphs

Sixteen and invincible, one whole year driving now and I have yet to up yet. As I hear the stories of hitting dears, running into signs, rolling off in the bar ditch, following the car infront of you too closely, I laugh to my self, ponder how easily such an incident could be avoided, how I could out manuver a deer, and never fall asleep at the wheel. I had almost become one of these people one night. We was on our way to grandma's house, the car was pretty noisy, it was about eleven, so we decided to stopped at a gas station for some drinks and a restroom stop. Some of the circumstances still unknown to me, I believe it was kind of my fault, I should have been more caution, but the other driver had a play in it too. We was coming down the on ramp, and I had stopped at the sign, waiting for some traffic to pass by, figured that I was clear, but something distracted me, and before I knew it, I had moved us out in front of a semi. It was my fault, only because I bet there was a thousand feet between me and him, but I guess he was moving a lot faster then I thought and I should of paid more attention to this. My absentmindedness may have caused this not so smart decison, but thanks to lighting-fast youth reaction combined with Dodie's nice engine, we narrowly got of the way fast enough. Those big headlights coming at us fast, the sound of his horn blaring, I think about it from time to time, but it rarely crosses my mind. Life went on, we forgot about it, I was shook up a little, but it soon left my mind, that fear that compelled me to be cautious the rest of the trip. Few weeks up the road, we went to Preston for a cousin's birthday party during the summer, and as always we took the carter cut off through Kemmer, and on through Cokeville to the border, well we pulled out of Preston about eight, so it was late getting home. We had passed through cokeville, and was getting through the curvy canyon, particularly close to the Kemmer junction, crossing that bridge that you go across before you start seeing mines. Coming right out off of that bridge, we rounded the bend, I didnt spot it until about one hundred yards away, the roads one hundred percent pretty clear so I was nearly seventy mph. I slammed the breaks, and seeing that the other lane was open, I manuvered over, as the deer wasn't moving out from our lane. I was down to about thirty when we passed by it, but right as we drove passing, it whiped it's head around to face us, and we raked his antlers with the side of the car. I can still remember the rush of fear, my mom's arm shooting out to brace me for impact, the face of the deer as it turned at the worst moment. It wasn't hurt, it sure took off in a hurry actually. With but a couple of scratches on the hoof of the car, and about delivered my mom a heart attack, but I still learned from that experience, I never forget it, and I am always careful on that road, and now I am a very safe driver. Bottom line, life isn't a video game, you're not invincible, and you can't just restart from your last save if you goof up. Don't be cocky, anything could happen in the blink of an eye. That is the point.

Plot this story on a story graph. Place bolded numbers at the beginning of each sentence that has a plot point, then use those numbers to label the ups and downs on your story graph.

My grandpa was the best grandfather any child could have. He was the kind of person that gave you whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. He loved all of his grandchildren equally, he never took sides with anyone, he was always there for us when we needed him, and most of all, he had the most tender heart in the world.

One night, I was at a youth dance at my school. My dad came around 9:30 to pick me up. He was crying. I asked him what happened, he told me that grandpa was in the hospital and that i needed to go and visit him. So, that night, i went to the hospital and stayed with him the whole night. It was fun being around him because, I wasnt really that close to him. I mean, yeah, we would talk, but he would usually just ask me how school was going and stuff, other then that, we wouldnt talk at all, but i still thought he was the coolest person in the world. That night at the hospital, changed how i felt about everything. He was so much fun to be around, he had a passion for music as much as i did, he loved to talk, like i do, he liked to be active no matter what. I learned so much about him that night. So, i stayed with him every night he was in the hospital.

One day, in the hospital, he told me that he wanted to teach me how to play the Ukulele. So, i went home and got an Ukulele and came back to the hospital. He started teaching me what notes matched what chords etc... He taught me how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", and i thought i had accomplished so much just by being able to play that song. He was in the hospital for 2 weeks and i stayed with him every night. Every night, i learned how to play a new song, and learned another thing about him. One day, my grandma and I went to get him some lunch. When we returned, I could hear singing in the room. When we walked in,, it seemed as though he wasnt sick at all. He was entertaining the guests and other patients in his room. A i stood there, i couldnt help but cry because of how strong his spirit was in that hospital. That moment welded itself into my heart. I was able to learn so much from just being in his presence.

One Friday afternoon, the doctors came in to check on him. They told him that they would keep him for the weekend and that he could go home on Monday. He was very excited. After staying with him for 2 weeks and taking care of him, it was kind of a relief that he was able to go home, and i thought to myself how nice it would be to finally be able to get some rest. Saturday night came around and my dad came down to the hospital to visit him and to take some of his stuff home. He still was pretty excited that he got to go home soon. Sunday came and i didnt go to church because i was still down at the hospital with my grandpa, making sure that he was going to be safe. I told him i was getting ready to go home, since he was going to be able to come home tomorrow anyway, so I just told him that i would see him back at home. I really needed to go home and catch up on 2 weeks worth of sleep. So, that night, before I left, he gave me a blessing and in that blessing, i was told to continue doing good, and continue having the sweet spirit that i did. I was told of how blessed i would be if i did this, and then he told me not to ever forget him because he loved me and didnt want me to forget him when he was gone. I was surprised that he was telling me this because i was pretty sure that he would be coming home in the morning. So, i left that night thinking really hard about if I really wanted to go home and sleep, or if I wanted to stay just in case something happened. The doctors told me not to worry, he was perfectly healthy.

Monday morning, i woke to my phone ringing. I tried to answer it before it stopped but, it died, so i ran to my room and got my charger then came back out to the living room. I plugged it in, and it took my phone a while to start ringing again. When i answered it, all i heard was someone crying on the other line. I started panicking and so, I said, "Hello"? and then i heard my Grandma on the other line. She was crying so hard it was hard for me to make out what she was trying to say. Then she said, " Grandpa died". My phone dropped and i just stood there and cried. I didnt know what to do. It was 7 in the morning, and i didnt know what exactly to do. So, i went into my dad's room and woke him up and told him that Grandpa had passed on. We arrived to the hospital at 7:30. It was very heart breaking. I saw the nurses pulling out a gurney and i say a body on it. I wasnt sure that it was my Grandpa, but then i noticed the name on the side. I was hurt so bad.

I believe that this obstacle happened for a reason. It helped me realize that I shouldn't be taking life for granted. It taught me to make the most of my life with what I have and the people that i share it with. I was taught to take what i have and use it to help other people just like my grandpa did. Im so grateful for him and for the examples he was able to set for me and that i was able to learn from them. Although he is gone, he still remains with me through his music and through his spirit.

Revision Tips

So you've written the rough draft for your expressive essay, but feel stuck in revision. What can you do to make your paper better?

Happily, Captain Revision is here to help. He gonna kick yo flabby little ess ... ay into shape!


Cap. V (as he prefers to be called) just wants you to remember one little word:
P = Plot Points

Do the events you have written about to prove your point go up and down on the story graph? Your essay will be much more compelling if they do. If you find that your essay's plot points only go in one direction, find a place where you can change the story's direction, however briefly.
For more on this click here

P also = Punctuation

Which includes grammar, capitalization, paragraphing, etc. On the PAWS test you won't have access to a spelling or grammar checker, so you need to do it yourself. I noticed that many of you don't tend to capitalize I. It's OK to not capitalize I on Myspace, but on the PAWS test uncapitalized I's will hurt your score.

O = Zero in on Your Thesis
A thesis is the point of your essay. In the case of an expressive essay, your thesis will be located at the end of the essay. Your story will support your thesis. Make sure your thesis encapsulates the idea you want the reader to get from the story.

For example, if I had told the story of Red Riding Hood, my thesis paragraph might read: "This story has helped me navigate the treacherous world of used car salesmen. I just remember that though their words may sound sincere, under them hide ravening wolves setting up a trap for me. If they can do it, they'll eat not only me, but my grandmother too. For this reason, I always hack off the heads of used car salesmen before they can lure unsuspecting buyers into their webs of deception. And you should too."

W = Weak Places
Look for weak words, for example: "to be" verbs like did, had, done, am, are, were. These are plain boring words. Think of something more interesting.

For example:

Boring: My mom and I were at the store looking at shoes.

Interesting: My mom and I burst into Dillard's, our mission: shoe shopping.

Note that, among other things, we replaced "were" with "burst." Of course, we could replace were with almost anything. We slouched into the store; we dragged through the store, we raced into the store. Anything to spark the reader's imagination.

Boring = Find boring words and make them exciting.

Interesting = Hunt down boring words and inject them with excitement.

Expressive Essays

On the PAWS test, you will be required to write an expressive essay. As far as I can make out from the PAWS stuff, an expressive essay is an essay that uses a personal story to support an opinion.

The basic outline is:

1. Story

2. Thesis

To understand how an expressive essay might work, we read an expressive essay from Newsweek entitled, "I'm Not Who You Think I Am" (click on the link to read it). It was by a woman named Carol Piak who is tired of people seeing her only as "Asian." She implies that people who mistake her for other Asian people harbor kernels of racism. She establishes this idea in 300 words by telling about a few experiences she's had.

However, in the next 300 words Piak tells about how she mistook a woman from Piak's own country, causing her to wonder is Piak herself is racist.

Then in the next 300 words she tells about a time she actually mistook another little girl for her own daughter.

At the end of the essay Piak writes, "A plea, then, for all of us to take the time to look more carefully. For those who see the race and not the individual: look harder. And for those who, like me, may be hypersensitive after years of not being properly seen, keep in mind that while there are people who are racist, many others are merely distracted, overeager, careless, tired, old. We, the thin-skinned, also need to avoid applying the easy label."

We saw that Paik's essay followed story structure very well. It starts with her high on the graph (1), being righteously indignant about being mistook so often. But then she goes down hill, (2) committing the same mistakes she abhors in other people. Then she takes a real plummet (3) when she mistakes someone else for her own daughter. It is only at the end, (4) when she realizes that she is as likely to make mistakes as anyone else that she rises on the graph.

We could graph her story like this:
We worked on outlining the stories we wrote for bellwork according to this essay's format, outlining three events that act as turning points in the story, and then presenting our thesis at the end.

That's the basic structure of an expressive essay

First story point

Second story point

Third story point

(each story point being a place where the direction on the story graph goes up or down)

Thesis


We might also notice that the essay also followed story structure in that the author had a goal and a dramatic need. Her goal was to get people to see her as a person instead of as a stereotype. But she kept being stopped by the fact that she stereotyped other people as well. Which led her to her dramatic need: to be more understanding of the people around her.

The bellwork for today was to write an outline for the following prompt.

Many of us encounter obstacles in our lives. Some are small, like a school test. Others can be life-altering, like the loss of a loved one or a major injury. Write about an obstacle you have encountered. How did you overcome it. Did it make you a better person, or did it leave you bitter and cynical?

Write an outline using the formula provided in this blog post.