Sorry about the break in the image...
I'm wasting away here, guys.
Your assignment today was to begin annotating Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." This is a near-perfect example of a solid argument, one that carefully balances the rhetorical triangle while employing a myriad of rhetorical figures. You've gotta love that.
Your job for tonight is to annotate passages you find interesting (see your handout "AP Review Through Vocabulary" for why this is important, as well as how to do it), and mark the appeals to emotion, to logic, and from Dr. King's character. (Highlighters work well for this.)
We will discuss our reactions in class tomorrow.
Read More......I've made two changes to the Windmills and Giants with hope that it will allow me to respond to your questions faster and keep you better informed when I update the blog.
First, a twitter widget at the top of the sidebar. This will allow me to make quick updates, respond to comments if I'm away from my computer (*gasp*—it does happen), and allow you to receive these updates on your phone if you really want to. (Helpful if you have to share the computer with a sibling or parent who hogs the connection, or don't have access at home.)
Second, a Feedburner subscription link in grey at the top of the page. I realize many of you do not use RSS readers, so I thought this might help. Basically, you click on the link, enter your email address and receive updates whenever I post to the site. It's like our own newsletter!
As always, let me know if you have any ideas to make the site better for you, or if any of the new widgetness isn't working.
Read More.........by popular demand:
- Font: Times New Roman or Calibri, 12pt
- Paragraph: Double-spaced, half inch indentation
- Page Layout: One inch margins all around; last name and page number in Header section (see below for explanation); student name, etc. same size and spacing as Paragraph; no space before or after Essay Title (original, not the name of the work you're writing over)
- Quotations Shorter Than Three Typed Lines: Quotation marks around all words pulled verbatim from the work, citations after direct quotations and paraphrasing, citation (author's name and page number in parentheses) before the final punctuation
- Quotations Longer Than Three Typed Lines: No quotation marks, citation in parentheses after final punctuation, indented 1" (see illustration).
- Adding Last Name/Page Number to Header:
- 1. Double click in header area (or click View in the toolbar, then Header/Footer)
- 2. Align your text to the right side (Click :
) - 3. Type your last name (no first name, comma, or other punctuation)
- 4. Hit the spacebar once
- 5. Go to View in the toolbar, then Header/Footer, then Insert Page Number:
- 6. Click Close on the Header/Footer toolbar or double click in the body of your paper to return
I'm just beginning to look over your drafts now, so I will post any advice later as another post, but I thought I would get this up now.
Here are our notes from the board today, which are essentially a review of the devices. Focus on your papers; comment if you have any questions.
Oh! Here is the official website, which features the trailer and such. (Note the awards listed; what do they do for the argument? Anything? Keep authority in mind.)
We will be writing drafts of our analysis of Maxed Out this weekend. You should write it as you would an article analysis, with a summation of the argument in the first paragraph, an analysis of the argument (not the topic) in the body paragraphs, and a concluding statement of the movie's persuasiveness. This assignment is worth 80 points (think a month's worth of article analyses), so spend some time on it. Here are our notes from the board:
While we didn't get as far as I would have liked, this (coupled with your notes) should give you a good starting point. Think of the above as an annotation of the movie; you won't necessarily structure your analysis this way, but it is a good summation of the movie's structure and the argued impact of many negative influences.
As always, if you have any questions please post a comment for the good of all or send me an email:
Today we began watching Maxed Out, a 2006 expository documentary on American debt. As we watch, take note of how the argument is presented, keeping in mind the various elements that make up the movie:
- Audio
- Spoken
- Background
- Soundtrack
- Video
- Shot composition
- Shot
- Mise en scene
- Camera placement
- Framing
- Subject arrangement
- Camera angles
- Written
- Title
- Labels
- Subtitles
We will discuss articles tomorrow and finish up the movie on Wednesday. You will be analyzing the film (as you would an article) on Friday.
[BTW, Rope was filmed in ten shots—not bad for an eighty minute film.]
[Also, there was no mention of a kangaroo in the seven-year-old's "rampage" at the zoo in Australia...]
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