Friday, Oct. 27 -- Day 38 of 84

Two resources for analyzing your own writing:

Readible.io

Word Clouds

Assignment:

Revise your personal essay by focusing on the content and also by paying attention to any issues that may have been pointed out by the "Steps . . ." sheet.  In particular

• vocabulary & word choice
• sentence structure & length
• word frequency
• level of formality and sentiment (see Readible.io)

Assignment:
Plan to submit a revised and edited draft of your personal essay by Wednesday, Nov. 1.

Thursday, Oct. 26 -- Day 37 of 84

Two sources with valuable tips for writing the introductory paragraph:
--A Guide to Writing the Literary Analysis Essay
--How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay

General information on the expository essay and the comparative analysis:
For help with Essay Format:
Purdue Owl:  Expository Essay
" . . . Expository Essay vs. Persuasive Essay" (Pen and Pad)

Organization Patterns for a Compare/Contrast Essay from SJSU
How to Write a Comparative Analysis from Harvard College Writing Center

General information on the literary essay is at:
--A Guide to Writing the Literary Analysis Essay  (recommended!)

Tuesday, Oct. 24 -- Day 35 of 84

Questions for analyzing Diction and Syntax

Diction
1. What type of words draw your attention? (Verbs, Nouns, Adjectives…)
2. Is the language general and abstract or specific and concrete?
3. Is the language formal, informal, colloquial, or slang?
4. Does the text employ figurative language?
5. Are there words with strong connotations that indicate strong emotions?

Syntax
1. What is the order of the parts of the sentence?
         (Subject-Verb-Object) or (Object-subject-verb)
2. What are the sentences like?
         Periodic-moving toward something important at the end.
         Cumulative-beginning with an important idea and then adding details.
                  More on these two sentence types here.
3. Describe the types of sentences.
         (Simple, compound, complex, compound complex)
4. Does the writer ask questions?
5. How does the writer connect words, phrases, and clauses?

More on Diction and Syntax in Death of a Salesman is here.
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Today:
--Poetry Analysis

--Continue work on outlines and drafts -- with focus on syntax and diction.

--Assignments:  Complete draft of Tragic Character Comparison Essay for Friday.  Complete draft of Personal          Essay for Friday.

College Admissions Essay Resources -- Day 33 of 84

Assignment for Monday:
Write 400 words (freewrite or draft) either on one of your college admission essay prompts OR for your Tragic Character Comparison Essay.

Types of Response
--Personal essay:  focuses on reflection & personal growth.
--Essay of Reminiscence:  presents one or more past experiences.
--Essay of Experience:  presents one or more past experiences and relates them to the present and the future, focusing on what was learned.

For any of these essays, there is no set format or magic formula to follow.  The one thing to avoid is 5-paragraph essay format!.  Instead, the structure of your essay should arise organically from what you have to say and from how you want your reader to experience it.  Your essay will have a beginning, middle, and end but what you do with each of these should be based on what you are trying to communicate and what effect you would like it to have.  Keep in mind that, more than anything, your essay is an opportunity to share your unique personhood with your readers.
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A topic brainstorm sheet is available here.
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The College Board has useful section on Essay Skills for the college admissions essay. Included are a section on how to choose a topic and tips on writing the essay itself.

Samples of successful essays can be found at APStudyNotes, Johns Hopkins,  quintcareers.com/ and at
college-admission-essay.com

The Common Application essay prompts are at http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/a/common-application-essay-prompts.htm 

Bad topics for your college essay are graciously provided for you at:
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/tp/bad-essay-topics.htm

A list, "Top Ten Common College Admissions Mistakes," is at
www.college-admission-essay.com/collegeadmissionessaymistakes.html

An extensive list of college admissions essay topics is at:
http://www.eduers.com/University/College_Admission_Essay_Topics.html

True fact: You can pay more than $1000.00 to have a professional essay editing service such as EssayEdge help you with your essay. (Or you can just ask me and get help for free).

The College Board suggests you compete the following as part of your brainstorming process:

• Discover Your Strengths: Do a little research about yourself: ask parents, friends, and teachers what your strengths are.
• Create a Self-Outline: Now, next to each trait, list five or six pieces of evidence from your life—things you've been or done—that prove your point.
• Find Patterns and Connections: Look for patterns in the material you've brainstormed. Group similar ideas and events together. For example, does your passion for numbers show up in your performance in the state math competition and your summer job at the computer store? Was basketball about sports or about friendships? When else have you stuck with the hard work to be with people who matter to you?

Thursday, Oct. 19 -- Day 32 of 84

Tragic Character Comparison Essay
-- Fill in outlines.
--Gather quotes, text details.

Assignment:

--Complete draft of outline (include quotes and other detail from the text).  A sample outline is here.
--Bring prompt for college admissions essay or brainstorm list for personal essay.

Tuesday, Oct. 17 -- Day 30 of 84

Timed Essay -- 5 to 7 minutes to complete (if needed)
"Dead Boy" Debrief

Death of A Salesman Discussion
--Character Diagram
--Willy & Oedipus Comparison Chart
--Quotes, symbols, & themes

Essay Prompt & Outline for Essay

Strategies for Getting Started

Assignment:
Complete draft outline for essay

Plan for Monday, Oct. 16 -- Day 29 of 84

--Review poetic devices used in Ransom, "Dead Boy"

--40-minute timed essay on "Dead Boy"

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Assignment:
Complete Oedipus & Willy Loman Comparison Chart
 

Plan for Friday, Oct. 13 -- Day 28 of 84

for Review:
Death of a Salesman movie trailer
Death of a Salesman (full length film)
"Death of a Salesman in 60 Seconds" (commentary)

for Sharpening Your Focus:
on Tragedy, Fate, Fatal Flaw, Hubris . . . 

You will be writing an expository essay.  For help with Essay Format:
Purdue Owl:  Expository Essay
" . . . Expository Essay vs. Persuasive Essay" (Pen and Pad)

Organization Patterns for a Compare/Contrast Essay from SJSU
How to Write a Comparative Analysis from Harvard College Writing Center

--What is Literature?  Handout & Assignment

--Selected videos

--Kahoot

--Create Character Diagrams 

--Complete Oedipus & Willy comparison chart

--Intro. to Resources

Assignment for Monday:

• Review texts as needed
• Review resources (see links above)
• Complete Oedipus & Willy Comparison Chart
• Collect quotes and begin drafting essay

Upcoming:
--2 poems (handouts)
--Write a timed essay comparing the two poems

Plan for Wednesday, Oct. 11 -- Day 26 of 84

--Annotations on 5 quotes
--Intro. to Character Diagram
--Read DOAS from page 101

Assignment:
1. Complete reading the play (to page 139).  Re-read sections as needed.
2. Complete character diagram (9 or more characters; 4 or more groups; 30 or more adjectives or labels)
3. Write down 2 more quotes and an annotation for each.

Plan for Tuesday, Oct. 10 -- Day 25 of 84

--Complete Annotations for 5 quotes assigned on Thursday.
--Discussion based on

• annotations, pp. 34 - 69
• other reactions on reading
• background reading
• briefly revisit comparison chart.  Look to add more parallel themes.

Read Death of a Salesman from page 71.

Assignment:

--Read DOAS, pp. 91 - 101

--5 more quotes from the reading (pp. 71-101) that seem important and point toward theme.

"More thrilling than Radio.  More gripping than Television."

Plan for Thursday, Oct. 5 -- Day 24 of 84

Assignment Check -- Oedipus prompts (2 paragraphs) -- Tuesday assignment

Assignment Check -- 5 quotes from pages 12 - 34 that seem important and perhaps point toward theme.  For example:  "Be liked and you will never want."  --Willy, in Death . . .  page 33.

During class, you will make an annotation for each of the 5 quotes.

We will begin reading on page 34.

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Assignment for Tuesday, Oct. 10:
--Read Death of a Salesman, pp. 49 to 69 (end of Act 1).
--5 more quotes from the reading that seem important and point toward theme.
--Read the first two sections, "Before You Read . . ." and "Motifs and Themes" on the DOAS page here.

Death of a Salesman Resources

Wednesday, Oct. 4 -- Day 23 of 84
Death of a Salesman Resources  

Death of a Salesman online (pdf format)

Death of a Salesman Notes & Terms

Storyboard That (includes themes, motifs, and sample storyboards)

Towards the Examined Life --- Notes for Reading

Tragedy & the Common Man -- Arthur Miller

Oedipus & Willy Comparison Chart

Plan for Tuesday -- Day 22 of 84

--Open your pdf copy of Oedipus and use Kami to complete annotations for pages 87 - 92.
--Selected discussion questions.
--Intro. to Death of a Salesman & begin reading as a class.

Assignment:
--Oedipus reflection continued:  (1) Choose one discussion question from the Oedipus Rex Discussion Question document (see Google classroom or access the document here) and respond in a well-developed paragraph; (2) Also choose one of the notes from Aristotle's poetics (see same document) and respond in a well-developed paragraph.

Note:  Your writing in the two paragraphs above is intended to be informal and exploratory in nature.  This should feel more like writing a journal than an essay.  This is not about being right but in exploring, developing, and testing out your thoughts .

Plan for Monday, Oct. 2 -- Day 21 of 84

The next section of Oedipus Rex is here. We will begin reading this version on page 82 on Monday.

Assignment for Tuesday: 1. Complete 5 or more annotations for pp. 82 - 87 (the part we read in class today). 2. Read to the end of the play (pp. 87 - 91) and mark 5 places where you will later add annotations.