"The Shining Houses" By Alice Munro

I think Mary is the victim of social oppression in this story because her "friends" are trying to force her to take their side against Mrs. Fullerton. When Mary refuses to sign their petition for a lane, she realizes that she has served herself up as a "conversational delight for the next coffee party". Because of this, her group of friends do not respect her opinions and did not even listen to her side of the story. In this story Mary does not really have the freedom to do as she chooses because she knows that there will be consequences for her doing what she thinks is right. She does not really have freedom of speech either because none of them even listened to her and they all just thought she was being ridiculous and will most likely talk about her behind her back as soon as she leaves. They "listen" to her politely but don’t really listen, and as soon as she’s done they ignore her opinion and start trying to convince her that their way is the right way and the only way. Her group of friends think that they are the victims because they have to look at an ugly old eyesore house and they can’t make the old lady get rid of it. Mrs. Fullerton, if she knew what was going on, might think she is the victim because she is being driven out of her home by a bunch of unfriendly neighbors who don’t like her because her house isn’t geometrical. However, I think Mary is the victim of social oppression in this story because she isn’t given what should be her right to voice her opinions or do what she thinks is right without paying the price for it.

"Ode to a Nightingale"

Why does Keats bother with seeking out the bird to write his poem?
Keats wants to immerse himself in nature. He wants to feel all the things that the nightingale’s song makes him feel without interruption from any other thoughts of his.

How?
Keats’s poem seems to be all about the nightingale and how it’s song makes him feel. There are no apparent outside influences on this piece of poetry other than the nightingale. Keats achieves this by engrossing himself with the nightingale’s song and the feelings it creates. He pays no attention to the outside world in his poem because there is nothing mentioned about the things happening in his life that make him feel the way he does.

Keats uses rhetorical devices to make his poem flow smoothly and to give it a sad and beautiful tone. Alliteration is common in his poem such as “deep-delved”, “breezes blown”, “self-same song” and “still stream”. Assonance such as “beechen green” also achieves the same effect.

Informal Essay

I would say that I am a typical teenager. Monday through Friday I attend school, followed by volleyball practice, and I also play basketball for Kitchener. Between practices, tournaments and homework I should still have time to go out and have fun, right? Wrong. My hectic schedule makes it a rare occurrence for me to get the required 8 to 9 hours of sleep at night, and even more unlikely for me to show up to school with all my homework completed. It may not be obvious to most, but there is an immense, superfluous amount of stress that burdens the average student athlete.

It is an infrequent circumstance for me to be prepared for all of my classes. I seem to always be finishing up an assignment or homework at lunch, and see others doing the same. This is not because I don’t budget my time wisely. I do budget my time, but there is just not enough of it. I haven’t gone out with my friends since the short break after first semester exams. I feel that taking a break to have fun is a very important thing for kids my age to do, and I wish very much that I could do it more often. Every night I ask myself ‘should I go to practice and get behind on my homework, or skip practice, complete my assignment, and get benched at the next game? Or should I do both and get 3 hours of sleep?’ The question ‘should I take a break and go out tonight?’ is one that has not be pulled from the back of my mind in quite some time.

The pressure and anxiety of being a senior student athlete does not rest when I do. In the few hours when I am eating, driving or sleeping, I am constantly concerned about university acceptances and paying tuition, and wondering ‘what do I want to do with my life?’ It seems like every time that question is posed, (which is often as it has become the new icebreaker for conversation) I have no answer. This worries me. Some adults tell me not to fret, that I have ages to sort it out. I don’t have ages. The deadline for university applications has already passed, seeing me applying to the programs I think I want. Even now I do not know if I chose the right ones. I feel nervous not knowing, not having a plan, and appearing lost. This making it up as I go along didn’t used to scare me. That used to be the rule I lived by: one day at a time. My opinions, desires, likes and dislikes varied with the days. It did not matter because I had no important decisions with looming deadlines attached.

Now I am back to one day at a time, but instead of just living that way, it feels like I am struggling through day by day. Like I can only make it through a tough basketball practice by knowing I can sleep after. Like I can only finish a mountain of homework by not thinking about doing the same thing tomorrow. Like I can only make my way through school, volleyball, basketball, and then homework by not looking more than one hour ahead, and not focusing on doing the exact same thing the next day. It is a strategy that works for me, but I don’t like it. Living day by day because it is the only way to avoid a mental breakdown is much, much different from living in the moment because I have no decisions, no troubles, and no cares.

Persuasion

Monday should not exist. I do not know of a single person who enjoys Mondays. If everyone hates them so much, then why do we have them? Good question. I don’t think we should have them. If there were no Mondays, there would be no students sleeping through classes and being late to first period at the beginning of every week. This, in turn would mean less grumpy teachers. One could deduce that less grumpy teachers will dish out less homework. Less homework would be wonderful. For those people with full time jobs, they would not have to endure that sinking feeling of dread every Sunday night. I know that feeling and it can really ruin a Sunday night. Instead of showing up reluctant and huffy to work on Mondays, we could all show up energetic and cheerful on Tuesdays. If the whole wide world detests Mondays, can’t we just get rid of them and take one small step towards making our world a better place?

Argument

The sport of volleyball is a difficult, demanding, competitive sport that requires incredible speed, quick thinking and the drive to win. It is by no means a ‘sissy’ sport, but by the way the girls who play it dress, it is seen that way. There is absolutely no advantage to wearing skin tight and extremely undersized spandex shorts to play volleyball. I can, however, think of many hindrances of this impractical attire. Jumping, diving, or even walking causes them to ride up and that is both uncomfortable and in many cases unattractive. It can be a distraction while playing the game to worry about whether or not your shorts are covering your bottom, and picking at them during play can result in your missing a ball you should have gotten up. I believe that the skill in this game is often overshadowed by the exhibitionism that has unfortunately become a very large part of the sport. Its is a fact that any girl wearing a pair of long, loose, nylon shorts can hit, pass, set or serve a ball just as well as anyone wearing nearly nonexistent spandex shorts, and they can do so without the wedgie.

"Science and Beauty" by Isaac Asimov

1. a) What is the thesis of Asimov’s essay?

The thesis is stated near the end of the essay in the statement ‘And all of this vision – far beyond the scale of human imaginings – was made possible by the works of “learn’d” astronomers.’

b) How is this essay organized: inductively or deductively?

This essay is organized inductively.


3. Identify and explain the significance of the following rhetorical devices in the essay:

a) rhetorical question

“Should I stare at a single leaf and willingly remain ignorant of the forest?”

The significance of this rhetorical question is o engage the reader and force them to think along the lines that the author is thinking. The question has only one simple answer, but it makes the reader think about other possible answers, and realize there are none, which proves the authors point effectively.

b) imagery

“worlds with pink and desolate deserts”

The imagery in this quote sparks curiosity about these other worlds that the author speaks of. The audience pictures the “desolate desert” in the mind and tries to think of what another world in our galaxy might look like.

c) metaphor

“stars that pulsate endlessly in a great cosmic breathing”

These metaphors contribute to the essay similarly to the imagery. They relate the beauty of the stars and planets that most people admire but don’t think too much about to the intriguing scientific views of the galaxy.

d) personification

“hurricanes that could gulp down the whole earth”

Personification gives human qualities to nonhuman things such as, in this case, stars and planets. This helps the audience to think about new aspects of the stars and planets, and from different points of view.


4. Asimov’s essay is an excellent example of coherence in writing – each part of the essay is seamlessly linked to the parts before and after it. Select any two consecutive paragraphs and explain how Asimov accomplishes the effective transition.

The transition from paragraph 8 to paragraph 9 was particularly smooth. Paragraph 8 begins with “Those bright spots in the sky...” and describes planets in a way that they appear as fascinating undiscovered worlds. Paragraph 9 is then introduced with the words “Those other bright spots...” and illustrates stars in an original and interesting way. The similar beginnings to these paragraphs link them both very well to paragraph 7 which stated that we should look up at the sky and see more than pretty lights.

Cause and Effect

You know how everyone has that one thing that terrifies them? Maybe it’s spiders, or clowns, or heights. Joe Joman is afraid of earth-bound projectiles. He is afraid of something falling on his head. He can’t explain it. It is not a rational fear unless the object that strikes him happens to be large enough to severely injure him. Then again, many fears are not rational, for example being afraid of long words, or the monster under your bed. Joe knows his fear is illogical, but that does not keep him from pausing underneath the large oak tree at the edge of the park. There are dangerous airborne projectiles everywhere at the park. Joe decides to take the long way home, avoiding the danger zone. He is about to turn around when suddenly an acorn falls from above and strikes him one the very top of his bald head. Joe is stunned, and scared silly. The acorn falls to the ground. Instead of realizing that this experience wasn’t so bad, and being cured of his irrational fear, Joe sprints all the way back home to his apartment where he locks himself in and swears to never leave the safety of his roof again as long as he lives. To this day Joe only emerges from his apartment every third Friday to venture across the street to the grocery store with a protective metal bowl on his head.

Comparison and Contrast

You would think that there would be absolutely no similarities between a vast expanse of snow and a sandy desert, but they actually have a lot in common. Both are long, flat stretches of land that do not have any helpful landmarks, and no extreme changes in colour. A desert wind whips up the sand in the same way an arctic wind churns the snow, making it difficult to see, and quite easy to get lost. Both deserts are an uncomfortable temperature for humans, one too hot and one too cold. Snow deserts do not seem to be home to any organisms, but deserts hold many types of lizards, and plants like cactuses that are acclimatized to the hot, dry weather. The most prominent similarity to me is that I would never want to be stuck in either one.

Classification and Division

In a game of basketball the team that makes the least mistakes will win the game. And so the strategy is to find your opponent’s weaknesses and exploit them. In warm up, and in the opening minutes of a game I am always watching my opponents for individual, as well as team strengths and weaknesses. I ask myself which girls can handle the ball under pressure. Who can shoot the contested jumper? Who has a weak left hand? Which girls play low in the post and which ones play on the perimeter? Who is slow, who is fast, and more importantly, are they faster than me? Noticing these things will help my team take advantage of their weak spots defensively and offensively, forcing them to make mistakes. These are all important things to notice, but I also catalog whether my opponents are tough or not. The girls who fall into the “tough” category are the ones who are scrappy, aggressive, hard-working, and they will win the game at all costs. The girls who are in the “not tough” category will not hit the floor for a ball, and will not willingly take a hit for their team. They are timid, unconfident and not very skilled. They will be easily forced to make mistakes, and so my team will pick on them. Right now it seems impudent for me to think or say such a thing, but any athlete knows that when you get on the court or field, you do whatever it takes to win.

Metacognitive Reflection #1

Unfortunately, I was away on the day we did socratic circles, so instead of reviewing the feedback evidence of my role in the circle, I am reflecting on my role on the volleyball team. When I play my favourite sport (basketball) I am usually very boisterous and confidently loud and vocal. I usually talk to my teammates a lot on the court and offer advice, encouragement or criticism. However, when I play volleyball I am still encouraging, but I do not offer advice or my opinions very often because volleyball is not a sport that I know and understand well. If I had been at school for the socratic circles, it likely would have been the same way. I generally do not speak up about things I am not confident about. In the socratic circles I most likely would have been unconfident and therefore would have kept any opinions I formed to myself from fear of negative evaluation. This would have been very different if, say, I was talking to my friends about basketball or my favourite TV show. I tend to be very opinionated and vocal about the things I love. This is very unusual for me because I mostly don’t care what anybody (other than my friends and family) thinks of me. However, the one exception to this seems to be that I am afraid of peers thinking of me as stupid or a “dumb blonde”.

I know that any opinion or idea that I form will not be dumb if it is well thought through and honest. I also know that if it is an honest opinion, nobody will chide or think less of me for voicing it. This is what I will try to convince myself for our next socratic circle day.

I’m not sure that I can affix an accurate adjective label to myself for my role in an oral activity, because it would depend on the topic of discussion. In english class, I would be most likely to listen very carefully to others and mull thinks over in my head. I might convince myself to create a little input occasionally, but not often. In a socratic circle, I might be described as something along the lines of “good listener” or “quiet thinker”.

"A Fire Truck" by Richard Wilbur

The purpose of this poem is to illustrate the “loud, obvious” presence of a fire truck racing down the street. The writer is an observant bystander, perhaps someone wandering down the street who is “purged of nuance” by the “uproarious gear”, “squall of traction” and “headlong bell” of the fire truck. The poet conveys the loud conspicuousness of the truck as well as the admiring it’s “phoenix-red simplicity” and beauty.

This is good poetry because it starts with an every day object that most people don’t really take notice of, and describes it in a way that makes it seem beautiful. This poem uses rhetorical devices such as alliteration: “shocked street”, personification: “as you howl beyond hearing” and rhyme to convince the reader of the magnificence of the fire truck. This poem is also good because it is short and sweet. The author has chosen his words very carefully in order to be descriptive, accurate, and emotional. However, the expressive adjectives he uses are not an effort to be “clever by half”, but they are beautifully chosen words that communicate his feelings quite effectively. The purpose of this piece of poetry is easy to make out because the writer does not overdo it. He keeps it as short and simple as possible while still transferring his deep and intricate feelings to the reader through this poem.

You Call This Literature?

By Ashley Laframboise

Looking through the "Literature" section, I expected to find articles on Woolf and Morrison, Pound and Hazlitt, but instead I found that the name "Dan Brown" appeared as frequently as candy in a sweet shop. Brown’s earth-shattering theory is not even his own, and his writing is generally quite uninspired. I find it appalling that we let a best seller based on a juicy plot characterize the literature we believe we should to read.

Yes, popular literature has hit an unparalleled low. Fine literature, like the books in the back of Chapters, is being overlooked while we focus on the flashy pens and calendars at the front of the store. On the tables nearest the entrance are shiny pop fiction bestsellers, or anything with the Oprah Book Club approval sticker. It took almost a century before William Faulkner, only when Oprah recommended a three-volume set of his “best work”, was recognized as a valuable writer. We tend to read what Oprah recommends, or what we find at the front of Chapters, and the few of us who covet further work of an author are scarcely able to find any in the store. We all seem to crave what someone else feels is "best," because we don’t want to do the digging and thinking for ourselves. Instead, we gather bits and pieces, only caring to read the literature that the New York Times deems "Brilliant" and "Dazzlingly unique", as if they aren’t all developed using the same recipe.

Though some people are unaware, Canadian writers are out there. The most recognized of them being the ones who base their stories in the mid-western U.S in order to sell more copies. Many of us have never read anything by Atwood or Munro, who are unsurprisingly not even being considered in Chapters' "Best Selling Novels," while others like Henighan are vastly disregarded. It seems we would all prefer to read up on astrology and fashion, picking up fuzzy pens while we're at it. We attempt to escape our busy lives by numbing our brains with the unoriginal world where a beautiful young woman falls head-over-heels for some man who has some dark and foreboding secret. People crave predictable plots with happy endings, instead of reading about things that really matter. Literature is what makes us human, but if all we read is mass-market, bestselling, clichéd plot-driven books, I'm concerned about what that says for humanity.

Process

The Spider and the Wasp by Alexander Petrunkevitch is an example of good writing. It is also a good example of a process because all of the facts are presented at the beginning and then strung together at the end to form the main process. As the reader I was interested by all of the facts that were given in the first part of the piece, but I didn’t see how they all fit together until the author began to describe the fascinating process of the wasp laying her egg on the spider. I don’t have time to write any more because it’s time for class.

Good and Bad Writing

1. The first piece of writing is bad because it has no clear thesis and therefore no direction at all. The unclear thesis is then followed by a series of points that neither prove the claim or make any sense at all. This paragraph gets “hyped up” by using speech such as “Ethical Relativism is of a mind to say that whatever one’s culture says is right is the right thing for him or her to do”. This point does not relate to the opening statement, “Within our society, it has been shown that there is an individual”. This paragraph has no direction and no purpose. It hurts my head to try to understand it.

2. The second paragraph (which is just one long sentence) is “too clever by half”. It uses big words and stuffs them all into one very long sentence that the reader becomes lost in. The writer is making a simple claim much more complicated to understand.

3. This piece of writing “thinks too much of itself”. The writer is convinced of the claim he/she is making, but makes no real effort to convince the reader. Because of this, paragraph 3 also “ignores the reader”. The information that the writer offers as proof is his/her own opinion with no actual fats to back it up, so it is “telling lies”. This piece is hard to follow and seems to come to false conclusions without any proof.

4. This piece of writing is good because it is clear and concise. It states only information that is relevant to the topic and does not overdo its sentences with too many big words. It is very easy to follow and understand.

5. Paragraph 5 is an example of good writing because it has a clear direction. It is aware of the reader and uses the quotation “Colors are the smiles of nature” to grab the reader’s interest. This piece is clear in it’s direction, easy to follow, and uses scientific proof to draw conclusions, and not just statements of opinion.

6. The last piece is aware of the reader and captures their attention right away with an interesting question, “Can a machine think?” It goes on to provide clear and rational ideas to back up its argument. It is well directed and easy to follow, and it also appeals to most readers’ interests.

The concept of audience is a very difficult factor to consider when assessing good and bad writing. If the target audience is not made clear, it can be hard to distinguish good from bad writing. A piece of writing, even if it is very good, may not be recognized as good writing by someone who is not part of the target audience. For example, my parents are unlikely to be able to understand an email or text message that is sent to me by a friend, but I can comprehend it perfectly without having to think much at all. (Maybe that’s a bad example..) Audience can also be the most decisive factor in evaluating good and bad writing, but only if the target audience is known. For example, if I read a novel that uses big words and very intricate descriptions, I may consider it good writing because it is expressive and captivating. However, if I realized that the intended audience for this book was public school children, I would reevaluate the writing as bad, because it would not appeal to its target audience.