Friday, April 18, 2014

2.05 Note Taking Styles

"The Bet"

“02.05 Note Taking Styles”
Notes on “The Bet”, by Anton Checkov
  •  The banker had a party about fifteen years ago in the autumn.
  • The old banker remembered a conversation that he had with some of his guest all about the capital punishment.
  • Some guests were disagreeing with others and their opinions that they had on it.
  • The old banker was young at the time and had made a bet with a lawyer. Stating and telling him that he wouldn’t last fifteen years in a prison.
  • When the bet was made and final the lawyer stayed in a part of the house all alone and isolated from society and life. In return the banker would give him two million dollars.
  •  The lawyer was only allowed to drink some wine, have tobacco, write letters, and read book. He also was allowed to have an instrument.
  •  Once the banker had realized how ridiculous the bet they had made was he then decided that he should have never agreed to the bet they made because nothing would have been proven.

4.08 Free Choice Blog

For this assignment, I chose to do the first chapter of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald since I am also reading it for my English class. The first chapter starts off with the introduction of the main characters which include Nick Caraway, Tom Buchanan, and Daisy Buchanan. Not only are they introduced, but the way they are described the readers can tell that their relationships are complicated and dramatic. The first chapter also describes the setting of Long Island in the 1920s and all the fancy houses and the decor.

What was your personal reaction to this reading selection?
I really enjoyed reading this chapter as it was descriptive and made me want to keep reading. The dialogue between the characters was very interesting and it made me wonder what else would happen.

What did you believe the author's intent was, and what patterns of organization did you observe?
I think from this first chapter, the author's intention was to grab the readers attention and make them want to continue. I noticed there was a chronological organizational pattern in this first chapter since it showed how the narrator met each one of the character step by step.

4.05 Bias Analysis

04.05 Bias Analysis

Blank Graphic Organizer

http://www.stopbullying.gov/index.html
http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/all/article/282362/A-bullying-Satire/
Issue: Bullying
First View: Anti-Bullying
Author: written by the stopbullying website
Facts and Opinions:
  • Bullying affects millions of students all around the world and it affects not only the students being bullied, but those around them
  • Though sometimes it cannot be seen, it is still extreme and a lot of the times adults don't understand how bad it can get because they don't see it.
  • Bullying is basically a repeated aggressive behavior that can be done on one person or more and can be either physical or emotional.
  • Bullying is a serious problem that makes students afraid to even get up sometimes. 
Second View: Pro- Bullying
Author: A teenage writer from New Jersey
Facts and Opinions:
  • Bullying can be seen as helpful to everyone, whether they are the one being bullied or the bully themselves.
  • When it comes to bullying, it should be encouraged as everyone wins and most people believe that some need to be bullied.
  • Bullying shouldn't be made into a huge deal because you will most likely never see that person again after you graduate. 
  • Bullying can be good for adults, students, children, and everyone around the world.
Reader’s View and Why: I think that between both articles, there are points make sense and are right. I do think though that it's anti-bullying that takes the spot because it is honestly wrong to physically or emotionally bring harm to another person.

4.04 Bias and Opinion

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/17/sabet-marijuana-legalizations-worst-enemy/

There is some bias in this article. First of all, they basically left out one side of the article and only spoke about the negative effects. There may be positive sides to legalizing marijuana but it was not written. A lot of facts were also ignored in this article. I also feel like like the article was only written from one side and not the other side. There was also bias because this article only included one view, which was from the negative side. The opposing view was not included and this showed bias.

Bias in this article could have been avoided easily. Just by including the positive effects they could have avoided bias. If they included the other views and not just written from one view there would be no bias. Getting information from all sides and views would have made the article less biased.


Monday, April 14, 2014

4.03 Tone Analysis

The positive and negative reviews on The Monkeys Paw W. W. Jacobs:

Positive:  This is probably one of my favorite passages that I have ever read. I really caught my attention and it was interesting to read. The way this was written and the details used was really amazing. The author has a really creative mind and I really like the idea of this story. I liked how the Monkeys Paw was able to grant three wishes for three different men. This story really impressed me and I really hope W. W. Jacobs writes more passages similar to this.

Negative: This is probably one of least favorite passages that I have ever read. I didn't find it interesting at all and there was nothing that really caught my attention. I think more descriptive details could have been used and I think the author needs to be a little bit more creative. I didn't understand the idea of the Monkeys Paw granting three wishes for three men, it didn't make sense to me. I really disliked this story and I think it could have been written better. I really do hope that W. W. Jacobs writes better stories than this one.

3.07 Free Choice Blog

The book I chose for this assignment is Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. This is the second book to the Hunger Game series and it was the most different from the other two books. This book was basically the aftermath of the hunger games and it was for all the people who have already won the hunger games. It's about how all those who've won the hunger games before are now going to go back to fight each other. This idea made everyone upset because once you play in the hunger games once, you don't go back. For a better chance in surviving, Katniss and Peeta decide to team up with other people so as the others are getting prepared, they are looking for people to team up with.

What was your personal reaction to this reading selection?
I was kind of surprised to the fact that the capital would want people to fight again. They're making people who have already killed to survive go back to win again.

What did you believe the author's intent was, and what patterns of organization did you observe?
The author's intent was to grab the readers attention and to give you a surprise you wouldn't expect. She wanted the readers to be more interested and to want to know more on what was going to happen. The one pattern of organization I observed was that the author used cause/effect.


Tuesday, April 1, 2014

3.05 Styles of Analysis

3.05 Styles of Analysis

Cause/Effect

Causes:

  • He was given the Monkey's paw.
  • He didn't know what to do with it.
  • Using the talisman, he made only one wish.
Topic: The Monkey's Paw

Effects:

  • His own family wished for 200 dollars.
  • The sound of the door banging upstairs.
  • Once the wish was made, the Monkey's paw moved.

Compare/Contrast

Topic One
Differences:

The bad outcome:

  • The old man kept the Monkey's paw.
  • The money never came after the wish was made.
  • The man saw bad images in the fire.
  • He heard a banging on the door upstairs.
Topic Two
Differences:

The good outcome:

  • The old man kept the Monkey's paw.
  • They weren't harmed.
  • The banging on the door wasn't a bad thing.
  • The old man was able to laugh at the situation and think nothing bad of it.

Similarities:

  • The old man kept the Monkey's paw.
  • The banging on the door upstairs.