read me

Hi. If you're reading this, you're either horribly lost in the vast void of the internet, or you're copying my blog posts into your own. Don't worry, been there, done that. Try to do it yourself though- a lot more effective, trust me.

I'm not expecting anyone to see this post, but this blog of mine has gotten more views than even my Tumblr, I'm sure.

All I want to gain from this is to know if I am a decent writer, or at least good enough to carry on what I like doing. So here's my WordPress blog... Don't kill me if I suck ass at this. But reading it would probably be helpful to me. See, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do in my life. So this is kind of my method of figuring it out, or at least cancelling out some options.

annettiespaghetti.wordpress.com

The Evolution of a High School Classroom (thank you!)

Annette Sousa

Dr. Preston

AP English Literature & Composition

29 May 2014

The Evolution of a High School Classroom

One could question the reasoning behind nontraditional education of the modern day high school system, or one could embrace it. None of us deserves to be treated like adults, because we aren't adults. We are chewed up by the educational system since the day we set foot in the kindergarten classroom, reprimanded day in and day out with robotic phrases such as, "don't talk back" and "respect your elders". How can we ever be expected to become adults straight out of high school if we are constantly being reminded that we aren't yet? Being told to listen and obey to those elders is just another drop in the ocean of growing up. We are then spit out into the world and expected to make rigorous life decisions and be the elders ourselves when, just a few moments ago, we were being reprimanded for not going to the bathroom during passing period. As the intelligent, young adults that we are, treatment as colleagues rather than an underdeveloped minds went a long way. It was well-deserved, and much needed. To be treated as an adult in a sea of teenagers is just another simple reminder that today is the first day of the rest of your life, and I learned a lot to showcase for that.

Creating yourself is a lot more difficult than it appears to be. Some people say that they find themselves in high school, but for me, high school just made it harder. As far as my passion goes, I know that it is the first step in the journey to finding myself. Multiple passions, however, didn't seem to help me either. Constantly being caught up in the multiple crowds of high school drama. Photography, with the artsy people who could make rainbows appear in the colorless of places. Writing and literature, with the "nerds" that I knew I was not as intellectual as. Sports, with the jocks that partied over and over again until they withered up into a dehydrated lump of regret. I won't lie and say that I have disconnected with myself, nor my multitude of passions. Every day I want to learn more from the people who have immense control over their passions, and that is what will continue to drive me. 

Along the way of the most overly dramatic high school year of my life, some characters in my English class had me sigh for how understood I was, even when I wasn't. Reading about Anna Karenina, an extremely long novel recommended to me by my genius of a teacher, I was feeling the most understood I'd felt in a while. It's always nice to read about a character in a book that you relate to so directly. Literature being "a lie that tells the truth", each character reflects a different part of us indirectly. In A Brave New World I remember that I connected with the character Bernard because he didn't fit in, he was smaller than his peers, as am I. And in Hamlet I couldn't help but relate to Hamlet in regards to his love affair with Ophelia and how they strived to be together but couldn't. Characters have a way of making me feel like I am going through what I am required to in this life.

To add to the excessive amount of lessons I've learned throughout my final high school English class, I've come away from the course understanding the importance of collaboration, above anything. Since day one, we've been collaborating with different people for different reasons, but really, are they that different? Ask yourself, what do you gain from working with other people? Sometimes, you might not even gain anything but the satisfaction of helping someone out. Every single person had the same thing in common with their presentations in my class. No one else might have noticed it, but I did. Every person that spoke in front of my class, that enveloped themselves in their presentations held themselves proudly. And I respected that. Even the people who I could tell didn't put their 100% into their project still were proud of what they accomplished. When Taylor and Hannah and Meghan were at the front of the class explaining which colleges they were going to and what majors they were under, all I heard was the pride in their voices. When Ian so reluctantly explain how his "music was the background music, but don't listen to it, it's not that good", I still heard how proud he was of it. When Marisol was playing her video for the whole class to experience, I saw streams of pride protruding from her eyes. When Lesther described his moment of understanding of human compassion, I could tell he was proud of what he'd accomplished over the past year of high school. And I know for a fact that whenever I spoke in my presentation, I explained everything I said with as much pride as I could. I can't help that I loved what I was talking about, that's what a passion is, isn't it?

I think now that I have entered my last week of high school, everything that I have experienced is coming in a long flashback. I entered high school with a mind set of "I have no friends, high school is going to suck" and am exiting with repeated encounters of leaving my comfort zone, glad that I amounted up to something. I've lost friends, I've broken morals, I've lived through what I experienced as Hell and I'm still here at the finish line to say that I'm standing on both feet, proud to have conquered it all. I am the tragic hero of my own story. The many people who let me down were my unconventional mentors, I learned something different and important from each of them, but those lessons are for a completely different essay that I don't want to write at 11:29 pm.

Staying true to myself, and my "talented" writing skills, I have once gotten off track of my essay. Keep the traditions alive, I suppose. Which brings me back to my thesis about nontraditional educational techniques: They are more effective. Treating my classmates and I like we were college students before we even were accepted into college was the most beneficial thing I could've experienced. I am so grateful to have experienced this as my final high school English course, I learned more from it than any other class I've taken over the past four years. Every class should be ran like the students are rising adults. I have never been more ready to take on the world.

final masterpiece

Over the last four months, I've come to the small yet meaningful realization that books and writing are extremely important to me. And with that in mind, here is Bailey's and my masterpiece in blog form for our fellow readers/writers. In betweeners rule the world, you know who you are.

Follow the blog!

http://inbetweenersunited.tumblr.com/


Hey, follow my personal blog while you're at it. I post my writing on it sometimes, but you'll have to dig for it.

http://uhohspaghettlos.tumblr.com/

Masterpiece project update!

This is the tumblr page that we are using to post things about the books we are basing the project on. Follow us at inbetweenersunited.tumblr.com

Macbeth: act 5 notes

•when Macbeth kills king Duncan, he heard someone say that he "murdered sleep" as well. 

•lady Macbeth starts sleepwalking and reliving the moments of Duncan's murder. 

•lady Macbeth is who's sleep is murdered because she is sleepwalking and sleeptalking.

•the doctor and gentlewoman hear her saying the conversations that she and Macbeth had after the killing

•lady Macbeth can't hide what they have done anymore, and the guilt is eating away at her.

•"the telltale heart"

•Macbeth is about to crack and go mad

lit analysis #i forgot because we do so many

Looking For Alaska AKA THE BEST BOOK IVE EVER READ
1. A not too social boy living in a not too exciting town moves to a boarding school that his father attended as a high schooler as well. Thinking it would be an amazing place with beautiful scenery and exciting people, you could imagine the disappointment when it ends up being a bone dry wasteland of cliques and classes. But he judged too quickly. Culver Creek Boarding School was most likely the best thing that had ever happened to Miles. He met the best people he would ever meet, one of them being Alaska, a witty girl who never seemed to lack an answer. As the days go on, he slowly falls in love with his best friend, and then, it all suddenly changes. Alaska dies, no one knows by suicide or not, or why she did what she did previous to the destructive car accident. But Miles won't stop until he figures out the mystery behind her death. The author pulls you in with every incident and every word written. Each problem in the novel has a distinct purpose to make you feel certain overpowering emotions. 
2. There are so many themes encumbered in this book but I'm going to choose the struggle with finding individuality. Miles comes from a town where he has no friends, just his mom and dad. The people he meets influences everything he does, even though they are fighting to find themselves too. Especially Alaska. He needed to find his great perhaps, as he put it.
3. The author's tone is very witty, humorous, and deep all at once. 
"He's just happy most everyone's gone. He's probably masturbating for the first time in months."
"'Sometimes I don't get you,' I said. 
She just smiled toward the television and said, 'You never get me. That's the whole point.'" 
"You all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die."
4. Parallel structure: "I hated discussion classes. I hated talking, and I hated listening to everyone else stumble on their words and try to phrase things in the vaguest possible way..." pg. 32
Metaphor: "So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane." pg. 88
Lyric: "Night falls fast. Today is in the past." pg. 89
Allusion: "Night falls fast. Today is in the past." (also an allusion of a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay) pg. 89
Irony: "COFFEE TABLE", the coffee table that is not a coffee table is labeled coffee table.
Narrator: the narrator is Miles, aka Pudge. "After five minutes, we split up to go to our destinations. I stuck with Takumi. We were the distraction." pg. 103
Onomatopoeia: "bangbangbanged" pg. 105
Alliteration: "drinking and joking" -it sounds like alliteration anyways, the way you say it. pg.121
Simile: "Like an alcoholic preacher on a Sunday morning." pg. 124
Personification: "...her volcanic candle just peeking out from beneath the bed." pg. 154
 


CHARACTERIZATION 
1. Direct: "...the not-yet-setting sun shone against her lazy dark curls..."-"I saw a short, muscular guy with a shock of brown hair."
Indirect: "My thin arms didn't seem to get much bigger..."-"
The author uses both approaches in order to put the reader into the story with the direct characterization, because different characters needed different appearances to go with different personalities. He left some parts of the characters up the reader's imagination though, which is why he used indirect characterization too.
2. The author's diction and syntax rarely changes through the novel. If the diction ever changes, it's when one of the characters is talking. They are high schoolers, so they don't have as elevated a vocabulary as the author.
3. The protagonist is extremely round, and is dynamic. He changes so much throughout the book, being a boring, friendless teenager to a slightly more grown boy dealing with the death of his best friend and a girl he believed changed his entire life.
4. After reading this book, I was an emotional wreck. I didn't understand how the author could just kill off such an important character. But then I realized, his whole reasoning for killing off such an important character was exactly to make me feel like the emotional wreck that I was. 
"He was screaming, 'I'm so sorry.'" This one sentence was stated after the death of Alaska. And it is so simple, that it made me understand the exact emotion that I've gone through, and describes the intensity I was feeling.

Huxley's Brave New World

I don't understand how we will ever be this society. Brave New World was interesting and all, but it's just not humanly possible for any of this to happen. We can't just drop all emotional reasoning and mature at a younger age than we do now. We can't just not feel jealousy, or euphoria, or sadness, or love.

Huxley's interview made me realize how much thought he actually put into his novel. How carefully he placed each symbol delicately through each chapter. I think he found people to be a lot more emotionless than we really would be in that world's structure. It's impossible to feel nothing, and if it was, nothing would be an emotion. Free thinking is something we can't help but do, and he can tamper with the idea that we can't all he wants, but really, there will always be one Henry in a sea of Directors that halts the process.

the dreaded essay

PROMPT
1979 Choose a complex and important character in a novel or a play of
recognized literary merit who might, on the basis of the character’s actions alone,
be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain both how and
why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more
sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary.

A novel wouldn't be a novel without its traditional good and evil characters. The immoral "mind-bogglers" and kind-hearted heroes make the entire plot. Through the eyes of a serious reader of stories, the obvious antagonist of Brave New World is The Director. But, through the eyes of the analytical thinker, it's relevant to say that John the Savage is the immoral character of the story. But why? He is the protagonist, the tragic hero, the misunderstood outsider- so why would he be the evil one? The immorality of a character is based on his or her actions and behavior when placed in a different environment, in this case, in the "brave new world".

The confusion between common morality and the morality of a certain society is proven through John the Savage. By placing him in the opposing land of the reservation, we as readers felt for him and made that connection known as sympathy for his new found world. By venturing out of his comfort zone and making the transition into an emotionless world, we are shown many reasons why he is considered immoral.

In the new world that John lives in, he is not amused by the lifestyle of Lenina and everyone else alike. The way that the Alphas and Betas and Deltas, and so on, live is non driven and unoriginal, and the fact that John doesn't live that way automatically outcasts him as an immoral beast from a different universe. When in our eyes, he did nothing wrong but think for himself. In the "brave new world's" society, self-provoking thought processes are uncalled for, even unknown in a way. Not surrendering to the temptations of approaching erotic activities is seen as wrong. The morals of John and the morals of the reader are so compatible that we experience a symphony of sympathy for his situation. His dually noted self-preservation comes off to the people as strange, and that is what makes him immoral.

John the Savage contradicts most immoral characters in traditional novels, but when read into, he is an obvious suspect for the immoral character choice.

this essay sucked.   

benchmark remix

"I hate small talk. Tell me about your infinities."
"But the capability to breed sadness is a blessing.""I'm on diet romance, and I hate the taste of watered-down love."

If you understood that at all you are officially my favorite.

resource of the day

my resource of the day is my mother because she helped me with literally everything today and I can't thank her enough. (And because I can't think of a resource rn)

resource of the day

Sooooo I was messing around on Twitter the other day, and found an account dedicated to Charles Bukowski. Lately I've been coming across bits and pieces of his work and quotes by him on Tumblr and just on websites and the internet in general, and a lot of them make sense to me. I really like his writing. So I followed this account on Twitter to get a different part of his mind every day, and you should too!: https://twitter.com/bukquotes

resource of the day

Being the nice person I am, I brought my friend Starbucks to school today. And I don't have any amazing resources that can help academically so I'm gonna post one that I used today randomly. Click on it to see what it was hahahahaha
surprise!

resource of the day

My resource of the day is somewhat cliche, in my eyes, because the book it is about is considered a "teenage girl love story that feeds the emotional fire of nostalgia and things that are never gonna happen in my love life". So The Fault in our Stars is one of my favorite books, but it's also written by one of favorite authors, John Green. He just KNOWS the correct variation of words to make me happy, I can't even begin to explain it. And this book is one of the three books I'll be including in my Masterpiece.
So anyway, I found a link for frequently asked questions about the book, and I figured it could help me with understanding some things I didn't catch while reading. And in case there's any more teenage girls out there like me who like crying and smiling at words at the same time: here it is

acceptance is sweet

Finally got into all four schools I ultimately wanted to get into, and I'm surprised I did it.
College is officially happening.

Super 5

My five potential experts have been chosen carefully. Bailey, my partner in crime for the rest of the year, is one. Dr. Preston, obviously. And can I use inanimate objects? I'm gonna anyways. My three books that Bailey and I are going to analyze thoroughly: Looking for Alaska, The Fault in our Stars, and The Host.

Literature Analysis #2

Brave New World

1. There is so much to the plot of this book, so I can only hope that I do it justice. Huxley sets the book in A.F. (after Ford) where the point of A.F. is that people are created by mass production, are trained to be in castes, trained to know only what they are told, and are matured by the age of four. And sexual activity is encouraged. The story is about Bernard, an alpha who does not fit in physically or mentally to the "brave new world". He rebels, meets "savages" outside of his world, brings them back to live in the world he disgusts so much, and soon one of the savages, John, gets too overwhelmed by the non-feeling, twisted world of not-so-free thinking.

2. The theme of the novel that I caught was freedom of the mind, and the ability to think and feel freely. Everyone takes something different from a book they read, depending on their standpoint and personal experiences. In my mind, while reading, Huxley proves how important our own humanity and feelings are to society, and how nothing would be normal without it. It occurs over and over in the book, so it just makes sense.

3. The tone that Huxley carries throughout the novel changes sometimes, but he is pretty dramatic and wise about most of the situations. “I am I, and I wish I weren't.” “No social stability without individual stability.” “...most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.”

4.

• Personification: “I ate civilization. It poisoned me; I was defiled. And then," he added in a lower tone, "I ate my own wickedness.” 
• Allusion: "You got rid of them. Yes, that's just like you. Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows or outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them...But you don't do either."
• Parallelism: “I want God, I want poetry, I want danger, I want freedom, I want sin.” 
• Rhythm and rhyme: “Ending is better than mending.”  
• Alliteration: "Mustapha Mond"
• Oxymoron: “Pain was a fascinating horror” 
• Simile: “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” 
• Verse: “The more stitches, the less riches.” 
• Imagery: “A squat gray building of only thirty-four stories.” 
• Amplification: “Words can be like x-rays if you use them properly - they'll go through anything.”

Characterization

1.Indirect: “All alone, outside the pueblo, on the bare plain of the mesa. The rock was like bleached bones in the moonlight. Down in the valley, the coyotes were howling at the moon. The bruises hurt him, the cuts were still bleeding; but it was not for pain that he sobbed; it was because he was all alone, because he had been driven out, alone, into this skeleton world of rocks and moonlight. At the edge of the precipice he sat down. The moon was behind him; he looked down into the black shadow of the mesa, into the black shadow of death. He had only to take one step, one little jump.. He held out his right hand in the moonlight. From the cut on his wrist the blood was still oozing. Every few seconds a drop fell, dark, almost colourless in the dead light. Drop, drop, drop. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. He had discovered Time and Death and God.”
Direct: "A squat gray building of only thirty-four stories."

Huxley uses the indirect to build up the feeling that you are actually there, while using direct characterization to paint an image for you in your head.

2. Huxley's syntax stays constant, and his diction changes based on the situation at hand. During the beginning of the book, he used bugs at one point to describe the dystopia and the people that were living in it. Different characters called for different words and descriptions. He described Bernard as a too-small-for-his-own-good Alpha who doesn't belong as much as Hemholtz does.

3. The protagonist, Bernard, is definitely a round dynamic character. He changes throughout the book from someone who is closed minded with his thoughts to someone who is capable of speaking his mind and setting forth his feelings about the twisted world they live in.

4. After reading this book, I feel like I understand the constant breakdown of emotions and feelings encompassing John and his constant battle against the confusingly robotic world that Bernard resides in. It made sense to me from the very beginning how frustrating the dystopia was without common ideals and differences of opinion.
"He was obscurely terrified lest she should cease to be something he could feel himself unworthy of." Here, Huxley is describing what John is feeling as Lenina seduces him; he feels so lost in himself and the world he is living in. But somehow, he conjures up the power of resistance.

My Team

My go to people are Taylor, Bailey. Hannah, Ian, and Meghan. We really understand more of any book when we discuss it and connect elements of the story to other stories and real life situations.
While we were talking about chapters 5 through 7 of Brave New World, I was confused by why the Director all of a sudden now decides to exile Bernard when he has been acting strange his whole life. Was it because he told Bernard too much about himself when they last saw each other, or is it because Bernard is a potential threat to their society? And is it even going to change anything that Bernard gets exiled considering there might be more people out in the world just like him? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Launch

Most people who know me would expect me to say that I am passionate about tennis. This is not true. Being passionate about something to me means that it's just so important to you that you can't picture yourself without it. I am actually really passionate about writing. I really like words, and putting my thoughts into something that people can understand and relate to, because everyone is just looking for words that make them feel less alone in the world. That's why I read. I relate to the words, and I feel understood by the author. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing to become what I want to be, but I think I want to be some sort of writer, maybe even a photographer for a magazine. That would make me so happy. It's ridiculous that I want to do these things, because I've been confused for the longest time with what I want to do when I get older. The tools from last semester, such as the essays we wrote, and our vocabulary lists could both be extremely helpful in writing. I write practically every day, I just don't tell anyone. So sh. To "feel the awesomeness", I'll just need to do anything to get an A. A's always make me feel like I did everything correctly. I think just letting people read the things I write down could convince people that I can write and write things that are relatable to others. That's all writing is really about, to me. Writing what could make other people feel understood in their heads, because that's all anyone really wants. Is to be understood. Well, I definitely DON'T want anyone to read anything I write down. But I think that some of the essays I write are decent enough to show to people to get to where I want to be. Not sure what this means, but my friends will probably be the ones I ever let read my words, so they'll be the critics of it all.

That was my previous ideas regarding the questions we answered, but I don't really feel like the idea I have now connects with what I want to do with myself in the near and distant future. But then again, I didn't know how to connect those two in the first place. What Bailey and I decided to do with ourselves is take our favorite, most relatable books we've read and analyze them like we would any AP listed novel. A lot of people might be like "woah that's a lot of work" or "why would you want to read MORE?", yeah, we like to read ok? I think it might be sort of fun anyway. It's like telling people about your passions and beliefs, but not directly, since it's someone else's books, and someone else's words. But it's a start to using my own words and speaking my own beliefs.

Brave New Essay

Doesn't it sound nice to be able to shut off emotions, to feel absolutely nothing? Wouldn't it save you a world of pain and sadness to be endured? Think of all of the benefits of having no feelings towards the people you do, let alone anything. Because everyone knows that the less you care, the happier you will be, right? Wrong. No feelings means no happiness, sadness, fear, joy, excitement- nothing. That is what Huxley tries to capture in Brave New World. He screenshots a world where no one feels anything, bad or good.

Too many people neglect the fact that we need processed and personal thoughts and feelings to function as a stable community. Without these scattered emotions flying everywhere, no one would have motivation, or drive to succeed. No one would have a purpose. Huxley brings to life what we all want, and shows us why we shouldn't. The lack of personalized thoughts in Lenina and Henry's minds exemplify why they are so important in everyday life. Bernard is the only normal person in the novel, which is ironic, considering he technically is not. People have the ability to think freely and outside of the box, but they are so shut inside their society's bubble of emotionless robots that no one realizes that they are being wrongly controlled. 

Brave New World Essay Prompt

I really liked this essay prompt, just because there's so many possibilities and branches to write about. 

How does the substitution of lack of feeling instead of unhappiness affect the morale and ability of the future community to function.

I AM HERE

This grading period, Bailey and I came up with an awesome idea for our masterpiece project, (technically, she did.) we decided to take all of the books we've read, not on the AP list, the ones that we actually enjoyed reading, and explain why they are important too. Of course the AP books are all so filled to the brim with enlightening information, but these books we read really meant something to us. I think I've been doing fine this grading period, not as full speed as previous ones though. It's finally hitting me that I am a senior and that school will be over and college will start soon. I still don't feel like a senior, but I feel that downtime is coming up soon, and that happens every year around this time.

Lit six

Simile: a literary technique used to describe things in comparison using the words like or as
soliloquy: a speech given by one character to themself
spiritual: a higher feeling that goes beyond ones senses
speaker: who is telling the story
stereotype: a label or category given to a person based on common trends that may or may not be relevant to race and preference. Almost like an assumption based on what you think you know about someone. 
stream of consciousness: Performative utterance. A way of writing without a filter about what is going on in one’s mind.
structure: how the story is set up.
style: the technique to how an author writes
subordination: to place in a lower rank
surrealism: create potential of the unconscious mind
suspension of disbelief: human interest and truth blended into truth
symbol: something that refers to a bigger meaning
synesthesia: a senses impression
synecdoche: part is made to represent a whole
syntax: how a sentence is written to create a deeper meaning
theme: what is a common occurring subject that comes up
thesis: a sentence or two that summarizes the selection
tone: the voice in which an author is writing in.
tongue in cheek: not meaning what is written, being literal?
tragedy: dramatic type of event that shocks both audience and characters in story
understatement: stating something that doesn’t add up to the full potential of a subject
vernacular: spoken language
voice: who is speaking

Zeitgeist: the mood of a period through beliefs and ideas

hafta/wanna

I've never really been one to just slack off completely, but I've noticed my fair share of people who give up before they even start. I always wondered, why are you doing this to yourself? You could do so much more. In high school, you don't really seem to care what happens academically until the very last year, and once that last year comes, it's either too late, or you have senioritus and don't want to participate in anything. You start thinking about the future, grimacing at all the decisions you have to make and all the paperwork you have to fill out.
I was contacted right before my sophomore year of high school by one of the tennis coaches at Cal. Lutheran University. It wasn't allowed yet to start recruitment, but I wrote back anyways. I started thinking way to hard about college, and the future, and I was just a sophomore, what was I supposed to know? How was I supposed to know what I wanted to major in? Then my junior year, all the emails and letters and phone calls started filing in, and it was even WORSE. My parents asked me constantly, "Did you reply to that coach from that college yet?" No, mom. Thanks for reminding me that my future is calling though. I didn't want to deal with it. But I think it helped me with starting sooner, and getting athletic scholarships before anyone ever did. And it pushed me to do what every student didn't want to do until the very last minute. It feels better now because I've narrowed down the colleges I want to go to.
I think that once graduation hits, everyone will be ready to go to college. I know I'm ready right now. There's no point to high school anymore, I feel, except to go to prom and wear the cap and gown and all that senior crap. I DON'T CARE JUST GET ME OUT OF HERE.

Launch/Draft

• What am I passionate about?  What do I want to do?
• How can I use the tools from last semester (and the Internet in general)?
• What will I need to do in order to "feel the awesomeness with no regrets" by June?
• What will impress/convince others (both in my life and in my field)?
• How will I move beyond 'What If' and take this from idea --> reality?
• Who will be the peers, public, and experts in my personal learning network?

Most people who know me would expect me to say that I am passionate about tennis. This is not true. Being passionate about something to me means that it's just so important to you that you can't picture yourself without it. I am actually really passionate about writing. I really like words, and putting my thoughts into something that people can understand and relate to, because everyone is just looking for words that make them feel less alone in the world. That's why I read. I relate to the words, and I feel understood by the author. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing to become what I want to be, but I think I want to be some sort of writer, maybe even a photographer for a magazine. That would make me so happy. It's ridiculous that I want to do these things, because I've been confused for the longest time with what I want to do when I get older.

The tools from last semester, such as the essays we wrote, and our vocabulary lists could both be extremely helpful in writing. I write practically every day, I just don't tell anyone. So sh.

To "feel the awesomeness", I'll just need to do anything to get an A. A's always make me feel like I did everything correctly.

I think just letting people read the things I write down could convince people that I can write and write things that are relatable to others. That's all writing is really about, to me. Writing what could make other people feel understood in their heads, because that's all anyone really wants. Is to be understood.

Well, I definitely DON'T want anyone to read anything I write down. But I think that some of the essays I write are decent enough to show to people to get to where I want to be.

Not sure what this means, but my friends will probably be the ones I ever let read my words, so they'll be the critics of it all.

Lit terms 5

Parallelism: the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form.

Parody:  an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist. 

Pathos:  the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness.

Pedantry: a display of learning for its own sake.

Personification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.

Plot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.

Poignant:  eliciting sorrow or sentiment.

Point of View: the physical point from which the observer views what he is describing.

Postmodernism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontraditional forms, multiple meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary.

Prose:  the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern.

Protagonist: the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist.

Pun: play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications.

Purpose: the intended result wished by an author.

Realism:  writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straight forward manner to reflect life as it actually is.

Refrain:  a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus.

Requiem:  any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead.

Resolution: point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement.

Restatement: idea repeated for emphasis.

Rhetoric: use of language, both written and verbal in order to persuade.

Rhetorical Question: question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion.

Rising Action: plot build up, caused by conflict and complications, advancement towards climax.

Romanticism:  movement in western culture beginning in the eighteenth and peaking in the nineteenth century as a revolt against Classicism; imagination was valued over reason and fact.

Satire:  ridicules or condemns the weakness and wrong doings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general.

Scansion: the analysis of verse in terms of meter.

Setting: the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur.

Lecture notes

Dickens:

•romanticism

-doubleness of character

-"streaky bacon": the author combines sentiment and humor

•subject matter

•themes/tones 

Heller (Catch 22)

•Postmodernism: used humor

<WAR

-hopeless despair

-humor

•narrative structure

•diction/syntax

A catch-22 is that you need money to go to college, but you need to go to college to get money. 

Quote:

"Moral was deteriorating and it was all Yossarian's fault. The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them."

•quite ironic in the second half of the sentence

Lecture notes

Dickens:

•romanticism

-doubleness of character

-"streaky bacon"

•subject matter

•themes/tones 

Heller (Catch 22)

•Postmodernism

<WAR

-hopeless despair

-humor

•narrative structure

•diction/syntax

lit terms 4

Interior monologue: A piece of writing expressing a character's inner thoughts

Inversion: When the normal order of words is reversed in order to achieve a particular effect of emphasis 

Juxtaposition: When two or more ideas, places, characters, and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or poem for compare and contrast

Lyric: A type of poetry that explores the poets personal interpretation of and feelings about the world

Magical realism: A literal genre or style that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction 

Metaphor (extended, controlling, & mixed):

Extended: a metaphor that is extended or develops as far as te author wants to take it

Controlling: a symbolic story in which the real meaning is not directly put across the whole poem

Mixed: a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes it's terms so they are visually imaginatively incompatible

Metonymy: A word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes for or is associated with

Modernism: rejection of 19th century traditions 

Monologue: A dramatic soliloquy 

Mood: The atmosphere of the story

Motif: object or idea that repeats itself through the literary piece 

Myth: A story dealing with supernatural beings or heroes 

Narrative: A collection of events that tells a story either through telling or writing

Narrator: One who tells a story

Naturalism: A literary movement seeking to depict life as accurately as possible

Novelette/novella: An extended fictional prose narrative that is longer than a short story but not quite a novel

Omniscient point of view: When the reader is seeing and all knowing 

Onomatopoeia: Words that sound like what they mean

Ex: Pop!

Oxymoron: A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction

Pacing: The way the author speeds up or slows down the story

Parable: A story that instructs

Paradox: A statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, it does