Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Frye's Link to the Key Question: Why must Hamlet Die?
Whats Hamlet to you or you to Hamlet?
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Informal Essay
Treatment of Teenagers
No matter where one is, one is being judged. Whether it is outright defiance or subtle body language teenagers are being collectively judged. These opinions reach far and wide, touching or influencing every teenager in some way. It has mutated to the point that society feels that teens are stealing from their backs. It is not a matter of wealth, religion or race; it is just a general discrimination that continues to flourish. It sounds terrible, but in reality, it is a truth that is widely accepted.
The first point in the Canadian Charter of Rights under the sub-section “Equality Rights”, directly states, “Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.” However, scattered amongst retail stores lies the bold faced truth; “No more than TWO teenagers allowed at any time!” How can this be when our own Charter of Rights proclaims no discrimination of age? Can you imagine if you were to apply the exact same logic and create a sign that declared; “No more than TWO Jews allowed at any time!” There would be political figures scurrying to the scene trying to come up with an explanation for the outraged crowd. So then, what is the difference? A recent report by the Centre for Retail Research found that the biggest shoplifters are men who are “older, more organised and are often stealing higher value goods.” So why not make up a sign saying no more than two of them? According to the report, doing this would deter more shoplifting then is being incurred from teenagers.
We pride ourselves on being such an accepting country and yet, we blatantly turn our backs upon an age group. As one examines the Charter of Rights you will come across the fourth fundamental freedom; the freedom of association. However, how would a teenager ever know? Not only are these negative stereotypes affecting adults perspectives on teens but they are discouraging teens, and creating false feelings about their sense of worth; which to a teen, is everything. But, who gets to decide the validity of such stereotypes? Society? Society is only able to see a one sided perspective and therefore is receiving a tainted view of teenagers. Their overexposure to stereotypes is altering their opinion from what used to be a chosen representation to reality. A Youth Risk Behaviours Survey, a section of Centers for Disease Control revealed that, “Violence, pregnancy, and sex rates among youth have dropped significantly over the years. In addition, a higher percentage of High School students are graduating than 10 years ago.” So, why then do these accusing stereotypes remain?
Can you imagine if teenagers as a whole had a political figure or media strand that could open the world’s eyes about the astonishing things teens are doing? Then maybe people would know about how teens in the UK are, “Pro-active about ecological and political issues on both a local and a global scale." (Article from March, 31st, 2004, BBC News) or that, teens in India are, “Creating an oasis in the heart of one of India's most polluted and lawless cities.” (Article from December, 6th, 2006, BBC News) But the reality is, these things are going either unnoticed or barely noticed. There is no spokesperson for teenagers, so what most people hear about is the latest school shooting where a teenager went crazy.
Argument
Cause and Effect
Classification and Division
Comparison and Contrast
Monday, February 16, 2009
You call this literature?? By: Ashley LaFrambroise
Thursday, February 12, 2009
"A Fire Truck" by Richard Wilbur
Metacognitive Reflection
Monday, February 9, 2009
Response to "April Fools on Polar Circus" by Janet Roddan
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Judgment Of Paragraph 3
Good Vs. Bad Writing Samples
Eg. 1 - The author comes across as an egomaniac. Unfortunately for this reason his thesis slowly becomes lost in his excess of words. As a reader you have trouble decoding all the information that is thrown at you. Due to this you quickly lose interest and skip ahead to the next section or put down the article altogether.
Eg. 2 - The second example jumps right into its thesis and essentially sidesteps the reader. There is no connection established during the entirety of the paragraph. It feels as if you are merely reading a section of dialogue in a novel. Also again the author has not kept his argument concise enough for the average person, but has instead unleased an entire thesaurus at you in one sentence.
Eg. 3 - The third example certainly helped you to understand its thesis better although its filled with what almost come across as lies. It seems to be common knowledge that religion cannot be proven to do anything, not to say religion is bad but more that there is no direct evidence. It is merely something we use so that we can believe in something or to explain things that we dont understand. For this reason I feel the author cannot make the refrence that religion has proven to fufill the gap of a missing parent.
Good Writing:
Eg. 4 - The fourth example has an explicit direction and tone that are evident as the author explains the process of how the, "Capelin Spawn". However unlike the other paragraphs it uses language that the reader is capable of understanding. Although it is rather one dimensional that this is all that is required for the audience to understand the topic at hand.
Eg. 5 - This example provided a very clear thesis that is continually felt throughout the paragraph. Explaining how colour is seen by"three classes of cone-shaped, colour sensing cells in the retina" the author provides true facts to support their thesis. Although the author only said very little, much was learned after reading the paragraph.
Eg. 6 - The final paragraph is certainly much more effective then all of the others. The reason being is that the author connects with the reader by posing quesitons. Capturing the audiences attention is key to any succesful paragraph or essay. On top of thisthe author has a concrete thesis that he continues to focus on throughout the essay. These attributes truely make this an effective piece of writing.
The audience is hands down the most crucial piece of any form of literature. By keeping the reader intrigued you essentially ensure they do not put down what they are reading and move on to something else. Since your job with any medium of literature is to entertain you need to ensure you deliver the information while using effective language that the reader will understand. However overstating a particular area may cause you to lose track of your original thesis and end up following an entirely different direction. The "good" examples clearly explained everything you needed to know and delivered it very smoothly. However the "bad" examples was more like solving a puzzle. You had to try to gather all the information out of the paragraph and then attempt to put it back together again. Unfortunately for certain things there is no helping them.