How does the writer represent aspects of masculinity here?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gregory-patrick/knitting-ninja_b_4143644.html
Thursday 24 October 2013
Monday 21 October 2013
AS Coursework lessons Mon 21st and Tues 22nd Oct - sample 500 words instructions
Beautifuls,
you will be writing the start of piece one in Mondays lesson in C108 and piece two in the classroom on Tuesday (you will start piece two on Tuesday no matter how far you have/have not got with piece one).
Check your style models with me if you have not already and fill in the coursework APF table in your blue booklets (put a brief description of your content as you will not yet know your title).
Next, closely annotate your style model a) identifying all the conventions of the form (e.g. headline, strapline, picture, caption etc. for newspaper articles) and b) idenifying the effective techniques used by that particular writer. You should use terminology (ask me if you are not sure what a technique is called) and consider effects on the target audience. If you can, show how techniques work together to achieve effects.
Identify all the techniques you want to include and relate them to the content you have chosen on a plan. You could do the plan as a layout diagram of the text, bullet points or a spidergram or any other method you desire. I think that the layout plan helps you show where in the text you would use particular techniques and what for. The plan can be really scruffy but it does go into your coursework folder, along with your annotated style model, to show that you created the piece from scratch, inspired by your style model (using the techniques from it, as well as any others you choose, and adapting them to your chosen piece - your content may be very different and may demand careful consideration of techniques you could use to suit it to the APF).
Check out the student guide to Turnitin, which gives further information about plagiarism as well as how to post and check your own piece before the deadline:
http://moodle.stbrn.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=1009
Then start writing piece one (don't forget to keep a bibliography of the sources you use, if you use any - you should submit the bibliography too when you post the pieces to Turnitin on our Moodle page under Creating Texts). Remember the deadline is 11.55pm Friday for both pieces and any late pieces will not be given feedback except for convincing extenuating circumstances (missing a lesson does not count). I will also not mark pieces that have not been proofread and edited to a good standard but I will mark pieces that are too short if you do not have time to write 500 words, although longer pieces should not be submitted (please keep under 550 words) - the feedback will be very limited in the case of short pieces but would be better than none at all, so polish carefully what you have and submit it on Moodle to the Turnitin assignment under ENGB2, Creating texts, "Halla's class: 500 words of pieces 1&2" You can submit your piece early, see what it highlights as being copied from an internet source, and, if you have forgotton the reference all of it in your bibliography (which you should also post if you have used sources), you can re-submit an improved version up until the deadline and the old piece will be written over.
Since we have not used Turnitin before, you should post pieces and bibliographies to your blogs too, just in case.
you will be writing the start of piece one in Mondays lesson in C108 and piece two in the classroom on Tuesday (you will start piece two on Tuesday no matter how far you have/have not got with piece one).
Check your style models with me if you have not already and fill in the coursework APF table in your blue booklets (put a brief description of your content as you will not yet know your title).
Next, closely annotate your style model a) identifying all the conventions of the form (e.g. headline, strapline, picture, caption etc. for newspaper articles) and b) idenifying the effective techniques used by that particular writer. You should use terminology (ask me if you are not sure what a technique is called) and consider effects on the target audience. If you can, show how techniques work together to achieve effects.
Identify all the techniques you want to include and relate them to the content you have chosen on a plan. You could do the plan as a layout diagram of the text, bullet points or a spidergram or any other method you desire. I think that the layout plan helps you show where in the text you would use particular techniques and what for. The plan can be really scruffy but it does go into your coursework folder, along with your annotated style model, to show that you created the piece from scratch, inspired by your style model (using the techniques from it, as well as any others you choose, and adapting them to your chosen piece - your content may be very different and may demand careful consideration of techniques you could use to suit it to the APF).
Check out the student guide to Turnitin, which gives further information about plagiarism as well as how to post and check your own piece before the deadline:
http://moodle.stbrn.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=1009
Then start writing piece one (don't forget to keep a bibliography of the sources you use, if you use any - you should submit the bibliography too when you post the pieces to Turnitin on our Moodle page under Creating Texts). Remember the deadline is 11.55pm Friday for both pieces and any late pieces will not be given feedback except for convincing extenuating circumstances (missing a lesson does not count). I will also not mark pieces that have not been proofread and edited to a good standard but I will mark pieces that are too short if you do not have time to write 500 words, although longer pieces should not be submitted (please keep under 550 words) - the feedback will be very limited in the case of short pieces but would be better than none at all, so polish carefully what you have and submit it on Moodle to the Turnitin assignment under ENGB2, Creating texts, "Halla's class: 500 words of pieces 1&2" You can submit your piece early, see what it highlights as being copied from an internet source, and, if you have forgotton the reference all of it in your bibliography (which you should also post if you have used sources), you can re-submit an improved version up until the deadline and the old piece will be written over.
Since we have not used Turnitin before, you should post pieces and bibliographies to your blogs too, just in case.
Saturday 19 October 2013
Lily Myers slam poetry Language and Gender
What I think is fascinating is that she says we copy what we are exposed to (what we "sit across from") but she sat across from her father too. What is it that tells us to absorb only gendered behaviour? I grew up with only my mother so I inevitably picked up many of her 'dropped habits' but I hope that we can hear such tales and be conscious now of trying to being free (from gender straitjackets) to be ourselves (hard to find out what that is, of course) and be inspired by qualities from either gender that would fit us, not that we have been squeezed into or forced to tidy up and take on board. How's that for mixed metaphors?
Here is the link:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zQucWXWXp3k&autoplay=1&desktop_uri=%252Fwatch%253Fv%253DzQucWXWXp3k%2526autoplay%253D1
Here is the link:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zQucWXWXp3k&autoplay=1&desktop_uri=%252Fwatch%253Fv%253DzQucWXWXp3k%2526autoplay%253D1
Wednesday 16 October 2013
The horrific question on the Eton entrance exam
It's worth looking at how values are assessed, disguised as intellectual assessment. Language and Power, dear readers!
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/05/eton-scholarship-question-how-british-elite-are-trained-think
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/05/eton-scholarship-question-how-british-elite-are-trained-think
Tuesday 15 October 2013
Gove's advisor's fascist views on the part "genetics" plays in education
Why moan about mediocre teaching if it doesn't matter, as "70%" of educational achievement is down to your DNA?! Let's write off all those (insert racial or social group here) and spend time educating those who are worth it...
Have a look at how the attitudes in this article are portrayed, both the views quoted and the way they are presented by Patrick Wintour (The Guaridan is left-wing and wouldn't agree with the advisor's views).
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/11/genetics-teaching-gove-adviser
Have a look at how the attitudes in this article are portrayed, both the views quoted and the way they are presented by Patrick Wintour (The Guaridan is left-wing and wouldn't agree with the advisor's views).
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/11/genetics-teaching-gove-adviser
A2 coursework lessons 15th and 18th October
Gorgeousnesses,
please be ready for Friday's coursework lesson by ensuring you have done all your theory reading, you are certain of the hypotheses you will be using that come from that theory reading and that you have thought about exactly why you chose that theory area and that data pool.
Tuesday: ensure you have finished your media text preparation work as I will be coming around to look at this with you today. For the rest of the time, please work on your investigation.
Friday: now you are certain of exctly what you are doing, it is time to write the introduction. As per the coursework booklet, there are certain elements that the introduction should contain (you may find that you can use some of the information that is currently in your methodology and then you can reduce the word-count of that). What is vital to understand is that this is the reader's first impression of you: it must show that you are a thoughtful, evaluative, sophisticated student who is very aware of the reader's needs (in terms of what needs explaining and how) and can write in a formal voice that is nonetheless very engaging. Keep it concise but explain your thinking and enthusiasm.
If I were a student doing an investigation into the gendered language of my peers, I might write an introduction like this.
An investigation into the gendered language uses of St Brendan's AS Drama students
Introduction
The myriad theories regarding possible differences between male and female speech is a daunting but fascinating area of Language theory. Over time, it appears that the shift has been from distinctive differences percieved during the Dominance/Difference/Deficit research of the 1970s/80s (Zimmerman and West, Tannen, Lakoff) to a focus on the biological aspects [citation needed] and, more crucially, on the context that language is used in rather than by which gender (Cameron: "your genes don't determine your jeans"*1). Although Cameron's point is convincing, while our physical gender may not determine our language, particularly in a college where many feel the need to fit in and/or find their niche, society does appear to have some expectations of what is masculine or feminine speech; we may (even subconsciously) choose to conform to this. I am interested to see if this is the case.
I chose to examine the language of my peers but not those who shared my friendship group so that I could remain objective. I wanted to record people participating in a task and, when not asking friends who might give their time generously, I decided on students who regularly participate in group tasks to gain a better chance of them agreeing. I could have chosen Sports students, but since I wanted verbal responses rather than predominantly physical participation in my tasks, I decided that Drama students would give wholehearted participation and (I predicted) be confident enough to retain their individuality in a group task. I know that accommodation would be something worth looking at, but in the time frame of this investigation, I decided that differences would be more practical to explore within a limited data sample.
I needed to set tasks that would provide the participants with opportunities to use a range of language, so I decided on one discussion task, one problem-solving task and one solo interview (with the same questions and delivery for each participant - I practised this in advance).
Each of the six participants (three female and three male) would take part in each activity and, using the Dominance/Difference/Deficit theories, I could determine how far the language they used was in line with those gender expectations.
Hypotheses:
*1 I would need a footnote and to reference that article in my bibliography
***
Now, obviously this is much longer than my advised word count for the introduction and I would try and cut it down in my second draft (I wrote this in just over half an hour and had to come up with the whole idea for the investigation in that time) but you can see how the thinking is explored and then I can go into more detail about the exact process in the methodology, but that can be shorter because of the explanation here.
please be ready for Friday's coursework lesson by ensuring you have done all your theory reading, you are certain of the hypotheses you will be using that come from that theory reading and that you have thought about exactly why you chose that theory area and that data pool.
Tuesday: ensure you have finished your media text preparation work as I will be coming around to look at this with you today. For the rest of the time, please work on your investigation.
Friday: now you are certain of exctly what you are doing, it is time to write the introduction. As per the coursework booklet, there are certain elements that the introduction should contain (you may find that you can use some of the information that is currently in your methodology and then you can reduce the word-count of that). What is vital to understand is that this is the reader's first impression of you: it must show that you are a thoughtful, evaluative, sophisticated student who is very aware of the reader's needs (in terms of what needs explaining and how) and can write in a formal voice that is nonetheless very engaging. Keep it concise but explain your thinking and enthusiasm.
If I were a student doing an investigation into the gendered language of my peers, I might write an introduction like this.
An investigation into the gendered language uses of St Brendan's AS Drama students
Introduction
The myriad theories regarding possible differences between male and female speech is a daunting but fascinating area of Language theory. Over time, it appears that the shift has been from distinctive differences percieved during the Dominance/Difference/Deficit research of the 1970s/80s (Zimmerman and West, Tannen, Lakoff) to a focus on the biological aspects [citation needed] and, more crucially, on the context that language is used in rather than by which gender (Cameron: "your genes don't determine your jeans"*1). Although Cameron's point is convincing, while our physical gender may not determine our language, particularly in a college where many feel the need to fit in and/or find their niche, society does appear to have some expectations of what is masculine or feminine speech; we may (even subconsciously) choose to conform to this. I am interested to see if this is the case.
I chose to examine the language of my peers but not those who shared my friendship group so that I could remain objective. I wanted to record people participating in a task and, when not asking friends who might give their time generously, I decided on students who regularly participate in group tasks to gain a better chance of them agreeing. I could have chosen Sports students, but since I wanted verbal responses rather than predominantly physical participation in my tasks, I decided that Drama students would give wholehearted participation and (I predicted) be confident enough to retain their individuality in a group task. I know that accommodation would be something worth looking at, but in the time frame of this investigation, I decided that differences would be more practical to explore within a limited data sample.
I needed to set tasks that would provide the participants with opportunities to use a range of language, so I decided on one discussion task, one problem-solving task and one solo interview (with the same questions and delivery for each participant - I practised this in advance).
Each of the six participants (three female and three male) would take part in each activity and, using the Dominance/Difference/Deficit theories, I could determine how far the language they used was in line with those gender expectations.
Hypotheses:
- According to Zimmerman and West, males will interrupt more in mixed-sex conversations (the discussion, the problem-solving and potentially in their interview with me).
- Males and females will predominantly correspond to the traits described in Tannen's Difference theory pairings (I will focus on status versus support in the discussion, competition vesus co-operation in the problem-solving task and report verus rapport in the interview).
- The language of females will be deficient in comparison to that of the males (I will look for Lakoff's 'deficient' techniques in both males and females and evaluate their use in context).
*1 I would need a footnote and to reference that article in my bibliography
***
Now, obviously this is much longer than my advised word count for the introduction and I would try and cut it down in my second draft (I wrote this in just over half an hour and had to come up with the whole idea for the investigation in that time) but you can see how the thinking is explored and then I can go into more detail about the exact process in the methodology, but that can be shorter because of the explanation here.
Friday 11 October 2013
A2 coursework 11/10/13
Good afternoon, fantastics!
Please continue to work on the media text tasks in the booklet.
If you finish these, please continue your investigation analysis. We will be doing introductions next week, so you need to be entirely sure what theory, hypotheses and frameworks you are using to analyse your data with by Friday. Please ask me if you have any issues but it is your thinking that is important, so spend time working through your issues before you see me.
Thanks.
Please continue to work on the media text tasks in the booklet.
If you finish these, please continue your investigation analysis. We will be doing introductions next week, so you need to be entirely sure what theory, hypotheses and frameworks you are using to analyse your data with by Friday. Please ask me if you have any issues but it is your thinking that is important, so spend time working through your issues before you see me.
Thanks.
Tuesday 8 October 2013
AS style models - fashion is a tricky area
Often, people have areas of interest they want to write about and fashion can be a dangerous one as it is hard to find ambitious style models. Of course, you can take someone's techniques and apply it to a different subject (that is actually far better) but you could get away with writing about a completely different area of fashion than the following writer does. A colleague (Rich) put me on to Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, so here's an example of her writing:
http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/sep/30/shorts-fashion-trend-summer-2013
http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/sep/30/shorts-fashion-trend-summer-2013
Monday 7 October 2013
AS Language classwork 7/10/13
Good morning super-gorgeousnesses!
Three tasks today: one we prepared for last lesson (write a 'me' column as a regular columnist for The Guardian using Brooker's column as a style model, then proofread/edit it then post it) and one that is an admin task, which you should do first...
Please log on to the student portal for Correro and input your TAG and your targets(s). Ask someone nearby if you don't know how to do it. I will be checking these when I put in your attainment, effort and homework grades and add my comments about your progress.
And (the third) one that is me discussing with you your interesting texts, some of which might be suitable style models, so please have these out and ready to talk about.
If you get time, please read - and comment on - as many other class blogs as you can. My recent post on the article about language change is worth commenting on too.
Don't forget the 'unreliable narrator' monologue you have to write is due in tomorrow but it is HOMEwork not classwork, so don't be caught working on it in the lesson.
Three tasks today: one we prepared for last lesson (write a 'me' column as a regular columnist for The Guardian using Brooker's column as a style model, then proofread/edit it then post it) and one that is an admin task, which you should do first...
Please log on to the student portal for Correro and input your TAG and your targets(s). Ask someone nearby if you don't know how to do it. I will be checking these when I put in your attainment, effort and homework grades and add my comments about your progress.
And (the third) one that is me discussing with you your interesting texts, some of which might be suitable style models, so please have these out and ready to talk about.
If you get time, please read - and comment on - as many other class blogs as you can. My recent post on the article about language change is worth commenting on too.
Don't forget the 'unreliable narrator' monologue you have to write is due in tomorrow but it is HOMEwork not classwork, so don't be caught working on it in the lesson.
A fab Guardian article about semantic (meaning) change in English words
Particularly useful for A2 students to get examples from for Language Change (keep good notes as you need examples to quote in the exam), it is useful for everyone to think about how language is constantly evolving. Comment with other examples of words changing meaning (semantic shift) or gaining new meanings while retaining the old ones (broadening in meaning).
http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2013/oct/07/mind-your-language-words
http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2013/oct/07/mind-your-language-words
Saturday 5 October 2013
An article from The Telegraph's archives on telegrams
Useful for Language and Technology, Language Change and for understanding the term 'telegraphic' in Child Language Acquisition. So, in other words, read it!
http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/telegram.html
http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/telegram.html
Friday 4 October 2013
A2 coursework lesson 4/10/13
Lovely people!
Today we will be thinking about media texts and the skills you will need to do them well.
I will be coming around to discuss ideas with you and you will be working on the activities from the coursework booklet. Some of you will have done some of them, others not. If you complete all the activities, you can carry on with your investigation/do some grammar work/read some of my posts.
Please post any work you do on the media text activities to your blog. We may discuss some of them in class to iron out any issues for everyone - don't worry about doing it wrong - no-one will poke fun or be snide: it is a work in progress that is educational. I will expect something substantial posted today.
There is an electronic copy of the booklet on our Moodle page under the heading Topic 3 (I am not responsible for the construction of the A2, page, my domain is the AS page, which you can still visit and use!). If you need to enrol on either course, the enrolment key is Shakespeare.
Today we will be thinking about media texts and the skills you will need to do them well.
I will be coming around to discuss ideas with you and you will be working on the activities from the coursework booklet. Some of you will have done some of them, others not. If you complete all the activities, you can carry on with your investigation/do some grammar work/read some of my posts.
Please post any work you do on the media text activities to your blog. We may discuss some of them in class to iron out any issues for everyone - don't worry about doing it wrong - no-one will poke fun or be snide: it is a work in progress that is educational. I will expect something substantial posted today.
There is an electronic copy of the booklet on our Moodle page under the heading Topic 3 (I am not responsible for the construction of the A2, page, my domain is the AS page, which you can still visit and use!). If you need to enrol on either course, the enrolment key is Shakespeare.
How does the language in this open letter to Miley Cyrus from Sinead O'Connor represent gender?
My AS class will remember how angry I was about the VMA twerking+rape lyrics debacle. The (inspirational and marvellous) Sinead O'Connor is angry too about the way Miley Cyrus is being portrayed, for slightly different reasons. But what is particularly interesting for Language students (I am still one of those - you never stop learning) is how she uses language when describing gender issues. We will be discussing this, so get your thoughts together in advance.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/03/sinead-o-connor-open-letter-miley-cyrus
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/03/sinead-o-connor-open-letter-miley-cyrus
Thursday 3 October 2013
Spoken word poetry - I love it! Eat it up!
This is a powerful poem by an acquaintance of mine who is bril and I like very much:
http://vimeo.com/75515195
http://vimeo.com/75515195
Tuesday 1 October 2013
The Guardian - grammar worries lifted
Things you possibly never knew you didn't need to worry about...
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/30/10-grammar-rules-you-can-forget
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/30/10-grammar-rules-you-can-forget
Interesting Charlie Brooker column on "too much talk" - I will be using it on Friday with AS Lang
A Shakespeare quote seems relevant here. Many of you will recognise that these words are a despairing Macbeth's:
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/28/too-much-talk-charlie-brooker
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/28/too-much-talk-charlie-brooker
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