Dedicateds,
it's time to push on with coursework now! You have just had media texts back and I am busy marking conclusions/evaluations. Final deadline is the 19th!
Ask me any questions you need to but don't forget to look back over the notes and posts to make sure you will have everything ready for the full folder.
Turnitin isnt working at the moment but I will want the media text put through that soon.
Work hard! Keep chipping away at it!
Sunday 31 January 2016
Shocking! Language and gender, Language change - semantic derogation
The Oxford Dictionary Online is under scrutiny and this writer looks at the effects of sexism on our language over time (semantic derogation in diachronic language change).
This article with the same basis is a little harder to follow but good for stretch and challenge about how language choices (and how we exemplify definitions) have power over our attitudes to the things described (the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis).
This article with the same basis is a little harder to follow but good for stretch and challenge about how language choices (and how we exemplify definitions) have power over our attitudes to the things described (the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis).
Thursday 28 January 2016
Back in work tomorrow (Friday 29th)
Independents,
well done for all the work I've seen so far and all the sensible questions you sent me when you weren't sure what to do.
There is quite a lot I haven't had so I will have to waste time I could be teaching in chasing that up. If you don't want to end up in supervised sessions completing it, please make sure you have it by tomorrow or a note clearly explaining why not and when I can have it.
I am not fully well so I will be giving you some input and setting up work for you to do rather than teaching for a full lesson but it will be vital feedback that you can't afford to miss.
See you tomorrow,
Halla
well done for all the work I've seen so far and all the sensible questions you sent me when you weren't sure what to do.
There is quite a lot I haven't had so I will have to waste time I could be teaching in chasing that up. If you don't want to end up in supervised sessions completing it, please make sure you have it by tomorrow or a note clearly explaining why not and when I can have it.
I am not fully well so I will be giving you some input and setting up work for you to do rather than teaching for a full lesson but it will be vital feedback that you can't afford to miss.
See you tomorrow,
Halla
Wednesday 27 January 2016
Language and Gender, Language and representation #traditionallysubmissive
This is a really interesting area for Language study. I posted about a similar movement about what feminism means last year and this response to it, which are both interesting and worth following up on. Here, Muslim women are representing themselves with declaratives, often in sentence fragments that simply stand as a response to the negative connotations of David Cameron's adjective phrase "traditionally submissive". Have a look at the ways in which these phrases create a different representation than Cameron's phrase.
Monday 25 January 2016
All A2s please read
Successfullnesses,
resits are a killer way to up your chances of getting the best grade possible at A2 - every mark counts. You can't go wrong (except by being out of pocket) because you keep the best mark, even if you do worse in the resit, which is rare because you have been gaining more terminology and practising analysis for many more months than when you sat it last. And that's without taking into account the erratic results we got. You can easily brush up on how to do the grouping task, and you need to revise everything else anyway so I really do advise everyone to resit.
Deadline is 5th Feb - get your money in! The code is ENGB1.
Email me if you have any issues,
Halla
resits are a killer way to up your chances of getting the best grade possible at A2 - every mark counts. You can't go wrong (except by being out of pocket) because you keep the best mark, even if you do worse in the resit, which is rare because you have been gaining more terminology and practising analysis for many more months than when you sat it last. And that's without taking into account the erratic results we got. You can easily brush up on how to do the grouping task, and you need to revise everything else anyway so I really do advise everyone to resit.
Deadline is 5th Feb - get your money in! The code is ENGB1.
Email me if you have any issues,
Halla
Writing competition to win £100
Skilfullnesses,
you English students have a huge advantage when it comes to this: write a piece in any form of up to 500 words on the theme of 'freedom'. You should aim it at an audience of new students to the college (it will be used next year during induction).
I can't find details of the deadline right now but there are posters around so spend some of your independent study time thinking about how to convey ideas about freedom in a way that's appropriate to that audience, your chosen purpose (inform? entertain? advise?) and the genre you picked (into rap? sonnets? lyrics? playscripts? short stories?). All good for developing the skills you need for exams/coursework in English.
And it could win you £100 so it's got to be worth a try!
you English students have a huge advantage when it comes to this: write a piece in any form of up to 500 words on the theme of 'freedom'. You should aim it at an audience of new students to the college (it will be used next year during induction).
I can't find details of the deadline right now but there are posters around so spend some of your independent study time thinking about how to convey ideas about freedom in a way that's appropriate to that audience, your chosen purpose (inform? entertain? advise?) and the genre you picked (into rap? sonnets? lyrics? playscripts? short stories?). All good for developing the skills you need for exams/coursework in English.
And it could win you £100 so it's got to be worth a try!
AS Lang/Lit work for Tue 26th Jan
Insightfulnesses,
I hope all is going well in my absence. Please email me if you have any worries/issues.
Please spend this lesson collecting together ideas for an essay on the following:
Examine the presentation of women in AHWOSG
You should find key quotes, thinking about how ideas link and contrast. Aim for about 6-8 quotes that you can apply terminology to to show how meaning is made in a way that helps us understand what 'Dave' thinks about women and how Eggers presents this. Think about language, structure and form.
Post this to your blog by Friday in the form of an overview and a plan if you can, or just a bullet-pointed selection of quotes with some ideas about what to say about them if shaping them into a plan is too much at this stage.
Any problems, let me know,
Halla
I hope all is going well in my absence. Please email me if you have any worries/issues.
Please spend this lesson collecting together ideas for an essay on the following:
Examine the presentation of women in AHWOSG
You should find key quotes, thinking about how ideas link and contrast. Aim for about 6-8 quotes that you can apply terminology to to show how meaning is made in a way that helps us understand what 'Dave' thinks about women and how Eggers presents this. Think about language, structure and form.
Post this to your blog by Friday in the form of an overview and a plan if you can, or just a bullet-pointed selection of quotes with some ideas about what to say about them if shaping them into a plan is too much at this stage.
Any problems, let me know,
Halla
Sunday 24 January 2016
AS Language work for Mon 25 and Tue 26
Wonderfulls,
I hope to be back with you on Friday, when we can re-work the assessment essay so you MUST do the gender work that will get you ready for that.
With that in mind, please post the gender research you have done from the bullet points on this post:
http://hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/as-language-work-in-my-absence.html
and please make sure you have done the work I set before, so make sure you have read this:
http://hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/warning-about-work-set-in-my-absence.html
and this:
http://hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/as-language-work-in-my-absence-fri-22nd.html
Once that is done, we need to think more about 'language and representation', which means how writers and speakers create impressions about themselves or others. Please find and print out an article, blog post, transcription of a speech, a poem or song lyrics where someone is explaining themselves and annotate how the language they are using gives the reader/listener certain messages about who they are e.g.
In one of my favourite song lyrics, the speaker creates a romantic impression of himself by talking about the strength of his love in particular ways:
A stone's throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And though a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a distant planet
That whirls around the April moon
Whirling in an arc of sadness
I'm lost without you
Lost without you
Though all my kingdoms turn to sand
And fall into the sea
I'm mad about you
Mad about you
The key adjectives and nouns are chosen for their connotations when they are considered in the lexical field of love. The adjectives "lonely", "distant", "lost" and "mad" convey the totrture of being without the obect of his love (identified only by the second person pronoun "you"); although the "mile" is described as lonely, it is the implied speaker who feels this rather than giving a sense of personification and the adjective fits as part of a moonlit scene where a lover reflects on his love. Also linking with the noun "mile", the adjective "distant" to pre-modify "planet" gives the sense of how alien and dislocated he feels so far away from his lover. He further elaborates on this feeling by multiple repetitions of the adjectives "lost" (x3) and "mad" (x2); "lost" may be used to create a feeling of helplessness, of the speaker's dependence on the lover, or the sense of pining, the feeling of distance that drives him to use such strong language as "mad" - the connotations of madness in love suggest that he might act violently or unpredictably and he shows that he would be willing to lose much - "all [his] kingdoms" to be with his love, or that, whatever happens, his love will endure, even longer than "kingdoms" will stand - a highly romantic proposition. By using this lanugage, he presents a picture of himself as a true lover, a desirable prospect and one whom the absent lover should come back to: not only because he is a desirable prospect but also if the lover cares for him, to preserve him from madness and a life of loneliness forever.
Annotate your chosen text to show how language is used to present a picture of the text producer in influential ways - you should try and explore the subtext (what can be understood even though it is not said directly).
You could do this with more than one text if you have time - try and pick two texts linked by content or theme and contrast them.
I will want to see this work on paper or on your blog by Friday.
I hope to be back with you on Friday, when we can re-work the assessment essay so you MUST do the gender work that will get you ready for that.
With that in mind, please post the gender research you have done from the bullet points on this post:
http://hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/as-language-work-in-my-absence.html
and please make sure you have done the work I set before, so make sure you have read this:
http://hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/warning-about-work-set-in-my-absence.html
and this:
http://hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/as-language-work-in-my-absence-fri-22nd.html
Once that is done, we need to think more about 'language and representation', which means how writers and speakers create impressions about themselves or others. Please find and print out an article, blog post, transcription of a speech, a poem or song lyrics where someone is explaining themselves and annotate how the language they are using gives the reader/listener certain messages about who they are e.g.
In one of my favourite song lyrics, the speaker creates a romantic impression of himself by talking about the strength of his love in particular ways:
A stone's throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And though a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a distant planet
That whirls around the April moon
Whirling in an arc of sadness
I'm lost without you
Lost without you
Though all my kingdoms turn to sand
And fall into the sea
I'm mad about you
Mad about you
The key adjectives and nouns are chosen for their connotations when they are considered in the lexical field of love. The adjectives "lonely", "distant", "lost" and "mad" convey the totrture of being without the obect of his love (identified only by the second person pronoun "you"); although the "mile" is described as lonely, it is the implied speaker who feels this rather than giving a sense of personification and the adjective fits as part of a moonlit scene where a lover reflects on his love. Also linking with the noun "mile", the adjective "distant" to pre-modify "planet" gives the sense of how alien and dislocated he feels so far away from his lover. He further elaborates on this feeling by multiple repetitions of the adjectives "lost" (x3) and "mad" (x2); "lost" may be used to create a feeling of helplessness, of the speaker's dependence on the lover, or the sense of pining, the feeling of distance that drives him to use such strong language as "mad" - the connotations of madness in love suggest that he might act violently or unpredictably and he shows that he would be willing to lose much - "all [his] kingdoms" to be with his love, or that, whatever happens, his love will endure, even longer than "kingdoms" will stand - a highly romantic proposition. By using this lanugage, he presents a picture of himself as a true lover, a desirable prospect and one whom the absent lover should come back to: not only because he is a desirable prospect but also if the lover cares for him, to preserve him from madness and a life of loneliness forever.
Annotate your chosen text to show how language is used to present a picture of the text producer in influential ways - you should try and explore the subtext (what can be understood even though it is not said directly).
You could do this with more than one text if you have time - try and pick two texts linked by content or theme and contrast them.
I will want to see this work on paper or on your blog by Friday.
A2 work for Mon 25 and Tues 26
Splendids,
thanks for your updates, most of you! There are still some I am waiting on.
Remember, conclusions and evaluations are due Tues. Please help each other by giving feedback on the following:
I still haven't seen all the CLA research posted so that needs doing if you haven't.
I still haven't seen comments from everyone on the blog posts. You have had sufficient time to do this if you used the lesson time as I told you to do so there should be no excuses (or I should have heard from you).
If you are up-to-date, please start on Language Change by doing some research on the terminology for how and why language changes e.g. amelioration, pejoration, broadening, narrowing, back-formation etc. Also collect and share on your blog any articles you can find relating to how our language is changing at the moment (synchronically). I've posted some articles recently that will give you an idea of the kind of areas you could be looking at. Also look at emagazine and the Guardian language section for ideas. It could be diachronic language change or it could be descriptive and prescriptive attitudes as well - it doesn't have to be synchronic change.
When I do get back (hopefully Friday), we will do the feedback on the assessment and work on improving that essay, so if there's something you know you didn't know, make sure you find that out and keep revising CLA as we work on LC.
Reminder - I need the marked work you have in your folders, so please dig that out asap - we are expecting OFSTED.
thanks for your updates, most of you! There are still some I am waiting on.
Remember, conclusions and evaluations are due Tues. Please help each other by giving feedback on the following:
- the overview of what you saw in the data and tentative reasons why this might be the case in context
- how the findings relate to the hypothesis/hypotheses (the degree to which they support and or contradict the hypotheses and relate this to the generalisability, comparability, reliability of the findings and even of the origninal research!)
- the strengths and flaws in your approach (don't be too self-congratulatory or too self-deprecating - just be aware of what you can and can't tell from your data sample and why)
- what you could do to improve the reliablility/generalisablity if you were to do it again or with more time/budget etc.
I still haven't seen all the CLA research posted so that needs doing if you haven't.
I still haven't seen comments from everyone on the blog posts. You have had sufficient time to do this if you used the lesson time as I told you to do so there should be no excuses (or I should have heard from you).
If you are up-to-date, please start on Language Change by doing some research on the terminology for how and why language changes e.g. amelioration, pejoration, broadening, narrowing, back-formation etc. Also collect and share on your blog any articles you can find relating to how our language is changing at the moment (synchronically). I've posted some articles recently that will give you an idea of the kind of areas you could be looking at. Also look at emagazine and the Guardian language section for ideas. It could be diachronic language change or it could be descriptive and prescriptive attitudes as well - it doesn't have to be synchronic change.
When I do get back (hopefully Friday), we will do the feedback on the assessment and work on improving that essay, so if there's something you know you didn't know, make sure you find that out and keep revising CLA as we work on LC.
Reminder - I need the marked work you have in your folders, so please dig that out asap - we are expecting OFSTED.
Friday 22 January 2016
Warning about work set in my absence
I have had some queries about the work set - that is important. If anyone dares say they didn't get it when I get back and has made no effort to clarify it with me, you will be catching up the time in supervised sessions. There is support for all the tasks I am summarising below on previous posts labelled for your class - do make sure you aren't reading another class's work!
AS Language - 9 comments on blog posts, at least 3 of which should be on my posts and all of which should also be in your notes so you can feed back what you have learned in class. This is so you have wider reading to refer to in the exams. Gender research to deepen your understanding using the bullet points on one of my blog posts ready to rewrite the gender essay you did for the assessment as your very best work that you can use for revision when I get back.
A2 Language coursework, CLA research if you haven't finished it and commenting on my blog posts. Email me an update.
AS Lang/Lit post notes on the previous reading I gave you that ended on p.182 "we get applications" to your blog, essay on the theme of home posted to your blog and read the interview section of the memoir for homework for Tuesday.
AS Language - 9 comments on blog posts, at least 3 of which should be on my posts and all of which should also be in your notes so you can feed back what you have learned in class. This is so you have wider reading to refer to in the exams. Gender research to deepen your understanding using the bullet points on one of my blog posts ready to rewrite the gender essay you did for the assessment as your very best work that you can use for revision when I get back.
A2 Language coursework, CLA research if you haven't finished it and commenting on my blog posts. Email me an update.
AS Lang/Lit post notes on the previous reading I gave you that ended on p.182 "we get applications" to your blog, essay on the theme of home posted to your blog and read the interview section of the memoir for homework for Tuesday.
Language change - the rise of 'hey'
I often mention the bewlidered state I find myself in when called upon to navigate the conventions of increasingly informal work emails. I use 'heya' to my friends but even the colleagues I am on very friendly terms with, I hesitate to use it if it is purely work content in the email I am sending. Would 'hey' be ok? 'Hello' is what I usually go with, but it irks me. It doesn't feel comfortable. What do you use with friends? When you email work or me? Anyone prepared to write an aricle giving us bewilderednesses a hint about how you youthfullnesses are adapting to changing conventions of emailing? Anyone equally as uncomfortable as me? Read this and comment.
Gender - working fathers get some funny advice
Humorous ways of exposing the sexism that still exists in our discourse are a really valid way of shifting attitudes. When we notice something, we can change it :http://www.breakingnews.ie/discover/if-we-gave-fathers-the-same-nonsensical-advice-we-give-working-mothers-700862.html
recommended Twitter Language blog
If you tweet, or just listen in, follow this acount for some juicy little tidbits that might spark some ideas or memorable quotes for the exam:
https://twitter.com/EngLangBlog
If you recommend it, please say why in the comments section of this post.
https://twitter.com/EngLangBlog
If you recommend it, please say why in the comments section of this post.
Language and occupation - Whitehall jargon
I came across this on a recommended Twitter account which I will link to in a separate post. There are plenty of examples of this kind of euphemistic language in other professions. Please collect and share other examples in the comments as a few memorable quotes are useful for the exam.
Thursday 21 January 2016
AS Language and Literature work in my absence 22/1/16
Clevernesses,
I hope that you managed to find some interesting things in the work I set you for Tuesday. I wanted to do the essay on the theme of 'home' in class but time is of the essence, so please spend 50 minutes of the lesson time posting the essay you planned to your blog (or emailing it to me if there is a problem with that). The support sheet is copied at the bottom of this post in case you were absent - email me to let me know if that was the case but do your best to do the essay anyway.
Then I would like you to post the analysis you did on Tuesday - it can be in note/bullet point form or you can practise your PEE. Here's a reminder of what I set:
Read pages 166-182 “We get applications.” Choose 4-6 key quotes to explore what the reader learns about Dave in his work with the Might team – annotate the quotes, exploring techniques, themes, structure etc.
For homework for Tuesday, please read the interview section of Heartbreaking (pages 182-237) making notes on what we learn about Dave.
And here is the text of the support sheet I gave you for the essay on the theme of home:
I hope that you managed to find some interesting things in the work I set you for Tuesday. I wanted to do the essay on the theme of 'home' in class but time is of the essence, so please spend 50 minutes of the lesson time posting the essay you planned to your blog (or emailing it to me if there is a problem with that). The support sheet is copied at the bottom of this post in case you were absent - email me to let me know if that was the case but do your best to do the essay anyway.
Then I would like you to post the analysis you did on Tuesday - it can be in note/bullet point form or you can practise your PEE. Here's a reminder of what I set:
Read pages 166-182 “We get applications.” Choose 4-6 key quotes to explore what the reader learns about Dave in his work with the Might team – annotate the quotes, exploring techniques, themes, structure etc.
For homework for Tuesday, please read the interview section of Heartbreaking (pages 182-237) making notes on what we learn about Dave.
And here is the text of the support sheet I gave you for the essay on the theme of home:
Your essay on the memoir in the exam will be on Eggers’s
presentation of key themes or characters. It is a good idea to collect examples
that you could use in a discussion of each of the key themes as you go.
Here are some ideas that you can choose from (and add to)
for the essay we are going to write – pick what you think is significant and
that you can apply terminology about
form, language and structure
to; remember to cover form - memoir,
language – literary and linguistic
techniques, and structure – linking
different parts of the text together.
Examine the
presentation of the theme of ‘home’ in (the first 104 pages of) ‘AHWOSG’
Theme of home (in first 104 pages) ideas:
·
p.1 “house is a factory” shoes in the dryer
·
p.2 mother can’t check if he has cleaned up,
effects of her illness on the home environment in this section
·
6-8 interior décor, thrift, and descriptions of
the father – hints about alcoholism
·
34 “party at home” – effect of outsiders – link
to “everybody knows”
·
37 sleeping in parents’ room “weird”
·
Contrast family home with following homes – e.g. p51. Sublet
·
P.61 living arrangements “re-create domestic
life from scratch”
·
Use of diagram p.62
·
72 search for a new home – contrast with family
home in a “nice town” (p.76) and the sublet
·
77 laundry
·
78 neighbours
·
80 chores and power play
·
82 entropy (gradual decline into disorder) of
living conditions
·
86 menu
·
88 cooking and D’s responsibility weakening
·
89 lack of boundaries – Toph feeling unsafe
·
90 “Daaad!” role play
These are just ideas of what you could include in an essay
that explores how Eggers presents the theme of home, so feel free to choose
others – in the exam, you will have to choose ideas from the whole memoir
without support – you won’t be given a page range either.
In the exam, you have to answer in an hour and hit the
following objectives:
AO1 terminology
applied to appropriate quotes, effectively organised essay (PEE and
linked points), formal and accurate expression 20 marks
AO2 analyse (and appreciate the effectiveness of) how
techniques, conventions of the form and the structure Eggers has used make
meaning, mature understanding of the text 20
marks
AO3 evaluate the impact of context in the production
(Eggers’s context when writing) and reception (different contexts of diverse
readers) of the text, showing an overview 20 marks
AS Language work in my absence Fri 22nd lesson time
Diligents,
I haven't had many emails with questions or updates and I hope that this means you are getting on well with the gender research.
More comments are needed on the articles on my blog and they need to show that you have engaged with the posts: you can ask a question, state a linguistically-focussed opinion, challenge what is said, link to another article or your own example or make any other kind of relevant comment but you must use these posts as inspiration for connections you could make in the exams, so it is important you do wider reading based on the ideas that interest you and that you ensure you really understand what was said.
For Friday's lesson time, please comment on three posts that I have put on my blog. You can use the search bar at the top left of my blog to search for key words within my archive of posts, so it would make sense for at least one of the ones you read to be on gender - just make sure you scroll down to evaluate them until you choose one you think you would like to get to grips with - don't just choose the first! There isn't much on occupation but there is plenty on power, gender and accent and dialect or you could just browse the archive until you find something that captures your interest.
If you were struggling to find something on women's voices from my research prompts, if you search 'Mary Beard' within my blog, you will get to an article that discusses her ideas.
I will be able to read your comments through the Blogger dashboard no matter which article you comment on so I will see who has and has not done the task. Use the lesson time so you should all have finished by end of Friday and I will look at the comments on Saturday. I will accept two thoughtful comments on longer articles if I think what you've done represents a lesson's work.
Edit: if you haven't done six comments across all the blogs from the eearlier set work, you need to catch that up. I want to make sure you have a really good range of wider reading to apply as we start doing more practice papers.
I haven't had many emails with questions or updates and I hope that this means you are getting on well with the gender research.
More comments are needed on the articles on my blog and they need to show that you have engaged with the posts: you can ask a question, state a linguistically-focussed opinion, challenge what is said, link to another article or your own example or make any other kind of relevant comment but you must use these posts as inspiration for connections you could make in the exams, so it is important you do wider reading based on the ideas that interest you and that you ensure you really understand what was said.
For Friday's lesson time, please comment on three posts that I have put on my blog. You can use the search bar at the top left of my blog to search for key words within my archive of posts, so it would make sense for at least one of the ones you read to be on gender - just make sure you scroll down to evaluate them until you choose one you think you would like to get to grips with - don't just choose the first! There isn't much on occupation but there is plenty on power, gender and accent and dialect or you could just browse the archive until you find something that captures your interest.
If you were struggling to find something on women's voices from my research prompts, if you search 'Mary Beard' within my blog, you will get to an article that discusses her ideas.
I will be able to read your comments through the Blogger dashboard no matter which article you comment on so I will see who has and has not done the task. Use the lesson time so you should all have finished by end of Friday and I will look at the comments on Saturday. I will accept two thoughtful comments on longer articles if I think what you've done represents a lesson's work.
Edit: if you haven't done six comments across all the blogs from the eearlier set work, you need to catch that up. I want to make sure you have a really good range of wider reading to apply as we start doing more practice papers.
A2 work in my absence
Sorry I am still not back, fantastics.
I hope you are getting on well with the conclusions/evaluations. Please have them ready for draft marking by Tuesday's lesson. Drop me an email to let me know how you are getting on with that and any issues - I would like an email from everyone, please. Remember, no late work will be accepted unless you have negotiated an extension for very good reasons.
If that's all done and dusted and you have also polished your media text and sent it off for target readers to give you feedback, please post the answers to the child language aquisition research questions I gave you a couple of months back - we are about to move on to Language Change so that needs to be done asap.
You can't just work on coursework, so I would also like you to pick one of the articles I have posted on my blog to comment on - your comment can be an opinion, a question, an example that links to it or anything else that strikes you as worth commenting on.
Please use the lesson time to send me the email and comment on an article then the rest of the lesson time and the homework time to work on coursework and/or posting the CLA research answers.
Thanks,
Halla
I hope you are getting on well with the conclusions/evaluations. Please have them ready for draft marking by Tuesday's lesson. Drop me an email to let me know how you are getting on with that and any issues - I would like an email from everyone, please. Remember, no late work will be accepted unless you have negotiated an extension for very good reasons.
If that's all done and dusted and you have also polished your media text and sent it off for target readers to give you feedback, please post the answers to the child language aquisition research questions I gave you a couple of months back - we are about to move on to Language Change so that needs to be done asap.
You can't just work on coursework, so I would also like you to pick one of the articles I have posted on my blog to comment on - your comment can be an opinion, a question, an example that links to it or anything else that strikes you as worth commenting on.
Please use the lesson time to send me the email and comment on an article then the rest of the lesson time and the homework time to work on coursework and/or posting the CLA research answers.
Thanks,
Halla
Sunday 17 January 2016
AS Language work in my absence
Clevernesses,
I am rotten ill (I've been in and out of hospital over the past few days) with a resurgence of the chest infection that knocked me sideways a few months ago - apparently I didn't let it get better properly!
When I've been able to do a little work between heavy doses of painkillers, I've read some great comments on my articles and really perceptive ones that you've written on one another's articles. Try not to repeat what others have said - make new points about style or grammar as well as content. On the articles that I have posted, really try and engage with the ideas by stating opinions, asking questions, identifying what is problematic/puzzling and doing some follow-up reading (finding out about content but also paying attention to the style in which ideas are written and ensuring you understand the finer points of vocabulary and grammar that have been used).
If possible, always read the comments that people have left on articles that I link to (what Dave Gorman refers to as the 'bottom half of the internet') - they are always stimulating!
I've read all of your assessments so I know what you need to find out more about with regards to gender, so here are some research points to work on (in any order):
In between doing that, do some more reading and commenting on the class blogs, including mine. Work on basic grammar too - there is a fixed post at the top of my blog, but if you search the archives (or the internet!) you will find others.
That should keep you productively busy.
If you need any support, please email me.
Halla
I am rotten ill (I've been in and out of hospital over the past few days) with a resurgence of the chest infection that knocked me sideways a few months ago - apparently I didn't let it get better properly!
When I've been able to do a little work between heavy doses of painkillers, I've read some great comments on my articles and really perceptive ones that you've written on one another's articles. Try not to repeat what others have said - make new points about style or grammar as well as content. On the articles that I have posted, really try and engage with the ideas by stating opinions, asking questions, identifying what is problematic/puzzling and doing some follow-up reading (finding out about content but also paying attention to the style in which ideas are written and ensuring you understand the finer points of vocabulary and grammar that have been used).
If possible, always read the comments that people have left on articles that I link to (what Dave Gorman refers to as the 'bottom half of the internet') - they are always stimulating!
I've read all of your assessments so I know what you need to find out more about with regards to gender, so here are some research points to work on (in any order):
- Deborah Cameron's discursive approach to gender (the effect of context, 'doing' gender)
- Dale Spender and Pamela Fishman's challenges to what other theorists have said
- O'Barr and Atkins's challenge to deficit theory
- Mary Beard's ideas about women's voices not being valued
- Beattie's challenge to Zimmerman and West - evaluating data
- John Grey's popular book 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus'
- The effect of written and computer-mediated forms on gendered language
In between doing that, do some more reading and commenting on the class blogs, including mine. Work on basic grammar too - there is a fixed post at the top of my blog, but if you search the archives (or the internet!) you will find others.
That should keep you productively busy.
If you need any support, please email me.
Halla
A2 Language computer room lesson and Tuesday's lesson - conclusions and evaluations
Hopefully healthinesses,
I've been in and out of hospital this week with a resurgence of the chest infection that had me off last time. That's what you get for not getting properly better before you come back. Sigh.
I'm on massive amount of painkillers so I hope this makes sense.
It's time to work on conclusions and evaluations. It makes sense to combine these because this is where you get some sophisticated context marks for AO3 and evaluate (AO1) your methodology (AO2).
Conclusion: tentatively offer alternative interpretations as to why the most significant or interesting findings seem to be the case in the context of specific GRAPEs, giving an overview. Don't repeat what you have already said if you have taken an evaluative approach as you've gone along (well done); instead, try and give more of an overview of how aspects you have looked at link together, and say how far your hypotheses are supported/contradicted (NOT PROVEN/DISPROVEN!).
Either seperately as your Evaluation or, if it makes sense to explain as you go along what you can/cannot tell from the data you have collected, evaluate at each point what you would need to have done differently to make the findings appropriately reliable/comparable/generalisable or even more ethical if you had problems with that. You can suggest what you might do to extend the investigation if you were to take it further if there is something interesting or more convincing remaing to explore with more time/word-count/funding etc.
Try and get in aspects like evaluating which were the most/least successful ways of approaching/quantifying the data and why.
Try not to be self-critical but do be self-reflective - you need to try not to put yourselves down but instead be thoughtful about the difficulties you faced.
If you can't be working on that, work on media texts or search through my archives for wider reading on Language Change issues, leaving comments to show you've been there, please.
Don't forget to continue working on basic grammar - there's a featured post on my blog and others further down to help.
There's also some interesting other wider reading available to comment on.
Email me if you need support,
good luck,
Halla
I've been in and out of hospital this week with a resurgence of the chest infection that had me off last time. That's what you get for not getting properly better before you come back. Sigh.
I'm on massive amount of painkillers so I hope this makes sense.
It's time to work on conclusions and evaluations. It makes sense to combine these because this is where you get some sophisticated context marks for AO3 and evaluate (AO1) your methodology (AO2).
Conclusion: tentatively offer alternative interpretations as to why the most significant or interesting findings seem to be the case in the context of specific GRAPEs, giving an overview. Don't repeat what you have already said if you have taken an evaluative approach as you've gone along (well done); instead, try and give more of an overview of how aspects you have looked at link together, and say how far your hypotheses are supported/contradicted (NOT PROVEN/DISPROVEN!).
Either seperately as your Evaluation or, if it makes sense to explain as you go along what you can/cannot tell from the data you have collected, evaluate at each point what you would need to have done differently to make the findings appropriately reliable/comparable/generalisable or even more ethical if you had problems with that. You can suggest what you might do to extend the investigation if you were to take it further if there is something interesting or more convincing remaing to explore with more time/word-count/funding etc.
Try and get in aspects like evaluating which were the most/least successful ways of approaching/quantifying the data and why.
Try not to be self-critical but do be self-reflective - you need to try not to put yourselves down but instead be thoughtful about the difficulties you faced.
If you can't be working on that, work on media texts or search through my archives for wider reading on Language Change issues, leaving comments to show you've been there, please.
Don't forget to continue working on basic grammar - there's a featured post on my blog and others further down to help.
There's also some interesting other wider reading available to comment on.
Email me if you need support,
good luck,
Halla
Monday 11 January 2016
Association of words with skin colour - the doll test, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
The doll test has been around a long time - in the 1940s Dr Kenneth Clark and Dr Mamie Clark took four identical dolls (apart from the colour of their 'skin') and asked children about the personalities that they associated with them. This video done recently reflects the findings then. Watch it then read on.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that it matters what words are used to describe something or someone as the words used not only reflect attitudes but actually affect attitudes; when we hear or read something it affectsour impression of the thing/person being described (hence why schools are moving from 'naughty' to describe the child's behaviour rather than the child themselves to starting to ban the word altogether to stop an association with the word from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy: 'I have done naughty things... I do naughty things... I will always do naughty things.') In the doll test we see the attitudes that have been communicated to these children but we also see them using them, reinforcing those attitudes in themselves and in others. The antithetical pairings dumb/smart, good/bad, pretty/ugly etc. are evaluative adjectives (they are purely subjective judgements rather than objective descriptions).
These children were 3-7 years old so it shows how quickly attitudes to race are embedded. It breaks my heart when some of the chlidren realise that they are being asked to identify with the doll of their colour, having said such harsh things about it - either when they try to avoid doing so or still identify with it quickly despite that. Look up the recent viral video of the children crying who'd been given black dolls with a relative laughing about it - highly offensive so you can choose to read the commentary people are making on it rather than watching the video itself.
Attitudes are communicated in more ways than just words, of course: paralinguistics, the way people are treated, the roles you see people taking in society (or their absence) etc. But words are powerful and they do matter. Be conscious of the linguistic choices of yourselves and others.
We can't be 'colourblind' because we need to be conscious of attitudes to race affecting the language around us and actively try to shape more genuine representations of people.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that it matters what words are used to describe something or someone as the words used not only reflect attitudes but actually affect attitudes; when we hear or read something it affectsour impression of the thing/person being described (hence why schools are moving from 'naughty' to describe the child's behaviour rather than the child themselves to starting to ban the word altogether to stop an association with the word from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy: 'I have done naughty things... I do naughty things... I will always do naughty things.') In the doll test we see the attitudes that have been communicated to these children but we also see them using them, reinforcing those attitudes in themselves and in others. The antithetical pairings dumb/smart, good/bad, pretty/ugly etc. are evaluative adjectives (they are purely subjective judgements rather than objective descriptions).
These children were 3-7 years old so it shows how quickly attitudes to race are embedded. It breaks my heart when some of the chlidren realise that they are being asked to identify with the doll of their colour, having said such harsh things about it - either when they try to avoid doing so or still identify with it quickly despite that. Look up the recent viral video of the children crying who'd been given black dolls with a relative laughing about it - highly offensive so you can choose to read the commentary people are making on it rather than watching the video itself.
Attitudes are communicated in more ways than just words, of course: paralinguistics, the way people are treated, the roles you see people taking in society (or their absence) etc. But words are powerful and they do matter. Be conscious of the linguistic choices of yourselves and others.
We can't be 'colourblind' because we need to be conscious of attitudes to race affecting the language around us and actively try to shape more genuine representations of people.
Monday 4 January 2016
Creepy holiday songs - gender
I don't agree with all of her choices but I chose the final one myself as soon as I saw the title - watch this YouTube clip from 5:15 to see for yourself. I feel a chill down my spine but not because it's cold outside!
Media text style model on football commentators' cliches
I am not the target audience and I did not enjoy this piece but it is a good example of how to talk about linguistic ideas in an entertaining(?) and accessible way, although it seems to me to be trying too hard to be funny and clever. What do you think?
Calculating how funny Dr Seuss is - investigations, CLA
Here's an article from the Guardian about a mathematical analysis of Dr seuss's 'non-words' (this is a good alternative to 'nonsense' which implies you can't understand it). The Canadian professor, Chris Westbury, suggests that the entropy of words (how like high-frequency words they are because of letters included and familiar letter combinations) is an indicator of how funny readers will find words (low frequency/'low entropy' inclusions and combinations, the research suggests, are inherently funnier).
What I feel is not considered is the placing of those words in sentences which might make them more or less predictable and, significantly for a child's book, the phonemic combinations rather than the graphemic ones.
Post with what you like about Dr Seuss and any response to this article.
What I feel is not considered is the placing of those words in sentences which might make them more or less predictable and, significantly for a child's book, the phonemic combinations rather than the graphemic ones.
Post with what you like about Dr Seuss and any response to this article.
Sunday 3 January 2016
Editing investigation analyses tips and example (A2 computer room lesson 4/1/16)
Happy New Year, merrinesses!
Welcome back! Assessment week joy to you all! We will be doing the CLA half of an exam paper on Friday so revise all your terms and theory, little by little, all week.
Today I will be doing feedback on the analyses (notice the pluralisation is the same as hypothesis/hypotheses). Get a peer to read your media text (on-screen or hard copy, which might be easier), make some improvements and hand it in tomorrow - it won't be marked if it is late, remember. As soon as you can, start working on improving your analysis. Here are some general points for you all to consider (ask me any questions if you need clarification):
In addition to the open questions to prompt the development of the discourse with a child-led focus, M also uses closed questions, seemingly for transactional and regulatory purposes, however some of these also seem to have a use in developing independence of language use. In table 6 the closed questions are subdivided on the basis of interrogatives that require an answer that offers information (transactional e.g. "would you like juice or milk") and interrogatives that are related to compliance (regulatory e.g. "that wasn't a good idea (.) was it"). These regulatory interrogatives are mainly (4 out of 5 times over the three transcripts) phrased as a declarative with a tag question that is often (3 out f 4 times) not contradicted and reinforces the caregiver's role as the more powerful/knowledgeable participant1. What seems significant is the singular time (1 out of 5 within this small data pool, which might be anomalous in terms of a much larger sample but is here a quite significant 20%) that the regulatory approach is challenged. In T3dinner, C counters the regulatory admonishment "you shouldn't talk with your mouth full (.) should you" with "silly Mummy (.) you asked me a question at the wrong time". The use of the adjectives "silly" and "wrong" seem to seek to reverse the role of the powerful and less-powerful participants. The designation "silly" is characteristic of M's speech (used by M to C on 3 occasions over the three transcripts, along with the similar uses of evaluative adjectives "bossy" (x2) and "lovely" (x2) and therefore could be said to have been modelled frequently and it may or may not have been made clear that this is adult language not suitable for a child to reply with). These adjectives normally show the power behind the discourse of the caregiver to evaluate the behaviour of the child and potentially punish or reward (instrumental power). Although C does not possess this power, the use of this diminutive adjective "silly" to admonish M and the supporting declarative (including another judgemental adjective "wrong") to justify it show the ability of a 3-year-old to utilise adult forms that have been modelled for him for his own purposes, perhaps to try and level the asymmetric power in a circumstance where he may feel justified to stand up for himself (his observation about the circumstances is accepted as truthful, or at least convincing, by M when she remarks "lawyered!"). Her use of the exclamatory perhaps also acknowledges the sophistication of his response which may effectively raise his influential power in this situation and encourage the mother to consider her use of admonishments more carefully, suggesting that Fairclough's notion of unequal encounters2, if it includes changing power balances, is supported to a degree here (while M remains the more powerful participant, C has clearly raised his status in this adjacency pair). C's choice to challenge M's rebuke also suggests that child-led discourse strategies may indeed have encouraged the development of independence and sophisticated discourse strategies even in so young a child as he is able to use structures modelled for him to achieve his own purposes. It is not clear whether the use of the unmitigated FTA3 is finely judged (the verb "lawyered" seems to show an appreciation of C's bald-on-record strategy) or only accepted because of M's likely awareness that children so young are too egotistical4 to see where they might cause offence and therefore cannot choose to use more negative face5 approaches to someone with instrumental power over them. This might be the cause of the shocked humour implicit in the minor sentence "lawyered!" which may indicate a degree of offence which M puts aside by making a remark using low-frequency lexis that C will not understand the implications of and may be purely to manage her own feelings of affront at being challenged through humour; perhaps the remark even came from an awareness of being recorded (the observer's paradox) and was intended for the implied audiences beyond the dinner table who are linguists who would understand the connotations of cleverness and manipulativeness inherent in the noun "lawyer". M may be acknowledging C's progress as an influential speaker who can assert his own personality and sense of fairness by challenging her, maybe even with pride at the effectiveness of her own modelling.
I would probably divide that into several paragraphs for ease of reading but I wanted to show you what a unit of analysis should include and how in-depth you can go as long as you have a narrow enough focus on how you are going to test your hypothesis (find a way to leave out anythign you can't discuss in depth). I would have a slightly longer section before this on open questions and a much shorter section afterwards on how little significance the transactional questions seem to have.
Welcome back! Assessment week joy to you all! We will be doing the CLA half of an exam paper on Friday so revise all your terms and theory, little by little, all week.
Today I will be doing feedback on the analyses (notice the pluralisation is the same as hypothesis/hypotheses). Get a peer to read your media text (on-screen or hard copy, which might be easier), make some improvements and hand it in tomorrow - it won't be marked if it is late, remember. As soon as you can, start working on improving your analysis. Here are some general points for you all to consider (ask me any questions if you need clarification):
- the intros still need work (and it was very hard for me to know if your points were relevant to your title/hypothesis if you didn't give them in); ensure that you tell me in a clear and engaging way all I need to know to understand what you have chosen to look at and why it is a worthy investigation (why it's interesting). Also, show how your knowledge of theory leads you to choose an interesting hypothesis, and show how you will test it (which techniques you will be looking for, what kind of data and subjects you have chosen etc.)
- methodologies still need data description tables to set out exactly what you collected and clarify how you will refer to it in a way that reminds me what each transcript/letter/comment is e.g. 'transcript one' isn't as clear as 'T1rocket' to refer to the transcript of Zach telling his rocket story because I won't remember what transcript one refers to without a clue
- introduce the analysis so that you have a chance to evaluate why you are starting by looking at (for instance) sentence moods rather than non-standard English - it really helps if you have quantified your data in ways that relate to your hypothesis so that you can show what is most significant and why (ask Josie if you can see her approach)
- Sub-headings to organise the analysis are vital - they could be techniques, theories, key questions or another organisational structure you can think of but I don't want an essay, I want an investigation report (that allows you to hit the criteria of a logical/systematic approach) - each section might need another mini intro to establish the section's significance
- Within sections, ensure you have cohesion by using discourse markers at the start of each new paragraph e.g. in contrast, similarly, subsequently etc. (read my 'bad writing' post below this one to check you are not committing any other faux pas). If you change focus in a section, make it clear how and why.
- Many, many more terms needed! AO1 marks are almost exclusively for terminology used consistently and with accuracy (but also clear organisation and well-structured PEE). Choose aspects to investigate that allow you to closely analyse the terminology you can apply to significant quotes in context, tentatively exploring the relevance of theory and context as to why language might have been used in that way (and tentatively offering alternative interpretations).
- Relevance - I got tired of writing 'rel' on paragraphs that weren't closely linked to the title/hypothesis - either link them explicitly or leave them out
- Footnotes - more use of footnotes to cite theory (e.g. if you mention 'accommodation' you might need to footnote it as Goffman's CAT theory and give the year so I can refer to your bibliography and see how that is defined in your source (or at least check that you have a source!) or define your interpretation of particular terms so you can investigate their use with your limited resources e.g. how are you defining 'emotive' language that relates to 'feelings' to test Tannen's difference theory?
- Speaking of which, more range of theory please - if you are looking at CLA, I am sure you will also find gender or power theories relevant to apply as you go (don't forget to footnote them and put sources in your bibliography where possible) and you should evaluate how far your data supports/contradicts them all the way through, challenging theory (you have to show a 'range' of theory tentatively applied to get the higher marks)
- Quantify where possible
- Don't forget Harvard-referenced bibliographies for the investiation and the media text
- <sigh> and please, please stop using 'incorrect' and 'wrong' and remember to use 'non-standard'
- Discourse markers and clarification of the significance of what you are looking at
- Overview of how the technique/concept you are examining is used throughout (ideally using quantification to support your interpretation)
- 3-6 terms accurately applied to an exemplifying quote (or more than one) to explore how language is used in the context of the whole piece of data or the whole data pool
- Tentative links to theory and wider context, offering alternative interpretations and evaluating the limitations of your data if necessary
- Clarification of the relationship of what you are examining/discussing to your title/hypothesis
In addition to the open questions to prompt the development of the discourse with a child-led focus, M also uses closed questions, seemingly for transactional and regulatory purposes, however some of these also seem to have a use in developing independence of language use. In table 6 the closed questions are subdivided on the basis of interrogatives that require an answer that offers information (transactional e.g. "would you like juice or milk") and interrogatives that are related to compliance (regulatory e.g. "that wasn't a good idea (.) was it"). These regulatory interrogatives are mainly (4 out of 5 times over the three transcripts) phrased as a declarative with a tag question that is often (3 out f 4 times) not contradicted and reinforces the caregiver's role as the more powerful/knowledgeable participant1. What seems significant is the singular time (1 out of 5 within this small data pool, which might be anomalous in terms of a much larger sample but is here a quite significant 20%) that the regulatory approach is challenged. In T3dinner, C counters the regulatory admonishment "you shouldn't talk with your mouth full (.) should you" with "silly Mummy (.) you asked me a question at the wrong time". The use of the adjectives "silly" and "wrong" seem to seek to reverse the role of the powerful and less-powerful participants. The designation "silly" is characteristic of M's speech (used by M to C on 3 occasions over the three transcripts, along with the similar uses of evaluative adjectives "bossy" (x2) and "lovely" (x2) and therefore could be said to have been modelled frequently and it may or may not have been made clear that this is adult language not suitable for a child to reply with). These adjectives normally show the power behind the discourse of the caregiver to evaluate the behaviour of the child and potentially punish or reward (instrumental power). Although C does not possess this power, the use of this diminutive adjective "silly" to admonish M and the supporting declarative (including another judgemental adjective "wrong") to justify it show the ability of a 3-year-old to utilise adult forms that have been modelled for him for his own purposes, perhaps to try and level the asymmetric power in a circumstance where he may feel justified to stand up for himself (his observation about the circumstances is accepted as truthful, or at least convincing, by M when she remarks "lawyered!"). Her use of the exclamatory perhaps also acknowledges the sophistication of his response which may effectively raise his influential power in this situation and encourage the mother to consider her use of admonishments more carefully, suggesting that Fairclough's notion of unequal encounters2, if it includes changing power balances, is supported to a degree here (while M remains the more powerful participant, C has clearly raised his status in this adjacency pair). C's choice to challenge M's rebuke also suggests that child-led discourse strategies may indeed have encouraged the development of independence and sophisticated discourse strategies even in so young a child as he is able to use structures modelled for him to achieve his own purposes. It is not clear whether the use of the unmitigated FTA3 is finely judged (the verb "lawyered" seems to show an appreciation of C's bald-on-record strategy) or only accepted because of M's likely awareness that children so young are too egotistical4 to see where they might cause offence and therefore cannot choose to use more negative face5 approaches to someone with instrumental power over them. This might be the cause of the shocked humour implicit in the minor sentence "lawyered!" which may indicate a degree of offence which M puts aside by making a remark using low-frequency lexis that C will not understand the implications of and may be purely to manage her own feelings of affront at being challenged through humour; perhaps the remark even came from an awareness of being recorded (the observer's paradox) and was intended for the implied audiences beyond the dinner table who are linguists who would understand the connotations of cleverness and manipulativeness inherent in the noun "lawyer". M may be acknowledging C's progress as an influential speaker who can assert his own personality and sense of fairness by challenging her, maybe even with pride at the effectiveness of her own modelling.
I would probably divide that into several paragraphs for ease of reading but I wanted to show you what a unit of analysis should include and how in-depth you can go as long as you have a narrow enough focus on how you are going to test your hypothesis (find a way to leave out anythign you can't discuss in depth). I would have a slightly longer section before this on open questions and a much shorter section afterwards on how little significance the transactional questions seem to have.
Bad writing (Mashable's 15 words you should eliminate from your writing and my own bug-bears)
I don't see too many of Mashable's choices and there are always reasons for using words (for specific effects after consideration of the audience, purposes and form) but it is useful to reflect on your writing habits by looking at whether you use these or what else you might be doing out of habit that it would be wise to adjust.
You might want to consider these no-nos that I often see (my personal writing bugbears):
You might want to consider these no-nos that I often see (my personal writing bugbears):
- a lot (and, worse, alot) - there are so many alternatives out there that sound more impressive or precise so use only if you are creating a specifically informal register
- using tautology (saying the same thing twice) - one of those uses is redundant unless you want to break the rules for emphasis. This can happen easily e.g. I think it is maybe... (both "I think" and "maybe" introduce tentativity)
- run on sentences - many students, even at A2, seem to think you can blur sentence boundaries by just using a comma (look up comma splicing - there is help on grammar sites like Grammar Bytes) or even continuing into the next sentence with no punctuation. Nearly as bad is lack of clarity by using conjunctions to join too many ideas together
- long paragraphs - lack of planning leads to lack of focus and long, impenetrable paragraphs which give readers/markers headaches; change paragraph every time you change time, place, topic or speaker (TiPTopS). Good PEE for those As and Bs should be well-structured so PLAN!
- no throughline - paragraphs should be linked by discourse markers at the start of each new paragraph; they show how ideas flow one from another, link, or contrast - what does the reader need to know to help them follow what you are saying and prove to them that you've carefully planned how to present your ideas?
- thesaurusitis - using a low-frequency word to look clever is only effective if it means precisely what you think it means and adds clarity: I've read essays and media texts that were incomprehensible because words from the thesaurus had been used as if they were interchangable. Read widely to get a better vocabulary - don't rely on a thesaurus if you are not sure of the shades of meaning created by different word choices
- homophone errors - if you get words from the following circled in your work, make sure you know the rules and check for accuracy until you are sure you are consistently getting them right: to/two/too, their/there/they're, weather/whether, practice/practise, affect/effect, who's/whose
- missing/superfluous apostrophes - even A-grade students sometimes don't have the rules quite right or don't check their work properly and it's important. Missing possessive apostrophes are the most common (or apostophes in the wrong place in plural possessives e.g. it should be "all the neighbours' houses" - since the noun "neighbours" is a plural, the apostrophe comes after the s). I also see superfluous apostrophes added mistakenly into plurals and added after decades/centuries or initialisms: 1980s, DVDs, apples are correct, 1980's, DVD's, apple's are incorrect.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)