Blog #20 Due Wednesday, 1/28/15

Analyze the following political cartoon and explain how it relates to language and gender.

Blog #19 Due Monday, 12/15/2014

Blog #19: The Language Of Power & Politics

Due Monday by class time

I instructed you to consider ideas in rapper Lupe Fiasco’s lyrics in “Strange Fruition.”

In her essay, “The Language of Power,” bell hooks quotes poet, Adrienne Rich: “This is the oppressor’s language yet I need it to talk to you.” 

And George Orwell claims, “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”

For this blog post, you have options!  Choose just one!  Identify the option you chose in your blog post title. 

Option 1: Choose lines from each of the three texts (Fiasco, Rich, and Orwell).  The lines could be from any part of the texts.  Create a “found” poem by rearranging the lines, phrases, and words.  Our conversation on language, power, and politics should inspire your poem’s content and themes.  Then, include a short reflection on your poem, its purpose and objectives, as well as some of the stylistic choices you made as you composed it.

Option 2: Reread Lupe Fiasco’s lyrics.  Reflect on ways he disrupts standard English and “forges a space for alternative cultural production and alternative epistemologies- different ways of thinking and knowing that are crucial to creating a counter-hegemonic worldview” (hooks).

Option 3: Create a transcript for interview between two or three of the writers (Fiasco, Rich, and Orwell).  What questions do they ask each other?  How do they respond?

Option 4: Do a little background knowledge on one or more of the writers (Fiasco, Rich, and Orwell).  Then, discuss the impact of the writer’s background on his or her work and ideas.  Include references to the texts we read in class.  Make sure to cite your research sources in the your discussion.  

HW Due for Tuesday, 12/9/2014

ON PAPER:

Finish writing Orwell's 4 "Bad Writing Tricks".
List Orwell's 6 Rules for "Good Writing".
On your Orwell copy:::
Metaphors:

Highlight moments in the essay where Orwell uses metaphors/imagery to convey his meaning. 

Due on paper, not on the blog, for Tuesday, 12/9/2014.

The Big Five Assignment due Tuesday, 12/2/2014

After analyzing the following 3 different types of texts, fill in the answers for the Big 5 questions of textual analysis:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/opinion/sunday/obama-and-the-racial-politics-of-american-english.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/55/Barack_Obama_Hope_poster.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yq0tMYPDJQ

Blog #18 due Wednesday, 11/26/2014

Re-watch the following clip: http://www.youtube.com/v/9ov4TlKlCog

Make an inventory of the vocabulary in the clip that makes each person more powerful. For each word that you discuss, explain why it makes the character more powerful.

Use the following words:

Tommy

Pikey

Boy 

Mother

Blog #16 due by Thursday, 11/20/14

Blog Post: Language, Politics, & Regionalism

Due: Thursday by class time

Part I.

1. First of all, take this quiz: How Y’all, Youse, and You Guys Talk.

2. Make and upload a screenshot of your results to your blog.  

• To make a screenshot, hold down SHIFT + COMMAND + 4.  Then use the cursor to create a box around the part of the screen that you want to include in your image.
• Upload the screenshot onto your blog by clicking the image icon in the menu of a new post.

3. Then, reflect on your results:

• Were your results accurate?  If so, what words do you think were major factors in correctly determining your location?
• If not, why do you think the quiz miscalculated your location?
• Why would someone take a quiz like this?  Why do we care?

Part II.

Yesterday, you read, analyzed, and reflected on a New York Times opinion piece,  Obama’s English.  

In the article, the writer argues:

“...in a multiethnic, multicultural America where Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority and Asians are the fastest-growing minority, national politicians also will have to be fluent in multiple ways of speaking. For too long, sounding presidential meant sounding like a white, middle- or upper-class straight man” (Alim).  

In this post, you are going to attempt to be fluent in a different way of speaking in order to persuade a specific audience.

Choose one of the following audiences:

• persuade a three year old to eat their broccoli
• persuade an Apple computer executive to hire you
• persuade a Harvard admissions director to accept you
• persuade a police officer to let you go without paying a speeding ticket
• persuade a local band to hire you as a new bassist/singer/drummer

Then, address this audience in your post.  Imagine you are talking directly to this person.  Consider which words would best reach your intended audience.  How would you need to change your ordinary style of speaking?  In other words, in this post, speak their language to persuade them.  

Blog #17 due by Tuesday, 11/24/14

How do we exert power by speaking differently?

People can include and exclude others by the way they speak.  Factors include:

●word choice

●speed

●syntax

●accents