Hamlet. Hamlet. Hamlet.
The month of December has basically been a whole lot of Hamlet. Is it bad that there's not a single character in this play that I like? I can appreciate Hamlet and Claudius as characters and the complexities behind them, but aside from Horatio (who I'm really just indifferent towards) I actually just dislike every character. The only previous reaction that I've had similar to this that I can recall was after reading The Great Gatsby. Nick has no personality and can hardly be considered a character, Jay is too angsty and desperate, Daisy is an insufferable mental case, Tom is a jerk, Jordan's acts above it all when she's just kind of mean and off putting, George is an oblivious sad sack, and Myrtle is...well, that shouldn't require explanation.
That didn't really have a point, I just connected Hamlet to The Great Gatsby and I just had to go and trash all of the characters. Pardon me.
The films to me were great in showing how not to perform Hamlet (no guyliner, no pelvic thrusting into the air, no throwing fencing sabers across ballrooms like they're spears, etc.). My favorite was definitely the 40s one though. It didn't have anything that I really disliked. I'm not entirely sure myself what expectations I had set for these films but the 40s version hit the most of them. I think the biggest praise I'd give it is that it wasn't too over the top and all of the acting was solid.
The most interesting thing that came out of the Hamlet discussions for me was at the very end of the month when we read the Tragic Hamlet article which revealed possible deeper complexities to the character of Hamlet and injected more religious undertones into our class discussion. It completely altered my understanding of Hamlet's motivations, even if the article failed to make me any more sympathetic towards Hamlet. It's like at the end of an episode of Scooby-Doo, the villain is unmasked and you know who is responsible and how they did all that they did, but the most interest part is when the villain ultimately explains why he/she was a villain. We've all known about Hamlet and his actions but the article gave more insight into what actually motivated Hamlet.
Monday, December 23, 2013
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Open Prompt 4
2005 Student Responses
Essay 3A:
I do not understand how the AP readers can decipher the scribbles that some of these kids pen to paper. This individual essay isn't even that bad (I've seen worse) but I'm having to stop every couple of sentences to figure out what certain words are. Poor handwriting aside, the essay is strong, and the only time the handwriting takes away from the content is in a few grammatical errors (though I could just not be seeing the punctuation marks). The AP reader gives this essay an eight, and I'd give the essay that score as well. There's good claims and evidence to support them, but minor problems with the organization and occasionally poor transitions hold the essay back.
Essay 3B:
The handwriting for this essay is much better. I'm rather surprised at the score for this essay, since it's as analytical as the first essay. This essay only received a six, but on first read I probably would have scored it a seven. The AP reader points out that the writing in this essay was not as sophisticated as higher scoring essay would be, but I thought that the essay was well-written and I wasn't distracted by anything (though I did notice that a lot of the author's sentences began with the word "She"). The biggest problem I had with the essay, one that the AP reader also noted, was the unnecessarily long concluding paragraph. A more focused and concise ending would've done this essay good.
Essay 3C:
The pattern with these open prompts tends to be great-good-bad. This holds true here but this essay actually exceeded my expectations for it. As far as last essays go it is not as bad as many of its peers. The biggest problem with this essay is that the analysis doesn't go very deep. Often times, the author will just summarize plot, which is never good. It gets off to a rocky start. The first sentence of the first body paragraph reads: "As a young girl, Janie resided with her grandmother". Okay, not too bad. This statement could ultimately lead to a claim. Maybe the next sentence will lead us somewhe--..."As soon as she was old enough, her grandmother arranged a marriage with a somewhat successful young man." Okay. That's another statement pulled directly from the plot of the book. But maybe..."Jane did not love the man and desperately wanted to find true love, but her grandmother forced her to marry for security". Well what do you know, three in a row! Want to take a guess as to what every other sentence in the first body paragraph (and most of the essay) was like? The AP reader gave this a four, and I suppose that's fair. At the very least it's well written. But I probably would have given it a three, given just the general lack of analysis.
Essay 3A:
I do not understand how the AP readers can decipher the scribbles that some of these kids pen to paper. This individual essay isn't even that bad (I've seen worse) but I'm having to stop every couple of sentences to figure out what certain words are. Poor handwriting aside, the essay is strong, and the only time the handwriting takes away from the content is in a few grammatical errors (though I could just not be seeing the punctuation marks). The AP reader gives this essay an eight, and I'd give the essay that score as well. There's good claims and evidence to support them, but minor problems with the organization and occasionally poor transitions hold the essay back.
Essay 3B:
The handwriting for this essay is much better. I'm rather surprised at the score for this essay, since it's as analytical as the first essay. This essay only received a six, but on first read I probably would have scored it a seven. The AP reader points out that the writing in this essay was not as sophisticated as higher scoring essay would be, but I thought that the essay was well-written and I wasn't distracted by anything (though I did notice that a lot of the author's sentences began with the word "She"). The biggest problem I had with the essay, one that the AP reader also noted, was the unnecessarily long concluding paragraph. A more focused and concise ending would've done this essay good.
Essay 3C:
The pattern with these open prompts tends to be great-good-bad. This holds true here but this essay actually exceeded my expectations for it. As far as last essays go it is not as bad as many of its peers. The biggest problem with this essay is that the analysis doesn't go very deep. Often times, the author will just summarize plot, which is never good. It gets off to a rocky start. The first sentence of the first body paragraph reads: "As a young girl, Janie resided with her grandmother". Okay, not too bad. This statement could ultimately lead to a claim. Maybe the next sentence will lead us somewhe--..."As soon as she was old enough, her grandmother arranged a marriage with a somewhat successful young man." Okay. That's another statement pulled directly from the plot of the book. But maybe..."Jane did not love the man and desperately wanted to find true love, but her grandmother forced her to marry for security". Well what do you know, three in a row! Want to take a guess as to what every other sentence in the first body paragraph (and most of the essay) was like? The AP reader gave this a four, and I suppose that's fair. At the very least it's well written. But I probably would have given it a three, given just the general lack of analysis.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Tomorrow is 10th Anniversary of the N30 WTO Protest in Seattle
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/29/808988/-Tomorrow-is-10th-Anniversary-of-the-N30-WTO-Protest-in-Seattle
I don't think anyone other than Ms. Holmes is even going to know what this is but that's not going to stop me from writing about it.
I especially like this article about the event because of the perspective. The author was actually one of the several thousand people that protested in Seattle and experience the protests, police reaction, government reaction, and media reaction himself. This of course adds an ample amount of bias but it also gives the article a strong voice.
Having actually been in Seattle during the protests, more so than others this author can utilize imagery to capture the scope of the event: "We protested in front of the police lines near I-5. "We protested outside the King County Jail that was filled with Americans deprived of their right to petition their government" He also describes an instance where the march of over 45,000 people converged in downtown Seattle and overwhelmed the police force to the point where the police abstained from action simply because there was little they could do. The descriptions of that day relay the enormity of the event and also the strength it had. Imagery is used for purposes outside of describing the event however, he also uses it to describe the reactions, like "that night Seattle Mayor Paul Schell took a big stinky shit on the American Constitution" or that time when "the MSM had focused on a handful of broken windows and some graffiti, attempting to characterize all the W.T.O. protesters as rioters". You can't win 'em all.
Obviously the writer wanted to share his perspective so the article is written with easy to understand diction. The hardest word I can find in the article is "euphoric". The use of colloquial diction helps readers relate to the author. The author of this article is just a normal person, and by keeping the words easy we can fully relate to him and the feeling that drove him to protest. It's normal words from a normal person for normal people.
Due to the strong amount of bias in the article (not that anything less was expected considering the source), the biggest contribution to the voice of the article is definitely the parts of the week that the author chooses to include. He was a protest who is now validating the protests and what they stood for, so duh he's going to focus on events that convey this best. It's be foolish to deny that absolutely none of the protesters in Seattle were non-violent, but it wouldn't help his case very much if he spent a long time focusing on it. He also quotes what's basically an entire essay by an author of a book about the protests which essentially outlines his entire position. (I suppose he just got lazy at the end.) Also, any success that has come about due to the WTO, IMF, and other globalization organizations isn't touched upon. There's an astounding lack of counterpoint mentioned.
I feel like I sort of diminished the article in that last paragraph but I really do agree with the point of the protests and think that the article made several good points. That's completely unrelated to the prompt for this but I wanted to state that opinion anyway.
I don't think anyone other than Ms. Holmes is even going to know what this is but that's not going to stop me from writing about it.
I especially like this article about the event because of the perspective. The author was actually one of the several thousand people that protested in Seattle and experience the protests, police reaction, government reaction, and media reaction himself. This of course adds an ample amount of bias but it also gives the article a strong voice.
Having actually been in Seattle during the protests, more so than others this author can utilize imagery to capture the scope of the event: "We protested in front of the police lines near I-5. "We protested outside the King County Jail that was filled with Americans deprived of their right to petition their government" He also describes an instance where the march of over 45,000 people converged in downtown Seattle and overwhelmed the police force to the point where the police abstained from action simply because there was little they could do. The descriptions of that day relay the enormity of the event and also the strength it had. Imagery is used for purposes outside of describing the event however, he also uses it to describe the reactions, like "that night Seattle Mayor Paul Schell took a big stinky shit on the American Constitution" or that time when "the MSM had focused on a handful of broken windows and some graffiti, attempting to characterize all the W.T.O. protesters as rioters". You can't win 'em all.
Obviously the writer wanted to share his perspective so the article is written with easy to understand diction. The hardest word I can find in the article is "euphoric". The use of colloquial diction helps readers relate to the author. The author of this article is just a normal person, and by keeping the words easy we can fully relate to him and the feeling that drove him to protest. It's normal words from a normal person for normal people.
Due to the strong amount of bias in the article (not that anything less was expected considering the source), the biggest contribution to the voice of the article is definitely the parts of the week that the author chooses to include. He was a protest who is now validating the protests and what they stood for, so duh he's going to focus on events that convey this best. It's be foolish to deny that absolutely none of the protesters in Seattle were non-violent, but it wouldn't help his case very much if he spent a long time focusing on it. He also quotes what's basically an entire essay by an author of a book about the protests which essentially outlines his entire position. (I suppose he just got lazy at the end.) Also, any success that has come about due to the WTO, IMF, and other globalization organizations isn't touched upon. There's an astounding lack of counterpoint mentioned.
I feel like I sort of diminished the article in that last paragraph but I really do agree with the point of the protests and think that the article made several good points. That's completely unrelated to the prompt for this but I wanted to state that opinion anyway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)