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Word Rogues |
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On English and Writing: Leon Lanzbom |
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Disclaimer: You may find the language, or the sexual or violent content of some of the material submitted or assigned in this class offensive. I generally do not censor class reading material. Please see me if you feel offended. I will offer alternatives for any assignment. ASSIGNMENT REVIEW GRADING OF ASSIGNMENTS Daily Menu Tuesday 10/17 Wednesday 10/18
Week 2 Tuesday 10/24 Come into class having read and reviewed the following:parallel format p. 123 complex sentences p. 419 compound sentences. p. 434-35 simple sentences avoiding fragments, 422-25 subject-verb agreement, 453-7 Wednesday 10/25 Week 3 Tuesday 10.31
Wednesday 11.1 Thursday 11.9 (moved to next Thursday 11.16)
"The underlying tension of a lot of my art is to try and look through the surface appearance of things." Goldsworthy says, "Inevitably, one way of getting beneath the surface is to introduce a hole, a window into what lies below." (from Susan Stone interview) Click here for reviews on Rivers and Tides. Monday 11.13 "In my Day," BakerBring in your MLA projects __________________________ Lab: work on papers MLA questions/ review Tuesday 11.14 Finish River and Tides Wednesday 11.15 Review for midterms Thurday 11.16 Midterm on all material up to this point Monday 11.20 Usage Review colons 525 Tuesday 11.21 MLA Project due Wednesday 11.22 Final Essay ideas on my desk today. You must tell me on what you plan to write your essay. review grammar and works cited Thursday 11.23: No Class, Thanksgiving Monday: 11/27
Tuesday 11/28 Rough draft, freewriting on your final essay Wednesday 11/29 Thursday 11/30 Extra credit midterm papers due Monday 12.4 Review all grammar and writing: last shot at final paper review Click here for "English Works" five paragraph essay example Tuesday 12.5 Review for final Wednesday 12.6
December 7 This is it, final exam time!
Quotation Marks: The Compare and Contrast Essay
A thesis for the qualities above might read: Though surfing and snowboarding are done in different seasons, these sports are far more similar than different.  Of course, the list above is incomplete. You keep listing qualities until you believe you have enough information to write a valid essay. A list of five to ten qualities works well for the average paper. But you may have to list twenty qualities to get five that will work for you. When listing, it is good to overdo it; this way, when you're ready to write your paper, you can weed out the qualities that won't work and pick the best of the bunch.Three Parts Opening: You will begin your essay, introducing the subjects you plan to compare and contrast and ending your fist paragraph with your thesis. Body: Paragraph by paragraph, offer one subject quality at a time. Ending: As in the argumentative essay, bring it all together. Go back to your thesis Remember: There are no hard and fast rules as to how many comparisons or contrasts you should offer. For a thorough look into your subject, you must offer enough comparisons or contrasts or both to make a valid statement. More on Compare and Contrast Essays: Click here for the University of Washington's Political Science Writing Center Click here for the Harvard University Writing Center Click here for the Perdu's Online Writing Lab (OWL) Writing, Grammar, and Tips Section To Underline or Quote Conception: Just about anything you can hold in your hands should be italicized (or underlined in academic essays): books, movies, artworks, plays, long poems, pamphlets, CD's, symphanies, long musical pieces, famous speeches. What goes inside the things you can hold takes quotations. For example, the poem or short story that goes into the anthology takes quotation marks. The song that goes into the cd. This doesn't work for everything, but for titles, it works like a charm. If you're not sure, check out one of the MLA links in the writing section of this website. ___________________________________ Freewriting  Begin with the basic idea of what you want to write about. Now, set your timer, and write without stopping for seven minutes. Whether you believe your writing is good or bad, don’t stop. If you run out of thoughts, stay positive. Write “yes” or “a new thought will come in a moment,” or “I can do this.” Repeat until a new thought comes. It will. You must not stop. That is the goal. You are forcing your innate intelligence to overide your educated intelligence. Your turning on your creative engine by allowing your intuitive mind to take over. When you are done, read what you have. There should be several gems in your freewriting that you can use for your first draft. Let these gems reveal meaning to you by finding the bridges between the stored images you've now uncovered on paper and the hidden emotions within your memory. Simple Sentences  A simple sentence is built of a single subject-verb unit.Ron runs. The chicken flew the coop. The unicycle has been riden by several sad circus clowns. Yet, a simple sentence can have more than one subject or verb. multiple subjects: Ron and Aryeh run. The chicken and the rooster flew the coop. The unicycle and the ostrich have been riden by several sad circus clowns. multiple verbs: Ron runs and trips. The chicken flew and buzzed the coop. The unicycle has been stolen and riden by several sad circus clowns. We can even have multiple subjects and verbs: The unicycle and the pogo stick and the Schwinn Airdyne had been stolen, ridden, and returned by several sad circus clowns. Compound Sentences A compound sentence is built out of two or more simple sentences. These are two complete sentences with a subject and verb hooked up together, and they are usually connected by a comma plus a word to join the two sentences. The joining words are called coordinating conjunctions because they coordinate the two sentences. the coordinating conjuncions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet. Carl opened the door, and the ants made their break to freedom. Lois loves to go shopping at Sacks, but Superman can never find anything to match his costume there. Billy loved his asparagus garden, for he was not your average boy. You see? Each of the above can be separated into two sentences, but the coordinating conjunction coordinates them together. Consider the coordinating conjunction as the camp councilor of the word world. The words and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet, are always trying to hook their sentence campers together. There will usually be something in common between the first sentence and the second sentence. In other words, the ideas of both sentences should be related. Complex Sentences A complex sentence is made up of a sentence with a complete thought and a statement of an incomplete thought (one that begins with a dependent word). We are talking about an dependent clause and an independent clause hooked up together. Remember: an independent clause tells a complete thought; a dependent clause tells an incomplete thought. Here's an example of a dependent clause: When I get those P.F. Flyers... Do you feel the tension in the above dependent clause. It's incomplete. It needs more, more, MORE! When I get those P.F. Flyers, I'll be the most popular kid in school. A dependent clause begins with a dependent word. Let's look at a few.  Dependent words:
When do we use complex sentences? When we want to emphasize one idea over another. Before I left the house, I fed my pet cockatiel. What we want to emphasize here is this guy fed Cessna. I fed my pet cockatiel is a complete thought. Before I left the house is subordinated to the complete thought. This technique of giving one thought more emphasis than another is called subordination. With subordination, the part of the sentence starting with the dependent word or the subordinator will always be the less emphasized part of the sentence. But if you want to emphasize leaving the house you would write: After I fed my pet Cockatiel, I left the house. Do you see how the use of the the word after causes the first half of the sentence to emphasize I left the house? Read it again. This is important stuff and will give your writing a tremendous boost. It depends on what you’re trying to express. If you want I left the house as the emphasis of the sentence, you would leave that clause independent. But, like all the grammar we've learned in this class, it depends on context. Check out the context in the following sentence: After I fed my pet cockatiel, I left the house. But when I got to my office, I realized I had forgotten my keys for the third time this week. And in this one: Before I left the house, I fed my pet cockatiel. Cockatiels are very picky eaters, and if Cessna does not find a piece of mango in her birdseed, she gets into a huff. Can you feel the difference between the above two sentences? One emphasizes the forgetting of the keys; the other emphasizes the feeding of Cessna, the cockatiel A very important point to remember is to make the last part of your sentence the emphatic part. Emphasize your main thought at end of your sentence and pick up that thought in the beginning of your next sentence. On Subjects and Verbs Words that come between subjects and verbs should be handled with care. Take this sentence for example: The pies in the refrigerator are not as tasty as I thought. The subject pies is plural, so the verb must be plural as well. We must use the verb are for the verb and subject to agree. The words, in the refrigerator, which come between the subject and the verb, do not affect agreement. Don't be fooled by the object of a preposition--learn what a prepositional phrase is. By identifying the prepositional phrase, you can avoid subject-verb agreement problems. Remember this rule: the subject will never be found in a prepositional phrase. Phrases A group of related words without a subject and a verb together. A phrase is a part of a sentence, not a sentence. You can't just write Guarding the bean sprouts. You must have someone who does the gaurding, like Molly in the sentence that follows: Guarding the bean sprouts was a dream-come-true for Molly. *Here, the phrase acts as the subject of the sentence. Use a comma or commas to set off a phrase not important to the meaning of a sentence. The sentence should make sense without the phrase.  Even in his car, Derrida ponders the elusiveness of French toast. *We don't need the phrase "Even in his car" to know that Derrida is in awe of French toast. While washing her hair, Jesse could not stop thinking about Godzilla. Professor Cuisinier, the cooking coach, wore one of those big white muumuus. *Here, the phrase, the cooking coach, is embedded. Imagine a phrase that starts your sentence as a marque or a signboard, projecting over the entrence of your sentence theatre. With your phrase you're announcing something essential about your subject, the way a marquee at a movie theatre announces something essential about the movie inside the theatre. The comma you use says to the reader that right after this doorway you'll find your movie, the heart of your sentence. Indefinite Pronouns Indefinite pronouns always take singular verbs.
Everyone in the line screams (not scream) for his money back. Nobody twists (not twist) the way she does. Each of the students has (not have) a beautiful sandwich for lunch. Verbs must agree with subject no matter their placement in a sentence: Near my closet hides Chris Ware. *here the famous illustrated novelist, Chris Ware, is the subject; the verb he comes after must be singular. Near my closet hide Chris Ware and Quimby the Mouse. *here we use a plural verb because we have a plural subject: Chris Ware and Quimby the Mouse.  Interrogatives are sentences with different verb placementWhere are those sea anemones? *the word anemones is the subject here, so we must use the plural verb are. Watch your subject-verb placement with sentences that begin with the words there, here, who, which, what, and where. (Scroll down for more info on interrogatves) Compound Subjects When the word and joins subjects a plural verb should be used: Chris Ware and Quimby the Mouse are a demanding couple. Esther and Haman are the life of the party. When subjects are joined by or or nor or contain either. . .or, neither. . .nor. the verb agrees with the subject closest to the verb: After the last incident, neither Cha Cha nor her cousin eats BBQ. Neither the barista nor her helpers make a decent soy mocha latte extra hot no whip. Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns are defined as words that name persons or things. Personal pronouns do not follow articles and do not form plurals by adding s as many nouns do. Pronouns as Subjects and Objects When you’re dealing with two objects, reconstruct the sentence with one pronoun in question. Try each pronoun by itself--he correct pronoun will sound right. Ronny and me love vegetarian burgers. Wrong! Ronny and I love vegetarian burgers. Right. Drop Ronny, and you have I love vegetarian burgers. You can’t write Me love vegetarian burgers. The anthropologist begged Ronny and I for a skin sample. Wrong! The anthropologist begged Ronny and me for a skin sample. Right. Drop Ronny again here and you have The anthropologist begged me for a skin sample. Use object pronouns after verbs or prepositions. Ramone hated me. (Me is the object of the word hated.) Between you and I, I hate vegetarian burgers. Wrong! Between you and me, I hate vegetarian burgers. Right! Use subject pronouns after the verb to be. Shakespeare wrote “Woe is me.” Grammatically, Shakespeare was wrong. He used the object form of a pronoun after a linking verb. But Shakespeare knew what he was doing. For Shakespeare, Woe is me is more musical than Woe is I. The correct form should be the following: Woe is I. It may be they who stole the jello. This is he. Moshe confided that the one who stole the Mona Lisa was him. Wrong! Moshe confided that the person who stole the Mona Lisa was he. Right! Use us when a noun phrase is an object of a preposition. The coach screamed at we spectators. Wrong! The coach screamed at us spectators. Right! Recast the sentence: The coach screamed at us. Doesn’t that sound better? After the word than or as, use subject pronouns. If you’re not sure what to do, mentally add the verb at the end of the sentence. You run slower than I (run). Billy is as heavy as I (am heavy). Verbs Most verbs show action. Verbs will fit into the following sentences: I will___________________. Yesterday I _____________________. I have ___________________. Some verbs don't show action. These are linking verbs: am, is, are, were, be, being, been, become, seem. Linking verbs will tell you something about the subject of the sentence. The chihuahua is yappy. Is here tells you something about the subject, the "chihuahua." The subject is your key to finding the verb. Find out what the sentence says about the subject, and you'll find the verb. Can you put I, you, he, she, it, or they, in front of the potential verb? If you can, you have your verb. A helping verb appears before the main verb. The teacher and I have worked hard. ____________________________________ Helping Verbs There are nine helping verbs, also known as modal auxiliaries. These are always used with other verbs. They do not actually show action. The action they perform is the job of helping a verb. Can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would must. There are also three verbs can combine with other verbs. Be (am, are, is, was, were, been, being) Has (has, having, had) Do (does, did) Jenny was laughing all day. Elvis has left the building. He did sleep under the bed.Revi Contractions, interrogatives, adjectives, adverbs, and modification: Contractions Two parts of speech in one word. Contractions are built out of pronouns and linking verbs. You + are = you’re She + will = she’ll _____________________________________ Interrogative Sentences An interrogative sentence asks a question. A sentence that asks a question separates the helping verb from the main verb. Did Crandall run into the shack? Did = helping verb Run = main verb _____________________________________ Adjectives Many adjectives have antonyms: Big/small Tall/short Happy/sad Adjectives will make sense between articles and nouns that are places, persons, or objects. The tiny lake The happy boy A red thermos  Many adjectives are found to the left of nouns. This is not always the case because they can also be found to the right of linking verbs.Memorize this: Adjectives will answer one or more of the following questions. Which_____________? What kind of_____________? How many______________? Adverbs Adverbs often deal with time. Adverbs can be moved to another place in the sentence. Adverbs often end in –ly Memorize this: Adverbs will answer the following questions: When? How? Where? To what extent? Why? Won’t is a contraction of will not. Not is an adverb for will. It answers “how” or "to what extent" you will do something in the contraction “won’t.” ______________________________________ Modification Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns. Adverbs modify or describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. The road runner ran very quickly. In this sentence, very and quickly are both adverbs, with the word very modifying quickly. Adverbs not and very almost always modify the words they are next to. Direct Objects See if your verb is a linking verb or an action verb. If you have a linking verb, you will not have a direct object. A direct object will always be a noun or pronoun, so look for words that point to nouns, like an article. Look at your verb and ask “Whom” or “What” after the verb. Your answer will be the direct object. She tossed me her spatula. Now ask, she tossed whom or what? She did not toss me. She tossed the spatula. The “spatula” is what is being tossed, not me. So there is your answer. “Spatula” is your direct object. _______________________________________ Indirect Objects An indirect object is a noun or pronoun found between the verb and the direct object. To find the indirect object move the suspected word to the right of the direct object and ask “to” or “for.” She tossed the spatula “to” me. “Me” is the indirect object. So you can see that a sentence must have a direct object to have an indirect object. Subject and Object Pronouns The form of a pronoun will depend on where it is placed in your sentence.
Subject pronouns will be subjects of your sentence. They tumble down the hill. "Who" or "what" tumble down the hill? They! The pronoun “they” is your subject. Always use subject pronouns after the "be" verb form. (be, am, are, is, was, were, been, being, etc.) Woe is me. Wrong! Woe is I. Ah, much better. Use subject pronouns after the words "than" or "as." You sleep deeper than I. We like the beach as much as they. Object pronouns will be the objects of verbs or prepositions. Larry wrote him. She ran with me. I ate dinner with Roberto and her. (not she) Predicate Nominatives The predicate nominative is a noun or pronoun that follows a linking verb. It acts almost like an adjective, describing the subject. Like adjectives, it will usually answer which, what kind of, how many. Carl is a detective of the heart. Which word describes Carl? Detective. “Of the heart” is a prepositional phrase and will not be the predicate nominative. Notice that “of the heart” does not describe Carl. “Of the heart” acts like an adjective to the word "detective" here, describing “what kind of” detective Carl is. The predicate nominative will not be found in a prepositional phrase. So every sentence with a linking verb may not have a predicate nominative. Ralph is in the doghouse. “In the dog House” is a prepositional phrase, not the predicate nominative. It does not describe Ralph. Picture Trough
          Movie: Buena Vista Social Club.Ry Cooder reintroduces a group of veteran Cuban musicians, many of them in their 80's and 90's, to the world. Not only do they create and play some of the most beautiful music, but they also proove that there is no such thing as an age barrier when it comes to pursuing your dreams. Village Voice review by Richard Gehr Havana Great Time Buena Vista Social Club: Cuban links Like the vintage hand-tinted postcards it resembles, Wim Wenders's film about the Buena Vista Social Club— the dozen or so aging Cuban singers and musicians who recorded the mellifluous million-selling album of the same name— feels like a timeless blast from the past. Assembled in 1997 by guitarist Ry Cooder for Havana recording sessions, the Buena Vista Social Club is a stylish, distressed signifier for the nostalgic glories of prerevolutionary Cuban culture. Life before Castro "wasn't what it is now," says 72-year-old singer Ibrahim Ferrer, the famously rediscovered son and bolero singer who shined shoes for a living prior to hooking up with Cooder. "It was harder." Aside from Ferrer's comment, however, and some revolutionary graffiti, the film maintains an apolitical distance from the strained Cuba-U.S. relationship. As it happens, the Club has skirted the U.S. government's cultural embargo more successfully than any other Cuban musicians to date. In making their case for a naive campesino music that transcends ideology, Wenders and producer Cooder film the Club's key members in isolation as they reminisce in fabulously dilapidated art-deco bars. Since nobody seems to know where the original Buena Vista Social Club was located (92-year-old, cigar-puffing string player Compay Segundo pokes around a Havana neighborhood for it in one amusing sequence), the film serves as a sentimental journey back into its heyday. Emotions run thick when Ferrer sings the bolero "Silencio" in a recording studio with 69-year-old Omara Portuondo,  and then thicker when Wenders cuts directly to the group's first public performance of the song, in Amsterdam.Self-effacing to a fault (apart from his signature slide-guitar accents), Cooder is known as much for his film scores (such as Wenders's Paris, Texas) as for his collaborations with such musicians as Mali's Ali Farka Toure and India's Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. But the film sheds little light on the crosscultural creative process— it could have included more informal studio give-and-take. Buena Vista Social Club makes a sharp turn when the band visits New York for a final proud and exciting concert at Carnegie Hall (I vividly recall 77-year-old pianist Ruben Gonzalez basking as long as possible in well-deserved adulation). Wenders follows three of the musicians as they wander down Seventh Avenue after the concert, chatting about "the good life" they find reflected in tacky souvenir statues of American presidents. "If we'd followed the way of possessions," Ferrer had said back in Havana, "we would have been gone a long time ago." Possibly. Having followed the directions to Carnegie Hall so well, they only really seem lost after they've played there. Click here for a great website on Buena Vista Social Club Click here for reviews from rottentomatoes.com _____________________________ |
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Startle-response quizzes and missing class: There will be 5 in-class Startle-Response quizzes, otherwise known as "check that you did the reading carefully and on time quizzes." You can expect these quizzes from time to time, and they will come unannounced throughout the semester. The quizzes will primarily focus on the reading assignments, providing me with a chance to see how well you are doing with the readings and documentation technique, though any area of the course may provide material for quizzes. The whole point of these quizzes is to help us work together, to convert what might be a boring classroom into a chaotic, unpredictable and exciting intellectual laboratory. 
This classic film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali, circa 1928, was made to attract the attention of the Avant Garde movement. These two mad artists wanted to create a film whose "only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to rational explanation of any kind would be accepted." Buñuel took stones to the premiere to toss at the critics. But something more bizarre than the film itself happened. The critics and bourgeoisie loved it! Buñuel and Dali were puzzled. 
Théâtre F105: Movie! Andy Goldsworthy--
1) Mystical: enables human beings to accept the burdens of life
You will create lists of qualities or traits that each of your subjects have, and as you do this, you will discover insights to your subject that, at first glance, you may not have realized were there. 
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