Personal Reflections

Just some general comments about your personal responses. Consider all of these as you move towards completing your APOLOGIA and PERSONAL REFLECTION.

1. MAINTAIN A CONSISTENT VERB TENSE
When you write about literature, and refer to the events of the text you have selected, write in present tense. The events still exist, just because you have read about them, doesn't make them past events.

For example: Instead of shifting tenses (from present to past):

In Robinson Crusoe, the main character as you might expect is Robinson Crusoe himself. Crusoe is not all alone on the island though; he meets another character named Friday. When Defoe introduced Crusoe, he was seen as a rebellious, lazy, English boy who just wanted to leave his parents. Although his housing was not bad, he was a part of a middle class family with a nice home and loving parents, Robinson could not [wait] to get away and this caused some problems with his family, more specifically his father.

WRITE:
In Robinson Crusoe, the main character as you might expect is Robinson Crusoe himself. Crusoe is not all alone on the island though; he meets another character named Friday. When Defoe introduces Crusoe, he is seen as a rebellious, lazy, English boy who just wants to leave his parents. Although his housing is not bad, he is a part of a middle class family with a nice home and loving parents, Robinson can not [wait] to get away and this causes some problems with his family, more specifically his father.

2. USE PROPER CITATIONS.
There is a link to the most recent changes in the MLA guide in your useful links section on the class blog. This guide and the rules are not for memorization, but if you care about the accuracy of your writing, check carefully to ensure that you are providing the right documentation.
FIRST QUOTATION FROM THE NOVEL: (Author, Title page#) (Stevenson, Treasure Island 56)
SHORT STORY, ESSAY, REVIEW: (Author, "title" page #) (Poe, "Tell Tale Heart" 3)
EVER AFTER: (page#)
If you are referring to more than one book by one author you can simply refer to the book's title in your writing and then place the page number after the quotation.

3. CHECK YOUR PUNCTUATION.
People are having trouble with apostrophes.
As a general rule: apostrophes indicate possession (Conrad's novel) and contraction (He didn't arrive on time).
Use a comma and a coordinating conjunction between two independent clauses.
Use a comma between a dependent clause (has a subject and verb but begins with a subordinating conjunction or preposition) and an independent clause, which is something we learned in class about complex sentences.

INCORRECT:
He is allowed to work on the ship because he discovers an important treasure map among a pirates possessions. When we meet him he is working at his parents inn.
CORRECT:
He is allowed to work on the ship, because he discovers an important treasure map among a pirate's possessions. When we meet him, he is working at his parents' inn.

4. INTEGRATE YOUR THINKING.
It is not enough to cycle through the text and identify evidence of style (pathos, suspense, humour, hyperbole, metaphor, symbolism etc...) theme, plot or character. You need to extend your thinking beyond the locate and cycle type activities to integrate your ideas with the text (or dare I say generate some ideas beyond the text) . Make connections to other texts, the world or your own experiences. Attempt to examine the significance of the use of various elements of the text in front of you. Your quotations should function to help you at the very least explain your thinking, but really you should be using these points in your novel to help you justify your ideas.

an example: This is the opening of a response focused on theme. Although there are no direct quotations (yet), you can see how this student has moved away from identify and describe to explain and justify in her exploration of the metaphor used by the author, and the connection he made to his own life experiences. It is these deep connections that create an integrated response.

As the title of the novel suggests, one of the main themes Dostoevsky explores in Crime and Punishment, is that of punishment. In order to fully analyze this theme, Dostoevsky draws on his own personal experiences. After being arrested for joining a group of liberal Utopians, Dostoevsky was sentenced to 8 years of hard labour in Siberia. In the novel, Raskolnikov is similarly sentenced to hard labour in Siberia for the murder of the old pawnbroker. Just as Dostoevsky was never the same after his experiences, Raskolnikov was also greatly changed by his time in Serbia. The hard labour he was forced to endure allowed him to come to terms with what he had done, and find redemption through it. Dostoevsky uses this scenario as a metaphor; it is his way of saying that redemption only comes to those who pay for what they have done, and understand the wrong in it.

5. SENTENCE STRUCTURE.
We went over the ways to fix sentence errors in class during the first unit. You need to start not only be critical readers of fiction, but critical readers of your own work. I found lots of examples of comma splices, sentence fragments and run-on sentences.

an example: He is somewhat of an outcast in the brave new world, or would be if people being alone was not some great crime in this story, something I find very interesting is that despite being an outcast he loves the world of the story, and he longs to be part of it, (CS) he desires the "happiness" of The Brave New World.

QUICK FIX - COMMA SPLICE - add a coordinating conjunction (and, so, or, but) OR change the comma to a semi colon (;).

another example: Bernard is an "Alpha plus" which is essentially the intellectuals of this world the leaders and such, however he has stunted growth and this created a mental excess of sorts making him smarter then most but he is unable to socialize as others veiw him as something of a freak. (RO)

QUICK FIX - RUN ON SENTENCE - separate the independent clauses; add commas before coordinating conjunctions that separate two independent clauses; add commas around non-essential information (which is essentially the intellectuals of this world the leaders and such)

still another: The argument of liberty and happiness, freedom and structure, individuals and the collective. (SF)

QUICK FIX - SENTENCE FRAGMENT - join it to the independent clause before the fragment or after (which ever one suits it best).

2. RESPONSE TO Welcome Posts and Link Lists

I have now read through everyone's blog. If I read your welcome post and links list, I have left a comment. If you received no comment you either have not finished your welcome post or links list by the due date, or you have not given me your blog address (check the Class Blogs list for your name).

Either way, it is your responsibility to come and see me to remedy this.

I was impressed by the following:

1. The concise way some of you approached the welcome post. Many of you were able to complete this statement of purpose very thoroughly in less than 150 words.

Being concise does not always just mean saying what you need to say in as few words as possible. Concise writing is about selecting the best words, combining sentences and ideas, and getting to the point of the piece of writing in a unified manner (unity= all details relate closely back to the claim or purpose). Essentially concise writing is writing that gets to the point by taking the path of least resistance.

For some examples see Tom F. or Claire A.'s blog.

2. The thought that went in to your statement of purpose. As I read I became aware of the thinking and the questioning surrounding your goal for the novel you selected. You were not just looking to me to provide you with a purpose, you were thinking deeply about what would motivate you to continue with this study (beyond the mark at the end I would hope...).

For a great sample of this see Jasmine Q.'s blog.

3. The variety in your links lists. Almost everyone included biographies - appropriately so. Some included videos, interviews and critical essays on the novel. I hope you will find these useful as you continue to read and question the novel and its place in the canon of classic literature. Feel free as you go through this study to add to and expand your links list.

For those of you who used sites that sell or provide essays for students who choose not to do their own work, reconsider the source. Many of these essays are poorly written and frankly whoever writes them cheats on their citations (instead of reading, and understanding the novel they are using quotation sites to put together a poorly written essay). You are smarter than this.

4. The design of your blogs. Many of you selected design elements that effectively presented the time period, subject, theme or mood of the novels you selected.

See Stephanie S's for an example of this.

For another version of this see Connor H.'s blog.

Make sure that you have thought of your reader as you chose colours and fonts (always ask yourself - can this be easily read by others?) . Some of you have added gadgets that really are for more personal blogging than for this educational blog. No worries - you can always remove them....

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Your next task to be completed by the end of October is to write four reading responses. Use the questions I provided you at the beginning of the ISP, and the link 'How to Judge a Classic' found in the sidebar under Useful Resources. These reading responses should not be plot summaries.

1. Welcome Post and Links list

Your Welcome Post and links list is due by
Friday, October 7.

Consider the following suggestions before composing your welcome and links list.

1. What is your purpose?
Try to find a purpose within the assignment that is more intrinsic than getting the assignment done on time.

2. How will you organize your blog?
Will you use the Welcome post as a description and have it come up like a subheading when the blog is opened as I have on the class blog?
(go to DESIGN - SETTINGS - DESCRIPTION)

Will you organize each section of the assignment on a different page?
(go to NEW POST - EDIT PAGES)

Will your links list go on your blog as a gadget or a post?
(go to DESIGN - ADD A GADGET - LINKS LIST)

3. What kind of information do you need to investigate in order to be fully informed? Find links that will help you to understand the novel, its plot, characters, themes and style; the author and the novel's historical context or significance; current interest in the themes or ideas presented in the novel; critical reviews; film versions of the novel etc... You are expected to have surveyed the links for authenticity, accuracy, reliability and usefulness.
Find the information and select how to organize the links you deem worthy (please avoid WIKIPEDIA) - as a page, links list or list in a posting.

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Check out the Welcome Post exemplars on the page in the tab bar above.

Welcome to the Class Blog!

Your learning goals in the computer lab today:

Today you will be introduced to blogging, create your own CLASSIC NOVEL BLOG using blogger.com , and provide me with your blog address
(http:// ________.blogspot.com)



If you have created a blog before and feel comfortable doing this again for your CNS - go ahead.


If you have not created a blog before - follow the instructions as explained in this 'Common Craft' video below to create your blog.






Keep the following in mind as you create your own blog:


1. Come up with a creative title for your blog. This title should reflect in some ways your ideas about reading and should be specifically linked to the CNS.


2. Choose a user name that will make you easy to identify (your first name and last initial) in your blog posts. Do not choose your first and last name for this - for safety reasons.


3. When everyone in the class has finished creating their blogs, I will post a link to each of them on the class blog. Links to your classmates' blogs will be accessed by clicking on their names found in the sidebar of the class blog.

(note: to find your blog address after you have created it go to:
customize - settings - publishing)

When you are done creating and designing your blog and providing me with the link, you may begin to create your Welcome post and Links list
DUE: Oct 7