Extra Credit Thanksgiving Blog

      Throughout this quarter I have learned a lot. I've learned more than I probably did in the whole year of 8th grade. A lot of this new knowledge has come from English, with this knowledge comes important skills and ways of writing. Among these skills the one that has stood out and taught me most would have to be the twist method of analyzing pieces of literature.

      Through the use of twist we are able to decorate our Christmas tree of literary knowledge with the gorgeous ornaments known as tone, word choice, imagery, style and theme. Tone is like the kind of tree you pick out and how big, small, ugly or pretty it is. Tone is very important to writing so that the author can get there point across through feelings and emotions that the reader decodes in the writings. Word choice is like the ornaments that stand out on your tree, word choice is also very important because when describing something you want to be as descriptive as possible. Imagery is like the tinsel of the tree, it's what you use to make a picture of what you are writing about so that the reader can become more involved and see the meaning behind the words. Style is what you put on under the tree to really show what you like and what your about, style shows the authors use of metaphors, similes, personification and much more! Theme is what you put one top of your tree to be deciphered among your many house guests on to what it means. Theme is the authors method of giving you a lesson about life that you should follow.

      All the class work we did with twist has helped me have a better understanding of what authors put into literary works. It has let me become more aware of whats in a passage besides just words. Twist has let me become a better writer and has helped me analyze what poems mean to me.

Lobsters

A lot of interesting topics were brought up in the "Lobsters" discussion. One thought that really captured my   attention, were the comments about the lobsters colors. Almost everyone agreed that the adjectives used to illustrate the lobster's colors (mud red, cadaver green, bruise purple) were selectively chosen to create a mood of ugliness and death. A few people disagreed that the adjectives picked were not directly connected to the color of the lobster and had a deeper meaning about life and that it just happened that these colors were colors of cooked and uncooked lobsters. The chosen colors were just supposed to make you think of how the lobster looks. Not to show any connotation.

I definitely believe that the words were chosen carefully and meaningfully to enhance the meaning of the poem. I believe that all words in the poem were picked extremely specifically. The three adjectives used to illustrate the hues were no different. Neither was the word choice of "herd", which was used many times throughout the poem. To me, when I hear the word herd I think of cattle or sheep being herded around not knowing how to think or what to do. Herds of animals bossed around by the herder. This example is not very different than lobsters being in herd in a glass tank not knowing what to do. I think that the author used these words to create a gloomy and depressing look on how we kill animals for food even when we don't desperately need them

5 part paragraph critiques

I know everyone spent a lot of their time on these 5 part paragraphs. But to be truthful some of them have not be as excellent as others. In other words there were details that everyone in my class could improve on. One being proof reading, some students papers were poorly proof read and there were a lot of capitalization and "spell errors". To change this I would suggest that you have a parent read over your final draft to insure that it is proof read thoroughly. To improve on spell check errors people could use spell check but not click "OK" before even checking if spell check is doing what they want.

I think that the first time around I did better at proof reading and having the structure of the 5 part paragraph. My quotes might have been a little to long on some but for the most part I think I did fine on it. For each of my examples I probably should have put them in chronological order so that the paper would have flowed easier. Next time around I would change a few things but I would keep some others the same. I now know the format and I have a feel for the 5 part paragraph structure so I would be able to focus on my ideas more. I would try to accomplish more in shorter sentences to maximize the effectiveness of my paragraph.