Wednesday, 2/1: Writing

* Pray (safe travel; cautionary tales)

* Review grammar: Peer review.

* Writing

Resident Sophomores (now seniors) Representing!

The prompt
Virtue and Verses: Choose a character from The Hobbit that exhibits a biblical virtue. Defend your choice with specific example from the story.

Anna--Always Intelligent. Most chose to write about Bilbo, but Anna took another tack: Gandalf.

Notice has well she defended her thesis with excellent examples from The Hobbit.





Jinsol--Clear and Good. Jinsol chose Bilbo. Notice his approach; his virtue is courage, but he treats different aspects of courage in each body paragraph. He examples are also good. The verses took up a bit more of the piece than would be ideal, perhaps, but it is very good.





Many students from Thailand have exceptional penmanship:

HW: Finish J25, study for quiz, Reno's classes be ready for poetry recitation, bring tea party gear.

SONNET 12


When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow;
   And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
   Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

Notes
count (1): count the chimes.
hideous (2): The exact meaning here is likely derived from the Old French hisde meaning dread. Thus we have a balanced antithesis in brave/day and hideous/night.
prime (3): peak; also a continuation of the extended time metaphor as prime was the first hour of the day, usually 6 a.m. or the hour of sunrise (OED).
sable (4): darkest brown. Note the extensive color imagery (as we also see in Sonnet 73) -- violet, sable, green, silver, white.
all silver'd o'er (4): The original, Q's or siluer'd ore, was changed by Malone (ed. 1780) to all silver'd o'er, due to Malone's insistence that or was a printing mistake. However, some editors leave or, believing it refers to the heraldic color gold (see Tucker ed. 1924).
Malone's simple explanation seems to make most sense, especially if we compare Hamlet:
Hamlet. His beard was grizzled--no?
Horatio. It was, as I have seen it in his life,
A sable silver'd. (1.2.242)
canopy (6): shelter. erst (6): formerly.
summer's green (7): Shakespeare here uses a literary device known as synecdoche (by which a specific part is taken for the whole); thus summer's green is the bounty of crops.
girded up (7): tied up tightly (the first use of the term as such in English).
And...beard (8-9): One of the most striking metaphors in the sonnets. The harvested crops, carried on the bier, wrapped tightly with protruding pale hulls, are personified as the body of an old man, carried on a cart or wagon to church, wrapped tightly in his shroud, with his protruding white beard.
breed (14): children.
brave (14): challenge.

Source: Shakespeare, William.  Sonnet 12.  Ed. Amanda Mabillard.  Shakespeare Online.  20 Aug. 2000. <http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/12.html >.

Tuesday, 1/31: Grammar

* Pray

* Grammar: Comma Review
1. Review the four comma rules (32a, 32b, 32c, and 32d).
2. Compose three example sentences for each rule.
3. Have a peer review your sentences. Ask me about any that seem suspicious.
4. For your quiz this block day, you must know the four rules, Dickens ch. 11-20, and the vocab. appropriate to those chapters.

* Work on your journal

HW: Journal Work

Monday, 1/30: Reading Dickens

* Pray (for babies)

* Return quizzes

Vocabulary for J25 by chapter

16. aberration, tremulous

17. sluice, untoward

18. evince, placable

19. abreast, clemency

20. equipage, guileless

* Read: Audio link Dickens

HW: Begin J25 (due block). This week Reno's classes will enjoy some tea time after the quiz on block. Reno's classes will also begin poetry recitations (poem is on Focus).

Block day, Week 25: ICE, tea party

* Pray

* Check J24

* Any questions?

* ICE: Dickens - ch. 15

* Tea Party (for classes that are having one this week)

HW: Read

And a Tookish Reminiscence

Warren Richardson told me that he hated middle school for a season.  He had a hard time, felt bored. 

One day, reading Tolkien, he had an epiphany: Something he read changed the way he saw the world.  Since then, he wanted to do his best at everything in life.  He wanted to try new things.  He took interest in whatever he engaged in, sought to explore the world.  Today, he is studying engineering at Stanford.

What was the quote?


"Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick. He looked out the window. The stars were out in a dark sky above the trees. He thought of the jewels of the dwarves shining in dark caverns" (Tolkien 28).



Wednesday: Writing Example: Coveted Characters

* Pray

* Grammar answer posted on the screen. 

Rachel Saporito had a solid ICE final.  Please read it.  It's not perfect, but it's very good.  She has a clear thesis, and she defends it.  Her diction is generally mature.  Her structure is clear (story #1, story #2, comparison in the conclusion).   



* Work on J24

HW: J24

Extras

You may ask, "Mr. Schwager, what should I do to find a definition that's not from Perrine's or a part of Turco's .pdf...other places have such long and various definitions."

Well, I'm glad you asked.  This is an alphabetical list that covers most terms (besides Turco's advanced terms): Cummings Study Guide Terms. 

Or, you may ask, "Mr. Schwager, the Bedford book is kind of funky to work with online.  Is there a good site that has similar info. in a better format for me to review or learn from? MLA review?"

Why, yes, there's the OWL at Purdue:
Writing and Grammar
MLA

These sites and Bedford have all been added to as a link list below the label on the right side of the blog for convenience.

Enjoy,

Mr. S

Monday, 1/23: Reading

* Pray

* J24: Reach ch. XI-XV (11-15). Answer two questions from each chapter and supply two sentences of your own for the following words:

Vocabulary XI-XV

21. dexterous
22. discernible
23. dejected
24. repose
25. sovereign
26. vagary
27. chaste
28. exult
29. morose
30. unscrupulous

* Read in class

* Tea party this week, block day: Leave a comment to today's entry with your period and what you are bringing. Everyone brings something.


1.  Things that must be covered (in bold).  These are the essentials.
Water: Bring individual bottles of water, 10-15 per period. 
Something to heat the water for tea (electric)
Tea
CUPS
Those are the bare minimum.  

2. But you want it to taste good; bring:
Honey or Sugar
Small carton of milk or cream (for you if you want it...or maybe you and a friend; I don't want to throw out full cartons of milk)
Napkins or paper towels

3.  Now that essential are covered, we move on.
If we have all of those are covered, we can add snacks:
Crackers
Bread
Scones
Biscotti
Plates
More Napkins or paper towels
Butter
Plastic knives
Cookies, Cake, Pie, Cupcakes, Baked goods
Fruit, Dried fruit, Nuts

If breads and crackers are covered, bring spreads:
Cheese, Cream cheese, Clotted cream
Jam, Curd
Dried meat (like dry salami or prosciutto...not like roast beef or turkey or ham)
Hard-boiled eggs
Salt
Pepper

Do not bring:
Rice
Dinner food
Things you have to heat up
Things that go bad quickly
Things that are really messy, sticky, etc.
Beans
Fish or seafood of any kind
Pasta
Baked Potatoes
Macaroni salad, potato salad, vegetable salad
Anything with a dressing

At the end of the day? We throw food away.

HW: Work on J24

Schwanky Sentences (J23)

In a local cult, a girl was excommunicated because she was too fat for the group. Schwager's Comment: Was this the cult of Santana Row?

That moment in The Lion King when Simba is transfixed in mid air is the best.

-The swords tried time and time again with no success at piercing the adamantine armour.

-I swung from the trees and alighted atop the building.

-After being excommunicated from the church, Martin Luther continued the Protestant movement.

As I reached the bottom of the cup, the taste of the dregs sent a shiver up my back.

We saw the oriental queen caparisoned in lavender and silk.

The oceans were sullen after the storm had passed.

The hills seemed rolled in a sullen mist.

Girls are very sensitive and can easily be sullen, which is really annoying.

• A very fortuitous apple fell right on Newton's head.

News: Thursdays, Christian Study in B22

Read, listen, discuss, and pray with us during lunch on Thursdays in B22. 

Upcoming:
Colossians Encouragements; discussion following
Ordinary You, Extraordinary God, part 1: 20 min. with discussion following. 

We'll endeavor to have something good for the spiritually mature and for those of new faith (meat and milk as the Paul would say).

Come and learn and pray with us,

Mr. S

Block Day, Week 23

* Pray

* Collect Journal

* Quiz

* Reno's classes: Comma section 32.
Punctuation: The Comma
Read and take notes on 32, 32a, and 32b.
Do 32-1 letters and numbers.


* Work on your Q3 CWP.

HW: Read Dickens

Wednesday, 1/18: Writing

* Pray

* Grammar
32-1
a. no comma needed in sentence
b. animation, The Adventures
c. weeks, you (comma deleted elsewhere and added here)
d. correct
e. violin, but
1. driving, a
2. no comma needed in this sentence
3. lamps, hundreds
4. correct
5. instruments, but

* Read Scott's Essay (below)

* Discuss
* Work on J23

HW: J23

Wednesday 1/18: Writing, Example Essay: Scott Cameron


College Essay Prompt: Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

      Bullying brings an interesting dilemma; on one hand there are the psychologists and behavior therapists trying to find the root of the issue, trying to find someone to blame, on the other hand there are the administrators desperately trying to convince parents it's fine to send their children to school, as the problem is under control. And on no hand in particular there was eleven-year-old me, and a bully was my problem. His name was Jim, a smooth talking 2nd generation Korean with a history of soccer and non-competitive gymnastics. He had four inches on me and a mean streak a quarter mile long. His methods were by no means unorthodox, a dumped out backpack here, a shove and a name called there.
I knew the three rules for dealing with bullies, they had been taught to my entire graduating third grade class: 1. Tell a yard duty, 2. stay with a friend, 3. never egg them on. This miracle cure did little to fix my predicament. California school budgets were on a steady landslide, and the yard duties weren't the most motivated arbiters. I was the new kid in town; that meant people avoided me like a plague doctor in Western Europe, and the fact that the resident bully had turned his eye on me meant that I was going to hold that title for quite some time. The mere idea that a bully is egged on is completely contrary to the idea of a bully: one who pushes, not because he has found a response but because he is seeking a response. To this day, I am not sure who these rules were written for, but it is clear that they were not written for me.

      “Just bust his head open,” my fourteen-year-old brother suggested nonchalantly as my mother drove us to Boyscouts one evening. Now, I was a very scrawny child growing up; the doctors said that I was underweight, undertall, and none too athletic. The idea that I could bust anyone's head open was outright preposterous. My dear mother chimed in, almost on cue, with the ever-so cooing motherly response that fighting was never the answer and that I should try working things out with him. Now it was true that I had no inclination to fight him, and while the advice certainly would make sense a priori, I was finding out very quickly that talking to a bully only shows them that they are getting through.

      My mother was forced to begin work early so that she could get off in time to pick me and my brother up from school, and as such I spent countless mornings over the years sitting in the office waiting for school to begin. Now the day prior my bully felt it was time to kick his bullying up a notch with new complex insults and fake out jabs meant to induce flinching, and my anxiety was mounting.
I was no Hercules, yet there I sat in the waiting room of Hades, watching the moments tick by until my oppressor would arrive, with naught but the steady clack of the receptionist's acrylic nails upon a keyboard to calm my nerves. Flimsy advice from the previous night buzzed in my head. After what felt like an eternity, the school bell rang, and I shuffled to my home room. We met in the hallway, his knowing smile to my grimace told me he knew exactly what I was thinking. “I'll see you at lunch time,” and that was all he needed to say. By this time my fear had manifested itself into sheer panic, and my brain was mentally check-listing all of my options. My last attempt at being sent to the nurse's office had been unsuccessful. The first break came and went with no sign of my tormentor. Lunch passed quickly until a wrong turn in an empty hallway brought me face to face with my villain. “Hello Scotty the potty,” he said intimidatingly, employing the latest of his nicknames. I did not run; I could not run, but I could fall, and fall I did. I stumbled over my feet as I turned to escape and landed flat on my face. This, my bully seemed to find quite hilarious, and he could not contain his laughter. It was not the cruel mocking laughter I had grown accustomed to hearing from him; it was a genuinely funny chuckle. I immediately recognized my impossible chance and fell again, this time on purpose, topping it off with a somersault and a funny face. “Better not touch me,” I said, “I'm a potty and I stink!” My impromptu tactic seemed to be working, and before long my antagonist and I were in hysterics, hopelessly late for class. We would grow to be good friends, and the differences we had assumed in each other turned out to be nothing more than assumptions. So I defeated my bully, or at least befriended him, which upon reflection was a great deal more rewarding than what conventional wisdom teaches would have been the solution.

      But what did I learn? My bully was not the only one who was guilty of wrongs against his fellow man. I learned that his hostility towards me was due, in part, to my shyness upon our first meeting, which he interpreted as animosity. I subconsciously categorized him as a fool and an intimidator, in less polite terms, and considered him someone to be avoided at all costs. I adhered to my judgment in every one of our subsequent meetings; he did not start out as a bully, I made him into one through my disdain. My reluctance to listen to the advice of my mother was, until that point, a recurring theme despite my Christian upbringing. This blatant flaw in my own personal understanding was made painfully clear to me through the undeniable outcome of my ordeal. I also discovered within myself the latent ability to make milk come out the noses of young children, a skill that has garnered me a great deal of popularity among the Cub Scouts that I preside over on Wednesday evenings.

     Here I am today: smarter, more outgoing, slower to judge, and far more blessed, both in friendship and family than I could have ever been without my bully and dear friend.

--Scott Cameron

"One Little Word Shall Fell Him"

At first, I thought the Poetry Foundation wrong when it put the line in "I must down to the seas again" in Masefield's "Sea Fever" ("go" was missing).  So, I started reading around and found that those lines originally had "go," but he removed them 20 years later.  Then, 20 years later again, he replaced them.  Finally, he said he just wasn't sure which to do.  That's quite a bit of deliberation!

200 Million Dollars...and Still (sometimes) Wrong

I just noticed in Sea Fever, that the

Tuesday 1/17: Grammar, Poetry... (No school on Monday; Martin Luther King, Jr.)

* Pray

Review ch. 2 ideas and poems:

Now reconsider last week's poem with the four questions above:
"Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt"

Answer the four questions in your notes for each:
Ready for a rather tricky poem? 
"Loveliest of Trees" by A.E. Housman

The tricky part has to do with the kind of imagery the author has chosen for spring.

A dark, tricky poem by the same author?
"Is My Team Ploughing" by A.E. Housman

A trick there is discerning the speaker(s).

And some sea faring:
"Sea Fever" by John Masefield













Vocabulary for the Week



Journal 23: Dickens chapters 6-10 and vocabulary (below).  Answer two questions per chapter (unless a chapter only has one question).  Provide two sentences for each vocabulary word.  This is (as always) due on your block day. 

11. dregs
12. excommunicate
13. ablution
14. alight
15. sullen
16. transfix
17. adamantine
18. caparisoned
19. felicitous
20. fortuitous

Grammar: Begin Punctuation: The Comma
Read and take notes on 32, 32a, and 32b.
Do 32-1 letters and numbers.


* Remember that we have a quiz on our block day this week; it covers vocab. 1-20 and ch. 1-10 of Dickens.

HW: Finish grammar, Work on J23

Block Day, Week 22

* Pray
'With you — Hob and Nob,' returned the Sergeant (p. 34) Frontispiece" [in the Forge prior to Magwitch's Capture] by Charles Green. 1898. 5 x 8 inches. Dickens's Great Expectations, Gadshill Edition

* Check J22; Discuss

* Perrine's Poetry Ch. 2: Reading the Poem

Notes

1.  Read a poem more than once
2.  There will be more challenging vocabulary, consult a dictionary.
3.  Read aloud.
4.  Pay attention.  If poetry is condensed prose, take care in unpacking.  Suspend judgement a bit and consider.
5.  Practice.

First we read, then we paraphrase....later we consider themes and summaries.  Of course, in our minds, it tends to bleed together, but do your best to handle each verse before you make larger judgements.

Once you're comfortable and can paraphrase, can you answer these questions?


1.  Who is the speaker (not necessarily the poet)?
2.  What is the occasion?
3.  What is the central purpose of the poem?
4.  By what means is that purpose achieved.  


Together:
Now reconsider last week's poem with the four questions above:
"Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt"

Answer the four questions in your notes for each:
Ready for a rather tricky poem? 
"Loveliest of Trees" by A.E. Housman

The tricky part has to do with the kind of imagery the author has chosen for spring.

A dark, tricky poem by the same author?
"Is My Team Ploughing" by A.E. Housman

A trick there is discerning the speaker(s).

And some sea faring:
"Sea Fever" by John Masefield



Read Dickens: * Free Audio Version you could listen to while your read (note that I didn't say instead of reading the book, my friends)

HW: Read Dickens

Wednesday, Jan. 5: What are Pip's Expectations?

* Pray

* Free Audio Version you could listen to while your read (note that I didn't say instead of reading the book, my friends)

* Finish J22
Abel Magwitch
J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd")
Watercolour
c. 1900
4.2 x 3 inches
Scanned image and text by George P. Landow

* Read Dickens
Mr. Pumblechook
J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd")
Watercolour
c. 1900
4.2 x 3 inches
Scanned image and text by George P. Landow


HW: J22 completed

J21 Answers

Dickens Video

1.  T/F  Dickens was born in Ireland. False, Landport, Portsmouth, English (1812-1870)

2.  What is the house that Dickens always wanted to own:
a.  Bleak House     
b.  Fort House                        
c. Gad's Hill                 
d.  Underhill
e.  none of the above

3.  What is one way the video tells that Dickens got ideas for his characters?
a.  he walked around and visited local pubs     
b.  he learned from others' novels
c.  he simply invented them as he wrote     
d.  he imagined himself in different circumstances

4. T/F The Pickwick Papers, being his first novel, did not actually sell any copies. False, it was successful.

5.  Dickens' writings were meant to elicit  a greater ________________________________ in his readership.
a.  Hatred of the Aristocracy      
b.  Social Conscience                 
c.  Orthodox Religion
d.  Unorthodox Religion     
e.  belief in one's self                 
f.  none of the above

6.  The Cutty Sark was named after a character from _________________'s writing:
a.  Charles Dickens                 
b.  Walter Scott        
c.  Robert Burns           
d.  William Shakespeare

7.  T/F  More than 20,000 plantations were opened abroad to support Britain's tea-drinking habit. False, more than 6,000.

8.  T/F  Queen Victoria attempted to have Dickens assassinated near the end of this life. False.

9.  Which was not a product of the Victorian Era?
a.  The railroad     
b.  leisure travel for the middle class     
c.  street lighting
d. picnics             
e.  car phones
f. a police force
g.  zoo
h.  underground subways

10. T/F The Victorian period was one of unbridled greed and inhumanity leaving the modern world nothing but overcrowded cities as its heritage.  False.

11.  Dickens wished a simple, private funeral with no monuments to his fame.  True. 
hehehe: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/19/dickens-statue-portsmouth

Tuesday, 12/10: Video and Guide

* Pray

* Dickens Video (for classes still watching)

* Work on J21 (with video)

* Read and work on J22
"Oh, Un-cle Pum-ble-chook! This is kind!"
John McLenan
1860
12 x 11.6 cm.
Dickens's Great Expectations,
Harper's Weekly 4 (1 December 1860): 765

HW: Work on J22

Masterpiece Theater: Public Broadcasting at its Best

Season 2 of Downton Abbey (Setting: WWI Manor House) is available to watch for free now to March.  The first episode was just released.


Other gems through Netflix: Foyle's War (Setting: WWII England, crime), Father Cadfael (medieval monastery, crime), Bleak House (Dickens, 2005 Masterpiece), Columbo (1970's American Crime, Peter Falk)

Monday, 12/12: The Dickens Guide

*Pray

*The Dickens Guide
"And you know what wittles is?" by F. A. Fraser. c. 1877. 5 x 6.3 inches. An illustration for the Household Edition of Dickens's Great Expectations (Frontispiece). Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham from material reproduced courtesy of The Charles Dickens Museum, 48 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LF.

See Focus: I wouldn't print the guide as it is very long.

The guide is very good but extensive, so we are going to keep our pace to about five chapters per week, which will mean that we will be reading this book into part of the fourth quarter.

Reading Questions:
Each week, you will read five chapters and answer two questions of your choice per chapter. Thus, for block, you need to read through chapter 5 and answer 10 questions (two questions from ch. 1,2,3,4,5 for a total of 10 answers). You must answer the question completely in complete sentences.

Vocabulary:
On Monday, we will post the 10 words from the guide you will write sentences for. You only have to write 2 sentences per word this quarter (not 3). We will choose two words per chapter from your reading guide (for a total of ten words each week). Be sure to look over all the words before you read coming chapters so that you can be better prepared for Dicken's vocabulary.

This week's words:

1. Ravenous
2. Stout
3. Connubial
4. Trenchant
5. Fetter
6. Impel
7. Blithe
8. Terse
9. Dissociate
10. Joviality

The questions and sentences will be due every block day as a journal. So, this block's journal will be #22 and should include your 10 answers and 20 sentences.

* Video
p2: 33:07
p4: 6:26

* Work on the guide

HW: Work on J22 (due on your block day)

Block Day, Week 21

* Pray

* Poetry ch. 1: What is Poetry?

Notes:
-Poetry's chief concern, according to Perrine, is, perhaps ironically, experience.
-We read poetry because it brings enjoyment (not because we should eat our vegetables).
-Poetry is something central to existence, central to being human ("This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh...").
-We are spiritually impoverished without poetry.
-Poetry is condensed prose. It says more and says it more intensely, according to Perrine.
-A poem may have a moral but does not need a moral.

Read "The Eagle" (pg. 729) and discuss what distinguishes the poem from a wikipedia article (on the same subject of the eagle). What can we say poetry delivers that prose often does not?


Next read "Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt." (pg. 1031)
- The son finally learned a lesson from his father. How does the poem affect the reader in ways that a prose summary of the lesson would not?

* Dickens Video (29 min.)

* J21: Answer whilst you watch

HW: Read ch. 3-4

Dickens Video Questions (J21)

Dickens Video


1.  T/F  Dickens was born in Ireland.

2.  What is the house that Dickens always wanted to own:
a.  Bleak House         
b.  Fort House                    
c. Gad's Hill                     
d.  Underhill
e.  none of the above

3.  What is one way the video tells that Dickens got ideas for his characters?
a.  he walked around and visited local pubs         
b.  he learned from others' novels
c.  he simply invented them as he wrote            
d.  he imagined himself in different circumstances

4. T/F The Pickwick Papers, being his first novel, did not actually sell any copies.

5.  Dickens' writings were meant to elicit  a greater ________________________________ in his readership.
a.  Hatred of the Aristocracy          
b.  Social Conscience                     
c.  Orthodox Religion
d.  Unorthodox Religion         
e.  belief in one's self                     
f.  none of the above

6.  The Cutty Sark was named after a character from _________________'s writing:
a.  Charles Dickens                     
b.  Walter Scott
c.  Robert Burns           
d.  William Shakespeare

7.  T/F  More than 20,000 plantations were opened abroad to support Britain's tea-drinking habit.

8.  T/F  Queen Victoria attempted to have Dickens assassinated near the end of this life.

9.  Which was not a product of the Victorian Era?
a.  The railroad         
b.  leisure travel for the middle class         
c.  street lighting
d. picnics          
e.  car phones   
f. a police force  
g.  zoo    
h.  underground subways

10.   T/F The Victorian period was one of unbridled greed and inhumanity leaving the modern world nothing but overcrowded cities as its heritage. 

11.  Dickens wished a simple, private funeral with no monuments to his fame.  

Wednesday, Jan. 4: Dickens

* Pray

* Read in Class

* Discussion

HW: Continue Reading (finish ch. 2)

Tuesday, 1/3: Opening Salvo of Semester II (Week 21)

* Pray

* Tell us how your Christmas legend gift went (if you chose to do one).

* Overview of Semester II (Course plan label).

* Essays returned.

The ICE Grading Scale
6 = 100 (A, 100, fantastic writing!)
5 = 95 (A, excellent writing, 90-99 range)
4 = 85 (B, good writing, 80-89 range)
3 = 75 (C, satisfactory writing, 70-79 range)
2 = 65 (D, poor writing, 60-69 range)
1 = 55 (F, failed writing)

* A + or - means that your essay was near the top or bottom of your ICE number scale.

Underline titles of plays, books, and anything big, my friends.

What was a good choice for comparison? Thorin and Demetrius.

What could become a most painful misapplication? Puck and Bilbo.

What was a choice that often led astray? Oberon.

Oh, Oberon.

So, say you chose Oberon. Did you treat the chaos in nature and in the world at large (weather, crops, animals, mud...perhaps you applied this distemper to our lovers' quarrel). If not, how did you prove that Oberon's covetousness was destructive?

If you said that Oberon's covetousness made Puck put the juice on Lysander, you've made a cause and effect error.

What if you said that Bottom might have remained an ass forever if Oberon failed to take pity? Ok, that could work.

The lovers could have killed each other in the forest? That goes back more directly to Demetrius. It would work if you first established that the fairy world and the moral world were reflections.

If you didn't choose a single character from each, why?

You should be sure you can spell the title, author, and characters of the works you've read for class...certainly those we essay (that's a pun).

J20 (sorry, changed the number to make it even for a new semester)

Write down your best sentence from your essay. Find the ten most choice and nicely employed vocabulary words and copy them in. Count up your punctuators that aren't periods, commas, question marks, or exclamations. Now, how will you improve for the next ICE? Make a plan.

Get Great Expectations.
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HW: Read ch. 1