Thursday, 17 September 2009

Blog Assignment #9

Write a 1-2 paragraphs analyzing the author's perspective about voice. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?

In the article he shows what kind of tastes there are compares them to different tastes. For example, in pg 2, he gives a piece by E.B. White, and tells how descriptive the piece is. Then later he writes a similar piece with a different taste, which has a kind of brezzy taste. He compares the two and tells how horrible the second one sounds, having no sense of grammar and how the writer attempted to write in slang but only made it more horrible. The author refers to these as cliches.
After showing couple of examples such as the ones mentioned above, he tells how hard it is to get the right taste of sound. Also he mentiones not to be afraid of trying to immitate a author's taste, because eventually you will blend in and make your own kind of taste. Later on when you get used to it, then you should develop your own taste of voice, so that when a reader reads your piece, they could tell it is your style of writing. This means through out the process, you should come up with your own style that will be reconizable in every literature you write.
I think I agree with this statement. All of us, even if we don't really know it, have our own unique voice. That is why I'm sure teachers and professionals can tell when we are plagarizing. I think by having a unqiue voice that no one else has, it will make the literature more interesting to read. Also I believe that trying to use a type of voice that doesn't fit you will just make the story more terrible.

Tuesday, 15 September 2009

Blog Assignment #8

1. What is voice? What makes a voice unique? How would you describe your writing voice?
A voice is the word that describes the sound that comes out of our mouth. Whenever we say something, we are using our voice to communicate with others. There are few things that varies the uniqueness of a voice. The tone of it, how loud is it, if you have any accent, etc. For example, my voice is very loud and deep. Even though some people might also have this characteristics, this is what makes my voice unique compared to the majority of people. In writing, we describe voice not by sound, but it varies depending on weather it ends with a period, question mark, or an exclamation mark. For example, if it is written "I am your King!", then we know that the person who's saying this quote will have a loud voice, as to when a question mark is added, it might change the voice into a softer tone.

2. Pretend you are an object in the classroom such desk, pencil, chair, the teacher's shoe, anything! Imagine yourself having a bad day as this object. Write a 500 word narrative describing your bad day from the object's perspective.

Object: Led Pencil

"Oh my gosh, this is already the FIFTH time!!!! The fifth time he broke a precious bone of mine. I mean doesn't he get it that if you put too much strength in my precious led it will break?! I mean, my bones aren't made of steels. *CRACK* THERE HE GOES AGAIN! That's it! I need to teach this boy a lesson on how to control his strength. Boy, you don't need to show off that you have strong arms, cause that wont matter if you spend all your money on led! *Sigh*, what am I thinking, this boy won't buy a new led. He'll just buy a new led-pencil to replace because to him, its all~~~ my fault. To him I'm the weird led-pencil that won't function very well. I've seen many people do that, but not this time! uhuh~ I am not going to sit around and let this boy break pieces of me for a whole day and just trash me in the bin. Boy you asked for it, now your getting it!! HAHA I see that weird look in your eyes thinking why isn't this dumb led-pencil working? Well it's your fault for messing with the wrong pencil, now I wont move a muscle to help you write. Oh I see what your thinking, its because there's no more led left. Well DUH cause you broke them all, but try all you want and I won't even twitch. Oh look, the time is almost up and yet you haven't even solved half of your geometry test. What are you going to do now? Yea that's right, feel that pain, feel the anger, that's what you get for blaming everything on me. Oh look, he's taking out another led pencil. Tsk Tsk, I feel sad for that pencil. Now he's going to blame everything on that pencil. Well I'll just relax and watch this idiot try to finish his test on time. Oh haha there goes the bell. Awwww he's sad he couldn't finish it. Well you should've shown me some respect then maybe I would've helped you. Now look at you all sad and... Hey! Why aren't you putting me back in the pencil case? Oh no now your going to lose me again... huh? not even the pocket? Whats wrong with him... Oh no! A trash can!!!! NO NO, BOY I'm SORRY!!!! Please not the Trash can! I'm so sorry!! No~~ No~~~noooo!!!!! *DUMP* "

Saturday, 12 September 2009

Blogging Assignment #7 Dramatic Moment essay Reflection

1.What are some of the aspects of narrative writing and did you like using them?
Some aspects of narrative writing I enjoyed was that I didn't have to make the story up as I went. When I try to write a fairy tale or some kind of "fiction", it always annoys me because I can't think of what to write next. However, when I wrote a narrative writing, I knew exactly what I was going to write and how I was going to express it. I also liked using narrative writing because I could tell facts and events that were hard to describe to a person without writing it dow.
2.How did you determine what details were relevant and necessary to support your ideas?
When this story of mine happened, there were too many things to write about and limited space. That is why I tried to cut the parts that weren't necessary and add the parts that were relevant. I did this by relating the part to the mood of the story. If the story was going on as a sad mood such as mine, I would pick out the ones that were sad or tragic. For example, I wouldn't want to add a funny action while a funeral was going on, because then it would just break the mood and the tention the story gives.
3.How did you create a unique piece of writing?
I created a unique peace of writing because even though many have experienced their relatives die, most of them did not feel guilty for it. Mine was especially unique because before the funeral I was always imaptient and rude to my grandma, giving no respect what so ever, and when the time finally came and she was gone, I felt guilty about it.
4.How did you craft your writing to meet the audience expectations? What is easy or hard?
I crafted my essay to meet the audience expectations by grabbing the audience with the sadness that was going on in my story. In order for writers or even producers to grab the audiences' attention, it needs a certain BANG in their story. It has to have an impact that would make the reader want to read more, and that is what I tried to do with my story.
5.How did your personal experience and faith shape the way you told this story?
My personal experience and faith shaped the way I told the sory because I could really give the feeling in it. Since it was a story I actually experienced, I wanted the readers to feel the same way I did during that situatin, and personal experience really allowed me to express my thoughts and feeling without really havingto try.
6.What would your life be like without the experience?
I would say if this occasion never occured, I would still be the stupid little boy I was. I wouldn't have felt differently about my attitudes against elders, and especially grandmas and grandpas. By having the experience, I came to realize what my mistakes were and what I had to fix. That is why I feel that after this experience, I've grown up a little bit more and became more mature on how to treat an elder.

Saturday, 29 August 2009

Blogging Assignment #6

1. Analyze article
David Bordwell's website on cinema
The author of this article tells us two different types of method on how scenes hook the audience. One, the most common, is that they create a question on the first scene that makes us wonder, then on the next scene they answer it. They use this to keep the tention going which will make the viewers not bored for the entire movie. Second is they surprise us by fading the scene when it ends, then automatically transitioning to the next scene using a loud sound or action.

Hooks, Lines & Sinkers
This article is saying that a article or a story with a good hook won't necessary mean that the story will be a good one, but it is saying that the reader will give more"attention" to it. Also it is saying as much as creating a hook is important, it is also important to recognize a good hook.

How to hook your audience and keep them reading
This article was a very simple article on how to create a interesting hook. Some of its suggestion were to start with a question or challenge the reader. Then after, they tell us to support your hook with a good thesis statement, following with many other stories and solutions that the reader could connect with. Finally, make sure that the story is well written and organized.

2. The Tell-Tale Heart
I feel that the hook of "The Tell-Tale Hear" was well made. The protagonists' tone of voice made me feel like there was an outrage going on. This made me want to know what happened and why this character was acting in this particular way. Also, I think the author was very clever when he started the story with an exclamation. It gave me an impact that something exciting was going on.

3. Three example of a good hook
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngrSvtf0rAI
This is a movie trailer of "Watchmen", and I felt that the hook of this movie was very interesting. Normally when we think of super heros, we think of the "good" guys saving the day. However, this movie hooks us in a unique waybecause in this movie, its the darker side of our everyday heroes. I was especially excited at the last part when the narrarator said, "The world will look up and shout 'Save Us', and I'll whisper 'No'". This made me think of what would happen if our daily life heroes suddenly stopped saving us, and the search for the answer made me want to watch the actuall movie. That is why I thought this trailer had a good hook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvzj8wyZ9PI
This show, "What would you do" had an interestng hook. In the start of the video, it challenges the viewers on what kind of choice will they make when it comes to a certain scenario. Now most of us probably say, Oh~ I'm a nice person and I would never do something to hurt my community. However, I know that when it actually happens to us, we tend to think of more "options" to choose from. That is why I thought this hook was very clever, challenging us on our daily life habits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/world/asia/30japan.html?hp
This article was very interesting to me because of the Korea-Japan history. Ever since the Japan War, there was a tention between both sides. Even though we we're at peace, we fought about like things like the dokdo island vs. dakeshima. Since it is clear that we are still having conflict with Japan, this article's title had a very interesting hook. It was saying that Japan was looking for a change, but I thought that this was only the Korean perspective, considering the publishing company is Korea, and thought it was a very selfish title. Now, I am a Koren and I have no love for Japan, but this article was bsically saying that Japan was the one who needed to change while we were perfectly fine. Now ofcourse, this is not true and I feel both countries need to comprimise. However, seeing how the hook is saying that Japan is trying to change, it has once again reminded me of the Korea-Japan conflict.

Swine Flu Vacation

When I first heard about the news, I was ambivalent that we would be able to relax and enjoy the break. I knew from the start that teachers and parents wouldn't let us just play around all day, so I wasn't very excited about it. Next day I was expecting some kind of homework to be posted on edline, but all I saw written in edline was: "no assignment found". I started to serene myself and thought, maybe the teachers are actually giving us a break. So I decided to go to Seoul with my sister to visit my aunt. The first day of my trip to Seoul, I visited my friend ever since elementrary school. He took me to his dad's hotel, which was embellished with real gold. I was amazed at how beautiful the hotel looked, but at the same time I felt uncomfortable because I had to stay very taciturn inside the hotel. However, for the most part, it was a plesant trip, eating the most delicious buffet, staying at the most ostentatious room, and the best part: it was free.
Later that day I had a disdain feeling when I was checking edline, and there it was. My worst nightmare. As I continued on to the next subject I kept on lamenting more and more. We we're getting piles of homework that even I didn't expect would be this much. I started procrastinating for an hour or two, then thought in the teacher's perspective. I realized that they we're just trying to keep up with the missing school days, and I started to revere their decision. As I kept working on it thinking positively, even drawing angular shapes for geometry class was enjoyable. After I finished all my homework, I tried not to get arrogant and show off to my friends. Overall, I felt that this "break" was a good experience for me, and also made me realize how fast I could finish my homework if I just concentrated.

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Assignment 4 [Swine Flu Article]

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/05/113_44105.html

Singular
individuals, he, she
Plural
authorities, they, cases, people, governments
Common
authorities, virus, man, woman, society
Proper
Yonhap News Agency, KCDC, Mexico, United States, Canada, Spain, New Zealand
Collective
they, governments, Mexico, United States, Canada, Spain, New Zealand

Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Articles With "Good" Ideas

1) http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2009/08/137_50120.html
Sexism In Korea - Again
The article mainly talks about Korean(Asian) men's sexism against women. This article refers to past Korea's history where women we're treated poorly. However, that was not the main idea of this article. The main idea contains the racism against Korean sexism. According to the article, it states that there is a racism going on that Korean and Asian men are more sexist to women then white men are.Even though I am a man, I too thought this wasn't very true because I already know a lot of American's who are sexist and also because this is just another stereotype against Koreans. That is why I think this article contains good ideas, especially the conclusion: "all men need to be less sexist."
2. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2009/06/181_46227.html
Two Sides of Int'l School
This article I have come to favor because it talks about TCIS. It talks about the pros and cons of TCIS, and as a student of TCIS I feel the same. This article was written by Brian Lee, a student of TCIS just one grade higher than me. As a same school student, I felt so proud when I first encountered this article. For a sophomore to already have an article published in a huge news company, I can only give respect. Also I thought it was very brave of him to do write it because this article expresses the feelings that we couldn't say it out loud.