Einfeld 2

Stylistics and Discourse Analysis Portfolio

Kyle Einfeld

Professor Elizabeth Vander Lei

373: Stylistics and Discourse Analysis

5/7/13

Table of Contents

Section A: Cheat sheets

Lesson 1: page 3

Lesson 2: page 5

Lesson 3: page 6

Lesson 4: page 8

Lesson 5: page 9

Lesson 6: page 11

Lesson 7: page 12

Lesson 8: page 14

Lesson 9: page 16

Lesson 10: page 17

Lesson 11: page 19

Section B: Sentence Stylistics Reports

Readability Analysis: page 22

Sentence Pattern Analysis: page 24

Topic Progression Analysis: page 26

Schemes Analysis: page 28

Section C: Literary Reports

Prose to Poetry: page 30

Metaphor Analysis: page 32

Gee’s Building Tasks: page 34

Section D: Discourse Analysis

Engaging in Discourses: page 38

Bottle Story Analysis: page 41

Section E: Appendices

Appendix A: Formal Writing

A.1 Metamorphosis Paper: page 43

A.2 Imperialism Paper: page 48

A.3 Time Machine Paper: page 52

A.4 Deception Paper: page 57

Appendix B: Literature

B.1 Fire and Ice by Robert Frost: page 59

B.2 The opening pages of Hyperion: page 59

B.3 The last pages of Hyperion: page 60

B.4 Dialogue from Hyperion: page 62

B.5 Intense action from Hyperion: page 63

B.6 Description from Hyperion: 64

B.7 Wikipedia paragraphs from Hyperion: page 65

Appendix C: Personal Narratives

C.1 Parent-Teacher Conference Story: page 66

C.2 Cap Story: page 66

C.3 IRS Story: page 66

C.4 Bottle Story: page 67

C.5 Snake Story: page 67

Cheat Sheet for Chapter 1 – Subjects and Verbs

The basic units of a sentence are the subject and predicate. The subject is the topic about which something is being said. The predicate says something about the subject.

Within a sentence predicate is the verb, which describes the action or condition of the subject. In example sentence 1, the verb “is” describes the condition of “father,” while in sentence 2, “works” describes the action of “Tom.”

The noun names a person, place, thing, quality, or idea. Proper nouns, such as “Father Richard” and “The Sawmill Restaurant,” denote specific names and must be capitalized. Nouns often follow the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” in a sentence. Nouns frequently end in suffix units, such as “-tion” or “-ment,” which can be added to verbs like “modify” or “assess” in order to make the words nouns. Prefixes, when added to the beginnings of nouns, can also modify the meaning. For example, a simple prefix can change “kindness” into “unkindness.”

In order to avoid repetition of a noun in a sentence, later occurrences of the noun can be replaced with a pronoun, such as “I,” “she,” “this,” “that,” “all,” “each other,” “yours,” and “theirs.” In the following sentences, note how the subject was mentioned once and then replaced with a pronoun: “I like ice cream sandwiches. They are the snack of angels.” In addition, reflexive pronouns, such as “yourself” and “myself,” can be used to add emphasis in a sentence.

Subject

1. My father is over six feet tall.

2. Tom works at the car dealership.

3. Next to the house stood an old mill.

Verb modifying the subject

1. Valerie runs on the beach every day.

2. I hope that this assessment will not be too difficult.

3. No one seems to appreciate my cooking.

Reflexive

1. I myself am not interested in that kind of novel.

2. The boy fell down and hurt himself.

3. You should clean yourself up before coming to dinner.

Cautions and Caveats

Remember that verbs in the command form can only work with the present form of the verb. For example, “Let’s clean this kitchen.” (not “Let’s cleaned this kitchen.”).

Some verbs will not work with the word “let’s”. For example, “let’s seem” is not a proper connection. Make sure that each part of the sentence connects. The word that is making this connection will be the verb.

Reflexive verbs cannot be substituted for regular personal pronouns. For example, “Joe and I [not myself] were married in August.” Or, “My friends and me [not myself] went to visit you [not yourself].

In general, the noun of a sentence comes before the verb, but there are exceptions, including questions. The subject and verb can often be found next to each other in a sentence, but there could be many words in between them.

Cheat Sheet for Lesson 2: Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, and Prepositions

Adjectives describe or limit nouns. They can do so by:

1. Preceding a noun.

2. Following a describing (linking) verb and modifying the subject

3. Directly following the noun (He provided the money necessary for the trip.)

Adjectives Used in Comparison

Adjectives can be strengthened or can show degree by changing form or by using more and most. The different degrees of strength are

1. Positive degree- the base form (great trust, sensible answer)

2. Comparative degree- compares two things (greater trust, more sensible answer)

3. Superlative degree – distinguishes among three or more things (greatest trust, most sensible answer)

Adverb

a word that modifies anything except a noun or a pronoun.

Adverbs tell certain things about the verb, the most common being:

1. Manner: John performed well. We worked hard. The child laughed happily. I would gladly change places with you.

2. Time: I must leave now. I’ll see you later. Soon we shall met again.

3. Frequency: We often go on picnics, sometimes at the lake but usually in the city park.

4. Place: There he sat, alone and silent. Somewhere we shall find peace and quiet.

5. Direction: The police officer turned away. I moved forward in the bus.

6. Degree: I could barely hear the speaker. I absolutely refuse to believe that story.

A subclass of adverbs are intensifiers, they modify adjectives or adverbs but not verbs. (Very, quiet, too, somewhat, etc.)

Prepositions

A preposition is a word that introduces a phrase and shows the relationship between the object of the phrase and some other word in the sentence. Prepositions always have an object; with its object and any modifier, the proposition makes a prepositional phrase.

Emery, Donald W., John M. Kierzek, and Peter Lindblom. English Fundamentals. 16th ed. New York: Longman, 2012. Print.

Cheat Sheet for Chapter 3

Sentences Patterns with Intransitive Verbs

*Please note: verbs will be italicized below

Introduction:

In English Fundamentals there are five important sentence patterns, each used to help people become successful communicators. The different patterns are identified by the nature of the verb. See the examples below.

Transitive verbs direct action toward an object in the sentence. They answer question “what?”

-He ate the pie.

The following dialogue illustrates how to answer the question “what?”

“He ate”

“what?”

“the pie.”

*It may be helpful to draw an arrow from the verb to the object.

Intransitive verbs complete the action within itself. They answer the question “when? how? and where?”

-Jane spoke softly.

“how?”

“softly”

Linking verbs are intransitive verbs that connect subjects to nouns and adjectives that rename or modify the subject within the sentence.

-Susan is a chef. [noun]

-Susan is creative. [adjective]

Sentence Pattern 1 includes intransitive verbs in which action is complete within itself. They often answer the “how?” “when?” and “where?” questions (See the second example). For example:

-Charlie cooks.

-This morning the neighbors carefully walked in their yard.

The following dialogue illustrates how to answer the questions:

“how?”

“carefully”

“when?”

“This morning”

“where?”

“their yard”

Sentence Pattern 2 introduces a crucial element, known as complements, to the remaining sentence patterns. Complements are nouns, pronouns, or adjectives that complete a thought. There are two types of complements: subjective and objective complements. Sentence Pattern 2 contains only a subjective complement.

Subjective complements complete the verb and rename or describe the subject. For example:

-Stuart was an astronaut. [noun]

-Stuart was brave. [adjective]

Sentence Pattern 2 always contains a subjective complement. There are three groups of verbs that take subjective complements:

1. Be (seem, appear)

-Sarah is an excellent student.

2. Become (turn, grow)

-The storm turned ravenous.

3. Senses (look, smell)

-The engagement ring looks expensive.

Cautions and Caveats:

Subjective complements can also be called predicate nouns and predicate nominatives when referring to a noun and predicate adjectives when referring to an adjective.

When confronting a difficult sentence determine the subject, whether or not there is an object, and then ask the questions “what?”, “how?”, “when?”, and “where?”

Do not be overwhelmed – it’s just English.

Cheat Sheet for Lesson 4

Introduction:

Lesson 4 looks at the sentence patterns that contain transitive verbs, i.e., verbs that require a direct object (a direct object is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb and answers the question, “what?” after the subject and verb have been found)

Sentence Pattern 3 contains a verb and direct object only.

(See example sentences 1 and 2: “has grown” and “saw” are the verbs; “tomatoes” and “ship” are the direct objects)

Sentence Pattern 4 contains a verb, direct object, and an indirect object. And indirect object is the thing to which an action happens, and answers the question “to whom?” or “for whom?”

(See example sentences 3 and 4: “gave” and “told” are the verbs; “gift” and “secret” are the direct objects; “mother” and “Sam” are the indirect objects)

Sentence Pattern 5 contains a verb, a direct object and an objective complement. An objective complement is a noun or adjective that renames the direct object.

(See example sentences 5 and 6: “had thought” and “elected” are the verbs; “father” and “Obama” are the direct objects; “foolish” and “president” are the objective complements.)

Examples:

1. My mother has grown good tomatoes. [Sentence Pattern 3]

2. I saw a big ship.[Sentence Pattern 3]

3. I gave my mother a gift.[Sentence Pattern 4]

4. I told Sam a secret.[Sentence Pattern 4]

5. I had thought my father foolish.[Sentence Pattern 5]

6. America elected Obama president. [Sentence Pattern 5]

Cautions and Caveats:

Be careful not to mix up objective complements and subjective complements. In the sentence, “My dog is a beagle,” “beagle” is the subjective complement because it renames the subject, not the object. Determine if the noun referred to is the subject or object of the sentence first, then name the complement accordingly.

Also, do not mix up a direct object with the object of the preposition. This can happen when a verb has an adverbial modifier that appears to be a preposition but is not. In “Harry jumped off the box,” off is a preposition, so “box” is the object of the preposition, not the verb, and the verb is still intransitive. In “Harry took off his raincoat,” however, “off” is the adverbial modifier of the verb, so it has no object and the noun following it is the direct object and belongs to the verb, which means it is a transitive verb.

Cheat Sheet for Chapter 5

Introduction

Chapter 5 of English Fundamentals explores verb forms, uses of verbs, and auxiliary verbs.

Verb tenses include:

Present: Action occurring at the present moment.

Ex: Sasha escapes from prison.

Past: Action occurring at a definite time before the present moment.

Ex: Sasha escaped from prison stealthily.

Future: Action occurring at some time beyond the present moment.

Ex: Sasha will escape from prison before Christmas.

Present perfect: Action continuing up to the present moment.

Ex: Sasha has escaped from prison!

Past perfect: Action continuing to a fixed moment in the past.

Ex: Sasha had escaped from prison last year.

Future perfect: Action continuing to a fixed moment in the future.

Ex: By this time next year, Sasha will have escaped from prison.

Principle parts show the difference between regular and irregular verbs. The base (or infinitive), past, and past participle make up the principle parts of a verb. Base is used for the present tense, past is used for the past tense, and past participle is used for the three perfect tenses. Some examples of principle parts include:

Base: taste, fight, feel, lie

Past: tasted, fought, felt, lay

Past participle: tasted, fought, felt lain

Auxiliary verbs are often used with present participles to produce the progressive form, which serves to show an action that is continuous rather than fixed in an exact moment of time. The progressive form can appear in all six tenses:

Present: The desert’s climate is changing constantly.

Past: The desert’s climate was changing constantly.

Future: The desert’s climate will be changing constantly.

Present perfect: The desert’s climate has been changing constantly.

Past perfect: The desert’s climate had been changing constantly.

Future perfect: The desert’s climate will have been changing constantly.

In these sentences, the base verb is change, and the auxiliary verbs include is, was, will be, has been, had been, and will have been.

Modal auxiliary verbs are a type of auxiliary verb including may, might, must, can, could, would, and should, to imply obligation, ability, possibility, or permission.

Examples: I might try out for track & field this spring.

I would not wake her if I were you.

*double-modal:You might could write a story about your personal experiences.

Cautions:

1) Have, be, and do are also auxiliaries, though they can also be base (main) verbs as well. Keep track of when they are bases vs. when they are modals.

Examples: I have decided to follow Jesus. have is a modal

I have three puppies in my yard. have is a base

2) Adverbial words or phrases can separate auxiliary verbs from the verb phrase, making identifying the verbs tricky.

Examples: Spaceman Spiff does occasionally land on non-hostile planets.

The city of Yuma has completely run out of water.

3) Occasionally, the subject is placed between the auxiliary verb and the main verb, which also makes identifying parts of the sentence more difficult.

Examples:Only once in a blue moon do we get snow days in college. Subject=we; verb=do get

Never have I ever gone to second base. Subject=I; verb=have gone

Cheat Sheet for Chapter 6

Introduction:

The passive voice is a conjugation of a verb that makes the subject of the sentence the receiver of an action rather than the doer of an action. Because the subject receives action, the verb in the passive voice must always be transitive.

Questions come in two different varieties: those that can be answered yes or no, and those that must be answered with information. In Yes/No questions, there is almost always the verb be or the verb do. For information questions, there is always an interrogative (whose, who, which, how, why, where, etc.) in the question.

Examples:

Passive Voice: The mailbox was hit by a car.

Active Voice: A car hit the mailbox.

Passive Voice: The dishes were done by Penelope.

Active Voice: Penelope did the dishes.

Yes/No Question: Did you eat the candy canes? (Yes.)

Yes/No Question: Are those flowers real? (No.)

Information Question: Where is the cereal?

Information Question: How did the test go?

Cautions and Caveats:

· Because passive voice uses transitive verbs, only sentence patterns three, four, and five work in passive voice.

· Interrogatives most regularly occur at the beginning of the question.

· For negation, there is almost always an auxiliary verb in the sentence that precedes the negator (not). If there is not already an auxiliary verb in the sentence, one must be inserted before the negator.

Cheat Sheet for Coordination: Compound Sentences

Introduction:

A clause is a “group of words that always contains a subject and a tensed verb.”

· An independent clause can stand by itself

· A sentence with one independent clause is called a “simple sentence”

· Compounding is combining two or more subjects, verbs, complements, or modifiers by adding a coordinating conjunction (ex. and, but, or, etc.)

A compound sentence is a sentence made up of two independent clauses. There are two ways to do this:

· Use a coordinating conjunction

· Conjunctions are words that join words, phrases, or clauses (for example: and, but, and or)

· Use a semi-colon

· No coordinating conjunction is necessary with a semi-colon. But short phrases or conjunctive adverbs can be appropriate

Examples:

1. Compounding sentences:

Compound subjects: Dad and I read the notice.

Compound direct objects: Margo enjoys golf and tennis.

Compound verbs: I studied very hard but failed the test.

Compound objective complements: I found the lecture interesting and instructive.

Compound prepositional phrases: I can see you during your lunch hour or after 5 o’clock.

2. Compounding by using a coordinating conjunction: “We tried to win the week-long vacation to Florida, but we did not have enough money to outbid the other family.”

3. No word holding the two independent clauses together: “The three students were alone in the room; the professor was nowhere to be found.”

4. A Simple Adverb: “Last year the team did well; now the team is not doing very well.”

5. A short phrase: “This morning my friends asked me how the recital went, and I could not remember; in fact, I was so tired after the recital that I slept for 14 hours!”

6. A conjunctive adverb: “The arguments of the politician seemed to be well executed; however, when the analysts read through the entire speech, they found his argumentation faulty.”

Cautions and Caveats:

1. The first sentence is not a compound sentence because there is no separate subject for the second verb. Therefore, it does not require a comma before the conjunction.

“I had reviewed the material, and I did well on the test.”

vs

“I had reviewed the material and did well on the test.”

2. Using a comma to join two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction is a comma splice.

“I ate a sandwich, it had no pickles.”

Cheat Sheet for Lesson 8

Introduction:

Adverb clauses provide info by modifying a verb, an adjective, or another adverb with a group of words instead of a single-word adverb. The clause typically starts with a subordinating conjunction and always specifies further the conditions of the sentence, answering when (time), where (place), why (cause), or how (manner).

Examples:

Time (when, whenever, before, after, since, while, until, as, as soon as)

· I went to buy groceries when I received my paycheck.

Place (where, wherever)

· I went to the checkout where the line was the shortest.

Cause [or Reason] (because, since, as)

· My car waited, because it loved me, in the parking lot.

Purpose (so that, in order that)

· A man hid behind my car so that he could take my groceries.

Manner (as, as if, as though)

· He attacked me as if he were a feisty gorilla.

Result (so…that, such…that)-some will include the initial “so”

· He left me so sad that I wept bitterly.

Condition (if, unless, provided that, on condition that)

· Unless the police catch him, I will never see my groceries again.

Concession (although, though, even if, even though, since)

· Since I do not have any more money, I will survive on Ramen Noodle.

Comparison (than, as)

· The gorilla man now has more groceries than I do.

Cautions and Caveats:

· Sometimes the “that” is left out when adverb clauses modify verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.

· I don’t have anything else [that] you can have.

· Elliptical clauses leave out parts that are implicitly understood:

· While [I was] sleeping, the man took my Ramen Noodle.

· Be careful of elliptical clauses that make the meaning unclear.

· I harbor more disdain for gorilla man than Nicholas Cage.

· Possible meanings:

· I harbor more disdain for the gorilla man than I harbor disdain for Nicholas Cage.

· I harbor more disdain for gorilla man than Nicholas Cage harbors disdain for gorilla man.

Lesson 9: Subordination: Adjective Clauses

Introduction:

A clause is a group of words containing a subject and a tensed verb. Adjective clauses are clauses that function like adjectives. In other words, they modify nouns and pronouns. They are introduced by relative pronouns (who, whom, which, and that), relative adjectives (whose and which), and relative adverbs (when and where). These relatives link the adjective clause to whatever it is modifying. When adjective clauses provide necessary identifying information, they are restrictive; however, when they only supplement an already identified noun or pronoun, they are non-restrictive and are set off by commas.

Examples:

Restrictive:

1. The professor who teaches Modernism has very cool shoes.

“who teaches Modernism” modifies and provides necessary identifying information for “professor,” its antecedent. Since it identifies “professor,” it is not set off by commas.

2. The pie that I ate was delicious.

“that I ate” modifies and identifies pie. It does not need commas.

Non-Restrictive:

3. Professor Vanden Bosch flipped his hair, which glistened in the sunlight.

“which glistened in the sunlight” modifies hair, but does not provide necessary identifying information, so it is set off by commas.

4. The CFAC, where I have English class, is a beautiful, new building.

“where I have English class” looks adverbial, but is adjectival because it modifies CFAC. Because CFAC is named, this adjective clause does not provide essential identifying information and, therefore, does not need commas.

Cheat Sheet for Subordination: Noun Clauses

Introduction:

Adjective and adverbial clauses do the work of single adjectives and adverbs. Similarly, noun clauses do the same job as single nouns. Noun clauses always contain a subject-verb combination and a subordinating word. Conjunctions (that, if whether), pronouns (who, whom, what, whatever, etc.), adjectives (whose, which, what), and adverbs (when, where why, how) can all be used as subordinators to introduce the noun clause.

Noun clauses can act as subjects, direct objects, subjective complements, objects of prepositions, and appositives in a sentence.

An appositive is a noun unit placed in a sentence to rename another noun, which usually comes before the appositive. Sometimes, direct object noun clauses appear as delayed subjects. This construction can often be identified by the word “it” standing in the subject position. In these cases, the clause, not “it,” acts as the real subject.

Examples:

Noun Clause vs. Single Noun in Different Parts of Sentence

1. Subject Position:

a. The inventor deserves a gold medal. (Single noun)

b. Whoever invented popcorn deserves a gold medal. (Noun clause)

c. Delayed noun clause: It is great that you want to go to college.

2. Subjective Complement:

a. He is a painter. (Single noun)

b. He is what he hoped to become. (Noun Clause)

3. Direct Object:

a. He predicted a win. (Single noun)

b. He predicted that they would win the game. (Noun clause)

4. Object of a Preposition:

a. The baby was entertained by George. (Single noun)

b. The baby was entertained by whoever was making funny noises. (Noun clause)

5. Appositive Noun Clause:

a. Bubbles Bobby Babblerbob, a little girl who hated the letter “b,” dreamed of changing her name when she grew up.

b. Special Appositive: The fact that you would buy a Snuggie deeply concerns me. (See Caveats)

Cautions and Caveats:

When to use whoever/whomever and who/whom??

-use whom/whomever to refer to the object of the verb in the noun clause:

-Hand the package to whomever you meet first- “whomever” is the object of the verb “meet”

-use who/whoever to refer to the subject of the verb in the noun clause:

-Smile at whoever walks your way- “whoever” is the subject of the verb “walks”

A quick test is to substitute him/her or he/she into the clause:

-You meet he first → wrong-You meet him first → right → use “whom/whomever”

-Him walks your way → wrong-He walks your way → right → use “who/whoever”

Exceptions to Rules:

· In noun clauses used as direct objects, the word “that” is often omitted, since the meaning is clear without it. This creates an ellipsis. However, even without the subordinating word, it is a noun clause.

Unusual Constructions

· Delayed Direct Object (a cousin construction to delayed noun clause): The word “it” is placed in the direct object position, and the noun clause follows as an objective complement.

· Example: I consider it wise that you look both ways before crossing the street.

· Special Appositive: This clause is subordinated by “that” and followed by nouns, such as fact, belief, hope, desire, statement, and argument. Generally, no punctuation is necessary.

· Hint: this kind of construction can sometimes look like it is an adjective clause, or vice versa. Remember that the adjective clause describes, while the appositive noun clause renames

· If you’re still having trouble, the “to be” test recommended by the book. If a “to be” verb conjugation makes sense between the noun and “that,” the phrase is appositive.

Note on the Appositive: Because it renames, the appositive is really the reduced form of a pattern 2 sentence in which the subject and noun subjective complement are joined by a form of be.

Lesson 11: Gerund and Infinitive Phrases

Introduction:

Gerund phrases and infinitive phrases are two types of what are called verbal phrases (or verbals). Verbal phrases, like subordinate clauses, function collectively as a single part of speech: gerund phrases always function as nouns, while infinitive phrases can function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

A gerund is a verb that’s used as a noun, and therefore can fill any slot in a sentence that a regular noun might fill. It’s formed by adding –ing to either the base of the verb or the auxiliary, depending on tense. Gerunds can appear by themselves in a sentence, but they also can appear in their own phrases. If a gerund appears in its own phrase, the whole phrase functions as a single part of speech in the main clause.

An infinitive is a more complicated sort of verbal, which consists of the base of the verb, usually (though not always) introduced by the word “to.” Regardless of tense, an infinitive always contains the uninflected base form of the word and relies only on auxiliaries to show tense. An infinitive can function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. Like gerunds, infinitives can appear by themselves or in their own phrases. If an infinitive appears in its own phrase, the whole phrase functions as a single part of speech in the main clause.

Examples:

Gerunds:

Single word:

1. Skiing is Blaine’s least favorite activity. [Subject]

2. Brock’s favorite activity is bouldering. [Subjective complement]

3. Mary Ann also abhors skiing. [Direct object]

4. Blaine gave skiing another chance. [Indirect object]

5. Mary Ann, however, had had enough of skiing. [Object of the preposition]

6. Brock only cared about one thing: bouldering. [Appositive]

Whole phrase:

1. Brock loves putting on his stylish blue climbing shoes. [Here, the whole phrase is the direct object of ‘loves,’ while ‘shoes’ is the direct object of the gerund ‘putting on’].

2. Sitting by himself at home is Blaine’s preferred activity. [The whole phrase is the subject of the sentence, while the two prepositional phrases ‘by himself’ and ‘at home’ modify the gerund.

3. Being teased by Brock is something that Blaine is used to. [The phrase is again the subject of the sentence, but this time is in the passive form: ‘being teased,’ with the prepositional phrase ‘by Brock’ modifying it.

Infinitives:

Nouns:

1. Bill loves to fish. [Direct object; single word]

2. To dwell in tranquil harmony with river and line is exquisite. [Subject; whole phrase]

Adjectives:

1. Now is the time to act. [Modifies the noun ‘time’; single word]

2. The best way to get to school is via the Alger Extension. [Modifies the noun ‘way’; whole phrase]

Adverb:

1. I am happy to help. [Modifies the adjective ‘happy’; single word]

2. I am very excited to eat this sandwich. [Modifies the adjective ‘excited’; whole phrase.

Cautions and Caveats:

Gerunds:

1. Gerund phrases can have their own subjects. When a gerund has an expressed subject, the subject is in the possessive case. E.g. “I appreciate your thinking of me.” [‘your’ is the subject of the gerund ‘thinking,’ which is the direct object of ‘appreciate.’]

2. Be sure to distinguish between gerunds and participles: they are identical in form, but they differ in usage. A gerund is a verbal noun, and therefore doesn’t modify anything (e.g. “Bill loves fishing”). A participle is a verbal adjective, and therefore must modify a noun or pronoun (e.g. “I saw Bill fishing off the pier”).

Infinitives:

1. Infinitives can also have subjects, though infinitive subjects are always in the objective case (e.g. Bill called his brother-in-law and asked him to accompany him on his next fishing trip).

2. Sometimes the subject of an infinitive is preceded by ‘for,’ in which case ‘for’ is part of the infinitive phrase (e.g. “It would be good for Blaine to get outside a little more.”

3. Sometimes, the infinitive leaves out the indicating word ‘to,’ making it harder to spot. This happens when the infinitive phrase acts as the object of a verb like ‘let,’ ‘help,’ ‘make,’ ‘see,’ ‘hear,’ or ‘watch’ (e.g. “Let my people go,” in which ‘people’ is the subject of the infinitive ‘to go.’

4. The infinitive also occurs without the indicating ‘to’ following the prepositions ‘except,’ ‘but,’ and ‘besides’ (e.g. “Bill wants to do nothing but fish all day.”)

Readability analysis

Introduction:

The texts that I analyzed are formal academic papers from the fall semester of my freshman year and the fall semester of my sophomore year. I’m interesting is seeing if my writing has become more or less readable. From these results can I speculate that I have become more sophisticated or effective through the passage of my time at Calvin?

Methods and Materials:

I chose one paragraph from a literary analysis on The Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka, which I wrote my freshman year. I chose another paragraph from an essay on Imperialism that I wrote in the fall of 2012. I tried to pick paragraphs that were both central to argument of their respective theses. I ran the Flesch-Kincaid readability test for both paragraphs. I then decided to run the test on the entirety of both papers, since that might be more accurate than analyzing single paragraphs.

Results:

Paragraph

Metamorphosis paragraph

Imperialism paragraph

Flesch reading ease

43.8

18.3

Flesch-Kincaid grade level

11.5

13.7

Number of words

123

73

Number of characters

669

462

Number of sentences

7

6

Metamorphosis essay reading ease: 56.2 Grade level: 9.1

Imperialism essay reading ease: 49.3 Grade level: 9.4

Discussion:

I didn’t actually expect the readability of the later essay to be more difficult than the former. While I was writing the first essay, I read many difficult and densely worded literary analyses. It was also the final essay for the class, so I put effort in developing complex ideas. The Imperialism essay seemed less formal and I’m sure I spent less time on it. All these factors make me surprised at the results. Does this mean my writing has become more sophisticated? Also, when I searched Wikipedia for the Flesch-Kincaid formula, I noticed that scoring in the 0-30 range in Flesch reading ease suggests that the passage is best understood by university graduates. Additionally, the article states that “the Harvard Law Review usually scores a readability score in the low 30’s.” I find it hard to believe that my paragraph in the Imperialism essay is as difficult to read as a Harvard law publication. After testing the whole of both essays, the results seemed more believable. Perhaps some paragraphs or sentences are much more detailed than others. The paragraph I chose from the Imperialism essay could be unique compared to the rest of the essay’s content. Still, the Imperialism essay was slightly more difficult than the Metamorphosis essay as a whole. This suggests my writing has developed to include longer words in shorter paragraphs. It’s hard to say whether my writing has grown more effective with these results. Further analysis must require different research questions. For example, what exactly makes the individual paragraphs more or less difficult to read? What makes these paragraphs so different?

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch-Kincaid

Addendum:

Paragraph 1: Although Sweeny was right in identifying the conflict between Gregor’s natural behavior and his rational will, Gregor’s body shouldn’t be completely separated or alien from his mind. Gregor’s body is an outward expression of his inner personality. He clearly had respectable reasons to be upset with society. His insect whims were not just naturally occurring animal instincts, but subconscious thoughts in response to the disillusionment caused by modern life. These thoughts are deemed animal-like by rational members of society, which is the reason Kafka uses the vermin metaphor. Although Sweeny argues that Gregor’s body is at odds with his mind, his subconscious mind propels his body because of his underlying feelings. The problems caused by his body are actually caused by his mind.

Paragraph 2: Imperialism displaced non-Western people. Dominated people lost their sovereignty, culture, and land. Imperialism often brought disease, warfare, genocide, and ecological transformation along with the benefits of new technologies like railroads and the telegraph. Many non-Western people suffered under colonial power. They saw their old way of life pass away. Instead of gradually being ushered into modernity, Imperialism forcibly propelled non-Western people into the new age of a more connected and technologically advanced world.

Sentence Pattern Analysis

Introduction:

The text I’ve analyzed comes from an essay that critically introduces H.G Wells’s Time Machine—meaning I invite the reader into a discussion about the themes and style of the work. This was written in the fall of 2012. I chose the concluding paragraph to examine. What are the sentence patterns that I use in the paragraph how does it the affect the credibility and tone of the conclusion of the essay? What does it suggest about my writing?

Methods and Materials:

I broke the paragraph into separate sentences by pattern. I wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with complex and compound sentences, so I separated the sentence patterns into their different fragments. Instead of six sentences, I have ten clauses. I color coded them into what I thought were the correct sentence patterns. My method was to search for the verb and decide whether it was transitive or intransitive. Then I looked to see whether there were direct objects, indirect objects, subjective complements, and objective complements. I tried to ignore prepositional phrases.

Results:

My paragraph had the following sentence patterns in each individual clauses: 2-3-3-1-3-2-4-2-2-2-3. I’ve also copied the paragraph below just for reference (sadly, I don’t have easy access to a color printer.)

Wells’s short story may be a vision, or prophecy, of the distant future, but it is designed to help examine the trajectory of the present. It especially achieves this through the uncanny, which many critics have demonstrated. It simultaneously familiarizes and de-familiarizes the reader. It is arguable over what exactly Wells was criticizing, but The Time Machine does clearly present us with questions about major ideologies and popular attitudes. Although Wells might not be called a modernist, the text itself can be read through a modernist lens since it is a story about disillusionment. The Time Machine is a quick read, but because of its innovation and themes, it has amazing staying power.

The dominant types of sentences are patterns two and three. In my conclusion paragraph of this essay, I emphasized what The Time Machine is and what it does. For example, it is a vision and it is designed to examine the trajectory of the present. These sentence patterns are beneficial to the essay because they are simple definitive sentences about the novella. The lack of pattern four sentences may be because I didn’t often mention the reader that might be the indirect object of a sentence. I’m more concerned about what the text is rather than what it gives us, especially in the concluding paragraph. This paragraph isn’t incredibly varied when it comes to sentence patters; the only pattern four sentence is sandwiched between pattern two and three sentences. These sentences give the conclusion paragraph a defining tone. They try to pin down the themes of The Time Machine.

I am somewhat concerned by the accuracy of labeling the sentence patterns, since they are more complex than the exercises in English Fundamentals. It would be interesting to analyze another paragraph in the same essay to see if I often use the same sentence patterns.

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Topic Progression Analysis

Introduction:

The text that I’m analyzing is called “the deception paper”. I wrote it for Religion 211. It explores the story of Tamar in the Old Testament, and asks how we justify deception in the narrative. I chose this as my most frustrating formal academic writing because I had trouble gathering sources for the project. I also felt that the writing process was difficult because I didn’t know what to say. In these three paragraphs taken from the beginning of the essay, I am analyzing topic progression. What types are topic progression are present and how do they affect the clarity of the writing? Does topic progression allow the writing to “flow?” Categorizing different sentences as types of topic progression is difficult because sometimes they overlap, and sometimes they aren’t clearly under any category

Methods and Materials:

I tried to find the topic for each sentence and the comment of each sentence. I also tried to separate clauses from each other. To find the topic of the sentence and clause, I asked myself what is doing the action. Then I looked at each sentence consecutively to see if there was any pattern. I highlighted key words that referred to the same topic in order to make it easier to see the coherence in each paragraph.

Results:

Paragraph 1 Key words: The story involving Tamar, the account, narrative, this story, this story.

The first two sentences in paragraph one didn’t seem to have a clear progression. The first topic is “the story”, and the second topic is “preachers”. However, I could say that this is a form of chaining progression, because “the story” is the topic, and then “the account” is part of the comment.

The next five sentences in the paragraph are part of hyper comment progression. There are “a number of moral questions,” and the next sentences elaborate on this fact.

Paragraph 2 key words: “deceptive actions, her deception, we, this account.

Paragraph two generally follows parallel progression. “We” is the topic of three consecutive sentences.

Paragraph 3 key words: primary role, her role, Judah, he.

Paragraph three also primarily follows parallel progression. The topic of the first two sentences is “the role.” Judah is the topic of the next two sentences, and is the word “he” also refers to Judah.

Totals:

Hyper comment progression

5 sentences

Parallel progression

7 sentences

Chaining progression

2 sentences

The remaining sentences I was unsure don’t perfectly fit in any category.

Discussion:

It’s understandable that the most used topic progression is parallel progression because it is the simplest to use. It is also easy to follow while reading. However it can obviously get repetitive. Moving from general to specific is a good way to organize an essay, so hyper comment progression is probably a good thing to use. Chaining progression seems like an effective way to make transitions. So does my writing flow? It’s hard to say. The writing is a bit clunky because it relies on the audience knowing the main purpose of the essay. It is also difficult to paraphrase the Tamar narrative since it is complex. Overall, I think that the first two paragraphs have are smoother than the third. I’m not sure that this is the direct result of topic progression. The paragraph is bogged down by too many names. I could have used more sentences, and simplified each to have one clear topic and comment.

It’s interesting that I like split topic progression and split comment progression. Perhaps it’s the rarest type of progression. I could have used it to vary my style. For further research I could analyze more paragraphs and see if I ever use split progression.

Schemes Analysis

Introduction:

The text I’m analyzing is a critical introduction to H.G Wells’s The Time Machine that I wrote for an English class. The goal is to explore classical schemes and see what effect they have on the text and the reader. How does each specific scheme affect the rhythm of the sentence? What does this do to the understanding of the reader?

Methods and Materials:

I’ve read up on schemes on Silva Rhetoricae in order to better understand what they are. I’ve chosen one scheme from each of the four categories: Structures of Balance, Change in Word Order, Omission, and Repetition. I chose climax, apposition, ellipses, and repetition.

This paraphrase from Yoda can be called climax: Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. The words are increasing in importance.

An example of appositio is as follows: I, in the heat of battle, accidently destroyed a priceless vase. It is the addition of a descriptive element separated by the commas.

Here’s an example of asyndeton: I stumbled, slipped, fell. The conjunction “and” is removed from the sentence.

And finally, here’s an example of alliteration: Tibber the Tortoise trekked to Texas.

Then, I went through my paper and chose four sentences. I morphed them into each different scheme in order to see what the change affected.

Results:

1. Original sentence: When we look at the setting and characters of The Time Machine, we are encouraged to imagine a strange and exotic future.

Climax: When we look at the setting and characters of The Time Machine, we are encouraged to imagine a not just a strange future, but a downright bizarre and shockingly exotic future.

2. Original sentence: According to what the Time Traveller tells us, almost everything we’ve known will be gone and human beings will be utterly changed.

Appositio: Almost everything we’ve known, according to the Time Traveller, will be gone and human beings will be utterly changed.

3. Original sentence: There were no different occupations, everyone looked the same, and there was no necessity for a family.

Asyndeton: There were no different occupations, there were no physical differences, there were no needs for a family.

4. Original sentence: However, he later stumbles upon the Morlocks and develops the theory that the Eloi had dominated them.

Alliteration: However, he later discovers the Morlocks and develops the doubtless theory that the Eloi had dominated them.

Discussion:

The first original sentence was simple and informative. By using stronger language that results in somewhat of a climax towards the end of the sentence, the reader is forced to think in extremes. Before it was just a strange and exotic future, but now it is not just strange, it’s especially exotic. This gives the sentence new energy and emphasis.

In the original sentence two, the forefront of the sentence is “according to what the Time Traveller tells us”. This de-emphasizes the truth of what follows. It reminds the reader that this is a story. When we put the first clause in the middle of the second clause, the way the sentence is read changes. It is more of an aside than before. It also helps the delay the information creating a little bit of suspense from the first half of the sentence to the second half.

Sentence three is a list. I’m not sure what exactly happens when the word “and” is removed. It does seem to read more quickly. It also seems more matter-of-fact.

Alliteration is usually fun to read and creates a poetic effect. In the case of sentence four, I feel that it became less formal when I added the alliteration. On tongue seems to bounce from each “d” sound to the next.

References:

http://rhetoric.byu.edu

Prose to Poetry

Introduction:

This analysis is an attempt to turn one paragraph of an essay I wrote about deception in the Old Testament into a poem. I used the concluding paragraph, since it is the most ethos driven paragraph in the whole essay. The question that drives this analysis is: what stylistic changes can I make to the prose in order to switch the genre to poetry and why are these changes effective in making the writing literary?

Methods and Materials:

I took many liberties in trying to convert prose into poetry while maintaining the meaning of the paragraph. I removed large chunks of text, and especially words that sounded too academic like therefore, necessarily, and infer. The poetry is a very bare-bones version of the paragraph. I also tried to use more parallelism to make it sound more literary. I tried to express entire ideas with one word or phrase.

Results:

Original paragraph:

The deception used by Tamar did no harm and was considered righteous. Therefore, we can infer that deception is morally upstanding in some situations. For example, we could use the classic example of hiding Jews from the Nazis during WWII. But, deception is obviously not correct in all situations. Tamar shouldn’t necessarily be used as a role model today, her situation isn’t extremely topical. Besides, teaching us how to live does not seem to be the primary goal of this passage. This passage promotes the idea that God is in control—not patriarchs. It may seem like the rich and powerful have it all, but the biblical narrative continues to suggest the idea that the sinner, foreigner, servant, woman, and underdog can become righteous and receive blessings in the Kingdom of God. We are deceived by looks: material wealth, power, and status, but God shows that this is a trick and opens our eyes.

Poetry version:

No harm, surely considered righteous, upstanding deception

The classic situation, hiding Jews from Nazis

Transient, surely no bastion role model, Tamar’s ancient upstanding deception

Why follow the ancients?

When the words are missed:

Why follow the mighty and rich?

When a trick that opens the eyes

discovered in the kingdom a foreigner, servant, woman, dog

Discussion:

Parallelism and repetition make a passage more like poetry simply because it deviates from the genre of the essay. It breaks down the classic approach to writing sentences, and foregrounds different elements than usual. Poetry is obviously less straightforward in communicating meaning. I like that the poem is somewhat difficult to navigate because of the punctuation. The meaning of this poem is not obvious compared to the essay’s original paragraph. My words can be misinterpreted just like the Bible’s words might be misinterpreted. I however, realize that it is difficult to nail down all the differences between good or bad poetry. The rhythm of this poem was not calculated, so I’m not sure if it is pleasing to the ear.

Metaphor Analysis

Introduction:

The text that I’m analyzing is the first two pages and the last two pages of Dan Simmons’s Hyperion. The research questions that I’m asking are what kinds of metaphors are used and what significance could these categories have for the text? The challenge is in maintaining categories of metaphor, since the concept is somewhat abstract and terms like metonymy and synecdoche are difficult to understand.

Methods and Materials:

I went through the text and looked for figurative language and metaphors: devices that see something in terms of something else. For my categories I used the four categories as described by Kenneth Burke in “A Grammar of Motives.” These are metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. I assume these are all subcategories of the overarching term metaphor.

Results:

Metaphors: A thunderstorm was brewing, Bruise-black clouds, stratocumulus towered, a violent sky , a small-brained beast trumpeted its answering challenge, The aged but still beautiful voice, Her eyes looked as tired as her voice sounded, The dead city glowed to their left like stone teeth, The air smelled of ozone, his voice thin, ink-black shadows, blackness of spirit which seemed to have come into him on the wind, his voice thin, the notes gaining confidence. feeling the black panic in him fade ever so slightly, explaining the plot of a flat film which had been dust for centuries, The sky continued to bleed light

Metonymy: continued the voice, head of the valley

Synecdoche: reptilian shapes would blunder into the interdiction field

Irony: 0

Discussion:

The type of metaphor that I encountered the most had to do with perspective rather than the reduction of metonymy, the representation of synecdoche, and the dialectic of irony. Perhaps, since this is science fiction, there are less mentonymy and synecdoche, because we aren’t familiar with the names of future technology and other worldly animals. Typically I saw objects doing things that they normally couldn’t, for example thunderstorms don’t literally brew. But by using the word brew, we get the picture without having to use a less colorful word like accumulate. Metaphors are used to describe things with other things; bruise-black is a good way to describe a cloud, it is more stylish rather than just black. Voices are thin and spirits black because it gives us a vivid sense in just a few words. I didn’t find irony, but I don’t understand how irony is a category of metaphor.

References:

Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. Berkeley: University of California, 1969.

Gee’s building tasks

Introduction:

The text that I’m using for this analysis is a section of dialogue from Dan Simmons’s novel Hyperion.

Methods and Materials:

I will go through each of the seven building tasks of language and discuss how they work in the section of dialogue in Hyperion. The building tasks are: Significance, Practices, Identities, Relationships, Politics, Connections, and Sign Systems and Knowledge. Each building task has discourse analysis questions associated with them. I will use these questions to try to understand the text. In the results section, I’ve highlighted key words and phrases that pertain to each building task, which I will explain in the discussion section. An interesting hypothesis to pursue is: dialogue with heavy use of the significance building task of language is more engaging that dialogue with less emphasizing phrases and words.

Results:

Significance: “but not merely an Ouster spy”—“In truth”—“he’s still a spy”—“Spies are executed aren’t they”—“him”—“f***ing”—“except for the fact”—“I repeat”—“It doesn’t matter”

Practices: “Are you the spy?” asked Father Hoyt. “The Ouster spy?”—“Yeah,” said Martin Silenus. “CEO Gladstone warned me when I was chosen for the pilgrimage. She said that there was a spy.”

Identities: “Are you the spy?” asked Father Hoyt. “The Ouster spy?”— “Our friend is a spy,” said Sol Weinbtraub, “but not merely an Ouster spy.” The baby had awakened. Weintraub lifted her to calm her crying. “He is what they call in the thrillers a double agent, a triple agent in this case, an agent to infinite regression. In truth, an agent of retribution”

Relationships: “Our friend is a spy,” said Sol Weinbtraub, “but not merely an Ouster spy.” The baby had awakened. Weintraub lifted her to calm her crying. “He is what they call in the thrillers a double agent, a triple agent in this case, an agent to infinite regression. In truth, an agent of retribution.”

The Consul looked at the old scholar.

“He’s still a spy,” said Silenus. “Spies are executed, aren’t they?”

Politics: “Are you the spy?” asked Father Hoyt. “The Ouster spy?”—“He’s still a spy”—“Masteen’s reaction was far too subdued. Either he wasn’t what he said he was, or he had known that the ship was to be destroyed and had severed contact with it.”

Connections: “Ouster spy”—“And you’ve been in touch with the Ousters via the ship’s fatline transmitter?”

Sign Systems and Knowledge: “Yeah,” said Martin Silenus. “CEO Gladstone warned me when I was chosen for the pilgrimage. She said that there was a spy.”

Discussion:

Significance: These words and phrases each emphasize something. In this case the people speaking are emphasizing something about the word spy. Spies are very important. The use of italics put special stress on the word him. Obscenities also signify something. In this case, the use of the f-bomb points to anger and resentment towards the spy.

Practices: The beginning piece of dialogue “Are you the spy,” and the series of questions that come after point to this section being the practice of interrogation. It is understood that the consul should answer the questions under the threat of being killed or abandoned.

Identities: This discussion centers around the notion of “spy” and what it means to be a spy. Should a spy be trusted? Executed? Ouster is also an interesting word. In the universe of Hyperion, Ousters are essentially aliens. If the Consul is an Ouster spy, he is a betrayer and may as well be an Ouster himself. The Consul is also described as an agent of retribution, which is much different than a simple spy.

Relationships: Weintraub describes the Consul as simultaneously “our friend” and “a spy” which complicates their relationship because usually we think of the two as mutually exclusive. He may be using the word “friend” sarcastically, or using it to dispel tension and remind the others that the Consul has treated them kindly.

Politics: When the group describes the Consul as a spy, they are denying him some sort of social good, because a spy is thought of as lowly. When the Consul describes Mesteen’s reaction as “far too subdued” he is denying him a social good.

Connections: They are connecting the idea of him being a spy with the idea of him communicating with the Ousters.

Sign Systems and Knowledge: Martin Silenus says that CEO Gladstone told him specifically that there was a spy, when in fact she told everyone that there was a spy. He is using language to present himself as special.

Addendum:

“Are you the spy?” asked Father Hoyt. “The Ouster spy?”

The Consul rubbed his cheeks and said nothing. He looked tired, spent.

“Yeah,” said Martin Silenus. “CEO Gladstone warned me when I was chosen for the pilgrimage. She said that there was a spy.”

“She told all of us,” Snapped Brawne Lamia. She stared at the Consul. Her gaze seemed sad.

“Our friend is a spy,” said Sol Weinbtraub, “but not merely an Ouster spy.” The baby had awakened. Weintraub lifted her to calm her crying. “He is what they call in the thrillers a double agent, a triple agent in this case, an agent to infinite regression. In truth, an agent of retribution.”

The Consul looked at the old scholar.

“He’s still a spy,” said Silenus. “Spies are executed, aren’t they?”

Colonol Kassad had the death wand in his hand. It was not aimed in anyone’s direction. “Are you in touch with your ship?” he asked the Consul.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Through Siri’s comlog. It was… modified.”

Kassad nodded slightly. “And you’ve been in touch with the Ousters via the ship’s fatline transmitter?”

“Yes.”

“Making reports on the pilgrimage as they expected?”

“Yes.”

“Have they replied?”

“No.”

“How can we believe him?” cried the poet. “He’s a f*****g spy.”

“Shut up,” Colonol Kassad said flatly, finally. His gaze never left the Consul. “Did you attack Het Masteen?”

“No,” said the Consul. “But when the Yggdrasill burned, I knew that something was wrong.”

“What do you mean?” said Kassad.

The Consul cleared his throat. “I’ve spent time with Templar Voices of the Tree. Their connection to their treeships is almost telepathic. Masteen’s reaction was far too subdued. Either he wasn’t what he said he was, or he had known that the ship was to be destroyed and had severed contact with it. When I was on guard duty, I went below to confront him. He was gone. The cabin was as we found it, except for the fact that the Mobius box was in a neutral state. The erg could have escaped. I secured it and went above.”

“You did not harm Hat Masteen?” Kassad asked again.

“No.”

“I repeat, why the f**k should we believe you?” said Silenus. The poet was drinking Scotch from the last bottle he had brought along.

The Consul looked at the bottle as he answered. “You have no reason to believe me. It doesn’t matter.”

Colonol Kassad’s long fingers idly tapped the dull casing of the deathwand. “What will you do with your fatline commlink now?”

The Consul took a tired breath. “Report when the Time Tombs open. If I’m still alive then.”

Brawne Lamia pointed at the antique comlog. “We could destroy it.”

Engaging in Discourses

Introduction:

The two oral narratives that I chose for this analysis were told by my Grandpa and me. In the first narrative, my Grandpa is at his telling my dad, my mom, and me a story about his days working for the IRS. I collected this story over Spring Break. In the second narrative, I tell two of my friends in my dorm room a funny story from a few summers back. I collected these stories by recording them and then manually transcribing them. I chose these stories because the storytellers are separated by a large generational gap and seem the most different. In the first narrative, the speaker is my Grandpa. His goal is to tell a story that tells of his experience in life and to entertain the audience. My goal was to entertain my friends. The “who” in the first story is a Grandfather: elderly, experienced, reminiscing, an IRS worker, and thoughtful. The “who” in the second story is a teenager: young, energetic, brash, entertaining and funny. What language and discourse features do these storytellers use to convey their identity?

Method:

I chose the two narratives. I tried to find the specific Discourse that each storyteller was participating in. I tried to find features of each narrative that pointed out how the storytellers embodied their Discourses. I specifically looked for language specific to the speaker’s generation. I also highlighted aspects of the story I felt pointed to our past and present identities. Finally, I counted the number of times I said the word “like” and compared it to the number of times my Grandpa gave the vocal pause “uh.” I also looked at the pronouns, especially the word “we” in each story and decided who they were referring to.

Results:

Narrative 1

Number of “uh’s”—11

Key words and phrases:

We are in the business of collecting taxes at the IRS

We have to

This bunch of crooks, I guess you’d call em

program

we were

simultaneously

when we close a business down like that, we uh, have a perishable goods sale

very briefly

We: Was used 13 times to describe the IRS and my Grandpa

Narrative 2

Number of “Like’s”—16

Key words and phrases:

My brother’s friends

Just sitting around watching TV

Like one of those bottles with the marble in it

We were all like, ah whatever

really

Keeps trying it and trying it

And his lips were all black

We: Was used 10 times to describe my brother’s friends and I.

Discussion:

My Grandpa begins his story with “Well, we are business of collecting taxes at the IRS and, uh as a last resort sometimes we have to seize property.” This gives his identity as a member of the IRS, which makes the audience think of the stern and often hated agency. This language gives the impression that he is serious. Not only that, but he speaks in the present tense, as if he is still working for the IRS although he has long since retired. He slipped into the present tense a few more times later in the story and often uses the pronoun “we” to describe the IRS. He uses words that definitely point to his age. He describes the unlawful company as crooks—a dated word. He also says “the 60 minutes program” when any younger person would drop the word program. I wouldn’t think to use the world “simultaneously” when telling a story to my family. Also, the general content of the story points to his lifetime experience and how things used to be done a long time ago.

I begin my story with “Um, so my brother’s friends came over to my house, like five of them, we were all just sitting around watching TV.” This paints the picture that I am a bored teenager. The word “just” is used to convey the feeling of a meaningless activity. The reference to the bottle with the marble in it probably would only make sense to the younger generation. The vernacular I use, including “kinda” and “whatever” point to my young age. The use of my vocalized pause “like” especially points to my generation, because that’s a word that has invaded the vocabulary of almost every teenager I know.

I think my Grandpa’s language and content of the story point to the Discourse of “the Grandpa” more than my story’s language and content point to the Discourse of “the teenager.” My Grandpa shows that he was experienced, elderly, and part of the IRS, and full of memories. My story definitely shows that I’m young, but not necessarily entertaining and funny. These last too characteristics are better translating through the inflection of my voice while telling the story than the words on the page.

The use of pronouns also points out our identities. My Grandpa still thinks of himself as part of the IRS, and I still think of myself as part of my brother’s group of friends. The general “we” in my story thinks alike. I assume that ‘nobody” believed Kevin, and that “everybody” was trying to help him get the bottle off his lips. It’s a collective mind in my memory.

Bottle Story Analysis

Introduction:

The text that I’m analyzing is a story that my mom told to me. I will be using the tools of form-function correlations, situated meaning, frame problem, and figured world as described by James Paul Gee in An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. How does the storyteller interact with these concepts to get her point across?

Method:

I transcribed the text and read through multiple times concentrating on the different tools each time. I highlighted key words and phrases that point to form-function correlations, situated meanings, the frame problem, and figured worlds. I will specifically look for the subject of sentences and any word that has a broad context or story surrounding them.

Results:

Key words and phrases:

Form-function correlations—This story is about your brother and it was…

Situated meanings: Parent-teacher conference, taught, room, class, little bumps, raised his hand, anecdote, tasticles

Figured worlds: five-senses

The Frame Problem: And it was the talk of the teacher’s lounge

Discussion:

Form-function correlations: The placement of the sentence “This story is about your brother” is at the beginning of the story, because it’s form, a simple topic sentence, relates to the function of clearly informing the audience that the story is beginning and what it is about.

Situated Meanings: I found the most examples of situated meanings because plenty of words have a specific meaning in this context. “Parent-teacher conferences” only seem to exist in elementary school or high school. The use of the word “taught” can differ in meaning depending on what is actually going on in the classroom. The room in this situation is the room that my parents were teaching in. I was not sure which category to put the word “tasticles,” a made up word that is the punch line of this story, since it isn’t actually a word. But I think it is a word with a situated meaning, because it is a pun.

Figured worlds: I chose the word “five-senses” for the example of figured worlds because I’ve found that some researchers suggest there are more than the traditional five senses. Depending on how we define sense there could be as many as twenty-one. The five senses could be a simplified story we tell to kids in elementary school.

The Frame Problem: “And it was the talk of the teacher’s lounge.” What does it mean that this little anecdote was “the talk.” How can we be sure this interpretation is right?

How does the storyteller interact with these concepts to get her point across? These

concepts are often unavoidable because any word could have a situated meaning and any statement will have to deal with the frame problem. She uses a topic sentence and assumes the audience knows the context of each statement she expresses. Especially with the punch line.

Appendix A: Formal Academic Writing

A.1 Metamorphosis Paper

Kyle Einfeld

Professor Lew Klatt

English 200

4 December 2011

Arguably, the most important line in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is the first: “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into monstrous vermin” (3). The rest of the novella’s plot centers on the metamorphosis. Gregor response to the change reveals his character throughout the coming pages, and perhaps like any artist, Kafka reveals his own character as well.

Apparently randomly, Gregor had become a grotesque insect. The sudden, drastic change renders him unrecognizable to his family and boss. His mind remains intact initially, but soon even his rationality begins to change. He begins to think and feel differently. He starts to gradually become more something else; less human and more verminous. As the plot moves forward, he gains more mental and physical insect-like characteristics, and he struggles to hold on to the values that kept him living and working vigorously for years. He loses his eye-sight, his appetite, and his self-control.

Why did this sudden and yet continuous change come about? Kafka gives no explicit reason for the metamorphosis. However, Gregor’s constant inner conflict sheds light on the matter. Even before Gregor experienced his transformation he was conflicted. His metamorphosis is the physical manifestation of his inner conflict. The tragic, inevitable, and continuous change is caused by Gregor’s internal conflict between two sides of himself. One side is characterized by pride, rationality, and hope. The other side is characterized by dissatisfaction, apathy, irrationality, and helplessness. These characteristics can be seen in Gregor’s thoughts toward his job, his family, and himself.

When Gregor wakes up as a bug, he thinks “What’s happened to me?” (Kafka 1). But his second thoughts are about his job. “‘Oh God,’ he thought, ‘what a grueling job I’ve picked! Day in day out—on the road’” (Kafka 3). He continues to gripe about his job revealing that he is only a salesman because he is trying to pay of his family debts. He later reveals that he hasn’t missed a day in five or six years, and he still has five or six years to go until he finally quits (Kafka 4). His private tirade establishes that Gregor despises his job and is secretly harboring deep dissatisfaction.

Getting out of bed is a complex, demanding process. “…he had only his numerous little legs, which were in every different kind of perpetual motion and which, besides, he could not control” (Kafka 6). He told himself, “Just don’t stay in bed being useless.” But, after painfully maneuvering his way to the edge of the bed, he goes back to his original position out of fear. Then, “again he told himself that it was impossible for him to stay in bed and that the most rational thing was to make any sacrifice for even the smallest hope of freeing himself from the bed” (Kafka 6). Part of Gregor wants to be rational, but he is facing indecision and an uncontrollable body.

Gregor can’t get out of bed, a problem faced by the typical, burdened individual. He is sick of being tied to the daily happenings of modern day life. Kafka may have felt the same way. He only wanted to write his book without the interruption and the responsibility of going to supervise the family owned factory (Kafka 63). Kafka also felt like his father was overbearing and in response equated him to a vermin (Kafka 71). It was part of the modernist movement to hate the overbearing organization of society, and Gregor shows these traits. He escapes crushing, wearisome responsibility by becoming a dependent pest.

One might question the reality of Gregor’s predicament. There are reasons to doubt his mental well-being. First, he was having “unsettling dreams” before waking up to his new form (Kafka 3). Second, he occasionally had phantom pains in the stomach suggesting he sometimes let his imagination affect his physical health. Gregor doesn’t realize that the change is permanent, feeling that if he would fall back asleep the fantasy would go away (Kafka 6). But, there is no question that Gregor’s transformation is reality. We discover this in the instant that his family and boss see him for the first time. Therefore, Gregor’s metamorphosis is not a dream, but may still be caused by his subconscious. The cause of his metamorphosis can only be attributed to his feelings of dissatisfaction. His new body is the physical manifestation of his discontentment. After five years, Gregor has finally snapped; letting his fantasy literally encase his will in an insect prison, thus trapping his motivation to continue the patterns of modern life.

His family’s overbearing tendencies are quickly made known in the first act of the novella. One after another Gregor’s mother, father, sister, and boss come to check up on him and anxiously call him out of bed. They need him so much that they won’t let him miss one day of work. His boss then accused him of being irrational. “I thought I knew you to be quiet, reasonable person, and now you suddenly seem to want to start strutting about, flaunting strange whims” (Kafka 9).

However, Gregor hadn’t lost his rationality. He was only in a state of indecision about whether or not to face the pain of getting out of bed and opening the door. His two desires—to escape the drudgeries of modern day life, and to provide for his family—were at odds with each other. Gregor “…hadn’t the slightest intention of letting the family down” (Kafka 9). He wanted most of all to surprise his sister by giving her money to go to school and play the violin. He wanted to enjoy himself by providing for his childish little sister (Kafka 36). Yet something else inside of him wanted to escape his duties.

The pain of modern life is illustrated with Gregor’s grueling challenges in what were previously simple tasks. He is brutally damaged when gets out of bed (Kafka 8), when he tries to open the door with his mouth (Kafka 11), and when he tries to pass through the door (Kafka 15). Modern life is a tiresome, painful endeavor. Reason, one hallmark of modern life, was rapidly being pushed away by Gregor’s natural insect feelings. Feelings are uncontrollable and sometimes random. He spends time letting himself randomly walk around the ceiling and the ground. Time itself is no longer in Gregor’s care; in one case he spends four hours concealing himself (Kafka 22). His sleep pattern becomes irregular (Kafka 21). This could be a rebellion against the rigidly scheduled structure of his previous lifestyle.

One of the crucial problems caused by Gregor’s body is that after the metamorphosis he is unable to communicate with his family. He loses his capacity to speak, yet he can understand everyone else. Why did he drop one of his abilities but keep the other? His long pleadings of rational insight fall upon deaf ears. Gregor is like a depressed or mentally broken individual unable to express his reasons for the empty feeling inside to friends of family. He is completely alienated.

Since Gregor can no longer provide for his family, he worries about them. As he watched his family in the living room, “He felt very proud that he had been able to provide such a life in so nice an apartment for his parents and is sister. But what now if all the peace, the comfort, contentment were to come to a horrible end.” (Kafka 20) Whenever his family began to talk about money, “Gregor would let go of the door and throw himself down on the cool leather sofa which stood beside it, for he felt hot with shame and grief” (Kafka 21). He wants to help, but his body won’t allow him to do so.

But his family does get by without him. Suddenly, the roles of the family are completely reversed. Now, Gregor is the one who is needy and his sister is the one to take care of him. His entire family takes up jobs in order to make a living. Once Gregor leaves the oppressive modern life, his family takes it up willingly. Gregor ends up as a useless nuisance.

When Gregor’s mother and sister decide to change his room, he realizes that if he doesn’t stop them from taking all his furniture away then he will be letting his new form take control.

“Had he really wanted to have his warm room, comfortably fitted with furniture that had always been in the family, changed into a cave, in which, of course, he would be able to crawl around unhampered in all directions but at the cost of simultaneously, rapidly, and totally forgetting his human past.”(Kafka 25)

In a last ditch effort to save his human past Gregor climbs onto the wall over a painting, but his mother is horrified and faints.

His mother and sister had a passive approach to rehabilitate Gregor, but his father is aggressive with him. His father felt that Gregor was no longer himself and should be dealt with by a firm hand. Gregor faces endless physical pain when his father denies him and throws an apple, which digs under his exoskeleton (Kafka 29). This terrible endless pain is a symbol of the emotional mutilation of called useless by a family member. A pain the never leaves him until he dies alone. His family, a symbol for modern society, could not handle his new image or understand him. There was nothing he could do, and his family failed to show enough compassion and understanding. The death of Gregor was sealed when he woke up with the wrong body.

In his criticism, “Competing Theories of Identity in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis”, Kevin W. Sweeney argues that in the first act of the novel Gregor is in a conflict between his rational thought and his body. He says, “Gregor’s mental states are so at odds with his transformed body that the reader gives some credence to Gregor’s thought that he might be dreaming or imagining the whole situation” (Sweeney 143). Sweeny explains that Gregor’s rational side is losing. “With the gradual encroachment of one character on another, the rational conscious self loses its status as sole ‘pilot,’ and a new motivating agency exercises control” (146). Sweeney states that, “the insect-states and behavior do not originate from Gregor’s earlier human character: they are newly introduced and independent of Gregor’s human past… insect-character and human-character are unfused: no unified personality integrates both insect and human traits” (146).

Although Sweeny was right in identifying the conflict between Gregor’s natural behavior and his rational will, Gregor’s body shouldn’t be completely separated or alien from his mind. Gregor’s body is an outward expression of his inner personality. He clearly had respectable reasons to be upset with society. His insect whims were not just naturally occurring animal instincts, but subconscious thoughts in response to the disillusionment caused by modern life. These thoughts are deemed animal-like by rational members of society, which is the reason Kafka uses the vermin metaphor. Although Sweeny argues that Gregor’s body is at odds with his mind, his subconscious mind propels his body because of his underlying feelings. The problems caused by his body are actually caused by his mind.

Gregor’s two mindsets could not be fused, because they are totally in conflict, but that doesn’t mean the cause of his two mindsets was separate. They are both a response to his situation. There exists a tension between rationality and feelings. This tension is paralleled by Gregor’s combination of human and animal-like characteristics. Rationality and feelings are mutually dependent and interchangeable. Gregor uses feelings to rationalize his actions and reason to fuel his feelings. He feels pride when he provides for his family, but also feels burdened because of the overbearing lifestyle. He reasons that he must be an upright member of society to keep on living well, but also reasons that he cannot continue living such a burdensome life.

In the end, Gregor becomes passive towards his family. He tried communicating with his family and following his dream of surprising his sister, but he received only pain. In the end his family wants him gone and Gregor succumbs to hopelessness. “He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love,” but, “His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister’s” (Kafka 39).

The conflict that drove Gregor’s change was the repression of his enmity towards modern life. Kafka’s novella proclaims that change is inevitable and can’t be resisted. The family deals with Gregor’s change in the wrong way. Gregor grew annoyed with his family and eventually succumbs to the pain and hunger that were caused by his feelings of helplessness, apathy, and discontentment. Maybe in the view of society these feelings are verminous. However, in Kafka’s mind they are unavoidable, understandable, and tragic.

Works Cited

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Ed. Stanley Corngold. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.

Sweeney, Kevin W. “Competing Theories of Identity in Kafka’s Metamorphosis.” Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Ed. Stanley Corngold. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.

A.2 Imperialism Paper

The Impact of Imperialism

The novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, gives away the main theme in the title. This tale chronicles how one Igbo’s way of life is turned on its head, and essentially his culture around him falls apart. Okonkwo, the main character, works hard to gain respect and statusin his culture. But suddenly he finds that all his work has been futile, because a foreign force changes the rules and begins to break up his tribe.

Things fell apart because of imperialism. Imperialism is the practice of dominating a subject land. During the late 19th Century new global empires were carved out of the world. These new empires changed both the colonizers and the colonized in their way of living. For Western people this meant creating new trade and gaining military influence. For non-Western people Imperialism brought a loss of sovereignty, loss of land, subjugation, new landscapes, and war. Although many different groups of people in China, India, Africa, and America had differing experiences with Imperialism, they each encountered change caused by foreign powers.

With the onset on new Imperial powers, formerly strong empires like the Ottomans and the Qing Empire of China lost their stature. Although China wasn’t conquered and controlled directly, it was informally controlled by various nation states in Europe.[footnoteRef:1] In the early 19th Century, there was a substantial flow of opium brought to China by the British. The Chinese soon had a major drug problem, and tried to contain it by destroying opium and petitioning the British Empire.[footnoteRef:2] Tse-hsu, a Chinese commissioner in charge of putting an end to the opium trade, sent a letter to the queen of Britain in an effort to curtail the amount of opium coming from Britain.[footnoteRef:3] However, the Chinese efforts only resulted in the Opium War in 1839. The British had much more advanced military technology than the Chinese. The Chinese were easily defeated, and the resulting treaties, called unequal treaties by the Chinese, gave the British Hong Kong and access to five Chinese ports. This opened the door for other foreign powers such as France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, to take control of their own ports. The Chinese waged many rebellions in the late 19th Century, including the Boxer Rebellion.[footnoteRef:4] The Chinese government was permanently altered, and the last emperor stepped down in 1912.[footnoteRef:5] China lost is sovereignty and its influence as a world power was stamped out. [1: Jerry H. Bentley and Herbert Ziegler, Traditions and Encounters: A Brief Global History.Volume II: 1500 to Prestent, 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008), 562.] [2: Bentley/Ziegler, 565. ] [3: Reilly, Kevin. Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader. Vol. 2. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000), 244-261.] [4: Bentley/Ziegler, 566-567.] [5: Bentley/Ziegler, 568.]

While China was trying to curb informal control, many people in Africa were facing both indirect and direct rule from European nations. In 1884, the Berlin Conference set up the rules for colonization in Africa, which began the race for Africa. With the help of superior fire power, almost all of Africa was colonized by the 1900’s. Europeans ruled the Africans by either using their own officials and laws, or trying to using indigenous institutions.[footnoteRef:6] [6: Bentley/Ziegler, 569. ]

Though Things Fall Apart is a work of fiction, it is a very detailed account of what it might be like for an African native to encounter the effects of Imperialism. The majority of the novel details what is like to live in an Igbo tribe. It was a patriarchal society; masculinity and strength were important virtues. The economy was based on subsistence crops, especially yams. They had a polytheistic religion, with one supreme god to rule the lesser gods. They had their own specific rules and customs when it came to things like murder. They had no king, but made decisions based on tradition and the input of ancestral spirits.[footnoteRef:7] It is important to acknowledge that these people were not mindless savages; they lived in a developed culture. [7: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Expanded ed. With Notes (Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers,1996), 105.]

Towards the end of the novel, white men begin appearing. The first missionaries to reach Okonkwo’s village were deemed as mad, but generally harmless.[footnoteRef:8] The tribe allowed them to stay without conflict. However, as more people converted to the new religion, Okonkwo became enraged. “He saw himself and his father crowding round their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days, and his children the while praying to the white man’s god.”[footnoteRef:9] He couldn’t stand to see the white man’s customs replace his own. [8: Achebe, 104.] [9: Achebe, 108. ]

Along with the Church, the white man also brought the District Commissioner who represented the government. “They had built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance.”[footnoteRef:10] They imprisoned villagers for breaking foreign rules. However, the white men were not totally hated because, “the white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia.”[footnoteRef:11] Okonkwo led a resistance, but in the end the tribe could not eradicate the white man. Okonkwo’s hard work is for naught, and seeing his culture dissipate before him, he cannot bear it and commits suicide. With Things Fall Apart as a case study, we can see that Imperialism is not only a displacement of land or sovereignty; it is also a displacement of culture. [10: Achebe, 123.] [11: Achebe, 126.]

One of the most dramatic effects of Imperialistic thought—the notion that it was acceptable to dominate a group in order to spread religion, civility, and gain resources—was the destruction of Native American homeland. According to Colin G. Calloway, “Their numbers dwindled under the onslaught of war and disease; their old ways of life were destroyed and new ones imposed; their lands passed into non-Indian hands; much of the world they inhabited changed before their eyes as buffalo died and railroads and fences appeared.”[footnoteRef:12] [12: Colin G. Calloway, Our Hearts fell to the Ground: Plains Indian Views of How the West Was Lost (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), 1]

With the ever expanding westward advance of the U.S, driven by manifest destiny and the idea of spreading civilization, the Indians were forced into smaller and smaller batches of land. The pioneers brought cholera, measles, and scarlet fever. They also frightened away game.[footnoteRef:13]The U.S reportedly used total war by destroying buffalo, pony herds, and Indian villages in an effort to limit the Native Ame