To refresh your memories: text analysis

Summing up, you can say that a text or text type can be identified by looking at the following characteristics:

Audience and purpose	Who wrote the text? What is the aim of the text? Who was it written for?
Content and theme	What is the text about? What are the thematic elements in it?
Tone, register and mood	How does the text sound? Is it formal, informal, serious or ironic? What kind of words are used? How does the text make the reader feel?
Stylistic devices	Imagery, metaphors, repetition, use of colour, verbs, etc.
Structure	How is the text organised? Lay-out (font, placement of images, etc.) Contents organisation (point of view, division into paragraphs, frequency of dialogue, etc.)

Always be specific about these aspects and provide clear examples to support your analysis!

Musée des Beaux Arts

Can you spot Icarus?

Van 2CC IB Class of 2013

Funeral Blues

Practice essay (Part 4)

Writing an essay is not easy. Paper 2 (IB exam set for 3 May, 2013) is an essay, though: you'll get to choose from six essay questions and you have to write about the books we are still going to read for Part 3 of the course.

To practice your essay writing skills we are going to take examples from the works from Part 4 (Macbeth, Heart of Darkness and A Streetcar Named Desire).

Essay questions:

Explain how in at least two works you have studied ambition leads to the downfall of one of the protagonists.

Show how the contrast between light and dark is used to illustrate the themes of at least two of the works you have studied.

Work plan:

Step 1: collect examples

Step 2: structure your examples into an essay plan; the PIE schedule I have handed to you is a tool that might help you structure your essay - you are not obliged to use it this way. The most important aspect of the PIE schedule is that it makes clear that you not only have to give illustrations/examples of the point you are making, but that you have to explain the connection between example and point.

Step 3: write the essay

Assignment

Finish your essay plan/PIE schedule before Wednesday 5 September so it can be discussed in class.
Hand in your finished essay (400-500 words) before Tuesday 11 September.

Language use in journalism - assignment

To be handed in before class on Tuesday 4 September (electronic submissions allowed!):

- select an article from either The Guardian or The New York Times (mention the link!)
- write a 300-word comment on how the journalist in question uses language to bring his/her point across

Newsworthiness and bias

Read p. 70-71 in the hand-out on journalism, focusing on the three aspects of newsworthiness.

Bring at least one article from an English language newspaper, news website or network to class on Friday (24 Aug, 3rd hour) and make sure you can point out what makes the topic newsworthy.

Oh, and here's the brainstorm on bias from the 7th hour today. (Upside down for now; blame the iPad; I'll fix it later.)

V6 has begun; and has been split up - on Wednesdays

So I am going to split you up; on Wednesday afternoon, that is. It saves you an hour of waiting (well, you could do homework) and enables me to give you more individually tailored guidance and feedback on your IB-work. 

Here are the two groups for the Wednesday; people from the 7th hour group are welcome to join the 8th hour group any day, but only after advance notice! (In advance = before the lunchbreak!)

7th: 

Fleur Gwenda Lissa Jade Lex Tobi Benjamin Tom Teun Arjen Stijn Stan Ivar

8th:

Ruben Jasper Sander Loes Nachenthaly Imke Janine Anneke Stef