Close Reading Bingo

http://jimmehftw.blogspot.com/
Weakness 6: "...the author uses phrases like..."

http://star-bellysneetch.blogspot.com/
Weakness 5: "Needly are of shine," "adding long glassy highlights," and " Towering volumes of marble and glass."
     - "Full quotations" can't sit all by themselves like a quote island.

http://skullandglossbones3.blogspot.com/
Weakness 9: This gives the impression of a fancy an intimidating lobby.

http://bookworm-days.blogspot.com/
Weakness 2: In statements such as “split my heart down the seam” and “felt the longing build in my chest,” Kidd’s diction expresses the emotion that swelling within Lily.

Best Overall Response: http://twilightlover2.blogspot.com/
- Very smooth
- Nice flow
- Couldn't find any weaknesses
- Good use of adjectives

Practice Diction Analysis

In the excerpt from Catcher in the Rye, the straightforward diction portrays the condescending personality of the narrator and his or her vague life.  The narrator describes his childhood as “lousy” and giving background on his or her life “bores [him/her].”  The narrator refuses to talk about his parents because “They’re quite touchy” about anything personal “especially [the] father.”  This depiction of the narrator’s life illustrates an unfriendly personality and the rough childhood this narrator has gone through.  This narrator can relate to many people making this story an interesting read.

Currently: Q2 Wk 1 + "Style Mappings"

Heaven is for Real: Chapters 4-20

Total: 100 pages

UNDERWATER:
She uses a language right off the bat that is scholarly and elevated.

Hog Smog Blog:
He uses a lot of the type of language you would hear in a hospital room full of doctors. This type of language is very well educated and flanery.

bill963:
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, she uses Elevated and sophisticated style of diction

Notoriously MoFulla:
Picoult's use of straightforward language gives off a sense that she doesn't care about the norm of our society and what they will think.


TheyCallMeFreshMoney:
The words on the pages create a  language of denotative tone and sound almost journalistic as if I was reading a two hundred page newpapers article.

My favorite out of these 5 was bill963's sentence describing Shelley's Frankenstein as elevated and sophisticated.  Both adjectives are creative and original.  Other Style Mappings used the adjectives from the chart we made so they weren't original.

Style Mapping

Max Brooks' World War Z has a very scholarly formal language.  The connotation in his language is very straight forward and denotative because he is explaining the accounts of the war through his own eyes and other peoples' experiences.  There is a sense of harsh sound to his language because of the violent scary situations he and others have witnessed and been through; he is trying to get the point across so readers can fully understand what happened during this horrific time.  Unlike Max Brooks' language, Nic Sheff's language in Tweak is very different.  Sheff's blunt, common, and informal language is spoken in the first person in this book by a pothead introducing the book.  Also, the language is playful in a sense of a musical way as the narrator adds facts little by little in a lyrical-like way.  Yet, both Max Brooks and Nic Sheff are both straight forward and literal in the meaning of the words they chose.  Kenneth Kamler, M.D. in Surviving the Extremes has a scholarly language like Brooks but with a flow to his sentences like Nic Sheff.  Kalmer’s sentences are not as choppy as Sheff's, but they both have a lyrical and harmonious flow.  Yet, unlike Brooks and Sheff, Kamler has a figurative, metaphoric, and connotative language when describing the areas he's traveled to and the way he explains how he managed to stay alive in the most hazardous situations.  All three books have their similarities, but each writer has their own personality creating small differences that give away their own styles.

Quarterly

Well this quarter wasn't that great of a start in terms of consistent reading.  I changed books three times and now I think I'm reading a book that I'm fully into.  It's been hard to blog about my independent reading because I don't know what to say.  I'm not very good at explaining things in a long elaborate way.  In person usually I'm very concise and straight to the point so I'm clear with people.  I am usually a good writer in terms of an academic standpoint, but when it comes to opening up to what I think or how I feel about things, it's extremely hard.  At the beginning of the quarter, I thought the blogging wasn't going to be an issue for this class; now I reconsider that thought.  Next quarter I'm really going to crack down on blogging so I don't get another "F" on blogging on Powerschool.

Heaven is For Real

For the past three or four weeks, my best friend and I have been going to the youth group Fuel on Sunday nights.  It was out first time to this specific youth group; we heard it was really fun so we decided to go and check it out.  It's at the Sunrise church off Scott Road by Deer Ridge Elementary School and all middle and high school age students are invited to attend.  I was a little hesitate of going because the last youth group a went to was boring and I never understood what was going on.  At Fuel, they have an area called "The Garage" where we worship and the youth pastor gives us our weekly lesson. Anyways, my friend and I really enjoyed it and she was happy that I enjoyed it because she, "wants [me] to get closer to God and [my] faith."  It was touching because I've never really had anyone do something that extensive for me or thought about trying to help me improve my life.  Usually it is the other way around; I give advice and my opinions about life to my friends and I usually never talk about myself.  I don't know why I don't; probably because there is not enough time in the world for everyone's problems.  But it was so comforting that my friend thought of me when going to this weekly event and wanted me to come with her so I can learn something and understand her beliefs at the same time.  It is a "win win" situation and I will never think about regretting to attend Fuel with my best friend.  It has brought us closer as friends and now we can fully talk about anything.  Because of this, at school, she gave me a book called Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo.  She explained to me that this was a good book to read to help me with life.  I was skeptical at first, but I trust her with my life so I took the book hoping that she was right.  She excitingly gave me the book and told me to read one chapter every night.  The chapters are only around four to five pages long, so I thought, "Yeah I can do this."
     As I begin to read, the prologue is just introducing in medias res of what is happening to this specific family.  The story is written on first person accounts and the speaker is also in first person.  The first three chapters talk about this family where the father [author and narrator] takes his wife, daughter, and son (both very young) to the Craw-le-seum and their experience with different creepy crawlies.  Knowing me, I was trying to find things right away that would help me improve my life; so far, this was just another regular story about some family with two kids and their problems.  I asked my best friend a couple days later, "How is this book suppose to help me?"  She replied, "You have to wait until the middle of the story."  So I guess I was being impatient and now I'm continuing to read this book and see what's next for this family.

To be continued...