AP Language Class Notes
Seniors and juniors, second period saw Marie tell us about Zoroastrianism; Sam, Baha’i; Andre, Mormonism; and Elise, Hinduism; fifth period processed the anti-Pride Time rhetoric plastered all over campus today and began watching The Persuaders .
Fifth period meted out the speaker, context, audience, argument, presentation (logos), common grounds and values (ethos), emotional anticipations and manipulations (pathos), call-to-action, and effectiveness of the shellacked handbills, though I reminded everyone that while the non-violent pamphleteering-style resistance was admirable, the flyposting aspect was troubling―the custodians, not the posters, will be responsible for scraping the handbills off the concrete.
But note that while you, students, are taught in school to admire and emulate the spirit of the status-quo-resistant activist-reformer (Paine, Wilberforce, Wollstonecraft, Douglass, Anthony, Gandhi, King), the guerilla act was little admired by the-powers-that-be, one going so far as to call the posters “poison”.
I snapped a couple of photos of part of the scene. I’ll post those and a recreation of the mocking pamphlet itself (along with its original positive counterpart) later, and I’ll further address the frustration at the lack of voice Chloe mentioned and possible solutions for interested students to explore.
Bring food to our last class. (I like the bacon, egg, and cheese burrito from Nico’s.)
MOZART’S BALLS: Yes, the confection bearing the name is real. Popularly known as Mozart’s Balls by travelers and tourists, the Mozartkugeln (Mozart balls) (pistachio, marzipan, nougat, and chocolate) were introduced by an Austrian confectioner in the closing years of the 19th century. They don’t taste very good.
AP Language Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) completed a practice timed-writing, and 2) evaluated their own and their peers’ timed-writing performance.
Period 2, today you wrote a practice timed-writing, a synthesis essay, which many of you found easier or at least better than timed-writings 6 and 7. You worked in groups and assessed your and your peers’ performance.
A couple of quick items on the importance of worldview. I hope you’re paying attention to the media coverage of our current presidential campaign, because worldview has taken center stage for two of the hopefuls.
Barack Obama has had to distance himself from Jeremiah Wright , his former pastor, for comments the latter’s made on a recent series of speaking engagements .
Meanwhile, John McCain has had to deal with the heat generated by the endorsement of Christian Zionist and Texas megaminster John Hagee , who himself has made controversial comments about Catholics and God’s supposed retribution on New Orleans .
Developing the skills to sort through these ideas and rheotric is essential for critical particiaption in the agora, students.
Campaign Art
Well, Tuesday’s poltical action in Rhode Island, Ohio, Texas, and Vermont turned out better for some than others. Hillary Clinton survived, and Mike Huckabee didn’t, the former (arguably) less expected than the latter. Maybe it all came down to campaign art.
Campaign graphics and logos are important, more important, perhaps, than many of us realize. Indeed, I was suprised to learn about the intricate rhetorical subtleties of the various campaign logos while I listened to a recent interview with Wired magazine’s Scott Dadich on campaign art at the The Economist’s “Democracy in America” blog. Salon.com also recently posted a piece on the same: “May the Best Logo Win”.
National Grammar Day
Students, imagine I was teaching you astronomy and I instructed you that our sun and planets revolve around the Earth. Or consider I was teaching you history and I advocated the oppression of the lower class because I believed its constituents socially and economically incapable of functioning autonomously in society. Or imagine even that I was teaching you biology, and instructed you that certain races of people were inherently physically and intellectually superior to others. At best, you’d think me ignorant and bigoted, at worst, stupid and racist.
Unfortunately, many pop-grammarians and even educators happily perpetuate the unscientific, incorrect, and prejudiced belief (as unscientific as the Ptolemaic conception of the relationship of heavenly bodies, as incorrect as a class of people’s ability based upon its economic disadvantage, and as prejudiced as the idea of inherent racial superiority) that certain grammars are better, purer, more acceptable and palatable than others. Ideas like these that give rise to such inanities as National Gammar Day, sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.
Nathan Bierma, at the Chicago Tribune, weighs in on the dubious festivities and admits his ambivalence: “Don’t get carried away on National Grammar Day”. Arnold Zwicky, linguist at Stanford, is a bit more pointed, though: “National (OMIGOD) Grammar Day”.
So what’s the controversy? Well, it has to do with the distinction between grammar and usage and the surrounding language myths. These myths began many centuries ago and persist to this day and vex the uniformed usage-police (who curiously give Shakespeare a pass) and hurt the usage-violators who suffer under the scornful red pens of the former.
Well, what’s grammar? And what’s usage? Objectively, grammar is the machine that makes capable, drives, and accounts for human speech. Usage is a list of prescribed rules of written English and has to do with mere matters of taste and preference, for example, that one should not split infinitives. In her book Ancient Rhetorics for Modern Students, ASU rhetoric professor Sharon Crowley argues that “usage rules are the conventions [. . .] Americans use to discriminate against one another” (282).
For the real story about how language and how it works, PBS’s site Do You Speak American?, born from Robert MacNeil’s documentary of the same name, and inspired by his previous work on The Story of English, is a rich resource for earnest, curious, amateur linguists and for ill-informed, pretentious, pietistic pop-grammarians alike. A good place to start is with Edward Finegan who describes the differences between prescriptivism and descriptivism in “What is Correct Language?”.
Other contributions to the site include John Algeo’s chapter from the book Language Myths (I have a copy in my room) in which he tackles the idea of language decay, “Americans are Ruining English”, and Walt Wolfram’s article in which he describes processes of linguistic evolution, “The Truth About Change”. And if you don’t believe these linguists, who can doubt trustworthy NPR contributor Geoff Nunberg who discusses the “the decline of grammar” in “Language Diplomacy”.
I encourage you to begin to really examine your own assumptions about the relationship between language and society by further investigating language prestige and prejudice at the PBS site. Then check out Peter Patrick’s Linguistic Human Rights page, particularly his Ten Linguistic Axioms (and see also his page on African American English).
Happy National Grammar Day!
Linkjam!
With Chris Jordan’s photo series still stuck in my head, I thought it time to post the art links that have been backing up.
First, Peter Plagens asks in a Newsweek article if, with the advent of new technologies, “Is photography dead?”. Probably not, as publications such as National Geographic continue to celebrate the medium with its list of the top ten photos of 2007 (dig the cloud leopard of Borneo, third picture in). But then who needs photographic images if others can capture with paint and canvas what light imprints on treated film, such as these “9 artists who will blow your mind”.
It’s easy to be fooled by the photoreal images at the former link, but how difficult is it to fool discriminating art professionals? Apparently, not too difficult, at least not for Freddie Linsky who, according to a Daily Mail article, fooled “the art world into buying his tomato ketchup paintings”.
Perhaps art appreciation is a matter of perspective, but in the case of several sidewalk painters, perspective is everything as can be seen here: “New 3D Sidewalk Paintings”. And there’s plenty more unusual, and non-traditional art to be seen the world over; just witness these “33 Weird Statues and Sculptures Around The World”.
The sculptures at the former link may make some scratch their heads and wonder: “Do all we or others say is ‘art’ qualify as such?” Some creative graffiti (pay attention Danielle) might be argued to have artistic merit. Consider, for example, these “7 Unusually Geeky Approaches to Graffiti”.
Innovations in science, math, and technology offer other new opportunities for artistic expression. Dig these exploding nano-wires, these fractal art contest winners , and these symmetric energy pictures.
Enjoy the art, boys and girls.
AP Language Class Notes
Objectives: APELC students argued and defended a position on a current issue.
Juniors and seniors, today you tackled the following article from The Daily Mail: “Britain kow tows to China as athletes are forced to sign no criticism contracts”. In a delicious twist, I asked you to defend China’s request of participating nations’ athletes, which I thought might be good practice, that is, you fighting for a controversial, perhaps unpopular position.
The discussions were interesting, but Shawn made an incisive point when he suggested that those athletes who felt strongly about the problem of China’s human rights violations should boycott the games altogether, forsaking their training for the sake of their oppressed fellows. How might Tommie Smith and John Carlos have acted differently?
I said I’d post some links to resources that might help background the issue for those interested, and a good place to start, I think, is with the visceral event from recent memory, the Tiananmen Square massacre of Chinese dissidents in 1989. Frontline highlighted the dissidents’ oppression, first with a focus on The Gate of Heavenly Piece, a vivid documentary film ten years hence, and then in an episode simply entitled “Tankman”, which uses one figure’s “lonely act of defiance” as a critical historical lens.
Be sure to examine Human Rights Watch page on the history of China’s human right abuses. It’s difficult, maybe, to wrap our minds around the fact that other people in other parts of the world don’t enjoy the same rights we are secured here, but because it’s difficult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try or that we shouldn’t act.
Linkjam!
The primaries are in full swing. The race for the Democratic nomination is 243 delegate-strong Hillary Clinton or 158 delegate-holder Barack Obama’s for the taking. And it appears as if John McCain has edged out over his Republican competitors for the GOP nomination (with 97 delegates, currently), but Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney (29 and 74 delegates each, respectively) are still fighting. Super Tuesday is just a few days away though, and it’ll mean the end of the road for some, although the imperturbable Ron Paul (6 delegates) and the unflappable Mike Gravel are refusing to concede.
It’s unbelievably important that you’re paying attention to the rhetoric of the day, kids, and how the press is covering it all. For example, consider the analysis of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s curious evasions about a possibly running as a third-party candidate: “Nature Abhors a Vacuum, and Politics Abhors Clear Statements”. (For more on third-party possibilities, check out The Economist’s latest “Democracy in America” podcast.)
Evasion, chicanery, and scandal, though, isn’t new in American politics. If you interpreted Bob Roberts as an attack on Republican conservatism, understand that evasion, chicanery, and scandal are not the domain of any one single group or party as Shawn pointed out when he cited the Chappaquiddick incident involving Senator Ted Kennedy. Serendipitously, US News & World Report recently surveyed “Great Moments in Campaign History” that included many other noteworthy political and campaign missteps.
How do media manage, frame, and spin all the information streaming in, not only from all of the United States, but from around the world? Dig the recent BBC Documentary series “Making News”. (Discover more the implications of alternative media such as blogging and the role of the press in democracies in the documentary “Press for Freedom”, and go even deeper with FRONTLINE’s extended series, News War.)
For a break in the midst of all the press and politicking, have a look over at the PBS program NOW’s episode on the tradition of American political satire, and then head over to the The Borowitz Report for a laugh.
All this stumping, reporting, informing, judging, deciding, and fighting may seem a lot to keep track of, boys and girls, but some day soon it’ll all be yours to deal with. Be prepared. You can get a start at DeclareYourself.com or RocktheVote.org.
Philosophizing
In the past several weeks, Nigel Warburton has produced four most excellent podcasts over at Philosophy Bites. Take some time to expand your thinking beyond your immediate familiarities and really examine the struggles we deal with daily. You’re gonna hear these names in college anyway, so why not be prepared? Check’em out:
- Ludwig Wittgenstein on philosophy, language, and logic;
- Plato on war;
- Edmund Burke on politics,
- Richard Norman on Humanism.
And, as a supplement to that last one, dig this recent NPR broadcast of an interview with Steven Pinker on the idea of morality as a ’sixth sense’.
Peace out.
The Republican Debate
Kickin’ it here with Ryan, Laura D., Carli, Taylor, Tony, Chloe, Hunter, Simone, Mark, and Kelsey. And Marie, and Clay, Paul, Brennan, Laura P., Michael, Julia, and Elise. And also, Aislinn, Katie, Tiana, Alex, Danielle, and Matt. We’re watchin’ Tom, Mitt, Rudy, Mike, Fred, John, Ron, and Duncan battle it out.
Thanks Michael for the pizza, Katie for the popcorn, Aislinn for the cookies! Yeah coming to school at night.
Podcasts
Marie C. was inquiring after podcasts today after I mentioned that I listen to the Online NewsHour’s daily podcast, among many others. Another I listen to is Philosophy Bites, and this week’s discussion about the relationship of philosophy to literature and rhetoric was especially interesting. I recommend you give it a listen.
What’s great about many podcasts it that they’re free and plnety are downloadable through iTunes (you can grab a feed’s link, click “Subscribe to Podcast” under the Advanced, and paste the link in the box that appears, and you’re set). You can find all types of stuff if you look around the iTunes Podcast directory: daily podcasts produced by print and online periodicals, college lectures, documentary programs, and plenty more to keep you occupied and learning. In fact, here’s a link to a former podcast of the BBC’s In Our Time about a subject near and dear to many of you juniors and seniors.
You can find links to some of the podcasts I listen to regularly in the sidebar near the bottom of this page. I recommend them all to help you increase your awareness of the events that have shaped and are shaping our world.
Sin City, USA
Last night’s Democratic Preseidential debate was held in Las Vegas; it was broadcast from UNLV. Nevada has earned an early caucus slot this presidential election cycle, different from previous years, and so the state’s issues have been in the news as candidates have been paying significant attention to Nevadans’ needs (thus the geography of the last night’s contest).
In the lead up to the debate, the Online NewsHour presented a comprehensive series of reports on the Silver State’s state: “Big Picture: Las Vegas”. A great series well worth taking a look at. It’d do you well to be informed, and you may find that Nevadans and Arizonans share some common concerns.
I’ll be posting the question form later tonight for those that took advantage of the extra-credit opportunity last night. Get it to me by the end of the middle of next week, please.
The Democratic Debate
Girard here, with Casey, Logus, Mike, Areanna, Blaise, Andre, and both Hannahs watching the Democratic Presidential debate being broadcast from UNLV. We’re having an awesome time here in T-12!
We’re all about schemes and tropes, common ground and values, emotional manipulation, and political slipperiness tonight.
Senator Joe Biden, Governor Bill Richardson, Representative Dennis Kucinich, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Chris Dodd, and Senator John Edwards are ducking, dodging, and dancing around the issues Americans are concerned about.
Is there any better way to spend a Thursday night? I can’t think of one.
Go republican democracy! Go Casey for bringing pizza!
Language in Flux
Here’s an ignorant statement I heard on a recent episode of Grammar Girl from the podcaster herself regarding nominative and objective pronouns:
I hate it when language is in flux [. . .] because it’s easy to get confused. But a lot of people have asked me these questions, and in the end, I believe it’s best to know the traditional rules and then if you decide to break them you can do so knowingly and with conviction.
All languages are always in flux. All languages change over time. So called “traditional grammar” rules are merely one set (and not standardized set, mind you) of prescriptive usage strictures that, according to context and taste, can be applied to certain politcal, social, academic, and cultural situations.
Don’t be fooled by the usage-mavens, kids. Language is powerul, infinitely creative, and not confined easily to monlithic rules of “correct” and “incorrect”. Don’t allow others who think they maintain some special standard of language perfection make you feel ashamed about your English use.
Cussin’ and Spittin’
You might hear me drop an expletive or two if you were listening to me and my friends shootin’ the breeze around the grill on a Saturday afternoon or if I stubbed my toe in the middle of the night heading to the kitchen for a glass of water. But would I lace my conversation with choice taboo words if I were meeting with Dr. Gemma? Or swear up and down to punctuate my points in front of your folks during parents’ night? Probably not in those situations.
I swear, many of you swear, lots of people swear. Some might tell you that swearing is never appropriate. I’d argue that it would depend upon the context you find yourself in. Here’s some comforting news on the taboo language front from the BBC: “Swearing at work can ‘cut stress’”
Got a thought? Leave it by clicking the link above.
“Cool” Will Never Go Out of Style
Why don’t I hear people use “bitchin’” to describe something that’s bitchin’ anymore? The first time I remember hearing the word used publicly―I’d heard it many time at school in California―was during a 1985 episode of Friday Night Videos by Michael J. Fox the evening he and Justine Batemen, riding the wave of popularity generated by their joint work on Family Ties and his star-turns in Teen Wolf and Back to the Future, guest hosted the program. The next time I heard it boldly in public was on an episode of The Simpsons, “Brush with Greatness”, when Bart hollers it as he goes down the H2WHOA! at Mt. Splashmore. It’s never completely been ameliorated, and remains slightly taboo (but I’m on a quest, as you know).
Scientific American, recently published a piece on rates of change in language: “Use It or Lose It”. It seems the more a construct enjoys popular use the more it tends to become embedded in the standard and less subject to change and loss. So, it’s up to us on the cutting edge of language to keep words like “jaunty” and “puissant” in vogue lest we lose them to history.
CUL8R!
Elections ‘07 and ‘08
Are you paying attention? I hope so. There’s more going on and there’s more at stake than you probably realize. I just added some new links to the Activism page that will lead you to vital election information.
I encourage you who are interested in Presidential electioneering (which should be all of you, that is, the seniors and juniors who’ll be voting next year, and even the freshmen who’ll be in a few years) to check out the Online NewsHour’s Vote 2008 pages with even coverage of all the Democratic and Republican hopefuls. So called commerical, “mainstream” media devote very little, or at least not equal, time to any candidates but the frontrunners. Are you gonna trust CNN and FOX and CBS and NBC and ABC to deliver the whole story?
I hope you’ll take the time to educate yourselves. Maybe it’s not as fun as watching “That 70’s Show” or “Parental Control”, but it’s important. I mean it. Important like you can’t even begin to believe. Be informed by informing yourself―it’s your responsibility as a citizen of the state of Arizona and the United States of America.
Here’s something you won’t necessarily see on FOX or CNN except as the butt of a joke, the debut campaign video from former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel who’s currently seeking the Democratic Presidential party nomination:
And check out the Senator’s recent interview on the NewsHour―very different from other candidates. Amateur rhetors: Speaker, context, audience, argument? Presentation? Common ground or values? Emotional anticipations or manipulations? Action? I dare you to give it a try.
“Don’t taze me, bro!”
English language aesthete Grammar Girl addressed word creation in her most recent podcast, “Verbification of a Noun”, apropos of our class discussion last week in which we discussed the transformation of a noun to a verb. “Can it be done?” asked one of Grammar Girl’s listeners. “Yes, it can”, she answered, but in cautious, warning tones. Of course, Grammar Girl would never let out that language really isn’t the ”pure” monolith she and other grammar mavens preach and want the genral public to believe.
What Grammar Girl was talking about is a morphological process of derving new words by affixing bound and even free morphemes (words and parts of words like prefixes and suffixes) to existing words, thereby changing their category (part of speech). She discussed the “verbification” of the noun ”TASER” (itself and acronym for Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle) to the verb “taze”. We derive new words in this manner. And you know what? It’s okay to do, and you’d do well to remember it the next time you get Eiffel Towered.
And there’s even more action on the morphology front: The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is now less 16,000 hyphenated words, that is the hyphens have been dropped from many compounds. The story, “A Farewell to Hyphens”, suggests that this change indicates a move toward American spelling standards. How will usage purists react to this?
Wanna comment? Ain’t no problem. Click the link above.
“F*** Bush”
No, I’m not posting a personal opinion, but I’m sure some reader will misunderstand the title of the post and not read the posts’s actual content, and I’ll probably catch heat for it. C’est la vie. I’m posting a link to a controversy that began last week when editors at CSU in Fort Collins chose to publish an editorial using loaded language: “CSU editor: Used profanity to make point”. Worth taking a look at if you’re at all interested in the responsible practice of citizens’ first amendment rights and the limits of free speech.
Follow the editors’ and others’ arguments and you decide: Thoughtful speech intended to stimulate conversation, or loaded language merely used to shock? Mature stance or peurile goading? Where do you stand?
Leave a comment by clicking the above link.
Campaigning Candidates
Are you paying attention? If you’re not, how’ll you be able to make an informed decision come voting time? How do you know who to support? Do you even know the Democratic and Republican candidates? Do you know their histories? Have a listen to NPR’s series detailing the ‘08 Candidates’ First Campaign.
Who’re you supporting and why? Leave a comment by clicking the link above.
“WE SUCK”
Much more clever than simply chalking up a school (and inconsiderately leaving graffitied windows for the custodians to clean up) is a nifty prank carried out by a few student who took time to plan. If you’re gonna perpetrate a gag to bring attention to yourself, at least make it count, and don’t leave a mess for others to clean up: “Student Pays For Football Game Prank”.