What do the Ten Commandments have in common with a unit for measuring sound volume?
Answer to Word History Mystery 5:
What does the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense have in common with the first five books of the Old Testament?
Pentagon
Pentateuch (penta = five + teuchos = book)
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sentence Imitation - Periodic Sentence
Below is a classic periodic sentence from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail." In this 300-word plus sentence, King piles up dependent clauses, each giving specific examples that show the reader the kind of injustice he was fighting. When we discuss the sentence in class, I try to get students to see that in this sentence form follows function: As King provides example after example, the reader must "wait" just as blacks had to wait for justice.
Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.
Using King's sentence as a model, I created my own periodic sentence made up of a pile of dependent clauses. It certainly not as monumental or memorable as King's, but as the father of a teen, it was cathartic. It also features a hyphenated modifier near the end:
If you clean your filthy, festering pit of a bedroom, remembering to fold your clothes, make your bed, vacuum the floor; if you take out the garbage that you’ve neglected for the past week; if you complete your overdue English homework on the stylistic features of the periodic sentence; if you take the dog for a walk and clean out the cat’s litter box; if you are nice to your little brother for once; if you stop giving me those I-can’t-believe-that-anyone-would-dare-ask-me-to-pick-up-my-sweaty-T-shirt-from-the-kitchen-floor looks, maybe you can go to the movies.
Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.
Using King's sentence as a model, I created my own periodic sentence made up of a pile of dependent clauses. It certainly not as monumental or memorable as King's, but as the father of a teen, it was cathartic. It also features a hyphenated modifier near the end:
If you clean your filthy, festering pit of a bedroom, remembering to fold your clothes, make your bed, vacuum the floor; if you take out the garbage that you’ve neglected for the past week; if you complete your overdue English homework on the stylistic features of the periodic sentence; if you take the dog for a walk and clean out the cat’s litter box; if you are nice to your little brother for once; if you stop giving me those I-can’t-believe-that-anyone-would-dare-ask-me-to-pick-up-my-sweaty-T-shirt-from-the-kitchen-floor looks, maybe you can go to the movies.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Word History Mystery 5
What does the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense have in common with the first five books of the Old Testament?
Answer to Word History Mystery 4:
What does a type of horse racing bet have in common with a musical group made up of three people?
Trifecta (tri = three + perfecta)
Trio
Answer to Word History Mystery 4:
What does a type of horse racing bet have in common with a musical group made up of three people?
Trifecta (tri = three + perfecta)
Trio
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Word History Mystery 4
What does a type of horse racing bet have in common with a musical group made up of three people?
Answer to Word History Mystery 3:
What does having a muscular body build have in common with having a lean body build with little muscle?
Mesomorphic (meso = middle = morph = form)
Ectomorphic (ecto = outside + morph = form)
Answer to Word History Mystery 3:
What does having a muscular body build have in common with having a lean body build with little muscle?
Mesomorphic (meso = middle = morph = form)
Ectomorphic (ecto = outside + morph = form)
Word History Mystery 3
What does having a muscular body build have in common with having a lean body build with little muscle?
Answer to Word History Mystery 2:
What does a loss of one’s good name have in common with a writer’s pseudonym?
Ignominy (ig = without + nomin = name)
Nom de plume (French for pen name)
Answer to Word History Mystery 2:
What does a loss of one’s good name have in common with a writer’s pseudonym?
Ignominy (ig = without + nomin = name)
Nom de plume (French for pen name)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Word History Mystery 2
What does a loss of one’s good name have in common with a writer’s pseudonym?
Answer to Word History Mystery 1:
What does a wild uproar have in common with a disease that is prevalent over a very large area?
Pandemonium (pan = all + demon)
Pandemic (pan = all + dem = people)
Answer to Word History Mystery 1:
What does a wild uproar have in common with a disease that is prevalent over a very large area?
Pandemonium (pan = all + demon)
Pandemic (pan = all + dem = people)
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Word History Mystery 1
This school year I've been generating some original questions for my students based on etymology and word meanings. I call these "Word History Mysteries." These questions have been challenging for students, but they have also had fun with them. Each question challenges them to do some high-level thinking and to make connections between the words and roots that they know and the clues given in the question. I'll start posting one question each school day.
Here's the first Word History Mystery:
What does a wild uproar have in common with a disease that is prevalent over a very large area?
Answer tomorrow
Here's the first Word History Mystery:
What does a wild uproar have in common with a disease that is prevalent over a very large area?
Answer tomorrow
Monday, February 08, 2010
Sentence Imitation
Lately I've been on the search for sentences that might be used with students for sentence imitation writing exercises. The sentence below is an example of a simple sentence that has been expanded with parallel participial phrases and adjectives.
The bald eagle, seen at the apex of flight, serenely perched on a tree, or boldly diving toward prey, is at once fierce, majestic, powerful, and independent.
--Variation on U.S. Department of the Interior, "Bald Eagles of Wolflodge Bay"
The kernel of the sentence is predicate adjective: The eagle is fierce.
Students don't necessarily need it, but the basic formula of the sentence is something like this:
Adj Noun (Subject) + participial phrase + adv + participial phrase + adv + participial phrase + form of ‘to be’ verb + four adjectives
This sentence demonstrates to students how using parallelism and participial phrases can add a lot of interesting detail and variety, even to a simple sentence.
Here are a couple of possible imitations:
The puzzled freshman, seen in the bustle of the cafeteria, quizzically examining the salad bar, or cluelessly searching for a place to sit, is strange, pathetic, embarrassing and annoying.
The stray dog, limping down the alley, loudly panting and desperately foraging is sad, lonely, lost, and hungry.
The bald eagle, seen at the apex of flight, serenely perched on a tree, or boldly diving toward prey, is at once fierce, majestic, powerful, and independent.
--Variation on U.S. Department of the Interior, "Bald Eagles of Wolflodge Bay"
The kernel of the sentence is predicate adjective: The eagle is fierce.
Students don't necessarily need it, but the basic formula of the sentence is something like this:
Adj Noun (Subject) + participial phrase + adv + participial phrase + adv + participial phrase + form of ‘to be’ verb + four adjectives
This sentence demonstrates to students how using parallelism and participial phrases can add a lot of interesting detail and variety, even to a simple sentence.
Here are a couple of possible imitations:
The puzzled freshman, seen in the bustle of the cafeteria, quizzically examining the salad bar, or cluelessly searching for a place to sit, is strange, pathetic, embarrassing and annoying.
The stray dog, limping down the alley, loudly panting and desperately foraging is sad, lonely, lost, and hungry.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Military Metaphor in Ethan Frome
In the novel Ethan Frome, the winter weather is a major character. The following passage from the opening chapter is a great example of how a writer uses metaphor to create images and to set a tone. In this case the picture is the besieged town of Starkfield, and the tone is one of the inhabitants being captive to the oppressive cold and snow.
As students read the passage, have them highlight the words used by the author to extend the military metaphor:
When I had been there a little longer, and had seen this phase of crystal clearness followed by long stretches of sunless cold; when the storms of February had pitched their white tents about the devoted village and the wild cavalry of March winds had charged down to their support; I began to understand why Starkfield emerged from its six months' siege like a starved garrison capitulating without quarter. Twenty years earlier the means of resistance must have been far fewer, and the enemy in command of almost all the lines of access between the beleaguered villages; and, considering these things, I felt the sinister force of Harmon's phrase: "Most of the smart ones get away." But if that were the case, how could any combination of obstacles have hindered the flight of a man like Ethan Frome?
A good follow-up activity is to have students write a description of their own hometown using an extended metaphor.
As students read the passage, have them highlight the words used by the author to extend the military metaphor:
When I had been there a little longer, and had seen this phase of crystal clearness followed by long stretches of sunless cold; when the storms of February had pitched their white tents about the devoted village and the wild cavalry of March winds had charged down to their support; I began to understand why Starkfield emerged from its six months' siege like a starved garrison capitulating without quarter. Twenty years earlier the means of resistance must have been far fewer, and the enemy in command of almost all the lines of access between the beleaguered villages; and, considering these things, I felt the sinister force of Harmon's phrase: "Most of the smart ones get away." But if that were the case, how could any combination of obstacles have hindered the flight of a man like Ethan Frome?
A good follow-up activity is to have students write a description of their own hometown using an extended metaphor.
Friday, February 05, 2010
Revision With Anaphora
Today in class I showed students the following two versions of the same passage. Previously they had written on the following prompt: In a crisis, is it best to act quickly and instinctively, or should you slow down and be more careful and deliberate? I asked students to read the passages and identify the anaphora (see Anaphora Day: August 28). I then asked:
Does the anaphora in Version 2 make it better or worse than Version 1?
Version 1
In a crisis, immediate, instinctive action is not always the best alternative because as humans we should capitalize on our evolutionary advantage: our ability to think and deliberate before acting. Certainly time is an issue. If you are Peyton Manning and a 300 pound opponent is about to squash you, there is no time to stop and deliberate; instead, you must act immediately. However, the best players, like Peyton Manning don’t use just instinct. They spend the time they have before a game planning, thinking, deliberating, studying film, and anticipating what they will do when the opponent is blitzing. It’s this kind of planning that gives them the advantage come game time. They have used the time allotted and their brain power to its full advantage. It is this careful planning and thinking that separates us from animals and that separates the great athletes, CEOs, generals, and presidents from the average ones. It was the great Dallas Cowboy quarterback Roger Staubach who said, “Spectacular achievements are always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” Deliberate planning and thinking is not always as flashy and impressive as decisive, immediate action, but it is, in the long-run, more important.
Version 2
In a crisis, immediate, instinctive action is not always the best alternative because as humans we should capitalize on our evolutionary advantage: our ability to think and to deliberate before acting. Certainly time is an issue. If you are Peyton Manning and a 300 pound opponent is about to squash you, there is no time to stop and deliberate; instead, you must act immediately. However, the best players, like Peyton Manning, don’t use just instinct. They spend the time they have before a game carefully planning and carefully thinking and carefully deliberating and carefully studying film and carefully anticipating what they will do when the opponent is blitzing. It’s this kind of planning that gives them the competitive advantage come game time. They have used the time allotted and their brain power to its full advantage. It is this careful planning and thinking that separates us from animals and that separates the great athletes, great CEOs, great generals, and great presidents from the average ones. Hall of Fame quarterback Dallas Cowboy quarterback Roger Staubach said, “Spectacular achievements are always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” Deliberate planning and thinking is not always as flashy and impressive as decisive, immediate action, but it is, in the long-run, more important.
Students' comments about the passages helped to illustrate the kinds of questions that writers ask as they revise. Some students felt that the anaphora in Version 2 was a bit over-done. They preferred the second use of it in "great athletes . . . " over the first use of it in "carefully planning . . . ." Some did notice, however, that the "carefully planning" sentence shows how form can follow function. Repeating the word "carefully" as well as the word "and" slows down the sentence, which echoes the writer's point: don't act swiftly -- slow down and take your time. My goal here was to show that rhetorical devices like anaphora aren't just decorations. Instead they are tools that writers use for a purpose -- the right tool helps the writer accomplish his goal, just as the right rhetorical device helps the writer make his point.
Does the anaphora in Version 2 make it better or worse than Version 1?
Version 1
In a crisis, immediate, instinctive action is not always the best alternative because as humans we should capitalize on our evolutionary advantage: our ability to think and deliberate before acting. Certainly time is an issue. If you are Peyton Manning and a 300 pound opponent is about to squash you, there is no time to stop and deliberate; instead, you must act immediately. However, the best players, like Peyton Manning don’t use just instinct. They spend the time they have before a game planning, thinking, deliberating, studying film, and anticipating what they will do when the opponent is blitzing. It’s this kind of planning that gives them the advantage come game time. They have used the time allotted and their brain power to its full advantage. It is this careful planning and thinking that separates us from animals and that separates the great athletes, CEOs, generals, and presidents from the average ones. It was the great Dallas Cowboy quarterback Roger Staubach who said, “Spectacular achievements are always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” Deliberate planning and thinking is not always as flashy and impressive as decisive, immediate action, but it is, in the long-run, more important.
Version 2
In a crisis, immediate, instinctive action is not always the best alternative because as humans we should capitalize on our evolutionary advantage: our ability to think and to deliberate before acting. Certainly time is an issue. If you are Peyton Manning and a 300 pound opponent is about to squash you, there is no time to stop and deliberate; instead, you must act immediately. However, the best players, like Peyton Manning, don’t use just instinct. They spend the time they have before a game carefully planning and carefully thinking and carefully deliberating and carefully studying film and carefully anticipating what they will do when the opponent is blitzing. It’s this kind of planning that gives them the competitive advantage come game time. They have used the time allotted and their brain power to its full advantage. It is this careful planning and thinking that separates us from animals and that separates the great athletes, great CEOs, great generals, and great presidents from the average ones. Hall of Fame quarterback Dallas Cowboy quarterback Roger Staubach said, “Spectacular achievements are always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” Deliberate planning and thinking is not always as flashy and impressive as decisive, immediate action, but it is, in the long-run, more important.
Students' comments about the passages helped to illustrate the kinds of questions that writers ask as they revise. Some students felt that the anaphora in Version 2 was a bit over-done. They preferred the second use of it in "great athletes . . . " over the first use of it in "carefully planning . . . ." Some did notice, however, that the "carefully planning" sentence shows how form can follow function. Repeating the word "carefully" as well as the word "and" slows down the sentence, which echoes the writer's point: don't act swiftly -- slow down and take your time. My goal here was to show that rhetorical devices like anaphora aren't just decorations. Instead they are tools that writers use for a purpose -- the right tool helps the writer accomplish his goal, just as the right rhetorical device helps the writer make his point.
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