Close Reading - 09/23/2012

Eating for Health, Not Weight

By DEAN ORNISH

This article focuses on the wright epidemic that our nation is currently going through. Over half of our population is either overweight or obese and has brought up an important concern to out for.

Details:

Food is an outlet that many people resort to. Healthy alternatives were given in order to show that meals can taste good without having the unhealthy side affects. Ornish gave the reader examples of different, healthy options like "black bean vegetarian chili and whole wheat penne pasta with roasted vegetables". It's always easy to just say that unhealthy food is bad for your body but the impact it can have on the body only makes sense to people when there is an example. The details of how food has the potential to change your health for the worse is shown in the example of common health problems that people live through such as diabetes. 

Syntax:

This article is an influential piece that has potential to change the reader's outlook on food. Influential writing pieces tend to have longer sentences so it doesn't come off as a harsh tone. Longer sentences flow better and make it easier to read. Short sentences usually make for a choppy piece and comes off too strong. Ornish accomplished a happy medium. He incorporated common problem that many Americans think with out coming off as "you're doing the wrong" thing type of voice. He engages the reader by giving advice and keep a warm attitude through his writing. 

Diction:

This influential article, like others, does not contains hidden messages through the word choice. However diction in this piece plays a major role since a message was being put out. The thing that caught my attention was the repetition of the word "disease". Over the years, disease has a negative connotation which catches the reader's eyes. By using the word disease, I feel like it makes people consider what they are doing to their body and think about if they are on the wrong path.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/opinion/sunday/the-optimal-diet.html?ref=opinion&_r=0moc.semityn.www

Open Prompt - 09/16/2012

2009. A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

  Symbols are major part of any literary works; it enhances the overall meaning of piece extending the work to a new level. When an author chooses any aspect of literary work, whether it is the setting, names, accessories of room or names of characters there is always a motive behind. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an American classic which embodies various symbols through the novel. Fitzgerald's use of color symbolism is prominent throughout The Great Gatsby. Each color from the color of a cab to the flowers in Gatsby's house. The colors reflect deeper meanings about a situation or personality of a character. 

Gatsby's love, Daisy, means the world to him. He spent every waking moment of his life living in the past and tried to find a way to win her back. Daisy was always described to be wearing the color white. The color white is generally associated with innocence and pureness. However, under that top coat, Daisy was neither innocent nor pure; she shed light into her greediness and importance for wealth. She was more interested in the material goods than the intangible aspects. 

Fitzgerald displays the lifestyles and mannerism of the upperclass and middle class. When Daisy's husband, Tom escapes away into the city, he meets up with his cheap, classless mistress Myrtle. She is always trying to live the high life that Daisy has. One night in the city, Myrtle is adamant about riding in a purple taxi. Purple is often associated with royalty and richness and Myrtle isn't royalty nor does she have wealth. Since Myrtle and her husband George  live in the Valley of Ashes, Fitzgerald uses this opportunity to get cross the message that where they live is like dull and dirty. The word ashes seems to have the feeling of dark and dirty. Dark and dirty is just how Myrtle's life is until she has the chance to escape into the city with Tom. Sadly her efforts to live like Daisy leads her to have her life taken away. 

Fitzgerald has carefully chosen every aspect of his book to have a meaning. Color symbolism is just one technique used to showcase his hidden meanings. 

Response to Course Material - 09/09/12

          The AP Diagnostic Test was a lot of help and helped set the foundation for the things I need to work on this year. One of the things I immediately figured out was that I needed to work on taking time with reading poems and understanding as well as learning a more effective way to read them. When it came time to reading poems for our forum posts I made sure to not rush through them and over look the little things. I wanted to really understand the message that was trying to voiced. When I was analyzing Sonnet 20  by Pablo Neruda, my goal of doing this was to understand the underlying message that Neruda was trying to convey. I noticed the anaphora and verbal irony Neruda used to add to the structure as well as tone of the poem. Starting from the first line Neruda uses verbal irony "My ugly love, you’re a messy chestnut/My beauty, you are pretty as the wind" (Line 1-2). Ugly and beauty are word that addresses a different feeling so using them to describe his love wasn't something you would expect. I was able to interpret the meaning of the poem to be that there's always to sides to a person and both sides are just as important. 

While reading How to Read Literature like a Professor and working on Foster's Presentation I learned that I need to be more aware of techniques that are used in literature and in movies. While I was watching the movie, She's the Man it occurred to me that it was a spin off of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. I feel like after reading How to Read Literature, it has made me identify the little things like the books characters read and their message in the situation. Since college essays are something that I am working on, Harvey's The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing has many important tips that I need to incorporate. I had always thought having an impressive sounding essay is better than having simple voice. However I was quite wrong and realized that Harvey actually stressed that concision will help "...cut the fat.." (Harvey 9). I think making my essays more concise it will also make them flow better. While we discussed the Rhetorical Situation in class, I realized that the elements that make up a Rhetorical Situation in combination with the techniques from Nuts and Bolts will help me improve my writing in time for the AP test and especially college essays.