heterotopia

Tests
Final opportunity to take the reading comprehension test and the 3 hour essay. You may come to SKRIVSALEN on May 5th and write either the 3 hour essay or take the reading comprehension test. Test starts 15.00 and ends 18.00.

Final plan

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Notice that we will read a few poems and some excerpts from a play or two for our final classes. You are expected to come and present your poem or a play on Friday 21st of May. This Friday is considered a test. The plays and poems and the instruction will be published here, later today.

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Updated instruction. The assignment described in the document above has been reduced. You will read three texts but you should focus on one text and one author. Each student will then act as an expert on that text and author on the presentation/discussion.

A link to a Thesaurus to find synonyms.

A link to a  visual dictionary.

A link to a page on paragrah and sentence development.

A link to a page on grammar and writing.

NOTICE!

Remember that any writing that you want me or Anders to read and correct must be handed in. We want a physical copy of all essays or other writing you submit. We do not accept attachments. Please leave essays in our respective mailboxes by the reception.

The test length is 180 minutes. No breaks.

Please bring something to eat or drink. We will be in skrivsalen.

You are free to use an English dictionary. We will have a few that you can borrow, bur bring one if you have one.

At the test you will be given an article and an essay assignment. Before the test you should also be reminded of the following:

[ For Tuesday]

Ways to introduce your essay…

1. Broad Statement: Using factory work as an example, you might start out by saying the following: Working in a factory might be one of the worst jobs. And then you go into the specific factory that you’re writing about, for example, an egg factory.

2. Contrast: Start with an idea that is the opposite of the one you will develop: Working in an office is a nice, clean job. You have comfortable chairs, a desk, a computer, a cup of coffee nearby, but working in a factory does not have the niceties found in an office.

3. Relevance: What makes your topic special? Convince the reader that the topic applies to them or is important. So many of our ancestors, when they first came to this country, found themselves working in factories.

4. Anecdote: An interesting short story that coaxes the reader into the world of your essay. The story should be related to your thesis. I once met a man named Victor who was missing two of his fingers. Victor told me that he lost his fingers because of an accident at work. He caught his hand in the wheels of a conveyor belt at the egg factory where he worked.

5. Quotation: Quote something from your research, or find a dictionary quote that relates to your topic:

“Perhaps it seemed to me,” wrote Henry David Thoreau, “that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any time for that one” (342). This is how I felt after working in an egg factory for two years. I had other lives to live. I had wasted enough of my life here.

Ways to conclude your essay…

1. A summary or final thought.

2. A thought-provoking question

Appeal to the reader that your subject is bigger than your essay. Comment on any one of these:

• The future
• Which choice should be made
• Why is your subject important

3. A prediction or recommendation.

4. End where you began.

Assignment

A.
Use each type of introduction to introduce an argumentative essay supporting or criticizing capital punishment. (3-5 sentences, approximately)

B.
Use each type of introduction to conclude an argumentative essay supporting or criticizing capital punishment. (3-5 sentences, approximately)

(To write a summary is in conclusion 1, you have to imagine what your key arguments were and briefly summarize them.)

Today we will start working with our essays in earnest. For the next few classes you will be writing and getting feedback from your teachers and friends.

It is YOUR responsibility to get as much as possible out of these meetings as possible, regardless there will be an essay test on the 26th of March. You will need to brush up on your grammar and writing for this test.

During the preparation you can choose to write either a formal essay or a creative essay.

Formal essay: instruction
The instruction for the formal essay can be found here.

Creative essay: instruction
Write your own chapter, episode or sequel to a favorite movie, tv-show or book: Use your knowledge of the character and setting to bring people and events to life: Try to capture the feel of your original story/show/movie. Remember to let your story be rich in details and descriptions, they are very important to the reader.

Inventory

Please read the following excerpt from the learning objectives of this course:

“Eleven skall kunna inventera, beskriva och analysera sitt behov av kunskaper i engelska ur ett långsiktigt studie- och yrkesperspektiv.”

Assignment
In pairs, help each other to write about your strengths and weaknesses in English and then write a plan describing how you want to develop your English proficiency over a few years time.

Post as a comment. Notice, this is mandatory.

Essay writing

General advice
The following are some basic guidelines to good writing:

• Plan your essay in advance
• Use proper paragraphs with either indentation or a blank line.
• Use proper punctuation and commas.
• Jot down briefly the main ideas, supporting paragraphs and points. Write clear and simple sentences to express your meaning in simple words. Stay focused on the main idea of your essay. Re-read your essay in the end.
• While writing your essay, it is probable that you will make a few spelling or grammar mistakes. Hence it is a good idea to try to read through your essay once more and correct them.
• Use the language to its fullest potential. Use your vocabulary and use any fitting expressions and idioms that you know.

Grammar
1. Check all instances of I. They should be with capital I and nothing else.
2. Check all national words. They should have capital letters: English, Englishman.
3. Check all instances of a and an. A is used before a consonant sound, an is used before a vowel sound. (A European agreement, an honest proposal).
4. Check all verbs in the text.
• Present tense: He/she/it speaks
• Agreement: John jumps, Ted and Bill jump; John was late. Bill and Ted were late; John has diabetes. Wolves and dogs have fur; Samuel is sick. John and Bill are funny.
5. Check all Where and were. Where is used for placement: Where is the car? The city where I grew up. Were is used as a verb. We were late for class.
6. Genitive. When somebody owns something an apostrophe and an s is added to indicate ownership, as in: This is Daniel’s car. It is John’s wife.

NOTICE 1: Charles’ car.
NOTICE 2: It is = It’s. It’s a plane, not superman: The car is blue, but it has lost one
of its wheels.

7. Then and than. Then is used in all comparisons when they deal with time. Than is
used in all other cases. I first came to Newark and then I went to New York. I am
taller than you.
8. Who’s and whose. Who’s the new teacher? That’s the guy whose bike I stole.
9. Who or Whom. Who wrote the letter? He wrote the letter. Therefore, who is correct.
For whom should I vote? Should I vote for him? Therefore, whom is correct.

Correcting an essay
The following document is from the Swedish National Agency for Education and it contains some examples of how essays are corrected and graded in Engelska B (EN1202). There are some differences between Engelska B and Engelska C since the latter is a more advanced course, but the general way an essay is corrected is the same.

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Assignment for grand seminar

This seminar is conducted after the deadline or on the day of the deadline, as the case may be. For this occasion you should hand in a list of all words and expressions you have noticed. The list should be typewritten and include your full name.

You should bring three quotes from the book. Choose quotations that deal with:

1. what you see as the purpose or message of the novel. Quotes that somehow relate to the title of the novel are of particular interest.

2. names of characters. Do they have any symbolical meaning, if so, in what respect?

Your notes (and quotes) for the grand seminar could be 1-2 pages, typewritten. They are handed in together with your word and phrase list.

also mail to: daniel.wernegren.arlanda@analys.urkund.se

New dates for course

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Today we had the first News broadcast of this course.

In general, the results were good, given the fact that this was a first try at this. I did, however, see some interesting things in your performance that I would like to draw your attention to.

1. Situation. The assessment criteria (betygskriterierna) speak of adapating the language to the situation or context. This means that we have to think carefully about the way we speak. Your news are based on articles, but this is not an exercise in reading news articles out loud, this is an exercise in doing a news broadcast for television.

Television news are fast. They have tempo. They use quite simple language compared to a news article. Furthermore, in TV, phrases like “Welcome to RNTV NEWS. This is Bertil Bertilsson” occur, which you never see in a news article. (We had some excellent use of TV-phrases, e.g. “Over to Lina Larson, on site in Kabul. What are the latest developments in this story?”.)

Also, you should endeavour to improve the make-believe in as many ways as possible.

• Use a backdrop scenery as some groups did
• Use a filmclip and do voice-over comments, as some did
• You could also roleplay an interview or have visitors to the studio debate some issue.
• You can use use more formal clothes, etc.

Be creative. The more you consider the situation, the better.

2. Words. Please notice that you should present difficult words before you start the presentation. If you have more than 10-15 words, you should consider simplifying your language. This is TV.

3. Time. Most groups were a few minutes shy of the full 10 minutes prescribed in the assignment. To increase the length, you ought to add additional pieces of news.

4. Script. Some of the students were completely free from their script. This is very good, but perhaps not necessary. You should, however, be so free from the script (and know the stories so well) that you don’t need the script for more than an occasional glance.

—

For next broadcast

I want you to spend one hour at home looking for suitable articles. You can also spend some time at home adapting the story to a TV broadcast (making the language suitable for TV). Next Tuesday you will work with your group with the script. You will also rehearse for the broadcast.

Next broadcast is Janaury 22nd.

In the 70s the British economy entered into decline and was seen by many as being stuck in a rut. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister and she led the country through a tough period of economic reform. Her economic policies stressed reduction of state-intervention, entrepreneurialism and free markets. Before long she ended up in large-scale conflicts with the labour unions, especially the coal miners.

Her popularity grew as a result of the Falkland’s war, and she was re-elected and actually re-elected twice, which makes her unique as Prime Minister.

Her tough policies and her public persona earned her the nick name ‘the Iron Lady’. She now holds a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher.

The film
This is England (2006) is a film that gained critical acclaim. It tells the story about a troubled boy whose father served in the Falkland’s war. The boy is bullied but finds new friends in the skinhead community. The film is set in 1983, in Thatcher’s England.

Film analysis
1. Please make note of characters, their names, and the overall story. (If you missed the film, you can watch it here.)

Post notes as a comment. (This goes for both groups, both mine and Anders’.)