english easy course

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Assignment 3: The Phenomena of Words

Purpose

1. Understand better the word-thinking relationship 2. Understand better the verbal basis of adult level thinking 3. Engage with one’s words more deeply 4. Develop a more personal and objective engagement with the word-image-thinking

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Objectives

1. Describe in detail the images triggered by words. 2. Describe the implications and entailments of images triggered by words. 3. Explain the difference between images triggered by metaphors and words triggered

by non-metaphor words. 4. Demonstrate understanding of Letter Linkage activity.

Reading Assignments

1. Chapter 2: The Phenomena of Words BUT – read chapter in this sequence: a. p. 11 – 12, then p. 21. The key term here is “adult level engagement” and

the struggles to achieve it, given the assumptions we bring into college b. Then the section on Letter linkage (12 – 15) and then do assignment 1

explained under “Module 3 Assignments” c. Then read the rest of the chapter and do the other assignments in “Module 3

Assignments.”

Please read the Instructor Comments before reading the assigned readings.

Instructor Comments

Please spend some time reading the “Introduction” to this chapter on p. 12 AND the concluding remarks on p. 21. I try to explain the difference between adult level thinking and child level thinking, and then how adult level thinking is needed whether one remains in academic life or “returns” to “civilian” life. This means that whether you are writing as an academic or a civilian, you have an adult engagement with words, an engagement that makes one’s thinking more substantial, ‘visceral.’

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Also, please realize that when we use our metaphors deliberately, we are liberating ourselves from being unconscious about one verbal activity that goes on automatically in the adult mind. We can see then that we use metaphors in our prose without realizing it. When we now experiment with metaphors, we are consciously using the literary element in our prose. We didn’t know there was a literary element in our prose, and now we know that we are using it consciously, deliberately, and this intellectual experience should then make us feel happy or more intellectually and verbally powerful.

In addition, when we aren’t aware of the metaphors in the stuff we read or write, we

then have thinking that is cerebral, but it doesn’t have much impact, it doesn’t hit the reader in the intellect’s gut. But if we use metaphors consciously, we then produce thinking that isn’t just cerebral but “visceral.” Our writing and thoughts are more powerful because we present them more ‘concretely’ with metaphors and their images. And so the intellectual entities take on a ‘body’ and this makes our thinking more visceral.

These instructions and activities should help you seize control of the automatic

production of metaphors. Then I hope you see how you can use this activity during the revision stage of any writing assignment you have in other courses as well as this course. And then I hope you see that because of your deeper engagement with words, you can now describe things – things you are most familiar with – in wording that is more accurate and precise than you’d been able to produce before you took this college level course in writing.

ABOUT THE LETTER LINKAGE ACTIVITY: Before you begin, read the Letter Linkage explanation (p. 12 - 15) and watch the video. Then do several Letter Linkage exercise before doing two that you submit for this assignment. But before you do the two Letter Linkage exercises for the assignment, reread what I say on p. 14 about how you can get out of rhyming or single syllable words. It’s ok to rhyme – anything is ok as long as the word you write down has some letters from the word just above it – but your mind likely wants to try something new. When you feel that way, then try these things: use plural forms of the noun, or a prefix or suffix. Such simple additions can create a new syllable and then a new line of words.

Click the “Letter Linkage 2” video link in the Assignment 3 folder to watch a video on how to do Letter Linkage.

Click the “Comments on Metaphor Ch 2” video link in the Assignment 3 folder to view a video about Ch. 2 and the importance of recognizing the word-image activity going on in our minds. Again, because I’m am amateur at Panapto recording, maximize the larger screen on the right during the video.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Letter Linkage (10 points)

Type your responses to this assignment using a word processing program and save as a file. If you are using a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, then please save the file as Rich Text Format. Submit as a file attachment.

Submit two Letter Linkage Sessions on a Word file.

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1. You can do both sessions at the same time, but begin each list with a new word, and write down 20 words. Be sure to look at the back side of the page. That is:

a. Time how long it took you to come up with a list of 20 words. b. Then write a few sentences that describe your experience of doing it and the

thoughts you had while doing the sessions. c. Then write a couple sentences using several words from that list. Play around

with this activity. 2. I suspect your first sessions will be a bit disjointed and rough, but this occurs with

any new experience. 3. The goal is to just stir up words in your mind, and the attitude should be one of play

and exploration. Let's just see what happens.

“Sniffing Out” Metaphors # 1 (10 points)

Type your responses to this assignment using a word processing program and save as a file. If you are using a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, then please save the file as Rich Text Format. Submit as a file attachment.

Re-read the Introduction on p. 12 and list 6 words that you think are obvious metaphors and list 6 words that you aren’t quite sure are metaphors but you think they might be. Remember: a metaphor triggers an image in your head that cannot be taken literally. But the image is a good one to suggest something about the immaterial object it is used for.

Name the first list “Obvious Metaphors” and name the 2nd list “Metaphors?” Be sure to put your name and the date at the top of the page. Save as “Finding Metaphors.”

“Sniffing Out Metaphors” # 2 (10 points)

Type your responses to this assignment using a word processing program and save as a file. If you are using a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, then please save the file as Rich Text Format.

Attached is a report from Yahoo Finance about the condition of the stock market. Put in bold words that are obvious metaphors and underlined words that you think might be metaphors but aren’t sure. Remember that metaphors trigger images in the adult mind that cannot be taken literally. Also, words that are not metaphors can still conjure up images in the mind, due to the experiences of the reader.

When you have identified all the metaphors that you found, write a 100 to 150 word reflection on this assignment, how easy it was to find metaphors, what you thought of if you weren’t sure a word was a metaphor, what you think about the use of metaphors in business reports.

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Click the “Yahoo Business Report” link in the Assignment 3 folder to access the article. Down load as a Word file and type in answers as instructed. Metaphors in Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”

Part 1: (10 points)

Type your responses to this assignment using a word processing program and save as a file. If you are using a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, then please save the file as Rich Text Format.

Click on the link “Letter from the Birmingham Jail Assignment Part 1” in the Assignment 3 folder to access. Down load as a Word file and type in answers as instructed. Save and submit.

Assignment 2: (10 points)

Type your responses to this assignment using a word processing program and save as a file. If you are using a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, then please save the file as Rich Text Format.

Click on the link “Letter from the Birmingham Jail Assignment Part 2” in the Assignment 3 folder to access. Down load as a Word file and type in answers as instructed. Save and submit.

Writing your own metaphors: the farm metaphor (10 points)

Type your responses to this assignment using a word processing program and save as a file. If you are using a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, then please save the file as Rich Text Format.

Click on the “Using the Metaphor of Farming” link in the Assignment 3 folder to access the farming metaphor assignment. Down load as a Word file and type in answers as instructed. Save and submit.

Subject-Verb Identification (10 points)

Type your responses to this assignment using a word processing program and save as a file. If you are using a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, then please save the file as Rich Text Format. Submit as a file attachment.

Click on the “Module 3 Assignment on SV Identification” link in the Assignment 3 folder to access the 2nd of several assignments for identifying Subject-Verb combinations. Reread Ch. 5 in preparation for completing this assignment and refer to Ch. 5 often. Down load as a Word file and type in answers as instructed. Save and submit.

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End of Module Reflection (5 points)

Type your responses to these two assignments using a word processing program and save as a single file. If you are using a word processing program other than Microsoft Word, then please save the file as Rich Text Format. Submit file via attachment.

In 150 to 200 words (or more) please reflect on what you learned in this chapter and in the activities you completed. I’m also curious to know if you think you can apply these ideas to your other classes. For example, have you looked for metaphors in the assigned readings in your other classes? Was the activity where you described images triggered by metaphors helpful or interesting? Any suggestions on improving my directions or instructions – or even assignment ideas! – would also be welcome.