Category: English 30

Hamlet: Final Response

Choose a focus for your final response to Hamlet.

Synthesize alternative points of view, (include links to sources: your posts, STJ blogs, etc.).

Review your responses throughout our study:

Writing tips:

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PS: “To thine own rubric be true.”
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November 9th is the “cut off” day for submission of my marks to the office.
Any assignment to be (re)submitted for grading must be “in my hand” before 2:00PM November 9th.

Hamlet Getting Started 2

Recall:

“refer to your responses to these questions and keep track of any changes in your opinions, or any surprises you find.”

Revisit your initial response to Hamlet: Getting Started. Include specific examples from the text to justify opinions you are forming; develop, rebuke, or refute your initial impressions. Synthesize ideas from outside the text to enhance the clarity of your argument. Use stronger verbs in topic sentences. Use transitions to move between ideas and examples, and avoid dropped quotes and the now overused blockquote.

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Hamlet: Act 1 and 2(English 30)

How do isolation and loneliness affect how we perceive ourselves?

Is Horatio a nihilist? A Christian existentialist? Something else? Does he reveal his “imperatives“? How does he respond when evidence challenges his “imperatives”?

Consider “Postulates 1-4.”

How do characters respond when evidence clearly contradicts their ideals?

While viewing/reading/blogging, keep the usual “Cornell” notes with pen and paper. Blog your response to textual issues arising from class discussion. Link your blog to online sources: wikis, etexts, guides, discussions, imdbs. Synthesize don’t plagiarize: hyperlink all sources. Refer to “Improve Your Critical Thinking” suggestions.

Refresh your skills by looking again at notes from our discussion on Bloom: Knowledge=>Comprehension==>Application==>
Analysis==>Synthesis==>Evaluation.

Ask for the “Strong Verbs” handout if you’ve misplaced yours.

PS: linguistic multi-taskers will excel.

Why read literature?(English 30)

Mark Twain once shrewdly observed that a person who chooses not to read has no advantage over a person who is unable to read. In industrialized societies today, however, the question is not who reads, because nearly everyone can and does, but what is read. Why should anyone spend precious time with literature when there is so much reading material available that provides useful information about everything from daily news to personal computers? Why should a literary artist’s imagination compete for attention that could be spent on the firm realities that constitute everyday life?

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English 30-1 Tips for Personal Response to Texts

Examples of Student Responses to English 30-1 Diploma

The Personal Response Assignment from June 2006:
(literature in the question is included in the exam)

The puppet master in Keith Carter’s “Pinocchio” manipulates the marionette’s strings, giving it the illusion of free will. In the poem “Come In,” the speaker resists the allure of an appealing opportunity. In the excerpt from the short story “The Introduction,” Lily confronts the social conventions of her world and struggles to preserve her true self. What do these texts suggest to you about the individual’s ability to pursue personal well-being when responding to competing internal and external demands? Support your idea(s) with reference to one or more of the texts presented and to your previous knowledge and/or experience.

Consider the importance of the opening paragraph and the first sentence of the first body paragraph.
Satisfactory response from June 2006
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Proficient response from June 2006
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Excellent response from June 2006
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The Critical/Analytical Response Assignment from June 2006:
(literature in the essay is from the course, not the exam)

Reflect on the ideas and impressions that you discussed in the Personal Response to Texts Assignment concerning the relationship between an individual’s perspective and his or her interpretation of the world. Consider how the effect of a new perspective has been reflected and developed in a literary text or texts you have studied. Discuss the idea(s) developed by the text creator(s) about the effect an individual’s perspective has on personal beliefs.

Proficient response from June 2006
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Excellent response from June 2006
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Creative Response: English 30

Choose from the following:

(Partner up if/where necessary)

  1. Write a folk song.
  2. Create a dialogue in the forums between any 2(or more) authors.
  3. Create a dialogue in the forums b etween any 2 or more characters
  4. Create a new scene to be inserted into a text synthesizing a character(or 2) from outside the text.

Trackback. Then rewrite the quiz on Steinbeck’s Chrysanthemums.(Post questions in the forums.)

After Act 5 (English 30)

Respond to one of the following:

  1. Do you think Rosencrantz and Guildenstern deserved to be put to death? What alternatives might Hamlet have taken? Examine Hamlet’s reasoning and consider whether you think Hamlet was seeking justice or revenge?
  2. Why does Horatio tell Hamlet he will lose the contest? Why is Horatio correct?
  3. Throughout most of the play Hamlet has seemed unwilling to do what he knows he must do. Is it only in the final scene that Hamlet seems fully willing to accept his destiny? What do you think has caused this change in Hamlet?
  4. Death is personified twice in the final scene: a police officer(by Hamlet) and a hunter(by Fortinbras). Why has Shakespeare chosen these two particular occupations. What other jobs could death, as a person, perform?

I wish to dwell on Ophelia (Eng. 30)

Many scholars discuss the significance of Ophelia only as far as she impacts the development of the character of Hamlet. I hate that. Ophelia is far more important than the 5 scenes in which she appears. The tragedy of Ophelia deserves more considered attention. Write about the life and death of Ophelia. Write about the effect others have had on Ophelia. What makes her unique, distinctive? What ideals does she hold? What are her doubts and fears? What brings her joy, inspiration, fulfillment?

Hazlitt says, “Ophelia is a character almost too exquisitely touching to be dwelt upon.”

Dwell on her I say, dwell now.

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