Reading Comprehension: teenagers and social networks.


Today I am going to answer some questions from two diferent articles: the first from Tamar Lewin, and the other one from Dr Aric Sigman.


Questions:

1.. What are the opinions expressed by the researchers in texts 2 and 3?
2. What are the differences in the ways the researchers view community?
3. What kinds of distinctions do the researchers make (or not make) in relation to communication?


First, the text from Tamar Lewin shows us the good way of watching the social networks, saying that participating in new media is giving them the necesary tools and skills for the succes in the contemporary world. On the other hand, Dr. Aric Sigman says that using the social networks exesively could raise your risk of cancer and other deseases. This because not meating face-to-face get your defenses low, and other biological reactions that the body presents when you are not meating face-to-face.


Second, both researches view community in very differnt ways, both of them very extreme in their points of view. One uses the social and psicological area to argument his idea, while the other one uses the medical and biological area.


Third, Lewin states that is the same to have a face to face conversation or an online one, but, as it has been said, Dr. Sigman states that is very different in a medical point of view. In my opinion, being part of social networks is something that teenagers need because it makes you part of the new world society, but having a face to face conversation will always be more satisfactory.

Using Jargon: Role-play

In this activity  that Fernando Nuñes, Matias Urzua and I developed, we did a representation of a real life situation: medical examiners that just recived a body. The hole idea of this activity was to aply what we just learned about jargon. Using words like COD, liver and cirrosis, we performed a play in wich we used scientific jargon. As my personal opinion, I learned more about jargon, an how this ones are just from a specific group that shares the same profession. We also laugh and had a great time.

 

Language in cultural context


We know that every text has its own meaning. Meaning comes from complex interactions between text (or speech, or image), audience, and purpose, and it can change depending on the language, culture and context. To understand and analyze a text, we need to find:


Theme: is the central idea or ideas explored by a literary work. John Gardner puts it this way: "By theme here we mean not a message -- a word no good writer likes applied to his work -- but the general subject, as the theme of an evening of debates may be World Wide Inflation."


Topic: A topic is the main organizing principle of a discussion, either verbal or written.


Main idea: The central purpose or gist of a passage or text; the primary message expressed by a passage or text. The main idea of a paragraph may be explicitly stated in a topic sentence.


Source: The point at which something springs into being or from which it derives or is obtained.


Target Audience: Audience to whom the text is directed.

Author's Purpose: is the intention of the author. It can be to persuede, inform or entertain.

Genre: A type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions. It can be a fiction or non-fiction genre.

Tone: is the author’s attitude toward the writing (his characters, the situation) and the readers.  A work of writing can have more than one tone.  An example of tone could be both serious and humorous.  Tone is set by the setting, choice of vocabulary and other details. 

Register: a term designating the appropriateness of a given style to a given situation. Speakers and writers in specific situations deploy, for example, a technical vocabulary (e.g. scientific, commercial, medical, legal, theological, psychological), as well as other aspects of style customarily used in that situation. Literary effect is often created by switching register.

What is jargon?

Jargon is defined as the followin:

1. the language, especially the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group: medical jargon.
2. unintelligible or meaningless talk or writing; gibberish.
3. any talk or writing that one does not understand.
4. language that is characterized by uncommon or pretentiousvocabulary and convoluted syntax and is often vague inmeaning.

As the highlighted line says, it is a vocabulary exclusive to a group of people from the same profession. We know three types of jargon: medical language, language in sports and scientific language.

Scientific language: is the vocabulary used by science people. Scientists use language to give authority to their work, but if the words become jargon, they can end up alienating the audience instead of convincing them. Such as the word "Spaghettification". It has nothing to do with Italian cuisine, but refers to what happens if an object falls into a black hole. The classic example is the word 'derma' which simply means skin. Or anything with 'poly', which only means many. The other thing they do is to reduce words to a bunch of initials like MYFB, which look very scientific but probably only mean 'makes you feel better'. This is called Mystification.

Language in sports: it belongs to people involved in sports, and it can be the rules of a sport, specific plays, or just terms about players in a sport. A clear example is the bootleg, a play from american football. The quarterback fakes a handoff to the running back and continues running with the ball opposite from the direction the running back was headed.

Legal language: is the vocabulary used by judges, or people who work in the law's area. For example, atorney, that is defined as a person appointed to act on behalf of another person and sign documents on their behalf, or stamp duty, that is a government tax payable on completion of the purchase of a property over a certain value.



Definition of argot

A specialized vocabulary or set of idioms used by a particular group: thieves' argot.

Analysing images


Using what I have learned in class, I wold  like to analyse the following image:


In this image I can see that its shown the contrast between to lifestyles completely different in what it is opportunities and health. I also see the spirit of helping the ones who need it, the ones that are suffering because of famine. The idea of this image as I see it is to call the attention of people in order to get more help for the african people. We see in the image a very big and healthy hand , that shows the opportunities and abundance in the life of the occidental people, while the other unhealthy and small hand shows the horrible lifestyle of the people from Africa. 

Aplying your analysis: "the big sleep"


The big sleep is a nobel from Raymond Chandler, writen in years 30. The following link will take you to my analysis of a piece from this book, using voice thread.


http://voicethread.com/share/2992610/

Practical criticism: "You fit into me"


Today I will develop an analysis of a poem called "you fit into me" by the canadian writer Margaret Atwood, following questions based on the new criticism movement.


You fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye.


1-What is the relationship between the tittle and the rest of the poem?
Under my point of view, the only relation between this two is that the tittle tells us that someone fits into another, while in the rest of the poem it will be explained how and the real meaning about "fitting into another".


2-What words, if any, need to be defined?
hook-and-eye:  A clothes fastener consisting of a small blunt metal hook that is inserted in a corresponding loop or eyelet.


3-What relations do you see among any words in the poem?
There is a relation  between eye and hook because first it is presented as a clothing system, but then it will change to a fishing hook, and a real eye, in order to change our idea of what we think it is being told.


4-What are the various connotative meaning of the words in the poem? Do you see various shades of meaning help establish relationships or patterns in the text?
The author plays with the meaning of the words eye and hook, in order to, as I said before, change the whole meaning or idea that is being told. First we read that they fit like a hook-and-eye, so we think that they are made for each other, but then it changes to a real hook and a human eye, and this both fitting together means pain and suffering.


5-What symbols, images or figures of speech are used? What is the relationship between them?

The whole poem is an irony because it changes the meaning in the to last verses by changing the way of using the words hook and eye. By this, the author is telling us that love is not just happiness, it is also pain.

6.- What elements of rhyme, meter or pattern can you discuss?

It is a free verse poem. It means that it doesn't have any rhyme and the amount of syllables in each verse are diferent.

7.- What is the tone of the poem?
Pain and disappointment

8.- From what point of view is the content of the poem being told?

From a person that had a love relation with somebody, but this ended on a very painful situation for him.

9.- What tensions, ambiguities or paradoxes arise within the poem?

There is an ambiguity in the fact that the poem says :" you fit me like a hook and eye".

We can think that it means the clothing system, but the true meaning is that it is about a fishing hook fitting into a human eye.

10.- What do you believe the chief paradox or irony is in the text?

To show the disappointment that the person had on love and how painful this was to him.

11.- How do all of the elements of the poem support and develop the primary paradox or irony?

This are there in order to develop the best the main idea and the feelings shown in the poem. I also believe that the hook-and-eye ambiguity helps to explain the person's point of view on love and his experience.