Tag: Paper Writing

Read the poem “Dead Stars” by H.O. Santos
.
Analyze and critique the poem using either Formalism, Feminism, Marxism, or Reader-response.
DEAD STARS
(for Paz Marquez Benitez)
by H.O. Santos
If I still think of her today
Why didn’t I tell her long ago?
I could have saved all wondering
For I’d have peace if I did know.
If I had learned of metaphors
Before I wondered ’bout the stars
Would I have written verses then?
And worshipped Venus instead of Mars?
If I had found my tongue could rhyme
Would I have shown a face sans mask?
A heart unsure? But woe is me-
I’ll never know, I didn’t ask.
Source: https://www.sushidog.com/bpss/poems staff/stars2.html
Rubric for the Critique
Criterion
Outstanding
(5 pts.)
Exceeds Expectations
(4 pts.)
Meets Expectations
(3 pts.)
Approaching Expectations
(2 pts.)
Unacceptable
(1 pt.)
Introduction
Introduction
grabs attention and provides meaningful context to a persuasive argument
Introduction
sparks some interest and effectively introduces reasonable argument
Introduction provides context for the argument but is obvious and/or basic
Introduction or conclusion does not flow with the argument of the paper
No introduction
Thesis
Argument is clearly articulated and persuasive, contains an original opinion
Thesis presents a reasonable opinion, argument is clear and focused
Thesis is a plausible argument; contains a legitimate opinion, but somewhat broad and basic
Thesis demonstrates misunderstanding of the prompt or text
Thesis not evident
Topic Sentences
and Transitions
Topic sentences contribute to the highly persuasive nature of the argument
Topic sentences articulate precise argument; logically linked to thesis
Topic sentences are present and make an argument connected to the thesis; however, ideas are obvious and basic
Topic sentences show misunderstanding or prompt text
Topic sentences not evident
Evidence
You have chosen, for the most part, the best evidence to support your point
Your evidence is believable and convincing and supports your argument
Evidence is present, but superficial
Evidence chosen does not support thesis/topic sentences
Little or no evidence
Commentary
Creative/ original ideas and insights; extensive commentary, refreshing, goes beyond obvious and basic commentary
Analysis is believable and convincing , a few assertions may lack specific examples, but assertions are still clearly connected to the argument
Analysis supports your argument, but ideas are obvious and basic
Ideas lack development; misunderstanding of prompt or text; illogical argument;
Analysis not present simply plot summary
Style, Vocabulary, Sentence Structure
Sophisticated vocabulary; sentence variety; quotations are smoothly blended
Effectively blends direct quotation with explanatory words and phrases to introduce the quotation and facilitate narrative flow; still attempting advanced vocabulary
Blend quoted material smoothly, but sentence structure lack variety- basic and obvious; attempts to incorporate more advanced vocabulary
Problems with sentence clarity, redundancy; some quotes stand alone; some vague sentences; little use of class vocabulary or sentence variety
Serious problems with coherence and sentence clarity; most sentences need revision; most quotes stand alone and lack introduction/
connection to the paper
Mechanics and
Coherence
Perfect (or 1 or 2 minor errors)
Effective punctuation; close to perfect
Minor problems with coherence, grammar, spelling, punctuation, but does not interfere with the understanding of paper
Several distracting problems with spelling, grammar, punctuation, citations incorrect
Major spelling, grammar, punctuation errors; distracts and interferes with understanding of paper; citations nonexistent

Clytie cooked the three meals on the stove, for they all ate different things, and set the three trays. She had to carry them in proper order up the stairs. She frowned in concentration, for it was hard to keep all the dishes straight, to make them come out right in the end, as Old Lethy could have done. They had had to give up the cook long ago when their father suffered the first stroke. Their father had been fond of Old Lethy, she had been his nurse in childhood, and she had come back out of the country to see him when she heard he was dying. Old Lethy had come and knocked at the back door. And as usual, at the first disturbance, front or back, Octavia had peered down from behind the curtain and cried, “Go away! Go away! What the devil have you come here for?” And although Old Lethy and their father had both pleaded that they might be allowed to see each other, Octavia had shouted as she always did, and sent the intruder away. Clytie had stood as usual, speechless in the kitchen, until finally she had repeated after her sister, “Lethy, go away.” But their father had not died. He was, instead, paralyzed, blind, and able only to call out in unintelligible sounds and to swallow liquids. Lethy still would come to the back door now and then, but they never let her in, and the old man no longer heard or knew enough to beg to see her. There was only one caller admitted to his room. Once a week the barber came by appointment to shave him. On this occasion not a word was spoken by anyone.
Clytie went up to her father’s room first and set the tray down on a little marble table they kept by his bed.
“I want to feed Papa,” said Octavia, taking the bowl from her hands.
“You fed him last time,” said Clytie.
Relinquishing the bowl, she looked down at the pointed face on the pillow. Tomorrow was the barber’s day, and the sharp black points, at their longest, stuck out like needles all over the wasted cheeks. The old man’s eyes were half closed. It was impossible to know what he felt. He looked as though he were really far away, neglected, free. . . . Octavia began to feed him.
Without taking her eyes from her father’s face, Clytie suddenly began to speak in rapid, bitter words to her sister, the wildest words that came to her head. But soon she began to cry and gasp, like a small child who has been pushed by the big boys into the water.
“That is enough,” said Octavia.
But Clytie could not take her eyes from her father’s unshaven face and his still-open mouth.
“And I’ll feed him tomorrow if I want to,” said Octavia. She stood up. The thick hair, growing back after an illness and dyed almost purple, fell over her forehead. Beginning at her throat, the long accordion pleats which fell the length of her gown opened and closed over her breasts as she breathed. “Have you forgotten Gerald?” she said. “And I am hungry too.”
Clytie went back to the kitchen and brought her sister’s supper.
Then she brought her brother’s.
Excerpt from “Clytie” in A CURTAIN OF GREEN AND OTHER STORIES, copyright 1941 and renewed 1969 by Eudora Welty, reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
1. Octavia’s dialogue with Clytie is characterized by
a repetitiousness that conveys forgetfulness
a repetitiousness that conveys forgetfulness
a discursiveness that conveys distractedness
a discursiveness that conveys distractedness
a brevity that conveys insecurity
a brevity that conveys insecurity
an ardor that conveys imagination
an ardor that conveys imagination
a terseness that conveys dominance
2. In the beginning of the sixth paragraph to the end of the seventh paragraph (“Without . . . mouth”) the description of Clytie’s lingering attention to her father’s face suggests her
growing realization of his impending death
growing realization of his impending death
remorse about her past lack of concern for him
remorse about her past lack of concern for him
disgust at his gaunt and deathly appearance
disgust at his gaunt and deathly appearance
need for some sign of affection from him
need for some sign of affection from him
repressed antagonism for the years he neglected her
3. Clytie’s behavior in the sixth paragraph suggests that she
is revealing an undefined hatred of her father
is revealing an undefined hatred of her father
is overcome by a sense of powerlessness
is overcome by a sense of powerlessness
has remembered an extremely painful experience
has remembered an extremely painful experience
fears for her safety
fears for her safety
realizes her attachment to Lethy

rie odyssey and Epic Poetry: An Introduction, Part 1 ssignment Active Paraphrasing a Passage But those who ate this honeyed plant, the Lotus,
Read the passage. Identify the central idea and key details. Then, paraphrase the passage. never cared to report, nor to return: they longed to
stay forever, browsing on that native bloom, forgetful of their homeland. -The Odyssey, Homer

How does the text evidence that Malcolm Gladwell provides in Chapter 2 of
Outliers: The Story of Success
help you identify and understand his central idea or claim? Which examples of the text evidence are strong and which are weaker? Are there examples of faulty logic? If so, how do they affect your response to the author’s central idea? Use your understanding of identifying and evaluating text evidence to develop your response. Support your writing with evidence from the text.
From Chapter Two: The 10,000-Hour Rule
For almost a generation, psychologists around the world have been engaged in a spirited debate over a question that most of us would consider to have been settled years ago. The question is this: is there such a thing as innate talent? The obvious answer is yes. Not every hockey player born in January ends up playing at the professional level. Only some do—the innately talented ones. Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.
Exhibit A in the talent argument is a study done in the early 1990s by the psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and two colleagues at Berlin’s elite Academy of Music. With the help of the Academy’s professors, they divided the school’s violinists into three groups. In the first group were the stars, the students with the potential to become world-class soloists. In the second were those judged to be merely “good.” In the third were students who were unlikely to ever play professionally and who intended to be music teachers in the public school system. All of the violinists were then asked the same question: over the course of your entire career, ever since you first picked up the violin, how many hours have you practiced?
Everyone from all three groups started playing at roughly the same age, around five years old. In those first few years, everyone practiced roughly the same amount, about two or three hours a week. But when the students were around the age of eight, real differences started to emerge. The students who would end up the best in their class began to practice more than everyone else: six hours a week by age nine, eight hours a week by age twelve, sixteen hours a week by age fourteen, and up and up, until by the age of twenty they were practicing—that is, purposefully and single-mindedly playing their instruments with the intent to get better—well over thirty hours a week. In fact, by the age of twenty, the elite performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice. By contrast, the merely good students had totaled eight thousand hours, and the future music teachers had totaled just over four thousand hours.
Ericsson and his colleagues then compared amateur pianists with professional pianists. The same pattern emerged. The amateurs never practiced more than about three hours a week over the course of their childhood, and by the age of twenty they had totaled two thousand hours of practice. The professionals, on the other hand, steadily increased their practice time every year, until by the age of twenty they, like the violinists, had reached ten thousand hours.
The striking thing about Ericsson’s study is that he and his colleagues couldn’t find any “naturals,” musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of the time their peers did. Nor could they find any “grinds,” people who worked harder than everyone else, yet just didn’t have what it takes to break the top ranks. Their research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.
The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.
“The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything,” writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin. “In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again. Of course, this doesn’t address why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others do. But no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.”
This is true even of people we think of as prodigies. Mozart, for example, famously started writing music at six. But, writes the psychologist Michael Howe in his book Genius Explained, by the standards of mature composers, Mozart’s early works are not outstanding. The earliest pieces were all probably written down by his father, and perhaps improved in the process. Many of Wolfgang’s childhood compositions, such as the first seven of his concertos for piano and orchestra, are largely arrangements of works by other composers. Of those concertos that only contain music original to Mozart, the earliest that is now regarded as a masterwork (No. 9, K. 271) was not composed until he was twenty-one: by that time Mozart had already been composing concertos for ten years.
The music critic Harold Schonberg goes further: Mozart, he argues, actually “developed late,” since he didn’t produce his greatest work until he had been composing for more than twenty years.

What does the pleasure Senor Noboa take in his ability “to instill that double fear” suggest about his values and priorities? What theme about fear and power is suggested by these details?

Which of the following is the best example of subjugation? a union leader who rallies the members for a strike a tyrant who threatens to jail citizens who oppose unjust laws a business owner who gives workers a cost-of-living raise a president who urges Congress to vote on a potential new law 9.0.6.9:
19- Read the following excerpt from “On Seeing England for the First Time.” My friend told me that the prince was a symbol of her Englishness, and I could see that I had caused offense. I looked at her. She was an English person, the sort of English person I used to know at home, the sort who was nobody in England but somebody when they came to live among the people like me. There were many people I could have seen England with; that I was seeing it with this particular person, a person who reminded me of the people who showed me England long ago as I sat in church or at my desk, made me feel silent and afraid… Which sentence best describes the effect that the author achieves through the use of amplification—in this case, the repetition of the words English and England? a. She arouses in the reader conflicting feelings of hostility and gratitude toward England and its people. b. She stresses the power and influence that England and its people have had throughout the world. c. She lets the reader share her own experience of hearing those words repeated often in her life. d. She emphasizes her admiration for a place she had longed to visit for many years.
4- The author of “On Seeing England for the First Time” notes that by the time she visits England, she has become “a person who resides in a powerful country that takes up more than its fair share of a continent, the owner of a house with many rooms in it and of two automobiles.” The historical context in which she writes, therefore, is different from the one in which she grew up. How does her adult status affect her view of her childhood? a. She is happy to look back on a carefree and delightful childhood. b. She is so overwhelmed by material possessions that she feels nostalgic about her childhood. c. She is angered by thoughts of the submissiveness she was expected to display as a child. d. She is able to enjoy her adult wealth and freedom because in childhood she had few comforts.
13. The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B. Part A “On Seeing England for the First Time” was written about 150 years after Britain ended slavery in the Americas. How does this fact affect the author’s perspective regarding England? a. She is conflicted because she loves England in spite of its history with the slave trade. b. She honors the English culture for abolishing slavery long before the United States did the same. c. She resents the English attitude that the slave trade is in the past and therefore should not be remembered. d. She acknowledges that she, unlike most Antiguans, wants to focus on England’s role in the future, not in the past. Part B Which of the following sentences from the essay best supports the answer to Part A? a. If now as I speak of all this I give the impression of someone on the outside looking in, nose pressed up against a glass window, that is wrong. b. The reality of my life was conquests, subjugation, humiliation, enforced amnesia. I was forced to forget. c. I had seen the governor general at the public grounds at a ceremony celebrating the Queen’s birthday. d. That idea Christopher Columbus had was more powerful than the reality he met, and so the reality he met died.
Part A In “On Seeing England for the First Time,” the author attributes her feelings about England and English people, as an adult, to a particular cause. Which of the following best describes that cause? a. Her adult feelings are the result of personal contact with people from England. b. Her adult feelings are the same as what she has been taught to feel since early childhood. c. Her adult feelings stem from a childhood fascination with England that she never outgrew. d. Her adult feelings arise from a clash between what she once imagined and what she has seen in actual experience. Part B Which quotation from the essay best supports the answer to Part A? a. Again, the reality of my life, the life I led at the time I was being shown these views of England for the first time, for the second time, for the one-hundred-millionth time, was this: the sun shone with what sometimes seemed to be a deliberate cruelty; we must have done something to deserve that. England! I had seen England’s representatives. I had seen the governor general at the public grounds at a ceremony celebrating the Queen’s birthday. I had seen an old princess and I had seen a young princess. They had both been extremely not beautiful, but who of us would have told them that? The space between the idea of something and its reality is always wide and deep and dark. The longer they are kept apart—idea of thing, reality of thing—the wider the width, the deeper the depth, the thicker and darker the darkness… In me, the space between the idea of [England] and its reality had become filled with hatred… The landscape was almost as familiar as my own hand, but I had never been in this place before, so how could that be again? And the streets of Bath were familiar too, but I had never walked on them before. It was all
Part A Which of the following best describes the author’s attitude toward England and English people as revealed in “On Seeing England for the First Time”? 9.0.6.9 She tolerates the English

?      In what ways do you see Mary Wollstonecraft’s revolutionary ideas about women’s education fulfilled in 21st-century culture?
?      Conversely, can you think of any current cultural examples where women are expected to act as Dr. Gregory and Rousseau thought they should?
?      To finish up, which aspect of Wollstonecraft’s argument is most convincing for you, and why? Which aspect is
least
convincing for you, and why?

CollegeBoard Pre-AP Unit 4 Learning Checkpoint 2 Jason Toro X -2 5-6- 8-910 11 12 -13 -19 < 7 of 14 > Question 7 Q This passage is adapted from Richard Mosher, Zazoo. @2001 by Richard Mosher. The narrator’s concern in paragraph 5 (“Breaking . . . toward him”) most strongly suggests that she is 1 The boy on the bike came and went. And he was like the gray cat in one way: when he was gone, I remembered everything about him, yet I couldn’t be sure, absolutely sure, he had been there at all. alarmed by the presence of the boy. 2 It was a wispy October dawn, with scraps of mist waiting to be burnt off the canal once the sun cleared the far hills. A school day but still early. I was out in my flat-bottomed boat, one oar dragging and one up, dripping just off the surface. The blade’s wooden tip patiently plip- Submit plip-plopped as I watched the willows shift along the canal. There was only the chorus of autumn birds, calling wake up-wake up-wake initially trying to remain hidden from the boy. up, and the faraway bark of a dog. Insects were asleep or gone for the season. Our corner of France lay dozing except for the treeline chatter, wake up-wake up-wake up- 3 Then came a faint whirring of tires around the towpath bend, the spinning of an old bicycle, and there he appeared among the far worried that the boy will remain at the canal for a long time. sycamores, scanning the canal as he came. Before he could spot me, I shook off my sandals and sweater and slipped over the stern to sink into the green of the canal, taking in one last deep breath as I went. 4 One was enough. I knew the power of my lungs, knew I could swim in one breath beneath the lily pads to the far side where the willow unsure about her ability to swim the length of the canal in one breath. shadows would hide me. Many times I had made such underwater escapes, but they had always been practice for a future adventure I trusted would someday arrive. So now, when I saw the unknown bicycle boy in the distance, in and down I went in one smooth motion, eyes wide, the water cool above me. 5 Breaking the surface at the far side was what concerned me, not getting there in one breath. I came up delicately, to make as few ripples as possible. Through the veil of reeds I watched the bike boy approach, binoculars swinging from his neck. Stopping his bicycle, he peered down at my boat as it drifted toward him. 6 “Sandals,” he muttered. “But where are the feet?” 71 cupped one hand over my mouth to throw my voice. “The feet,” I moaned, “are under the water.” 8″Ah.” He nodded. But he didn’t look at the water; he gazed high into the willows, as if expecting my ghostly voice to moan down from their branches. 9″The water,” I reminded him, “is below.” 10″Ah,” he said again. “Below.” And kept staring into the willow tops. 17 I liked the calm way he let the dawn rustle around him. Also I liked that his bicycle wasn’t new and shiny, with a million gears; it was a three-speed with rusty fenders, like mine in the shed behind our mill. Taking a fresh breath, I sank into the reeds and glided back beneath the lily pads. Between the boy and my boat I made a half-spinning dive toward the bottom, lifting my feet above the surface before stroking down into the depths. When I came up, just behind the boat, the boy could see only my hair and my face and my fingers curled over the stern. But I could see all of him as he smiled peacefully across. 12″You,” he said, in a slow accent of the south, “have a lovely boat.” 73″Thank you.” I folded my arms across the stern. “My grandfather made it for me. I helped, but he made it. We soaked the pieces of wood in tubs of hot water, then curved them into this shape. You like the color?” Sailors passing through our canal lock frequently commented on the rich rnew nurle of my little heat

1. Explain definition of
implicative and inference meanings
.
2. Analyze the paragraph below and determine the underlined words into either a
reference
meaning
or
sense meaning
.
Ancient Rome, the state centred on the city of Rome. This article discusses the period from the founding of the city and the regal period, which began in 753 BC, through the events leading to the founding of the republic in 509 BC, the establishment of the empire in 27 BC, and the final eclipse of the Empire of the West in the 5th century AD. For later events of the Empire of the East, see Byzantine Empire. Rome must be considered one of the most successful imperial powers in history. In the course of centuries Rome grew from a small town on the Tiber River in central Italy into a vast empire that ultimately embraced England, all of continental Europe west of the Rhine and south of the Danube, most of Asia west of the Euphrates, northern Africa, and the islands of the Mediterranean. Unlike the Greeks, who excelled in intellectual and artistic endeavours, the Romans achieved greatness in their military, political, and social institutions. Roman society, during the republic, was governed by a strong military ethos. While this helps to explain the incessant warfare, it does not account for Rome’s success as an imperial power.
(https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Rome)

The Questions About “On Imagination By Phillis Wheatley”
(1) What is your reaction to the poem? Jot it down.
(2) Who is the speaker — not the author, but the one who narrates?
(3) Is there a setting? What mood or emotional atmosphere does it suggest? Can you put the poem into your own words — paraphrase it?
(4) What is striking about the poem’s language? Is it informal or formal? Does it use irony or figurative language: imagery, metaphor, personification? Identify repetition or words that are unusual, used in an unusual way, or archaic (no longer commonly used). Consider connotations, the suggestions conjured by the words: house versus home, though both refer to the same place.
(5) Is the poem lyric (expressing emotion) or narrative (telling a story)?
(6) How is the poem structured or divided? Does it use couplets (two consecutive rhyming lines), quatrains (units of four lines), or other units? How do the beginning and end relate to each other and to the poem as a whole?
(7) Does the poem use rhyme (words that sound alike)? If so, how does the rhyme contribute to the meaning?
(8) Does the poem have rhythm (regular meter or beat, patterns of accented and unaccented syllables)? How does the rhythm contribute to the meaning?
(9) What does the title of the poem mean?