Tuesday (September 2nd)
We will begin by getting to know a little about each other. You will be making name tents and I will be taking your photographs. This, along with a seating chart (subject to change), will help me to learn your names. Smiling is preferred, but optional.
You will get your syllabus. I will go over it briefly. You should sign the syllabus. Take it home for your parents to sign as well.
Books will be distributed and covered. You will put your names, class period, room 234, and "Ms. Losen" in your books and fill out the accompanying paperwork.
There will be a reading quiz on the summer reading. I haven't decided (as of Monday the 25th) what else we will do with this work.
Students will read George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" and William Lutz's "With These Words I Can Sell You Anything." We will have a brief discussion of these on the first day or on the next day.
Homework: Finish the articles and bring in your signed syllabus. You will receive a homework grade of 100 for turning in your signed syllabus on Thursday/ Friday.
Thursday (September 4th)
I will collect your signed syllabi. If we haven't discussed the articles, we will begin to do so.
Slide show on advertising.
Homework for the weekend: Read the speech assigned by the teacher and analyze it according to rhetorical appeals and Orwell's rules.
Rhetorical Appeals:
- Ethos: an appeal to people's moral sense; Aristotle also saw ethos as part of the audience's trust in the speaker's character (as an authority figure or expert)
- Pathos: appeal to emotion
- Logos: appeal to reason or logic; rational argument
Orwell:
- staleness of imagery
- lack of precision
- dead or dying metaphors
- verbal false limbs (when "a verb becomes a phrase, made up of a noun or adjective tacked on to some general-purpose verb such as prove, serve, form, play, or render." Also includes phrases like "be subjected to, give rise to, exhibit a tendency to." Includes use of passive, gerunds, and -ize and de- formations. "Simple conjunctions and prepositions are replaced by such phrases as with respect to, having regard to, the fact that, etc....ends of sentences [that use phrases like]...greatly to be desired, deserving of serious consideration, brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and so on and so forth").
- pretentious diction
- meaningless words
- use of foreign words or phrases with the intent to impress
- euphemisms (nice words to soften reality)
- use of too many words
In addition to all this, note what the speaker does well. Note where he/she is concrete and specific.
