Learning Outcomes

I think the real question of this post should be, where did this spring semester go? But you know what they say…time flies when you’re having FUN!

So first things first…literary terms…I have learnt so many of them this semester, especially with this being my first English class at BYU (apart from ENGL 150). I have spent numerous hours looking over the terms list provided by Dr. Burton and this has really helped me in class and also in the midterms and final. Also all literary terms I have bolded or highlighted them in a different colour throughout all my blog posts.

I know the difference between the literary genres of fiction, poetry, drama and creative non-fiction. You can see this through the research that I have conducted for my final paper. I have also done a lot of outside reading during the semester, reading pieces of drama like ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’ and also I developed a new found love for non fiction, reading and analysing Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell for my final paper, also The Great Divorce by C.S Lewis and currently the Steve Jobs biography.

In terms of literary analysis, you can mainly find this in my final paper and also in my different thesis statement claims. I have also been analysing aspects of specific words using The Oxford English dictionary, analysing different peoples opinions on The Beatles such as Outliers and I have also analysed The Beatles lyrics from various perspectives put forward in the film Across The Universe.

I have engaged literature creatively and socially by getting my paper peer reviewed and posting it onto the blog and getting thesis feedback from my classmates. I have also spoken to family and friends about their opinions on certain aspects of literature I was thinking of using for my paper. I took my paper to the writing lab and also had all my room-mates peer review my paper. I have also creatively applied literature by picking apart the lyrics of The Beatles song ‘Let It Be’ and put it into a wordle. I have also creatively used social media to get feedback about my thesis.

Using emerging communications tools can mostly be found in my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook posts about my final paper feedback in which I got lots of useful feedback. I have also been keeping up and making new friends on my goodreads account and have continued to try and master the program Prezi after using it for our group presenation. I have also learnt how to blog, create a google doc and use google +. I have made all my posts look aesthetically pleasing using different fonts, colours and sizes and I have also always included either a picture or a YouTube video in all of my posts.

As for my personal learning outcomes, I have expanded my knowledge of literary terms, I have memorized a poem and read more pieces of my own literature outside of class than I ever thought I would have. I have come to class prepared having read the assigned readings and have loved participating with my group and inside of the class. This class has easily been one of the best classes I have taken at BYU with its combination of fun, hard work and a lot of newly learnt material that I will remember forever. It has reminded me of how much I LOVE literature and it might have even persuaded me enough to become an english major. Thanks for a great semester everyone...its been real, its been fun…its been real fun guys! Well what more can I say apart from over and out.

Till next time kids, stay in touch

Cheerio xoxo

Non- Fiction and Flying

Fully prepared for my flight home with some non-fiction that I have been wanting to read for sooooo long! I already started The Great Divorce and am having trouble putting it down to write this post! Here is the synopsis for any of you that are interested in reading something short over the summer by the pool :) 

"The Great Divorce is C.S. Lewis's Divine Comedy: the narrator bears strong resemblance to Lewis (by way of Dante); his Virgil is the fantasy writer George MacDonald; and upon boarding a bus in a nondescript neighborhood, the narrator is taken to Heaven and Hell. The book's primary message is presented with almost oblique tidiness--"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'" However, the narrator's descriptions of sin and temptation will hit quite close to home for many readers. Lewis has a genius for describing the intricacies of vanity and self-deception, and this book is tremendously persistent in forcing its reader to consider the ultimate consequences of everyday pettiness."

The Race

One of my goals for this semester was to be able to recite a poem. I decided to pick a poem called The Race by Dee Groberg because it is my favourite poem and my parents would read it to me all the time as a child. It is simple but still has a really good message today and is something that I want to be able to recite to my children and grandchildren. I pretty much have the whole thing down, give or take a word a two here and there. Hope you enjoy the poem. 

Whenever I start to hang my head in front of failure’s face,
    my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
    excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell.
They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
    or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son,
    and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one.
The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of fire,
    to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy’s desire.
One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,
    was running in the lead and thought “My dad will be so proud.”
But as he speeded down the field and crossed a shallow dip,
    the little boy who thought he’d win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace,
    and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.
As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn’t win it now.
    Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow.
But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
    which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!”
He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all,
    and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
    his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again.
He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.
    “I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.”
But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face
    with a steady look that said again, “Get up and win that race!”
So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.
    “If I’m to gain those yards,” he thought, “I’ve got to run real fast!”
Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten...
    but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.
Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.
    “There’s no sense running anymore! Three strikes I’m out! Why try?
I’ve lost, so what’s the use?” he thought. “I’ll live with my disgrace.”
    But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face.
“Get up,” an echo sounded low, “you haven’t lost at all,
    for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
Get up!” the echo urged him on, “Get up and take your place!
    You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!”
So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit,
    and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been,
    still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win.
Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
    Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.
They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place,
    head high and proud and happy -- no falling, no disgrace.
But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place,
    the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,
    you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd.
And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.”
    “To me, you won,” his father said. “You rose each time you fell.”
And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face,
    the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.
For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
    And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,
    another voice within me says, “Get up and win that race!”

The Story Of My Paper

I started this paper by having absolutely no idea what to write about because the assignment was so open and the possibilties were endless. But then I realiszed that I don’t normally get the opportunity to write about anything I want so why not write about something that I love? Sooo I decided to write about The Beatles because they are my favourite band and being in the poetry group I thought it would be interesting to analyse their lyrics like I would analyse poetry. Once I had the idea I was set and the ball couldn’t stop rolling….

Firstly I wrote out 5 thesis statements under the different categories of claim, definition, comparison, cause and effect and evaluation. I got some great thesis feedback and decided to take parts from both my evaluation and cause and effect claim to create my final thesis.

My second phase was then research, research, research, I got different interpretations of The Beatles lyrics by watching and analysing a film called Across The Universe, I also watched a documentary on BBC called ‘How The Beatles Rocked The Kremlin.” All the above gave me a really in depth insight into how The Beatles affected Russia and the historical context at the time. This then got me onto writing my first draft.

I got feedback from my first draft from the writing lab, my room mates and family members and lets just say this lead to me re-write my essay plan as I had far too much historical facts in my paper and not another analysis at all. I decided to delve deeper into the lyrics by analysing one of their songs revolution and picking apart another one of their songs "Let It Be” word by word and presenting it in a wordle, this helped a lot and gave me a really good starting point for the analysis part of my paper.

I also used resources such as The Oxford English Dictionary when digging deeper into the lyrics and what specific words meant and what messages they were trying to convey from their word choice, this proved very interesting and will be an effective part of my paper. I also read the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell as he has some strong opinions on The Beatles and why he thinks they were so successful, it was interesting to see a different insight and I ended up reading the rest of the book and loved it.

Lastly, I posted a question…what are the first 5 things that come to your mind when someone says 'The Beatles'? on my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This really helped me get an insight into what people, especially our generation thought The Beatles were actually famous for and what they were typically known for.

After all the above and many hours sitting staring at my computer screen the final product is finally here, hope you enjoy! 

Social Media

I'm not the biggest facebook or social media person as I like to remain mysterious haha! However, for this assignment I made an exception and posted my thesis on Facebook and got some great feedback, I also did the same with my Twitter.

I also Instagrammed this picture with the same question underneath. What are the first 5 things that come to you mind when someone says 'The Beatles'? I got some great feedback and it made me realise that our generation especially only knew them for a few of their famous songs and the image of them walking across Abbey Road. This inspired me even more to write my paper about how influential their lyrics actually were. 

I really like this picture that I posted to instagram because I think that it really puts across the idea that I am getting at in my paper as most people didnt even realise that this picture was of The Beatles. It makes you question, What do you know about them? And what are they really famous for? 

Essay Plan

Being the planner that I am I decided to re-do my essay plan after going to the writing lab, here is what I came up with...

Across The Universe

When looking and analysing lyrics it is easy to just pick out the points that you see from your own perspective. To help myself broaden my horizons and think outside of the box I watched a film called Across The Universe, which is Dick Clements interpretation of all The Beatles songs that he cleverly connected and interwove into a riveting story. This really made me look at the lyrics from a different angle and draw different aspects of the lyrics out that I never had noticed before. 

Thesis Feedback

After posting a variety of different thesis ideas I got some fantastic feedback and have tried to adapt my thesis in the best way possible, its still a work in progress so if anyone has more feedback then feel free to comment below!

Thesis: The Beatles can be defined as the catalyst for pop culture icons and are mainly known for the hype that surrounded them as four clean cut, good looking, talented musicians that simultaneously walked across Abbey Road. However, the real reason why The Beatles are the most critically acclaimed acts in the history of music is because during a time of war and turmoil The Beatles shared a lyrical message of hope, love, freedom and the idea that people everywhere can “come together” and live in peace and harmony.

Also what do you guys think of this for my title? How Four Lads From Liverpool Rocked The USSR With Their Lyrics Causing A Noisy But Influential Revolution.

Writing Lab and Room Mates

After asking my room mates to peer review my paper and getting only positive (polite) feedback I decided to take matters into my own hands and go to the BYU writing lab. This was quite a scary experience to start with because it is rather intimidating taking a piece of your writing to a stranger but after a minute or two my mentor made me feel really comfortable. The biggest shock to me was having to read my work aloud, the parts that didn’t work really stood out like a sore thumb which was good because I had gotten so used to skimming over it that until I read it aloud I didn’t realize how it really sounded. This made me notice what and how to reword and restructure some of my sentences. Other feedback that I got consisted of...

Make my sentences A LOT shorter.

Make some points more concise

Don’t repeat the same idea in a different way

More analysis, less history

Double and triple check my grammar 

Oxford English Dictionary

I utilized the Oxford English Dictionary when researching for my paper and it actually came in rather handy indeed. In one of The Beatles songs they use a phrase “Jai Guru Deva om” and obviously I was unsure of the meaning, so step my step I figured it out, using the Oxford English Dictionary to look up each word individually! This is what I came up with…

"Jai" means "O Hail" or "Victory to" 

"Guru" means "Teacher" 

"Deva" means "God/Lord/Demi-God" 

"om" some say is the source of all existence that comes from vibration 

So the phrase ended up meaning, I give thanks to my heavenly teacher

The 10,000 Hour Rule

When doing research about The Beatles and whether in fact it was their lyrics that made them a world wide phenomenon I read a lot of articles online that agreed with the statement I was putting forward, however I also came across many that didn’t. One of these was Malcolm Gladwell and after watching the video below called ‘Prodigies’ or not?’ I was intrigued as to what his book Outliers had to say about the subject as he delves into it more in depth in his book. In summary, Gladwell believes in something he calls “The 10,000 Hour Rule.” Gladwell quotes neurologist Daniel Levitin, who say’s “scientific studies show that 10,000 hours are required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert — in anything”.

This applies to The Beatles because many think that “the fab four burst onto the world stage in the 1960s, seemingly lifted from their hometown of Liverpool and dropped into the world's biggest venues. But theirs was not an overnight success. One of the Beatles' early gigs was performing near military bases in Hamburg, Germany; they would perform for eight hours a day, seven days a week. They did this for 270 days over the course of 18 months. By the time the Beatles enjoyed their first commercial success in 1964, they had performed 1,200 times, which is more than most bands today perform in their careers. When the Beatles first left for Germany, they weren't very good. But by the time their Hamburg stints ended, they sounded like no other band in the world. They were well on their way to getting in their 10,000 hours.”

I personally do not think that this is the sole reason why The Beatles became as successful as they were but it certainly helped. I loved this book and think that Gladwell brought many good points to my attention. Watch the video believe and let me know what your opinions on the matter are…

Final Paper

Here is my final paper! Enjoy :)

The Roughest Draft in the History of Rough Drafts

As emphasized in the title of this post, this draft is very rough...but at least I have a draft right? Just click here to get the link to the Google doc and feel free to post feedback either in a blog comment or actually on the Google doc in a different colour! Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing your feedback...

My feelings exactly after finishing my rough draft...

Let It Be

I am in the process of analyzing The Beatles lyrics for my final paper and I was attempting to do some kinetic typography similar to that of what Dr Burton did with Sonnet 130  however after starting it I realized it takes longer than you think and it is still a work in progress (so look out for it later this week) Instead, having already picked apart the lyrics, I decided to pull the most important quotes and phrases of the song and put them into this word cloud that I produced on wordle. This has really helped me to pay close attention to the words and their emphasis on the audience. 

'Revolution' Summarized

REVOLUTION LYRICS 

You say you want a revolution

Well you know

We all want to change the world

You tell me that it's evolution

Well you know

We all want to change the world

But when you talk about destruction

Don't you know you can count me out

Don't you know it's gonna be alright

Alright, alright

You say you got a real solution

Well you know

We don't love to see the plan

You ask me for a contribution

Well you know

We're doing what we can

But if you want money for people with minds that hate

All I can tell you is brother you have to wait

Don't you know it's gonna be alright

Alright, alright

You say you'll change the constitution

Well you know

We all want to change your head

You tell me it's the institution

Well you know

You better free your mind instead

But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao

You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow

Don't you know know it's gonna be alright

Alright, alright

This song takes a look at those who criticize the government and it poses the questions as to whether the alternatives they propose are better than what they are criticizing. The Beatles are openly acknowledging that the world has problems but it is the way that people go about changing these problems that matters. It is more than okay to be passionate about something, just as long as you maintain perspective and stay true to what you preach. When you become radical, un-teachable and intolerant, resorting to violence as a solution, then you lower yourself to the level of the system that you are protesting against and if you do this you are just replacing one tyranny with another. Violence in the name of peace does not exist and “revolution” should be driven by peace, love and open-mindedness.

Claims on Claims on Claims

I am working on creating the best thesis statement possible and would love the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to feedback on these claims, thank you!

Midterm 1

Well, what can I say, times flies when you’re having FUN!! If I had to express to you everything I have learnt already this semester we would be here all day, so I am just going to stick to the learning outcomes and tell you how far I have come since I made my own personal learning outcomes at the start of the semester…

Know basic literacy terms and methods

Before every class I have been reading the terms list for the specific unit that we are focusing on to try and get a broader knowledge of terms that will be used in class, this has really helped me in class, on the midterm and just when it comes to analysing any kind of literature in general. I have also highlighted or bolded all the literacy terms that I have used in my blog posts. A lot of my blog posts are heavily based upon literacy terms, for example, my blog post ‘Vultures’ talks a lot about imagery, while ‘The Marriage of Two Minds’ concentrates on word choice and ’Gender, God and Glory’ has theme as its main focus. Literacy terms are scattered throughout all my posts.

Know basic literary genres and representative texts

Well I can safely say that I have never felt more ‘well read’ in my whole 21 years of life. Wow, we have read a lot of good stuff already this semester. It feels good to read from a variety of different genres that I would never usual pick up before taking this class. I have come to every class having read all the assigned readings and I have also been reading my own literature on the side, as you can see from my Goodreads. I also have a very clear knowledge of what the literary genres are as you can see from my ‘What I Want To Read This Semester’

Write Literary Arguments

I made some literary arguments about some of my own reading such Vultures and Judith and also on some of the common readings we did in class such as Beowulf.

Engage Literature Creatively and Socially

I have tried to engage literature creatively firstly by trying to make my posts as creative as possible, with catchy headlines and interesting content.  I have also put a picture or a video on every single one of my posts and I have also tried to make them look aesthetically pleasing with different font sizes and different colours. Socially I have tried to comment on my peer’s blog posts, I have shared the link to this blog on my goodreads and also onto my facebook page so my friends can have access to it.  I have got creative by sharing personal poems that my family members have written and also by sharing my personal literary narrative.

Using emerging communication tools and pedagogic methods

I have used various different communication tools in my blogging, I have given examples of poetry in Prezi (and I also created the Prezi for our group presentation) YouTube videos of spoken poetry and in my poetry adaptation analysis I showed examples of typography in poetry.  I have spent hours searching the web for examples of different types of poetry presented in a cool and quirky way also.

All in all I think I have met a lot of my learning outcomes but still have a very long way to go.  After writing this all out and taking a step back and actually analysing my progress I have made 3 new learning outcomes

1. Don’t procrastinate…it is of the devil

2. Make more in depth analysis on the common readings we are given

3. Try to engage in more conversation on other groups blogs as well as my own