Sep 03 2008

Lesson On Writing: Using Words to Build Images

Published by jlmk under Announcements, To Kill A Mockingbird, Writing and tagged: ,

Here’s the powerpoint: decribe_imageswithwords I used for the lesson and some of the ideas we discussed about themes, focus and how to use the TKAM descriptive passages as SAMPLES/MODELS to follow and learn from.  Good for you to review your ideas as you write and also be reminded you can send me incomplete writing – even one paragraph for comment or post here for discussion.  Good to get feedback before you go on and don’t realise the mistakes you make.

I would really like to SEE you take the planning seriously and be more focused on elements of the plot – like theme, ideas, characters etc and use this to GUIDE your writing.

No responses yet

Aug 31 2008

Sting: Why Should I Cry For You

Published by jlmk under Assignments, Discussions, Writing and tagged: ,

Here’s the LINK to the video.

whyshouldicryforyou : MP3

Watch it and pay attention to the lyrics – you could learn a lot about using symbolism to show and not tell – represent emotions and ideas…..

Here’s the lyrics:

Why Should I Cry For You

Under the dog star sail
Over the reefs of moonshine
Under the skies of fall
North, north west, the stones of Faroe

Under the Arctic fire
Over the seas of silence
Hauling on frozen ropes
For all my days remaining
But would north be true?

All colors bleed to red
Asleep on the ocean’s bed
Drifting in empty seas
For all my days remaining

But would north be true?
Why should I?
Why should I cry for you?
Dark angels follow me
Over a godless sea
Mountains of endless falling,
For all my days remaining,

What would be true?

Sometimes I see your face,
The stars seem to lose their place
Why must I think of you?
Why must I?
Why should I?
Why should I cry for you?
Why would you want me to?
And what would it mean to say,
That, “I loved you in my fashion”?

What would be true?
Why should I?
Why should I cry for you?

Discuss the meaning with me and how you can use some of these expressions in your writing.

2 responses so far

Aug 31 2008

REMEDIAL!!!

Published by nayake under Announcements and tagged:

Hello. On wednesday at 1p.m. at library Ms Lee is having remedial for 2D students. Those who are interested message me at 94748548. I will update on blog.
So far:
1)Eric
2)Nissa
3)Nayake
4)Jin Yu
5)Anthony
6)Ira
7)Raihana
8)Min Wen
9)Lava
10)Priya
11)Shi Yun
12)Sulis
13)Jia Ying
14)Hui Yu
15)Joranna
16)Bing Yang
17)Zen
18)Shawn lee
There are ONLY 2 places left.  First-come-first-served.

No responses yet

Aug 21 2008

Descriptive Style: Building images with words

Published by student2d under Assignments, To Kill A Mockingbird, Writing and tagged:

“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the court-house sagged in the square.”

(a) Answer

The adjectives found are old, tired and sagged.

(b) Answer

Firstly, we shall look at why the author used the words old and tired. We know that the streets turned to red slop and grass grew on the sidewalks. This shows that the roads were unpaved and it was not well-maintained. I can infer that the people were poor because they did not have the money to maintain the area clean and tidy.

Secondly, we shall look at why the author used the words sagged. The courthouse sagged in the square. This shows that the courthouse is going to collapse and the people neglected it. I can infer that the people were in poverty to rebuild the courthouse when it was the main building in Maycomb.

(c) Answer

I think the reason why the author chose the setting in this way is to show how old and tired Maycomb was. The author was trying to sure us about Maycomb physically and also symbolically. This also shows that the people in Maycomb did not care about the surrounding and just lived. The reason is because they were poor to repair or to rebuild due to the great depression. Firstly, we shall see why the author used the words old and tired symbolically. As we know people in Maycomb were following their traditions like Aunt Alexandra defining on womanhood, Mr Radley following his religious where pleasures are sin and blacks should feel guilty and whites should feel innocent. They were stubborn to let go their traditions. I can infer that the place was quiet and bored because people were still in their ways. Secondly, we shall see why the author used the word sagged symbolically. The courthouse is the place where judging takes place. It is symbolizing the justice and law in Maycomb. This shows that the justice and law in Maycomb are perverted. I can infer that the people in Maycomb were judged unequally like Tom Robinson a black who was charged for no reason.

(d) Answer

The author builds up her image by describing mainly on the things the people living in Maycomb did. “Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o’clock naps” and “Men‘s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning”. From this I can infer that the men wake up earlier than the women.

(e) Answer

Image 2

This picture shows the people in Maycomb were free to sit around corridors. I can infer that they were jobless and farmers were bankrupt as they needed to sell their lands due to great depression.

Image 3

The book says, ‘In rainy weather the streets turned into red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks.’ The evidence from the book and the picture links because the picture show unpaved and muddy path. The people there are living with such a condition. Therefore, I can conclude that the people in Maycomb are poor to have nice roads.

Image 4

This picture shows a house broken and falling apart. This shows that the people in Maycomb neglected and continued to stay there. I can infer that the people were in poverty due to great depression because they were unable to build a new house. This image and image 2 has a link because both were the effects of after great depression occurred.

No responses yet

Aug 21 2008

Descriptive Style :Building Images With Word~ (Sabree)

Published by student2d under To Kill A Mockingbird and tagged:

What is the meaning of physical decay ?

Physical decay in the town of Maycomb is shown by the building and by the people. It is shown by the building because the courthouse is slowly breaking down. I think that the writer choses to describe this building and not any other building because it is the most important in the town of Maycomb. The courthouse symbolize the justice and law in the town. If the courthouses if falling apart and breaking down this symbolize that the justice and law in the town is also falling apart.Falling apart as in that most of the people there are mislead they think that the wrong is right and right is wrong.For example the Tim Robinson case. Atticus was a man of justice he is only doing what is right but the people in Maycomb all believe that Atticus was the so called villain of the town.They think he is the doing the wrong thing.

Physical decay can be also describe in the people. The town is plain and boring because the are some old people. People can decay too. They are decaying as each day past by them. Soon they will become very old and can not do any thing other than sit in their house all day just waiting for that time.The example are Mrs Dubose. She is old and sick, she is a good example of a dying person. Everyday past and she is just waiting for her time Everyday her life is been slowly remove from her.

No responses yet

Aug 20 2008

Descriptive Style: Building Images With Words- Rui Xuan

Published by student2d under To Kill A Mockingbird

“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned into red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square.”

a)Verb: sagged(courthouse)

Adj: tired, old, rainy, red slop

b) Why do you think the authur describe the setting in this way?

As the authur describe it this way, it must mean that the people, or their kind of living is tired&old.It also looks boring&dead. It suits the people’s there attitude or character. There are very little people living too. Why? Because it is a old&tired town. I feel that she, Scout also doesn’t want to stay in Maycomb, if possible. It also tells us that Maycomb is backward, dull. And there are also some sort of tradition, which is also old. Like how a girl should behave.For example, Miss Maudie was ‘believing’ the traditions too. The people living there has long history, which some is part of the tradition. They are also disorganised.

c) I chose image 1 because there are people there lying on the patch of grass, though the weather is hot. This tells us that they are too free.

No responses yet

Aug 20 2008

Descriptive Style: Building Images with Words- MinWen

Maycomb was an old town,but it was a tired old town when i first knew it.In rainy whether the streets turned to red slop;grass grew on the sidewalk,the court house sagged in the square.

a) The adjectives that the author used are, old, slop and sagged.

b) I think the author chose these words is because she want us to have a brief idea how the town looks like in our mind. It makes me feel that the town is very dull as that particular town is not lively, streets are muddy and building are collapsing. This would make the reader interested as they would definitely want to find out why the town become like that.

c) I think the author described the setting this way is because a particular object that a person own can reflect what is the character of the person. So i think she is trying to tell us that the people living in Maycomb is the same as the way she describe the town. I can infer from this that the people living there are not rich because they do not re-establish the place even the place is old and unsightly.

d) The author build up her image by describing the lifestyle for the people in Maycomb.
People living in Maycomb are very traditional. I know this because from” Men’s stiff collars witled by nice in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o’clock naps…”
From here i know that everyone in Maycomb have to follow the rules they have in Maycomb. Hence i think it is traditional and old-fashioned.

e) I chose picture 1,2,5.
I chose those pictures because, picture 1 describes how the people in Maycomb behavior.They are jobless due to the Great depression. Thus they do not have a job to keep them occupy.
Picture two describes how to town look. Example of it is the courthouse. It is falling apart as shown in the picture. The house in the picture is falling apart and look being neglected.
While picture 5 describes the red slop. The road shown in the picture are make of mud. It is not being of cement but it is made up of soil.

No responses yet

Aug 19 2008

Descriptive style:Building images with words

Published by raihanah under Assignments, To Kill A Mockingbird and tagged:

“Maycomb was an old town,but it was a tired old town when i first knew it.In rainy whether the streets turned to red slop;grass grew on the sidewalk,the court house sagged in the square.”

a)The adjectives that the author used are, “tired”,”old”,”rainy” and “red”.
b)She choose these words because he wants to make the readers have imaginary thoughts on how the town would look like.The feelings I get when i saw the image with the words he has used are the town is old-fashioned,boring & out-dated.
c)The author describe the story this way because he wants the readers to have a more visual image of the town.For example,he can describe more about the town using alot of words than just in one sentence.The author wants us to have negative feeling on how the Maycomb people live at that point of time.I can infer that the town is a town where there’s alot of old people.For example,Miss Maudie and Miss Duboise because the town was describe like it was a boring town,where the environment are peace & quiet.If the town is a town where there’s alot of children living,the environment will be noisy.

Somehow,it was hotter then;a black dog suffered on a summer’s day;bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square.Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning.Ladies bathed before noon,after their three o’clock naps,and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.

d)The author build up the sentence by describing what were the normal routines of the Maycomb people.The readers will have the impression that the town is a small town,with small no. of people.

e)I choose picture 1,3 and 4.
PICTURE 1:
I choose this picture because people were lying on the field.This shows that these people are tired and exhausted,till they slept on the grass.
Evidence:
“the court-house sagged in the square”.The square which the author is talking about is the area of the field where the people are lying down.

PICTURE 3:
I choose this picture because the street looks like its been disorganize,not being well taken care of and it looks like it’s muddy.
Evidence:
“In rainy whether the streets turned to red slop.”The “red slop” actually represents the mud.

Picture 4:
I choose this picture because the house looks old & it looks like it’s going to fall apart and it links to the description of the town.
EVIDENCE:
“Maycomb was an old town.”The word “old town” is the evidence.The house looks old and it links to te descriptive words of the town.

No responses yet

Aug 19 2008

Descriptive style : building images with words

Published by CrEepYfReAK under 1

Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets truned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the court-house sagged in the square.”
a) Verbs: sagged
Adjectives : tired, old, rainy and red
b) She chose those words because she wanted to let us know that the town is traditional and vintaged. It does not have much modern inventions such as roads. Their roads are still made of soil but the modern countries is made of cement. Thus, we will be curious to find out more about the vintage town.
c) The author describes the setting this way is to make us think from our mind how we imagine the town will look like. The author also wanted to make us think how the people there cope with the conditions there and why they did not want to move out of the town. If we would want to tour, I think I will not choose to visit Maycomb because I will be surely bored to death. It would be also a sickening place to visit as everywhere is covered with mud. I will be just thinking to return to home and not even stay for a second more.
d) I decided to choose….

Image 3: The picture tells us that the road is made of soil where trees and grasses were planted beside it and from this we can infer that Maycomb is still alot further than other countries. In rainy days, the phrase ‘In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop, grass grew on the sidewalks’ tells us that the road will become muddy and unnecessary plants will grow along the road, preventing the people to know where the direction to go.

Image 4: This picture tells us how out-dated the hut was. It looked like the hut was about to collapse anytime. They did not even think of updating their old hut to a better one. But it is good to keep the house as old-age as possible to make it a history of the longest existing building there.

Image 6: The picture shows us how much time they had to take to reach their destination as the road looked endless. They did not even have public transport unlike us. It make us more convenient and cheap! Just by paying a few dollars and it will arrive to our destination much faster than walking. You can even take a nap or look outside the window to take a relaxing view.

No responses yet

Aug 19 2008

Descriptive style: Building Images With Words ( Jeremy)

Published by student2d under 1 and tagged:

“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned into red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square.”

a) Verbs: sagged

Adjectives: old, tired, rainy and red.

b) The author chose these words to describe the condition of the town and the people living there. These words reflects that the town is old fashioned, boring and simple. It was a boring place to be living in.

c) The author described Maycomb this way as he/she wanted to show how life goes on in the small and dull town. The author also wanted to show that many values can be gained even in this old fashioned town.

d)The author uses words that describe how the town looks like.”Maycomb was an old town.” From this we know that Maycomb is dull, old fashioned and there technology is not advanced in the town.

e) I chose picture 1,3 and 4

“Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o’clock naps”

Ladies taking their afternoon nap.

The people did not bother the maintain the roads. The streets turned to red slop when it rained. It also shows that the town was old fashioned as the roads were made of soil.

This shows that Maycomb was not developed well as the house was made of wood and the house looks like it could collapse anytime.

No responses yet

Aug 18 2008

Descriptive Style: Building Images With Words By Joranna.

Published by joranna xD. under To Kill A Mockingbird and tagged: ,

Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned into red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square.

a) Pick out the DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS that she has used to build an IMAGE of the town of Maycomb. Focus on VERBS and ADJECTIVES.

a) Adjectives used are old, tired, rainy and red.

b) She chose this words because she wanted us to feel that maycomb a place that is tired, old-fashion and old. When i ’see’ the ’image’ of the town, the feeling it gives me saw that it is not beautiful, very plain and uninteresting Maycomb is. I dont feel attracted to know more about the place or wanting to visit there.

C) Maybe the author want us to feel that the people there are boring and liveless. I can infer that the people living in Maycomb are very boring because it seems like not much activity is happening like a tired or dead village.

d) She builds up by telling us wgat the Men and th Ladies did , it is like something that they will be doing. She also said that people moved slowly , it can also means that they dont have any activity on, so it seems that the day was more then 24 hours long. They dont have urge to do anything, thus it tells us that their life is very boring.

e) Choose 3 images that you think represents Maycomb the way the writer describes it and explain your choice. Use evidence from the novel to support your choice, remember to be specific, citing chapter and page and quoting appropriate descriptive words. Remember to also analyse the symbolic meaning of these images and what they represent about the people, their lives, their attitudes and values as well as the themes.

e) Image 1: I choose image 1 because there are people lying down even when the sun is high up in the sky. This also tell us that the people are lazy because no one would be so stupid to lie under the sun then the shelter.

Image 3: I choose image 3 because as you can see, the road or path looks very muddy. This muddy path looks like the “red slop” . The path looks like people has walked accross it but only very few.

Image 7: The house in this picture is very old as you can see, it is like going to fall apart. It can represent the people staying there for a very long time. It also give us an impression that the people were lazy to fixed this damaged house.

No responses yet

Aug 18 2008

Discriptive style ( Building images from words )

a) Descriptive details : old,tired, rainy, red.
Verbs : grass grew, courthouse sagged, streets turned into.
b) Since the place looks so old and low-tech, it reflects on the people who lives there. It tels us that the people are not thinking onr enovating the place into a more conducive place to stay. When i look at the images, i don’t feel attarcted to that place but i do feel curious about why is that place not advance.
c) The author has describe the setting or the story in this manner because the author wants the readers to understand how life was like before technology. There was even no activities happening. This creates a boirng and monotonous mood. The people who live in Maycomb are no advance and high-tech. Thus, the people living there are old. The people living there are Miss Maudie, Atticus, the Cunninghams and Miss Duboise.
d) The author build up the strory by describing specifically on what the people living in Maycomb do. ‘Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o’clock naps’ and ‘Men’sstiff collars wilted by nine in the morning’ shows that the ladies wake up late but the men wake up early.
e)

No responses yet

Aug 18 2008

Descriptive Style: Building Images With Words (RAIHANA :D)

Published by chocolatemuffin under 1 and tagged:

Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned into red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square.

  1. Verbs: sagged
    Adjectives: tired, old, rainy and red
  2. I think it was a deliberate choice so that she can show how dull, old-fashion and out-dated Maycomb is. This will make the readers curious to know how boring or out-dated Maycomb really is.
  3. I think the author chose that setting because she wants to emphasize on how boring and does not inspire people the place is. It tells that there are old people living there such as Mrs Dubose and Miss Maudie. People staying there have a long history which tells us that they are very traitional.
  4. The story builds up with the men and ladies.
  5. I choose picture number 1, number 3 & number 4.

I choose picture number one because the people looks exhausted as they are lying on the grass on a hot day. From “the court-house sagged in the square”, I think the square they are refering at is the sqaure with the grass.

I choose this picture because it looks like the street that has turn muddy after a rainy wheather. We can see that the streets are not made up of cement but it is made up of soil. It also tells us that people in Maycomb do not bother to take care of their streets.

I choose this picture because it shows like house that is quite old and is going to fall apart any sooner. This shows that the house is already very old there and it must be the house of the old people there. The old house gives us the impression that it has a long history.

No responses yet

Aug 18 2008

Descriptive Style: Building Images With Words (Sean)

Published by lonelyguy37 under 1 and tagged:

a) The adjectives used are tired, old, rainy, red.

b) She choose this words because the author wanted us to know how Maycomb looks like. Like it is old-fashioned and boring, because the it want to show us how does the town look like and why are there people which continue to stay there despite the bad facilities.

c) The writer describe the setting this way because the author wanted us to know how the place looks like, liek it is very old, tired and old-fashion.The author also describe the setting this way because he/she wanted to give us a visual image while reading it. He/She also wanted us to know how the town is built, and how bad is the place. Like mud everyone and even sagged buildings. IT is almost about the bad impression about the town.

d) I choose the picture 4,5 and 7. Because all of them that i have chosen has almost the negative things about what the writer has said about the town. About the sagged courthouse, the muddy area on the road . The place is not well-organised. The place also look very disgusting as the place is always very dirty, as there are noone which will take care of the public property. The 3 pictures also shows how the place is boring with the unorganised areas. The town may also look old and tired.

No responses yet

Aug 18 2008

Descriptive Style: Building images with words [IRA]

Published by Irayanti under 1

TKAM PAGE 5.

“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets truned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the court-house sagged in the square.”

(a)Adjectives found in these few sentences is tired, old, rainy and red.

(b)I think the reason why the author chose these words to describe Maycomb is to emphasis on how boring Maycomb can be since it’s very tired and old. Therefore, the author wanted to show that Maycomb is a very boring and old-fashioned place. Hence, there’ll not be much interesting places for the people to enjoy around and readers would feel more curious more on how bad its condition is in Maycomb.

(c)I think the reason why the author chose the setting to be this way so that we can imagine how dreary and dull Maycomb can be since it wasn’t modern at that time as it was very old. I suppose the author wants to give a displeasing feeling to us so that we would imagine how uninteresting the Maycomb people have to go on in that place for the rest of their life. Also, I can infer that the people living in Maycomb are mostly the oldies for example the characters like Miss Maudie and Miss Duboise because how they describe the town seem to be related with how the oldies would prefers a place like Maycomb be.

(d) The author build up the sentence by describing what the men and women did in Maycomb. Also,the author described what is the reaction of the dog when it is summer time. What I mean was the part where they mentioned, “men stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their thee o’clocked naps, and by nightfall were like soft tea-cakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum”, and this tells me that Maycomb is quite a busy town where it has a few place to enjoy and people there seem to enjoy their everyday lives there.

(e) I chose …

Image One ;

 

Image Three ;

Image Four ;

I find these 3 images best describe Maycomb Town as the first picture, the town seem so exhausted that the people there were very restless and laid down on the grass all over which I can see that the grass, is the square that they mention inside the sentence I found inside the book which is, “The court-house sagged in the square”. Whereas for the second picture, the road was very muddy and it wasn’t made from cement neither. Thus, this tells me that the people there didn’t bother to reconstruct their roads even. Also, this picture has a relation with this sentence that I found in the book too, which is “The streets turned into red slop”. As for the third image, the way the live in a house like that shows that the Maycomb people are old-fashioned. Also, I can see that the house are already old and nobody lives inside it. Hence, it shows that Maycomb is not that rich.

No responses yet

Next »