DUE DATE CHANGE: 'Unit 4- Persuasion, Reportage and Propaganda'

NOTE: THE DUE DATES FOR THE FINAL PROJECT HAVE BEEN MOVED FORWARD
- this is because the afternoon on 6/11 is the presentation to G6 but we must finish seeing all before the end of the week

A two-part project on a single theme:
- the theme will be a social or political cause that you, and your partner, agree about

- you will have a single partner, preferably of a different 'mother-tongue', gender, etc.

- you will only cooperate with your partner for the a/v portion, a single commercial, media message, poster...
- you present the commercial/piece made with a partner to the class

Due date for the partner-commercial:
- Monday, June 9
- we will finish showing all of the partner-commercials, so prioritize that (also to not let down your partner)
- those preparing a presentation for G6 should also be done that day

Individual Persuasive Piece:
- Due Wednesday, June 11
- have your own piece printed before class begins that day
- have your own piece emailed before class begins that day
- you will each write your own persuasive piece on the same theme
- an editorial or persuasive essay, 'letter to the editor' or to a politician/corporation, piece of reporting, anecdote or fictional piece
- in sentences and paragraphs
- your name and a title

- format is Times New Roman 12, black, double-spaced

- text is five to eight hundred words (not more, not less)

- you do not present the written piece made with by yourself

'Body Politics'

Degrassi High - s02e05 - "Body Politics... 投稿者 degrassiangee

Documentary and Propaganda

Some links for documentaries and propaganda, so you have more background before you make your video on a social issue.

Propaganda:

Propaganda is information that is not impartial and used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or using loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented.

WWII, American Anti-Japanese propaganda



WWII, American Anti-German propaganda



WWII, Nazi propaganda



WWII, American propaganda about Japanese-American internment



Cold War, American Anti-Communist propaganda



Cold War, Soviet Anti-Capitalist propaganda

Finally, a documentary without words, and not about war hot or cold: Koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi: 'life out of balance'.

Punctuation

We may have time for a quiz on this before exams, but it will certainly be part of the exam.  I won't expect you to make no mistakes, but I do expect you to be good with the basics at grade seven!

In order of most to less important, it is essential to use these punctuation marks well:
- periods
- commas
- question marks
- apostrophes
- quotation marks
- colons
- hyphens

You can get by without these, and people use them too often and poorly besides:
- ellipses
- exclamation marks
- semicolons
- dashes
- parentheses

If you use the last five often, it more often means: your writing is poorly organized, so you've resorted to dashes and parentheses to make some sense out of it; your writing relies on exclamation marks instead of more exciting vocabulary; and you've used semicolons or ellipses to appear clever but it has failed.  When you are unsure how to use the last five, better to avoid using them at all; you cannot avoid using the first seven, so best to learn to use them well.

The links above are brief explanations which will keep you on track almost all of the time.  So will these quizzes help.  I still learn new punctuation rules at my age, but because I am (at least) as knowledgeable as the links nobody has found an error of mine in decades. Accurate punctuation, like good grammar and correct spelling, makes you look as intelligent as you truly are: anything else makes you appear less...

If you can find a free or cheap app to help you, so much the better.

If you are as odd as your teacher, you will enjoy this humorous book about punctuation, and how using it poorly makes you look a fool even if you are not: 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves'.  It is not required reading for our class, but at a few hundred yen in e-book quite good value.  Her rules are quite British, but often universal.  (On grammar and style, 'The Elements of Style' is a classic, invaluable, and also short.  His rules are quite American, but often universal.)

Here is a bit of a sample, but without the humour: 'An Educational Companion to EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES'.

Two of the better quotations from here:

In the family of punctuation, where the full stop is daddy and the comma is mummy, and the semicolon quietly practises the piano with crossed hands, the exclamation mark is the big attention-deficit brother who gets overexcited and breaks things and laughs too loudly.

I apologise if you all know this, but the point is many, many people do not. Why else would they open a large play area for children, hang up a sign saying "Giant Kid's Playground", and then wonder why everyone says away from it? (Answer: everyone is scared of the Giant Kid.)

Final Assignments

You may have one more grammar quiz: topic and date to be decided, if we have time for it.

You have these readings to complete:

- Nelson 7, unit 16, by Wednesday, 5/21

- 'Our Stock of Food and Clothes', Working Together Anthology, by Wednesday, 5/21
- 'The Martians are Coming', Mystery and Wonder Magazine, by Monday, 5/26
- 'Body Politics', Working Together Anthology by Thursday, 5/29

You will have one more book/novel review:
- Wednesday, June 04
- follow the same instructions as last time

You will have a unit project for 'Unit 4- Persuasion, Reportage and Propaganda':
- Wednesday, June 11
- more details will follow, but it will be a multi-part project on a single theme
- the theme will be a social or political cause that you agree with
- you will have a partner
- you will only cooperate with your partner for the a/v portion, a commercial or media message
- you will each write your own portion, an editorial or persuasive essay, 'letter to the editor' or to a politician/corporation, or a piece of reporting

You will have an exam.
- since I did not make you take many notes, the best way to prepare for this is to read over this website from the beginning, but especially from the beginning of the poetry unit in January
- the blog archive is at the bottom of this page
- you should review all grammar, especially your weakest points (passives and conditionals!) as there will be a grammar section on the exam
- apart from grammar, you will only be tested on the two units, poetry and persuasion
- you should review the types and techniques of poetry we studied as you will have to identify them on the exam
- review all the aspects and techniques of persuasion we covered as you will have to write a persuasive composition on the exam