Compare and Contrast

Today in class we thoroughly discussed visual rhetoric and compare & contrast types of essays. We discussed the ways to go about writing a compare & contrast essay as well. When writing a compare & contrast essay we should switch the two around to contrast & compare. Why? Because when we view things throughout the world we usually start out by identifying main differences in them. After that we may or may not form comparisons between them.
Another important piece of a contrast & compare essay is the structure to which we write it in. we should go about writing this in two ways, either side by side or subject by subject. Side by side introduces picture one with the scene then picture 2 with the scene. Following that sequence is season with picture one then with picture two, and so on. In subject by subject we take the scene, season, and people content and describe it for picture one then following that is picture two. This is the appropriate way of going about a contrast & compare essay.

Visual Rhetoric

Have you ever had a problem visually describing a story? Well, the essay on visual rhetoric gives us just the example we need to visually enhance our story. Katherina Lorenz gives us a description of the Pompeian painting and then explains to us why the picture is the way it is. She goes on to explain that these paintings were not created just for visual pleasure but to give us an insight in Pompeian painting. By learning to make a more structured visual rhetoric we can improve the way our narrative comes across and give better understanding to our audience.
An example of a visual rhetoric would be on page 670, the last paragraph. She explains the picture of Scavo De Principal Di Montenegro and that both Andromeda and the Satyr figure are dressed in lightly colored garments and have a bare shoulder. She includes that Perseus and the Satyr both have short hair and are closely intertwined in the picture. She concludes by saying that their are two visual viewers here, on that interprets Perseus as powerful while the other interprets the Gorgoneion as powerful. This description of a visual rhetoric gives us just what we need, a good visual description of whats happening.

Make Your Story Better: Cause and Effect

I came to class this morning with my paper in hand ready to read and get this presentation over with for the semester. I was tired and feeling dull as I usually do in the wee morning hours. The night before I had persuaded myself that I was going to volunteer and present my paper in class. However, I didn't. Why? Because it all started when I didn't have my morning cup a joe. The cause of all this came down to sleeping through my alarm and the effect was not presenting my paper.
The example above gives a clear understanding as to how cause and effect gives meaning in a story. Without a gripping story line there is no feeling and meaning to the story. It takes a well designed approach and the use of cause an effect to grab the attention of the reader. All in all, everyday there is a cause and an effect in our lives that gives us meaning and importance all we have to do is write about it.

Why Peer Review?

Peer review is important because regardless of how good you are as a writer, you still make mistakes. inside your story people should be looking for the basic story grammars, good sentence flow, correct grammar and punctuation and always, does it make sense?When it comes time to revise your paper it's always good to have more than just one person read your paper over. The reason is to have different people read it so your not just stuck to one persons opinion on how to fix your paper. One other way to revise your piece of work is to use the writing center and have somebody go over your paper with you. This will take some time but is definitely worth it in the end. All in all, peer review is necessary and just another important part in the writing process that we need to get better.

Write a Better Narrative

In the last 4 years of doing peer review during English nine through twelve I can tell you that writing a narrative takes not only structure and composition, but interest and emotion to captivate the reader. You have to want to write the narrative and have some level of interest to your topic for it to make sense and be enjoyable to the reader.
 The basics that underlie your narrative are story grammars as presented in the last blog as well as the usual grammar and composition. However, what actually makes the narrative great are the little bits of information that capture the reader and bring them into the story. As stated in class, you could use flashbacks of awesome events that happened previously in your life or you could flash forward to the desired future you wish to make the story more interesting.
When you put all of these things together; the story grammars, composition, and other extra bits of information, it can make what seemed to be an average narrative, into a great one.