This year in English 11 I got a better understand of different identities. Coming into this semester I didn’t really believe in personal identity and didn’t really know what mine was, but after the identity unit I now realize that everyone has their own identity that they should be proud of. A new skill I learned was how to use colons and semi colons in sentences. I did’t enjoy the Fahrenheit 451 unit too much as the book never really grabbed me and I often found it confusing to follow. I also found the movie Dead Poets Society to be a little bit boring but it was still worth the watch because the movie has a good meaning.
English 11
Synthesis Essay Corrections
2 things I am proud of:
I am proud of my introduction to my synthesis essay. I think that I had a strong thesis statement and provided a good amount of background information. I am also proud of how I compared the 2 sources because I feel like I showed their similarities well.
2 things I could improve:
I think that my conclusion was a little weak and my ending could be better. I think that I need to extend a go to a larger meaning a bit more. I also think that I need to improve my quote integration a bit more.
Design Thinking
Our problem was that new immigrants dont know anyone. So our solution was simple, we designed a social event where new immigrants could mingle and meet others who don’t know many people.
Persuasive Paragraph Corrections
2 things I did well.
I think that my arguments where strong and my citations were good.
2 things I want to improve on.
I think that it was a little short so I want to be able to make longer paragraphs. I also want to get better at proof reading because I had some mistakes that could easily be fixed with a proof read.
IdentityPolitics
Do you think Joseph Boyden should write stories about the Indigenous people of Canada? Why or why not?
I think that Joseph Boyden should be allowed to write stories about Indigenous people as long as they are fiction. I think this because people shouldn’t have limitations on what they want to write about as long as it isn’t hateful. I also think that people have the right to write about what ever they want to write about.
The Greatness of Censorship
2 things I did well.
I think I had 3 good base arguments, I also think that I used good evidence.
2 things I want to improve.
I want to have better punctuation. I want to use shorter or paraphrased quotes.
Beatty Lecture
Captain Beatty gives several reasons as to the current state of society and why books are being destroyed. One of his main reasons had to do with how certain books would offend people. “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s cabin. Burn it. Some one’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping.” P. 57, this quote shows how they found that no matter the book someone would find it offensive, whether it be a whole race that is offended or just a small group of people. Another reason that Beatty tells Montag is how there are less smart people coming out of school and more people who are athletic, this is happening so much that the word intellectual is considered offensive to some. Beatty also talks about how people who don’t know much in society are happy which means majority of people in society are blissfully ignorant. “You ask why to a lot of things and you wind up very unhappy indeed, if you keep at it. The poor girl’s better off dead.” P 58, this quote shows how Beatty and most likely most of society feels about things, they believe that knowing about things and having knowledge is bad because it can lead to feeling unhappy about life. Entertainment is also cut down and shortened so that people in this society can enjoy it a lot quicker which shows their constant need to fill and emptiness by quickly getting to the climax of movies or programs and results in a very bland life. Beatty gave many reasons as to the current state of society such as books being offensive, people being smart and knowing things makes them unhappy, and the society’s constant need for entertainment.
Are writers and artists as important to society as scientists and engineers?
Personally I don’t think that writers and artists are as important to society as scientists and engineers because without writers and artists we would still be alive but the world would be dull, but without scientists and engineers we would live in a very primitive world and have no medicine or technology but we would have books and entertainment. I think that scientists and engineers are more important because they allow society to evolve and get better by creating better medicine and inventing better technology as well as creating ways to travel such as cars, airplanes, or boats. From my experience it seems like it would be nicer to live in a world where engineers and scientists exist without artists and writers because then we would still have medicine and an ability to grow as society even if there is no entertainment instead of living in a world with artists and writers but no scientists and engineers because even if there was entertainment I don’t think the quality of life would be very high if there was no medicine or ways to cure diseases.