English Edutainment

This is a blog which focuses on teaching and learning English materials for students and teachers. It is still far from what students and teachers need. So, let's share each other.

English Edutainment

This is a blog which focuses on teaching and learning English materials for students and teachers. It is still far from what students and teachers need. So, let's share each other.

English Edutainment

This is a blog which focuses on teaching and learning English materials for students and teachers. It is still far from what students and teachers need. So, let's share each other.

English Edutainment

This is a blog which focuses on teaching and learning English materials for students and teachers. It is still far from what students and teachers need. So, let's share each other.

English Edutainment

This is a blog which focuses on teaching and learning English materials for students and teachers. It is still far from what students and teachers need. So, let's share each other.

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Friday, February 24, 2012

Writing A Descriptive Text

The purpose of writing descriptions
  1. The  purpose of a description is to describe a person, place, or thing in such vivid detail that the reader can easily form a precise mental picture of what is being written about, or can feel that they are part of the experience.
  2. Some description may be technical, for example, describing a bridge or a room; while others may describe an event or a person, and include more figurative language (simile, metaphor etc.), or describe feelings and emotions.
  3. Therefore, before writing a description, it is important to consider the purpose and the audience.
  4. Descriptions can be an important part of many other types of writing. For example, in a narrative, description can make the setting of characters more vivid.
  5. When writing about a process, a good description can ensure that the reader fully understands the finished process.

Descriptive Writing Techniques
  1. Take the topic or object that you are going to write about and picture it in your mind. Think about objects located in relation to where you were. Things to consider include: Did your surroundings remind you of any other place in time? What was the texture of things around you when you touched them? What feelings do the objects evoke in you?
  2. Make a sketch of your object. Visualize it in your mind and sketch from memory, or place yourself comfortably near the object. Allow yourself to fully explore the object and then draw what you experience. Don't worry about not being an artist. This sketch is just for you to help you fully explore the details of the object. Sketching the object also gives you a creative outlet for when you are struggling with putting pen to paper.
  3. Write down what you were feeling at the time. Feelings are the mechanism through which you can evoke much of the descriptive elements in your essay.
  4. Determine what you want the reader to feel about what you are writing. What kind of words or images can convey this feeling? Use a lot of adjectives. They're the "describing" words.
  5. Make sure there is enough detail in your essay to create a mental image for the reader. Visualize the occasion or memory in your mind and describe.
  6. The best way to really get some ink flowing in all directions for a descriptive piece is to break apart the subjective and objective material. A good way to do this is to take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the top of one side of the line write the word objective and on the top of the other side of the line write the word subjective. Now, keeping your topic in mind write everything you can think of that is objective about the object. If you think of something subjective don't worry, just write it in the other column.
  7. The advantage to this is direction. If you have no idea where you are going with your piece of writing about your unforgettable experience, then you may want to do some brainstorming on what you want to accomplish. Do you want the reader to be moved by the piece because the object is special to you? Do you want the reader to rush out of their house and drive to yours because you are trying to sell your car? Think about what you for an outcome both for you and the reader. Write them down on a piece of paper (or type them).

A good description…
  • uses imaginative language, interesting comparisons and images that appeal to the reader’s senses.
  • uses specific and concrete vocabulary to describe details.
  • involves the reader enough so he or she can actually visualize the things or people being described.
  • is well organized and structured and uses appropriate linking and cohesive devices
  • is written in a register suited to the purpose and audience.

An example of Descriptive Text.
Bali Island
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island (strictly speaking, the province covers a few small neighbouring islands as well as the isle of Bali).
With a population recorded as 3,891,000 in the 2010 census,the island is home to most of Indonesia's small Hindu minority. In the 2000 census about 92.29% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism while most of the remainder follow Islam. It is also the largest tourist destination in the country and is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. Bali, a tourist haven for decades, has seen a further surge in tourist numbers in recent years.
( "Bali" source: Wikipedia)

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Writing A Narrative and A Recount

 1. Writing A Narrative

A Narrative is. . .
  • A narrative essay is basically a story written about a personal experience.
  • it is usually set in the past or present
  • A narrative can be written about the experience of someone else.
  • Narrative essays often describe specific experiences that changed how someone is feeling by “showing” through his/her actions, rather than by coming right out and “telling” readers.
  • However, the purpose is not to merely tell an interesting story but to show readers the importance and influence the experiences has had on youthe writer.
  • Narratives appear in poetry, short stories, novels, personal essays, folk tales, scripts and plays.
  • Recounts and enecdotes are a type of narrative – descriptions of these follow.


A good narrative . . .
  • Involves readers in the story.
  • Relates events in sewuence.
  • Includes detailed observations of people, places, and events.
  • Present important changes, contrasts, or conflicts and creates tension.
  • Is told from a point of view-usually the author’s point of view.
  • Focuses on connection between past events, people, or places and the present.
  • Makes a point, communicates a main idea or dominant impression
  • Provides human interest, sparks our curiosity, and draws us close to the storyteller.
  • Has a point to make and makes it well.


Common structure of a narrative. . .
  1. Orientation: setting the scene, introduces the participants and gives the necessary background information such as, “who”, “when”, “where”, “what” and “why”
  2. Evaluation: stepping back to evaluate the problem/situation.
  3. Complication: a crisis arieses
  4. Reorientation: an optional personal comment or opinion and a closing statenment


2. Writing a Recount

A recount is . . .
  • The purpose of a recount is to allow the writer or speaker to retell events from the past. This could include personal events, factual incidents or imaginary incidents.
  • The intention of a recount is to recounstruct and interpret experience and past events to inform and/or entertain the audience or reader.
  • Recounts can be personal or factual. Fctual recounts are often included as part of other texts, for example, as background to a report. Personal recounts are used to retell events the speaker or writer was personally involved it.
  • Recounts can be spoken, such as telling a personal anecdote, recounting a holiday while showing photos, an invidual recounting an experience as part of a radio or television news report, etc.
  • Recounts can be written, such as accounts of projects and field trips, science experiments, diaries, journals, contributions to newsletters, acoounts in newspaper and magazine articles, etc.


A good recount . . .
  • Is well-organized and relates events in sequence using appropriate linking and coesive devices.
  • Includes detailed observations of people, places, and events.
  • Presents important changes, contrasts, or conflicts and creates tension.
  • Is told from a point of view – usually the author’s point of view.
  • Focuses on the connection between past events, people, or places and the present.
  • Is told in a register appropriate for the purpose and audience.


Common structure of a recount . . .
  1. Orientation: setting the scene and giving the necessary.
  2. The event: retelling the event in chronological order or logical sequence, usually in the pas tense. The focus should be on the important participants in the event. Details and personal responses included to add to the readers’ or listeners’ interest. Personal recounts should be written in the first person (using personal pronouns, I,/we, etc). Factual recounts should be written in the third person (he, she, it, etc)
  3. Reorientation: usually includes a personal comment or opinion and a closing statement.
src: KGI

Friday, February 10, 2012

Metaphor and Simile in Review Text


As in the previous article, we discussed about How to Write a Review Text. Now we will continue about an important thing to know when we want to write a review text. The important things to understand are Metaphor and Simile.
 
Why Metaphor and/or Simile are important in writing a review text?
In writing a review text, we must give some critics or suggestion. Before giving critics, we must be able to analyze the art work we review whether it is bad or good. To give a comment of the art work, it will be catchy if we express our idea by using metaphor or simile.
In another hand, we criticize an art work. It will be ridiculous if we don’t know about art. So, we must counterbalance it by writing an artistic review text too. It means that, metaphor or simile is needed to give a sense of art in our writing.
 
Metaphor And Simile
Terms metaphor and simile are slung around as though they mean exactly the same thing. A simile is a metaphor, but not all metaphors are similes.
A metaphor is a figure of speech that says that one thing is another different thing. This allows us to use fewer words and forces the reader or listener to find the similarities. The word metaphor comes from the Greek word metapherin (meaning "transfer"). The simplest form of metaphor is: "The [first thing] is a [second thing]."
e.g.:
A good book is food for though. (Metaphor)
A good book is like a good meal for thought. (Simile)
Metaphor is the broader term. In a literary sense metaphor is a rhetorical device that transfers the sense or aspects of one word to another. For example:
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. — “The Highwayman,” Alfred Noyes
Here the moon is being compared to a sailing ship. The clouds are being compared to ocean waves. This is an apt comparison because sometimes banks of clouds shuttling past the moon cause the moon to appear to be moving and roiling clouds resemble churning water.
A simile is a type of metaphor in which the comparison is made with the use of the word like or its equivalent:
My love is like a red, red rose. — Robert Burns

This simile conveys some of the attributes of a rose to a woman: ruddy complexion, velvety skin, and fragrant scent.
She sat like Patience on a Monument, smiling at Grief. — Twelfth Night William Shakespeare
Here a woman is being compared to the allegorical statue on a tomb. The comparison evokes unhappiness, immobility, and gracefulness of posture and dress.
Some metaphors are apt. Some are not. The conscientious writer strives to come up with fresh metaphors.
 
Difference Between Metaphor and Simile

Simile                                         Metaphor
Your eyes are like the sun.    You are my sunshine.
He eats like a pig.
He lives like a pig.                 He is a pig.

A common fault of writing is to mix metaphors.
Before Uncle Jesse (Dukes of Hazzard) did it, some WWII general is reputed to have mixed the metaphor Don’t burn your bridges, meaning “Don’t alienate people who have been useful to you,” with Don’t cross that bridge before you come to it, meaning “Don’t worry about what might happen until it happens” to create the mixed metaphor: Don’t burn your bridges before you come to them.
Many metaphors are used so often that they have become cliché. We use them in speech, but the careful writer avoids them: hungry as a horse, as big as a house, hard as nails, as good as gold.
Some metaphors have been used so frequently as to lose their metaphorical qualities altogether. These are “dead metaphors.”
In a sense, all language is metaphor because words are simply labels for things that exist in the world. We call something “a table” because we have to call it something, but the word is not the thing it names.
A simile is only one of dozens of specific types of metaphor. For a long and entertaining list of them, see the Wikipedia article on “Figure of Speech.”
In conclusion, the basic rule of metaphor and simile is:
If it uses the words “is like” or “is as”, it is usually simile. If it is uses the word “is” without “as” or “like” is usually metaphor.
(Adapted from original source: 1. dailywritingtips.com  2. englishclub.com)

Now let us see some examples of metaphor in a review text and art work.

1. Original Soundtrack of Brownies (An Indonesian Movie)
It’s Always fun to have a piece of Brownies in your mouth. But having it in your stereo set is more entertaining. No movie is perfect without musical score and OST of Brownies has proved it excellent. (C’ns Mag)
2. “The Rose” by Bette Midler
I say love, it is a flower, and you it’s only seed.
3. “I am The Walrus” by The Beatles
See how they run-like a pigs from a gun……
4. “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” by Stevie Wonder
You are the sunshine of my life
That’s why I’ll always be around,
You are the apple of my eye,
Forever you’ll stay in my heart.
……………………………………………….

5. Moral Metaphors Mixed in 'Lonelyhearts'; Nathanael West Novel Is Adapted as Film
Actually, there is no redemption for the sad sacks in "Lonelyhearts" and the basic weakness of this picture is the attempt to pretend that there is.