I think I've been over this before, but I'll go over the English final again. We do the task I essay and the task III essay during midterms and take II and IV over finals. As our class prepares to take this pivotal test, we go over both tasks, and now we're working through IV. It goes something like this: you're given a quote, you agree or disagree with it, and then you prove your agreement or lack there of. Here's the two catches, which both make English one of the most infuriating subjects I've ever dealt with: One, you can't use the first person. That's pretty standard for essays, but seeing as you have to state your OPINION, it's kind of an obstacle.
The second: you can't use real life events to prove your quote. You have to use literary references.
And this bothers me, because what the board of Regents considers to be literature is fiction. How can you use fiction, imagination, to prove a quote that has relevance to real life? Just because something happens in literature doesn't mean it can happen in real life. Dragons don't pop up out of hill sides, slaughtering goblins and hobbits. You can't prove something using fiction, using, well, artistic lies, stories. And it would just be so much easier if I just used modern day events or history in general. But I can't. The graders will actually take off points if I mention events that actually shape the world far more then A Wrinkle in Time ever can.
It's bull...how really can my knowledge of events in the Odyssey help the world, do anything more then fill up space in my brain alongside Latin conjugations and the number of protons in Strontium (38). My time could be far better spent, and it rather upsets me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
ok, i see your opinion, and i agree with not being able to use first person, as being a stupid rule when stating your opion, but literature is what we study in english and it isn't unreasonable for us to be expected to use references from it.
i don't really have that much to say about this, but i am saying that using literature, shows what you know more than making up some stupid example about the time you went to the Grand Canyon and your dog barked... or something like that.
also, a lot of literature shows how humans think and basic flaws in society etc. and it would be pretty good evidence, sometimes.
...dragons... fantasy, not fiction. fiction i see, but start using fantasy book references and we have a problem.
ok, i know you like arguing, but you don't have to contradict everything anyone ever does.
...calm down...
Nahoma, I also believe that the time we spend analyzing literature with the fine comb could be far better spent. There are people who know the subplots of Julius Ceasar by heart merely because they've had them drilled into their skulls can't find Afghanistan on a map. Every time I take part in English class, I feel I'm losing a few little gray cells to pointless information.
Post a Comment