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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
Levels of Language
"Do you speak differently when talking with your teacher or doctor than when you are chatting with a friend on the telephone?" 1. Frozen (Ceremonial)-- Language that does not changeExamples: Lord's Prayer; Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag2. Formal--Complete sentences and specific word usage. 3. Consultative--Formal register used in conversation4. Casual--Language used in conversation with friends. Word choice is general, and conversation is dependent upon non-verbal assists.5. Colloquial – Language particular to a geographic location6. Intimate--Language between lovers. This is also the language of sexual harassment.7. Jargon – Language associated with a trade or profession8. Slang – Language only understood among a select group of people often defined by age, sex, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status
Diction Ladder
Elevated
Standard
Neutral or Conversational
Colloquial
Jargon
Slang
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
Diction
Your team will have five minutes to think of synonyms for the following words that produce a fairly neutral tone. Identify the tone of each. At the end of the five minutes one member of your team should write your list on the board.
To laugh:
Self-confident:
House:
King:
Old:
Fat:
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
Beyond the Negative and Positive
Developing a refined and precise tone vocabulary will go a long way to improving the preciseness and eloquence of your writing. You need to have a bevy of words to describe the author’s attitude beyond just negative and positive. Using the list of nouns that you just generated in the diction race, categorize them by the connotations and tones they convey.
Positive:Hopeful Joyful
Appealing Compassionate
Lighthearted Optimistic
Sympathetic Elated
Amused Proud
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
Negative:
Angry Outraged
Accusatory Irritated
Bitter Wrathful
Gloomy Fearful
Condemnatory Inflammatory
Patronizing Flippant
Taunting Irreverent
Cynical Apprehensive
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
Neutral (Can Remain Neutral or Move to the Negative or Positive)Clinical Sentimental
Matter of Fact Informative
Factual Questioning
Authoritative Urgent
Instructive Reminiscent
Ceremonial Shocked
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
ToneTo misinterpret tone is to misinterpret meaning. If a reader misses irony or sarcasm, he may find something serious in veiled humor. “A Guide for Advanced Placement: English Vertical Teams”DIDLSDiction: the connotation of the word choiceImages: vivid appeals to understanding through the sensesDetails: facts that are included or those omittedLanguage the overall use of language, such as formal, clinical, jargonStructure: how structure (micro and macroscopically) affects the reader’s attitude
Tone Words:angry sad sentimentalsharp cold fancifulupset urgent complimentarysilly joking condescendingboring poignant sympatheticafraid detached contemptuoushappy confused apologetichollow childish humorousjoyful peaceful horrificallusive mocking sarcasticsweet objective nostalgicvexed vibrant zealoustired frivolous irreverentbitter audacious benevolentdreamy shocking seductiverestrained somber candidproud giddy pitifuldramatic provocative didacticformal majestic serioushighfalutin pompous despairinghelpless lamenting angrywarm caring enragedconcerned syrupy amusedcomic disapproving disgustedscandalized anxious frightenedterrified horrified shockedironic satiric surprisedpleading begging prayerfulsardonic cynical cryptic
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
[email protected] may combine words to encapsulate complex tones. Example: contentious harmony
Tone and Point of View
Why did the chicken cross the road?One layman's answer..... "Because it was too far to go around."
However, some experts have examined this question and their findings follow.
JERRY FALWELL
CENSORED
PAT BUCHANANTo steal a job from a decent, hardworking American.
DR. SEUSSDid the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes! The chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed, I've not been told!
ERNEST HEMINGWAY To die. In the rain.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.
GRANDPAIn my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.
ARISTOTLEIt is the nature of chickens to cross the road.
KARL MARXIt was a historical inevitability.
SADDAM HUSSAIN This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
[email protected] REAGANWhat chicken?
KEN STARR I intend to prove that the chicken crossed the road at the behest of the president of the United States of America in an effort to distract law enforcement officials and the American public from the criminal wrongdoing our highest elected official has been trying to cover up. As a result, the chicken is just another pawn in the president's ongoing and elaborate scheme to obstruct justice and undermine the rule of law. For that reason, my staff intends to offer the chicken unconditional immunity provided he co-operates fully with our investigation. Furthermore, the chicken will not be permitted to reach the other side of the road until our investigation and any Congressional follow-up investigations have been completed. (We are also investigating whether Sid Blumenthal has leaked information to the Rev. Jerry Falwell, alleging the chicken to be homosexual in an effort to discredit any useful testimony the bird may have to offer, or at least to ruffle his feathers.)
CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.
FOX MULDERYou saw it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more chickens have to cross before you believe it?
FREUD The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.
BILL GATESI have just released e-Chicken 2000, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook - and Internet Explorer is an inextricable part of e-Chicken.
EINSTEINDid the chicken really cross the road or did the road move beneath the chicken?
BILL CLINTONI did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What do you mean by chicken? Could you define chicken please?
LOUIS FARRAKHAN
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
[email protected] The road, you will see, represents the black man The chicken crossed the "black man" in order to trample him and keep him down.
THE BIBLEAnd God came down from the heavens, and He said unto the chicken, "Thou shalt cross the road." And the chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.
COLONEL SANDERSI missed one?
Part II: Read the chicken crossed the road handout. Using the basic question of “Why did the chicken cross the road?”, construct a response using the Diction, Images, Details, Language, and Syntax typical for three of the following authors/characters. At the end of each write a sentence or two explaining the Didls elements.
1. T. S. Elliot2. Stephen Dedalus3. Ophelia4. Gertrude 5. Hamlet6. Grendel7. Beowulf8. Elizabeth Bennet9. Mr. Bennet10. Mrs. Bennet11. Marlow12. Okonkwo13. Caliban14. Prospero15. John the Savage16. Mustapha Mond17. Lenina18. Heathcliff19. Catherine20. Nora Helmer21. Yeats22. Other???
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
Tone – Organization - Transitions"If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" by James Baldwin1
It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means and proof of power. It is the most vivid and critical key to identity: It reveals the private identity and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity. There have been, and are, times, and places, when to speak a certain language could be dangerous, even fatal. Or, one may speak the same language, but in such a way that one's antecedents are revealed, or (one hopes) hidden. This is true in France, and is absolutely true in England: The range (and reign) of accents on that damp little island make England coherent for the English and totally incomprehensible for everyone else. To open your mouth in England is (if I may use black English) to "put your business in the street": You have confessed your parents, your youth, your school, your salary, your self-esteem, and alas, your future.
1. According to Baldwin, language has the power to do what? _______________________________________________________________________
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2. How does he control tone?
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3. What organizational patterns does Baldwin use?
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
[email protected]. Baldwin, James. "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" The New York Times on the Web. Retrieved February 4, 2004, from http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html.
Mother Tongueby Amy Tan2
I am not a scholar of English or literature. I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country or others.
I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language—the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all all—all the Englishes I grew up with.
Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use. I was giving a talk to a large group of people, the same talk I had already given to half a dozen other groups. The talk was about my writing, my life, and my book The Joy Luck Club, and it was going along well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never used with her. I was saying things like “the intersection of memory and imagination” and “There is an aspect of my fiction that relates to thus-and-thus”—a speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases, forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother.
Just last week, as I was walking down the street with her, I again found myself conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the price of new and used furniture, and I heard myself saying this: “Not waste money that way.” My husband was with us as well, and he didn’t notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It’s because over the twenty years we’ve been together I’ve often used the same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with.
So that you’ll have some idea of what this family talk sounds like, I’ll quote what my mother said during a conversation that I videotaped and then transcribed. During this conversation, she was talking about a political gangster in Shanghai who had the same last name as her family’s, Du, and how in his early years the gangster wanted to be adopted by her family, who were rich by comparison. Later, the gangster became more powerful, far richer than my mother’s family, and he showed up at my mother’s wedding to pay his respects. Here’s what she said in part:
“Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Like off-the-street kind. He is Du like Du Zong—but not Tsung-ming Island people. The local people call putong. The river east side, he belong to that side local people. That man want to ask Du Zong father take
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
[email protected] in like become own family. Du Zong father wasn’t look down on him, but didn’t take seriously, until that man big like become a mafia. Now important person, very hard to inviting him. Chinese way, came only to show respect, don’t stay for dinner. Respect for making big celebration, he shows up. Mean gives lots of respect. Chinese custom. Chinese social life that way. If too important won’t have to stay too long. He come to my wedding. I didn’t see, I heard it. I gone to boy’s side, they have YMCA dinner. Chinese age, I was nineteen.”
You should know that my mother’s expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands. She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads Shirley MacLaine’s books with ease—all kinds of things I can’t begin to understand. Yet some of my friends tell me they understand fifty percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand eighty to ninety percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world.
Lately I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” or “fractured” English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. I’ve heard other terms used, “limited English,” for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people’s perceptions of the limited-English speaker.
I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly, her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and in restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her very good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted like they did not hear her.
My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was a teenager, she used to have me call people on the phone and pretend I was she. In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her. One time it was a call to her stockbroker in New York. She had cashed out her small portfolio, and it just so happened we were going to New York the next week, our first trip outside of California. I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, “This is Mrs. Tan.”
My mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, “Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, me losing money.”
And then I said in perfect English on the phone, “Yes, I’m getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.”
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
[email protected] she began to talk more loudly. “What he want, I come to New York tell him
front of his boss, you cheating me?” And I was trying to calm her down, make her be quiet, while telling the stockbroker, “I can’t tolerate any more excuses. If I don’t receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your manager when I’m in New York next week.” And sure enough, the following week, there we were in front of this astonished stockbroker, and I was sitting there red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting at his boss is her impeccable broken English.
We used a similar routine more recently, for a situation that was far less humorous. My mother had gone to the hospital for an appointment to find out about a CAT scan she had had a month earlier. She said she had spoken very good English, her best English, no mistakes. Still, she said, the hospital staff did not apologize when they informed her they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing. She said they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exact diagnosis, since both her husband and son had died of brain tumors. She said they would not give her any more information until the next time and she would have to make another appointment for that. So she said she would not leave until the doctor called her daughter. She wouldn’t budge. And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect English—lo and behold—we had assurances that the CAT scan would be found, promises that a conference call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any suffering my mother had gone through for a most regrettable mistake.
I think my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well. Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person’s developing language skills are more influenced by peers than by family. But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child. And I believe that it affected my results on achievement tests, IQ tests, and the SAT. While my English skills were never judged poor, compared with math, English could not be considered my strong suit. In grade school I did moderately well, getting perhaps B’s, sometimes B-pluses, in English and scoring perhaps in the sixtieth or seventieth percentile on achievement tests. But those scores were not good enough to override the opinion that my true abilities lay in math and science, because in those areas I achieved A’s and scored in the ninetieth percentile or higher.
This was understandable. Math is precise; there is only one correct answer. Whereas, for me at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience. Those tests were constructed around items like fill-in-the-blank sentence completion, such as “Even though Tom was _____ Mary thought he was _____.” And the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations, for example, “Even though Tom was shy, Mary thought he was charming,” with the grammatical structure “even though” limiting the correct answer to some sort of semantic opposites, so you wouldn’t get answers like “Even though Tom was foolish, Mary thought he was ridiculous.” Well, according to my mother, there were very few
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
[email protected] as to what Tom could have been and what Mary might have thought of him. So I never did well on tests like that.
The same was true with word analogies, pairs of words for which you were suppose to find some logical semantic relationship, for instance, “Sunset is to nightfall as _____ is to _____.” And here you would be presented with a list of four possible pairs, one of which showed the same kind of relationship: red is stoplight, bus is to arrival, chills is to fever, yawn is to boring. Well, I could never think that way. I knew what the tests were asking, but I could not block out of my mind the images already created by the first pair, sunset is to nightfall—and I would see a burst of colors against a darkening sky, the moon rising, the lowering of a curtain of stars. And all the other pairs of words—red, bus, stoplight, boring—just threw up a mass of confusing images, making it impossible for me to see that saying “A sunset precedes nightfall” was as logical as saying “A chill precedes a fever.” The only way I would have gotten that answer right was to imagine an associative situation, such as my being disobedient and staying out past sunset, catching a chill at night, which turned into a feverish pneumonia as punishment—which indeed did happen to me.
I have been thinking about all this lately, about my mother’s English, about achievement tests. Because lately I’ve been asked, as a writer, why there are not more Asian-Americans represented in American literature. Why are there few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so many Chinese students go into engineering? Well, these are broad sociological questions I can’t begin to answer. But I have noticed in surveys—in fact, just last week—that Asian-American students, as a whole, do significantly better on math achievement tests than on other English tests. And this makes me think that there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as “broken” or “limited.” And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.
Fortunately, I also happen to be rebellious and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me. I became an English major my first year in college, after being enrolled as pre-med. I started writing nonfiction as a freelancer the week after I was told by my boss at the time that writing was my worst skill and I should hone my talents toward account management.
But it wasn’t until 1985 that I began to write fiction. At first I wrote what I thought to be wittily crafted sentences, sentences that would finally prove I had mastery over the English language. Here’s an example from the first draft of a story that later made its way into the Joy Luck Club, but without this line: “That was my mental quandary in its nascent state.” A terrible line, which I can barely pronounce.
Fortunately, for reasons I won’t get into here, I later decided I should envision a reader for the stories I would write. And the reader I decided on was my mother, because these were stories about mothers. So with this reader in mind—and in fact she did read my early drafts—I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
[email protected]“simple”; the English she uses with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as “broken”; my translation of her Chinese, which could certainly be described as “watered down”; and what I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure. I wanted to capture what language ability tests could never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech, and the nature of her thoughts.
Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: “So easy to read.”
1. How do the tones of Baldwin and Tan differ?
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2. How does Tan control her tone?
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3. What organization patterns does Tan use?
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4. What are some of her more effective transitions?________________________________________________________________________
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
[email protected]________________________________________________________________________
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6. What is her focus?________________________________________________________________________
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
Diction and Syntax PracticeHeart of Darkness
Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzenmast.
He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of his hands outwards, resembled an idol.(Manager)
My first interview with the manager was curious.
He was commonplace in complexion, in feature, in manners, and in voice.
He had no learning, and no intelligence.
Once when various tropical diseases had laid low almost every ‘agent’ in the station, he was heard to say, ‘Men who come out here should have no entrails.’
But he was great.
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
[email protected] # Type of Sentence
S = simpleCp = CompoundCx = ComplexCp-x = Compound-Complex
Number of Subordinate Clauses
Some functionsof those clauses
Number of words in the sentence
Syntax
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Discrete SkillsRebecca McFarlan
Verb for Academic DiscourseWords to Give “Is” a Break
AccentuateAcceptsAchievesAdoptsAdvocatesAffectsAlleviatesAllowsAlludesAltersAnalyzesApproachesArguesAscertainsAssertsAssessesAssumesAttacksAttemptsAttributesAvoids
BasesBelieves
ChallengesChangesCharacterizesChoosesChroniclesClaimsCommentsComparesCompelsCompletesConcernsConcludesCondescendsConductsConformsConfrontsConsidersContendsContestsContrastsContributesConveys
ConvincesDefendsDefinesDefiesDemonstratesDenigratesDepictsDescribesDespisesDetailsDeterminesDevelopsDeviatesDifferentiatesDiffersDirectsDisappointsDiscoversDiscussesDisplaysDisputesDisruptsDistortsDownplaysDramatizesElevatesElicitsEmpathizesEncountersEnhancesEnrichesEnumeratesEnvisionsEvokesExcludesExpandsExperiencesExplainsExpressesExtendsExtrapolatesFantasizesFocusesForcesForeshadowsFunctions
GeneralizesGuidesHeightensHighlightsHintsHoldsHonors
IdentifiesIllustratesImaginesImpelsImpliesIncitesIncludesIndicatesInfersInspiresIntendsInterpretsInterruptsInundatesJustifiesJuxtaposes
LampoonsLists
MaintainsMakesManagesManipulates MinimizesMoralizesMuses
Notes
ObservesOpposesOrganizesOverstatesOutlines
PatronizesPerformsPermits
PersonifiesPersuadesPondersPortraysPostulatesPreparesPresentsPresumesProducesProjectsPromotesProposesProvides
QualifiesQuestions
RationalizesReasonsRecallsRecollectsRecordsRecountsReflectsRefersRegardsRegretsRejectsRepresentsResultsRevealsRidicules
SatirizesSeemsSeesSelectsServesShowsSpecifiesSpeculatesStatesStrivesSuggestsSummarizesSuppliesSupports
SuppressesSymbolizesSympathizes
Traces
UnderstandsUnderstatesUses
VacillatesValuesVerifiesViews
WantWishes
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Delving Into Meaning Through Grammar
For our purposes this year grammar includes parts of speech, syntactical pattern, usage (mechanics), and the relationships among these parts.
Verbs – Important Characteristics that Create Meaning Create and control a sense of time and narrative pace Create and control distance from the speaker and subject Create tone and mood
Active/Passive VoiceVerbs have two voices: active and passive. The verb's voice is determined by the relationship between the subject and the verb. If the subject completes the action indicated by the verb, the voice of the verb is active. If the sentence's subject is acted upon, the voice is passive. The passive voice is formed by joining the past participle of the verb to a form of "to be."
Why Is It Important to Understand Voice in Verbs? Verbs have more personality than any other part of speech. They have voice, mood, and
tense. Passive voice can be a problem for writers who don't have a clear focus. The extra words
give the writer time to think of his or her next point. In modern prose, the active voice is usually preferred because it is clearer and creates a
livelier narrative pace than does the passive voice. Accomplished writers and orators, however, do consciously choose the passive voice for
intended purposes, for example:o Politicians distance themselves from acts with the passive voice.o If the result is more important than the action, the passive voice emphasizes the
effect rather than the cause. Scientists use the passive voice to detail their experiments because their findings are more important than their actions.
o Passive voice creates psychological distance.
Examples:Active- Voice – The teacher prepared the exam.
Passive – The exam was prepared by the teacher
Verb Mood Indicative – fact (at least assumed to be fact by the speaker0 Imperative – command Subjunctive – doubt, possibility, potential
Indicative versus Subjunctive Mood OR Fact versus PossibilityIndicative – He reads voraciously
Subjunctive – The course requires that he read voraciously.
Indicative – I am in high school now.
Subjunctive – I wish I were in college now
Or
If I were in college, I would be happier.
OrHis mom insisted that he come home immediately.
Subjunctive Mood
Presnt Tense– be
I be We beYou be You beHe, she, it be They be
Past Tense - were (Used now for past and present)
I were We wereYou were You wereHe, she, it were They were
Present Tense – Regular Verbs (Ex. To Read)
I read We readYou read You readHe, she, it read They read
Pre 1800’s use of future tenseIndicative:I shall go We shall go You will go You will go He will go They will go.
Imperative/EmphaticI will go We will go (You) Thou shall go (you) Thou shall gohe shall go They shall go.
A Note on PronounsPrior to the 19th century English enjoyed a formal and informal second person pronoun. Use this knowledge to read between the lines in older literature. If the speaker uses “thy,” “thou,” or “thine,” s/he is familiar with the audience being addressed. If “you” “your,” or “yours” is used, the speaker has chosen a formal pronoun out of respect or unfamiliarity.
Verbs – Chapter 16 Brave New World
Read the excerpt from the conversation among John, Helmholtz, Bernard and Mustapha in chapter 16. By looking at verb use, what conclusions can you draw about the characters and their attitudes? What do they imply about Huxley’s tone toward the characters and their actions?
Verb Categories: Tense (present, past future, present perfect, past perfect, future perfect), Mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), and Voice (Active or Passive0.
Mustapha Mond shook hands with all three of them; but it was to the Savage that he addressed himself.
The Savage looked at him.Bernard started and looked horrified. What would the Controller think?
"Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about my ears and sometimes voices." The Savage's face lit up with a sudden pleasure. "Have you read it too?" he asked. "I thought nobody knew about that book here, in England."
Bernard sank into a yet more hopeless misery.
"But the new ones are so stupid and horrible. Those plays, where there's nothing but helicopters flying about and you feel the people kissing." He made a grimace. "Goats and monkeys!" Only in Othello's word could he find an adequate vehicle for his contempt and hatred.
"Nice tame animals, anyhow," the Controller murmured parenthetically.
…
The Savage was silent for a little. "All the same," he insisted obstinately, "Othello's good, Othello's better than those feelies."
The Controller laughed. "You're not being very polite to your friend, Mr. Watson. One of our most distinguished Emotional Engineers …"
"But he's right," said Helmholtz gloomily. "Because it is idiotic. Writing when there's nothing to say …"
The Savage shook his head. "It all seems to me quite horrible."
"I was wondering," said the Savage,
Mustapha Mond smiled.
The Savage sighed, profoundly.
Science? The Savage frowned.
The words galvanized Bernard into violent and unseemly activity. "Send me to an island?" He jumped up, ran across the room, and stood gesticulating in front of the Controller. "
"Bring three men," he ordered, "and take Mr. Marx into a bedroom. Give him a good soma vaporization and then put him to bed and leave him."
Helmholtz laughed. "Then why aren't you on an island yourself?"
"Because, finally, I preferred this," the Controller answered. "I was given the choice: to be sent to an island, where I could have got on with my pure science, or to be taken on to the Controllers' Council with the prospect of succeeding in due course to an actual Controllership. I chose this and let the science go." After a little silence, "Sometimes," he added, "I rather regret the science.
The Controller smiled. "That's how I paid. By choosing to serve happiness. Other people's–not mine.
Helmholtz rose from his pneumatic chair. "I should like a thoroughly bad climate," he answered. "I believe one would write better if the climate were bad. If there were a lot of wind and storms, for example …"
The Controller nodded his approbation. "I like your spirit, Mr. Watson. I like it very much indeed. As much as I officially disapprove of it." He smiled. "What about the Falkland Islands?"
"Yes, I think that will do," Helmholtz answered. "And now, if you don't mind, I'll go and see how poor Bernard's getting on."
Conclusions:
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Active–Passive Lesson
Prerequisite Knowledge The three principle parts of the verb Conjugated forms of "to be" Subjects and verbs
Direct Instruction:Verbs have two voices: active and passive. The verb's voice is determined by the relationship between the subject and the verb. If the subject completes the action indicated by the verb, the voice of the verb is active. If the sentence's subject is acted upon, the voice is passive. The passive voice is formed by joining the past participle of the verb to a form of "to be."
Example of active voice: Mary sang the National Anthem at the basketball game.
Example of passive voice: The National Anthem was sung by Mary at the basketball game.
Guided PracticeHave students brainstorm other examples to check their understanding.
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Why Is It Important to Understand Voice in Verbs? Verbs have more personality than any other part of speech. They have voice, mood, and
tense. Passive voice can be a problem for writers who don't have a clear focus. The extra words
give the writer time to think of his or her next point. In modern prose, the active voice is usually preferred because it is clearer and creates a
livelier narrative pace than does the passive voice. Accomplished writers and orators, however, do consciously choose the passive voice for
intended purposes, for example:o Politicians distance themselves from their actions with the passive voice.o If the result is more important than the action, the passive voice emphasizes the
effect rather than the cause. Scientists use the passive voice to detail their experiments because their findings are more important than their actions.
o Passive voice creates psychological distance.
Guided Practice: Active–Passive Voice Underline the verbs in the following poem by Catullus:
Catullus 873
No woman is able to say that she has ever been loved asmuch as my Lesbia has been loved by me.
No faith so great has ever existed in any pact as hasbeen found in your love from my part.
1. What verbs are active? _____________________________
2. What verbs are passive?_________________________
3. Why did the speaker use the passive voice? ____________________________________________
4. Rewrite the poem using only active voice:
5. What changes in the poem's meaning when you switch from active to passive?
3 Catullus. "Catullus 87," The Poems of Catullus, trans. Sherwin Little, ed. Phyllis Young Forsyth (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1986), 93.
Directions Identify the underlined verbs as active (A) or passive (P). Hint: Only one verb is passive.
'Hope' is the thing with feathers – by Emily Dickinson
"Hope" is the thing with feathers – 1. _____That perches in the soul – 2. _____And sings the tune without the words – 3. _____And never stops – at all – (4) 4. _____
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard – 5. _____And sore must be the storm – 6. _____That could abash the little Bird 7. _____That kept so many warm – (8) 8. _____
I've heard it in the chillest land – 9. _____And on the strangest Sea – 10. _____Yet, never, in Extremity, 11. _____
It asked a crumb – of Me. (12) 12. _____
Identification Question: In which stanza(s) does Dickenson switch between active and passive voice?
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Interpretive Question: Why does Dickenson switch between active and passive voice?
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4 Emily Dickenson, "Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers," The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 4th ed., Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy, eds. (New York: W.W Norton, 1996), 1012.
Participles and Gerunds
Prerequisite Grammar Knowledge Past participles Progressive form of the verb Function of adjectives and nouns
What Are Participles? The past or progressive form of a verb that serves as an adjective What Are Gerunds? The progressive form of a verb that serves as a noun
Why Are Participles and Gerunds Important? Too many adjectives can clutter writing. Participles are often used as fillers when writers don't have a clear point to their writing. Participles tend to be stronger than simple adjectives because they carry with them
connotative meanings from the verb. Sloppy use of participles result in misplaced modifiers and dangling participles that often
produce unintended humor. Sloppy use of gerunds can result in problems with subject–verb agreement. Usage: Gerunds require the possessive not the objective case of pronouns.
Part A: Group Practice with Participles and Puns Often verbs are naturally associated with certain nouns. If writers use a participle to describe a noun associated with it, their writing will not only carry a punch, but also will reveal the writer's cleverness. Poets often use this technique to create extended metaphors.
Your grammar squad will have five minutes to add nouns and appropriate participles to the list below. Members of the winning squad will receive one grammar homework pass.
Noun Past Participle Present ParticipleElectrician Delighted DelightingMusician Noted NotingMusician Decomposed DecomposingChef Deranged RangingFisherman Baited DebatingSecretary Defiled DefilingSecretary Described DescribingCosmetician Defaced DefacingStock Broker Devalued DevaluingDitch Digger Demoted DemotingPodiatrist Defeated Defeating
Part B: Creative Writing (Student Activity)
Using the list above, write a sentence that uses both gerunds and participles.
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Or: As a group, write a poem using at least three nouns and their corresponding participles from the list above. Begin by identifying three nouns that might have some relationship to each other.
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Part C: Gerunds and Participles—Style and Meaning Read the opening paragraphs of Sue Monk Kidd's A Secret Life of Bees.5 Identify the underlined verbals as participles (P) or gerunds (N).
At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the
cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin. I watched their wings like bits of chrome in the dark and felt the longing build in my chest. The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam.
During the day I heard them tunneling through the walls of my bedroom, sounding like a radio tuned to static in the next room, and I imagined them in there turning the walls into honey-combs, with honey seeping out for me to taste.
DirectionsFor participles, list the nouns that each participle modifies. For gerunds, identify their function in the sentence (subject or direct object).
1. making ___________ 2. pitched ____________
3. longing ___________ 4. looking____________
5. flying_____________ 6. tunneling __________
7. sounding __________ 8. tuned ____________
9. turning ___________ 10. seeping __________ Analysis of Style 1. What effect does the high number of verbals have on the passage's mood?
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2. What predictions might you make for the remainder of the book?
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5 Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees (New York: Penguin Group, 2002).
