Hello everyone.
The professor wanted us to know that if you do not cite correctly then you will get a zero in your blog. To cite correctly use this (Author’s last name, Page number), if you already address the author’s name and the title of the book or short story just use the page number.
Remember to proofread your posts. Make sure to revise your post and edit them to improve your writing. Be creative. Fix your titles to make them appropriate in your writing or in your arguments. Make sure to write your posts in present tense.
Read/Watch
- Station Eleven, Part 2 (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) & Part 3 (I Prefer You with a Crown)
Blog/Due
- Reading Response #6: Station Eleven, Parts 2-3 (due M 10/9)
- Class Discussion #4: People’s Choice Posts for Station Eleven, Part 1 (due Su 10/8)
- In your blog make sure to introduce a text from the author in your blog. Structure your blog based on your main points. Make sure to have summary because it is important to prove your point or your analysis. MAKE SURE TO CITE CORRECTLY.
Also guys remember the professor won’t have office hours on Tuesday. If you need to see her go next Thursday.
Definition:
Technological determinism: is a reductionist theory that assumes that a society’s technology determines the development of its social structure and cultural values.
Agency: Something or someone who has a purpose, freewill or if they are sentience.
Apathy: Lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern.
Information about “August 2026: There Will be Soft Rain(1950)”
Characters:
- House
- Dog
- Fire-nature
Theme:
- Nature vs. Machine
- Nature vs. Man
“August 2026: There Will be Soft Rain(1950)” In-dept look
- In the short story we see sentences or words in italic style, this shows that the house is speaking out when it tells the time.
- We were discussing in class if the house was aware of what happen to the family. In the first sentence of the first page, describes how the house is trying trying to woke up everyone up “as if it were afraid that nobody would.” Also in page two when the dog tries to get inside the house. The house realized it and let it to come here. These statements can prove that the house may be sentient.
- There is a possibility that the narrator is using diction to have the reader believe that the house is sentient.
- In the reading the dog was described to be heavily injured. As the dog goes around the house and dirtying the place. The robot mice are annoyed that the dog is causing a mess which it has clean up. For humans, the dog is considered to be precious however for the robots it is an inconvenience. These robots are indifferent towards the dog. However, they are only like that because they have their priorities set already.
- By the end of the story the house was caught on fire when a tree crashes into the house. The house went into a frenzy trying to put the house out. The machines could not adapt to the situation since they can only do what they were program to do.
“August 2026: There Will be Soft Rain(1950)” Poem In-dept look
- The poem was created during the time of World War 1. The author uses the poem to make a connection to his short story, describing how life will continue without human interaction.
“August 2026: There Will be Soft Rain(1950)” Video In-dept look
- In this creepy videos (which everyone agrees that it is creepy) shows some similarities with the short story. In both, the house did not realize that the family is dead. In both stories the house is destroy by a representation of nature. In the video the house destroy itself trying to kill a bird. In the other story, the house was on fire by a tree.
Thanks Sebastian for these very thorough notes! A reminder that when you do in-text situations in MLA style, there is no comma between the author’s last name & the page number).
A few other things we covered in class, from our Blogging Workshop:
-for model blogs, check out the Featured Posts (blogs I’ve chosen) or the People’s Choice Posts (blogs the class has chosen)
-put quotation marks around the titles of short texts, and use italics for long works (like novels, like Station Eleven)
-Introductions are super-important, to frame the post (you can write this last, since you don’t know what you are going to say, until you say it!)
-don’t give long paragraphs with many ideas jumbled together. Break up separate ideas into separate paragraphs, each with its own main idea & topic sentence. Use connections/transitions.
-it’s great to bring in contemporary connections, your experiences, or your emotional response, but you need to do it in service of your discussion of the text (taking the text on its own terms)
-Your blog should help your readers to understand how the text conveys its meaning (not just jumping to what it means, but how does it mean what it means?): use concrete details/excerpts
-quotes have to be introduced, analyzed, & cited
-Read your work out loud to catch your mistakes.
A friendly reminder to all that there are lots of useful Writing Resources on our course site that I compiled. Check them out if you need to brush up on a few things, or come see me during my office hours to discuss your blogs.