The revisions for the Confederate monument essay are due on Monday when we return from break. Don’t forget to bold changes!
Your Lincoln revisions (and late first drafts) are due Friday in class. Please make sure to have them printed and attached to the revision guide and, if appropriate, your first draft.
These are the potential questions for the propaganda exam on Friday. Each should be answered in a thoughtful, specific paragraph of 6-10 sentences that demonstrates an understanding of the text, our discussion, and the notes.
- Construct an argument in which you prove Chomsky and Herman wrong. Why might their model not work? Be sure to offer multiple, defended points of opposition. After all, these guys do have PhDs.
- How, according to Orwell, can misused language be used to justify, promote, or defend totalitarianism?
- Explain and analyze Jacques Ellul’s claim that effective propaganda must reach the individual in the masses and masses of individuals.
- Using Jacques Ellul’s “current events man” and Neil Postman’s theory about television spectacle, explain how the news media fails to educate the public in the United States.
- Describe Chomsky and Herman’s concept of framing the debate and explain how the practice undermines democratic discourse in the United States.
- Explain the fundamental dilemma of democracy and explain how the proliferation of propaganda in the United States makes democratic discourse so challenging.
- Explain Chomsky and Herman’s contention that ownership and advertising undermine news coverage and evaluate whether you believe their claims are valid.
- Discuss Neil Postman’s theory about media ecology and explain how he believes we are the product of the dominant media of our time.
Your next analysis essay, about Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, will be due Sunday, March 17 at 12:00 p.m. via Google Docs. A few important tips for the assignment:
- Don’t rely on outside research or information, other than references to history that Lincoln is addressing.
- Be consistent in your tense.
- Offer a compelling thesis
- Don’t forget the most important elements are the analysis of argument and text. Devices are important, but a secondary concern. Always focus on the purpose of his language.
- Review the analysis essay handout if you have questions about structure.
The prompt is located here. Why not start tonight?
Don’t forget that your essay over Confederate Monuments is due on Sunday, March 17 at noon.
The prompt and all of the information for the essay is located on this page.
We will have a quiz over the Shakespeare unit on Friday. Be prepared to write thoughtful paragraphs about the language and ideas contained in excerpts from soliloquies from these plays:
- Mark Antony
- Henry V
- Taming the Shrew
- Hamlet
- As You Like It
