Phenomenal Woman

Guest Post by Tadiwanashe

Phenomenal Woman

By Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size

But when I start to tell them,

They think I’m telling lies.

I say,

It’s in the reach of my arms,

The span of my hips,

The stride of my step,

The curl of my lips.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.

I say,

It’s the fire in my eyes,

And the flash of my teeth,

The swing in my waist,

And the joy in my feet.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered

What they see in me.

They try so much

But they can’t touch

My inner mystery.

When I try to show them,

They say they still can’t see.

I say,

It’s in the arch of my back,

The sun of my smile,

The ride of my breasts,

The grace of my style.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Now you understand

Just why my head’s not bowed.

I don’t shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud.

When you see me passing,

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

It’s in the click of my heels,

The bend of my hair,

the palm of my hand,

The need for my care.

’Cause I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Remember me?

Hello girls!

As you probably know by now, we’re dealing with autobiography, biography and memoir this week. We’re going to be delving into the various aspects that define these different genres. I was very pleased to hear the opening to your autobiographies! You all already seem to gave an excellent idea about how autobiography blends prose and subjective experience.

In our next lesson we’re going to be looking more closely at these genres and their particular characteristics. For now, I’d like you to do some Googling. In the comments below, could you post the title and subject matter of some famous examples of biography, autobiography and memoirs?

For example, today in class Rudo mentioned A Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, which details his coming of age, education and imprisonment on Robben Island. I’d like to see you all looking for some famous examples to illustrate our theoretical understanding.

I’ll see you all on Wednesday!

Best,

Ms Roberts

 

A Forever Home.

Guest Post by Nosizwe

Hello class!

As we were talking about persuasive writing I thought this would be a good article.

“Another great advantage of having a pet from the pound is the price of these cute and cuddly animals. Pets from the pound cost only a few dollars while pets at a fancy pet store can cost hundreds of dollars.

Once you adopt a pet from the Animal Rescue League, it will quickly become a part of your family. If you are thinking of adopting a pet, you might consider choosing a dog or a cat. Dogs and cats can bring lots of happy times to a family, and they can be excellent companions for a person who lives alone or someone who has lost a loved one. Dogs are also a wonderful source of protection. Cats are funny, and they may help to calm people down when they are sad or mad.

Please consider adopting an animal. If you remember all of the advantages of adopting a pet from the pound, you might find the bird, mouse, hamster, dog, or cat of your choice.” 

What are your views on this? Let me know in the comments below. 

You know nothing.

Guest Post by Nobandile:

Some tips on Surviving University:

“We know hindsight is always 20/20, but it becomes particularly practical when that hindsight can be used to benefit someone else’s foresight. It’s easy to say “If I’d only known this” or “Things would have been different had I known that” when referring to the decisions we made in college, but graduates have the unique opportunity to change the experiences of college newbies. We asked HuffPost editors to share the advice they would give to their freshmen selves, and hopefully those in or new to college will learn lessons from our hindsight.

Don’t let the fact that a class starts as early as 9 a.m. deter you from taking it. (We could’ve been such good friends, Art History … ) -Lance Gould, Executive Education Editor

Ask that guy out. Seriously. (Backstory: I’m engaged to the guy I had a crush on in college. The feeling was mutual, but we went over six years without finding that little piece of information out. Could have saved tons of trouble on that one.) Also, never cut your own hair. Or let a friend do it. -Brie Dyas, Senior Editor, HuffPost Style/Home

If this is for me upon graduation: You know nothing. Good luck. -Mike Sacks, Host/Producer HuffPost Live

Calm down. Don’t get Zooey Deschanel-esque bangs. Stop procrastinating. When you go to a party, don’t throw your black North Face behind the couch with everyone else’s.-Taylor Trudon, Associate Editor, HuffPost Teen

Budget and avoid credit cards. It’s OK to not go out on the weekends or on “Thirsty Thursdays,” but don’t beat yourself up for going out and having fun either. -Tyler Kingkade, Associate Editor, HuffPost College college class

Befriend people who make you feel good about yourself, who are kind to you and enrich your life in new ways and don’t hold you back. Don’t befriend those who you feel like you should be friends with because everyone else is. Those tend to then take you for granted, because they have friends to spare. -Liat Kornowski, Associate Editor, Celebrity

Value the friends you have, because at the end of it, they’re all you’ll have. You may not realize it now, but they have and will having everything to do with who you will grow up to be. -Nile Cappello, Editorial Fellow

You will not make as much money as you think you will after graduating. -Robin Wilkey, Editor of HuffPost San Francisco

If your student loans are starting to look like they’re going to be around 17.5K a year and you plan on pursuing anything other than finance and don’t have any brilliant patents pending, know this: 17.5k x 4 years = 70K. Sallie Mae will likely give you 30 years, at most, to pay all of that back. Given the 30 years, your monthly payments will likely be about $700 per month. -Brynn Mannino, Homepage Editor, AOL.com

Adulthood is overrated, because after you somehow manage to make it through those weeks that feel like finals week, you don’t get those awesome things called winter, spring or summer breaks to decompress. -Danielle Cadet, Black Voices Editor

Don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone. Try new things. Remember everyone is in the same boat as you are and they’re just as nervous! -Debra Lipson, Editorial Fellow

Actually go to class! Each class costs roughly $350 — that’s like a month’s worth of groceries. Plus you’ll never get to just soak in cool information like that ever again. -Carly Schwartz, Deputy National Editor

Choice.

Guest Post by Cameron.

Seeing that we are talking about persuasive writing, I set out to find a pice that might help up us.

This is only an extract of what I found, if you’re interested to read the rest of the piece visit the link;

http://m.youthvoices.net/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fyouthvoices.net%2Fdiscussion%2Fpersuasive-essay-abortion&utm_referrer=#2648

Abortion: Why it’s Wrong

How would you feel if someone took away your ability to live? Imagine not having any say in whether or not you want to have a life. Well babies don’t have a choice in their mother’s womb. If a woman decides to abort her baby, they can’t do anything about their life being taken away from them. Their whole future is demolished. I believe abortion is wrong when committing it for a selfish reason.

One reason why abortion is wrong is because there are many other safer solutions. In the article, Why Do More People Choose Abortion Over Adoption?, Kristi Burton Brown stated: “In the USA, there are approximately two million infertile couples waiting to adopt, many times regardless of the child’s medical problems such as Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, HIV infection or terminally ill. Dr. Brad Imler, President of America’s Pregnancy Helpline, confirms the challenge of waiting couples by stating: Only 1% of the Helpline’s annual 40,000 clients inquires about adoption.” Putting him/her up for adoption will give them a better chance at a happier life rather than abortion. The solution for a baby should not be death. If it was for a selfish solution, you’re sacrificing a life many other families would love to raise as their own.

Another reason why I don’t support abortion is because it can harm the mother as well. You are highly risking the mother’s life and affecting her. Not only does it have an effect on the USA but, it affects other countries as well like Spain. According to psychiatrist and member of the Right to Life Committee, Carmen Gómez-Lavín states that: “Sixty five percent of women who abort suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome after undergoing the procedure.” Many women are regretting that choice around the world making it a controversial issue. Abortion can also result into not being able to get pregnant in the future, many sickness’ and even death. Abortion affects both victims in dangerous and physical ways.

In the comments below state some strategies you notice this writer uses to persuade the reader. Also, how affective were these strategies? Were you persuaded or not?

Hidden Figures

Guest Post by Rudo.

Since we were discussing reviews this past week I decided to post a review from one of my favourite movies this year,”Hidden Figures.” I really encourage you all to watch it is AMAZING. Anyway, when you’re done reading the review, you can possibly try and find the tone and type of language used, and whether or not this review was a favourable one.

“Hidden Figures” takes us back to 1961, when racial segregation and workplace sexism were widely accepted facts of life and the word “computer” referred to a person, not a machine. Though a gigantic IBM mainframe does appear in the movie — big enough to fill a room and probably less powerful than the phone in your pocket — the most important computers are the three African-American women who work at NASA headquarters in Hampton, Va. Assigned to data entry jobs and denied recognition or promotion, they would go on to play crucial roles in the American space program.

Based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s nonfiction book of the same title, the film, directed by Theodore Melfi (who wrote the script with Allison Schroeder), turns the entwined careers of Katherine Goble (later Johnson), Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan into a rousing celebration of merit rewarded and perseverance repaid. Like many movies about the overcoming of racism, it offers belated acknowledgment of bravery and talent and an overdue reckoning with the sins of the past. And like most movies about real-world breakthroughs, “Hidden Figures” is content to stay within established conventions.This is not necessarily a bad thing. There is something to be said for a well-told tale with a clear moral and a satisfying emotional payoff. The story may be new to most viewers, but the manner in which it’s told will be familiar to all but the youngest.

Make me an offer I can’t refuse.

Hi all!

I hope you had a great weekend and have returned refreshed and excited for a whole new week of edification and illumination.

This week we’re going to be focusing on something we touched on last term: persuasive writing. As we will see, this takes a few different forms and we will be discussing the different ways in which you could potentially be examined. For now, I want you all to think about how you go about persuading someone about something? For instance, how would you persuade your parents to increase your pocket money, or buy you a new phone? Or how would you persuade the School to have free wifi for the students? For boarders, how would you persuade Servcor that we should have hot chocolate with marshmallows at break? What tactics would you employ? What kind of tone would be appropriate in order to succeed?

Let me know in the comments below!

See you tomorrow,

Ms Roberts

A Matter of Perspective

Guest Post by Rebecca

A point of view switch can be quite an entertaining way to describe a situation but in the eyes of another person and visualise how they experienced a specific situation. It is very important to pay attention to detail and not make things up along the way even though the situation is being described and explained by someone else. I found a poem whose poet is not named but did make an excellent example of describing what he or she sees someone else’s point of view. In the comments can you say why the point of view switch is effective?

POINT OF VIEW

Thanksgiving dinner’s sad and thankless
Christmas dinner’s dark and blue
When you stop and try to see it
From the turkey’s point of view

Sunday dinner isn’t sunny
Easter feasts are just bad luck
When you see it from the viewpoint
Of a chicken or a duck.

Oh how I once loved tuna salad
Pork and lobsters, lamb chops too
Till I stopped and looked at dinner
From the dinner’s point of view.

Slapping Waiters

Hi Class!

So, today we began our focus on how to approach review writing. I think we had quite a useful discussion (except for that rather amusing tangent involving pearlenta during) .

We looked at quite a few reviews and many ironic examples. By the way, you can go look at the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt wikipedia page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Wolf_Moon

All these were meant as an amusing segue into the real substance of review writing. We’re going to be talking a lot about the formal aspects of reviews. But as we go through the week, I want us to think about what would constitute a really useful review. And what would constitute a very entertaining review. In the comments below, can you tell me what you would find useful in a review, say, of a product you were thinking of buying or of a hotel you were thinking of visiting?

See you all tomorrow!

Best,

Making a start.

Guest Post by Nothixo
Featured Image is “The Graduate” by Norman Rockwell

In class we have started looking at writings that give advice. The following is the first part of a speech ,taken from ‘writemypapers.org’, giving advice to students who are starting high school.
Comment on the language and style used to achieve its purpose.

“My Advice for First Steps in High School I sincerely congratulate you on your admission to start high school. As you begin, I invite you to ask yourself the following questions: What is my overall goal in this school? What friends will I have? Will I participate in extracurricular activities? How will I respond to my teachers and relate to my colleagues? Think deeply about these. Pause for a moment to give answers to some or all of them. And see if you can align your responses with my advice. High school calls for more responsibility from you than was required in lower grades. Now is the time to see life more clearly and get closer to choosing your interests. Education at this stage offers you an opportunity to discover yourself: explore it. Build on your strengths while you work hard on diminishing your weaknesses. I strongly advise you to set specific goals for yourself. Define your academic objectives. Aim to be the best student in your class throughout the grades. Start preparing for college. Write down these goals as you want them and post your write-up where you can always see it. You may also want to participate in one or two extracurricular activities, go ahead. Get as many awards as you can both in class and on the playing field. Look for friends that share these goals, and cooperate with them. Develop a team spirit as you work with your friends will help you later in life.”