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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

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,

Good Dog.

Guest Post by Jess

Good afternoon all.

Today, I would like you all to read this amazing extract I have taken from a spectacular book called “A Dogs Purpose”, written by W. Bruce Cameron and later on becoming a movie.

-I was a good dog. I had fulfilled my purpose. Lessons I had learned from being feral had taught me how to escape and how to hide from people when it was necessary, scavenging for food from trash containers. Being with Ethan had taught me love and had taught me my most important purpose, which was taking care of my boy. Jakob and Maya had taught me Find, Show, and, most important of all, how to save people, and it was all of these things, everything I had learned as a dog, that had led me to find Ethan and Hannah and to bring them both together. I understood it now, why I had lived so many times. I had to learn a lot of important skills and lessons, so that when the time came I could rescue Ethan, not from the pond but from the sinking despair of his own life. –

-Humans were capable of so many amazing things, but too often they just sat making words, not doing anything.-

What can you say about the way In which the language and the tone tie into the title of the book?

Me, you and them.

Guest Post by Tanatswa
Featured Image by Jaisamp

Last week we were talking about Point Of View, which I enjoyed a lot. . They  are three types of POV which are : First person,Second person and Third person POV. In the extracts below would you ladies please comment on each of them stating the type of POV and why you are saying so. Thank you!!

Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.

“I could picture it. I have a habit of imagining the conversations between my friends. We went out to the Cafe Napolitain to have an aperitif and watch the evening crowd on the Boulevard.”

 

Dr.Seuss Oh, the places you’ll go!

 

“You have brains in your head.You have feet in your shoes.You can steer yourself any direction you choose.You’re own your own.And you know what you know.

E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web 

“Wilbur never forgot Charlotte. Although he loved her children and grandchildren dearly, none of the new spiders ever quite too her place in his heart. She was in a class by herself.It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.

Charlotte was both.”