Blog 16

During this whole semester, I really have learned a lot for my English writing, even more than I expected.

Frankly, I don’t like language writing courses. When I was in China, Chinese class was my least favorite class. Chinese is my first language, but I even don’t like it. So not to mention English, my second language. Last semester, I had a painful experience for trying my best to survive in ENG111.

I feel my biggest progress this semester is that I can follow what the teacher was talking about in class most of time. Though there were classes about poetry that I didn’t understand at all, I feel more comfortable to listen and speak out in class. In addition, my  writing has improved a lot as well. I think I can write in a more logical way at the beginning.

Overall, I feel Dr. Weaver put the class in a very meaningful and useful way, so I enjoy this class a lot.

Blog 15: Metaphor Paper Topics

I am going to write the metaphor paper based on an article that I read from the Miami Student — ” J. Crew U?”

The main metaphor is ” Miami University is J. Crew U”, which is a well-known metaphor in the US. In terms of “X=Y” equation, the tenor is Miami University, and the vehicle is J. Crew U. The most straightforward interpretation of this metaphor is that Miami University is famous for a lot of “rich, preppy, white” boys and girls. Therefore, this metaphor highlights the characteristic of Miami University that the majority of the students are from upper class who are also very beautiful.

However, I consider this metaphor as a negative comment for Miami University. I feel the facts that it hides are more than the facts highlighted. Though I haven’t decided what my thesis statement is for this paper, generally I will start my paper from two aspects — materialism and lack of diversity. I feel these are the two major problems of Miami from this metaphor.

By the way, there is no offend to any Miami student. I just find this topic very interesting to write.

Blog 14 – Metaphor analysis

My metaphor analysis is the article “How to Build a Better Democrat” written by Joe Klein

There area lot of metaphors in this article. For example, the author compares the greatest threats today to virus. Unlike before, when foreign policy could use military or economy to make a difference, the foreign policy has its new characteristics according to the new age. One significant feature is insidiousness. Sometimes the threat is invisible but big, so unlike actual war, it is hard to tell apparently.

The author’s argument of this article is “In an age of viral power, Democrats might argue, the U.S. has to be more than a hammer looking for nails. We have to find a way to act as a vaccine.” Here is another metaphor which is associated with the last metaphor of virus. He thinks “Good Democrat = vaccine”.

Vaccine is the medicine to protect people from viruses, so a better democrat should have the role to protect their people from any threat. Moreover, vaccine is not violent compared with surgery and other medical methods to cure diseases. So the author also means that a better democrat should not rely on its military power or economy to achieve this purpose, but to use a friendly and mild way.

Blog 13: Peer Reviews

Overall, the peer reviews went very well. I like the paper-based review, which is much easier to read and make comment on.

I feel the most common problems appearing during the reviews is that we just talk about the two novels, but we didn’t the significance to readers. So it is like we wrote about “what”, but forgot about “why”. This can make the paper much deeper.

I need to work on the add more information and analysis to push my question a little further. Right now, mine is OK, but not good enough. “Why my thesis statement is significant to readers and why both writers want to tell this to readers” are the questions that I am going to work on.

Blog12 – After finishing In the Lake of the Woods

I have just finished reading this novel. I don’t know why, but I feel upset. All they need is happiness, but in the end, they are tragic and far away from the happiness. I feel sad for this couple. They should be happy, but they aren’t all the time. Pretending hurts.

“More likely they drowned, or got lost, or lost themselves. But who will ever know? It’s all hypothesis, beginning to end.” In fact, I am not sure whether I understand the whole story or not. The chapters are choppy. But I am wondering the writer’s purpose of this novel.

Besides the war, besides loss, besides love, how people treat our secrets is what I think another purpose. “I have my own PFC Weatherby. My  own old man with a hoe. And yet  quality of abstraction makes reality unreal.” John Wade is an extreme person, or even unreal. But the way he use magic tricks to forget something sets everyone thinking. Sometimes we refuse to recall some memory unpleasant, just like John. However, memory is not a terrible thing that we cannot face, as long as we face them correctly. Hiding is the way.