In working through the H.O.D. passages using the Notation Directions, what have you noticed? What have the highlighting and notating allowed you to see that you wouldn't have noticed otherwise? Explain. In your opinion, what is the value of doing an activity like this? How do you foresee it helping you in the future of this class? Your response must be at least 100 words, and you only need to respond to me.
18 Comments
Gallagher Martin
9/26/2014 04:03:33 am
This assignment really showed me how much imagery is in this one passage. Imagery is all over, it was hard to keep up. Imagery is a huge tool that Conrad uses and he uses it paint a picture in the reader's head, but also imagery can make a character come to life.The rhetorical devices are also all over the place. I found similes, metaphors, personification, and some descriptive adjectives. Conrad isn't content with just basic adjectives and adverb. Nearly every noun has a adjective to describe it, and it really paints a picture. One last thing, is the forieng words he put in. Conrad isn't from America so he mixes in the french words like boy vonage, and morituri te salutant, and adiue. All of this is put into one simple passage which is pretty incredible.
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Dakota Cavanaugh
9/26/2014 04:08:06 am
One thing that I have notice through the activity of reading H.O.D. and notating it is that authors put much more thought into a literary work that would be expected. I am really starting to gain a better understanding of the amount of hidden content there is in literature. For instance, in H.O.D. Conrad contradicts himself a lot. This is very interesting in my opinion. There are constant mentions of light and dark as well as inside versus outside. Also, Conrad uses a lot of open ended sentences, ending many of them with an ellipsis. A third tactic he uses is repetition. Overall, this method of annotating a passage is very useful because it forces you to look deeper into the text than if you were just reading for pleasure.
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paul lansaw a.k.a. MAC DADDY P
9/26/2014 04:10:30 am
i personally think that it takes away the creativity that is almost needed for literature,Ive always been against the norm or guidelines thats probz the reason i hate it i like to do things the way that comforts me buuuuuut i do believe its a useful tool that people can use if they cant do something on their own.
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Mallory Harger
9/26/2014 04:13:01 am
I had always known how much Conrad had used description. Highlighting the adjectives and the first four words of every sentence made me realize just how much he uses it. The highlighting also helped me pick up on the light v. dark and inside v. outside patterns we are supposed to look for. The value of this project is it helped me to really dive into the text and make my own discoveries within the text. For my future in this class, I see this helping by making me pick up on things in text that I wouldn't have previously.
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Hannah Marshall
9/26/2014 04:14:07 am
I liked doing this assignment because I noticed more details, actions and imagery. Taking the time to highlight simple words gave me the direction to look deeper into Conrad's meaning. He uses many complex words that I need a dictionary to look up his words. When I have the time to look at one page and analyze it thoroughly, I get a clear understanding of what is happening in the story.
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Megan Avila
9/26/2014 04:14:19 am
Spending extra time on the passage in order to thoroughly scope through the literature has enabled me to grasp a better understanding of the story. The tone that the author set in the story changes frequently. At one point, the author focuses more on the "dark" concept, describing the characters and settings by implementing words such as "feverishly" and "black." These are terms that would lead the reader into believing that there is less-than-cheery atmosphere. However, towards the end of the assigned annotating, the author transitions and focuses on "lighter" subjects. The shift is assisted by the use of words such as, "soothingly" and "quiet." I believe that notating, though somewhat tedious, is a task that will greatly help me in understanding certain aspects of this and other stories.
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Laura Peck
9/26/2014 04:14:57 am
I think by doing this notation activity I have been able to see more clearly sentence structure and the variations of this that authors can use. I also was reminded that often times authors use the voice of their characters to help us understand things more clearly, for example the syntax and phrasing of the statement “He was five feet six, I should judge,” is not only a unique way to say this, but could reveal something about the character. This activity not only helps us understand the plot of Heart of Darkness, but it forces us to remember to pay attention to the writing style used. This will help me analyze literature as we continue on in class (and life).
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Alexis Young
9/26/2014 04:17:43 am
I've already known Conrad does a LOT of imagery-related things in Heart of Darkness. But doing these notations I've realized there's a lot more than I thought. The highlighting has really made the diction stand out to me the most. It helps me understand the text. This activity really broke down the passage and made it more understandable, in my eyes. I enjoyed doing this activity and I feel like it'll help me in the future.
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Amanda Wilde
9/26/2014 04:18:05 am
With the notations and highlighting, I have noticed that there is way more thought put into this piece of literature than meets the eye. The double meanings behind words and the way Conrad always contradicts himself has become more evident. There is great value in doing this. It has taught me how to be more aware of what I am reading and look for deeper meanings behind everything. This will definitely help me later on in this class by being more aware.
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Corben Davis
9/26/2014 04:19:41 am
It has taken an hour to read just two pages of this book into depth. That just shows how much rhetorical devices and strategies Conrad has used. Going through these two pages has shown me that he can turn just a simple sentence into a paragraph just by adding tons of description. The way he adds this descriptions is different from any other book that I have read. Without going through highlighting I probably would have missed a lot. I see this as a way in the future if you get lost in the text, that highlighting can help you understand and see it a little bit better.
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Josie McClendon
9/26/2014 04:23:42 am
The way that this assignment is set up really forces you to look at things in a very in depth way. By having different steps, it allows you to look into the different levels and techniques used in Conrad’s writing. If this class continues to use this technique to look into reading, it will help with understanding the reading. While using the technique, I have noticed that Conrad likes to differ in his sentence structure. This allows for the reader to have a continued interest in the reading. I like this technique and we should continue using it.
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Sierra Gant
9/26/2014 04:25:53 am
While analyzing the passage using Notation Directions, I've noticed how attentive Conrad is to detail. The highlighting has drawn my attention to the sentence structures that Conrad uses. Seeing where each sentence begins lets you see how Conrad varies his sentence lengths. He uses the short sentences to emphasis important details, while the longer sentences to invoke vivid imagery.The value of using this method of analysis forces you to see the brilliance in Conrad's writing style. You can get a better understanding of his writing. This will help me gain knowledge of the entire meaning Conrad was trying to express.
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Stephanie Farney
9/27/2014 05:48:04 am
While reading through and highlighting Heart of Darkness, I have noticed that there are a lot of contradictions and contrast used. There is also a reference to light and dark on just about every page. Without highlighting, I honestly would not have noticed any of these techniques, which is kind of sad, because they are everywhere in this book. I tend to skip over minor details such as these when reading and look at the big picture. However, after doing this activity, I realized that paying attention to these seemingly minor details contribute a lot to my understanding of the book and what is going on in that specific section. In the future, I know that this technique will help me immensely in reading between the lines, thus helping me understand passages more in depth. In other words, it is very helpful.
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Ian Ediger
9/28/2014 01:44:58 am
It was really interesting to see all of the different devices Conrad uses in H.O.D. It has allowed me to see the different themes of the book, namely the light vs. dark theme. I think that the value of doing this activity allows us to be able to read deeper into the book with more ease than if we just looked it over and didn't make any notations. It will definitely help me in this class because I only like to read for pleasure, and don't really absorb any details. This will help me to find the details while still reading for pleasure.
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Madison Hoffman
9/28/2014 02:39:42 am
I have been able to notice how much detail there is in the diction Conrad uses. By notating this passage, I saw how certain words can convey different feelings. Like when Conrad uses the words ominous and feverishly near the beginning of the page, but then transfers to using words like decent and soothingly at the bottom of the page. An activity like this really allows the reader to break down the passage slowly and analyze what the author's purpose was for using the different elements incorporated throughout the story. I think this activity will help me notice the patterns writers use in their work.
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Riley Burghart
9/28/2014 08:04:46 am
This activity made it easier for me to notice rhetorical devices and different writing strategies. I also found out that organizing literature like this was quite relaxing and enjoyable. I love looking back at my paper and seeing all of my marks color-coded. It makes it easier to identify the complexity of a piece of literature. In turn, this highlighting project gave me a chance to appreciate the intelligence and diligence of authors. The most important value I saw from this project was how easy it was to realize sentence structures by just highlighting the first four words of every sentence. This project will help me throughout the school year (in not only my literature class) because it taught me to take a different method to achieve a goal.
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Eli Brockway
9/28/2014 08:11:54 am
This activity certainly made it easy to notice just how often Conrad likes to throw juxtaposition and antithesis into his story, and the amount of work he throws in to describing the setting. A lot of what I noticed is similar to how I write myself - he puts a lot of description into the setting, using the location to convey emotion and meaning nearly as much as - if not more than - he uses the characters to do so, because so far, the only character that really seems to have any defining traits beyond the trivial, and who isn't used as just another part of the setting and just another way of giving foreshadowing and plot details to us readers. This activity will certainly prove helpful, both in this class and in the general future, in picking apart literature - not necessarily because I'll start copying things down and marking them up, but because it at least gives a useful framework for some things to look at right from the get-go when you're reading.
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Riley Bahre
9/28/2014 01:19:05 pm
For the most part, major themes and the use of imagery are identifiable even without notation's aid. However, Conrad's explicit use of vocabulary and unusual punctuation tend to reinforce attributes that are already apparent. Additionally, it's interesting to see how well Conrad has kept consistency with his devices being portrayed in the story. While notation may be slightly unnecessary- personally, at least- I've enjoyed going over the passage a second time attempting to find a new perspective. Similar expectations are being held for the future.
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