George Orwell, Morphemes and Essay Mistakes

George Orwell, Morphemes and Essay MistakesGeorge OrwellBorn June 25th, 1903 in British India

Died January 21st, 1950 in LondonEarly LifeHe was an outsider during his youth

Earned a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, but he was a poor child among rich peers- an outsider during his youth

He drew inspiration from his experience with snobbishness and social elitists in schoolPassion for PoliticsDuring his lifetime, he watched the rise of totalitarian leaders such as Hitler and Stalin

A lot of his writing is political satire that tears down the power of the government and highlights the weakness of governmentCaution!Like Anthem, 1984 is a tale of caution warning society of the dangers of totalitarian government

Another view of a dystopia- every individual is monitored at all times

Written in 1949Cast of CharactersBig BrotherWinston SmithJuliaMr. CharringtonOBrienEmmanuel GoldsteinA Whole New WorldOceania, one of three world powers in this alternate reality which is always at war, has an official language called Newspeak.

Our current English is referred to as Oldspeak

NewspeakInvents new wordsEliminates old wordsRemoves meaning of some words for the betterment of Big BrotherNewspeakIs a language based on contradictions.

Example: the Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war; the Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order page 4

Why do we think the language of a dystopian government would base itself off of contradictions?Breaking Down LanguageIn order to better understand Newspeak and the contradictions within the language, we must first better understand how we form language and words.

Remember- LANGAUGE IS POWER in this society

MorphemeA morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of a word

There are different types of morphemes such as free morpheme and bound morpheme but for our purposes we only need to know the general meaning

Why might it be useful to understand the concept of what a morpheme is?How can we use it in our reading?Morphemes in LanguageWe can use morphemes to help us better understand the contradictions within Newspeak by breaking down the meaning of the word morphologically

We can also use this a strategy for figuring out larger vocabulary words that we may not know.ExamplesColorlessColor-lessColor- a hueLess- withoutColorless= without color

BookshelvesBook-shelve-sBook- something you readShelve- something that holds thingsS- pluralBookshelves= things that hold booksChildishChild-ishChild- a young personIsh- a description, similar to somethingChildish- description comparing someone to a childUnfulfillingUn-fulfill-ingUn- notFulfill-to complete, happyIng-present actionUnfulfilling- an action that does not make you happy or is incompleteNow you tryIncomprehensibleWhy are we talking about this?As I mentioned yesterday, we will be focusing on close reading strategies and approaches for this unit. The vocabulary in this book is a little more challenging than in Anthem so we must arm ourselves with better strategies for figuring out the meaning of words.

Having this knowledge of morphemes will better prepare us to deeply analyze textual evidence and read independently.Essay RewritesAt this point, those of you who handed in essays should have them back. You have an opportunity, if you are unhappy with your grade, to rewrite your essay. Your rewrites are due by April 15th (the last day before April vacation and the last day of the term). Everyone can rewrite their essay. If your essay gets a lower grade than your first grade then you will keep the higher grade.

This is a great opportunity to increase your grade for the final push of the 3rd term. Your Essay RewriteMust:Have the copy of your first essay with my comments and mark upShow that you have read my comments and taken them into consideration when altering your essay.

Common Mistakes on EssaysIntroduction of Quotes- A quote cannot be its own sentence. When you introduce a quote as evidence, it must be done within the flow of a sentence. Such as:When Winston was dreaming, he succeeded in transferring his hatred from the face on the screen to the dark-haired girl behind him (pg 15).NOT:Winston had a dream. Winston succeeded in transferring his hatred from the face on the screen to the dark-haired girl behind him pg 15.2. Analysis of Quotes.Far too many times on the essays, the analysis of quotes was just plot summary around the quote. That is context.

Your analysis should be how the quote supports your argument.

Such asIn a paragraph showing how the society in Anthem is bad because they conceal the past, a student wrote:One reason why society doesnt want them to speak of the past is because, The words of the Evil ones... The words of the Unmentionable Times the words which we have lost (pg. 49). The narrator is trying to say that society considers the past to be evil and shall be forgotten. This quote expresses the things society thinks is right for everyone. When in reality, it isnt right to cover the past because eventually itll all come back.

-the analysis gives me more than just plot summary and background of the quote, it explicitly connects this quote to the thesis3. Awkward writingYou may see that I commented on your paper that a sentence was awkwardly worded, or wordy or clunky. That means the sentence can be reworked to read smoother and better flowing that it is. More times than not, this is the result of a sentence being too long.This can usually be fixed by reading your paper out loud to yourself.

Such asThis shows that the society premeditates all of everyone thoughts and the fact that their say our thoughts shows that they force everyone to think in the same way.

Read it silently to yourself.

-See the difference?4. Intro and conclusionThe introduction should state your reasons that your proof paragraphs will be about.The conclusion should restate your reasons and arguments clearly.

5. Simple mistakesSimple things like possessives, apostrophes and capitalization should be easily fixed by this point