DAY 23 - MLA Format - Final Evaluation

Today in class, we covered Lesson 9 in the Sentence Diagramming Workbook: Adverbs. To diagram them effectively, you need to have a really good understanding of just how adverbs work.

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs, and generally answer the questions how, when, where, to what degree, and with what frequency?

• The cat waited patiently for its dinner. [modifies the verb waited]
• Phil waited for an especially hungry fish to take the bait. [modifies the adjective hungry]
• After dinner, the cat rested quite comfortably on the sofa. [quite modifies adverb comfortably, and comfortably modifies verb rested]

Adverbs frequently end in "–ly," though some common adverbs, such as always, soon, rather, very, not, never, and well do not. Not all words that end in "-ly" are adverbs, however; friendly and lovely are adjectives. Need some review on adverbs? Here are a few sites:
http://www.english-zone.com/grammar/pos-adv.html
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adverbs.htm
http://www.esldesk.com/grammar/adverbs.htm

Just as attributive adjectives, adverbs go beneath the nouns they modify. But adverbs can modify other adverbs, too. What then? The same principle applies: the word goes underneath the word it modifies.

After we finished the sentence diagrams, I had you correct each other's MLA worksheets using an answer key.

Then, we moved on to the last recitation evaluation we will do: "Facing It," by Yusef Komunyakaa, as recited by Branden Emanual Wellington. This one was a bit different. Before you made an evaluation, we read the poem together and I asked you to answer the following questions:
o What is the speaker’s attitude toward the subject and how does it change?
o What are the speaker’s circumstances and what is his/her relationship to them?
o What is the speaker’s emotional state and how does it change?
Then I had you watch the recitation, and look for clues about how Mr. Wellington interpreted answers to the same questions. Were his answers the same as yours? How do you account for the difference? Is it OK for judges to have a different understanding of the poem if the reciter's version is sound? Whose version should prevail in the judge's evaluation? Only after these questions were answered could you evaluate his performance.

YOUR HOMEWORK FOR TONIGHT:
You are, IN WRITING, to have your entire poem paraphrased, line by line, into your own words, and you are to be prepared to explain its larger meanings. Your paraphrased lines will probably be longer and wordier than the original. That's OK.

HOW TO PREPARE:

1. You should do some research on your poem and poet to make sure you understand the poem's meaning as best you can.
2. Count syllables and look at the rhyme scheme, if any. Consider line breaks. Why has the poet chosen to do as he/she did?
3. Consider both the literal meaning of the each line, the figurative meaning suggested by each line, and the figurative meaning of the poem when taken as a whole.
4. Look for shifts in mood/tone. What causes these shifts and how are they signaled?
5. Consider the FUNDAMENTAL questions that must be understood about ANY poem:

• Who is speaking in the poem? (From what perspective is the poem told?)
• Under what circumstances?
• With what attitude?
• With what emotion?
• With what desired effect on us?
• HOW DO YOU KNOW?

Writing out these answers will help you.