Argumentation

I don't seem to be able to embed this video, so you'll have to click on the image of Marlon Brando to be redirected to his delivery of Marc Anthony's speech from the 1953 adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Following on from the class debate on whether or not the University of Essex is justified in charging students fees of £9000 per year from 2012 onwards, you may be interested in reading this article from the Guardian, this from the Telegraph, or Jules Pretty's justification of Essex University's decision. 


Finally, I just wanted to record on this blog the criteria for a good argument that our neutrals devised in class today.  They decided that to deliver an effective argument, the following ingredients are essential:1.Clarity of expression; 2.Focus / clarity of argumentation; 3. Explanation and support; 4. Good behaviour.

Some suggestions for blog posts

You're welcome to write about anything at all in your blogs, but over the course of the Writing Skills module, we'll be hoping to see evidence of self-reflection through your thoughts on your own writing and academic skills.  I will post some questions from time to time, and I'll also make suggestions for blog topics in my comments on your blogs, but here are a few prompts to start you off (if you haven't already done so):

- what, in your opinion, are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?
- what do you expect to gain from completing the Writing Skills module?
- what kind of texts do you feel confident about writing?
- how confident do you feel about completing written assignments for your university studies?  Do you expect university writing to be different to anything else you've done before?  If so, in what way do you think writing tasks might be different at university?
- is there a particular writer whose style you admire?  Who is the writer?  Can you identify what it is about their style that you particularly like? Do you think that you can learn to write in a similar style?
- what advice have you been given on writing style in the past?  Do you think that this was good advice?

Jane Eyre on the silver (and murky grey) screen

I love the fact that the first comment under this film on Youtube described it as "the strangest adaptation of Jane Eyre I've ever seen":



Fast forward to 2011:



...and back again to 1949:

Bluebeard

You may be interested in the parallels between Bluebeard and Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber", but if you'd rather watch some moving images, there's a short selection here.

A cutesy (or not) animated version of the story:



A slightly darker (and shorter) animation:



And an excuse to embed this song by Band of Horses:

A Bit of Jane and Eyre

From the BBC comedy sketch show A Bit of Fry and Laurie, which ran from 1987 to 1995. For more "bits", visit the BBC Comedy website or the The “A Bit of Fry & Laurie” sketch archive, where you'll find scripts to accompany the video clips.

Nosferatu

Presumably there's a good reason why Nosferatu didn't make it into this fansite's top 27 Dracula movie list. Ah, 27, the magic number...

John Sutherland

John Sutherland regularly writes for the Guardian, and you can access his articles via his Guardian profile.  If you're really curious about the man, you could spend / waste some time listening to his appearance on Desert Island Discs.

Punctuation Links

A couple of links to online punctuation guides: Oxford Dictionaries ought to be pretty reliable, but just the name of the Correct Punctuation website makes me feel a little anxious.  If you have a look and find anything that you think might not necessarily be 'correct', please let me know.

Semicolons

I like this piece of advice from Kurt Vonnegut (pictured left) on a piece of punctuation that I've never been particularly enamoured with:


“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.” 

― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country


I hid this quotation away somewhere in my feedback on Group 5's diagnostic writing, so I'm not sure who's seen it.  Any comments below would be welcome...