As of late, we have been learning a system to help us close read. This system is DIDLS, or Diction, Imagery, Details, Language, and Syntax. We learned that diction is the author’s use of specific words, whereas language is the use of figurative language. Details are the tidbits the author puts in to help describe things, imagery is sensory description, and syntax is how a sentence is constructed. I must confess I am still not sure as to why we are analyzing all of these things separately when, except for syntax, they all rely back on one another. You can’t create imagery without diction and details, and both language and details rely on diction. I simply don’t understand why we are pulling apart this unity.
We have also been talking about poetry. We learned that poetry is language that has been condensed for artistic effect. I also learned that I’ve been lied to all of my life, for Dr. Seuss writes doggerel, not poetry. But back on track, that was interesting for me, because I’d always heard a wider definition of poetry (it let Dr. Seuss be considered poetry). Since we learned what poetry is we’ve started analyzing it with DIDLS. I found that DIDLS really did help me see more in the poetry and made the analysis easier for me. That was particularly helpful when we wrote the in class essay on Friday.
We’ve also been working on our introductions to essays, which was also very helpful on that essay. In my previous English class experience, introductions were a very different thing than they are for these essays. Though I still stand behind the other method, it made a lot of sense and was slightly less formulaic, I am glad we worked on this type of introduction, because they are helpful for the type of essays we are being expected to write for the exam. All in all I’ve found these last few weeks extremely beneficial in terms of how we will be expected to analyze and write on the AP English exam.
I also share your struggle for isolating the different techniques, but I think I'm starting to see them as individual aspects. And I was equally upset by the doggerel idea, and thing that what is and isn't condensed is awfully subjective. While Green Eggs and Ham is, I admit, rather simplistic in its message I refuse to concede that some of his other works like The Birthday Book and The Lorax and, Oh, I could analyze it to no end, I Had Trouble Getting to Solla Sollew. I share you appreciation for the class's information on opening paragraphs, but for me it's the opposite; I'm glad we have a structure now when before there was none.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both you and Evan on the doggerel issue. It is beyond me why we are taught our whole childhood that Dr Seuss writes poetry, when teachers and text books alike could simply change the word poetry to "doggerel." I personally prefer the structured introductions over the other method. While it may not sound as good and unique, it allows us as test takers to know exactly what the AP exam graders are looking for. I would much rather go into the test having memorized the "forumula" rather than making up my introduction paragraph as I sit at my test-taking desk.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the unity, whenever I'm looking for one part of DIDLS, I always end up finding another attached to it, and another one attached to that one..an so on. I agree with you about the introductions as well, for me they are the hardest to write.
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