Today, we'll talk about cliches, euphemisms and empty language. We'll peer edit the profile pre-first drafts and brainstorm ideas for Thursday's in-class deadline assignment.
http://journ300.blogspot.com/2015/09/cliches-euphemisms-stereotypes-and.html
Quotes from George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language":
"In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of the political parties.
"Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.
"Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers. People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called elimination of unreliable elements. Such phraseology is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them."
Peer edit profile pre-first drafts
Brainstorm topics for Thursday's in-class deadline assignment.
Deadline assignment:
In your blog groups:
• Interview at least two people EACH, IN PERSON Ask them an initial question on the topic to be determined. Develop a few follow-up questions and engage them in conversation for a few minutes, so you have a meaningful exchange.
• Write down exact quotes, but be prepared to paraphrase most of their responses and just pick the best one or two sentences to directly quote.
• Ask how to spell their names. (Double-check that you wrote it down correctly using UMass.edu Peoplefinder.) Ask them where they are from and what their majors are. Ask if you can take their photos and share them online. Finished pieces must include photos with captions
• Try to interview a diverse bunch of people – different majors, different hometowns, different nationalities, gender and race etc
• Ask if you can snap a photo. Use your people skills to encourage them to say yes.
• When the group re-convenes in the computer lab, talk about the responses everyone got. See if you can make some kind of assertion in your lead BASED ON YOUR REPORTING.
That is, you will probably have some kind of guiding ideas about, for instance, if you were doing a story about what seniors are going to do when they graduate.
But DON’T write a lead based on speculation, and DON’T write a generic, non-reported lead like, for instance: As graduation approaches, college seniors face the daunting prospect of figuring out what to do with the rest of their lives.
Instead, review all the responses you got and SYNTHESIZE some of the information. For instance, if you interview 10 people and 8 say they have a job, while 2 say they are going to decide what to do next and where to go the day after graduation, you could say something like: Some UMass seniors have already lined up jobs after graduation, which is a mere six weeks away, but a few are waiting until the day after the graduation festivities to decide their next move.
• After the lead, include a nutgraph saying about how many people were interviewed and characterize the range of their responses. In the body of the paper, mention each of the people you interviewed in a paragraph dedicated to him or her.
It would be great to submit one or more to the Collegian or Amherst Wire!
