Agenda

1. Agenda • Introductions • Analyzing images and lyrics

2. Introductions • Write these down • Anecdote: a brief incident that relates to the theme of the essay • Startling fact or opinion: a piece of information that will get your reader's attention • Rhetorical question: a meaningful, unanswerable question that gets the reader thinking about your topic • Quotation: someone else's words that relate to the topic

3. Anecdote (short story) • Topic: Violence • I remember the first time I watched someone’s hair get ripped out. Two girls were screaming in the hallway in seventh grade. Their fists were flying and strands of brown hair were strewn about the stone floor. I remember feeling sick to my stomach. I have a hard time understanding violence. The song “Boom” by System of a Down addresses the issue of violence.

4. Quotation • Topic: Hope • Irish writer Oscar Wilde once said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” I agree completely. When our situations are grim, being able to see hope in the future is key. The song “O-o-h Child” by The 5 Stairsteps addresses this theme of hope.

5. Rhetorical Question • Topic: Love • Have you ever had your heart broken? Not the pulling at your heart string kind of hurt, but the heart stopping, stomping, how will I ever live past this pain kind of hurt? The song “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor reveals the theme of survival. The speaker in the songs shows us that she will not only survive a broken heart, but will become stronger as a result..

6. Take a minute • Think about which of these intros might work with your paper. • Write down any ideas you might have for your intro • Which intro will work for your song? • Write an intro for your song. Make sure the song is in quotation marks and that the artist is included.

7. Poetic devices • Imagery: pictures created by words • Metaphor: A direct comparison between two dissimilar things that share a common trait. • My love is a rose. • Simile: comparison between two dissimilar things that share a common trait using the word like or as. • My love is like a rose.

8. Blowin’ in the Wind • Listen to the song • Circle images that seem important. • discuss

9. Write down main message of your song? • Read the first verse and circle images, metaphor or similes that seem important. • Do they support theme? • Which lines really speak to you because of the message, or because it helped you overcome a difficult period?

10. Inserting quotes • Introduce your quote (before) • Who says it? • Comment on it (after) • What is this quote saying • You are making the point, not your quote.

11. Punctuation • Also, in the last verse he complains about how people have not begun to make these changes when he states And still I see no changes, can't a brother get a little peace • Also, in the last verse he complains about how people have not begun to make these changes when he states, “And still I see no changes, can't a brother get a little peace?”

12. Linebreaks • In the bridge, Tupac is speaking and says We gotta make a change… It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes • In the bridge, Tupac is speaking and says, “We gotta make a change…/It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.”

13. Imbedding • In A Long Way Gone, Beah describes how the war had changed his brother Junior, and how Junior’s hands did not swing as they used to when he strolled across the yard on his way back from school • In A Long Way Gone, Beah describes how the war had changed his brother Junior, and how Junior’s “hands did not swing as they used to when he strolled across the yard on his way back from school” (26).

14. Paraphrase • Change is also a very strong theme in the book as the war changes Beah from a child into a murderous soldier, and later rehabilitation is able to change Beah once more, into a hardened, but remorseful and peaceful young man. • This is not a quote. These are my words about the book.

15. Tip • If they are not your words, quote them and say who did