<p>For English majors, how good do you have to be at writing?</p>
<p>What do you do in terms of class assignments and papers?</p>
<p>Is is hard, be honest?</p>
<p>not really, humanities grades are often drasticly inflated.</p>
<p>Most english teacher are liberal, meaning they pretty much hate the schooling system, so they are all good graders, just find good teacher and make sure they know you pesonnaly.</p>
<p>I think it definitely helps if you're a good writer, but from my experience, I think the ideas presented in papers are worth more than the writing itself. For example, the wording and flow of a paper may make the difference of a + or a -, but a good and well-argued thesis makes the difference of letters.</p>
<p>As for class assignments, it's mostly papers and maybe an exam. The last English class I took had three papers and one very easy final. As for hard, I wouldn't say it's too hard except for the reading. As an English major, you'll probably be taking several reading-intensive courses at the same time, so you'll be reading a ton. Last semester I took two English classes and a history class, so I had to read somewhere in the neighborhood of 750+ pages per week. However, you could always pepper your major with poetry classes which would have less reading.</p>
<p>All in all, I wouldn't say it's an easy major, but it's much more relaxed and enjoyable than say physics or engineering. If you have to spend hours on school work, would you rather be reading a novel or doing math problems? No question.</p>
<p>I'm not good at CR on the SAT. Does this affect my decision then? I like to read, but I don't have time to read as of yet. If I'm in all classes that need to read, I will be forced to read.</p>
<p>This is an old essay....do you think it's like "college" worthy? Honesty please.</p>
<p>Tickle Me Pink: An Analysis of Color in The Red Badge of Courage<br>
Unknowing to read, unknowing to the world, and unknowing to many
things, a kindergartener perceives everything from the world through the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Everyday is a new chance to explore the unknown and test the senses. Picking up the "Tickle Me Pink" crayon to draw a family portrait of flamingos, the kindergartener has no notion of the exact denotation of the tint he applies. All he can sense is the calming sensation of the mood in which the color manifests based solely on the pink hue. The same notion is closely analogous to Stephen Crane's utilization of various colors in his historical fiction novel The Red Badge of Courage, in which Crane is able to paint an ambient, engrossing mood with the insertion of a color.
Emerging straight from the title of the book, red is one of the primary colors that is concentrated throughout the novel. Throughout the context of the book, red becomes apparent to represent various connotations: anger, chaos, and "a flow of blood" (Crane 27). Crane trails this metaphorical use of the color red in order to capture the troubles both physically-caused and mentally-caused by war. Crane desires to set the stage for gloomy depictions of war as "red brilliancy with a mad cry of exultation" so that the audience feels the emotions of the hurt that the soldiers are experiencing; he captures the emotions that embody red and channel it to amplify the war-like tensions that circulate throughout the two-sided war (95). Consequently and ironically though, red also comes to surface as "red of blood and black of passion" and zealous heroism that branches from the hearts and souls of the soldiers and their intended cause (98). The implementation of this color creates a mood of prospect for the reader-if one works hard, dreams can come true. Interestingly enough, one variation of the definition is the antithesis of the other definition. In combination of both definitions though, from darkness light will follow, which is discussed later on towards the conclusion of the book and end of the war.
Next, Crane uses gray to symbolize death. A "gray mist" surrounds the battlefield as the sound of fighting continues in the background (60). By utilizing gray to signify death, Crane is able to create a morbid atmosphere of nothingness and defeat. Crane wants to showcase the horrors and immediate consequences of war in a fashion that will capture the audience's attention, for instance, "the gaunt [...] dusty figures made plain by this quaint light [...] of the men of corpse-like hues [...] pulseless and dead" (60). Crane, in midst of describing nature and war's effect on it, relates back to death. By mentioning the "gray shadows of the woods," Crane again wants to trigger memory of those who lost their lives fighting for what they believed in, which almost gives off an eerie, funereal feel (69). The mentioning of the color gray changes the method in which the reader can approach the reading of the war, as now a cautious tone is taken.
At the conclusion of a seemingly morose war, Crane has the capability of introducing a parting note of a "golden ray of sun" (100). Crane vulpinely crafts the ending scenery of "leaden rain clouds" (100) and interjects a gleaming gold color in a successful attempt to represent this symbol of an undying hope, a hope that one day "from where all had been darkness and speculation," a reflecting beam of sunshine will optimistically light the way for the courage to stay strong (96). Crane in effect lends the audience a mood of aspiration and a mood of perseverance, which can be modeled through the changes of Henry's character arc from a naive, teenage boy to a mature, hopeful man. Color, in this instance, affects the reader's figurative interpretation of the novel for the fact that this is Crane's last sentence, which metaphorically represents the beginning of the end; the ending of the beginning. The placement of gold in this scene also causes the audience to sense rather than visualize what they feel; they feel hope, dreams, and sanguinity.
All in all, it is evident that color, especially which is featured in The Red Badge of Courage, can alter the mood and atmosphere of a novel. Color has the ability to deeply invoke personal feelings and complex thoughts to its spectators. It reminds us of where we came from, who we are, and who we hope to become, all of which is influenced by a scene from a forest or battleground. It changes the mood in which one feels. Like the red resembling Henry's mental injury, the kindergartner's pink crayon has the ability to paint the picture of the kindergartener's life and personality. Selecting colors represents a transition from fundamental, literal thought to profound, figurative thought.</p>
<p>Without reading it I think it's safe to say it is on the short side. </p>
<p>You also have some wording issues that make your sentences awkward.<br>
"Emerging stragiht from the title of the book" sounds weird to me. It sounds like you just picked up a thesarus and stuck in a 10 cent word. </p>
<p>"Craine trails this metaphorical use of color..." Trails there just sounds weird to me which leads to me going "huh?" to the whole sentence.<br>
Here's the sentence in question:
"Crane trails this metaphorical use of the color red in order to capture the troubles both physically-caused and mentally-caused by war."</p>
<p>Do you mean follows the metaphorical meaning of the color red? (You also don't need the color red because red is a color so it is somewhat redundant to me.) Also "both physically-caused and mentally-caused by war" sounds bad for lack of a better term. you don't need caused twice. You could simply use "troubles both physical and mental caused by war."</p>
<p>Also, write in present tense, not future. Your writing will have more of an impact. IE instead of saying "will capture the audienec's attention" say "captures the audience's attention." Or rather stay in the present tense if you can since for the most part your essay is in the present tense.</p>
<p>Vary your sentence structure some more.</p>
<p>There's some other stuff but I'm off to lunch.</p>
<p>Writing is very important. The ideas you present matter as much as how you present them. Your paper has to sound convincing for it to serve its purpose.</p>
<p>I'm just saying...is it good enough to be an English paper? this isn't my best, but the most recent (month ago)</p>
<p>"but a good and well-argued thesis makes the difference of letters."</p>
<p>A good and well-argued thesis requires good writing. I don't know how else someone would defend their thesis without good writing. You could have the greatest premise or discovery in the world but if your support of it stinks, people are just going to shrug it off. Writing is your evidence to your claim. It is like the experimental data from a discovery. If it's not well stated and thought-out it will not be accepted for all it is. New discoveries from experiments are only accepted if its results can be widely reproduced by other people, following your lab instructions (your writing).</p>
<p>You should major in English because you love reading and writing, not because you are or are not smart enough to do so.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that it's okay to turn in a paper that's one eight-page-long run-on sentence or anything; however, I would feel much better about turning in a paper with an provocative thesis, sound argumentation, and a handful of comma errors or parallelism problems than a grammatically perfect paper arguing a tired thesis poorly. I would say that the most important part of a paper is the content (thesis and argumentation) followed by grammar/mechanics and then style and voice.</p>
<p>Am I mistaken to think that good argumentation implies good writing.</p>
<p>argumentation: 1. The presentation and elaboration of an argument or arguments.</p>
<p>In a paper, the only way to present or elaborate is through the writing.</p>
<p>Here is another one I wrote that I think was better.</p>
<p>Growing and Never Giving Up Hope: A Look at Felix Culpa in The Scarlet Letter </p>
<pre><code> The crowd favorite takes the ice rink to perform her highly
</code></pre>
<p>anticipated performance as sweet, harmonious music penetrates the frigid air. The figure skater starts her program. All goes well until she reaches her first leap into the air; she falls on her jump and realizes that her mistake will cost her the gold medal. But never giving up hope, she gives her hardest effort and gives a first-rate performance, no matter the surrounding pressures, while maintaining her self-assurance. She medals. Also like the ice-skater's understanding, from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter appears a woman's many realizations that from ruin comes grandeur. In correlation to these two different situations transpires the Latin motto felix culpa-from evil comes good.
Hester's isolation from gives her space in order to reflect on her tragic life and causes her to grow as a person and as a woman. Hester learns about the person she and mother that she wants to become.
Emerging from the surreptitious, profane sin of Hester and Dimmesdale, Pearl is unintentionally conceived. From something as sinful as to be listed in the Puritan's Decalogue, adultery, later results in Hester's illegitimate pregnancy, and in this gleams Hester's motive for her living, her daughter, "her [mother's] only treasure" (82). Hester turns what was out a sexual, lusty classification of love into the epitome of a motherly type of love. To Hester, Pearl is the only worldly object onto which Hester can concretely grasp and lovingly hold. It is only that which reminds her to keep moving on in her topsy-turvy reality. What the simple Puritans view as an abomination to their austere society of perfection, Hester takes with an open mind, and, like cultivating a delicate plant, she vigilantly nurtures it, and watches its pureness exponentially mature into a beautiful rose. Pearl represents the remaining good in Hester's trialed life. In times of the townspeople's ridicule of Hester's errant actions and byproduct, to Hester it "seems to be her first impulse to clasp the infant [Pearl] closely to her bosom" (50) that she is burdened with as a child of "yonder old Black Man" (123). Hester does not intend her sin to transpire onto her innocent daughter, not Pearl. Hester wants to be Pearl's mother. Hester is able to change her daughter's upbringing for the better of Pearl, herself, and community.
Towards the beginning of Hester's adultery-trial ordeal, she is banished from the Puritan village as a result of her breaking of one of the Ten Commandments. Hester's isolation from the Puritan community causes her to reflect and appreciate nature; she philosophically grows as a person, as a mother, and as a woman. Hester learns about the person that she wants to become.
With a marvelously, gold-embroidered A letter attached upon her plain garments, Hester is naturally etched as society's lusty adulteress. She is looked down upon by the rigid townspeople because of her one true moment of happiness with Dimmesdale, which results in a progeny. In spite of this, Hester is able to let no one's opinion become a barrier to her merry way of living life. She does not care how the town of Boston views her, but rather welcomes the oncoming opposition, for she indefinitely realizes that it will only vastly fuel her ability to keep holding on to her hope, her power of survival. Originally the "scarlet A by its original signification" (148) upon Hester's chest denotes the mark of an adulteress, but has become to mean "Able [...] strong [...] with a woman's strength" (148) by the now accepting Puritan community. Hester is capable of earning the respect of the town as a single mother, and is able to build a disposition of having "a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed, from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation" (182-183). In this, Hester replaces how the town originally thinks of her. Furthermore, she possesses the subliminal ability of changing the townspeople's nefarious gossips into now reflecting thoughts based on the concept that everyone's lives are established on their flaws and on their values.
Although the future seems dark and dank for Hester, she is fortuitously able to adjust the depressing, bleak consequences into inspiring alternatives to her arduous situations. Analogous to Hester, a figure skater is able to masterfully recover from a poorly executed performance to the most stunning, elegant skating showcase. Both Hester and the figure skater are able to let nothing stand in their ways, and take what they have and make it work. They are masters of their own performances, lives, and destinies. In both being strong people, they have to hold on to hope; they must always be optimistic that from tragedy comes glory.</p>