What are you doing right now?

[EndOfTheEarth]

Besides posting on here and replying to this thread. Original credit for this goes back to Fate and Nathan on MX.

[Omega]

Interesting.

I resorted on Pottermore and got Ravenclaw.

But seriously? What kind of question is 'Heads or tails?'

[EndOfTheEarth]

Luck.

[Xuut]

This has actually been an awful summer. Basically I've been babysitting and spending hours and hours taking product pictures (with a basic DSLR camera >.> And trying to meet my parent's bat shit crazy expectation of those super nice produce pictures. To understand the difference, those people aren't just using a nice camera, they've got the macro lenses, proper light box, etc, I have photoshop...).

Since I'm so behind on all my personal stuff (like homework, writing, prepping for scholarships and stuff) I'm pretty sure that if they actually think I'll be willing to work for them during the school year, I'm going to have a mental breakdown...

[Contradiction]

Analyzing poetry is frustrating.

So for AP Lit this summer we had to read a poem, write metacognitively (apparently that's not a word? whatever) about it - which is basically stream-of-consciousness writing if you didn't know - then read a former student's critical essay of it, and do a metacognitive writing on that.

I finished the poem/metacognitive writing this morning, and I've just read the critical essay (with teacher's comments written in the margins), and not only was my analysis different from the former student's, the teacher's comments are all basically along the lines of 'yes! spot on! you're fucking awesome at reading poetry! and writing about it!' which makes me feel inadequate and bad at reading, etc.

sigh.

[EndOfTheEarth]

That's just how poetry works, along with academic modern/postmodern literature. If your analysis is different, claim a Saussure-ian devide, and they won't be able to argue back.

[Contradiction]

What do you mean by that?

[EndOfTheEarth]

Ferdinand de Saussure claimed that all people interpret the meaning of a word or phrase differently. As a result, my concept of "bed" is not exactly the same as your concept of "bed", and therefore no two people will be lead to the same exact interpretation of any statement.

For a better example, compare how an American and a North Korean might perceive of the phrase "North Korea"

[Contradiction]

Haha, interesting. I get it.

[Contradiction]

Also, there is a ton of contorted verbal bullshit in this essay.

And I haven't figured out a way to impart that realization politely yet effectively.

[Contradiction]

Also there's no thesis presented at any point, or even any argument except on a line-by-line basis, which makes all the dissecting of lines basically invalid because it's going nowhere.

She (the essay's author) contradicts herself regularly, and misuses the word "contradiction" twice. Which pisses me off.

This essay, having taken a closer look at it, is undeniably terrible. 

"Almost every human alive on Earth" is an actual part of this paper.

What the fuck.

I can't believe how glowing the teacher's comments are. This paper is fucking awful.

[EndOfTheEarth]

It's a literary-analytical essay, so the thesis is at the end, rather than the front.

[Contradiction]

1. I wasn't taught that; and besides

2. I don't understand how that works, or why anyone would choose to do that. Why would you present the argument after you've argued it? Why wouldn't you present your argument and then write, line-by-line, about how you've reached that conclusion?

3. I can't find a clear thesis anywhere in it.