So, the reason that I am a bit behind now is that I issued a challenge to Jessi Singh who had sent me an email expressing his concern about the kind of notes he was taking. The challenge was to write the next blog entry and he took me up on it. So, it was only fair to give him a little time to do that. You can find his notes here.
I think Jesse deserves an "Atta Boy" for being willing to take this risk. As you can see, he did an excellent job of summarizing the main ideas of this section demonstrating his comprehension of the main ideas in the text. The thing I find most noteworthy is that Jesse has outlined a cause and effect analysis of the contents. I think that one of the coolest things that could happen this summer is for each of you to find one or two study partners and take turns taking notes in this way and then for all of you to discuss them somehow. Discuss the different things that each of you noticed as important that might have been left out of the notes, etc. What a great way to internalize what you've read. In the meantime, I'd welcome another guest blogger here. It is waaaaaaay more fun to read what my future students write than for me to read my own thoughts.
You may have noticed that this section contains the narrative of the boy to whom Mukherjee dedicated the book. If I were to guess, I wonder if, in part, the reason for that is that Farber's work with Sandler was the first case of a remission which marks a turning point in the history of cancer. This section is kind of painful to read as it horrifies me to think of people being injected with chemicals (prior to the Nuremberg consent code) without their knowledge or if they are minors without the knowledge of their parents or guardians. Yikes.
Absolutely my favorite part of this section, however, is Mukherjee's rhetorical analysis of the paper mentioned in Jesse's notes. A rhetorical analysis is an analysis of the tools that a writer uses to get his ideas across. It notes the date of publication, the structure, the organization, text features, modes of discourse, the style of diction (word choice), the length, the tone, the purpose, the message or argument.
Length: seven pages
Published: June 3, 1948
Features: "packed with tables, figures, microscope photographs, laboratory values and blood counts
Diction: starched, formal, detached and scientific yet exciting
" Yet like all great medical papers, it was a page-turner. And like all good novels, it was timeless: to read it today is to be pitched behind the scenes into the tumultuous life of the Boston clinic....."
Message: Cancer, even in its most aggressive form, had been treated with a medicine, a chemical.
Tone: Hopeful "He was throwing down a gauntlet for cancer medicine."
Well, this worked beautifully. Jesse helped pick out the important facts and then I was able to layer on some of the stuff we will be working on no matter the text in AP Lang. Anyone up for taking on the next section? A Private Plague? Hopefully, you won't look at the challenge as your own private plague. Let me know. Soon. Otherwise, I'll be back tomorrow.
For those of you who may be getting annoyed with the fact that we are a bit behind the seven pages, you can keep plugging away. The blog will then be a nice daily review for you. Honestly, all my in-laws are coming into town to stay with us tomorrow and I am doing the best I can to keep all the balls in the air at this point :)
Have a great night.
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