Informed consent , ethics and research Assignment

Informed consent , ethics and research - Assignment Example It is clear from the examples that Cassell and Young use that Informed Consent is, as they say, â€Å"poorly adapted† to Health Services Research. (2002) The main reason for this is that most HSR involves the reshuffling of entire organizational structures, which is obviously something that one particular person cannot really opt out of if they dont like the way the trial is proceeding. This is different from clinical research, where the Helsinki Declaration requires that a patient can leave the trial at any time. Cassell and Young use the example of a midwifery practice in rural England, and point out that patients â€Å"will not be able to opt out of the intervention †¦ if it becomes the standard local model of care.† (2002) That is, they will have to keep using the modified version afterwards if the organization decides they will, since that is their only option. It is clear that some alternative method of consent that reflects the realities of Health Services Research should be pursued. J Cassell, & A Young. (2002). Why we should not seek individual informed consent for participation in health services research. Journal of Medical Ethics, 28(5), 313-7. Retrieved December 7, 2009, from ProQuest Medical Library. (Document ID:

Edoxaban for Stroke Prevention

Edoxaban for Stroke Prevention 1. Indication (86words) Edoxaban, a drug part of the direct factor Xa group is licensed on two indications. The first indication, treatment of pulmonary embolism (PE) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). (1). Treatment is only conducted following the use of parenteral anticoagulants on a minimum 5-day course. Second, prevention of systemic embolism (SE) and stroke in nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). Treatment conducted in line with risk factors such as transient ischaemic attack (TIA), diabetes mellitus, congestive heart failure, hypertension, prior stroke, or age>75 years. (2) 2. Design (278) Edoxaban is part of NOAC, which includes apixaban and rivaroxaban. The development of edoxaban is primarily focused on overcoming the drawbacks of warfarin which requires frequent monitoring, unpredictable dosing and interactions with various food and drugs. (3) The API of edoxaban, edoxaban tosilate is accessible in two polymorphic forms, form I and form II with form I being the most thermodynamically stable. The crystalline form I of edoxaban tosilate is synthetically produced with no conversion of forms during the drug manufacturing process. (4) Edoxaban is available in 15, 30 and 60 mg immediate release film coated tablets that disintegrates quickly. Having a relatively long half-life of up to 14 hours, with dose-dependent, linear pharmacokinetic parameters, it is suitable for once a day dosing. Oral bioavailability is approximated to be at 62% and concentration levels reach a steady state within 3 days of oral administration and is unaffected by food. Edoxaban is 50% renally cleared, requiring doses for elderly and renally impaired patients to be reduced. The pharmacodynamics effects are usually produced within 1-2 hours in correspondence to the peak exposure levels of edoxaban. (5) Edoxaban tablets are manufactured from common granulate and are quantitatively proportional when manufactured. API particle sizes are reduced during the final steps of the API manufacturing process utilising milling. The final manufacturing process involves four main stages, fluid bed granulation; blending; tableting and film coating. Final product requires no special storage as it is photostable and is packaged in a PVC and aluminium blister. Storage of edoxaban ranges from 24 months for long and intermediate conditions and as low as 6 months in accelerated conditions. All excipients used in this formulation are compliant to European Pharmacopoeia Standards. (4) Figure 1: Structure of Rivaroxaban, Apixiban and Edoxaban. (6) 3) Safety (199 words) Warfarin is the current GOLD standard indicator for DVT and AF. Large scale pivotal phase II studies have been conducted to compare the safety and efficacy profile of edoxaban and warfarin. The results of studies; ENGAGE AF(7) and Hokusai VTE(8), are tabulated for analysis below in Table 1. Findings of the study place the adverse events (AE) among patients of each drug be well within tolerable range with only mild to moderate events occurring. However, the Treatment-emergent adverse event (TEAE) and serious TEAR were found be higher in warfarin. This is clearly seen in Table 2. Major bleeding is the primary safety endpoint for safety as defined by the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH). The ENGANGE AF study showed reduced major bleeding against warfarin with the annualized rate of 3.43% as compared to 2.75% for Edoxaban. Intracranial, major or nonmajor relevant bleeding and fatal bleeding were found to be significantly lower compared to warfarin (p

The Lady of Shalott and Industrialized Misery Essay -- Lady of Shalott

The Lady of Shalott and Industrialized Misery Alfred Lord Tennyson, one of the mid-Victorian's most celebrated poets of the time, was genius in "eloquently presenting the anxieties and aspirations of his era" (Longman p. 1909). Trademarks of Victorian life included questioning faith, the Bible, the past, and the self. More and more people were interested in the industry of man rather than the uniqueness of nature, and progress of society proved that man was made to dominate and take everything for himself. Tennyson greatly recognized this trend as "he called attention to the industrialized misery and revolutionary anger of the poor" (Longman p. 1909-08) produced by the industrial progress in the mid-1800s. He noticed that as people delved into improving society, they at the same time lost their sense of humanity and innocence as they sped up industry and the making of material wealth for the well to-do. This loss of innocence is echoed in Tennyson's Arthurian lyrical poem "The Lady of Shalott" (Longman pp. 1913-1918). ...

Historical Evaluation of the Book Survival in Auschwitz Essay

When Hitler began his career as a politician, he was always obsessed of eliminating the Jews in Germany. This â€Å"elimination† did not necessarily mean extermination of the said race, but nevertheless would involve too much savagery and cruelty. In 1930, Hitler became chancellor of Germany, a post he held until 1932, and began instituting anti-Jewish legislations. Jews were not permitted to hold any government office. They were also barred from using public utilities and services, and worst, their citizenship was cancelled. When Hitler became dictator in 1933, he issued several orders to army and police units to begin the construction of concentration camps to hold prisoners. Many prisoners were transferred to these concentration camps. It was reported that they experienced torture and unwarranted murder. When the war broke, concentration camps were filled with Jews. Originally, the plan was to ship the Jews to Madagascar, a French colony (since Germany already defeated France during the war). 1 Because of lack of transport ships, Jews were forcibly transferred to the east where several concentration camps were being built. The â€Å"trip† to these concentration camps were not pleasurably; more accurately horrible. Jews were sealed in the trains. For six days, the Jews had to suffer the lack of water and food, and poor ventilation system. There was no toilet in the cargo section of the train. Escape was impossible since German soldiers are guarding every section of the train. Jews caught jumping off the train were shot. Worse, the section where the said Jews escaped would have to be liquidated. This was the policy of the German military at that time. Contents of Levi’s Book The book is essentially divided into 18 parts, organized into three themes (journey, life in the concentration camp, and war survival). 2 These are the chapters of Levi’s: 1) The Journey, 2) On the Bottom, 3) Initiation, 4) Ka-Be, 5) Our Nights, 6) The Work, 7) A Good Day, 8) This Side of Good and Evil, 9) The Drowned and the Saved, 10) Chemical Examination, 11) The Canto of Ulysses, 12) The Events of the Summer, 13) October 1944, 14) Kraus, 15) Die drie Leute vom Labor, 16) The Last One, 17) The Story of Ten Days, and 18) A Conversation with Primo Levi. Each of these chapters reveals the factual events that occurred during the deportation of Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The first chapter deals on the capture of Levi by Italian Fascists on December 13, 1943. Although he supported Mussolini during his yearly years in power, he was considered an enemy of the Italian Fascist army because of his Jewish leanings. When he fled to the mountains during the early course of the war, he was left with nothing but a couple of personal effects: a pair of shoes, a small firearm, and a bag of canned goods. When he was captured, he was immediately sent to the SS camp in Northern Italy. The next chapters deal on the life of Levi on the concentration camp. At the end of January 1944, he was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp along with 150 Italian Jews. At their first arrival, several Jews were shot on the orders of the camp commandant. The reasons for the shooting were never made clear by the chief sergeant of the work cells, but during the next days shooting of prisoners became a common sight. The visit of the German doctors to the concentration camp, according to Levi, was initially welcomed by the Jewish prisoners in the belief that medicines would be distributed in the camp. It turned out that the doctors were invited by the camp commandant to take blood samples from selected Jews. These Jews would be transported back to Germany as part of an experiment. In October 1944, the Auschwitz camp commandant issued an order to liquidate some of the populous sections of the ghetto. Families became worried as German soldiers indiscriminately opened fire to women, children, and the old. Men of adult age were immediately shot. One of the families, according to Levi, was praying in unison when an SS unit came and shot them. Some pleaded to German soldiers to spare the lives of children, but to no avail. The SS was instructed by the commandant to shot all Jews found in the selected section of the camp. Those who will ignore the order will be immediately shot. Life in the Concentration Camp (Levi’s Account of Auschwitz) Levi’s book fits well to historical documents proving the atrocities committed by the Nazis to the Jews during the Second World War. His accounts of Auschwitz were invariably a supplementary record of war trials and criminal investigations of the Jewish High Tribunal. 3 His accounts however were highly accurate and devoid of emotions. It was as if the book was a photographed version of reality. Every prisoner in Auschwitz was supposed to work at least 16 hours a day. Not to do so would mean torture and with great probability death. Children were separated from the old. The old were machine gunned in a nearby SS camp. The children were sent to the â€Å"special treatment† house in Germany or in German-occupied territories to be gassed. Able-bodied men and women were â€Å"employed† as laborers, taking many different jobs a day. Those who were disabled were automatically shot. It was even noted that no prisoner would survive in Auschwitz for even four weeks. It was the policy of the Germans to kill all the Jews transported after a month. This would make liquidation and transport more efficient. After the last batch was killed, a new batch would be sent to the camp to be killed. Added to that, any German caught of fraternizing with the Jews would suffer the penalty of death. This policy was in accord with Nazi philosophy which requires every German to discriminate the Jews, take their properties, and possibly their lives (it was even noted that during Hitler’s time, crimes against Jews were relaxed. The courts were ordered by the Fuhrer not to proceed with crimes against the Jews, because they were not German citizens and should not be accorded with the rights and privileges of a German citizen). Sleeping was not also allowed. Anyone caught would be instantly killed. When anyone begged for mercy, the SS would take the pleasure of torturing him/her. 4 Killing would be the finale. Sometimes, a thousand people were killed in a day. In Auschwitz alone, an estimated 1. 5 million Jews were killed during the duration of the war. These killings were done sometimes for sanitary purposes, sometimes for recreation, sometimes for the abject order of the camp commandant. The Jews were provided with food periodically by the SS. The distributed supplies of food were however insufficient to augment the prisoners’ labor nutrient requirements in the concentration camp. Many times, Jews were not given food because there was either a scarcity of such or by the order of the camp commandant. It was also the policy of the Nazis to starve the Jewish race and to let them die in shame and pain. It was of no doubt that everyday many Jews in the camp die because of malnourishment and hunger. Clothing was not provided by the SS; the Jews were left on their own. They were ordered to bring their best clothing to the concentration camp, along with their personal effects. Their houses in the cities would be turned over to the German state. 5 Household equipments would have to be abandoned. There would be no room in the concentration camp for such â€Å"luxuries†. The German police â€Å"assured† them that their properties would be left unharmed. Such assurances were never made factual, for the Germans considered Jewish property as their own, in compensation of the Jewish traitorous activities during the First World War. The conditions of the Jews became more and more horrible as the war progressed. A new technology was invented by a corporal in the German army which can kill 10, 000 Russian prisoners in the Eastern Front. The so-called gas chambers were utilized to kill at least 20, 000 Jews a day per concentration camp. The efficiency of this newly discovered method eventually stimulated other SS commandants to adopt such method of execution. The â€Å"Final Solution of the Jewish Question† was almost solved have not Germany faced the situation of unconditional surrender. Levy made this assertion when he was invited as a witness in the Nuremberg trials. Conclusion The book written by Primo Levi, a Jew with a doctorate in chemistry was full of details portraying the miserable conditions of the Jews under the Nazi regime. 6 These miserable conditions, however, were not far removed from the obsession of the Nazis of their inherent superior qualities. The persecutions of the Jews during the Second World War were rooted in the deep hatred of the Germans to the Jews, of which was transformed into discrimination. This discrimination in due time was also transformed into political policies which highlighted the vagrant actions of the Germans against the Jews. The establishment of concentration camps, sufferings of the Jews in the concentration camps, and the desire of the Jews to be liberated from this system were historical facts, located in a milieu of social hatred and discrimination, imbibed in Hitler’s philosophy.

Stylistics

STYLISTICS In Stylistics Richard Bradford provides a definitive introductory guide to modern critical ideas on literary style and stylistics. The book includes examples of poems, plays and novels from Shakespeare to the present day. This comprehensive and accessible guidebook for undergraduates explains the terminology of literary form, considers the role of stylistics in twentieth-century criticism, and shows, with worked examples, how literary style has evolved since the sixteenth century.This book falls into three sections: Part I follows the discipline of stylistics from classical rhetoric to poststructuralism; Part II looks at the relationship between literary style and its historical context; Part III considers the relationships between style and gender, and between style and evaluative judgement. Richard Bradford is Professor of English at the University of Ulster. He has written books on Kingsley Amis, Roman Jakobson, Milton, eighteenth-century criticism, visual poetry and li nguistics. THE NEW CRITICAL IDIOMSERIES EDITOR: JOHN DRAKAKIS, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING The New Critical Idiom is an invaluable series of introductory guides to today’s critical terminology. Each book: †¢ provides a handy, explanatory guide to the use (and abuse) of the term †¢ offers an original and distinctive overview by a leading literary and cultural critic †¢ relates the term to the larger field of cultural representation. With a strong emphasis on clarity, lively debate and the widest possible breadth of examples, The New Critical Idiom is an indispensable approach to key topics in literary studies. See below for new books in this series. Gothic by Fred Botting Historicism by Paul Hamilton Ideology by David Hawkes Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form by Philip Hobsbaum Romanticism by Aidan Day Stylistics by Richard Bradford Humanism by Tony Davies Sexuality by Joseph Bristow STYLISTICS Richard Bradford LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 1997 by Routledge 11 New F etter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. â€Å"To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www. Bookstore. tandf. co. uk. † Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001  © 1997 Richard Bradford All rights reserved. No part of this book my be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bradford, Richard Stylistics / Richard Bradford. p. cm. —(The new critical idiom) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Style, Literary. I. Title. II. Series. PN203. B68 1997 809–dc20 96–27990 CIP ISBN 0-203-99265-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-09768-1 (Print Edition) 0-415-09769-X (pbk) To Jennifer Ford CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE INTRODUCTION iii ix xi PART I A SHORT HISTORY OF STYLISTICS 1 2 3 4 5 Rhetoric Stylistics and modern criticism Textualism I: poetry Textualism II: the novel Contextualist stylistics 2 11 14 50 72 PART II STYLISTICS AND LITERARY HISTORY 6 7 8 9 10 11 Renaissance and Augustan poetry Literary style and literary history Shakespeare’s drama: two stylistic registers The eighteenth-and nineteenthcentury novel Romanticism Modernism and naturalization 98 110 117 126 143 151 PART III GENDER AND EVALUATION vii 12 13 Gender and genre Evaluative stylistics BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX 67 183 201 206 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to the Faculty of Humanities and the School of English, University of Ulster, for providing me with the time to finish this book, and to John Drakakis, a scrupulous editor. The author and publisher are grateful for the permission to reproduce extracts from T. S. Eliot, Collected Poems 1909– 1962, reprinted courtesy of Faber & Faber Ltd. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use copyright material in this book. Please contact the publisher if any omissions have inadvertently occurred.SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE The New Critical Idiom is a series of introductory books which seeks to extend the lexicon of literary terms, in order to address the radical changes which have taken place in the study of literature during the last decades of the twentieth century. The aim is to provide clear, well-illustrated accounts of the full range of terminology currently in use, and to evolve histories of its changing usage. The current state of the discipline of literary studies is one where there is considerable debate concerning basic questions of terminology.This in volves, among other things, the boundaries which distinguish the literary from the non-literary; the position of literature within the larger sphere of culture; the relationship between literatures of different cultures; and questions concerning the relation of literary to other cultural forms within the context of interdisciplinary studies. It is clear that the field of literary criticism and theory is a dynamic and heterogenous one. The present need is for individual volumes on terms which combine clarity of exposition with an adventurousness of perspective and a breadth of application.Each volume will contain as part of its apparatus some indication of the direction in which the definition of particular terms is likely to move, as well as expanding the disciplinary boundaries within which some of these terms have been traditionally contained. This will involve some re-situation of terms within the larger field of cultural representation, and will introduce examples from the x are a of film and the modern media in addition to examples from a variety of literary texts. INTRODUCTIONStylistics is an elusive and slippery topic. Every contribution to the vast and multifaceted discipline of literary studies will involve an engagement with style. To accept that the subject of our attention or our critical essay is a poem, a novel or a play involves an acceptance that literature is divided into three basic stylistic registers. Even a recognition of literary studies as a separate academic sphere is prefigured by a perceived distinction between literary and non-literary texts.Stylistics might thus seem to offer itself as an easily definable activity with specific functions and objectives: Stylistics enables us to identify and name the distinguishing features of literary texts, and to specify the generic and structural subdivisions of literature. But it is not as simple as this. When we use or respond to language in the real world our understanding of what the words mea n is supplemented by a vast number of contextual and situational issues: language is an enabling device; it allows us to articulate the sequence of choices, decisions, responses, acts and onsequences that make up our lives. Style will play some part in this, but its function is pragmatic and purposive: we might admire the lucid confidence of the car advertisement or the political broadcast, but in the end we will look beyond the words to the potential effect of their message upon our day to day activities. The style and language of poems, novels and plays will frequently involve these purposive functions, but when we look beyond their effect to their context we face a xii INTRODUCTION otentially disorientating relation between what happens in the text and what might happen outside it. Stylistics can tell us how to name the constituent parts of a literary text and enable us to document their operations, but in doing so it must draw upon the terminology and methodology of disciplines which focus upon language in the real world. The study of metre, narrative and dramatic dialogue is founded upon the fundamental units and principles of all linguistic usage: phonemes, rhythmic sequences, grammatical classes, forms of syntactic organization and so on.But these same fundamentals of communication also underpin the methodology of pure linguistics, structuralism and semiotics, discourse theory, sociolinguistics, gender studies, linguistic philosophy and a whole network of disciplines which involves the context and pragmatic purpose of communication. Consequently, modern stylistics is caught between two disciplinary imperatives. On the one hand it raises questions regarding the relation between the way that language is used and its apparent context and objective—language as an active element of the real world.On the other, it seeks to define the particular use of linguistic structures to create facsimiles, models or distortions of the real world—literary la nguage. This problematic relationship is the principal subject of this book. In Part I, I will consider the progress of modern stylistics from its origins in classical rhetoric to its function in modern literary studies. This will focus upon the tension between stylistics as a purely literary-critical discipline—its function in defining literature as an art form (which I call textualism)—and its operations within the broader field of structuralism and social studies (contextualism).Part II will re-examine this tension in relation to literary history: what is the relationship between literary style and historical context? Part III is a detailed study of two issues that feature in the margins of Parts I and II. ‘Gender and Evaluation’ will be concerned with the way in which the twin elements of feminist criticism and women writers relate to stylistics. INTRODUCTION xiii ‘Evaluative Stylistics’ will look at how the discipline of stylistics underp ins our subjective experience of reading. PART I A SHORT HISTORY OF STYLISTICS 1 RHETORIC The academic discipline of stylistics is a twentieth-century invention.It will be the purpose of this book to describe the aims and methods of stylistics, and we will begin by considering its relationship with its most notable predecessor —rhetoric. The term is derived from the Greek techne rhetorike, the art of speech, an art concerned with the use of public speaking as a means of persuasion. The inhabitants of Homer’s epics exploit and, more significantly, acknowledge the capacity of language to affect and determine nonlinguistic events, but it was not until the fifth century BC that the Greek settlers of Sicily began to study, document and teach rhetoric as a practical discipline.The best-known names are Corax and Tisias who found that, in an island beset with political and judicial disagreements over land and civil rights, the art of persuasion was a useful and profitable prof ession. Gorgias, one of their pupils, visited Athens as ambassador and he is generally regarded as the person responsible for piloting rhetoric beyond its judicial function into the spheres of philosophy and literary studies. Isocrates was the first to extend and promote the moral and ethical benefits of the art of speech, and one of Plato’s earliest Socratic dialogues bears the name Gorgias.It is with Plato that we encounter the most significant moment in the early history of rhetoric. In the Phaedrus Plato/Socrates states that unless a man pays due attention to philosophy ‘he will never RHETORIC 3 be able to speak properly about anything’ (261 A). ‘A real art of speaking†¦which does not seize hold of truth, does not exist and never will’ (260E). What concerned Plato was the fact that rhetoric was a device without moral or ethical subject matter.In the Gorgias he records an exchange between Socrates and Gorgias in which the former claims that p ersuasion is comparable with flattery, cooking and medicine: it meets bodily needs and satisfies physical and emotional desires. Rhetoric, he argues, is not an ‘art’ but a ‘routine’, and such a routine, if allowed to take hold of our primary communicative medium, will promote division, ambition and self-aggrandizement at the expense of collective truth and wisdom, the principal subjects of philosophy.Plato himself, particularly in the Phaedrus, does not go so far as to suggest the banning of rhetoric; rather he argues that it must be codified as subservient to the philosopher’s search for truth. Aristotle in his Rhetoric (c. 330 BC) produced the first counter-blast to Plato’s anti-rhetoric thesis. Rhetoric, argues Aristotle, is an art, a necessary condition of philosophical debate. To perceive the same fact or argument dressed in different linguistic forms is not immoral or dangerous.Such a recognition—that words can qualify or unsettle a single pre-linguistic truth—is part of our intellectual training, vital to any purposive reconciliation of appearance and reality. Aristotle meets the claim that rhetoric is socially and politically dangerous with the counterclaim that the persuasive power of speech is capable of pre-empting and superseding the violent physical manifestations of subjection and defence. The Plato-Aristotle exchange is not so much about rhetoric as an illustration of the divisive nature of rhetoric.It is replayed, with largely Aristotelian preferences, in the work of the two most prominent Roman rhetoricians, Cicero and Quintilian; it emerges in the writings of St Augustine and in Peter Ramus’s Dialectique (1555), one of the founding moments in the revival of classical rhetoric during the European Renaissance. Most significantly, it operates as 4 RHETORIC the theoretical spine which links rhetoric with modern stylistics, and stylistics in turn with those other constituents of the cont emporary discipline of humanities: linguistics, structuralism and poststructuralism.Plato and Aristotle did not disagree on what rhetoric is; their conflicts originated in the problematical relationship between language and truth. Rhetoric, particularly in Rome and in post-Renaissance education, had been taught as a form of super-grammar. It provides us with names and practical explanations of the devices by which language enables us to perform the various tasks of persuading, convincing and arguing. In an ideal world (Aristotle’s thesis) these tasks will be conducive to the personal and the collective good.The rhetorician will know the truth, and his linguistic strategies will be employed as a means of disclosing the truth. In the real world (Plato’s thesis) rhetoric is a weapon used to bring the listener into line with the argument which happens to satisfy the interests or personal affiliations of the speaker, neither of which will necessarily correspond with the tru th. These two models of rhetorical usage are equally valid and finally irreconcilable. Lies, fabrications, exaggerations are facts of language, but they can only be cited when the fissure between language and truth is provable.For example, if I were to tell you that I am a personal friend of Aristotle, known facts will be sufficient to convince you (unless you are a spiritualist) that I am not telling the truth. However, a statement such as, Aristotle speaks to me of the general usefulness of rhetoric’ is acceptable because it involves the use of a familiar rhetorical device (generally termed catachresis, the misuse or mis-application of a term): Aristotle does not literally speak to me, but my use of the term to imply that his written words involve the sincerity or the immediate relevance of speech is sanctioned by rhetorical-stylistic convention.What I have done is to use a linguistic device to distort prelinguistic truth and to achieve an emotive effect at the same time. M y reason for doing so would be to give a RHETORIC 5 supplementary persuasive edge to the specifics of my argument about the validity of Aristotle’s thesis. Such devices are part of the fabric of everyday linguistic exchange and, assuming that the hearer is as conversant as the speaker with the conventions of this rhetorical game, they are not, in Plato’s terms, immoral or dishonest.But for Plato such innocuous examples were merely a symptom of the much more serious consequences of rhetorical infection. The fact that Aristotle lived more than two millennia before me cannot be disputed, but the fabric of intellectual activity and its linguistic manifestation is only partly comprised of concrete facts. Morality, the existence of God, the nature of justice: all of these correspond with the verifiable specifics of human existence, but our opinions about them cannot be verified in direct relation to these specifics.The common medium shared by the abstract and the concrete di mensions of human experience is language and, as a consequence, language functions as the battleground for the tendentious activity of making the known correspond with the unknown, that speculative element of human existence that underpins all of our beliefs about the nature of truth, justice, politics and behaviour.Plato and Aristotle named the conditions of this conflict as dianoia and pragmata (thought and facts, otherwise known as res or content) and lexis and taxis (word choice and arrangement, otherwise known as verba or form), and the distinction raises two major problems that will occupy much of our attention throughout this book. First of all it can be argued that to make a distinction between language—in this instance the rhetorical organization of language—and the pre-linguistic continuum of thought, objects and events involves a fundamental error.Without language our experience of anything is almost exclusively internalized and private: we can, of course, m ake physical gestures, non-linguistic sounds or draw pictures, but these do not come close to the vast and complex network of signs and meanings shared by language users. The most important consequence of this condition of language 6 RHETORIC dependency is that we can never be certain whether the private world, the set of private experiences or beliefs, that language enables us to mediate is, as Plato and Aristotle argue, entirely independent of its medium.The governing precondition for any exchange of views about the nature of existence and truth—a process perfectly illustrated by Plato’s Socratic dialogues—is that language allows us to disclose the true nature of pre-linguistic fact. However, for such an exchange to take place at all each participant must submit to an impersonal system of rules and conventions. Before any disagreement regarding a fact or a principle can occur the combatants must first have agreed upon the relation between the fact/principle an d its linguistic enactment.An atheist and a Christian will have totally divergent perceptions of the nature of human existence, but both will know what the word ‘God’ means. The twentieth-century alternative to Aristotle’s and Plato’s distinction between dianoia/pragmata and lexis/taxis has been provided by Ferdinand de Saussure, a turn-of-thecentury linguist whose influence upon modern ideas about language and reality has become immeasurable.Saussure’s most quoted and influential propositions concern his distinction between the signified and the signifier and his pronouncement that ‘in language there are only differences without positive terms’. The signifier is the concrete linguistic sign, spoken or written, and the signified is the concept represented by the sign. A third element is the referent, the pre-linguistic object or condition that stands beyond the signifiersignified relationship. This tripartate function is, to say the lea st, unsteady.The atheist and the Christian will share a largely identical conception of the relation between ‘God’ (signifier) and ‘God’ (signified) but the atheist will regard this as a purely linguistic state, a fiction sustained by language, but without a referent. For such an individual the signifier God relates not to a specific signified and referent, but to other signifiers and signifieds— concepts of good and bad, eternity, omniscience, omnipotence, the whole network of signs which enables RHETORIC 7 Christian belief to intersect with other elements of the human condition.In Saussure’s terms, the signified ‘God’ is sustained by the differential relationship between itself and other words and concepts, and this will override its correspondence with a ‘positive term’ (the referent). Plato and Aristotle shared the premise that it is dangerous and immoral to talk about something that does not exist, and that it is the duty of the philosopher to disclose such improper fissures between language and its referent. Saussure’s model of language poses a threat to this ideal by raising the possibility that facts and thoughts might, to an extent, be constructs of the system of language.The relation between classical philosophy/rhetoric and Saussurean linguistics is far more complicated than my brief comparison might suggest, but it is certain that Saussure makes explicit elements of the divisive issue of whether rhetoric is a potentially dangerous practice. And this leads us to a second problem: the relationship between language and literature. Plato in The Republic has much to say about literature—which at the time consisted of poetry in its dramatic or narrative forms.In Book 10 an exchange takes place regarding the nature of imitation and representation: the subject is ostensibly art, but the originary motive is as usual the determining of the nature of truth. By the end of the dialo gue Socrates has established a parallel hierarchy of media and physical activities. The carpenter makes the actual bed, but the idea or concept behind this act of creation is God’s. The painter is placed at the next stage down in this creative hierarchy: he can observe the carpenter making the bed and dutifully record this process.The poet, it seems, exists in a somewhat ambiguous relation to this column of originators, makers and imitators. Perhaps they [poets] may have come across imitators and been deceived by them; they may not have remembered when they saw their works that these were but imitations thrice removed from the truth, and could easily be made without any knowledge of the 8 RHETORIC truth, because they are appearances only and not realities. (1888:312) In short, the poet is capable of unsettling the hierarchy which sustains the clear relation between appearance and reality.Poets, as Aristotle and Plato recognized, are pure rhetoricians: they work within a kind of metalanguage which draws continuously upon the devices of rhetoric but which is not primarily involved in the practical activities of argument and persuasion. As the above quote suggests, they move disconcertingly through the various levels of creation, imitation and deception, and as Plato made clear, such fickle mediators were not the most welcome inhabitants in a Republic founded upon a clear and unitary correspondence between appearance and reality.Plato’s designation of literature as a form which feeds upon the devices of more practical and purposive linguistic discourses, but whose function beyond a form of whimsical diversion is uncertain, has for two millenia been widely debated but has remained the dominant thesis. During the English Renaissance there was an outpouring of largely practical books on the proper use of rhetoric and rhetorical devices: for example R. Sherry’s A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes (1550), T. Wilson’s The Arte of Rhetorique (15 53), R. Rainolde’s A Book Called the Foundation of Rhetorike (1563), H.Peacham’s The Garden of Eloquence (1577) and G. Puttenham’s The Arte of English Poesie (1589). These were aimed at users of literary and non-literary language, but a distinction was frequently made between the literary and the non-literary function of rhetoric. In George Puttenham’s The Arte of English Poesie we find that there are specific regulations regarding the correspondence between literary style and subject (derived chiefly from Cicero’s distinction between the grand style, the middle style and the low, plain or simple style).The crossing of recommended style-subject borders was regarded as bad writing, but a far more serious offence would be committed RHETORIC 9 if the most extravagant rhetorical, and by implication literary, devices were transplanted into the serious realms of non-literary exchange. Metaphors or ‘figures’ are, according to Puttenham, parti cularly dangerous. ‘For what else is your Metaphor but an inversion of sense by transport; your allegorie by a duplicitie of meaning or dissimulation under covert and darke intendments’ (1589:158).Judges, for example, forbid such extravagances because they distort the truth: This no doubt is true and was by then gravely considered; but in this case, because our maker or Poet is appointed not for a judge, but rather for a pleader, and that of pleasant and lovely causes and nothing perillous, such as be for the triall of life, limme, or livelihood†¦they [extravagant metaphors] are not in truth to be accompted vices but for vertues in the poetical science very commendable. (ibid. : 161)Poetry does of course involve ‘perillous’ matters, but what Puttenham means is that the poetic function is not instrumental in activities concerned with actual ‘life, limme, or livelihood’. As a spokesman for the Renaissance consensus Puttenham shows that the P lato/Aristotle debate regarding the dangers of rhetoric, especially in its literary manifestation, has been shelved rather than resolved: in short, Puttenham argues that in literature it is permissible to distort reality because literature is safely detached from the type of discourse that might have some purposive effect upon the real conditions of its participants.What Puttenham said in 1589 remains true today: literary and non-literary texts might share a number of stylistic features but literary texts do not belong in the same category of functional, purposive language as the judicial ruling or the theological tract. This begs a question which modern stylistics, far more than rhetoric, has sought to address. How do we judge the difference between literary and non-literary discourses? We 10 RHETORIC ave not finished with rhetoric, but in order to properly consider the two issues raised by it—the relation between language and non-linguistic reality and the difference betwee n literary and non-literary texts—we should now begin to examine its far more slippery and eclectic modern counterpart. 2 STYLISTICS AND MODERN CRITICISM Two groups of critics have had a major influence on the identity and direction of twentieth-century English studies: the Russian and central European Formalists and the more disparate collection of British and American teachers and writers whose academic careers began during the 1920s and 1930s.The term New Criticism is often applied to the latter group. The objectives of the majority of individuals in each group were the same: to define literature as a discourse and art form and to establish its function as something that can be properly studied. Until the late 1950s the work of these groups remained within mutually exclusive geographical and academic contexts: the New Critics in Britain and America and the Formalists in Europe. During the 1960s New Criticism and Formalism began to recognize similarities and overlaps in the ir goals and methods.Since the 1960s their academic predominance has been unsettled by a much broader network of interdisciplinary practices: structuralism, poststructuralism, feminism and new historicism, are all significant elements of contemporary literary studies, and each draws its methodologies and expectations from intellectual fields beyond the traditional, enclosed realms of rhetoric and aesthetics. This, I concede, is a simplified history of twentiethcentury criticism, but it provides us with a framework for an understanding of how rhetoric has been variously transformed into modern stylistics.The New Critics and the Formalists are the most obvious inheritors of the disciplines 12 STYLISTICS AND MODERN CRITICISM of rhetoric, in the sense that they have maintained a belief in the empirical difference between literature and other types of language and have attempted to specify this difference in terms of style and effect. Structuralism at once extended and questioned these p ractices by concentrating on the similarities, rather than the differences, between literature and other discourses.Poststructuralism took this a stage further by introducing the reader into the relation between literary and non-literary style, and posing the question of whether the expectations of the perceiver can determine, rather than simply disclose, stylistic effects and meanings. Feminist critics have examined style less as an enclosed characteristic of a particular text and more as a reflection of the sociocultural hierarchies—predominantly male—which control stylistic habits and methods of interpretation.Similarly, Marxists and new historicists concern themselves with style as an element of the more important agenda of cultural and ideological change and mutation. For the sake of convenience I shall divide these different approaches to stylistics into two basic categories: textualist and contextualist. The Formalists and New Critics are mainly textualists in t hat they regard the stylistic features of a particular literary text as productive of an empirical unity and completeness. They do not perceive literary style as entirely exclusive to literature—rhythm is an element of all spoken language, and narrative features in ordinary onversation—but when these stylistic features are combined so as to dominate the fabric of a text, that text is regarded as literature. Contextualism involves a far more loose and disparate collection of methods. Its unifying characteristic is its concentration on the relation between text and context. Some structuralists argue that the stylistic features of poetry draw upon the same structural frameworks that enable us to distinguish between modes of dress or such social rituals as eating.Some feminists regard literary style as a means of securing attitudes and hierarchies that, in the broader context, maintain the difference between male and female roles. STYLISTICS AND MODERN CRITICISM 13 The rem ainder of this Part is divided into three chapters. The first two will examine in basic terms how modern criticism has employed stylistics to evolve theories of poetry and fiction: these chapters will be concerned predominantly with textualist method and practice. Chapter 5 is more concerned with contextualism and will consider the ways in which the interface between text and context can unsettle textualist assumptions. TEXTUALISM I: POETRY The first part of this chapter will give brief definitions, with examples, of the devices and linguistic elements that constitute the stylistic character of post-medieval English poetry: prosody and poetic form; metre; rhyme and the stanza; the sonnet; the ode; blank verse; free verse; metaphor; syntax, diction and vocabulary. Following this is a section on critical methods, which will include examples of how the listed devices and linguistic elements are deployed by critics in their attempts to show how poetic style creates particular meanings a nd effects.PROSODY AND POETIC FORM The most basic and enduring definition of poetry is that the poem, unlike any other assembly of words, supplements the use of grammar and syntax with another system of organization: the poetic line. The poetic line draws upon the same linguistic raw material as the sentence but deploys and uses this in a different way. Our awareness of the grammatical rules which govern the way that words are formed into larger units of meaning is based on our ability to recognize the difference between individual words.Words are made up of sound and stress, identified respectively by the phoneme and the syllable. The function of sound and stress in non-poetic language is functional and utilitarian: before we understand the operative relation between nouns, verbs, adjectives and TEXTUALISM I: POETRY 15 connectives we need to be able to relate the sound and structure of a word to its meaning. Traditional poetry uses stress and sound not only as markers and indicator s of meaning but also as a way of measuring and foregrounding the principal structural characteristic of the poem: the line.In most poems written before the twentieth-century the line is constructed from a combination of two or more of the following elements: †¢ A specified and predictable number of syllables. The most commonly used example of this is the ten-syllable line, the pentameter. †¢ A metrical pattern consisting of the relation between the stress or emphasis of adjacent syllables. The most frequently used metrical pattern in English involves the use of the iambic foot, where an emphatic syllable follows a less emphatic one, with occasional variations, or ‘stress reversals’. †¢ Rhyme.The repetition of the phonemic sound of a single syllable at the end of a line. †¢ Assonance and alliteration. The repetition of clusters of similar vowel or consonant sounds within individual lines and across sequences of lines. The persistent and predictable d eployment of two or more of these features is what allows us to recognize the traditional line as an organizing feature of most pre-twentieth-century poems. METRE The iambic pentameter, consisting of ten syllables with the even syllables stressed more emphatically than the odd, is the most frequently used line in English poetry.It is the governing principle of Shakespeare’s blank verse; of nondramatic blank verse poems, including John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) and William Wordsworth’s Prelude, and of the heroic couplet, the structural centrepiece of most 16 TEXTUALISM I: POETRY (from Milton’s Paradise Lost) (from Swift’s ‘Cassinus and Peter’) of the poems of John Dryden and Alexander Pope. Examples of its shorter version, the octosyllabic line or tetrameter can be found in many of the couplet poems of Swift, in Matthew Arnolds ‘Stanzas from the Grand Chartreuse’ (1885), and in Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam (1850).The iambic pentameter consists of five iambic feet, its tetrameter counterpart of four. The following are examples of these, with ‘indicating the most emphatic and—the less emphatic syllables. These are examples of stress-syllabic metre, in which a consistent balance is maintained between the number of syllables of a line and its stress pattern. Alternative stresssyllabic lines include seven-syllable tetrameters (see William Blake’s ‘The Tyger’), which are comprised of three iambic feet and a single stressed syllable,Lines such as this, with an odd number of syllables, can also be scanned as trochaic The trochaic foot more frequently features as a substitute or variation in a line of iambic feet. This occurs in the first foot of Shakespeare’s line: Stress-syllabic lines consisting of three-syllable feet are generally associated with comic poetry and song. The threesyllable foot creates a rhythmic pattern that deviates from the modulati on of ordinary speech far more than its twosyllable counterpart; as in Oliver Goldsmith’s couplet, consisting of anapestic (––/)feet. TEXTUALISM I: POETRY 17Some poems vary the syllabic length of a line, while maintaining the same number of emphatic or stressed syllables in each. This is called pure stress metre. An early example of pure stress metre is Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘Christabel’ (1816) and a more recent one occurs in T. S. Eliot’s ‘Ash Wednesday’ (1930), in which the differing length of each line is anchored to a repeated pattern of two major stresses. Lady of si ences Calm and distressed Torn and most whole Rose of memory The internal structure of the poetic line is only one element of its function as the organizing principle of poetry.RHYME AND THE STANZA Rhyme binds lines together into larger structural units. The smallest of these is the couplet, rhyming aa bb cc (as in the majority of poems by Dryden, Pop e and Jonathan Swift). More complex rhyme schemes enable the poet to create stanzas, the simplest of these being the quatrain, rhyming ab ab. (The octosyllabic quatrain is used by John Donne in ‘The Ecstasy and its pentameter counter-part in Thomas Grays ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’(1751). The stanza can play a number of roles in the broader structure of the poem.Narrative poems, which tell a story, often use the stanza as a way of emphasizing a particular event or observation while tying this into the broader narrative (as in Edmund Spenser’s long The Faerie Queene, John Keats’s The Eve of St Agnes and Lord Byron’s Don 18 TEXTUALISM I: POETRY Juan). Tennyson’s In Memoriam uses the socalled ‘envelope stanza (a b b a). This couplet within a couplet provides a formal counterpoint to the tragic or emotional focus of each stanza. Shorter, lyric poems which focus on a specific sensation, feeling or single event often use the stanza as a counterpoint to improvisation and spontaneity.Donne’s ‘The Relic’ consists of three very complicated stanzas. 8 8 8 8 6 10 7 10 10 10 10 syllables syllables syllables syllables syllables syllables syllables syllables syllables syllables syllables When my grave is broke up again Some second guest to entertain, (For graves have learned that woman-head To be to more than one a bed) And he that digs it spies A bracelet of bright hair about the bone, Will he not let us alone And think that there a loving couple lies, Who thought that this device might be some way To make their souls, at the last busy day Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?On the one hand the complex permutations of line length and rhyme scheme create the impression of flexibility and improvisation, as if the metrical structure of the poem is responding to and following the varied emphases of speech. But this stanzaic structure is repeated, with admirable precision, three times; an d as we read the poem in its entirety we find that the flexibility of the syntax is matched by the insistent inflexibility of the stanza. THE SONNET The sonnet resembles the stanza in that it consists of an ntegrated unit of metre and rhyme: the Shakespearian sonnet consisting of three iambic pentameter quatrains followed by an iambic pentameter couplet, its Petrarchan counterpart rhyming abba abba cdc dcd. It differs from the stanza in that TEXTUALISM I: POETRY 19 the sonnet is a complete poem. Most sonnets will emphasize a particular event or theme and tie this into the symmetries, repetitions and parallels of its metrical and rhyming structure. THE ODE The most flexible and variable stanzaic form will be found in the ode. Wordsworth’s ‘Ode on Intimations of Immortality’ consists of eleven sections.Each of these has a pattern of metre and rhyme just as complex and varied as Donne’s stanza in ‘The Relic’, except that in the ‘Immortality Ode’ the same pattern is never repeated. The open, flexible structure of the ode is well suited to its use, especially by the Romantic poets, as a medium for personal reflection; it rarely tells a particular story, and it eschews logical and systematic argument in favour of an apparently random sequence of questions, hypotheses and comparisons. BLANK VERSE A form which offers a similar degree of freedom from formal regularity is blank verse, consisting of unrhymed iambic pentameters.Prior to Milton’s Paradise Lost blank verse was regarded as a mixture of poetry and prose. It was thought appropriate only for drama, in which language could be recognizably poetic (i. e. metrical) while maintaining realistic elements of dialogue and ordinary speech (without rhyme). Paradise Lost offered blank verse as an alternative to the use of the stanza or the couplet in longer narrative or descriptive poems. Milton’s blank verse creates a subtle tension between the iambic patt ern of each line and the broader flow across lines of descriptive or impassioned speech (see below, pp. 28–9, for an example).A similar balance between discursive or reflective language and the metrical undertow of the blank verse line is found in the eighteenth-century tradition of landscape poems (see James Thomson’s The Seasons and 20 TEXTUALISM I: POETRY William Cowper’s The Task) and in Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’ and The Prelude. The most flexible examples of blank verse, where it becomes difficult to distinguish between prose rhythm and metre, are found in the poems of Robert Browning, particularly The Ring and the Book (1868– 9): So Did I stand question and make answer, still With the same result of smiling disbelief, Polite impossibility of faith.FREE VERSE Before the twentieth-century, poems which involved neither rhyme nor the metrical pattern of blank verse were rare. Christopher Smart’s Jubilate Agno (1756) and Wal t Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855) replaced traditional metre with patterns redolent of biblical phrasing and intonation, and Blake in his later visionary poems (1789– 1815) devised a very individual form of free verse. It was not until this century that free verse became an established part of the formal repertoire of English poetry. Free verse (from the French vers libre) is only free in the sense that it does not conform to traditional patterns of metre and rhyme.The poetic line is maintained as a structural counterpoint to syntax, but is not definable in abstract metrical terms. Free verse can be divided into three basic categories: 1. Poetry which continues and extends the least restrictive elements of traditional poetry, particularly those of the ode and blank verse. T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ (1917) is a monologue with an unpredictable rhyme scheme and a rhythmic structure that invokes traditional metre but refuses to maintain a regular beat or pattern. A similar effect is achieved in TEXTUALISM I: POETRY 21 W. H. Auden’s ‘Musee des Beaux Arts’.In The Four Quartets (1935–42) Eliot often uses an unrhymed form that resembles blank verse, of which the following, from the beginning of ‘Little Gidding’, is an example: M dwinter spr ng is its o n season Sempiternal though sodden towards s ndown, Suspended in ti e, between pole and tropic. The lines of the poem vary between 9 and 13 syllables. Regular metre is replaced by the distribution of three to five major stresses across each line. Although the lines cannot be scanned according to expectations of regularity they do create the impression that Eliot is giving special attention to rhythmic structure. . Poems in which the line structure reflects the apparent spontaneity of ordinary speech, where, unlike in ‘Little Gidding’, no concessions are made to a metrical undertow. Line divisions will often b e used as an imitation of the process through which we transform thoughts, impressions and experiences into language. Easthope (1983) calls this form ‘intonational metre’. A typical example of this is D. H. Lawrence’s ‘Snake’. A snake came to my water-trough On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat, To drink there. 3.Poems in which the unmetrical line variously obstructs, deviates from or interferes with the movement of syntax. In Ezra Pound’s ‘In a Station of the Metro’ the two lines function as an alternative to the continuities of grammar. The apparition of those faces in the crowd Petals on a wet black bough. 22 TEXTUALISM I: POETRY The space between the lines could be filled by a variety of imagined connecting phrases: ‘are like’, ‘are unlike’, ‘remind me of’, ‘are as lonely as’. Individual lines offer specific images or impressions: the reader makes connections betw een them.In William Carlos Williams’s ‘Spring and All’ the line structure orchestrates the syntax and creates a complex network of hesitations and progressions, and for an example of this turn to pp. 154–7. The most extreme example of how the free verse line can appropriate and disrupt the structural functions of syntax will be found in the poems of e. e. cummings, where the linear movement of language is effectively broken down into visual units. The best, brief guide to the mechanics of prosody and metre is Hobsbaum’s Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form (1996).A more methodical survey of linguistics and poetic form is Bradford’s A Linguistic History of English Poetry (1993). T. V. F. Brogan’s English Versification 1570–1980 (1981) provides a comprehensive annotated bibliography of works on all types of metre and verse form. METAPHOR Metaphor is derived from the Greek verb that means ‘to carry over’. When words are used m etaphorically, one field of reference is carried over or transferred into another. Wordsworth (in ‘Resolution and Independence’) states that ‘The sky rejoices in the morning’s birth. ’ He carries over two ery human attributes to the non-human phenomena of the sky and the morning: the ability to rejoice and to give birth. I. A. Richards (1936) devised a formula that enables us to specify the process of carrying over. The ‘tenor’ of the metaphor is its principal subject, the topic addressed: in Wordsworth’s line the tenor is the speaker’s perception of the sky and the morning. The ‘vehicle’ is the analogue or the subject carried over from another field of reference to that of TEXTUALISM I: POETRY 23 the subject: in Wordsworth’s line the activities of rejoicing and giving birth.Metaphor is often referred to as a poetic device but it is not exclusive to poetry. Metaphors will be found in newspaper articles o n economics: ‘The war [vehicle] against inflation [tenor]’; in ordinary conversation: ‘At yesterdays meeting [tenor] I broke the ice [vehicle]’; in novels: ‘He cowered in the shadow [vehicle] of the thought [tenor]’ (James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man); and in advertisements: ‘This car is as good on paper [vehicle] as it is on the road [tenor]’. The principal difference between Wordsworth’s metaphor and its non-poetic counterparts is its integration with the iambic pentameter.We could retain the metaphor and lose the metre; turn it into the kind of unmetrical sentence that might open a short story or a novel: ‘I watched the sky rejoice in the birth of the morning. ’ One thing lost is the way in which the pentameter organizes and emphasizes the tenor and vehicle of the metaphor—sky r joic s and mor ing’s bi th. In order to properly consider differences between poetic and no n-poetic uses of metaphor we should add a third element to tenor and vehicle: the ground of the metaphor (see Leech, 1969:151).The ground is essentially the context and motivation of the metaphor. For the journalist the ground of the metaphor is the general topic of economics and inflation and the particular point that he/she is attempting to make about these issues. For the conversationalist the ground is the awareness, shared with the addressee, of yesterday’s meeting and his/her role in it. For the advertiser the ground involves the rest of the advertisement, giving details of the make, price and performance of the car, and the general context in which cars are discussed and sold.In non-poetic uses of metaphor the ground or context stabilizes the relation between tenor and vehicle. The metaphor will involve a self-conscious 24 TEXTUALISM I: POETRY departure from the routine and familiar relationship between language and reality. It would be regarded as bizarre and mildly d isturbing if the conversationalist were to allow the original metaphor to dominate the rest of his/her discourse: ‘I sank through the broken ice into the cold water of the boardroom. There we all were: fishes swimming through a dark hostile world†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢.In poems, however, this relation between ground, tenor and vehicle is often reversed. It is the language of the poem, as much as the reader’s a priori knowledge, which creates its perceived situation and context. It constructs its own ground, and metaphor becomes less a departure from contextual terms and conditions and more a device which appropriates and even establishes them. In John Donne’s ‘The Flea’ the tenor is the insect itself and the bite it has inflicted on the male speaker and the female listener.The speaker carries over this tenor into such an enormous diversity of vehicles that it becomes difficult to distinguish between the ground outside the words of the text and the ground whi ch the text appropriates and continually transforms. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed and marriage temple is. We know that ‘this flea is the tenor, but the relation between tenor and ground becomes less certain with ‘is you and I’. On the one hand it is literally part of them since it has sucked and mixed their blood.On the other the speaker has already incorporated this image of physical unity into a vehicle involving their emotional and sexual lives. He builds on this with the vehicle of the ‘marriage bed’ and extends it into an image of spiritual, external unity in the ‘marriage temple’. Throughout the poem the flea and the bite become gradually detached from their actual context and threaded into a chain of speculative and fantastic associations. In ordinary language metaphor usually stands out from the rest of the discursive or factual nature of the statement. In TEXTUALISM I: POETRY 25 oetry a particular use of meta phor will often underpin and influence the major themes of the entire text. Donne’s ‘The Ecstasy’ opens with a simile (the bank ‘is like’ a pillow, rather than ‘is’ a pillow) but thereafter maintains a close, metaphoric, relation between tenor and vehicle, Where, like a pillow on a bed, A pregnant bank swelled up to rest The violet’s reclining head Sat we two, one another’s best; The tenor is the garden in which ‘we two’ are situated; the vehicle is a combination of images denoting intimacy and sexuality: pillow, bed, pregnant, swelled up, the violets (flower, denoting female) reclining head.This opening instance of the carrying over of rural horticultural images into the sphere of human sexuality becomes the predominant theme of the entire poem, underpinning more adventurous speculations on the nature of the soul. Again the dynamics of contrasting and associating verbal images has unsettled the stabilizing fun ction of ground or context.Donne is one of the so-called metaphysical school of poetic writers whose taste for extended metaphor is a principal characteristic of their verse, but the practice of creating tensions and associations between the words and images of the poem at the expense of an external context transcends schools, fashions and historical groupings. In Keats’s ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ the image of the real bird becomes a springboard for a complex sequence of associations and resonances: song, poetry, immortality, age, youth, death.The sense of there being a specific place and time in which Keats saw the bird and heard its song is gradually replaced by the dynamics of Keats’s associative faculties: the relation between the vehicles unsettles the relation between vehicle and tenor. The following is from the beginning of stanza 3: 26 TEXTUALISM I: POETRY Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget What thou among the leaves hast never known, The weari ness, the fever, and the fret Here, where men sit and hear each other groan; The principal vehicle is Keats’s transformation of the bird into an apparently ratiocinative, cognitive addressee, who understands his words.This at the same time is unsettled by his constant return to the commonsense tenor of a bird without human faculties. The dynamic tension here becomes evident in Keats’s contradictory request that the nightingale should ‘forget’ those human qualities or frailties which, as he concedes in the next line, it had never and could never have known. A classic case of vehicle undermining tenor occurs in T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ (lines 15–22).This begins with the tenor (the city fog) being carried over into the vehicle of an unspecified animal which ‘rubs its back upon the window-panes’, ‘rubs its muzzle on the window-panes’, ‘Licked its tongue into the corners of the eveni ng’. By the end of the passage the actual vision of city streets which inspired the comparison has been overtaken by the physical presence of this strange beast, which ‘seeing that it was a soft October night,/Curled once about the house, and fell asleep’. Metaphor is the most economical, adventurous and concentrated example of the general principle of ‘carrying over’.Samuel Johnson defined metaphor in his Dictionary (1755) as ‘a simile compressed in a word’. Donne’s metaphor (from ‘The Relic’), ‘a bracelet of bright hair about the bone’, would, as a simile, be something like: ‘the brightness of the hair about the bone reminds me of the difference between life and death’. Simile postulates the comparison: X is like Y. Metaphor synthesizes the comparison: X is Y. Metonymy is logical metaphor, in which the comparison is founded upon an actual, verifiable relation between objects or impressions: ‘crown is used instead of TEXTUALISM I: POETRY 27 ‘king’, ‘queen’ or ‘royalty’.Allegory involves an extended parallel between a narrative and a subtext which mirrors the relation between the text and reality. Spenser’s The Faerie Queen (1590–6) is a medieval fantasy with allegorical parallels in the real world of the Elizabethan court. Simile, metonymy and allegory establish a balanced relationship between the use of language and conventional perceptions of reality, and occur as frequently in non-poetic discourse as in poetry. Metaphor involves language in an unbalancing of perceptions of reality and is more closely allied to the experimental character of poetry.SYNTAX, DICTION AND VOCABULARY The terms ‘poetic diction’ and ‘poetic syntax’ should be treated with caution. Any word, clause, phrase, grammatical habit or locution used in non-poetic language can be used in poetry. But their presence with in the poem will subtly alter their familiar non-poetic function. For example, in Donne’s ‘The Flea’ the speaker reflects upon the likely objections to his proposal to the woman: Though parents grudge, and you, we are met And cloistered in these living walls of jet. We might explain the use of the phrase ‘and you’ as a result of hurried and improvised speech. ‘Though you and your parents grudge’ would be a more correct form. ) But the fact that the placing of the phrase maintains the movement of the iambic metre and the symmetry of the two lines of the couplet shows us that the speech is anything but improvised. The metrical structure of a poem can accommodate the apparent hesitations and spontaneities of ordinary speech, but at the same time fix them as parts of a carefully structured artefact. Consider what happens when syntax crosses the space between two poetic lines, an effect known 28 TEXTUALISM I: POETRY s enjambment. A classic ex ample of this occurs in the opening lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste The implied pause at the line ending might suggest, on Milton’s part, a slight moment of indecision: is he thinking of the figurative ‘fruit’ (that is, the result and consequences) of man’s disobedience, or the literal fruit of the act of disobedience? He chooses the latter. The placing of the word might also be interpreted as the complete opposite of fleeting indecision.The tension between the actuality of the fruit and the uncertain consequences of eating it is a fundamental theme of the poem, and Milton encodes this tension within the form of the poem even before its narrative begins. In non-poetic language the progress of syntax can be influenced by a number of external factors: an act or verbal interruption by someone else, the uncertainty of the speaker or the fraught circumstances of the speech act: known in stylistics as the pragmatic or functional registers of language.For example, conversations often consist of broken, incomplete syntactic units because both speakers are contributing to the same discourse, which will also involve a shared non-verbal frame of reference: ‘Look at this, its†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ ‘Well, it’s big enough’, ‘Whoa, sorry. ’ ‘It’s OK, it’ll clean up. ’ In poetry apparent hesitations or disturbances of syntax are a function of the carefully planned, integrated structure of the text. The ability of poetry to absorb and recontextualize the devices and registers of non-poetic language is evident also in its use of diction, vocabulary, and phrasing.The social or local associations of particular words or locutionary habits TEXTUALISM I: POETRY 29 can be carried into a poem but their familiar context will be transformed by their new structural framework. In Tony Harrison’s V ( 1985) the poet converses in a Leeds cemetery with an imagined skinhead whose hobbies include the spraying of graffiti on to gravestones: ‘Listen cunt! ’ I said, ‘Before you start your jeering The reason why I want this in a book ’s to give ungrateful cunts like you a hearing! ’ A book, yer stupid cunts not worth a fuck.The diction and idiom of both speakers is working class and Northern, but this specific, locative resonance is itself contained within a separate language, with its own conventions: each regional idiomatic flourish is confidently, almost elegantly, reconciled to the demands of the iambic pentameter and the quatrain. The realistic crudity of the language is juxtaposed with the controlled irony of Harrison’s formal design: the skinhead’s real presence is appropriated to the unreal structure of the poem, involving the internal and external rhymes, ‘book’ and ‘fuck’.In a broader context, the language of working-class Leeds is integrated with the same stanzaic structure used by Gray in his ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’, in which the poet similarly appropriates the voice of a ‘hoary-headed swain’. Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, ‘Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn Brushing with hasty steps the dews away To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.Gray’s and Harrison’s language and experience are centuries and worlds apart—the diction of the hoary-headed individual is rather more delicate than that of his skinheaded counterpart—but their differences are counterpointed against their enclosure within the same ahistorical stanzaic framework. 30 TEXTUALISM I: POETRY This tendency for poetry to represent and at the same time colonize the habits of non-poetic discourse is a paradox that has taxed poets and critics—most famously in Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1798).Wordsworth rails agai nst the stultifying poeticization of ordinary language, of how the conventions and style of eighteenth-century verse had dispossessed poetry of the ‘real language of men’. But while he advocates a new kind of poetic writing he concedes that poetry must announce its difference in a way that will ‘entirely separate the composition from the vulgarity and meanness of ordinary life’. In short, although poetry should be about ‘ordinary life’ it must by its very nature be separate from it. D. H.Lawrence’s poems in the Nottinghamshire dialect, Robert Burns’s and Hugh MacDiarmid’s use of Scots idiom, grammar and diction emphasize region and very often class, but no matter where the words come from or what social or political affiliations they carry, they are always appropriated and acted upon by the internal structures of poetry. Wordsworth’s desire to separate poetry from the Vulgarity and meanness of ordinary life’ s ounds suspiciously elitist and exclusive, and there is evidence of this in the work of a number of our most celebrated poets.In Part II of The Waste Land (1922) Eliot represents the speech patterns and, so he assumes, the concerns of working-class women: Now Albert’s coming back, make yourself a bit smart. He’ll want to know what you done with that money he gave you To get yourself some teeth. We will be expected to note the difference between this passage and the sophisticated command of metre and multicultural references of the poem’s principal male voice, Tiresias. With whom would we associate T. S. Eliot? Tiresias or the women?The sense of poetry as carrying social and political allegiances (principally male, white, English, middle class, TEXTUALISM I: POETRY 31 educated) has prompted acts of stylistic revolution. William Carlos Williams in the free verse of Spring and All and Paterson (1946–58) effectively discards those conventions of rhyme and metr e that restrict his use of ordinary American phrasing and vocabulary (see pp. 154–7 for examples). Linton Kwesi Johnson makes the structure of his poems respond to the character of his language. But love is just a word; give it MEAN IN thruHACKSHAN. ‘MEANIN’ and ‘HACKSHAN’ are words appropriated from ‘standard’ English by West Indians, and the fact that Johnson has used poetry to emphasize their ownership is significant. The unusual concentrations and foregroundings of poetry can unsettle just as much as they can underpin the allegiances and ideologies of diction and vocabulary. CRITICAL METHODS So far I have considered three principal characteristics of poetry and the

Perception of Power essays

Perception of Power essays There is a remarkable difference in the way people raised with power and those raised without power are perceived. This difference provides striking tension between these two classes of people. This tension is illustrated in both Frederick Douglasss speech What to the slave is the Fourth of July? in Negotiating Difference, and The House of the Seven Gables. In The House of Seven Gables, it is implied that Clifford killed one of his fellow Pyncheons. However, due to his family having high stature and his cousin being a judge, he was simply sentenced to life imprisonment rather than death. The young man was tried and convicted of the crime; but either the circumstantial nature of the evidence, and possibly some lurking doubt in the breast of the executive, or, lastlyan argument of greater weight in a republic than it could have been under a monarchythe high respectability and political influence of the criminals connections, had availed to mitigate his doom from death to perpetual imprisonment. (7G, 26) Clifford ends up getting out of prison after spending thirty years locked away. The readers are not directly told that he was in jail; we must simply gather from the information given that the said young man in the quote is, in fact, Clifford. Without the connections that Clifford had, being a young man of opportunity, he would have undoubtably been either sentenced to death or life in prison. How he came to be released after merely thirty years is to anyones guess, but it is assumed that his so-called connections found a way for his early release. When Colonel Pyncheon died, he left a great fortune to his heirs. He also left somewhat of a legacy about a portion of land in Maine called Waldo County, where supposedly the Indians had sold him land. However, the documentation of this prophecy was nowhere to be found. His son had little of the power and ability he...

Critique of the Article To Twitter or not to Twitter

Critique of the Article To Twitter or not to Twitter Robert W. Lucky’s article titled â€Å"To Twitter or not to Twitter† discusses the dilemma that older internet users find themselves. Lucky (2010) seeks to share his dilemma on whether or not to join the social networking site. The main argument is that age is the key factor in determining the use of Twitter. Lucky (2010) targets a broad audience but has a bias for the older generation. Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Critique of the Article â€Å"To Twitter or not to Twitter† specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The article appeals to his contemporaries since the discussion relates to issues they are struggling with, while the younger generation will find some historical value in it and a feel of the perspective the older generation has on their use of Twitter. The author succeeds in sharing his dilemma with his audience. The article starts by defining Twitter and describing how it works , based on the author’s perspective. This part informs the sections of the audience who may not have interacted with Twitter, thereby putting them on the same page as the rest. The author then delineates between the younger and the older generation. He refers to the younger generation as â€Å"digital natives† (Lucky, 2010, p. 245). This means that they grew up with technology as part of their daily experience. On the other hand, he refers to the older generation as â€Å"digital immigrants† who have adapted to the technological changes in the recent years (Lucky, 2010, p. 245). The author then goes on to share personal experiences with younger persons in meetings. He provides a narrative on how they affected his thinking. The paper concludes by questioning the relevance of Twitter to the older generation in rational terms, but leaves room for the audience to arrive at their own conclusions regarding the use of Twitter. The article had two distinct strengths. T he first one is that the author succeeds in communicating to a broad audience. The distinction between the digital natives and digital immigrants invites both age groups to the discussion. While the article relates the struggles of the digital immigrants, it gives stories that digital natives are familiar. The use of technical terms comes with special care. At the introduction, there is a full description of what Twitter is, and how it works. Inside the body, there are descriptions for the terms â€Å"digital native† and â€Å"digital immigrant† (Lucky, 2010, p. 245). This makes the article informative for the older generation, while it makes it entertaining for the younger generation who may find it amusing that there is need to describe how Twitter works. The second key strength of the article is that it succeeds in demonstrating the role of age in the use of Twitter. In the latter sections, the discussion on whether to use Twitter in a forthcoming industry meeting provides an interesting look at the purpose Twitter serves for the two generations. The digital natives use it for social networking while the older one seems to try to find a way to use it for professional applications. Advertising Looking for critical writing on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The author does not see the point in someone posting on Twitter that they are now awake. It does not seem to add any value to the audience viewing that Tweet. However, the story of the authors’ acquaintance who says that after using Twitter for a week he felt â€Å"a sense of connectedness† illustrates the author point, which is that Twitter serves a social purpose (Lucky, 2010, p. 246). In addition, the author demonstrates that there is a cultural dimension to technology since the digital natives are part of an online culture and find expression in it by â€Å"inhabiting multiple identities, living a culture of sharing and by peer collaboration† (Lucky, 2010, p. 245). The effort to sustain the interest of a wide audience creates one of the fundamental flaws of the article. After the introductory sections, the author struggles to maintain a voice fitting for the entire audience. The details of the author’s personal disagreement with a young conference speaker alienate digital natives. The speaker, as a representative of the digital natives in the context of the article, comes off as preposterous when he calls the digital immigrants, â€Å"pencil pushers† (Lucky, 2010, p. 246). The author also makes the young speaker who tweets every morning appear petty. These sections have the potential of alienating the younger sections of the author’s audience. While the author makes a good point of showing that, Twitter works differently for the different generations the choice of examples for the article paints younger users as irrational and implicates them in â€Å"pointless, incessant barking† (Lucky, 2010, p. 246). This article is successful in bringing out the main point, which is that Twitter use varies on a generational level. The tone is not patronizing. This attracts both the young and the old readers to engage. Its reflective disposition and its undecided conclusion leave the readers thinking about how they use Twitter. The author is successful in attracting the interest of a wide audience and in communicating the different ways that the generational divide influences the use of Twitter. The choice of illustrations though risks alienating the younger readers. In conclusion, the work is informative and stimulating.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Critique of the Article â€Å"To Twitter or not to Twitter† specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Reference Lucky, R. W. (2010). To Twitter Or Not to Twitter? In L. G. Kirszner, S. R. Mandell , The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas (pp. 244-246). Canada: Pearson Education.

Transition Questions on ACT English Strategies and Practice

Transition Questions on ACT English Strategies and Practice SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Transitions are one of the most common and trickiest rhetorical topics tested on the ACT English section. However, there are a couple simple rules that can make answering these questions much easier. In this post, I'll cover everything you need to know to approach all three types of transition question: Types of transitional relationships Transitions between sentences Transitions between clauses Transitions between paragraphs Key strategies for transitions on ACT English questions Feature image credit: Justin Kern, via Flickr, under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 3 Types of Transitions The ACT covers three basic transitional relationships: addition, contrast, and causation. Understanding how these relationships work will be very helpful for the test. Addition: Words like "also" and "moreover" that indicate continuation of or elaboration on a thought. Contrast: Words like "however" and "still" that introduce a conflicting point or idea. Causation: Words like "so" and "because" that indicate a causal relationship. Let's look at some examples in context: Addition: Dorian Gray couldn't be killed. In addition, he never aged. Contrast: Vanessa knew Ethan was a werewolf. However, she was unconcerned. Causation: Frankenstein's monster threatened to hurt him if he didn't build the monster a mate, so Frankenstein did as he was told. Keep in mind that not every transition falls into one of these categories. They're more what you'd call guidelines, than actual rules. Nonetheless, thinking about transitions in these terms can help you pick out the right answer on ACT English questions, as you'll see below. Transitions Between Sentences The most common type of transition question on the ACT deals with picking the correct transition word to place between two sentences. For example: Malcom and Sam were best friends. Even so, they spent every moment of the day together. Something about this transition doesn't quite make sense. "Even so" is a contrast transition, but these to sentences aren't opposed to each other: if Malcom and Sam are best friends, it makes perfect sense that they would spend every day together. Instead it would make more sense to use a causation transition, or even drop the transition word completely: Malcom and Sam were best friends. As such, they spent every moment of the day together. Malcom and Sam were best friends. They spent every moment of the day together. We're going to cover a step-by-step approach, key transition words, and some helpful ACT English tips for questions about connecting sentences. Step-by-Step Approach Let's got through how to approach sentence transition questions step-by-step: #1: Cross out the underlined word. Always start by crossing out the word that’s there. Otherwise, if it's not obviously wrong, you may be biased in favor of the original phrasing. #2: Read to the end of the sentence. You should be doing this on every question, but it's especially important here to make sure you understand how the two sentences are related to each other. #3: Does anything seem obviously necessary/correct? Sometimes you'll read the two sentences and immediately recognize what word you would use- that specific transition may not be a choice, but you can look for synonyms. #4: What type of relationship is it? Addition, contrast, or causation? If you're not sure, it can be helpful to think about whether you would connect the sentences with and (addition), but (contrast), or so/because (contrast). #5: Narrow down your choices. Once you have a sense of what you're looking for, rule out any answers that don't make sense or that aren't grammatical. #6: Plug answer into sentence to check. When you think you have the answer, plug it into the sentence and make sure the transition is logical. We'll walk through this process with an example shortly, but first let's go over some key words and strategies that you need to know. Key Words Transitions between sentences are generally conjunctive adverbs, like "however" and "furthermore," or prepositional phrases, like "for example" and "on the other hand." You can see the most common ones below, sorted by type. Introducing Sentences Addition Contrast Causation Also However Thus Moreover On the other hand As such In fact Nonetheless Therefore Furthermore Nevertheless Consequently In addition Still As a result Similarly Instead Indeed Despite this In conclusion Meanwhile In other words Finally Next Likewise Then For example As I mentioned above, not every question will involve these types of transitions. Occasionally, you'll see other phrases or adverbs, like "in general" or unfortunately," or constructions that are specific to the context. You may also see options that are grammatically incorrect. These will generally be coordinating or subordinating conjunctions (see the chart below for examples), which can't be used immediately before a comma to introduce a complete sentence. Helpful Tips Beyond the basic concepts we've discussed, there are some ACT English-specific tips that can really help you approach transition questions. If two choices are synonyms, neither is correct. If two of the words mean the same thing (they must be synonyms, not just belong to the same category), there's no way to choose between them, so neither can be correct. When you see two choices that are synonyms, rule them both out. If one of the choices omits the transition word altogether, that's usually the correct answer. Always check any answer that leaves the transition word out first- if the paragraph works without it, that's the right answer. Transition words don't necessarily come at the beginning of the sentence. Sometimes, for example, you'll see them moved into a sentence like this one. keep in mind that they must be surrounded by commas and can't be used to connect two independent clauses without a period or semicolon. Don't panic if the three categories don't apply. Not every question deals with transitions that fit into the categories outlined above. Simply use the rest of the strategy (thinking about how the two sentences are related, narrowing down choices that don't make sense, and then plugging in the answer you think is right to check) to pick out the best answer. Watch out for questions that ask for the LEAST acceptable option. Make sure to use process of elimination to rule out any answer that does work. Real ACT Practice Question We've covered a lot of material on transitions- let's put it into practice on a real ACT question. This example is a case where the transition has been shifted into the sentence, but we'll approach it in the same way. The first step is to look at the two sentences without the transition: Snowflakes form from tiny water droplets, following a specific process of chemical bonding as they freeze, which results in a six-sided figure. The rare "triangular" snowflake confounded scientists for years because it apparently defied the basic laws of chemistry. Does an obvious transition jump out at you? Not really. On to the next question! How are these sentences related to each other? The first sentence describes how snowflakes are formed. The second brings up a seeming exception to that rule. This relationship is contrasting. Rule out answers that don't work. "Additionally" and "similarly" are too similar to choose between, so both must be wrong. "For example" doesn't make sense, since the second sentence is actually about an exception to the rule laid out in the first, not an example of it. Plug in the remaining choice. We have only "however," which is a contrast transition, left. Let's try it out in context: Snowflakes form from tiny water droplets, following a specific process of chemical bonding as they freeze, which results in a six-sided figure. The rare "triangular" snowflake, however, confounded scientists for years because it apparently defied the basic laws of chemistry. That transition makes sense, so J must be the correct answer. Image credit: Arjan Almekinders, via Flickr, under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Transitions Between Clauses Questions dealing with transitions between clauses are very similar to those about transitions between sentences, so you can use the same approach. However, these questions involve a different set of transition words: coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. Connecting Clauses Addition Contrast Causation And But So Yet Because Unless Since While As Though Such that Although Whereas Otherwise You may see questions that mix up the different types of transitions and attempt to use a conjunction for connecting clauses to introduce a sentence or a conjunctive adverb to connect two clauses- these answers will be incorrect. Issues with transitions between clauses may also be tested in conjunction with correctly connecting independent clauses, so watch out for punctuation as well. (For more details on connecting independent clauses, check out our post on run-ons and fragments.) Let's use the strategy above to answer a real ACT example that asks about transitions between clauses: First we have to look at the underlined word and answer choices and recognize that these subordinating conjunctions, so this a question about connecting clauses and not sentences. Next, let's cut out the current transition word and break the sentence into its two component clauses (I'm also going to eliminate the descriptor at the end for simplicity): There's not much chance that a seven-year-old just learning the game can hit a pitched baseball The umpire puts the ball on top of a stationary tee Does an obvious transition jump out at you? I would use "so" or "because" to connect these two ideas. How are these sentences related to each other? Those transitions jump out at me because the idea in the first clause (that a seven-year-old can't hit a pitched baseball) clearly leads to the solution in the second (putting the ball on a tee). This connection is a causal relationship. Rule out answers that don't work. Neither "while" nor "although" can work because they're interchangeable (and both contrast transitions). "Unless" doesn't make sense. Plug in the remaining choice. Process of elimination leaves only "since," which is a causation transition. Looking at the sentence as written, we can see that it makes sense, so A is the correct answer. Transitions Between Paragraphs The final type of transition question deals with transitions between paragraphs. Rather than asking about a specific word or phrase, these usually deal with full sentences and will be phrased similarly to the following examples: Given that all of the choices are true, which one would most effectively introduce the main idea of this paragraph? Which of the following sentences offers the best introduction to this paragraph? The exact phrasing may vary, but these types of questions always ask about "transition" or "introduction." Step-by-Step Approach Because it's impossible to predict the content of an entire paragraph, it's vital that you use process of elimination for questions that ask about transitions between paragraphs. Here's a step-by-step approach to help you narrow down your choices. #1:Pay attention to what the question is asking for. Though many of these questions simply ask for the sentence that provides the best transition or introduction, some may give a more specific. Make sure to read the question carefully and think about what it's asking. #2: Read into the paragraph at least a couple of sentences. Ideally, you'll read the whole paragraph before answering transition questions, but you absolutely must read at least one sentence after the first to get a sense of the context. #3: Keep in mind types of transitional relationships. Though most of these questions don't involve transition words, it can still be helpful to consider whether there's a clear contrasting or causal relationship. #4: Look for anything that needs to be introduced because it's referred back to later in the paragraph. In the subsequent sentences, look out for pronouns like this and these that reference ideas or nouns that need to be introduced in the first sentence. This will often be the best hint for the correct answer. #5: Narrow down the choices. Rule out answers that don’t make sense or don’t fit with the general tone of the passage. #6: Plug in the sentence you think works best. When you've eliminated three choices, read the last answer in context and check that it makes sense. Not all of these steps will apply to every question- the important thing is to think about these ideas as you work to rule out choices. Real ACT Practice Question Let's walk through how to approach a paragraph transition question from a real ACT. What is the question asking for? The best transition between the paragraphs. Read both paragraphs. The first paragraph describes Quezada's discovery of and interest in the ancient pots. The second paragraph details his attempts to recreate them. Is there anything referenced later in the paragraph that needs to be introduced? The sentence that currently opens the paragraph mentions "the clay" without really explaining which clay it's talking about. Narrow down choices. We can immediately rule out F, because it's about the town and not the pottery, which is the topic of these two paragraphs. G and J are both relevant to the topic of the ancient pottery, but neither makes sense as a transition. The patterns are initially described earlier in the passage, and Quezada's painting doesn't come up until later in the second paragraph. Plug in the remaining option. Let's look at the passage with H, the only remaining option, plugged in. Fascinated by geometric designs, Quezada wondered if he could make pots like these. Quezada began working with clay from the mountains. He dug the clay, soaked it, and tried to shape it into a pot. The underlined sentence makes sense as a transition, so H is the correct answer. Image credit: Carlos Bryant, via Flickr, under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Summary of Key Strategies for Transitions on ACT English Though transition questions can vary pretty widely, you should always use process of elimination to narrow down the possibilities. I've rounded up the most important tips from the in depth discussion above. Consider the type of transitional relationship. Thinking about how the sentences or paragraphs are related to each other is key to understanding how best to transition between them. Read the question carefully. Any time there's a written out question, make sure you know what it's asking for- don't make assumptions. Similarly, make sure you always read enough of the passage to understand the context. Use multiple choice to your advantage: If two answers are synonyms, neither is correct. If one answer has no transition word, that’s usually the correct one. Plug in the answer you think is best to check. Always make sure that an answer makes in context. If nothing else, this technique will help keep you from picking answers that indicate the right type of transition, but don't fit into the sentence grammatically. What's Next Transitions are sometimes tested in conjunction with sentence structure and punctuation, so make sure you read our complete guide to commas and our post on other punctuation marks. If you're struggling with the rhetorical skills questions, take a look at our guides on redundancy and author technique. For more big picture strategies, be sure you know the best way to approach ACT English passages and the 5 critical concepts you need to ace the test. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this English lesson, you'll love our program. Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial: