...understand this concept we must look at the purpose of midrashic methodology and how it works. In doing this we will be looking at Midrash Rabbah for the Book of Genesis or Bereshit. Midrash Rabbah contains two interpretations of the account of creation, which will allow us to better analyze midrashic methodology. Unlike the Talmud or Zohar, midrash does not refer to a single text but a type of text. In Back to the Sources, Barry Holtz defines midrash as, first, “(deriving from the Hebrew root ‘to search out’) is the process of interpreting. The object of interpretation is the Bible or, on occasion, other sacred texts; second, Midrash refers to the corpus of work that has collected these interpretations.” (Holtz, p.178) Midrash interprets in both halachic and aggadic aspects. As we learned in the Efron text, The Jews, halacha refers to text discussing civil and religious law. Although really all law was seen as religious, there wasn’t a specific separation between what we look at today as civil and religious respectively. Aggadah on the other hand is a nonlegal text of rabbinical Judaism that is more theological or ethics based. What does this mean for midrash? A midrash will look at biblical text and interpret its meaning in both legal and nonlegal ways. Midrash is able to account for the gaps in biblical text by giving an interpretation of what may have been meant, which is why there are also different interpretations of the same piece of text. A great example of this is pointed...
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...fine. Quentin Yeah, and I really needed this study session, too. I’m a little anxious about my current writing assignment. Maybe I can create a computer program so that my paper writes itself! I could really use some help like that. Student Text Bubble Writing for college courses sure is challenging. Gabby It’s challenging, but the reward is well worth the effort. Quentin, you should take your assignment seriously. I’ve found that, in my classes as well as in my marketing and communications field, the quality of your writing really matters. Alicia Gabby’s right. Lots of people fear the writing process, but as long as you’re enthusiastic and positive about it, you’ll be successful. And Quentin, if you need help, just use the CWE. Student Text Bubble What is the CWE? Alicia It’s the University’s Center for Writing Excellence. You can access it through the University Library. The site offers a variety of resources to help you through the college writing process successfully. Gabby There’s something for everyone. They even have an English Language Learners section. Student Text Bubble Sounds like the CWE has a lot of resources for writing help. Alicia Why don’t we take a look?...
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...SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO WRITE A TEXTUAL ANALYSIS What are you seeking to achieve in analysing a text? The answer is a heightened awareness of the intention of the author and appreciation of the merits of the text in terms of quality. A good analysis proves the student has undertaken a detailed critical reading of the text and understood its finer points. A commentary/textual analysis should be interesting to read and not merely state the obvious, it should be written in clear language in a neutral register and have an introduction which sets out how you are going to go about analysing the text. It should also have a conclusion. It might help to follow the following points. 1. Read the text carefully several times and jot down every idea which comes to mind. 2. Look for the main points in the passage and list them. 3. Look for the underlying intention of the author: is he seeking to be didactic, critical etc. What does the language reveal about the writer? Look for examples in the text to justify your point of view. 4. How effective is the author in achieving his aim, and what tools does he use to achieve it? Is there a clear logic to the text? Look carefully at the way in which the ideas are linked. Look also at the use of tenses. Does the author use humour, irony? 5. What type of reader is the author appealing to? Find examples to justify your argument ie what register does the author use, are there quotations etc., does he assume a certain...
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...Open a book and explore the language -A text about using picture books with young language learners. There are picture books with short texts and books with longer texts, the variety of books seem endless and are for all ages. The traditional interpretation of picture books is that they are for younger people. This is in contrast to Birketveit & Williams (2013), who says several books also are for older pupils and adults. Indeed, they are authentic and an excellent way to use for grammar exercises and language learning. The knowledge promotion under basic skills: “Being able to read in English means the ability to create meaning by reading different types of text. It means reading English language texts to understand, reflect on and acquire insight and knowledge across cultural borders and within specific fields of study. This further involves preparing and working with reading English texts for different reason sand of varying lengths and complexities”. (Kunnskapsdepartementet 2013). For many pupils, the picture book represents the first meeting of authentic literature; also reading stories introduces them to the complex nature of language and helps them learn important language skills. Characteristics of a picture book Picture books are multimodal texts that are composed of one or more meaningful...
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...a piece of text Question 2: analysing presentational features Question 3: analysing the feelings/meaning of a text Question 4: comparing/contrasting two texts Question 5: writing to inform/describe/explain (although the question could ask you to do both) Question 6: writing to persuade/argue Question 1: Inferences from the source The first type of question tests your understanding of a text. To answer this well you need to do two things: 1. Find the information the question asks for. 2. Explain why the information you have chosen answers the question. The key skill tested here is how to summarise an argument. For this you need to identify what the text is about and then decide if the writer thinks the topic is a good or a bad thing. You can do this by looking at: • The heading or title - this should help you decide on the main subject of the text. • Vocabulary - the kinds of words (nouns) used to give information will also indicate a particular subject. For example, an article about global warming will include words such as "environmentalist, carbon footprint, greenhouse gasses and sustainability". • Attitude - adjectives and intensifiers should tell you what the writer thinks about their subject. Look for words like "totally brilliant, absolutely ridiculous, complete nonsense, straight forward common sense". • Argument - the author will use points to develop their argument. Look for discourse markers - phrases such as "on the contrary, what is more, and...
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...Semester A Unit 3 Lesson 8 Introduction and Objective You have learned about central idea but how do you determine exactly what the text is about? We know you can look at the title and headings. But what else? What is provided in the text? Details are provided. These details are important. Today's lesson objective is: students will be able to use evidence from a text to determine what the text says explicitly. Think about some of the learning skills we have used to determine central idea. Would any of these be useful when determining explicit textual information? We could probably make a list of details in the text and analyze the text to see how the author uses structure. Open your digital notebook and describe your strategy and the...
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...you. The most effective way of coping with the volume of reading and of understanding and remembering what you read is by adopting active reading strategies. These strategies involve reading selectively, thinking about what you read and making informed choices in the use of reference sources. ACTIVE READING STRATEGIES In order to increase your reading speed, comprehension and retention you can adopt the following active reading strategies: • Read with a purpose in mind • Adjust your reading speed to suit the purpose • Preview the text before close reading • Look for main ideas in each paragraph • Use prior knowledge to understand new concepts • Study new words in context • Choose suitable dictionary sources READ WITH A PURPOSE It is not always necessary to read closely everything in the textbook or other assigned reading when you are completing an assignment. Close reading of academic texts is a slow, time-consuming activity so you need to be selective and read closely only the sections which are relevant to your task. To determine which sections are relevant you need to analyse the assignment question. You can then use speed-reading techniques to locate the relevant text quickly. Analyse the Assignment Question In order to determine what the assignment is about and therefore which areas you need to cover in your reading, look for key words in the assignment topic. Look at the following assignment question: Explain how notions of gender inform the way in which people...
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...Christians), and the Muslims. Texts giving insight to these views include: Pope Urban at Clermont by Fulcher of Chartres, The Alexiad by Anna Comnena, The Damascus Chroncile by Ibn al-Qalanisi, The Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders by Raymond of St. Giles, and The Conquest of Jerusalem by Ibn Al-Athir. Even though the idea of the first Crusade is clear, the reason why many ‘crusaded’ has to do with many different reasons and many different people. These texts describe views on Muslim accounts, Byzantine, and Frank accounts of how the Crusade affected them. One of the different people involved was the Franks. Out of the three so-called people of the first Crusade the Franks had the most to win. If they were to gain the Holy Land, that would give them more land to rule which was probably highly favored in the eyes of kings, nobles, and vassals. In Pope Urban II eyes this gives him a chance to extend the church’s power. So when the Byzantine Empire asked for help against Turks, the idea of a crusade was imminent. Urban II stated in Fulcher of Chartres, “Manifold evils were growing in all parts of Europe because of wavering faith” (Reilly 354). This text gives reason for a crusade to lift up the church and bring spiritual life as high regard. At first this looks fine and dandy, but there could be more reasoning behind it. Underneath, the crusade could have been merely a vehicle to make the church supreme over secular power and uphold the church. The text doesn’t exactly make it clear...
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...they don’t like. When they look at themselves in the mirror, the first thing they say is not ‘’I look so pretty today!’’, but ‘’I want to lose some weight’’, even if they don’t. Young people compare themselves to the beautiful people in the magazines, and think that they have to look like them to look ‘’normal’’. Many teenagers want to correct their body with plastic surgery, even if they are not mature yet. The two texts ‘’Plastic surgery for teens’’ written by Valerie Ulene and ‘’Seeking Self-Esteem Through Surgery’’ written by Camille Swenney, illustrates how teenagers and their parents feel about plastic surgery 1. Give an outline of the various views on plastic surgery for teenagers which are presented in text 1 and 2. Cosmetics surgery has come to our modern society, and adolescents and teenagers use it very well, while they don’t know much about the consequences and how plastic surgery hurts the body, and even not help with one’s bad self-confidence. According to Diane Zuckerman in the text ‘’Plastic Surgery for teens´’ by Valerie Ulene, youngsters consider images of men and women who have had done plastic surgery as beautiful, or even worse, they think it is the ideal body image and they want to fit the mole. The text says that cosmetic surgery may not be appropriate for adolescents. It seems ridiculous to fix your look before you are mature. According to the text, teenagers take every imperfection seriously, and that can influence what they think of themselves...
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...Essay 4 29 10 14 Montana Meth PSA In this image one can see that there is a girl lying on the floor as if she was in distress. The girl in the photo looks as if she is high off drugs and there is a man grabbing her shoulder trying to have sexual relations with her. This PSA is a great example of struggle and how certain things get down played that are serious. The drug that the girl has been using is called Meth, also known as Methamphetamine. Methamphetamine is a synthetic stimulant that affects a human’s central nervous system (Meth Project). Teenagers0 that think drugs are acceptable need to take this photo into consideration and really understand it because drugs are extremely harmful to your body. This Montana Meth PSA uses pathos and a use of color, text, and body language to show the endangerment when students are using illegal drugs. While looking at a PSA color plays a big part because it has to draw the audience attention as best as possible, so teens can understand what they are getting themselves into. “Colors connect to our feelings in a unique and memorable way, which makes them a powerful marketing tool to keep in mind (Color is Important)”. Humans tend to notice color first before they read any type of text in anything because a color is an attention getter. In the Montana Meth PSA, the man that looks to be assisting her is wearing a red flannel. The color red in advertising can come off as danger while viewing certain things (Color Wheel Pro). Red is...
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...What is Critical Theory?DefinitionGenerally, Critical Theory is a broad approach to challenging and destabilizing established knowledge.In a more focused sense, Critical Theory comes out of the German 'Frankfurt School,' (who called it Critical Theory of Society or Critical Social Theory)which emphasizes that all knowledge is historical and biased, and that 'objective' knowledge is illusory.DiscussionCritical Theory starts from Marx and Freud and expands through the 20th century to cover areas such as literary criticism, linguistics, semiotics, psychology, philosophy, feminism, screen theory, and includes methods such as structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction and postmodernism.Critical Theory is such a huge area, it is almost impossible to cover it in total depth. This section is based on an extension of a study done as a part of a postgraduate university course in psychology. | What is literary criticism? Literary criticism has multiple functions. It is used as a vehicle to interpret or analyze various types of literature, including poetry, novels, and plays. There are many different types, or schools, of literary criticism that can be applied to works of literature. Critical essays are the most common form of literary criticism, and they are generally found in scholarly journals or in books of collected essays or anthologies. In effect, literary criticism explores different possible meanings that a text may have. Criticism may look at an idea in a single text or may...
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...This e-Book must not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronically, by photocopying or recording unless written permission is obtained from the author. This e-Book was written in 2005/2006 and all information is/was correct at the time of writing. The author accepts no responsibility for any liabilities caused by reading this information. This e-Book is meant for informational purposes only. Every attempt has been made to ensure that the information provided within this e-Book is accurate, however the author, resellers and affiliates cannot assume responsibility for any inaccuracies within this document. ©2006 Dan Thompson – All Rights Reserved -2- Basic HTML by El Passo Books v2.0 -- Chapter 1-What is HTML? HTML stands for "Hyper Text Mark-up Language" HTML is the bricks and mortar of the WWW. Without HTML the World Wide Web could not have become as important as it is today. HTML is a document formatting language common the all computers on the WWW. html permits cross platform communication between Macs, Apples, SUNs, PCs and others to view a document in a similar way. Every webpage that you visit uses HTML in some way, you can view the HTML code behind a website in Internet Explorer by selecting: View > Source ©2006 Dan Thompson – All Rights Reserved -3- Basic HTML by El Passo Books v2.0 -- Chapter 2-Your first code HTML has two sections, the "Head" section and the "Body" section. The head section is where the information about the web page is put...
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...beginning of my college class reading 091 we distinguished what a passive and active reader are and which type of reader we were ourselves. In the process, we learned how we best learned and what type of learner, we were, I was a logical learner, which meant I used reasoning and systems to think and build conclusions to learn. This class helped me build knowledge, comprehensions skills, and distinguished how to apply what I know from a text to analyze and evaluate it to better understand what I was reading. I know that as freshmen this year you might think college is difficult which it is but do not get discouraged because the work you put into school you get back and build from. Reading 091 is a stepping stone to your future....
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...Summary of text 1”Body Image” The text describes what the word “Body Image” means and how it effect young people. Young people self-image is about how they feel and how they look. It is often based on surrounding environment and often a bit twisted. The text explains what happens too kids when they reach the teen years. They become more aware of how they look. Sometimes they may not feel confident about themselves. This leads to things like depression, eating disorders or even plastic surgery. It also focus on the fact that it is not only a girl problem, it happens to boys as well. The text blames the media for the young people’s behaviour. The media teach young people to change the way that they look. The reason why super models are famous is because they look unique. Movies and music videos often use supermodels and it understandable that the young girls and boys are influenced in a bad way. The girls used in those music videos or movies often have big boobs thin hips and a perfect little Barbie face, and the boys have broad shoulders, abs. It makes the young people change the way they look. The girls use a lot of makeup, plastic surgery, starving themselves and exercise a lot. Some of the boys begin to use steroids over-exercise and eat abnormal meals to reach the perfect body type. Many of those things is unhealthy for the young kids because they are not fully-grown. The text also blames the internet for showing an unrealistic picture of the perfect body and young. Stuff...
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...competition for her love in the Valley with Brom Bones. The text and the movie are fairly accurate in comical depiction of the Hudson Valley and Sleepy Hallow. The movie and text are accurately correct with the reasons of its depiction of the relationship between Ichabod and Katrina, the location of where the story took place, and understand what both the movie and text are trying to capture just in different forms. Ichabod’s profession was that of a choir master which is where he was meet Katrina Van Tassel. In his eyes, she was young; “plump as a partridge;...
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