ECC Recess Alert (Next Week)

Hello Class, 

The assigned midterms will be due once we know our return date or the date we go fully online. If we go fully online at that point, it will be submitted through Moodle. So get to know how to use Moodle. 

We will be in recess all next week, on Thursday March 19th we will know more about what will happen beginning the week of March 23. 

Please pay attention to any alerts sent by the college. 

Prof. O’Connell

NO CLASS MONDAY 3/2

Hi Class,

I have to cancel class today because of an emergency with my daughter. I am on campus now and will put signs on the classroom doors.


We will start the film on Wednesday and I will have your essays for you.

Thanks for understanding.

Prof. O'Connell

"Learning to Read and Write"

“I consoled myself with the hope that I should one day find a good chance [to escape]. Meanwhile, I would learn to write” (231).

This quote is found toward the end of the essay but it is thesis of the whole piece. Everything leads to this idea.

Curse or blessing?

“I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy” (230).

Learning to read opened his eyes up to freedom and made him realize that he was a “slave for life,” which he viewed as his wretched condition.

“In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity…I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing my self dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed ‘(230).

When is knowing the truth of a situation actually harmful? Is it sometimes better to be left in the dark? What would be an example of this?

The more you know the more trouble you can get into.

The Mistress:

She completely changes as a result of her involvement with slavery. Douglass's states that slavery was as bad for the slaveholder as it was for the slave. Previously pious, sweet, kind, and tolerant, Mrs. Auld began to exercise her power as a slaveholder. Her better nature was completely altered. She embraced her husband's command to cease instructing Douglass, and overcompensated for it by brutally and methodically trying to prohibit Douglass from any interaction with the written word. 

Consider the basic skills of literacy — learning to read and write…a path to freedom.

“I used also to carry bread with me, enough of which was always in the house, and to which I was always welcome; for I was much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood. This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge.” (surprising fact: the house slave sometimes had better nutrition than poor whites)

           

English 101

 

          

 

Introduction…NO QUOTES

The introduction should start with a general discussion of your subject and lead to a very specific statement of your main point, or thesis. Include title and author of primary texts. The thesis should tell in one (or at most two) sentence(s), what your overall point or argument is, and briefly, what your main body paragraphs will be about.

Conclusion…NO QUOTES

Your conclusion begins with a restatement of your main point; but be sure to paraphrase, not just repeat your thesis sentence. Tie your main points together about the issues and primary texts you wrote about in your essay.

When you are quoting the text (which you will have to do three times for each in class essay, midterm and the final, follow this layout:

You would first use your own words and then use the quote to back up your point. Let’s say you are trying to back up the idea that the moon is purple and the author supports that idea. “The moon is of course purple” (Last name 37). You would then follow this up with more of your own words.

In “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass,  Douglass explains different methods he used to learn to read and write. For this essay, pick three methods he used in order to do so. 

Mistress teaches him the alphabet 

He traces his master’s school work 

He trades bread for help reading the signs he sees at the port

He tricks other children into showing him how to write letters and words he sees 

“In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity”

“I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched conditions, without the remedy.” (Douglass 262).

Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm” (263).

No Class Thursday Jan 30

No Class Thursday Jan 30

I’m going to the doctor to find out if I have the flu.

We will make up the essay on Monday.