When did reading become a thing to hate?
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Biblical reference. Philistines fought with the Caananites, and hence were held in disdain by (and had their name become a derogatory term to) their eventual conquerors. Funnily enough, it's thought likely (now) that the Philistines were actually more technologically advanced than the Caananites.
As far as English as a subject is concerned, I was never a fan of "subjective" classes; give me calculus and physics any day (as a countryman of mine once said, "All science is physics or stamp collecting"). Though admittedly, physics becomes less objective/ more subjective the further you go with it.
As your teaches have no doubt told you, visit http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/schoolcertificate/ [this] website. If you live in NSW (I'm guesing you are) do these tests twice a day 3 weeks before the test. Work on what your best at. Study over your History and science Books to learn facts but the other books arn't so important as most of the questions are general information. The math Questions are usually closer to puzzles than anything you might have seen in tests before. English is mostly comprehension and analysis of sort texts and then some creative writing (usually). Know your english techniques and how to write an essay/story/review and you should be fine. I doubt many people here will have problem with your english test. Your science test will mostly be on Scientific Puzzles based around what you've learnt. The best way to study for this is to read over what you have learnt and try doing the previous tests an re reading your books.stompy said:
You might want to have a try at the tests now but I wouldn't worry about them for a while yet.
i disagree with fire.stompy said:
get drunk lots and sleep in, if your doing Y 12, then enjoy the one year your exams count for shit and get wasted at every opportunity, its your last true chance to waste time at school, live it up, and appreciate it, nothing brings home how much you love the place like 6 moths left, then knuckle down having got it out of your system, sure, take notes and keep tabs, but don't waste Y 10, its a beautiful opportunity enjoy yourself.
i cant stress this enough, you only live once, and having a bundle of regrets leaving school... sucks...
come back to fire's plan in 12 months, it's a good'un... not a fun'un
(this is not the opinion of some party-loving brickhead who plans to fail school, its the opinion of someone who does well, but wishes he had spent more time enjoying himself.)
also the SC is so piss easy you can wing them, i did, none under a band 5... you sound smart.
Or just learn the art of delivery. You can say virtually anything in an English essay (at least in an AS english essay) and get high marks, as long as it is delivered in an interesting/conclusive/well-supported fashion. That is not 'subjectivity', that is the material actually marked (i.e: delivery rather than content, because content will always be subjective wheras delivery is less so).
On a lighter note, I will now wheel out a gargantuan list of some of the books I have enjoyed over the years:
Magician (and most of the follow on books) R. E. Feist
Forever War, J. Haldeman (antithesis of Heinlein, and a brilliant anti-war war story)
The entire discworld series, (special metion going to the city watch sub-series)
Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
1984 and Animal Farm, G Orwell
Night/Day/Twilight Watch series, S, Lubayanako (a tad unwieldy at times, but compelling reading nontheless)
His Dark Materials, P. Pullman
A Scanner Darkly, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, P. K. Dick (outstanding nightmarish future)
Foundation, I. Asimov (Blands historical parody with decent science fiction)
Stalin and His Hangmen, D. Rayfield (Perhaps moderately unbalanced, but objective history is a myth anyway)
Gullivers Travels, J. Swift (elegant satire, though the end is pretty poor)
A history of the English Working Class (finally, a history of the industrial revoltuion that does not gloss over the corruption, cruelty and barbarism)
Britian and her Army, C. Barnett (Excellent miltary history)
Biggles series, W.E Jones (childish, but good childish)
Magicians Guild, Novice and High Lord, Trudi Canavan (excellent, elegant fantasy)
Termeraire series, Naomi Novik (Outstanding historical fantasy of the Napoleonic Wars)
Mao: A life, P. Short
Mortal Engines and series,
And a few thousand more. But anyhow, to all those who loathe Shakespeare's works: Watch them performed, and performed well. You will leave that theatre loving Shakespeare to the utmost.
Also: To all those who read: Keep reading, for it makes you smart.
To those who do not: You are as thick as pig shit.
On a lighter note, I will now wheel out a gargantuan list of some of the books I have enjoyed over the years:
Magician (and most of the follow on books) R. E. Feist
Forever War, J. Haldeman (antithesis of Heinlein, and a brilliant anti-war war story)
The entire discworld series, (special metion going to the city watch sub-series)
Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
1984 and Animal Farm, G Orwell
Night/Day/Twilight Watch series, S, Lubayanako (a tad unwieldy at times, but compelling reading nontheless)
His Dark Materials, P. Pullman
A Scanner Darkly, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, P. K. Dick (outstanding nightmarish future)
Foundation, I. Asimov (Blands historical parody with decent science fiction)
Stalin and His Hangmen, D. Rayfield (Perhaps moderately unbalanced, but objective history is a myth anyway)
Gullivers Travels, J. Swift (elegant satire, though the end is pretty poor)
A history of the English Working Class (finally, a history of the industrial revoltuion that does not gloss over the corruption, cruelty and barbarism)
Britian and her Army, C. Barnett (Excellent miltary history)
Biggles series, W.E Jones (childish, but good childish)
Magicians Guild, Novice and High Lord, Trudi Canavan (excellent, elegant fantasy)
Termeraire series, Naomi Novik (Outstanding historical fantasy of the Napoleonic Wars)
Mao: A life, P. Short
Mortal Engines and series,
And a few thousand more. But anyhow, to all those who loathe Shakespeare's works: Watch them performed, and performed well. You will leave that theatre loving Shakespeare to the utmost.
Also: To all those who read: Keep reading, for it makes you smart.
To those who do not: You are as thick as pig shit.
AS level rules, finally a challenging year and makes it better that im doing it in New Zealand which means i can use case studies that the poms have nothing to do with
anyway... reading depends on how your were raised and peer pressure.
if your peers hate books you will, in an attempt to fit in hate books
anyway... reading depends on how your were raised and peer pressure.
if your peers hate books you will, in an attempt to fit in hate books
Pretty much. I dont see how having the attention span of a gnat is a good thing...then again this response is indicative of a lot of people's attitudes. People are simply not interested in stimulating their mind by reading a decent book when they can have their twitch response mechanisms excited by, say, Gears of War. In school it was as simple as getting your arse kicked if you admitted to reading for your own enjoyment. So basically until I was 18 I had to conceal my love of literature.Khell_Sennet said:
Still, the act of reading alone is not indicative of intelligence or sophistication. It all depends on what you are reading...after all, all those trash magazines about 'celebrities' do contain examples of the written word. Wayne Rooney's biography, for example, is a book, but reading it is likely to have a detrimental effect on your brain. A lot of novels written for children (J. Wilson and co.) are tripe, whilst some (such as Phillip Pulman's works) stand out as diamonds in the rough. Similarly, a lot of fantasy/sci-fi literature is essentially pants, you have to sift through the sh*t to get to the gold.
More disturbing than the unwillingness of the majority (it has to be at least 50%) to read books is the kind of books that are popular today. Celebrity biographies, pulp romance, pulp action/thrillers (ie 99% of every word written by people like Jeffry Archer and Tom Clancey) and moronic pop-psychology top the bestseller charts in every bookshop in my town (Bath, UK), with the exception of the 'clever' bookstore (recently had a book signed there by Will Self - comic genius) where all the self-aggrandizing, slightly pretentious folks, such as myself, shop (when I'm not trawling Amazon).
Bang goes my idea of trying to unite the communities. BTW, Fondant, it's "You're" in that situation.edinflames said:
I think you're right on this: there is such a thing as good literary criticism.Cheeze_Pavilion said:
But: that doesn't make what happens in your average educational institution any better. You can pour your heart and soul into an analysis, and get zero credit (because it doesn't match the key points in the teacher's book-version grading rubric. I'm not joking here. I've seen this. Bad teachers make for bitter students.) Then, your idiot classmate blows complete crap out, which hits those rubric highlights, and gets commended for it.
The easier thing is to give in to Ultrajoe's approach of just sticking to the answers that get the grades. I always swore my skill at standardized testing arose from my ability to put myself in the shoes of old, white men. Whenever I'd get to a question that was just idiotic, with no answer really conforming to how I thought about the passage (in reference to those reading comprehension sections), I'd stop and think: "It doesn't matter what I think the answer is. What would the old white man think?"
@iamnotincompliance: Spelling? Really? Useful? Read a freakin' book. Hell, watch foreign movies with subtitles. There's more to words than the order of letters and their denotations. Both of which you can pick up on the way to building your vocabulary in other ways.
Oh the irony, just kidding, love you really Fondant.Fondant said:
The thing I hate most about English class is the restrictions, I mean I'm wierd, no questions there, but when I make a good point thats different than what my teacher has told us I'll get marked down for it.
This is particularly noticeable in my religious education class, and the reason I get about 40% on those "give YOUR opinion" questions, but by your they mean give the devout Christian opinin
I'm an Xbox (note spelling) gamer, and I've been published. (As work-for-hire for now-defunct game companies, alas.) I know some exceedingly smart people on Live.... we're not all foul-mouthed hyperactives, y'know.Khell_Sennet said:
-- Steve
Ooh. I just finished a McDevitt book recently and picked up a second. Best SF I've read in years.Landslide said:
yeah I've read Moonfall, Engines of God & Deepsix by him, excellent sci fi, also kudos to whoever mentioned William Gibson especially his early stuff (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive) or for fantasy i'm a huge fan of David GemmelRuss Pitts said:
Other favourite authors include Ben Elton, Terry Pratchett, Harry Turtledove, Robert Rankin.
I tend to read alot, a book will last me between a day and a week depending on how much it grabs me.
I think they meant "stereotypical Xbox Gamer". I recall the "X-Box Live Orientation" spoofs that X-Play did on G4.stompy said:
Someone linked a couple threads from people who like to read. Honestly, I don't think reading has become "shunned" - if it was, in this age of technology the written word - one we can touch and read - would be long dead. Lots of people, even younger people, enjoy reading and I don't think it's going away anytime soon.
I just think that you're less likely to find people seriously interested in something that is "traditional" entertainment like reading or books in the anonymity of the Internet gaming world. Not all gamers hate reading, but there are a lot who would rather play games than read, or have a shorter attention span. I don't think that that is really evidence to call for the decline of civilization - just that generationally, there's more ways to entertain, and people have a lot to pick from. Well-rounded people generally like multiple forms of entertainment, and there are a lot more well-rounded people than there are people the OP talks about. Otherwise we'd all be enjoying only 1 or 2 ways to entertain ourselves rather than the 10 or 20 that are out there.
As far as books go, I have the wonderful BA in English, or as it is better known among my friends who like to rib me about it "a BA in BS". I have a lot of electic taste in books from the classics to modern stuff, although I like books that create a social commentary more than anything (Rising Sun by Crichton was good, so were dystopian novels like Brave New World by Huxley). I also don't mind the light-hearted stuff - I just got done reading "Soon I Will be Invincible" by Austin Grossman, which anyone into comics and superheroes should check out as a good read about cheesy heroics and villany, with all the punch of any reality show.
Well i don't think reading is a shunable thing in a normal (healthy) society. But in the gaming world full of barely literate people they cant think of any reson not to read other than the fact that... they cant.
stompy said:
No! Stop ruining my x-box fanboy stereotype! (I know 2 xbox fanboys, both of whom at the single mention of reading a book with go all like "lol, reading is for **gs and crap).
We are reading To Kill A Mockingbird in my English class and I am literally one of about 4 students in all 4 of her classes that is enjoying the book. I think it is amazing. Also, it's true that the majority of people I know hate reading, but thats to be expected considering I live in Granite Falls. Which rolling stone calls the meth capitol of the world. Although I can tell you that is a total lie. (http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20070927/NEWS01/709270068)
That is all.
@Ultrajoe
the thing about english class is you AREN'T taught to find the meaning in something, you are taught to regurgitate what the teacher has said, if you disagree with them, you fail the class no matter how well you argue your point.
if it was subjective then yeah i wouldn't mind answering "what did shakespeare mean in this passage?"
the issue is we aren't taught how to analyze the language, i can't count how many times i've asked someone what they're trying to say and get a blank stare or an "i don't know", most people can't even figure out some of the arguments i use and some of the odd language and words i tend to use.
what is worse is the bastardization of words we have, where people don't know the actual meanings of the words they are using. i'm not sure what causes it but it's rather sad to see our language being butchered in such a way. i tend to choose my words very carefully, i just really suck as spelling and typing correctly so i don't always use some of the words i'd like to use
the thing about english class is you AREN'T taught to find the meaning in something, you are taught to regurgitate what the teacher has said, if you disagree with them, you fail the class no matter how well you argue your point.
if it was subjective then yeah i wouldn't mind answering "what did shakespeare mean in this passage?"
the issue is we aren't taught how to analyze the language, i can't count how many times i've asked someone what they're trying to say and get a blank stare or an "i don't know", most people can't even figure out some of the arguments i use and some of the odd language and words i tend to use.
what is worse is the bastardization of words we have, where people don't know the actual meanings of the words they are using. i'm not sure what causes it but it's rather sad to see our language being butchered in such a way. i tend to choose my words very carefully, i just really suck as spelling and typing correctly so i don't always use some of the words i'd like to use