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Ballad, Porphyria's Lover, To His Coy Mistress and My Last Duchess

SamW — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:51:22 GMT

Basically, I have been set a piece of coursework: to compare the aforementioned poems. I am going for an A* piece at GCSE level, there is no particular question, just to compare the four poems. I have almost completed My Last Duchess, mentioning all the themes I can think of and reading the topics on here for extra guidance. However, I could do with some guidance on how to compare the four as a whole. I'd appreciate it if someone could help me out, heres the essay I have written thus far:

Love poetry can be manipulated to affect the reader in numerous ways; the reader can empathise with the poem, the reader can be inspired by the sentiment of the poem, the reader can attempt to emulate the actions of the characters, the consequences of reading a stirring love poem persist. One aspect that all love poetry has in common is the way in which it can engross the reader in its world and engage with their emotional side. They achieve this by using a number of devices and several genres are used to conjure up vastly varying types of emotions: anger, amorousness, longing, and disgust amongst others. One of the foremost genres is that of the dramatic monologue â in which a character delivers a speech explaining their feelings, actions or motives. I will be analysing three starkly differing dramatic monologues: âMy Last Duchessâ, âTo His Coy Mistressâ and âPorphyriaâs Loverâ. Another variation of love poetry is that of the ballad; a timeless art form that is significantly popular to this day. A ballad tells a dramatic story in a direct style, focussing on a single story; repetition is a particularly commonly used convention in ballads. Ballads are traditionally anonymous, and the poem I am analysing is no different: âBalladâ. âMy Last Duchessâ is written from the perspective of a duke who is on the verge of marrying the Countâs daughter and is conversing with the Countâs servant. His previous Duchess was murdered by the Duke himself and the speech could be interpreted as self-justification by the Duke as he attempts to defend his questionable philosophies. âBalladâ is a direct story told through the perspective of a young woman. The lady has fallen in love with a shepherd; unfortunately, it transpires that the man is dishonest. This is revealed when the shepherd impregnates the young woman and flees; his promises unfulfilled. The resolution is minimal at most, the female being left to contemplate suicide. The dramatic monologue has several different forms in itself; the two remaining poems showcase this perfectly. Despite the fact that they are completely different in theme, atmosphere and tempo, they retain the conventions of a dramatic monologue. âTo His Coy Mistressâ is a classic literary piece by Andrew Marvell. The poem is written through the eyes of a male, attempting to âswoonâ his prospective lady into falling for him and consequently, into bed. The male argues, then counter-balances his argument and then concludes, concluding that, surprisingly enough, she should go to bed with him. The last of the quartet is âPorphyriaâs Loverâ, the poem is told through the perspective of a madman sitting with his lover. Porphyria, the woman he loves, comes to his cottage and tells him she loves him. The madman wants to immortalise the moment forever, so he strangles her with her own hair. From the moment âMy Last Duchessâ begins, one can tell that the Duke is an incredibly possessive man. This is reinforced by the opening line, âThatâs my last Duchess painted on the wall.â This epitomises his attitude towards possessions of any kind. One could draw parallels with the overbearing Duke and Porphyriaâs lover, both extremely domineering and possessive. This is exemplified by the quote in âPorphyriaâs Loverâ, when the lover is on the verge of killing his woman, âThat moment she was mine, mine.â This epitomises the loverâs attitude, he is so desperate to own her that he kills her. Robert Browning conveys this obsessively possessive character by using repetition of the phrase, âmineâ. The theme of obsessive and possessive love on behalf of men is clearly at the forefront of Browningâs mind, portraying similar leading men in both of the poems. The Duke is speaking formally to a social inferior, as emphasised in this quote, âWillât please you sit and look at herâ¦Strangers like youâ¦â This insinuates that he is a polite, pleasant man who treats all social classes similarly hence making the revelation of him murdering his last Duchess all the more shocking. The domineering aspect of his character is re-enforced with the quote, âsince none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I.â This embellishes the fact that he sees himself the only one worthy of certain duties. Furthermore, he is clearly happier with the portrait of his wife, âas if aliveâ than he was with the woman when she was living. He is such an authoritarian that anything that he cannot order or control, whether it is art or people, will suffer the consequences. The poem is organised into rhyming couplets, not dissimilar to âBalladâ and âTo His Coy Mistressâ. However, âPorphyriaâs Loverâ does not use rhyming couplets; this may be due to the fact that Browning was looking for an unpredictable rhythm to reflect the unpredictable storyline. The couplets are used in the relative poems to keep a steady sense of rhythm and to keep the stories moving along at a stable pace. Moreover, Iambic pentameter is used throughout the poem to keep the poem flowing as the readers discover the gradual revelation of the speakerâs true nature. As the poem proceeds, it becomes clearer that the Duke is the epitome of excessive, aristocratic pride. This is accentuated by the quote: âAs if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybodyâs gift.â He is suggesting that she is inferior to him and should cherish the fact that she was allowed to marry him. The quote also carries connotations that he is extremely proud of his heritage and the last duchess didnât respect the name; she brought shame to the family. The line also emphasises how aloof he is, which is also supported by the ensuing line; âWhoâd stoop to blame?â He uses stoop to emphasis how lower class she was in comparison to himself. âMy Last Duchessâ uses archaic language, analogously to âBalladâ, as exemplified by the use of the phrase âforsoothâ (âHer wit to yours, forsooth, and made excuse). âBalladâ possesses a multitude of examples of such language using phrases such as âtheeâ, âthyâ and âthouâdstâ. The two poems use this anachronistic language to invoke different sentiments. âBalladâ uses antiquated language to emphasise the âtypical fairytaleâ aspect of the poem and to engage with the readers by evoking the style of older speech â it is aiming to retain the original essence of a poem. âMy Last Duchessâ uses archaism to accentuate the aloof aspect of the Dukeâs character. Despite the fact that the Duke has murdered the last Duchess, he clearly does not acknowledge, or perhaps understand, the direct consequences of his actions. This is implied heavily by the final three lines in which he points out another piece of art, a statue of Neptune â âNotice Neptune, thoughâ¦cast in bronze for me!â The exclamation mark confirms the fact that he is as proud of a statue and as excited of this Roman god as his wife. This implies that he does not realise the consequences of his actions, simply negating her as part of his collection. This sentiment is echoed in âPorphyriaâs Loverâ, in which the madman does not realise the corollary of the murder he has so harshly committed. This is supported by the phrase, âI propped her head up as before.â This statement conveys the fact that he does not recognise the significance of his actions; treating his dead love exactly the same as his living love. The two males in âTo His Coy Mistressâ and âMy Last Duchessâ may have vastly differing personalities but they both view women in a similar light. The duke and the seductive lover have a certain attitude towards women; they both see women as objects, the only difference being that they view these objects through different perspective. The Duke in âMy Last Duchessâ is a supercilious, impertinent man; his status and wealth meaning more to him than love as showcased by the line âWhoâd stoop to blame this sort of trifling?â He believes that the late Duchess was of a lower class, thus tainting their love, implying that he is more perturbed with lack of status than lack of love. He is a megalomaniac, who is jealous about his ex-wife not giving only him her attention. The speaker in "To His Coy Mistress" seems like a respectful man, the speaker is articulate - an important attribute considering he is attempting to seduce the woman. He uses his way of words to flatter her, but we then learn that he only wants her for pleasure rather than love; he adopts a false persona of love as another technique to lure her. This is exemplified by the change of tone in the first to second stanza, the second stanza assumes a threatening tenor â emphasising a void-like image to win his lady â âAnd yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternityâ. This phrase epitomises the way in which the male attempts to manipulate the woman by conjuring up images on the topic of void if she was to reject his advances. The Duke patently feels that his last Duchess did not correspond with the expectations of an archetypal Duchess. An exemplary Duchess would be cold and calculating; avoiding affection like the plague. However, the Duchess did not, in the Dukeâs eyes, demonstrate these traits, as portrayed by this quote â âShe thanked men, - good! But thanked somehowâ¦as if she ranked my giftâ¦with anybodyâs gift.â The Duke is accusing the Duchess of being too affectionate, an attribute not welcome for a Duchess. Furthermore, the Duke surmises that the Duchess is too easily pleased, as showcased by this line in the poem â âToo easily impressed; she liked whateâer she looked on.â This illustrates (in the Dukeâs opinion) the fact that she is too âfriendlyâ and easy to please, particularly when dealing with males. However, it is extremely palpable that the Duchess is simply being friendly and the Duke is unable to understand his wifeâs warm nature. This attitude is reinforced when the Duke struggles to describe his wifeâs kind-hearted personality: âShe had a heart â how shall I say â too soon made glad?â This quote illustrates the fact that he cannot understand that aspect of his wifeâs personality; he expects much colder behaviour from his Duchess. Despite the fact that the Duke is, as he put it, âdisgustedâ with the Duchessâ behaviour. She is described as a lovely free being; freedom is portrayed in the quote: âshe liked whateâer she looked on, and her looks went everywhere.â This quote depicts the Duchess as an impulsive, free soul. However, the Duchessâ free spirit is juxtaposed by the restrictive nature of the Duke as rendered by âI choose never to stoop,â and âI gave commands.â This suggests that the Duke is attempting to restrict the Duchess from being her spontaneous self. It seems that he failed and due to his authoritarian nature, he decreed that she should be murdered. The Duchess is represented as a beautiful person, both physically so and by nature. She loved nature, as emphasised by her association with the imagery of a sunset, a âbough of cherriesâ and her âwhite muleâ. The Duchess is shown as physically attractive â âthe faint half-flush that dies along her throat,â â not dissimilarly to the ladies in âTo His Coy Mistressâ and âPorphyriaâs Loverâ. The woman is clearly beautiful in the seductive poem âTo His Coy Mistressâ as conveyed by the use of doting similes (âThou by the Indian Gangesâ side shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain.â) He uses this imagery to compare her to an exotic river whereas he is an uninteresting English river. The technique is used to lavish praise upon the beautiful woman, portraying her as glamorous and beautiful; akin to the Ganges. âPorphyriaâs Loverâ uses a beautiful lady to emphasise the surprising (and brutal) nature of the death and juxtapose the madman thus creating a sense of paranoia on behalf of the lover. The gracious beauty of Porphyria is emphasised by the repetition of her âyellow hairâ and her âsmooth white shoulderâ. Beauty is used in the two murderous poems to juxtapose the leading men thus creating a sense of wonder. Splendour is used in âTo His Coy Mistressâ to intensify the efforts and give further cause to the leading manâs attempt to seduce the lady. Alliteration is used in âMy Last Duchessâ (âdropping of the daylight.â, âyour masterâs known munificenceâ) to maintain a rhythm and perhaps for the Duke to flaunt his eloquent speaking ability. The poem is written in heroic couplets with almost continuous enjambment; this technique gives the poem a conversational style â essential for creating a rapport between the reader and the Duke. Browning uses dramatic irony to illustrate the dukeâs manipulative and callous character towards the end of the poem, as he refers to the girl he wants to marry as âmy objectâ (the Duke does not realise how much he is revealing about his personality throughout not only this quote, but the whole poem).

The Duke is the epitome of possessive, arrogant egotism.

...and that is as far as I have got. Thanks in advance.

Sorry for the lack of paragraphs, when I copied and pasted the essay from word, it seemed to get rid of them.

Re: Can you say....

Clive — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:03:32 GMT

Hi,

Can you say:

"Look where i made you go through" (problems)
or
"Look where i got you in" (problems)

No. Say

"Look what i made you go through" (problems)
or
"Look what i got you into" (problems)

You also need to use a capital 'I', or you will lose marks in exams and on essays. And a period, or exclamation mark, at the end.

Best wishes, Clive

Need a critique of my Pinsky's The Inferno Versus Mark Musa's The Inferno

HappyGilmore — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:37:14 GMT

This essay is giving me Hell. I always seem to have poor organization but I never see it. Can anyone help? Also if there is anything that you know of to help this essay further please post it on here too please. Thank you. Oh yes... If you are wondering about the "Wren 1" and the choppyness, it is because it is in MLA format and I just copy and pasted from my Microsoft Word program.

Wren 1

Joshua Wren

Mr. LaPalme

AP English 12

11 April 2007

Classical Versus New and Improved

Satan, lesser than God but master of all that is evil, is banished forever to his icy tomb, never to see the light of Godâs heaven again. Dante Alighieri depicts this beast in the ninth level of hell in âCanto 34â of The Inferno. Robert Pinsky, with a classical approach, and Mark Musa, with a modern approach, both translated Danteâs âCanto 34â. Pinsky tried to keep his translation as close as possible to the original text. However, Musaâs diction, although the same description as Pinsky produced, illustrated a story-like poem by playing on the readerâs senses; such as touch and hearing. Not only is the two writerâs diction different, but the structure and punctuation that each of the writers use gives a different tone to the poem.

Although both Pinsky and Musa describe the same icy hell that Satan dwells in, neither of the two follow the same structure in developing their translations of the canto. Pinsky follows much of the same form that Dante used when developing the poem. He mimics Danteâs rhyme scheme as close as he could without changing the meaning of the stanza. The terza rima that Dante used depends heavily on available rhymes, making it very difficult for translation in the English language. Pinsky has to make moderate usage of half-rhymes in order to keep similar to Danteâs terza rima. An example of Pinskyâs mimicking of Danteâs terza rima is shown here in lines fifty-eight through sixty, ââ¦the

Wren 3

front mouth gripped/ â¦the claws, which sliced/ â¦ his back was strippedâ (pg. 395 Pinsky). You can see the âa b aâ rhyme scheme in the three-line stanza is maintained. This is unlike Musaâs version, which ignores the terza rima but keeps the three-line stanzas. Even though Pinsky and Musa had differed in their choice in

rhyme, both translators kept intact the iambic pentameter that Dante used when creating The Inferno.

Aside from the structure of the poems that the writers use, the choice of punctuation that Pinsky and Musa use differentiates the tone in each of translations. Pinsky never uses a single exclamation mark in any part of his translation of The Inferno. Instead, Pinsky ends every sentence with a period. Musa, however, makes good use of exclamation marks where he felt they were needed in order to strengthen the voice in that section of the poem. For example, line twenty-five âI did not dieâI was not living either!â in Musaâs version as compared to âI neither died, nor kept aliveâ¦â in line twenty-eight of Pinskyâs version is a stronger voice. The exclamation mark makes the voice of Dante is fretful at the truth of his own words.

When Pinsky translated The Inferno, he tried to preserve the terza rima and descriptions that Dante used in his text. Musa disregarded the terza rima, but kept the same story and made it stronger with his diction. Musa wanted your body to sense exactly what Dante felt in the presence of Satan and the worst of his hell. For example, Pinskyâs âHow chilled and faint I wasâ compared to Musaâs âHow chilled and nerveless, Reader, I felt thenâ is much weaker in diction (pg. 394 Pinsky). Musa uses ânervelessâ rather than

Wren 3

âfaintâ to suggest that the fear he feels makes his body seem as if it has no nerves whatsoever rather than his body feels weak.

Besides appealing to the readerâs sense of touch in a stronger fashion than Pinsky, Musaâs translation appeals also to the sense of hearing much stronger. For example, line fifty-six of Pinskyâs version reads âThe teeth of each mouth held a sinnerâ (pg. 395 Pinsky). In line fifty-five of Musaâs version reads âIn each of his three mouths he crunched a sinnerâ (Musa). The word âheldâ sounds like Satan merely keeps them in his mouth. Musaâs âcrunchedâ makes the reader hear the sinnerâs bones crack and break under Satanâs gnashing teeth.

Robert Pinsky translated Danteâs The Inferno with a classical style, trying to keep in touch with the terza rima that Dante used. Musa, however, dropped the terza rima from his translation and developed a blank verse poem. Mark Musaâs version in comparison to Robert Pinskyâs has more emotion developed into it. Musa utilized a stronger diction in order to set the tone of the poem as being less of a poem and more of a story. In all, Pinskyâs version of The Inferno is classically set, whereas Musaâs version is modernized.

Re: could someone help me edit my essay, i'll appreciate.

Castellano — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 22:30:42 GMT

What is your opinion about the importance of a personâs first day of school?

Whether pleasant or terrible, almost everyone remembers their first day of school. (Do you really need the exclamation mark?) In the short story âThe First Dayâ, author Edward P. Jones narrates a little girlâs first day at school, and explores the effects of a motherâs dream for her daughter. The protagonist is a five-year-old girl (unfortunately?) from an unfortunate single family (Do you mean that the girl's family is unfortunate, or that she is unfortunate because she is in a single parent family?) who gets registered by her mother to attend the kindergarten. An ancient Chinese saying goes that âwell begun is half done.â, whereas I think this saying is all-around. (I won't do this for you, but you need to connect these sentences. You talk about a girl who gets registered for kindergarten, then you break the idea with an Ancient Chinese proverb.) Each day of school is important, because everything is accumulated little by little, step by step and day by day. (Excellent!) My own experience has also correctly proven my opinion: I attended the first Canadian school in Montreal, which was a French school. (I'm confused, how has going to the first Canadian school in Montreal proved your idea?)

The protagonist, the little girl, had a memorable first day at kindergarten. This is not only because the first day of school was one of the key moments in her young adolescence, but also because she knew more about her mother, knew more about her motherâs dream for her. (How did she know about her mother's dream, and what was her mother's dream?) On her first day of school, she wore the new clothes and brought along some school supplies. The little girl and her mother originally wished to go to the better school named Seaton Elementary just across the street from the church where the two went every Sunday. Unfortunately, their expectation came to nothing; however the protagonistâs mother didnât give up. (Why didn't the girl go to Seaton Elementary though?) They decided to settle for another school in their area, Walker Jones. In order to register, the mother had to ask for help filing out the form, because she was illiterate. Eventually, with some help, the little girl became registered for kindergarten. At the same time, the girl discovered that her mother couldnât neither read nor write so she felt ashamed for her mother. At last, the loud sound from her motherâs footsteps was imprinted in her memory mixing with the other childrenâs singing and talking all around. (Why were her mother's footsteps imprinted into her memory?)

----

I have stopped editing here, some key notes:

- Use spell check and proofread your work; a lot of the errors could have been corrected if you read over your work.

- Pellucidity! You need to explicate why things happened and why things became important to the characters. We are the readers, we probably haven't read this book so you need to explain things to usâdon't assume we read the book!

----

As I mentioned previously, my first Canadian school was a French school in Montreal. By the time I arrived in Canada, I had no clues about French so that the first day in a French school was totally horrible. I could only understand someone else called my name, whose pronunciation is exactly same as English. I could only speak one sentence, which means âI donât understandâ. Although my parents stayed with me during the whole enrollment, nothing could be changed. All they could do for me was just to encourage and console. After the convoluted speech of the principle, students were split into a few groups, and the teachers led us to the respective classroom. The bell started ringing as soon as I sat on the chair. A bald strong man with a smiled face came into the classroom. âBonjour!â he started to speak, speak a bunch of words I had never heard before. Afterwards, students began to introduce themselves. Time was quickly passing, in no time; it was my turn, but nothing in my mind. âI should say something.â I thought, âBut what? All I can say in French is âI donât understand.â Maybe for the good luck, the bell started ringing again, tediously ringing. The class was over; I could finally quit this hell! Since then, I decided to learn French well. I said it and I made it. I learnt French almost every day. Somehow my French had become better and better. Somehow I could speak more and more. If I hadnât learned French every day, I wouldnât have reached such level in French. The first day of school is not always a good memory; it could even become your nightmare. I donât have a nice first day at school, but I still learn French well. For this reason, I think the everydayness is as important as the first day of school.

Not only the first day of school is important, but also the everydayness is important. The protagonist of the short story âThe First Dayâ has learned the importance of the first day of school, which is an opportunity to get a better life. She has also realized that it is important to study reading and writing because her mother could not register for her for the kindergarten by herself. My own personal experience has proven right the second part of my opinion. It is similar to the protagonistâs experience in some ways, but different in the other ways. The first Canadian school that I attended was a French school. I didnât have a nice first day in that school because I couldnât speak any French by the time I came to Canada, however I have learned it almost every day. At the end of the school year, my French has improved a lot; therefore I think the everydayness is as important as the first day of school.

The message from the short story âThe First Dayâ is clearly that the first day of school is significant and also a good opportunity to get a better life in the future. I feel strongly that not only the first day of school is important, but also the everydayness is important. All in all, a person must deal well with whether the positive or negative feelings from their first day at school. They also need to know what they should do in the future to make their dreams come true.

Re: The Condition of the Enviroment

anon1 — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 17:11:49 GMT

Hi,

You opening is weak because you repeat yourself or state the obvious. Look at your first two sentences.

The rest of your essay is reasonably well written from an English point of view. From a logical point of view, it could use more work. For example, filtering effluent from factories is unlikely the problem. But you could âtreatâ the effluent from factories.

If I were in your shoes, I would be more inclined to write about ONE topic (air pollution or something). By covering off all types of pollution your essay becomes too bland or superficial because you are forced to state the obvious.

Again, from an English perspective, you are doing well.

MountainHiker

The Condition of the Environment

[More and more people are getting concerned about the environment nowadays. The number of such people is growing very rapidly. The reason for it is quite obvious: people do not want to live on the polluted and consequently dangerous planet.
I would emphasize three main problems. First of all, itâs air pollution. Itâs proved that air pollution adversely affects your health and can cause a large number of diseases such as cancer for example. Delete---paragraph. Try rephrasing]

In order to solve this problem we should simply take some measures to cut down air pollution in big cities. For instance, we could introduce a law (law is a good work, or âactâ) which would forbid factories to [work and produce anything without special filtersâdelete, exceed environmental limits]. It would also be good if we banned cars from city centers. Such a measure would have a very good effect in rather small cities with the population not more than 1.5 million people. [What about larger cities? Whatâs special about 1.5 million?] The citizens of small cities can usually get to the city center by bus or even on foot. Cars release so many poisonous gases into the air that reduction of the number of cars in such cities would result in the reduction of these poisonous gases.

Secondly, it is the so-called problem of litter. Plenty of people are very worried about this problem, too.[obvious statement, no?] Dirty streets can give you only a very slight idea of what dropping litter in streets can result in. Dropping an aluminum can in the street just think how much harm it might do.[repetitive] Bearing in mind that we contract many diseases by inhaling infected air and litter [we inhale litter?] creates the most favourable conditions for bacterium you will probably break the habit of dropping litter in streets. Itâs not difficult to put your can in a litter bin at all! [you should avoid exclamation marks in essays,]

Lastly, itâs water pollution. To my mind, the best way of solving this problem is to fine factories which pollute rivers, lakes, and seas. Before fining them, it would be a good idea to make all the factories install filters which reduce the number of poisonous substances polluting water. [youâll need more than filters] However, in most countries itâs impossible to do it due to these factories being of great value to them. As a result, they canât stop using factories or reduce the volume of their production. Another good way of solving the problem of water pollution is to limit use of chemicals in industry. But here we face another problem. Many plants canât help stopping using some chemicals since they cannot work without them. So, we are in a dilemma over whether to fine factories polluting lakes, seas, and rivers and to reduce the volume of their production or not. [No, the real question is do you want to spend more money and raise the production costs to reduce the harmful effects?]

There is no doubt there are plenty of other environmental problems such as acid rains, deforestation, global warming and so on and so forth but to my mind, these problems are not as topical now as those I mentioned. [Depends on where you live. If you were living near the ocean, global warming would be a major concern as the ocean levels might rise with the melting of the ice caps. Remember Kyoto? Global warming. If you lived in Brazil, deforestation might be your largest concern.]

Having paid so much attention to all these environmental problems I have to say a few words about recycling. It is a very important subject, and one that is becoming more so all the time. There are four main materials which can be recycled. First of all, it is paper. Paper is considered to be the easiest material to recycle. For instance, 20 tons of paper was recycled in the USA [There was more than 20 tons of paper recycled in my neighborhood last year, let alone an entire country] in 1990 which was a big success. Secondly, itâs metal. This material is also rather easy to recycle. A huge number of things we use are made of metal, so the more metal we recycle the better our planet will be. Thirdly, itâs plastic. This material is the hardest one to recycle. The reason why itâs so hard to recycle plastic is that there are a great many kinds of it. Lastly, itâs glass. Glass like metal and paper is fairly easy to recycle. Therefore, itâs recycled all over the world. You can just melt it down and use to make new bottles. The main problem here is that we can discover recycling chiefly in the highly developed countries. Itâs rare to discover recycling (which is really working now) in many developing countries. Nevertheless, I assume recycling helps us get rid of many problems mentioned above. If both the countries which have already been using recycling actively and those which have just started continue recycling more and more materials and trying to invent new methods of recycling it will do a world of good not only to our planet but also all people living on it.

Typing punctuation in English

Guest — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 17:33:06 GMT

Hello!
I'm a French student and I have to write an essay in English. It is about translation (from English to French) and I have difficulties finding websites about the way you type punctuation in English. I know it is different from the way we type in French, but I can't find any explanations of the basic rules. Well, I've learnt a lot of grammar on that point, but I would like to know about typography; like we put a space before and after colons, semi-colons, exclamation marks, question marks, and you don't, and you used to put 2 spaces after a full stop but you don't do it anymore... this kind of things.
thank you very much for all you can teach me!
(don't forget to tell me your sources if can so that I can put them in the bibliography of my essay)

Re: Can U See The Thesis here? or am I stupid?

guyd — Thu, 25 Mar 2004 22:58:58 GMT

Bart, I have already responded to a previous post but will also respond to this one. A few words before I answer you plea for help. Don't use the exclamation mark for emphasis. Use it correctly--only after a true exclamation, such as "Wait!" or "Stop the bus!"

It's sad that you "hate writing." Writing is wonderful. The more of it you do, the more your hate will turn to love. Please keep writing. It's not always easy, but you will be richly rewarded if you will read and write.

And you are not stupid. You have made some very good points. All you need to do is keep working. Here's how.

You can improve your essay by stating your thesis, like you did in the first line: "Why are entrance exams necessary on english philology." It is this question that you want to answer in your essay.

The first paragraph should state the arguments pointing out the flaws in these exams--stress, difficult, maybe unfair, etc. Try to think of more reasons for not giving such exams.

The second paragraph should state the arguments pointing out the advantages of these exams--elimating people without basic knowledge, preparing students for similar exams in the future, etc. Try to think of more reasons for giving such exams.
___________________________________________________________

Follow my advice and your teacher will accept your next revision.