English Reviewer

Multimodal Texts

Many texts are multimodal, meaning is communicated through combinations of two or more
modes. Modes are written language, spoken language or quite simply, a means of
communication.

Multimodal texts:

Linguistic: Vocabulary, Structure, Grammar of oral/written language

Visual: Colour, vectors and viewpoint in still and moving images.

Audio: Volume, pitch and rhythm of music and sound effects.

Gestural: Movement, facial expression and body language.

Spatial: Proximity, direction, position of layout, organization of objects in space.

Types of multimodal:

Text - Picture books, textbooks, graphic novels, comics and posters, where meaning is
conveyed to the reader through varying combinations of visual (still image) written language
and spatial modes. it's not moving

Digital - Film, animations, slide shows, e-posters, digital stories, and web pages, convey
meaning through combinations of written and spoken language, visual (still and moving
image). It's online

Live - Dance, performance, and oral storytelling, covey meaning through combinations of
modes such as gestural, spatial, spoken language and audio. Face to face

Why multimodal literacy is important:

Young people need to be able to communicate effectively in an increasingly multimodal

world.

Purpose of Communication

To entertain
To inform
To persuade
To motivate

Audience

Adults
Teens
Children

Learning style

Visual
Auditory
Reading/writing
Kinesthetic - a learning style in which individuals learn best through physical activities such
as touching, moving, or performing hands-on tasks.

Comparing and Contrasting Information to form Opinions

Comparing - Similarities
Contrasting - Differences

Common issues that authors write about:

Social: A problem that influences citizens within a society. It prevents a society from
functioning at an optimum level. If it concerns the public

Economic: Fundamental economic problems are the issues of scarcity (limited quantity of
resources) but unlimited wants.

Moral: Difference of Belief.

Propaganda Techniques

Advertising: A means of communication with the users of a product or service.

Propaganda: A set of messages intended to influence opinions of the masses. It's also a
form of art that sends a message to people visually and also in an auditory form. Uses
manipulation and is always biased.

Techniques:

Transfer/Fantasy: Features superheroes, super athletes, beautiful, rich people that suggests
that their qualities transfer to the product.

Glittering Generalities: Making use of nice words to enhance product appeal.

Name calling: Trash talking about other products or people.

Bandwagon: Exploits the desire of people to join the crowd.

Snob appeal: Suggests that a viewer can be special or part of a group.

Card stacking: Manipulating information to make a product appear better.

Bribery: Seems to give a desirable extra something. Ex: Buy one, take one

Plain folks: makes use of ordinary people

Testimonial: makes use of knowledgeable/famous people.

Magic Ingredients: Suggests that a miraculous discovery makes the product exceptionally
effective.

Uses of propaganda

Persuade
Manipulate
Inform

Positive and Negative Messages

We can easily differentiate a positive from a negative message through TONE and
EXPRESSIONS.

Listening entails literal understanding

Language is divided into two categories: literal and figurative.

Literal: fully expressed with clarity.

Figurative: a statement not meant to be taken literally. Ex: Norman is a walking dictionary.

Positive: Yes, Grateful, Appreciate, Thanks, Admire

Negative: No, Impossible, Unlikely, Disappointed

Prefixes: Un, Im, In, Mis and Dis.

The positivity or negativity of a message in a text can be recognized either through explicit
markers or implicit meaning. Explicit - obvious. Implicit - hides a deeper meaning.

Negative emotional Appeal: Uses negative emotions like fear, anxiety, and disgust to craft
negative effects.

Negative logical appeal: Points out negative effects and factual information.
Positive emotional appeal: Uses positive appeals.

Positive logical appeals: Uses rational messages, facts, statistics and detail: but instead of
empathizing the bad effects it uses positive ones.

Persuasive messages: Most people are able to drive a car without fully understanding how
the car operates. Making an argument without fully knowing the background of it is the
same.

3 Rhetorical Messages (Made by Aristotle)

Ethos (Greek word ethics): Uses Trust. Trustworthy, Knowledgeable and credibility.
Focuses on the speaker: dress professionally. Status in life.

Pathos (Greek word - emotions): Uses emotions like joy, hope and fear.
Focuses on the audience.

Logos (Greek word - logic): Uses logic, facts, figures, and reasonings.
Focuses on the message: Facts and Evidence.

Introduction to Literature

Literature comes from the Latin word “litera” that means “letter”. One of the art of expression
of human beings. Presents through short stories, poetry, drama/play, essay, among others.
The blue print of art.

Literature: History, Traditions, Beliefs, Practices.

Words famous literature:

Bible: Originates from Palestine and Greece.

Quran: Muslim bible that originates from Arabia.

The Iliad and Odyssey: Source of myths and legends of Greece. Written by Homer.

The mahab-harata: Longest epic of the world that originates from India.

Canterbury tales: Religion and customs of the English in the Early Days. Written by Chaucer
and originates from England.

Uncle Tom's Cabin: Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Talks about the sad fate of slaves.
Originates from the US.
Divine Comedy: Written by David Alighieri. Talks about the customs and religion of Italians.
Italy.

El Cid Campeador: Cultural characteristics of the Spaniards and their national history.

The song of Roland: Golden age of Christianity. France.

The book of the dead: Cult of Osiris. Mythology and Theology of Egypt

The book of the days: Written by Confucius. China. Basis of Christian Religion.

One thousand and one nights: Ways of the government, industries and society of Arabs and
Persians.

Escape: escape troubles. Objective: pleasure

Interpretive: understand troubles. objective: pleasure and understanding.

Summary of the Stories:

Half a Day is a short story about a young child who doesn't want to go to school on his first
day, he sees school as a punishment. He is really nervous when he leaves his father, but
once he gets to school, he realizes that it's not that bad. He learns many life lessons, such
as love and friendship.

Characters sa Half a day

The Father
The Mother
The Narrator
Child
The Teachers
The young lad

The Happy Mirror Story is a story about a perfect family in Japan. The father and mother is
the model for their child as it grows older so when she finally grows into a girl, she became a
good daughter to her parents. The father as a good provider left his family because the
emperor told him to do so.

Characters sa The Happy Mirror

Father
Mother
Daughter

"Two Kinds" is about a strained mother-daughter relationship. The mother, Suyuan, thinks
her child is ungrateful and lazy, and she thinks June needs to try harder and she will
succeed in becoming a prodigy.
Two kinds

Jing-mei
The narrator of the story and the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Young Jing-mei is
stubborn, lazy, and dreamy. Her desire to find herself in her own time leads her to disobey
her mother and contributes to their tumultuous relationship.

Read an in-depth analysis of Jing-mei.

Jing-mei’s mother
The mother of Jing-mei and a Chinese immigrant. Jing-mei’s mother is hard-working,
prideful, and determined to provide a good life for her daughter. Because she lost everything
in China, she is hyper-focused on helping Jing-mei to achieve the American Dream by
becoming a prodigy. This lofty and unattainable expectation strains their relationship and
causes a rift that lasts until her death.

Read an in-depth anlaysis of Jing-mei's mother.

Lindo Jong (“Auntie Lindo”)

A friend of Jing-mei’s mother and the mother of Waverly. Auntie Lindo is furtively boastful
about her daughter Waverly’s talents to Jing-mei’s mother.

Waverly
The daughter of Auntie Lindo and a chess prodigy. Jing-mei and Waverly have a sisterly
relationship filled with contention.

Mr. Chong (“Old Chong”)

A former piano teacher who lives in Jing-Mei’s apartment building. Old Chong has a bald
head and thick glasses. He is deaf, and has poor eyesight. He listens to the music inside his
head as he teaches Jing-mei to play piano.

“Old Lady Chong”

The aged mother of Old Chong who has an unpleasant odor and leathery skin.

The story of 'Why Women Wash Dishes' is based on a couple who fight over washing of
dishes. They decide for ending up this quarrel and decide that whoever speaks first will wash
the dishes. In this condition, the wife loses and the husband wins.

Why Women Wash Dishes is a light-hearted story about a married couple, Hugo and Imelda
who are referred to as Ka Ugong and Ka Maldang in the story. They live in a town in Santa
Rosa. Ka Ugong and Ka Maldang always gets into a fight on who among them will wash the
dishes.

Parallel Structure

Adds fluidity and power to your writing. Presenting your thoughts in an orderly manner so it's
organized.
Similar to parallel lines in geometry: they face the same direction but never meet.
Grammar is more about balance. Parallelism in grammar is defined as two or more
phrases/clauses in a sentence that have the same grammatical structure.

Verb form: As long as the form of the verb is the same in 3 cases.
Ex: Olympic athletes like practicing, competing and eating ice cream sandwiches. Gerunds
(verbs functioning as nouns).

Noun Numbers: Public transit such as buses or trains can help reduce air pollution.

Use parallelism in single words.

Nouns: Father eats fish and chicken.

Verbs: Our neighbors have moved and have sold their house. My brother walks or rides his
bike to work.

Adjectives: Yves in not only kind but also helpful.

Adverbs: Abram drives his car quickly and aggressively.

Gerunds: Dora likes swimming, dancing and boxing.

Parallelism in phrases:

Noun: A restful sleep is important as regular exercise.

Verb: As soon as I arrived home I took my bicycle and went for a ride.

Adverbial: The group meets at night and on weekends.

Gerund: the girls love reading books and watching movies.

Infinitive: The children worked hard to fulfill their dreams and to help their parents.