First Blog

Evaluation of Three Definition Engines: "Try"ing to make learning fun

A famous idea put forth by the philosopher Socrates is that it is important not to talk about something without first defining it and having a clear understanding of it. By using three different online reference pages I was able to learn about the three key terms of the course(persona, essay and pastiche); and despite originally thinking I knew how to define the words, I ended up learning a lot more from these sites. While I was able to benefit from all the sites, some were clearly better than others. The three sites that were used in this definition project were the Online Etymological Dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary, and the Visual Thesaurus.
The Online Etymological Dictionary was an interesting resource because it defined words by their history. It was a new experience to learn where the words had their origin and how the words had evolved over time. The resource did have more negative aspects than positive though. Other than its ability to give a history of the word the dictionary was very unexciting and unable to engage my curiosity. Another negative was that the information was not as helpful in truly understanding what the definitions of the words were, as compared to the other two sites. For example, the key word “essay” is simply defined as “a short non fiction literary composition” with little other information.
The Oxford English Dictionary is known as the “definitive record of the English language” (www.oed.com). This reference was very good at its ability to define the words and improve upon what I already knew about the particular words. An example of this would be to use the key word “essay” once again. I knew that it was a literary work but I did not know that it also could be defined as “a trial, to try, an attempt.” There were some aspects about this engine that did not make it the best site of the project’s experience. While the amount of information is acceptable, the way that it is presented is very standard and not engaging at all. The site also gave lengthy definitions and numerous examples that not organized well.
The final online resource that I used was the Visual Thesaurus. The Visual Thesaurus is one of the best reference websites I have ever used. It has the ability to engage the interest of the user in a matter of seconds. It defines the word visually, showing the connections between that word, and words with similar meanings. When learning is fun it makes you want to learn even more. This site was able to peak my curiosity to learn all the connections for the different key terms. Finally, the resource gave me the ability to take the few words that I could associate with the key terms and multiply them in to many different words and gave me the definitions of them. The only problem with this site is that it is simply just a thesaurus with limited definitions so it can be hard if you what you are looking for is a concrete definition for a word. By using “essay” as an example again we can see that the site gives approximately 14 different words that are connected to “essay” and of those 6 have definitions.
Overall, all of the online resources helped aid me in defining the key terms for this class. While some websites were better than others, they all had positive and negative aspects. By doing research using all three you are allowed to cover the entire range of a word, from its origins to its definitions.

posted by Jamie @ 7:19 PM 0 comments

Tryangle project 3--Visual Thesaurus

Persona:
Persona is a state of being that is constantly changing. You are not the same person as time passes. Individual persona is similar to the way an actor portrays a character, in that individuals are constantly playing a part. The difference is that in reality people are playing themselves and not a character. As a person’s environment changes they need a different way to express themselves, even if it is just a slight adjustment. People can have multiple personas and usually use the same ones with the same people. For example you always have the same persona around your parents. This changes when you are with your co-workers or friends. This transformation explains how the now common expression two-faced came to be used. It occurs when someone is seen acting different, portraying to different personas. It is almost as if the person being accused is getting caught in the process of switching their “mask.” Two-faced is a negative term because people think that you should only have one persona, “you” and you should not try and be different with different people. There are campaigns to “Be yourself,” but which self do they want? If you only have one “mask” you could only be accepted by and please one group and not the rest. Personas are what give us the ability to survive in multiple settings by giving us the ability to slightly change ourselves. Persona is also related to the mental disorder called spilt personality disorder in which a person’s mind actually divides into two or more personalities that are usually uncontrollable. This is an extreme case of changing your personality or persona. For most it is just a normal process of adjusting to the setting, most people do not even realize when they use a different persona.

Essay:
An essay is more than just a piece of writing; it is a process or adventure. Essay is not only the end result but it is the effort and attempt put that comes before the finished product. An essay is an experience that endures through stress, and tests. It is a way to explain things, a blank canvas to display an author’s thoughts and opinions with cohesive thought instead of paint. It can also be a trial by which things are proved or discovered, affirmed or denied. Essay can be compared to the old stories of young knights on a journey. They had to go through many hard trials to finally learn the lesson that was being taught or to win the coveted prize. An essay can also be weighing something. An example would be the old Egyptian myth of weighing your soul against a feather to determine whether you went to heaven or hell. An essay is not always perfect the first time but its errors can be corrected and it can be rewritten until it is accurate and finished. Essay is taking a sample of something to discover what it is or how to express it. In some ways an essay is the ideal for the “A for effort” slogan although it is important how the finished product came out, the development is equally important. True essays are not something that a person can just write without trying, it is not something to be thrown together in the last second.

Pastiche:
Pastiche is the gathering of many things to form one new creation. This creation can be formed by taking similar objects and putting them together or by taking very different objects and putting them together. The latter type of pastiche is like a salmagundi, where ingredients that are not normally put together but seem to work. Salmagundi is a dish that combines meat, anchovies, eggs and vegetables. All the ingredients are good on their own but when put together they make something even better. Pastiche in the more literary sense is taking different established writings and fusing them together to form a better piece of writing. For example taking quotes, poems, and even essays of another author and assembling them can make for a very good pastiche. Although the word pastiche sounds like the word paste it has more depth then just taking different things and pasting them in a scrapbook at random. There is a certain format in which the best end results occurs. This does not mean necessarily following normal rules of writing but it does mean not destroying classics like Shakespeare and Poe. However a pastiche can be a motley of disorganization like paint splatters and yet still become a masterpiece. The important characteristic of a pastiche is its ability to mix things together and make something even better than the original. Pastiches are used in many different aspects of life but especially in the fine arts. Writing, music and art are the perfect examples of this collection of miscellanea that make something grand.

posted by Jamie @ 10:43 AM 1 comments

Art of the personal essay

This class seems like it is going to be a very interesting and new way of learning in the English field. I know I will like it even though English is not my favorite subject.

posted by Jamie @ 10:51 AM 0 comments