Across the Great Divide #14

    This entry is going to be specially dedicated to the subject of walls, more precisely, to the distinction between the East and the West side of Germany after the Berlin wall came down. In the following lines, I will attempt to account for the title of the article "Across the Great Divide" by Charles P. Wallace. I think we should consider what the author understands by "the great divide". If the Berlin wall has already been destroyed, why has the author chosen such a controversial title? We can presume that even though the physical barrier has disappeared, there may be another kind of division which is more symbolic. What's more, taking into consideration the basic meaning of the word "Across", which is from one side to the other, I believe that the author will provide a number of aspects which are relevant to the different realities of living on the West side or the East side of Berlin. 
    As regards the paratext of this article, there are some aspects to take into consideration. For instance, the most notorious things are the title and the photographs which show us different instances discussed in the text. In addition to that, the sub tittles serve the function of attracting the reader's attention by providing controversial phrases which were presented in the text. Without analysing the text from a bottom up approach, we can infer that it is about the differences of living in one side or the other side of Berlin. I have reached to this conclusion because of the following examples: 1- the two photographs on page 26 that demonstrate the different houses on the West and East side. 2- The quotes of people who were interviewed and their desire of coming back in time before the Wall collapsed. 3- The author's selection of words in the epigraph which indicate contrast such as antonyms (old - new, come together - split).  Regarding the semantic organisation of the paratext I can identify words of the same semantic field, undoubtedly, these words are related to division, such as "half", "split", "divided" and its counterpart "united", there are also words related to walls, such as "border", "barrier" and "concrete". Through out the whole text, there is repetition of words such as "wall", "East", "West", "Berlin". and "disappointment" since they have considerable importance in this topic. 
      Taking into consideration its macrostructure, I could find that paragraphs number 1 to 3 read about the two different ways of living (West vs East), paragraphs number 4 and 5 are related to its government (Social Democratic Party vs Conservative Christian Democratic Party), paragraphs number 6 to 9 deal with employment and insecurity in the West side vs East side, in paragraphs 10 to 12 the author explains the economic differences, and finally, in the last paragraph, number 13, the author concludes the article expressing most of the citizen's attitudes towards the falling of the wall. 

Written assignment - Death Penalty #13

     It is widely believed that death penalty is one of the worst punishments in the world, no matter the person’s stand or point of view. Throughout this essay, I will outline three of the most important reasons why I strongly consider myself to be against capital punishment. Every individual who is born in this world has equal human rights which guarantee that it should not be denied the opportunity of having a second chance of social reintegration to those people who are not perfect, in the same way the criminal justice system has its flaws. 
     Firstly, human Rights are considered to be the basis of a respectable life and way of living. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person” and “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Therefore, sentencing a human being to death violate their freedom and rights as a member of society. 
     Secondly, everyone should be given a second chance to become a better person. Human beings are considered to be imperfect and even those who break the law should have the opportunity to rectify themselves. Not only is this a human right, but also it demonstrates that justice is for everyone and its top priority is to preserve life. Nowadays, there seems to be a tendency for believing that retribution is the answer for such crimes, just like the saying “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. However, I undoubtedly believe that every life is precious. In addition to that, it is rather evident to me that violence could never be the answer of anything. What example or role model can we give if we sentence a person to this ultimate death? 
     Thirdly, it is believed that no one can be flawless and without doubt, it is also the case of the criminal justice system. Some of these imperfections remain in the dark until it is seen that innocent people face wrongful execution. Not only does this irreversible mistake contribute to lose of faith in law and justice among citizens but also it is an irrevocable punishment. According to the Amnesty’s annual review of death penalty worldwide, it was recorded that at least 1,634 executions took place in 2015, this was proved to be the highest number recorded by Amnesty International since 1989. How many of these deaths were provoked by unfair legal counsel sentencing people to die for crimes they did not commit?
     To bring this paper to an end, it is important to highlight that many people argue the effectiveness of capital punishment in deterring people from committing crimes but this is not so since the death penalty is a manifestation of violence, not a solution to it. We should bear in mind that the foundation of justice is a respect for human dignity, and for their rights, as well as having the opportunity to rectification. Taking into account the eighth article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we could state that “Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law”. We, as society, should accept that human beings are not perfect as well as consider that the law has weaknesses. Under no circumstances, should capital punishment be acceptable.
Bibliography
- Amnesty International (2016). Death Penalty. Web Site: https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty
- United Nations (UN). (1948). United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. pp 1 - 3. Web site:  
http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/un.universal.declaration.of.human.rights.1948/portrait.a4.pdf

Jeremy Irons' position against death penalty - Entry #12

In this VIDEO, Jeremy Irons outlines arguments against capital punishment to support an international campaign against death penalty.

Key words: Death penalty, punishment, society, crime rates, legal counsel, irreversible, offenders, tolerate, acceptable, abuse, human rights, torture, execution, horror, human beings, equality, imprisonment, revenge.

Key phrases: Societies that use death penalty don’t have lower crime rates than those that do. Death penalty affects economically disadvantaged people who can’t afford legal counsel. Death penalty is irreversible and unacceptable. This punishment abuses basic human rights. There should be equality among all human beings. There should be a line between what is right and what is wrong. There should be a line between imprisonment and execution. 

Jeremy expresses his position against death penalty by stating these arguments.

1) Death penalty do not prevent high crime rates, and even if it does, it is by no means, acceptable.

2) Capital punishment is addressed to economically disadvantage people and therefore, it does not encourage equality of human rights. (statistically proved)

3) Not only, is death penalty irreversible but also, it results in death of innocent people.

4) Death penalty is not acceptable because it also abuses 2 fundamental human rights, which are that “everyone has the right to live” and that “no one should be tortured”.

5) Death penalty means torturing people both physically and psychologically since the offenders are forced to wait for their death.

6) Human rights belong to all human beings no matter how terrible the crime is or what terrible things a person has done. It is very important to remember that respecting those human rights differentiates what is right from what is wrong. If we, as society, crossed that line, what would be the difference between them and us? 

Yoko Ono's letter to the Parole Board - Entry #11

20 years had passed since John Lennon was murdered in cold blood when Yoko Ono, his widow, decided to write a letter to the Parole Board in response to their decision of releasing John’s murderer, Mark David Chapman. 
We can clearly see that she is against this decision taking into consideration these 5 main points she’s made:
1. If the man were to be released, many people would feel betrayed.
2. It would also serve as an example for others who would want to receive world attention.
3. Therefore, it will bring the chaos and confusion all over again.
4. John’s family would not feel safe again for the rest of their lives.
5. And Finally, it would not be safe for the man either, since there are a lot of people who are heavily afflicted by what he has done, and they would take the law into their own hands.

A podcast on argumentative essay - Entry #10

Argumentative writing: Step by step
Jennifer Gonzales, English language arts teacher, explains us how she teaches argumentative essay writing step by step. This is my summary with the information discussed in her PODCAST.

Step 1: Watch how it is done. 
In this step, students should read good examples of essays in the genre they want to write, such as argumentative or persuasive writing. It’s important to read different real world writing which is appealing to students’ interest and to compare different pieces of writings in order to notice the way they are written. It’s also important not to demand that students should follow a certain formula.

Step 2: Verbal Argument, freestyle.
Students should start making verbal arguments, a really good way of doing it, would be to use ice breakers in which students are told a statement and they should decide whether they agree or disagree on it. After that, they are supposed to defend their position and in that way they realise that the strategies of arguing are something they are used to doing all the time, but in an informal and verbal way.

Step 3: Informal Argument, not so freestyle.
Once they’ve already had the opportunity of persuading somebody about their position, it would be a good activity to tell them a certain topic and give them some articles for them to read in order to have background information for their arguments. After that, the situation of an argument is recreated but this time, they would have some evidence to contextualise their position. Once the debate is finished, they are supposed to write down a written argument, in which they should state their main point, and three reasons to back that up in order to practice a thesis statement.

Step 4: The assignment
The first thing to do, it to take a good look at the assignment paying attention to the instructions. It is always better, for teachers, to give a variety of topics (more or less 4 choices) so that students can choose what they are more comfortable with. At this stage, it a good possibility to give students different articles about the topics so that they do not mess things up by searching on their own.

Step 5: Building the base
Pre-writing is a very important step in this stage. First, once students have decided their three main points, teachers should work on a lesson about writing a thesis statement. Collaborative work may be helpful at this stage, because that would give them different models. (Students are not going to write exactly the same words anyway). Starting your own writing essay (as teacher) would be really helpful too, because in that way students can see that even for a decent writer it is not that easy to write an essay. Once they all have their own thesis statement, students should move at their own pace through the assignment.

Step 6: Writer’s workshop – writing the essay
Some amount of lessons should be needed to help them how to choose the best evidence for their argument, or help them recognise something which is credible or legitimate, how to quote and explain those quotes, teach them how to site sources, how to build successful background knowledge and how to use transactions effectively. Samples of argumentative essays should be presented to students so that they could see how the skills are implemented. This step should take about 2 weeks of preparation and correction of issues.

Step 7: Final assessment
Once students have finished they essay, they are supposed to submit it but only if they are sure that they have done the best they could and the paper fulfils the requirements needed. You should know that not all students finish at the same time, so if you do not have a deadline for the assignment, you should prepare another activity for those advanced students.

The five-paragraph essay - Entry #9

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A Poem About How The English Language Is CRAZY!