Getting into The Nitty Gritty

After watching the two videos and reading the packet I realized how much I really need to refresh on just the basic terms before the test. Most of the elements that they went over I knew, but when it comes to me having to point the parts out and explaining them in detail or even using them intentionally in my work, I can't do or haven't consciously tried and had them in my work.

There we're a few things that really stood out to me in the packet and videos, one was connotation and denotation. I know the words and I remember constantly going over them in middle school but if you ask me to explain them, I wouldn't be able to. So having this refresher that connotation is what a word suggest or implies while denotation is what a word literally means and seeing the different examples really helped me see how to use them in literature. Seeing them also used in these different informative videos and packet helped me take proper notes on them so that I won't forget them. Another thing that I brushed up on was pace; I know about pace and can see how writers use it, even though I don't know it's pace I just can see the differences in the sentences and speed. But it was never a thought when I'm writing, and I didn't know how to intentionally use it in my writings. When it comes to mood and tone I still get them mixed up a lot, so I was glad to be able to look at examples of those as well. As I was going over the mood and tone section and taking notes I noticed an easier way to distinctuate the two. When some comes off rude you say 'watch your tone' while when you are speaking out how you feel you refer to your mood. This helped those two meanings finally click, that tone is from the author while mood is what you get from the reading. 

I always tend to have a very hard time when it comes to thesis statements, i'm able to break a story down into detail but when asked to do a thesis statement i'm lost; Even with my own work. From this I had the question of How do I begin to come up with a thesis in such a short amount of time while still making sure it's strong and impactful? 

When reading syntax I never really knew what it was but after reading I realized how it's similar to pace. Honestly I'm still not really there with syntax I definitely need to study in on my own to fully understand it, but seeing the similarities made me wonder what's the main difference between pace and syntax?

When watching the part in the video that had the steps for language analysis I noticed that I naturally do this when reading. Since I have always had an interest in language and now I want to pursue a career in the language field it defiantly stands out to me more than before. I tend to highlight parts in a story that I'm reading where I sense there is more to what is going on, I try re-read and come up with my own interpretation, then I would go and break down the words or names used in the writing to try and get a better understand of the symbolic representations going on. After this I begin to research meanings and try and see how to better my interpretations. When it comes to symbols and language analysis I feel as though I am confident enough to help someone out in those areas.