Comparative HL - ISOI Academic Policy and Calvin and Hobbes comic

Comparison HL

The two texts being compared in this entry are ones that we received in class; an ISOI school policy and a comic strip from Calvin and Hobbes. The greatest similarity between them is that they have the same message to convey which pertains to academic dishonesty but the texts are entirely different otherwise. 

The first text, a school policy, is issued by the International School of Islamabad whereas the comic strip is from a popular series of comics known as Calvin and Hobbes. Their sources essentially tell the reader what audience they are targeted towards. The school policy is certainly directed towards students of the school whereas the comic strip is directed towards readers of that particular newspaper/magazine. Contrary to what one would normally assume about a comic strip, it’s subjected towards people of all ages, and in this particular case, adults seem like a more appropriate audience. 

Although they essentially have the same aim, to deter kids from being academically dishonest, it is slightly different because the policy is extremely direct and states specific kinds of academic dishonesty prevalent in the IB program, with consequences shown if academic infringement or malpractice were to occur. On the other hand, the comic strip is more oblique and weighs the pros and cons of cheating. There is use of visuals to demonstrate the psychological aspect of what goes through a child’s mind before cheating, and conclusively how unethical it is. As the school policy is affiliated officially with the school, the audience is easily determined as being the students of the IB program. However, the Calvin and Hobbes comic, despite the subject being academic dishonesty, does not only apply to students. It appears to be targeted towards adults because of the complexity of language used that adults would only be able to comprehend. This comic goes beyond just academic dishonesty by stating things such as, “In the real world, people care about success. Not principles. ...Then again maybe that’s why the world is in such a mess.” This statement by Calvin explains the current state of the world, that it is deceitful and immoral, a theme adults should be aware of. Furthermore when Hobbes says, “Anymore, simply acknowledging the issue is a moral victory” is also in reference to the world’s current state. It implies that people today are so depraved that merely being conflicted between doing what is wrong or right is a “moral victory” in itself. The sophisticated irony used by this character is again, something that a younger audience would not recognize immediately.

The pieces are two completely different text types. The ISOI Academic Honesty Policy is in the layout of a formal outline. The diverging sub-categories are lettered and the pertaining content is further divided into paragraphs. On the other hand, the Calvin and Hobbes text is in the form of a comic trip with two characters and their dialogue communicated in speech bubbles. The structure is effective for each to get their message across such as The ISOI Academic Honesty Policy asserts that plagiarism is prohibited in the school and the implications of it by using a concrete policy. Due to the straightforwardness of the information presented, the strict condemnation of plagiarism and the consequences of the students’ actions shown, the policy is potent in getting the message across. Similarly, although the comic strip has visuals of two characters, speech bubbles and the writing is much less formal, the depiction of the personality of an individual who is pondering about whether to cheat or not, and it’s moral implications also delivers the message that the comic is trying to convey. 

In terms of the writer’s literary techniques, the ISOI Academic Honesty Policy does not possess anything particularly distinct from a regular policy. The comic strip however, contains juxtaposition where Calvin puts cheating and not cheating side by side and weighs what would be be a better option, and also sarcasm/irony when Hobbes states that acknowledging the problem was a moral victory. The comic is also humorous as it has a punchline at the end where Calvin states, “Well, it just seemed wrong to cheat on an Ethics test.” This reveals to the audience that this boy had good morals from the start, therefore it should not have been as difficult for him to take the test had it not been for his internal conflict about academic dishonesty. 

Although these two texts seem entirely different because of their structure, they are similar because of the message they are conveying which is to dissuade individuals from committing academic dishonesty. More narrowly, the ISOI Academic Policy focuses on preventing students against plagiarism whereas the Calvin and Hobbes comic is on a larger scale and delivers that deceit is unethical with academic dishonesty as their case in point. Both the texts are effective in conveying the essence but with different means.

Analysis - Does Your Language Shape How You Think?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Does Your Language Shape How You Think?

Guy Deutscher

This text titled Does Your Language Shape How You Think? by Guy Deutscher was published in The New York Times online on August 26th 2010. This online newspaper article is about how language impacts the way an individual’s mind functions. First of all, Deutscher takes a claim made by Benjamin Lee Whorf, a chemical engineer, who essentially stated that our native language constrains our mind  and we are unable to grasp concepts that are not given words to, in our language. He said that when a language does not have a particular word for a concept, the concept itself cannot be understood by the speaker. Deutscher argues that Whorf did not have any evidence to substantiate this theory and that his claim is wrong on so many levels. He gives an example that although there isn’t an English word for Schadenfreude in German, it does not mean that an English speaker is unable to comprehend the concept of pleasure in someone else’s misery. 

After stating that Whorf’s claim was not supported and incorrect, Deutscher forms his own theory which is that languages do influence the mind, “not because of what our language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about” (Deutscher1). In the rest of the paper, he basically substantiates why he believes that our languages do not force or constrain us to think a certain way, rather, they influence to us to think about certain concepts that have been instilled in our minds. Examples that he has used are that in English while in conversation we are not obliged to indicate what sex we are referring to while simply stating, “I spent yesterday evening with my neighbor” (Deutscher2) whereas in German or French we are forced to give it away because of the gender of each noun. In German, French, and other languages, even objects are given genders to, and that influences their mind to associate the random object with that particular gender. For instance, la fourchette, or the fork, will always be female to the French and it becomes a subconscious habit. However, it is not as if they are forced to believe that the inanimate objects have a determined sex, it is simply what they are associated as because their mind has been influenced to, as a result of their mother tongue. 

Another aspect that plays a great role in Deutscher’s argument is the language of space. Most countries would describe directions with terms we are familiar with using everyday such as “left,” “right,” “behind,” “ahead” but in some parts of the world such as remote Aboriginal Australia or Bali, they use cardinal directions on an everyday basis, so everything we describe with terms like left, right, they substitute with east and west. They know their directions everywhere because they are accustomed to using geography to assess where north is where ever they are. “They couldn’t explain it any more than you can explain how you know where behind is” (Deutscher 3) indicating that it comes naturally due to their brought up in the language. 

There are various other aspects where language comes into play such as colours where two different colours in English would be shades of the same colour in another; there are also certain languages where what you say has to be completely empirical or otherwise stated, so one would have to say whether they directly saw an animal or saw footprints of an animal, simply to indicate that “an animal passed here” (Deutscher 4).  Deutscher concludes his article by saying that our native language does affect our logical, intuitional and emotional outlook on the world but it does not mean that it limits how much we can learn, or alter our comprehension of concepts that are not familiar in our language. 

The writer has provided many examples to substantiate his argument and has used a great deal of references to do so. One of these references is to Mark Twain who has a popular rant known as "The Awful German Language" where his frustrations are portrayed as a result of the gender complexity of objects and alluding to it as being "perverse" (Deutscher3). Another regard is made to the Aboriginal speaker Guugu Yimithir. Such referrals make his argument stronger and seem more authoritative. Additionally, Deutscher's voice is communicated through his language. He stays formal throughout but has used some humorous examples to keep the article entertaining and convey his voice. One of these examples is where he asks a Matses man about how many wives he has. Moreover, in terms of literary devices, there is one identified metaphor where he states that "our mother tongue was claimed to be a "prison house"" indicating that it was said to have restrict people from learning foreign concepts. Overall, this is an effective text type to deliver his argument and because this is published in the NYTimes, the audience being a wide range of people of all ages, it will be well received and understood. 

Opinion Column

Opinion Column 

The merging of different language in today’s culture is one of the most fascinating components of our global community. Every day I find myself speaking a mix of English and Urdu to communicate my thoughts and I believe it works very effectively. The reason why is because there are so many words in Urdu that we have grown up knowing that cannot possibly be said in English without saying a sentence to explain. This mix has made it easier for people that are not proficient in English or Urdu, to form a blend to use at their convenience.

Similarly this happens in many areas of the world. While learning French and German, I discovered that so many English words have been derived from these languages, or they share common Latin roots. Easily recognizable words like, “exactement” for “exactly” in French and “gut” for “good”  in German make it easier for us to comprehend certain words that can help decipher overall content. I have overheard conversations of the German students in our school who pitch in certain words in English for words that cannot be substituted, or vice versa.

Communication in a combination of more than one language with each other has made it easier for our cultures to diffuse. There is are components of English used throughout the world that are demonstrated in an article "A Language Without Limits" by Deena Kamel. It demonstrates that in different parts of the world, there are existing communities of different nations. A specific example is an Iraqi telecommunications sales representative in Scarborough who thinks in Arabic but speaks in English. Like the author Kamel presents that switching between two languages is creative and not incompetent, I find that it is also an inventive way to connect and convey ideas.

Written Commentary - "English grows into strange shapes when transplanted into foreign soil"

Written Commentary

“English grows into strange shapes when transplanted into foreign soil”

Ben Macintyre

English grows into strange shapes when transplanted into foreign soil by Ben Macintyre is an opinion column about the official language English that has been altered and transformed after being “planted” or embedded internationally.  He introduces the newly formulated versions of English such as Spanglish, Hinglish, and Chinglish that have caused a phenomenon in their nations. He uses the statistic that in the 60's there were about 250 million English speakers in the US, UK and its colonies, but now there are about 250 million Chinglish speakers in China alone. This demonstrates the widespread of the English language. The author however still argues that even though English is continuing to spread throughout the world and there are multitudes of dialects and variations, they are still all just descendants, or offspring, of the language in it's original form and the that form continues to live as the supreme. This is illustrated in an example where he says that Shakespeare is the CEO of the English language with all of these different shareholders (Hinglish, Chinglish). 
This piece is in the perspective of the author and his opinions but it contains quotations and arguments from people such as a Cambridge University professor to further strengthen his point and the tone of the piece is informative.
The opinion column serves well for his topic but it is not the most effective. He doesn't have many opinions and the column is mainly facts and examples of English used in different cultures. This could very well have been done in the form of a magazine or newspaper article without him saying, "I love the strange shapes into which English grows when transplanted into foreign soil..." (Macintyre1). Although it portrays his agreement to everything else he is saying through facts and examples, his opinions are not particularly enlightening.

Written Commentary - "Becoming Bi-Cultural Makes You More Creative"

In class, we received a piece titled "Becoming Bi-Cultural Makes You More Creative" written by Art Markman. It was published in an online magazine Psychology Today on August 31st 2012. The purpose of this article is for the writer to communicate that individuals who have resided in more than one country tend to be more inventive as opposed to those who have lived in the same country their entire life. Although it is not particularly an opinion column because the author does not directly state his own perspective, the examples and studies shown indicate that he believes being bi-cultural has a good impact on an individual's creativity. The theme of this piece is basically the value of having been exposed to more than one culture as Markman puts it. The targeted audience of this online article is the readers of Psychology Today which tells us that the author intends to correlate being bi-cultural and creativity in terms of how the mind develops through knowledge of different cultures.

The structure of the online article is similar to that of an ordinary written piece. There are no special techniques in this and the article is simply divided into paragraphs of varying lengths. The author's aim is to inform what studies have shown, and argue using that evidence but without his personal subjectivity. However, it can be understood where his opinion is revealed when he first talks about researchers suggestions that when people are bi-cultural it helps them to see other views on an issue and that integrative complexity lets them be more creative, but then he reiterates it by saying, "after all, being creative often involves seeing things in more than one way" which by the transitive property shows his stance on the subject and his agreement with the research. Another aim of the author is to express that creativity is what makes a business successful and concludes by saying that businesses would flourish if they hired employees that have lived in more than one culture.

The tone of this piece is neutral throughout and there is no word choice that particularly stands out as a strength in this article other than integrative complexity which is also italicized to display the complex composition of their brains after being integrated in more than one culture.