Thank you card #1:
Of course, I don’t mind that you went and got me a present, and I’m sure it’s very well made nor can I ignore that you got me exactly what I wanted and doing so must have taken a great deal of thought and research on your part to match the gift to my likes.
Thank you card #2:
Jim, it’s fantastic. It’s perfect. You know I love the color blue, and the diamonds are more than I could have expected. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, or so they say, but it’s not true for me. My best friend is you, and when I look at the ring, I’ll be reminded of that every time. Wow.
Both of these are thank-you cards, but the difference is that they have very different effects due to the language used. People thought the first one was sarcastic, cold, off-putting; the second was warm, sincere, and grateful. But they both are responses to a nearly identical event!
We discussed the way the first one separates the two people, the effect of the long sentence, the distant tone of "nor can I ignore," and the like.
> My point was that a piece of prose may make you feel and know things, but that's just experience; analysis, on the other hand, is explaining how you come to have those feelings and that knowledge when you read. What sentences, words, phrasing, things unsaid, implications, punctuation, etc. creates the meaning?
Today, people handed in papers that explained how she writes the piece -- the form.
Tomorrow (March 24), people will bring papers that explain 1) her problem and 2) her solution
I think we can wrap this up pretty fast.
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