Poem Analysis

Analysis

Paraphrase:

First stanza: The speaker is crying while looking at the fields remembering the past.

Second stanza: The speaker is watching at the fields from the dawn to the sunset, still thinking in the past.

Third stanza: Reveals the speaker is watching from a house, hearing the birds in the morning.

Fourth stanza: Thinks in the one he olved, who have probably died.

Title:

 The title seems totalk about his tears which by reading the poem we will know that are because of having lost a loved one. By saying the tears are idle we can know that is a pain that will not leave, because the tears will stay there as she is dead.

By Nikos Mac Millan and Jeremy Ryan

My favourite day in Europe

My favourite day in Europe was the 16th of september in London, because the teachers gave us the day free so we did whatever we wanted to. In my case I went to the Madame Tussauds wax museum, which was an amazing experience, standing side by side with famous actors, politicians, sportsmen's, etc. is really something I will never forget. And as I had some more free time,  I went to the Emirates Stadium, where Arsenal F.C plays, and it was also something incredible, a Huge and beautiful stadium, thinking that one of our national players, Alexis Sanchez, plays there, also gave the tour a special feeling, going to the dressing room, the conference room, touching the pitch, all that was awesome and even more doing it with my friends.

Narrative techniques

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/narrative-technique/23043358/?s=clADT3&ref=app

Andrew Barroilhet
Nikos Mac Millan

Task 2

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/task-2-by-nikos-mac-millan/22705854/?ref=app

Writing Task

Good morning to all the alumni, it's a pleasure to be here at harvard, my name is Nikos Mac Millan and today I will speak about money, ambition and friendship.

We all live in a world in which money is a crucial resource, without money we can't survive, and we all have grown up with the idea that we have to study to get a good job and earn the biggest amount of money possible, so we tend to see people who earns a lot of money as successful or with a great life.

But money brings ambition and ambition is not always good as it may overcome your values, your personal life and even your long life friendships. Which brings to the question: Is it worth it to lose your friends for more money?

To answer this I would like to tell you an story, this story began right here in Harvard were a young student Mark Zuckerberg had a very ambitious idea, creating a unique social network, and with the help of his one and only best friend Eduardo Saverin, they started building it.

At first, all was happiness, they were making money, they had a nice audience and they became well known in the university, but after a while they started to became more ambitious, and began spreading the network to different places.

Then, they understood they couldn't continue without the help of a big company and as Eduardo tried hard to get one to support them, he couldn't, so Mark decided to add a third party by himself.

After the project got bigger, more people joined it, but as Mark was so ambitious, he started to cut off his best friend part but without changing his, so the new investors could have a nice share of the company. But this wasn't a tiny cut, it was a cut from having about 35% of the company to 0,35% and he even tried to trick Eduardo by telling him they were just some papers that he wouldn't need to read.

At the end, the results were not as Mark expected, as his ex-best friend sued him and after a long time of fighting, trials, tense momentes, Mark received a millinonaire debt and the friendship was completely broken.

So, this just show us the level the obsession, the ambition, can get up to, and even more. The question is, what is most important, your one and only best friend or more money? or family against business?

That's why I am telling you this story, you as a future businessmen and engineers must understand that both sides are important, your personal life and relationships, and your ambitous goal, but is up to you to define the perfect balance between them as if you don't do it, you will lose one. You can't let your dream go away completely for a relationship, unless you really think it's worh it, and also you can't let your whole life relationship for more money, and even also betray your friends.

This is something all of you will encounter when you go out there to the real world, you can't always be aside of this problems, one day or another you will have to face them, so are you prepared?
Remember to always think twice, be cool, be prepared, as the choices you take may change your whole future.

Take in count this story, as it involves people who studied here, people like you. And when the time comes that you have to choose between one or another, remember this speech.

Thank you for listening, have a nice day.

Oral Activity & Letter

Oral activity

Here is the link of my presentation with Joaquín Alarcón about the oral activity:

http://www.glogster.com/grupomjv/oral-activity/g-6k1ofdsls6vpabk32ig32q6

Letter to Jamie Shea

Mr Shea,

I am writing you because after watching your interview for NATO review, I can't handle anymore seeing you manipulate the truth, adjusting it to make the war appear look as something minor, but people are dyeing, they get tortured, they lose their houses, how can these things be positive at all? Because of this, I sincerely would love to see you quitting your job, you would just make a great favor to the society, I am pretty sure you can use your qualities as a spokesman in another industry, but you can't no longer continue with this unethical job, as because of you people are not seeing what's behind this horrible situations, all of the euphemism you use, really cover the grim reality that war brings.

Also, keep in mind that with great power comes a great responsibility, that's why with your great communicating abilities, by suppressing and distorting the truth, you are affecting all the people and they loose the north about what is good and what's wrong. Just remember that war victims and its instruments are individual human beings so it isn't too late to change your mind and help stop this.

Hoping you understand,
Aldous Houxley.

Comparing Two Letters of application

Tip 1: Avoiding long clauses at the beginning of the sentences.

In this case the correction was to cut out some needless phrases to short the sentences and also joining them to get a fluid paragraph instead of the original one that had many pauses. For instance, the new version doesn't have in it the words "Over, as soon, I am so, see take on" that the original version had and put together other words to make it fluid, as instead of " Over the past six years, each morning," as soon as my students walk in the door ... I am so happy to see them again and see my classroom take on life again" the corrected version says the same with less punctuation marks and easier to read : "Each morning of the past six years, I have been happy to see my students walk through the classroom door".

Tip 2: Avoiding "It" or dummy subjects in sentences.


This tip claims that the use of "It" as the subject of sentences makes them weaker, this can be seen in the text in the sentences "It feels so natural to me to be a primary school teacher."  which give emphasis in the feeling, but in the corrected version, "Being a primary school teacher comes so naturally to me." the emphasys is on the job.

Tip 3: Using the right verb tense.

Using the right tense is a must on any text as if you use it wrong it may be difficult for the readers to understand. In this case "Yet for the past few months I am longing for and thinking about"d was changed to "have been".

Tip 4: Use relative clauses.

This tip is useful as relative clauses makes it easier to expand or further ideas. On the corrected version, the relative clause added was "where".

Tip 5: Watch out for wordy sentences

Its very important to follow this tip as wordy sentences can be a pain to all readers, so because of this, it's a must to summarize and check the punctuation of your sentences. On the texts, the change is notorious as a 4 line paragraph turns into a 2 line one, without losing it sense.

Tip 6: Never start a sentence with "but"

This is a very simple tip, just never use but at the beginning of a sentence. As seen in the original version of the letter, there is a sentence which start with "but", "But in view of my university education",. which lately was corrected on the new version just saying "In view of my university education".

Tip 7: Use parallelisms.

Tip 7 refers to the use of an equal or same structure in different sentences as it makes the text more efficient and trustworthy. For instance, on the original version the sentences goes like this: "I am an open minded person with excellent social skills. I tolerate pressure easily."  which differs in structure on the different sentences, but, the corrected version follows the same structure in all the sentences: "As a colleague you will find that I have an open mind, good social skills and an ability to handle pressure easily.".

Tip 8: Use active verbs.

Using active verbs is an important tip as this verbs are more stronger than passive ones so they get captivate more the reader's attention as they make the sentence more significant. Instead of "value would be added to your organisation". the final version says: "I would add value to your organisation."