Tell-Tale Heart

Author Overview

Edgar Allen Poe was born in 1809 in Boston. He was the earliest American practitioner of the short story and the inventor of detective-fiction. His eccentric lifestyle and alcohol abuse led him to write many great but bizarre stories, including "The Raven" in 1845. The early death of his wife is thought to have influenced him in writing many stories involving death. He died in 1849, though the cause of his death remains unknown.

Point of View

The point of view used in "The Tell-Tale Heart'' is the first person point of view. The narrator is the main character, thus making the statements and descriptions in the story subjective. This adds to the story because it make us see things through the eyes of the madman.

Style

1. Imagery

"His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness."

2. Metaphor

"...a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye"

3. Simile

"...a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton"

4. Personification

"All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim."

5. Irony

An example of irony in the story would be the fact that the narrator keeps assuring us that he was calm and that he had perpetrated the perfect crime, but that he ends up confessing without even being asked to (because his guilty conscience makes him go mad).

Vocabulary

1. Hearken: to give heed or attention to what is said; listen

2. Cunningly: skillfully, slyly

3. Sagacity: acuteness of mental discernment and soundness of judgement

4. Bosom: the breast, conceived as the center of feelings or emotions

5. Tattoo: knocking or strong pulsation

6. Suavity: smoothly agreeable quality

7. Trifles: a matter, affaire, circumstance of trivial importance or signifiance

8. Dissemble: to give a false or misleading appearance to

9. Deeds: something that is done, performed, or accomplished

10. Foresight; care or provision for the future

Learning Express Library

COURSE 1: GRAMMAR SKILLS FOR WRITING 2: FINE-TUNING PUNCTUATION

1. INTEREST LEVEL: I found this course interesting; even though it was nothing completely new to me, it helped refresh my memory. I think that it can be relevent for anybody because punctuation is a very important skill to master.

2. DIFFICULTY: This course wasn't very difficult; it was more of a revision on how to properly punctuate my sentences for me. The questions and exercices weren't to challenging but were still relevent and practical.

3. WHAT I LEARNED:

1. I learned all the different ways semicolons can be used: to separate independent clauses, to replace a comma in a list which already contains commas (I went to Paris, France; London, England; and Montreal, Canada.), etc.
2. I learned when to use and when not to use apostrophes to show possession.
3. I learned that dashes, when used appropriately, can be a very useful punctuation mark; you can use them to mark a sudden break in thought, emphasize explanatory material and connect a beginning phrase to the rest of the sentence.

4. MY SCORE: The course did not give me a score but overall I made three errors.

5. COURSE RATING: 8/10 Like previously stated, most of the content of this course was basic punctuation knowledge which, even though it is useful, was probably a bit too easy for me. Nonetheless, the section on how to uses dashes was something that I appreciated since this a competence I lacked information on.

COURSE 2: GRAMMAR SKILLS FOR WRITING 3: PRACTICE WITH SUBJECTS, VERBS, AND PRONOUNS

1. INTEREST LEVEL: I found this course interesting. The subject matter wasn't necessarily new to me but it was presented in a that made me aware of many ways to make my writing more interesting and easy to follow.

2. DIFFICULTY: I didn't find this course very difficult; the questions seemed basic to me. Nonetheless, many elements of the content presented were more advanced and an excellent complement to anybody's pre-existing knowledge.

3. WHAT I LEARNED:

1. One of the topics in the course was the differences between all the present tense, past tense and future tense forms and when to correctly use them.
2. The course also explained how the use of the passive voice can often be "life-draining" for a text. Another"life-draining" verb construction is state-of being verbs.
3. I learned which pronouns are plural and which ones are singular. This is something I had trouble with before the course so it was very informative.

4. MY SCORE: The course did not give me a score but overall I made three or four errors.

5. COURSE RATING: 8.5/10 This course was interesting; it made me conscious of several writing flaws, such as adding unnecessary auxiliary verbs and starting sentences with "it" and "there" too much. The lesson on plural and singular pronouns was the part I found the most useful.

COURSE 3: VOCABULARY AND SPELLING COURSE 3

1. INTEREST LEVEL: This course was interesting; it helped me more clearly understand the meaning of some words of the English language which are not used as much. Futhermore, it helped me find the meaning of these word through their context, which is a very useful skill when you don't have a dictionary at hand. Nonetheless, each section had about 4 exercices which all revolved around the same words and thus seemed to be redundant.

2. DIFFICULTY: I started this course thinking it would be easy but was pleasantly surprised; many of the vocabulary words presented in the course were advanced and challenging. Therefore, I think that this course can be useful to everybody, although it might be hard for people who don't speak or read alot in English.

3. WHAT I LEARNED:

1. I learned that there are four types of context clues (context clues meaning context helping you understand a word): context clues by definition, by constrast, by example and by restatement.
2. Another course topic was words from the work world, meaning words which are more precisely related to certain work fields and which can be confusing to people who aren't familiar with them. Once again, the meaning of these words can be understood by the context in which they are used.
3. I also learned that the English language is constantly evolving; new words and expressions are always coming into the language. It is thus important to keep up with these new terminologies.

4. MY SCORE: The course did not offer me a final score but I made certain errors, especially in the section about words from the work world, since there were many technical and financial terms I wasn't familiar with.

5. COURSE RATING: I would give this course an 7/10 rating. Even though it was very useful and gave me many new vocabulary words to use, the exercices in each section were somewhat redundant.

COURSE 4: VOCABULARY AND SPELLING COURSE 4

1. INTEREST LEVEL: Spelling is an extremely important aspect of the English language and can sometimes be confusing due to phonetical / spelling differences. Nonetheless, this course was really more of an overview of basic spelling rules and might have been more interesting to someone less advanced.

2. DIFFICULTY: This course was not difficult. Although it was a good reminder about certain spelling rules, most of the exercices were extremely basic (example: how to spell chocolate and captain).

3. WHAT I LEARNED:

1. One of the aspects of this course was the fact that the English language is phonetically inconsistent, visually confusing and that pronunciation also differs regionally. Therefore, it is important to look at and listen to words before spelling them.
2. Also, the course presented two spelling rules; the IE rule and the EI rule. The IE rule goes as follows: i before e except after c. The EI rule goes like this: e comes before i when it sounds like ay, as in neighbor and weigh.
3. Finally I learned that usually "when two vowels are together, the first one is usually long and the second one is silent", as is true in the words caffeine and reach. Some exceptions to this rule are the words porcelain, beauty and healthy.

4. MY SCORE: Yet again, this course did not feature a final score but I made between 2 and 4 errors.

5. COURSE RATING: Overall, I would give this course an 8.5/10 rating; the course itself was well designed and clear. Pertaining to my personal interest and difficulty levels, I would have to give it a 5/10 rating as it was not very challenging.

Wiki Quiz

1)What is the Learning Express Library (LEL)?
The Learning Express Library is a self-learning tool found on the website of the Grande Bibliothèque. Writing and grammar courses are among the ones found on the site.

2)Where is Mr. B's office?
Mr.B's office is C-150.

3)What percentage of the course is writing and speaking worth?
Reading and speaking are each worth 50% of the course.

4)How many items are on the "Writing Correction Code"?
25 items are on the ''Writing Correction Code''.

5)What are Mr. B's office hours?
His office hours are Monday from 12 to 4 and Thursday from 4 to 5.

6)What is the 48 hour rule?
If a student is absent on an evaluation day, it is his or her responsability to contact the teacher, either via voicemail or email or in person, within the 48 hours following the evaluation to inform themself about how to retake the evaluation. If this isn't done, the student will be graded zero on the evaluation. This can only happen once per semester.

7)What is the first assignment?
Three assignments were given; to complete this quiz, to read ''The Tell-Tale Heart'' and to finish the composition about a fellow student.

8)How many references are made to "thesis statement"?
Seven references are made to ''thesis statement''.

9)How can I reach Mr. B through this Wiki?
You can either send him a message or reach him through the wiki's discussion boards.

10)Do you have to go to the Grande Bibiliotheque to register?
If you are registering for all the services, you must go to the registration desk at the Grande Bibliothèque whereas if you are only registering for the remote services, you can do it trough the internet.

11)How many short stories are we going to read?
We are going to read seven short stories.

12)How many pages on the site refer to "grammar"?
Six pages of the site refer to ''grammar''.

13)How many items are listed in the Student Agreement?
Ten items are listed in the Student Agreement.

14)What are the summative writing assignments?
There are five summative writing assignments; the book review, the mid-term test, the LEL 1 (2 courses), the LEL 2 (2 courses) and the final test.

15)Write down two questions you have about the course?
What is the name of the play we'll be seeing? No other question comes to mind.

Student Profile; Maggie Beeman

When I left home last Monday morning, I expected nothing more than the typical first day of school. Of course, it was CEGEP, and although it would be different from the rest of my education so far, it was still just school. You’ll understand my surprise when I found out I’d be sharing my first period English class for the next semester with none other than a superhero. Presenting the incredible Beeman, more commonly known as Maggie. She might be lesser know than the Supermans and Batmans of this world (obviously, that’s just because of her super stealth powers) but as my eighteen years of existence have taught me, you never pass up an interview with a superhero. Here’s what I learned.

Even a protector of the people like Maggie has goals in her life, as the rest of us regular folks do. She’d like to do well in school this year, in order to preserve her cover story of being a typical Canadian student. On a long-term basis, Beeman aspires to learn Spanish and then travel the world, stopping in Ireland and the United States to visit her relatives. She’d also secretly like to become my friend, but that’s another story. In her time off, Maggie enjoys meeting new people, listening to music and, as previously stated, travelling. Her interest in music led her to learn how to play the saxophone, one of many awesome skills our superhero has. Her talents also include working with special needs children. This came in handy when the incredible Beeman, whilst working in a summer camp, got lost in the woods with her group of children. Thankfully, and as every good story goes, she succeeded in getting everybody safely back and now considers this one of her top achievements (Marvel comics is considering making this their next comic book adventure).

As you can see, Maggie Beeman is a person well worth knowing, if only for bragging rights about befriending a crime-fighter (just kidding).