Friday Focus: 4/17/15

People, Events, and Ideas The focus of this week will be looking at people, events, and ideas as a reading concept.

When reading a complex text, it is important to note the complexity of the ideas being presented, and one way to do that effectively is to determine the context complexity. Is it about one person? Is it about the relationship of two people or a multitude? Is it a basic historical account of an event or person, or is it an in-depth look into the person’s theories? Or is it about all of the above or even more? Understanding the relationship of the various pieces of the material will help you to better establish the reading complexity of a text.

A good way to think of this is as Charles Stewart said in 1901, “Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas.” Or as great athlete Roger Federer shortened the idea by famously saying, "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people."

This is a great tool to help you, as a reader, BUT IT IS NOT ALWAYS EFFECTIVE. In looking at Robert Frost’s work, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” one can see a great example of how tricky this can be. His point could be about the march to an inevitable death that awaits us all or it could simply be about a tired man on a horse; thereby, a reader could mistakenly read it as simple, while it is really rather complex.

Read The Article You will have ten minutes to read the article. This slide will move forward automatically.

Questions You will have 60 seconds to answer each question The slides will move forward automatically

Swift has proved herself an expert at making those connections. 1. Select the sentence from the article that shows that Swift made the right move by deciding to sell her music on her own She’s since proved capable of selling more albums in a week than anyone since Eminem in 2002. Swift has proved herself an expert at making those connections. During the chaotic week, she took time out to write an opinion piece (op-ed) for the Wall Street Journal. Taylor Swift made news recently by pulling her music off Spotify, the world’s biggest streaming music service.

Swift making sales through bonding with fans 2. Swift is “defying retail gravity,” as former Billboard editor Bill Werde phrased it to National Public Radio (NPR). What is the author referring to when he writes, "defying retail gravity"? Swift making sales through bonding with fans Swift writing an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal Swift’s album making record sales in its first week of release Swift not letting Spotify stream her music

stating facts and figures of revenue earned through streaming 3. The article tries to explain that it’s not easy for artists to stay away from music streaming by: stating facts and figures of revenue earned through streaming providing a description of the royalty paid to artists by Spotify sharing anecdotes of artists struggling to sell their music quoting opposing views of Spotify owner and artists

Answers

Swift has proved herself an expert at making those connections. 1. Select the sentence from the article that shows that Swift made the right move by deciding to sell her music on her own She’s since proved capable of selling more albums in a week than anyone since Eminem in 2002. Swift has proved herself an expert at making those connections. During the chaotic week, she took time out to write an opinion piece (op-ed) for the Wall Street Journal. Taylor Swift made news recently by pulling her music off Spotify, the world’s biggest streaming music service.

Swift making sales through bonding with fans 2. Swift is “defying retail gravity,” as former Billboard editor Bill Werde phrased it to National Public Radio (NPR). What is the author referring to when he writes, "defying retail gravity"? Swift making sales through bonding with fans Swift writing an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal Swift’s album making record sales in its first week of release Swift not letting Spotify stream her music

3. The article tries to explain that it’s not easy for artists to stay away from music streaming by: stating facts and figures of revenue earned through streaming providing a description of the royalty paid to artists by Spotify sharing anecdotes of artists struggling to sell their music quoting opposing views of Spotify owner and artists