Analyzing Figurative Meaning in Emerson's "Self-Reliance": Part 2

Learn to use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in this interactive tutorial. You'll learn how to identify and apply three important types of context clues: synonyms, antonyms, and inferences. This tutorial features passages about some of the world's most incredible child prodigies.

Examine what it means to be an American by analyzing a speech delivered by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes, in 1941. This tutorial is Part Three of a three-part series. In this tutorial, you will read more excerpts from Ickes’ speech, and then you will evaluate the effectiveness of his argument's structure. 

Make sure to complete Part One and Part Two before beginning Part Three.

• Click for Part One.
• Click HERE for Part Two. 

Examine what it means to be an American by analyzing a speech delivered by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes, in 1941. This tutorial is Part Two of a three-part series. In this tutorial, you will read excerpts from Ickes’ speech, and then you will identify his use of rhetorical appeals and analyze the structure of his argument. 

Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click  for Part One.

Make sure to complete all three parts! Click HERE for Part Three.

Examine what it means to be an American by analyzing a speech delivered by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes, in 1941. This tutorial is Part One of a three-part series. In this tutorial, you will read excerpts from the opening sections of Ickes’ speech. Then, you will work on determining his purpose, point of view, and important claims in these sections.  

Make sure to complete all three parts! Click to view Part Two. Click HERE to view Part Three.

Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this two-part series. This tutorial is Part Two. In this tutorial, you will continue to examine excerpts from Emerson's essay that focus on the topic of traveling. You will examine word meanings and determine the connotations of specific words. You will also analyze the impact of specific word choices on the meaning of this portion of the essay.

Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click  to view Part One.

Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this two-part interactive tutorial series. This tutorial is Part One. In these tutorials, you will examine word meanings, examine subtle differences between words with similar meanings, and think about the emotions or associations that are connected to specific words. Finally, you will analyze the impact of specific word choices on the meaning of these excerpts.

Make sure to complete both parts! Click to launch Part Two.

Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this interactive two-part tutorial. In Part One, you’ll learn to enhance your experience of a text by analyzing its use of a word’s figurative meaning. Specifically, you'll examine Emerson's figurative meaning of the key term "genius." In Part Two, you’ll learn how to track the development of a word’s figurative meaning over the course of a text. 

Make sure to complete both parts of the tutorial! Click  to view Part Two.

Examine a famous speech by President Abraham Lincoln, his 2nd Inaugural Address. This speech, given a month before his assassination, is considered by many to be one of his most eloquent and moving speeches. By the end of this tutorial you should be able to determine Lincoln's purpose for his 2nd Inaugural Address, analyze his word choice, and identify his use of parallel structure. Finally, you should be able to put all of these things together to analyze how Lincoln's word choice and use of parallel structure contributed to the purpose for his speech.

Learn to identify common text structures such as problem/solution, definition/example, cause and effect, and compare and contrast. In this interactive tutorial, you will read text excerpts from Walden by Henry David Thoreau and examine how he expressed complex ideas.

Learn about the rhetorical techniques used by Henry David Thoreau in his influential essay, Civil Disobedience.  In this interactive tutorial you will determine one of Thoreau’s purposes for writing, identify his use of specific rhetorical techniques, and explain how these techniques are used to persuade the audience.

We will break down the work of one of America's best wordsmiths, Ambrose Bierce, who was famous for his witty wordplay and use of satire, to practice a variety of skills using his essay "For Brevity and Clarity." By the end of this tutorial you should be able to cite textual evidence to prove what an author has stated directly, cite textual evidence to support inferences drawn from a text, distinguish what is indirectly stated in a text through the author's use of satire, and make inferences supported by textual evidence to determine ambiguities in a text.