No description available.

No description available.

"The Journey Within" deals with how the receiver (reader/viewer) engages with the novel and the film. The thesis primarily focuses on Faulkner's novel, incorporating Persona largely as a means by which to illustrate the more carefully concealed reader-engagement strategies in Absalom, Absalom! Starting with a review of Faulkner criticism that opens itself up to this inquiry, the thesis leads into a detail study of the engagement strategies used to foster identification, alignment, sympathy, and empathy among receivers. Employing Umberto Eco's criticism involving "Model Readers" who "actualize" texts, as well as other reader and viewer response theory, I demonstrate that certain receivers experience a specific, heightened engagement with the work. This "Model" receiver restructures her ideologies to accord with what the work expects from her. Ultimately, this particular engagement leads to ontological participation in the work among its receivers. Martin Heidegger's phenomenological investigation, Being and Time, helps illustrate this ontological participation.

This thesis examines the reception of material developed by Soul City: Institute for Health and Development in South Africa and distributed in four Sub-Saharan countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia. Soul City is the focus of considerable resource, research and media attention in South Africa. The study thus critically assesses Soul City's efficacy in neighbouring states, such as Lesotho. The focus of the study is on Choose Life; a booklet intended for 12-16 year olds and assesses its reception by the target group in Lesotho. The study investigates how message-decoding practices of the target audience in Lesotho will bear on a product originally designed for a South African audience. The sample's interpretation of the Choose Life booklet is therefore assessed to determine the extent to which their reception produced 'preferred', negotiated or aberrant meanings. Therefore Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model (1980) offers the theoretical framework upon which the reception of Choose Life is analysed. Development communication models are also used to explain the role of Soul City as the agent and Youth in Lesotho as beneficiaries in the implementation of the project. Results established by this study indicate that there is need to conduct extensive formative research of target audiences and also involve beneficiaries in projects intended for them. Different readings of the booklet were observed which were attributed to age, gender, place of residence (Urban or rural), cultural and communication barriers . This means these factors were supposed to have been considered by Soul City prior to the Choose Life intervention. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

This thesis investigates the two major conflicting modes of interpretation applied to Mo Yan’s literary texts diachronically and synchronically in order to reveal both the aesthetic imperative and the liberating force of the British and North American literary centers in receiving literature from the periphery. After an introduction to the centers’ disparate responses to the paradigmatic shift of the local Chinese literary trend in the 1980s, the thesis continues with a theoretical discussion on reader-response theory and the uneven power relations between the literary center and the periphery. Jauss’s concept of horizon of expectation and Fish’s interpretive community are adopted to stress openness in interpretation while Casanova’s conceptualization of the world republic of letters provides the framework to study the competition among interpretive communities for the legitimacy of their respective interpretation. The study of the press reception of Mo Yan focuses on the ongoing shift of horizon of expectation from the dominating political and representational mode of interpretation to one that stresses the literary and fictional nature of literature. The study shows that the imperative in the reception of Mo Yan is the extension of the Western cultural hegemony sustained by an Orientalist dichotomy. The academic promotion in the public sphere, however, shows critics’ effort to subvert such domination by suggesting an alternative mode that brings the Chinese literary context to bear on the interpretation. In addition to this, Mo Yan’s strategic negotiation with the dominating mode of reception is analysed in my close reading of POW!. At the end of the thesis, I call for general readers to raise the awareness of the hegemonic tendency of any prevailing mode of interpretation. By asserting a certain distance, readers enable the openness in interpretation and hence possible communication among different communities.

The purpose of this case study was to examine the effectiveness of a technique known as re-creation on student writing abilities in ENG 104 section 95 during the spring semester of 1992. Re-creation, already used almost exclusively in England and Australia, invites a writer to divulge his or her personal interpretation of a literary text by rewriting given aspects of it. In section 95, the instructor devoted the entire range of assignments to re-creative writing tasks, using four dramatic scripts and the motion pictures that had been adapted from them as literary texts. The instructor carefully developed re-creative writing assignments and a reasonable criteria with which to grade them. He closely monitored how the students adapted to re-creative writing, and discovered that four students exemplified the main different styles of writing that emerged from re-creation. The case study does indicate that all of the twenty-one students coulddo the work that re-creation involves; some experienced only minor successes with it, but other students, including some top achievers who would probably have done well in any writing class, found broad new avenues for creative expression of their personal responses to literature. / Department of English

RSS šaltinių kaupimo ir peržiūros sistema sukurta, norint įgyvendinti funkcijas, kurių nėra kitose panašiose sistemose: naujienų siuntimas el. paštu, automatinis naujienų archyvavimas. Kita priežastis, dėl ko sukurta sistema, tai vartotojo sąsajos paprastumas, nereikalaujantis specifinių žinių, kad nekiltų keblumų naudojantis sistemos funkcijomis. Pirmame darbo skyriuje aprašoma HTML, XML, RSS ir Atom standartai, detalizuoti paveiksliukais ir lentelėmis. Taip pat aprašoma RSS apdorojimo web sprendimai, trumpai aprašomi privalumai, trūkumai ir pateikiama palyginimų lentelė. Reikalavimų specifikacija parodo, kokias funkcijas turi atlikti sistema. Pateikiama panaudojimo atvejų diagrama, funkciniai ir nefunkciniai reikalavimai. Taip pat aprašomi reikalavimai esamų duomenų perkėlimui ir galimos sistemos kūrimo rizikos. Trečiame skyriuje, architektūros specifikacija pateikama UML diagramomis: veiklos, sekų, bendradarbiavimo, klasių, esybių ryšių ir komponentų diagramos. Iš pateiktų diagramų galima matyti kaip sistema atrodo iš architektūros pusės ir galima suprasti kaip veikia viena ar kita funkcija. Testavimo dokumentacijos paskirtis – parodyti dar neatrastas klaidas, kurios gali paveikti visos sistemos funkcionalumą. Sistemos testavimas pateikiamas lentelėse. Buvo atlikti sistemos funkcijų, našumo, suderinamumo ir saugumo testavimai. Vartotojo vadovas sukurtas, kad parodyti sistemos funkcijų galimybes. Vartotojo vadovas pateikiamas DUK formoje, integruota pačioje sistemos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The "Gathering and Viewing System of RSS Sources" was developed in order to implement features that are not presented in other similar systems: send email newsletter to users and automatically archive news items. Another reason for creating a system is the simplicity of the user interface and does not require specific knowledge that avoid problems using the system. The first chapter describes the HTML, XML, RSS and Atom standards, detailed with pictures and tables. It also provides web solutions for processing RSS feeds, briefly describes the advantages and disadvantages. As a result, web solutions of the RSS feeds represents in comparison table. Requirements specification indicates what functions have to perform this system. It represents use case diagram, the functional and non-functional requirements. It also, describes the requirements of the existing data transfer and the potential risk of system development. In the third chapter of architectural specification contains UML diagrams: activity, sequence, collaboration, class, entity and component. From these diagrams you can see how the system looks like from the architecture side, this way you can understand the operation of one or the other function. Also, diagrams are represented in simple and short descriptions, and detailed tables. The purpose of testing documentation is to show undetected bugs that may affect the overall system’s functionality. The testing of system was detailed in tables. It was carried out of... [to full text]

Research conducted in the readability of texts shows that there is an extensive problem with learners' of all phases academic skills in terms of reading comprehension and insight into writing texts in accordance with generally accepted academic standards. It is important that sufficient attention and research are devoted to possible solutions to this problem, since various theorists have found that effective reading and writing skills are of great importance for learners' academic progress and achievement. A reason for this is that most academic material that is made available to learners appear in written format, and that learners have to report on their knowledge in the same format. Although educational institutions formulate academic texts (of which study guides form part) with a high readability level, the current study investigates some problems and shortcomings that appear in study guides. If the readability of the mentioned study material is increased in light of text linguistic insights, learners should have greater accessibility to the textual content, which could impact positively on academic achievement. With the above mentioned in mind, this study focuses on a text linguistic approach to investigating the readability of study guides which are written for first-year learners at a tertiary institution. The main problem addresses how lexical cohesive devices and conjunction markers can be included as part of a text linguistic approach to writing study guides, and how this can be used by authors of study guides in practice as a tool to increase the efficiency of the writing process. The research is conducted on the basis of various theories, which include Systemic Functional Linguistics, Halliday and Hasan's Cohesion theory and Stotsky's adaptation thereof for written academic texts, as well as Hyland's theory about academic metadiscourse. Applicable insights regarding text linguistic criteria for writing academic texts, which are identified through this literature study, are converted into a framework for text analysis and then implemented to investigate the effective use of specific textual markers in the obtained study guides. This will be done in a descriptive and primarily qualitative manner. Ten Afrikaans study guides, pertaining to diverse subject groups, and which were recently used at a tertiary institution as introductory study guides for first-year learners, form the data of this study. In order to conduct a reliable investigation, the data is analised procedurally (with reference to the mentioned text analytical model) by hand and also using WordSmith Tools. Based on both the literature study and the text analysis, guidelines that can be used when writing Afrikaans study guides are formulated from a text linguistic point of view. These guidelines may be used to supplement the existing guide used by writers of study guides at the particular institution. The possibility also exists that these guidelines can be used to improve and standardise the quality and readability of the mentioned learning material. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

Research conducted in the readability of texts shows that there is an extensive problem with learners' of all phases academic skills in terms of reading comprehension and insight into writing texts in accordance with generally accepted academic standards. It is important that sufficient attention and research are devoted to possible solutions to this problem, since various theorists have found that effective reading and writing skills are of great importance for learners' academic progress and achievement. A reason for this is that most academic material that is made available to learners appear in written format, and that learners have to report on their knowledge in the same format. Although educational institutions formulate academic texts (of which study guides form part) with a high readability level, the current study investigates some problems and shortcomings that appear in study guides. If the readability of the mentioned study material is increased in light of text linguistic insights, learners should have greater accessibility to the textual content, which could impact positively on academic achievement. With the above mentioned in mind, this study focuses on a text linguistic approach to investigating the readability of study guides which are written for first-year learners at a tertiary institution. The main problem addresses how lexical cohesive devices and conjunction markers can be included as part of a text linguistic approach to writing study guides, and how this can be used by authors of study guides in practice as a tool to increase the efficiency of the writing process. The research is conducted on the basis of various theories, which include Systemic Functional Linguistics, Halliday and Hasan's Cohesion theory and Stotsky's adaptation thereof for written academic texts, as well as Hyland's theory about academic metadiscourse. Applicable insights regarding text linguistic criteria for writing academic texts, which are identified through this literature study, are converted into a framework for text analysis and then implemented to investigate the effective use of specific textual markers in the obtained study guides. This will be done in a descriptive and primarily qualitative manner. Ten Afrikaans study guides, pertaining to diverse subject groups, and which were recently used at a tertiary institution as introductory study guides for first-year learners, form the data of this study. In order to conduct a reliable investigation, the data is analised procedurally (with reference to the mentioned text analytical model) by hand and also using WordSmith Tools. Based on both the literature study and the text analysis, guidelines that can be used when writing Afrikaans study guides are formulated from a text linguistic point of view. These guidelines may be used to supplement the existing guide used by writers of study guides at the particular institution. The possibility also exists that these guidelines can be used to improve and standardise the quality and readability of the mentioned learning material. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

Literature for young adults, which has undergone significant changes in the last few decades and continues to evolve rapidly, is increasingly accompanied by Internet materials which attempt to fulfill a variety of purposes. The overall purpose of this qualitative study was to develop an understanding of middle years teachers’ and students’ responses to these printed and online texts. This research explored the nature of the online content being created and the usefulness of Genette’s (1997) concepts of paratexts in understanding these materials, as well as the responses of middle years teachers and students to a selected set of novels and the online content related to those novels. A collective case study approach was used to probe the responses of four teachers and six students from four mid-sized western Canadian cities. Data were collected through in-person and Skype interviews and through written response journals. Within-case and cross-case analysis occurred using thematic coding methods. Themes were identified in both the students’ and teachers’ responses, and these themes were observed to align in six significant ways. Both teachers and students agreed that audio and visual materials online may evoke a strong response and that the opinions and ideas of other readers are interesting and influential. The teachers predicted and the students confirmed that their response to the websites was largely determined by their response to the printed texts. The two participant groups both indicated that they viewed the printed texts as of primary importance and that the content of the websites had the power to change their thinking about those texts. Finally, both teachers and students described a tendency to make quick decisions about their interest in the content of a website. Implications for pedagogy include the need for educators to investigate these online materials and to consider students’ out-of-school literacy skills and preferences in order to make intentional, informed decisions about their use in the curriculum. Recommendations for future research include the exploration of a wider range of printed and online texts, examination of the responses of students from different age groups to these texts, and investigation of the impact of participation in the book-related websites on adolescents’ identity development. / Graduate / 0727