Category Archives: Language

It has come to an end, a complete ending.

Diploma Program, Homepage, IB Lang & Lit, Language

Over this two-year course, we have learned lots of texts in different fields and literary terminologies that I never imagine I will be able to identify/use it in my own work. The class has significantly enhanced my understanding of the English language & literature and push me to another level, especially in formal writings.

A non-literary that I specifically love is Nike’s advertisement. I have never look that deeply into analyzing an ad because most people, like me, neglect these tiny components in life very often. Through this unit, I was able to understand the humor/visual techniques, which I never thought to be an important part of the ad. I found out the “rule of thirds” is one of the most influential techniques used to emphasize messages and ideas in the advertisement because it makes the audience unconditionally focus on the main message of the advertisement without the need for words.

My favorite literary text that we learned is Never Let Me Go. Despite it being fictional, it is a real matter that may happen in the future. The emphasis in portraying the relationship between clones and humans in the text further promotes the debatable issues of technological advancement and ethics. The strong relation between the topic of the text and reality is one factor that I considered to be my favorite literary text learned.

Going into University, I believe the writing skills that I acquired from this course in writing comprehensive and solid essays will be significant to my further studies in university. The structure of a solid essay will always be in my mind to help me construct even better essays in the future. The global issue that I would be further discussed is discrimination towards Asians. This got even worse during the pandemic and I hope I can become the person that people respect based on my achievements or accomplishments in the future.

Here are samples of works that I accomplished throughout the course:


Portfolio 6 Individual Oral Internal Assessment

Diploma Program, IB Lang & Lit, Language, Literature

For this internal assessment, we have begun practicing some mini-IOs and some practice IOs started from the beginning of this semester. These practices and attempts help me to construct a better final oral internal assessment about the text of ADH and Nike’s advertisement. The global issue that I chose for my final IO is justice, and more specifically about the stereotypical inequality against women in the global society. It is a serious topic that has continued to strike in the society in which the aggressiveness has been slowing down for the last few years due to the rise of voice from the celebrity and more importantly, the women’s voice. Through the assessment, I have connected myself to the global world by promoting the ideas of more equal laws that are set between genders. In ADH, the laws and the situation of society are depicted clearly against women which they lived in a difficult and inferior life compare to men. This idea in the text leads me to the thinking of our world and to how society works from a different point of view. From there, Nike’s Serena William’s advertisement further demonstrate this issue that exists in the society we live in this decade.

These two different texts impacted me from the aspect of freedom. It tells me the value of rights and freedom from living in the country with such liberty. It also informs me of the significance of obtaining personal freedom in society. In this IO, I have prepared myself starting from making a solid outline to a deeper dive into the texts that I will be interpreting. The challenging part is to find the most solid connection with my global issue and it is difficult to memorize every critical point that I would like to explain in the real IO. However, when the points and evidence are found in the text, it will strengthen the persuasiveness of my IO and more importantly the critical concept of my global issue. It is a great experience in my learning career to has the chance to orally explain the text and global issue from my own perspective.

Portfolio Post 5 Persepolis

Diploma Program, IB Lang & Lit, Language, Literature

Throughout this unit, we learned about one literary text of Persepolis written by Marjane Satrapi. This text is an autobiography of Marjane Satrapi to demonstrate the global issues and tensions that she faced throughout her life. It started out with the religious tensions and domestic revolution within the nation of Iran then go further deeps into the cultural tension she faced in the foreign country of Austra. The text demonstrates a profound connection to the issue of our society and conveys the ideas to promote the fulfillment of gender equality, freedom of religion, and global society…etc.

We accomplished several assignments on this unit in order to demonstrate a solid understanding of the text and the further ideas that tie into the world. We accomplished 3 discussions on different topics about the text on a weekly basis to view the text from different points of view. It helps us to develop a better understanding of the intention of the writer to utilizes such techniques to convey the ideas of the text and encourage us to think in a more abstract way to fully understand the text. Moreover, we were able to take notes while reading the text from taking notes on the reading journal that is provided. It helps to document specific ideas with solid related evidence that correlates to the text and the ideas are further used in comparison with other works that are either literary or non-literary.

In this unit, I specifically focus more on the global issue of gender inequality in the text because I feel more touched when the writer emphasizes the prejudiced presented against women in the text. I believe this global issue is still vividly presented in the world but it has become better through the support of propaganda and demonstration of women’s strength to overthrow these prejudices. The conceptual questions that I learned throughout this unit focus on the cost of something in order to fulfill another achievement while in the text of Persepolis, it is the cost of Freedom and education to pursue of freedom in this world following with the impact of leadership within organizations or nations to be able to influence the populations as a whole.

2 evidence of works accomplished (Discussion paper & Reading Journal):


Portfolio Post 4 Sacrifice and Protests in Sports: Just do It! Or don’t?

Diploma Program, IB Lang & Lit, Language

In this Language and Literature unit, we focused on the similar concepts of beliefs and values that were presented earlier in the play of A Doll’s House and Antigone. Nonetheless, we involved a brand new topic, the area of sport, to further strengthen the ideas of beliefs and values through incidents that athletes present similar ideas of individuality and how they value personal beliefs over the norms. In general, we focused on two main works of sports which are Nike’s advertisement and a documentary named Icarus. Both works present a solid connection to beliefs and values by having an iconic representation or character that demonstrates the approach of such ideologies within the works. It was a unique unit because the area of sports does not come up really often in terms of learning literature concepts, which I am even more excited to be able to engage in class through connection to literature topics and the passion for sports.

For this specific work accomplished in this unit, we were guided to create a slide for better preparation of the assessment of Individual Oral. We were required to select a non-literary work and a literary to make a comparison between two works relating to the topic of this unit, which is the significance of beliefs and values. I chose to work on Antigone for the literary work and Nike’s advertisement for the non-literary work. For the evidence of the Individual Oral, I chose a specific sentence from Antigone and Colin Kaepernick’s Nike advertisement to work on. While doing the annotation and background information of the work, it is essential to look inside the work with depth and discover the genuine intention of the purpose that authors aim to convey. It is important to extrapolate the work with something more than just the text or the image itself, the assessment requires us to think in more abstract thinking that can correlate to many other factors such as emotions, persuasiveness, and word choices.

This is my video for the Individual Oral about the comparison between two works that we studied this year. It is essential to present the IO with a great understanding of the works and a clear interpretation with organized structures on conveying ideas. Moreover, creating a comprehensive thesis is a thing that has to be accomplished correctly in this assessment. From the experience of the mini-IO that we also have done previously this unit, I work on further interpret multiple techniques artists used to better annotate and explain the work. Moreover, for the Nike advertisement, I evaluate more carefully on the minor objects presented in the ad such as the logo and slogan of Nike to better link and connect the artist’s purpose of the text and strengthen its persuasiveness. Overall, I learned how to construct an organized outline for Individual Oral and it can be largely beneficial for further usages in the literature study.

This unit connects largely to the world by mentioning or implying some potential or obvious global issues presented in the world. The most memorable one is Colin Kaepernick’s advertisement which presents the global issues of racial inequality. Kaepernick sacrifices his career as an NFL player in order to raise the awareness of such issues which is the reason I believe it is the most memorable one to sacrifice one’s beloved thing in order to pursue individual beliefs. Lastly, I enjoy the content of this unit and looking forward to more ways of literature work presentation in the remaining year.

Debate on Nike’s Colin Kaepernick advertisement

Diploma Program, IB Lang & Lit, Inquiry & Creativity, Language
  • My thoughts about the Nike advertisement:
    • In my opinion, I am on the supporting side of Nike having that advertisement on Colin Kaepernick. I believe it is essential for Nike to take this opportunity to further promote its own reputation and upholding its main belief:” Just Do It”. Colin Kaepernick’s incident has fully displayed Nike’s spirit of just doing it no matter the cause of it to be, which Kaepernick decided to stand for voicing the need for a change on racial prejudice by kneeling down during the national anthem. Moreover, the quote stated “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” stands out in the ad and is targeted to be the main focus of the advertisement. Although people might think Colin Kaepernick did not sacrifice everything, I believe he is mostly there to sacrifice everything by giving up his life of being a professional football player and his career. It is a huge sacrifice for an athlete that works for his whole life just to play in the NFL and his sacrifice on this is extraordinary for me. 
  •  What extent the context of production should be considered when analyzing advertisements: 
    • I believe it is significant to consider the context of production which in this case the involvement of Nike in Colin Kaepernick’s incident. The relationship between it is something to be focused on and the purpose of Nike to display such controversial ads should be considered as it informs the meaning of the ad and the reason for Nike to intervene in this incident. I believe the spirit of “ Just Do It” correlates to Colin Kaepernick’s action is the main reason for Nike to take this opportunity to seek attention from the customers, ultimately achieving its goal to promote Nike as a sportswear company who strongly stand on what the company believes in. 
  • Why do we study language?
    • We study the language and the structure of language because it is a way people express their meaning and intention through a variety of ways of language. The quote shown in Colin Kaepernick’s Nike advertisement divided a sentence into two separate segments in order to strengthen its intention to make specific words to be seen before the other. It can help to develop a stronger expression of the message of the advertisement by “believing in something” first then the consequence of it to “sacrificing everything”. The usage of syntax here is effective as it helps to make a more clear message of the advertising and become more persuasive.
  • In what ways is meaning constructed, negotiated, expressed and interpreted?
    • Meaning can be fully expressed in these ways through, in this unit, the strength of an advertisement. It is essential to structure details and icons in the right place in order to fully display the meaning of it. The placement of things in this ad is essential as it leads the way how the audience views it and makes it influential of not. For example, the quote present in Colin Kaepernick’s Nike advertising impact a lot on the overall performance of the ad as it was placed in the middle of the ad and kept Kaepernick to be the background, which further strengthens its purpose of the quote by relating it to colin Kaepernick’s incident, therefore, making the ad to become persuasive.

Portfolio Post #2 Political Cartoon Analysis & 1st Timed Writing

IB Lang & Lit, Language


Throughout this unit, we were asked to analyze different types of cartoons and determine the usage of humor under each one of them. For instance, I chose to annotate a cartoon about gender inequality in sports from Liza Donnelly and to analyze it with a formal structural analysis that consists of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I was able to improve my skills in getting in depths to understand the ultimate idea the author is trying to convey. Nonetheless, I did not completely and correctly annotate the cartoon as the comment from the teacher to reveal that the people on the cartoons are actually female not male, which I somehow miss the part and formulate a different thesis statement in my analysis. I learned that I have to work on the implication and interpretation of the actual text in order to correctly formulate a strong and suitable thesis statement for this specific text.

The intention of Liza Donnelly to create these cartoons is to draw attention and raise awareness from the public to focus on global issues around the world, which in this case she focuses on gender inequality for most of her cartoons. Gender inequality has been a serious issue that affects the rights of people to acheive things in society. There are a lot of advocates aiming to promote gender equality in the world such as Malala who aim to advocate young female education in society. In conclusion, it links back to how our group came up with an ultimate statement about Donnelly’s action in this unit, “By utilizing your own strength to raise awareness on social discrimination, you ultimately shape and change the social value in the end”.

Moreover, we did our first “timed writing” during this unit as a practice for paper 1. I think it was quite new for me as the time limit somehow makes me feel like being pressured. I have to do better jobs in organizing the structure of my analysis better within the time limit. It is essential to strike the main argument and create a solid thesis statement to be expressed in the analysis with the help of supplemental paragraphs to strengthen the main idea of the analysis.