Film review – Sherlock Holmes

This week, we are just watching the fascinating movie which is Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is an action mystery film which has an interesting plot. Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of murder, which related to the occult rituals. In London, he and Dr. John Watson race to prevent the ritual murder of a girl by Lord Blackwood who has killed five people. Fortunately, they were able to arrest Blackwood and he was sentenced to death. But, before that, he wishes to meet with Holmes and warns Holmes those three more impending deaths that will cause great changes to the world. Then, Blackwood is hanged dead, declared by Dr. Watson. One day, Holmes receives a visit from Irene who is a professional thief and his former lover; ask him to find a missing man named Reordan. He felt so curious then he discreetly followed her. He found out that Reordan is the key of the Blackwood’s plans from the conversation between Irene and her secret employer.

A few days later, Blackwood’s tomb was destroyed from the inside out and Reordan was found dead in the Blackwood’s coffin. A groundskeeper said that he’d seen Blackwood walking from the tomb. From the autopsy of the Reordan body, it leads them to his house and discovers experiments attempting to merge science with magic. Then, he is taken to the Temple of the Four Orders, an occult-dabbling secret society. He was asked by the leaders to stop Blackwood but then they were killed through apparently magical means by the Blackwood. He plans to retake the United States, weakened by civil war.


Then, Holmes went hiding and studies about Blackwood’s rituals. He then rejoins Adler and Watson and sneak into the sewers beneath Parliament and found a machine, based on the Reordan’s experiments, designed to release a cyanide derivative into the Parliament chambers. They fight off Blackwood’s men and remove the cyanide containers from the machine. Adler grabs the cylinders and races away, pursued by Holmes. Blackwood has realised that his plan has failed but he manages to run away.


Holmes confronts Adler on top of the incomplete Tower Bridge but is interrupted by Blackwood. Holmes tricks him into becoming entangled in the ropes and chains, hanging over the Thames while Holmes recounts the technical trickery behind all the Blackwood’s supposed magic. A loose beam falls off the rafter supports, causing Blackwood to fall and die by hanging from the chains.

Next presentation

This week, the presentation continued. In reading 4.5, it is about the crooked and fallacious thinking. It is about the manipulative tool in the hands of speakers or writers wishing to influence and affect the judgement of their listeners or readers. Especially in contexts where there is an intent to persuade towards a particular belief or course of action, we are likely to encounter instances of crooked and fallacious thinking. For this reason, it is important to be able to interrogate the logic contained in the argument in a text.

In reading 5.3, it is about the basic logical concept. It covers on the deductive and induction. All arguments are either deductive or inductive. In a deductive argument, the conclusion is claimed to follow necessarily from the premises while in inductive argument, the conclusion is claimed to follow only probably from the premises.

In deciding whether an argument is deductive or inductive, we should apply four simple tests. The indicator words test are probably, necessarily and likely which the signal whether the argument is intended to be deductive or inductive. The next test is the strict necessity test is about the conclusion should follow with the strict necessity from the premises. The third test is the common pattern test is about the arguments that have a pattern that is characteristically deductive or inductive. The last one is the principle of charity test urges us to treat doubtful arguments in whatever way is most favourable to the arguer.

Please, let me go to your school

Topic
The article focuses on a six-year-old Scarlett Finney who suffered from the spina bifida and unsatisfied with The Hills Grammar School because has rejected her application because of her disabilities.


Content
The article covers on a disappointed child, Scarlette Finney which her application has been rejected from studying at The Hills Grammar School because of her disabilities. She felt so unsatisfied because the school said that it will take the children with disabilities. Her mother, Bernadette Finney asks the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Graeme Innes to consider about this case. She said that Scarlette who suffered from spina bifida able to walk short distances and use ordinary toilet and she is not intellectually disabled. It is unfair because the school has accepted a blind student and student with an artificial leg. While the school has its own reason on not accept Scarlette. The barrister of the school, Ms Kate Eastman said that the school is not going to accept a student if it cannot provide everything to allow that the child to achieve her best. Besides that, the arrangement of the class also might be the major reason. This is because the kindergarten children need to move many times a day. So, Scarlette cannot move a lot and fast like the other children.


Source
The article comes from the newspaper.


Audience
The article is written for a non-specialist audience because the discourse used in the article does not include a scientific term of words. It is intended for especially parents who had a disable child. They must be comprehend on the feeling and also the situation faced by Scarlette and her family. Besides that, the high education staff also might be the intended reader because they can know about the chances of the disable child to get to study at the particular school.


The rhetorical function
The article is designed to inform the reader.


Purpose
The article aims to inform the readers who are parents and the staff of high education about a six-year-old Scarlett Finney who suffered from the spina bifida and unsatisfied with The Hills Grammar School because has rejected her application because of her disabilities.


Perspective
The stance taken in the article is about condemning the decision to refuse the Scarlette enrolment to study at the school. The writer supports the stance taken by supporting the school by giving concrete reasons on why the school has rejected Scarlette application. Even though the school receive $ 974,000 a year in Federal and State funds and charge fees up to $ 9,200 a year but still does not able to provide a Scarlette services and facilities. Besides that, the school also priorities the student achievement and want Scarlette achieve her best in the school. Apart from that, the school did not accept her application because of the class arrangement. The kindergarten children need to move many times a day and it is difficult for Scarlette to move a lot in a day because of her spina bifida. In my view, i do agree with the stance taken by the writer. This is because the school has stated the reasons on why the application of the Scarlett has been rejected. It does make sense that even though the school accept Scarlette application; it will not give the comfortability to Scarlette to study there. It will make Scarlette more suffering and does not enjoy to study. The stance taken tells us that the writer probably believes that the school is really priorities the student achievement and want the students can achieve the best. The implication for understanding this article is that Scarlette and her family cannot blame the school alone because has rejected her application.


Positioning
The article describes Scarlette Finney, a disable child with spina bifida unsatisfied with the school because has reject her application. She can walk in a short distance and use ordinary toilet. So, she can be normal just like other children. While, for the school has to accept her application because the school cannot provide the services and facilities to Scarlette. Besides that, the class arrangement also makes Scarlette even harder to study at this school. This is because the kindergarten children need to move many times a day.


Impact
The effect on readers is likely to be sympathy with Scarlette Finney because she does not be accepted to study at the school that she wanted to go. She has come out with many reasons to make she can study there. However, the readers cannot blame on the school alone because the school also has it own reasons.


Visual literacy
The visual aspects of the text are significant because the headline ‘Please, let me go to your school’ and the picture showed that the disable girl wants to go to the school but her application has been rejected by the school and she seemed so sad.

Presentation Day

This week, there were lot of presentations that cover almost five readings. From reading 2.3 which is about language, the information that i find interesting is about finding the right words in order to precise our statement. Failing to be precise can lead to miscommunication. We must have good arguments but it will depend on the precise definition of words and phrases that opponents in an argument might define differently. Besides that, a good definition should be neither too broad nor too narrow which convey the essential meaning of word, provide a context where needed, and not be slanted, figurative, obscure, or circular. This is quite difficult because it need to be precise and perfect for the whole context.

In reading 3.3, it covers about linguistic perspective. It teaches people to become as text analysts. It have used an approach driven by systematic functional linguistics which provide some analytical tools which can explicitly open up space for critical readings which enable people to act as text analysts. It is about problematise the texts and dig out the ideological positionings and provide the basis of informed debate, analysis and critique. It is to illustrate that some explicit knowledge about language, how it works and how it can be used is a useful tool in reading a text critically.

In reading 3.4, it is about the speech and speakers: the formation of individuals in discourse and genre. Discourse is about the modes of talking about the world from the point of view of a social institution. It is about Miss Seductress and Miss Winner. Everyone wants to be like Miss Winner because it has good characteristics. The successful texts resolve discussive differences between two of them. While the ‘subject positions’ are sets of statements which describe and prescribe a range of options one may take up. Everyone can choose either one of the text based on the subject positions in the texts.

In reading 4.3, it stresses on the evidence in the text or any cases. It has two cases which include the finding of the evidences in each case. The first case is about the kidnapping of an infant son of Charles Lindbergh at the nursery. It has used circumstantial evidence to reveal the kidnapper. However, this kind of evidence cannot be used because there is no witnesses who testified to having seen such a particular person commits the crime. Whereas in second case which is murder trial, this one involving eyewitnesses. It has used testimonial evidence such as eyewitnesses, who testify that they themselves have seen the accused commit the crime. The use of this reading is about seeking the truth, but must be content with high probability and not demand absolute certainty.

In reading 4.4, it concerns on the statistics. The importance of us to learn about statistic is to associate ‘facts’ closely with ‘figures’. It shows about the examples of the statistic and we learn that we have to think critically about statistic because it requires more thinking and we have to think about the complicated figures in the text which consist of statistics.

We have discussed on the article which entitle, ‘Please, let me go to your school’. It is about positioning which every role in the article has their own stance in saying their statements.