Lit Analysis Rewrites

Before you do anything, go back to your textbook.  Look at the sample lit analyses your author gives you.  They are not awesome, but they are better in analysis and evidence than what many of you have written.  Also look at the two I wrote for A Tidewater Morning.  Neither is finished BUT you will see that I have well-developed paragraphs focused on analysis and backed up with plenty of textual evidence.  Were they finished, they would be longer than five paragraphs.

3rd hour Tidewater Morning essay

7th hour Tidewater Morning essay


When you rewrite, consider these most common problems:

Structure:  You need a 2-part thesis.  You must state theme in your thesis.  Not a motif or topic, not a vague statement about what the author is doing.  Clearly go out on a limb and state what you think the author's point is.  Also make sure you've identified which element of the book you plan to analyze in order to prove that theme.  This should all happen in ONE clear sentence that appears at then end of your introduction.  Each body paragraph, then, should begin with a topic sentence that clearly supports that thesis AND is focused on the point the author is making with some aspect of that element.

Development:  This should NOT be a 5-paragraph essay.  You should have well-developed paragraphs (half to three-quarters of a page) and more than 5 of them.  Five paragraphs should be too restrictive.  You're arguing the point of a novel and you're not doing it in only 40 minutes.  You've spent time reading, taking notes, studying this novel.  Your analysis should reflect that in both depth and development of your ideas and argumentation.  Your intro and conclusion should also be well-developed.  All paragraphs (including your intro and conclusion) should be roughly the same size.  If they are not, you need to split very long paragraphs into two or further develop the short ones.

Evidence:  Almost all of you need WAY MORE.  Literally, you need evidence for every single claim you make BUT you also need to introduce that evidence and EXPLAIN it! The best evidence is the author's own words.  You are arguing that your interpretation of the novel is correct. Therefore, you can't rely on your interpretation of the author's words (what you're doing with paraphrasing) to be the only--or even majority--evidence.  It's not believable.  There are times when it's not efficient to show aspects of the book and you have to "talk about it"; however, that should not be the main way you support your claims.

The Quotes You Use and How You Include Them:  Obviously, use MLA.  And if you're doing anything weird, look up how to do it on Purdue OWL.  Long quotes have different rules.  Quoting multiple paragraphs (as in dialogue or a play) has different rules.  Quoting poetry has different rules (including Shakespeare).  Also, do NOT use ellipses.  If you're not going to use the whole passage, then do multiple short quotes that point out the parts you want--don't simply skip over the stuff you don't want. It makes your reader question what you're leaving out.  Probably you're doing it for space sake--to make your paper more concise. But it opens up your ethos to questions.  Also, multiple short quotes is ALWAYS preferable to long quotes.  Only use long quotes when you absolutely must.  I'm pretty positive that I have not shown you a single example of lit analysis that uses long quotes. They are simply not efficiently effective--and that's what you need.

Use Your Own Analysis:  Don't be looking to outside resources to help you figure out your book.  We have come a long way in your critical reading skills and this is where you use them.  You're all smarter than Sparknotes or Novelguide or any other website for stupid people who don't read their assigned novels.  Those cheater sites are NOT analyzing the novel at the level I am expecting you to.  Therefore, don't look to them for answers to what you should think or see in your novel.  Daisy represents the upperclass? Duh.  Why would you need a site to tell you that?  The green light represents Daisy?  Welcome to Gatsby 101.  You don't need those sites and they will NOT help you get a good grade.  You have to be able to explain and support your interpretation.  Those sites will not do that for you so you might as well spend your time interpreting the book on your own and writing something interesting and fresh because it actually came from your head--which will make it far easier for you to explain and support!  If for no other reason, keep this in mind: This process is where you figure out how to write an analysis--how to take your critical reading skills, interpret a work, and explain and argue it for others.  If you don't do that here and now while you have time to practice, work through it, and get feedback, how will you EVER be able to do in on the test in a timed situation?  Don't take the "easy way out" and end up shooting yourself in the foot.

Polishing:  Yeek!  I wrote a whole post on this and I feel like only 10-15% of you even looked at it!  Don't EVER turn in something you haven't polished!  Don't do it now in high school and definitely don't do it next year in college.  It is the WORST thing for your ethos.  It makes you look like either you don't know any better or you don't care about the quality of your work.  Why would you spend hours on your content and then give your teacher/professor a horrible first impression???  You may not be any good at mechanics, but it is time to deal with that.  Either figure out what you don't know and learn it (there is no grammar or mechanics rules you cannot teach yourself from free resources like Purdue) or learn who likes you enough and is good enough at this skill to read your papers and edit them for you.  If no one that likes you enough is any good at this stuff either, be prepared to use other resources or pay for editors.  In college that means going to the writing center for editing (which means getting your paper done early so you have time for that) or paying anywhere from $15-25/hour for editing.  It's cheaper and easier to just learn yourself.

Do some major revision to your essays.  Take the time to do a good job, clean up the problems, end up with a good paper that is all yours.  I expect FAR better work.  I expect it to take me a fraction of the time to grade because they are all good.  If that puts pressure on you, then good.  It should.  You all are capable of far better than you handed in.

SS Exam Prep

Thursday is the in-class essay portion of the short story exam.  You will read a very short story and analyze how the elements of fiction contribute to the overall meaning/effect.  This is strictly a skill-based portion of the test.  If you've been studying, reading, practicing your critical reading skills and interpretation, you'll just show what you can do.  No real preparation necessary...or possible.

Friday is the multiple choice section. This is the portion that you can and should prepare for.

• First section:  multiple-choice questions written over the stories we read and discussed.  Look through your reading journal at the notes you made while reading the stories for the unit as well as the notes you took during class discussions.
• Second section:  multiple-choice questions over "How to Tell a True War Story."  Reread the story, look at your RJ, reflect on your class discussion and make notes while it's still fresh.
• Third section:  really short story to read and multiple-choice questions over it.  Like the essay, this is strictly skill-based.  There is no real preparation for this section; the course so far has been your prep.

Bring your textbook and your reading journal to class with you on Friday!

Combining the Elements: "How to Tell a True War Story"

Here are some formal reading journal questions you should answer in your journal before our discussion tomorrow...which is why I'm giving you class time to read today. =)


1.  How does O'Brien's plot structure work and why does he do it this way?  How does this structure contribute to the story's overall meaning/effect?

2.  As you read, note the diction, imagery, tone, and style the author uses.  Once you've finished the story, go back and look at what these elements add to the story.

3.  What kind of narrator does O'Brien use?  Neutral?  Reliable?  How do you know?  Where do you think O'Brien stands in relation to the narrator?

4.  Track places where setting is highlighted.  Why does O'Brien do that?

5.  What symbolism do you see in the story?  Try to come up with clearly defined and supported analysis of its meaning.

6.  Make note of particular details, phrases, or vignettes that strike you as interesting, important, or intriguing.  Once you've finished the story, go back and consider those items.  What do they mean?  Why does O'Brien include them?

7.  What critical lenses could you use to look at this story for further depth?  Pick two and use them to help you tie all of these aspects of the story together to come to O'Brien's theme.  What is his point?

Independent Reading Booktalk with Lenses

AP Lit Independent Reading

Lit Analysis Booktalk

Assignment:
Prepare and give a 10-minute booktalk in which you give a BRIEF synopsis of your book, analyze an element of the book, and show how the author uses that element to create his/her theme.  This should be essentially what you did for your lit analysis, only you’re doing it orally.  This means you still need evidence. Rather than having to write, go through  the process, and worry about MLA citation and grammar, you’re challenged with the task of making it comprehensible to your peers in only 10 minutes.  Therefore, focus on ONE aspect of the novel, just as you did in your lit analysis essay.

Objectives:

• Continue working on lit analysis (theme, analysis of an element, and evidence to back claims)
• Apply critical lenses to a novel
• Demonstrate excellent public speaking skills
• Use and correctly cite (orally and written) credible literary sources

Items to be Sure You Include:

• Title and author
• BRIEF plot synopsis
• Analysis of the element you’ll be focusing on
• Argument of the theme of the book and how your element contributes to it
• Evidence from the text to back up your claims
• Works cited page either shared/emailed OR printed and handed to me BEFORE your presentation

Critical Lens Aspect
To help deepen your analysis, you’ll also need to apply critical lenses to your reading of the text.  EVERYONE will be using reader response (you can’t avoid it) and formalist (because this is AP Lit and ALL interpretations MUST be grounded in the text).  In addition, you should consider your novel from another perspective:  historical, biographical, feminist, psychological, Marxist, etc.  Use the lens to help you better understand the argument the author is making by considering the context or what he/she may be saying about society.  

In order to do this well, you should do some brief research on your author, the time period, psychology, etc.  When you use these outside sources to help deepen your understanding and to give more credibility to your analysis, you must cite your sources ORALLY during your booktalk.  Also, be sure to include the book you read and at least two other credible literary sources on your works cited page.

One note about lenses:  They are not "a thing."  You're not going to talk about "the lens" in your booktalk.  Lenses are a way of looking at literature.  I will be able to tell which lens you are using just by listening to your interpretation and your evidence.  No critic ever says "Using the psychological lens..." so you shouldn't either.

Sources
Credible literary sources are written by scholars and almost always published by university presses.  You have two good places to find quality critical and biographical sources:

1. EBSCO's Literary Reference Center.  That is the ONLY database you should use for criticism or biographical sources.  If you need to do other lens-specific research (historical, economic, psychological), use EBSCO's other databases.  Username:  3114indhs   Password: haea11   Helpful tips:  After you've searched, look under the Refine Search column on the left.  You can click under Source Types and restrict your sources to only literary criticism or biographies, depending on what you need.  Do NOT use Reviews.
2. Dunn Library at Simpson.  Search before you go, but seriously, this is here in town.  It's a college library and though it isn't as complete as Iowa or Iowa State, it has far more literary criticism than our high school media center can or should provide.  Search your title or author before you go, write down the call numbers so you can find the section/resources when you get there, and take your Indianola Public Library card.  It does require you to go somewhere and try something new, but I promise that the people who put it off the longest have the most frustration with criticism in AP Lit.  It's the BEST place to find quality sources even if it's not the most convenient. Be glad it's here in town.

Grading
I will grade your presentation using the rubric found here.
Your works cited page will lose one point for each error and two points for each missing item (author, date of publication, etc.).  Be sure to use the Purdue OWL to help you with your MLA.