ELEMENTS OF GRAMMAR AND STYLE GUIDE

 

 

 

 

No No’s/Avoid Usage Of:

you (except in a quote)                           I think/I feel/I believe

there (as an expletive)                            needless to say

it (as an expletive)                                   in summary

a lot (or any form thereof)                                gonna

this (as a pronoun, unless the                         due to the fact that

       antecedent is clear or named)

kind of/sort of/type of                                       one (unless as a number)

in conclusion                                           obviously

in my opinion                                           really, little, simply, somewhat

totally, very                                              thing

get, getting                                              go, going, gone, went

 

 

Learn the difference in these constructions:

like/as if                                           lose/loss/loose

then/than                                         along/alone

it’s/its                                                       threw/through/thorough

no/know                                           from/than

to/too/two                                         bring/take

their/there/they’re                                    here/hear

whose/who’s                                            principal/principle

by/buy                                                     wonder/wander                       

past/passed                                             except/accept

conscience/conscious                                     affect/effect

 

 

How to Structure Your Commentary

How to Structure Your Commentary

 

A commentary, written or oral, is an analysis of a poem or prose passage.  You, as the analyst, take things apart to examine the individual pieces that make up the whole.

 

A commentary will attempt to explain the significance of a portion of a literary work, BY PROVING SOME SORT OF POINT.  The point you are trying to make may have to do with characterization, plot, theme, style or other literary concerns.

 

Before writing your commentary, you must focus in on what you wish to convey to the examiner about the literary work.  Once you have a focus, you must attempt to make some kind of point about the literary work in your commentary.

 

The point you are trying to make should be the main idea of your commentary.  This is called a THESIS STATEMENT.  Your thesis statement is your opinion; remember, it is not a fact.  The thesis is what you will spend the rest of your commentary trying to prove.  Your job as analyst is to convince the examiner that your opinion is correct; you must prove that your thesis statement is true based ON EVIDENCE FROM THE TEXT! 

 

YOUR THESIS STATEMENT (main idea, focus, opinion) MUST BE CLEARLY STATED IN YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH.  The thesis should be fairly broad.  Stay away from narrow statements of facts that can be easily proven or disproven.  Give yourself a challenge—and the examiner will be engaged.  Usually (but not always), the thesis statement is the sentence that ends your introduction.

 

In the paragraphs which follow the introduction, you must provide evidence (examples) to prove your point.  You must be very specific about how the evidence you are offering supports your opinion.  You cannot prove your thesis (which is an opinion) by offering other opinions.  You must draw your evidence from the text.  You should quote passages from the text to prove your point; just remember that you must explain their significance, explain how they relate to your thesis. When you incorporate evidence into your commentary, you must be sure to explain it adequately.  You must always bring it back to your thesis statement.  You must continually explain HOW and WHY it means what you say it means.

 

Everything in the MAIN BODY of the commentary must relate to the main point you are trying to make—YOUR THESIS.  If you write/say something that has little to do with your thesis, you have two options: expand and modify your thesis to accommodate that information, or do not include it and find other evidence that does support your thesis.

 

Finally, you must write/say a CONCLUSION (a final paragraph), which ties everything together.  The conclusion is essentially a mirror of your introduction.  Just as your introduction led the examiner in to the thesis, the conclusion leads out from it.  Often, the arguments presented in the body are summarized and the thesis is restated as proved.  And somehow you should make your paper sound complete.  It is a lot like the closing statement lawyers make at the end of a trial—a summary of all the evidence presented and a restatement that all the evidence points to the logical conclusion that what they said at the beginning (their thesis that the defendant was either guilty or innocent) is true.  Try leaving the examiner with something additional to think about (but still something that is related to the thesis of the commentary.)

_____________

 

INTRODUCTION:  (1 PARAGRAPH)—tell the examiner what your paper is about, NOT necessarily in this order.  You need to include the following:

 

§  A way to draw the examiner in

§  The author

§  Title (underlined or italicized, if written)

§  General statement about the literary work (sometimes)

§  Necessary background information about the story (very little!!)

§  Thesis statement (your opinion, main idea, or focus)—this may be controversial—should be fairly broad—has a point to prove

 

 

MAIN BODY:  these paragraphs should answer the question, “why?”  Not necessarily in this order, you need to include the following:

 

§  Specific examples to prove your point

§  Quotations—passages—descriptions—comparisons

§  Explanation of the significance of your examples in terms of your thesis statement (in other words, analyze your examples.  How do they fit in with your main point?

§  Explanation of how your analysis relates to your thesis statement

 

CONCLUSION:  (1 paragraph)—Tell the examiner what you told him/her and leave him/her with something to think about.  Not necessarily in this order, you need to include the following:

 

§  Your thesis, restated to emphasize that you have proven your point

§  A summary of your main points

§  A way to leave the examiner thinking about the marvelous ideas in your commentary

 

ANOTHER PRAGMATIC METHOD TO STRUCTURE YOUR COMMENTARY

 

1.     Create your thesis statement.

2.     Make an outline of how you want to present your commentary.

3.     Address the literary devices.  HOW does the writer create the effect in the passage?

4.     Do color-coding with highlighters.

5.     Make a decision (your point, opinion, focus) and support it.

6.     Highlight 2 different aspects/slants at work in the passage.

7.     Next, articulate the author’s purpose.  (Authors have 3 purposes.)

§  Characterization—to draw characters

§  To establish the setting

§  To elucidate the theme

8.     Next, write the thesis statement.

9.     The Thesis Statement is composed of 3 things: 

§  Define the author’s purpose

§  Identify the 2 slants/aspects in the passage

§  State the purpose and slants/aspects precisely and clearly

10.                       Once you have a clear thesis:

§  Make a topical outline of paragraph development

§  Choose 10 topics of paragraph development

§  Use 6 topics of paragraph development which are applicable to your passage

§  You need 6-8 body paragraphs which are well-developed to both slants/aspects.

§  You need to have at least 2 paragraphs on two main characters where you articulate what each of the 2 characters’ attitudes is.

1.     write maybe two sentences in the introduction and then write your thesis statement

2.     use diction to support characterization

3.     tell what characterization is being revealed to us—this must be rooted in the text!

4.     give tonal quality of dialogue (what’s the tone—use adjective(s) to describe the tone)

5.     is there any juxtaposed positioning of phrasing?

6.     save the last body paragraph for the paragraph on theme (which is the author’s purpose).  Deal with all ramifications of the theme in this paragraph.

§  In the first paragraph, start where the prompt asks you to start.  Use transitional phrases to introduce each of the items you discuss in the succeeding paragraphs.

 

Passage on RUNNING IN THE FAMILY

MONSOON

NOTEBOOK  (ii)

The bars across the windows

did not always work. When huts would invade the house at dusk, the beautiful long-haired girls would rush to the corner of rooms and hide their heads under dresses. The bats suddenly drifting like dark squadrons through the house—for never more than two minutes—arcing into the halls over the uncleared dining room table and out along the verandah where the parents would be sitting trying to capture the cricket scores on the BBC with a shortwave radio.

Wildlife stormed or crept into homes this way. The snake either entered through the bathroom drain for remnants of water or, finding the porch doors open, came in like a king and moved in a straight line through the living room, dining room, the kitchen and servant's quarters, and out the back, as if taking the most civilized short cut to another street in town. Others moved in permanently; birds nested above the fans, the silverfish slid into

135

 

steamer  trunks  and   photograph   albums—eating   their

way through portraits and wedding pictures. What images of family life they consumed in their minute jaws and took

into their bodies no thicker than the pages they ate.

And the animals also on the periphery of rooms and porches, their sounds forever in your ear. During our visit to the jungle, while we slept on  the verandah at 3 A.M., night would be suddenly alive with disturbed peacocks. A casual movement from one of them roosting in the trees would waken them all and, so fussing, sounding like branches full of cats, they would weep weep loud into the night.

One evening 1 kept the tape recorder beside my bed and wakened by them once more out of a deep sleep automatically pressed the machine on to record them. .Now, and here, Canadian February, I write this in the kitchen and play that section of cassette to hear not just peacocks but all the noises of the night behind them—Inaudible then because they were always there like breath, In this silent room (with its own unheard hum of fridge, fluorescent light) there are these frogs loud as river, gruntings, the whistle of other birds brash and sleepy, but in that night so modest behind the peacocks they were unfocussed by the brain — nothing more than darkness, all those sweet, loud younger brothers of the night.

136

CHECKLIST:   Name of Examinee: _______________Checker: _____________

 

Passage on _________________________

 

YOU SHOULD HAVE BETWEEN 8--10 PARAGRAPHS!

 

1.   Author’s purpose   ___________________

2.   Situate the passage within the larger work   ________________

3.   Tone is _____________. HOW DO YOU KNOW?

4.   Thesis Statement  ______________

5.   Diction…denotation/connotation? ____________

6.   Give its theme of the passage…________________

7.   Are there any literary devices? If so, what effect do they have on the meaning of the work? ____________________________

a)   Pun/puns  ________

b)   Metaphor ______________

c)   Simile __________

d)   Metonymy/synecdoche ________________

e)   Allusion/allusions ______________________

f)    Hyperbole/overstatement   ____________________

g)   Understatement __________________________

h)   Anastrophe __________________________

i)     Anaphora ___________________________

j)    Irony ______________________________

k)   Imagery _________________________

l)     Apostrophe _______________________

m) Personification ____________________

n)   Paradox _________________________

o)   Allegory _________________________

p)   Symbol/symbols _____________________________

 

 

How to perform a Close Reading of a Literary Passage

HOW TO DO A CLOSE READING

The following has been Adapted From Albert Sheen's site at: http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~aesheen/Eng208-2-1999/closeread1.htm

The skill called "close reading" is fundamental for interpreting literature. "Reading closely" means developing a deep understanding and a precise interpretation of a literary passage that is based first and foremost on the words themselves. But a close reading does not stop there; rather, it embraces larger themes and ideas evoked and/or implied by the passage itself. It is essential that we distinguish between doing a close reading and writing one. Doing a close reading involves a thought process that moves from small details to larger issues. Writing a close reading begins with these larger issues and uses the relevant details as evidence.

---

I. Doing a close reading

1. Getting Started: Treat the passage as if it were complete in itself. Read it a few times, at least once aloud. Concentrate on all its details and assume that everything is significant.  Determine what the passage is about and try to paraphrase it.  Make sure that you begin with a general sense of the passage’s meaning.
2. Word meaning: Determine the meanings of words and references. Also, note (and verify) interesting connotations of words. Look up any words you do not know or which are used in unfamiliar ways. (Laziness in this step will inevitably result in diminished comprehension.) Consider the diction of the passage. What is the source of the language, i.e., out of what kind of discourse does the language seem to come? Did the author coin any words? Are there any slang words, innuendoes, puns, ambiguities? Do the words have interesting etymologies?
3. Structure: Examine the structure of the passage. How does it develop its themes and ideas? How is the passage organized? Are there climaxes and turning points?
4. Sound and Rhythm: Acquire a feel for the sound, meter, and rhythm; note any aural clues that may affect the meaning. Even punctuation may be significant. Be alert to devices such as alliteration, assonance, rhyme, consonance, euphony, cacophony, onomatopoeia. See a dictionary of poetics or rhetoric for precise definitions of these and other terms. Examine the meter of the passage in the same way. Is it regular or not? Determine whether the lines breaks compliment or complicate the meanings of the sentences.
5. Syntax: Examine the syntax and the arrangement of words in the sentences. Does the syntax call attention to itself? Are the sentences simple or complex? What is the rhythm of the sentences? How do subordinate clauses work in the passage? Are there interesting suspensions, inversions, parallels, oppositions, repetitions? Does the syntax allow for ambiguity or double meanings?
6.  Textual Context: In what specific and general dramatic and/or narrative contexts does the passage appear? How do these contexts modify the meaning of the passage? What role does the passage play in the overall movement/moment of the text?
7. Irony: How does irony operate in the passage, if at all?
8. Tone and Narrative Voice: What is the speaker’s (as distinct from the narrator’s and author’s) attitude towards his or her subject and hearers? How is this reflected in the tone? What does the passage reveal about the speaker?  Who is the narrator?  What is the relationship between the narrator and the speaker?  Is there more than one speaker?
9. Imagery: What sort of imagery is invoked? How do the images relate to those in the rest of the text? How do the images work in the particular passage and throughout the text? What happens to the imagery over the course of the passage? Does the passage noticeably lack imagery? If so, why? 
10. Rhetorical Devices: Note particularly interesting metaphors, similes, images, or symbols especially ones that recur in the passage or that were important for the entire text. How do they work with respect to the themes of the passage and the text as a whole? Are there any other notable rhetorical devices? Are there any classical, biblical or historical allusions? How do they work?
11. Themes: Relate all of these details to possible themes that are both explicitly and implicitly evoked by the passage. Attempt to relate these themes to others appearing outside the immediate passage. These other themes may be from the larger story from which the passage is excerpted; or from other tales; or from knowledge about the narrator; or from the work as a whole.
12. Gender: How does the passage construct gender?  What issues of gender identity does it evoke?  How does it represent women’s issues?  Does it reveal something interesting about women’s writing?
13. History: How does the passage narrate history?  How does it present "facts" versus observations?
14. Construct a Thesis: Based on all of this information and observation, construct a thesis that ties the details together. Determine how the passage illuminates the concerns, themes, and issues of the entire text it is a part of.  Ask yourself how the passage provides insight into the text (and the context of the text).  Try to determine how the passage provides us a key to understanding the work as whole.

Note that this process moves from the smallest bits of information (words, sound, punctuation) to larger groupings (images, metaphors) to larger concepts (themes). Also, the final argument is based on these smaller levels of the passage; this is why it is called a close reading. Of course your thought processes may not follow such a rigid order (mine usually don’t). Just don’t omit any of the steps.

---

II. Writing it

1. The paper should begin with a closely argued thesis, which is the result of the last step above. Include a general orientation to the passage to be analyzed, explaining the text of origin and the author.
2. The thesis depends on the analysis already done, and the point is to relate all of the relevant details to that thesis. This means that some details may be omitted in the paper because they do not support or concern the thesis being argued. Too much detail about unimportant features will draw attention from your thesis.  However, you must be careful that you do not ignore details that contradict your thesis; if you find these, this means that you need to reevaluate your thesis and make it more complex (in other words, you don’t necessarily have to abandon it altogether).
3. Note that the order of the evidence presented should not follow the order of the passage being discussed. Rather, the order of the evidence depends on how it relates to your central argument. Don’t let the passage walk you through your analysis; instead, re- organize the passage to suit your discussion of it.
4. The body of the paper presents relevant textual evidence in a meaningful order. Avoid being overly mechanical in the organization of your paper. That is, don’t write one paragraph on diction, one on sound, one on metaphor, etc. Instead try to bring these observations together on the same words or phrases together. Organize the paragraphs around issues of meaning rather than of technique.
5. Make sure you don’t read so closely that you transform a clear though complex passage into a bundle of nonsense.
6. If you relate the passage to text outside it, make sure your emphasis remains on the passage itself; do not neglect it in favor of external textual evidence.