ARCHETYPES AND THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS – CARL …
How to pass the AP English Literature and Composition Exam:
The objective test (multiple choice):
•The new rules for the AP exam allow for no guessing penalty; therefore, answer every question. If you are unsure of the correct answer, use process of elimination and go with the best possible answer. Should you run out of time before finishing, any answer is better than none.
•Look for wrong answers. Remember that part of the answer may be correct, but only one part has to be false to make it an incorrect response. Read all the answers, and use process of elimination when appropriate.
•Scan the stems of questions, and treat each like a paragraph—look for key words—this will give you a focus—especially pay attention to verbs, e.g. suggests, convey, stand for, etc.
•If the question seems too easy, don’t worry. Some easy questions, especially the first question, appear on all the exams.
•Other questions on the same section may give you clues on how to interpret the passage, which in turn will help you understand other questions.
•Use a strategy: Answer questions that relate to meanings of words and word order first; then move on to figures of speech and imagery; lastly, answer questions pertaining to theme and tone (since these are the hardest, this will give you time to think and re-examine the passage).
Multiple Choice Prose passage questions are on the following:
Situation and content
Meanings of words and phrases
Grammar
Diction
Figurative Language
Structure
Literary Techniques
Rhetoric
Tone
Multiple choice Poetry passage questions are on the following:
Dramatic Situation
Structure
Theme
Grammar and the meanings of words
Images
Figurative Language
Diction
Tone
Literary Devices
Metrics
•Write on the test—circle words, underline, etc. Do this as you read to go back to important parts.
•Take a quick glance at each passage/poem to see where to start—you may wish to save the hardest portion of the exam for the last, in case you are running short on time.
•Generally, four-five sections exist on the test (sometimes one is split or doubled): 18th or 19th century poetry, 18th or 19th century prose, contemporary poetry, and contemporary prose. Each of these sections contains roughly the same amount of questions. If you know that one of the sections is a weak area for you, you may wish to complete that section last. This way, if you are running short on time, you will miss questions that you may have had a hard time understanding anyway.
•Never assume that a pattern may exist in the answers. If five in a row are “C” the next one has the same probability of being “C” as any other answer.
•There is generally only one interpretation of the passage/poem on the exam. There is little room for unusual views of passages/poems.
•If you omit questions or skip around, be sure to mark the appropriate number—it is too easy to get one question off.
•Remember roughly 50-55% correct will keep you on pace to pass! See the chart below to see how the percentage of what you get correct on your essay, coupled with your average score on the three essays, determines your overall score. This is based on two years’ formulas—it is a rough estimate. The top percentages are for the percent of correct answers. Then, look on the side for the average of the three essays. If, for example, you scored 65% correct on the last multiple choice exam, and you average about 6 on the three essays, you will likely earn a 4 on the AP exam composite.
50% 55% 60% 65% 70% 75% 80% 85%
5 (2) 5 (3) 5 (3) 5 (3) 5 (3) 5 (3) 5 (4) 5 (4)
5.5 (3) 5.5 (3) 5.5 (3) 5.5 (3) 5.5 (3) 5.5 (4) 5.5 (4) 5.5 (4)
6 (3) 6 (3) 6 (3) 6 (4) 6 (4) 6 (4) 6 (4) 6 (5)
6.5 (3) 6.5 (3) 6.5 (4) 6.5 (4) 6.5 (4) 6.5 (4) 6.5 (5) 6.5 (5)
7 (3) 7 (4) 7 (4) 7 (4) 7 (4) 7 (5) 7 (5) 7 (5)
The Essays:
•Begin with the open question. This is the one you have prepared for.
Directions to prepare for the open question:
•Choose 5-7 texts that you have recently (in the last two years) read and that you know well (at least two novels, at least two plays). These texts should cover time periods and stylistic variation. You need to have a serious books and at least one comical/satirical text. It is difficult, as you know, to write a forty minute essay well and persuasively (conveying a strong sense that you know the book intimately, i.e. not just the plot and characters) if you have not read or even re-read it carefully. Try to choose something slightly atypical, and definitely something with depth. Thousands of students write about the same books. Do not write about Shakespeare unless you understand it well. Shakespeare always readily applies to the prompts, but it is not for the weary.
Study Guide:
Place the following information in a convenient location. The aim is to have a set of useful notes for review before taking the AP exam.
You should have on your notes references to page numbers of significant passages so that you can reread specific, crucial scenes of the text. Do not just rely on your notes. You must know the text thoroughly, directly for itself so that you can apply knowledge to a given prompt.
Include the following:
•Title, author (with relevant information that pertains to themes and events), date, what period of English, World, or American Literature it details, and the significance of each—provide and analyze specifics.
•Major Character List—spell the names correctly and provide detailed information/connections and a few key quotes.
•Minor Character List—with significance and, perhaps, one quote, if relevant.
•Place Names List—With Huck Finn, you definitely need to know about Cairo and Mississippi, or East /West Egg in The Great Gatsby. Connect details of landscape or atmosphere with events and themes—don’t just name them.
•List of Major Events, Scenes, Speeches/Conversations. Give page numbers for quick reference. Mark these passages in your book, if you have not already done so. In many cases this list will be chronological. In some cases you will need two lists: the order of appearance in the structure of the book—including flashbacks—and the order of appearance in time. This is not a plot list. You should attempt to know a great deal about four or five key scenes in the book, so that you know important passages to reflect a thorough reading of the entire text. This is not a plot summary, but a reminder and list of connections. Provide important details of your four or five scenes. If you can discuss two or three relevant scenes both accurately and thoroughly in the context of your argument and the prompt, your essay score will raise.
•List of major short quotations to memorize as a possible opening or to show close reading; have an explanation and connection for each. These should not be in relation to plot, but to major ideas and issues.
•Social/Political/Philosophical Agenda(s) of the Author. Why was this book written? What insight into society or human nature (the human condition) does this book offer? Your essay must hook into this larger perspective/understanding of the book. What passages illustrate the author’s core ideas? Seriously think about this, distilling what you learned from your reading and our class discussions. However, any essay must convey your own, direct understanding of the book’s achievement, the contribution it makes. You should be able to get to this quickly and efficiently in an essay.
•Technical, Structural, and Stylistic strategies/Achievements. Convey a strong sense of (and appreciation for) the author’s artistic achievement. Write about how the book is put together/written, as well as what it is about: the symbolism of The Scarlet Letter or the development of Hamlet’s thinking in his soliloquies, and how they shape meanings throughout. Your writing will be especially strong if you can relate style/structure to meaning. Compile the details and observations with examples.
•The relationship between speaker and audience. Show sensitivity to tone. For example, look at the shifting notion of truth in The Things They Carried, or look at the naive narrator in Catcher in the Rye. Go beyond simple point of view, and connect the effect of the narrative structure. Note: If the text is a play, obviously, you cannot include the same details, so this is your chance to include observations appropriate to drama (set, use of dialogue, stage directions, interactions of characters, and the nature of the genre and its effect on the action and themes).
•Use of language (diction, imagery, etc.) and symbols (if appropriate), along with how each connects to major themes.
•List of significant critical problems (addressed by critics or in discussions). Huck’s moral decision in Huck Finn, Hamlet’s treatise on death as an equalizer, Conrad’s inversion of European notions of morality in Heart of Darkness. Have a number of like issues for each text. Explain and connect each; these would be essay topics.
•A list of thesis statements—clear argumentative/interpretive topics—essay topics that you would be prepared to write.
Writing about the open question:
•One of your books will easily apply to the prompt. Do not bend you favorite book to work with a topic. This will be transparent and will likely result in a 5 or below. Pick a great book—you have read an impressive list—show off. Never decide at the last moment to write about a book you have not prepared. Remember that if you have prepared the text, you may write about it whether it appears a choice or not—do not merely pick from the list, though feel free to use a listed text.
•Look for appropriate opportunities to show how closely you read this book—never a summary. Assume the audience has read the book. Show how the book works while connecting this to the themes you have chosen.
•Any time you can intelligibly connect the style of the text to the meaning you discuss your score will improve.
•Keep the author in mind—it would be more important to know what Shakespeare is doing in a text than a particular character, i.e. not just Hamlet’s delay, but Shakespeare’s deliberate presentation of Hamlet’s delay.
•Your essay will be scored by someone who has read the book.
•The difficulty of the book you choose does not guarantee you any extra points. It is better to write about what you are comfortable with, as long as the work is appropriate for the prompt.
•If you can’t recall a character’s name, then don’t make one up. Just go around the issue—Hamlet’s uncle instead of Claudius, for example.
•Find out whether the exam asks about the author, the reader, the narrator, or the characters. Look to see whether the question asks for a discussion of technique. Be sure you cover all required tasks.
•Use the list of books, if provided, as a guideline. Do not worry if the books you have chosen are not present—as long as they fit the prompt, you may use them.
Writing about the poetry:
•Do not get carried away with terminology or scansion. Only use terms you fully understand, and only if they pertain to your reading of the poem.
•Avoid writing about sound effects, unless you are comfortable with them, unless it is a required part of the prompt.
•You need to tell the difference between literal and figurative language.
•Consider how parts of the poem relate to other parts.
•Avoid a dull adherence of techniques highlighted in the prompt. Use them if you wish, but at least vary the order and try to introduce it differently than in the prompt.
•If the prompt is a comparison, be sure to provided a balanced approach to both texts.
•Follow your normal format for looking at poems. Consider speaker, tone, and imagery as always important. Be sure to relate style to substance. Always look for irony and satire, just in case.
•Look at the sentence structure—if any, especially with an older poem. Hint: With poems 19th Century and earlier, generally the style/structure matters greatly; conversely, with 20th century poetry often, it is the lack of structure, or deviations from an established structure, that matter.
•For the poems be sure you look for the consistency in style and language we have discussed. Remember our general procedure for looking at the poem, but respond to the prompt.
•Avoid paraphrase as a technique.
•Citations are not necessary. If you use them make them contextual (in line 6 the speaker says . . .) or brief “to be or not to be” (6).
The Prose Analysis:
•Citations are not necessary. See above with poetry.
•Look for patterns of language. This passage was chosen because it contains numerous examples and possibilities. Be sure to look at parts of speech, sentence structure and length, and any other stylistic clues—but only as they relate to meaning.
•Try to go slightly beyond the prompt—a term or two that does not exist within the prompt can show your breadth of knowledge. Tone is always a good one, and point of view, especially if it changes, is necessary.
•Look at what may be missing. Sometimes this can be your clue.
•Quote often and well. Use short quotes to illustrate and reinforce your ideas: words, images, and phrases.
•In the passage analysis, find the important parts, not necessarily the whole. You can focus on sections to analyze rather than the entire passage.
•Avoid paraphrase as a technique.
•Consider writing about parts of speech when you can successfully connect their use to the meaning.
•Be aware of possible irony, sarcasm, and satire, and any tone change. This is often why the passage is included: to see if you can decipher irony and satire.
Prose Consider the following:
Genre
Narrator
Subject
Structure
Style
Tone—Irony and Satire
Tips for all the essays:
•Do not include a laundry list of terminology in your introduction—any use or discussion of terminology should be in the service of explaining and analyzing your thesis. Organize your essay by ideas, not terms.
•Create a web of terms to use and prepare for use. You should be comfortable using the language of literary analysis to present your ideas. For example, if the prompt asks you to look at narrative style, then you would be able to use terms such as voice, tone, omnisicence, first person, second person, limited third person, speaker, naive narrator, reliable/unreliable narrator, etc. Most terms have connected terms that you can also use.
•All essay questions are equally weighted.
•Begin easily and quickly—no long introductions or restatements of the prompt.
•You can just begin with a task that the prompt requires, if you don’t know how to start.
•No formulaic essay (five paragraphs: introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion).
•Don’t be overly concerned with spelling.
•Grammar is important, but not occasional lapses.
•Handwriting is important, only in that they can read it—however, you can imagine an “unconscious hostility” toward bad handwriting.
•The most important qualities include:
all parts of the question are answered fully and accurately
assertions are supported with specific evidence
essays are well written
•Don’t be overly creative—no poems or creative writing.
•Include detail, but realize that the reader has the passage in front of him or her, and the he or she has read the book in question.
•You must use examples, but you don’t want to use long quotes, nor do you always have to quote—you can write “In line 5, the speaker’s tone,” and let the reader find the passage, but if you need to prove a point with this, then you had better provide a word or some words to analyze—simple and short quotes are fine, often better.
•The poetry and prose have the following in common: “Read the following (prose passage or poem) carefully. Then write an essay in which you discuss the author’s (or the speaker’s or x’s, or x’s and y’s) attitude(s) toward a (or a and b) and the devices the author uses to convey this (these) view(s).
“The question has two parts. The first call for a reading of meaning, an interpretation of what the passage conveys. The question may ask for the attitude, or views, or response, or feelings of the author, or the speaker, or a character, or two characters who appear in the poem or the passage.”
“The second part of the question is about style. It calls for a discussion of devices or literary devices, or techniques, or language or resources of language, or stylistic devices, or style. Half of the time the devices will be unspecified; half of the time the question will contain a list of two or more. The most commonly specified techniques are diction, imagery, figurative language, choice of details, tone, and syntax. Less often, the list may include the following: organization, devices of sound, allusion, and point of view.”
•Answer all parts of the question—don’t invent your own question
•Focus before you begin.
•No extraneous information (how well you liked the passage or how it fits your life)
•If the question asks for an attitude, tone, or state of mind, don’t assume there is only one—look for complexity—don’t oversimplify.
•Style: avoid clichés of language—too many describe imagery as “vivid,” for example, which does nothing for the reader; “prime example” and “one of the most” come up all too often.
•No titles!
•Introductions should be short. Provide a window into the topic, without directly repeating the prompt of course, and a thesis.
•No conclusion is necessary; however, a concluding sentence (a clever one) is helpful. The time you waste on a conclusion could be spent in analysis.
•Do not run out of time! Bring a watch and pay attention to it. Try to spend 40 minutes on each. Every year some students write brilliant 8-9 range essays on the first two, and then do not have time to complete the third. Do your best in 40 minutes.
•Do not write a canned essay or a formulaic essay.
•Provide a thesis.
•Show some knowledge of literary periods and historical contexts. Review your note cards and class notes over the appropriate periods in literature.
•Avoid literal-mindedness.
•Never include unsubstantiated ideas.
•Do not repeat the prompt. You will likely need to touch on the idea as part of your thesis, but write it as if you came up with the idea without prompting. Underline important aspects—look for clues such as “but.”
•You do not necessarily need to address all suggested terms in a prompt, and certainly not strictly in that order—be sure to note whether it suggests or requires the discussion of terms. It may say “such terms as,” which indicates suggestion, or it may say to analyze tone and diction, which indicates requirement. In all cases, the terms listed are probably there for a reason. Your job is to construct a thesis that incorporates the prompt in such a seamless way that it appears to the reader that you originated the essay topic.
•Avoid “this shows that”—just do it.
•Use labels—loss of innocence, hope vs. despair, and other big ideas—no clichés!
•Seek out complexity in all the essays—look for it in passages, poems, and the free response. Choose unusual or specific moments—everyone generally brings up the same examples.
•Feel free to add in or scratch out as you write for any of the questions—just make sure it is legible.
•8-9 essays are rarely less than two pages; however 4 and 5 essays are sometimes longer than two pages.
•If you write and decide mid-way that you are approaching the question the wrong way, you would be better off switching than continuing with a topic you are unsure about. However, do not start over, just begin with a new thesis as if it is a topic sentence.
•Have character—you have prepared, so trust yourself and go with your best instinct.
•Be confident—if you have none, find it or fake it.
The days preceding the exam, exam day, etc.:
•Be sure to use the break when it is given, stretch, and invent reasons (non-disruptive) to stretch.
•Concentration—Sleep and eat well for several preceding days. Eat a good breakfast—your brain needs something to feed it for three hours.
•Bring water.
How to earn a low score on the free response:
1. Restate the prompt: Reading dozens of essays per day for a week is much more exciting when we can read the same opening! Seriously, you have no idea how many students begin by restating, nearly verbatim, the prompt that we all know by heart. Instead, strive for an opening that is unique to your insights into the text, while still indirectly reflecting ideas from the prompt. Try to make the prompt yours.
2. Provide parenthetical appositives reminding us what simple terms mean: We find it illuminating to find out from seventeen and eighteen year olds the definition of a simile or metaphor! We like people to define the terms of their argument(s); however, you must consider that a roomful of people with advanced degrees in English are reading your essays—we don’t need to know that you memorized a definition: we are looking to see that you can apply ideas. And many of the terms some seek to define were part of the grade school curricula in many states.
3. Use arcane literary terms, such as anadiplosis, with no analysis. Nothing can salvage an essay like your recognition of literary terms that are not taught in most university English programs. I have taught students many of these sorts of terms; however, I want students to study them briefly only to recognize some of the complexities that they would otherwise miss, not to memorize a list of terms. And I always use the caveat for my students that the terms themselves are empty without analysis. If you can write how a stylistic device contributes to the meaning of a passage, then by all means do so. Naming the term is entirely optional. Additional note: at tables of eight or nine, we generally comprise several high school teachers and a range of college professors. When students use terms such as polysyndeton and polyptoton, frequently the high school teachers must explain to the professors the meaning of these terms. Is that because of our erudition? As much as I’d like to think so, the real reason lies in that they don’t teach these! In fact, I have witnessed apoplectic responses from college and high school teachers about excessive use of these terms.
4. Show us how much you pretend to love the author or the written passage: I can forgive any range of errors as long as the writer professes a deep love for the writing or thinking of the literature at hand. Listen, sometimes we don’t even love the passages—sometimes we’ve never read them. I can think of several instances from questions one and two in the past several years that not only had many of us not read, many had no knowledge of them whatsoever. Any attempt to curry favor through a sycophantic and empty reference to the genius of the author is useless. In fact, it’s quite annoying.
5. Repeat your introduction in your conclusion: Nothing impresses readers more than repetition, especially if you’ve restated the prompt. When we score the AP exams, we read the prompt dozens of times. Many of us may even have it memorized. Students start and end their essays with the prompt more often than any other introduction or conclusion. Strive for the most appropriate opening and closing for what you have to say. If you don’t know how to start, then just begin with a clear thesis. If you don’t know how to create a concluding paragraph, then don’t: nothing in any rubric talks about the conclusion. In most cases, writers merely repeat almost verbatim something that they’ve already stated, which is a waste of space—you’d be better off making another analytical point or two.
6. Squeeze in every word from your SAT-prep guide or word-a-day calendar: The best way to disguise weak ideas and inadequate development is the sesquipedalian. More often than not, students attempting to use polysyllabic words fail to impress, or, indeed, fail. Attempting to use long words can come across as empty, as the student who wrote that a character experienced the “denouement of his malaise,” whatever that means, or it stands opposed to the rest of the writing, which does not make use of more complicated diction: this is like the one instrument in the band that is always out of tune. Or, think of the adult in your life who attempts to use contemporary slang, but gets the meaning or the tone wrong. You feelin’ me?
7. Pick a book with disputed credentials: I’ve always thought that this book was substandard, but now I see from this two-page essay that all my university training and lifelong reading has been naïve and misguided. I can think of several authors and titles that are a touchstone to controversy, such as Ayn Rand, J.R.R. Tolkien, or The Bible. Canonic arguments exist everywhere in the arts, and the AP reading is no exception. Most years, a list of books appears for you to use or compare to what you see as “similar literary merit.” Take that last phrase seriously not in what you believe to have merit, but what you believe we think has merit. Is the book taught in AP classes? College classes? Does a body of criticism exist about the work or the author? I scored question three for three years, and I kept track of the names of works I read essays about, as well as the frequency of those titles. I was always shocked to see that students would write about over two-hundred different titles in the two thousand or so essays that I read during the scoring. Less than half of these turn out to be appropriate choices. Some of them are appropriate literature, but not for this particular prompt. You can’t wedge your favorite book into any prompt. Some of them are not serious, such as the annual Harry Potter or Dr. Suess essays we receive. However, a number of students write earnest essays about works that are not universally recognized as having “literary merit.” You will have many opportunities in life to make meaningful statements about your values, artistic and otherwise—the AP exam is not one of them. On the whole, most of these marginal works produce weak essays. When I scored AP exams, I appreciated reading essays on Coriolanus, Gravity’s Rainbow, or Lolita, which have not appeared on the question three lists; however, I will take the two-hundredth essay on The Great Gatsby over any more doctrinaire statement a student wishes to make about the canon, if it is the better choice for this prompt.
8. Follow the prompt’s advice about style or terms exactly, and in order: There is really nothing better to break-up a monotonous day scoring essays than reading papers that are written in nearly identical fashion! Think about the readers who face eight hours of reading essays, then imagine what it is like to read essay after essay that is organized by literary term, with three of them governing each of three body paragraphs, in exactly the same order (which reflects the order of the prompt). It’s not a pretty picture; in fact, it is reminiscent of Sisyphus and his giant stone, except that we don’t get the benefit of exercise. All of us are professional enough to realize that you have limited time, and that the prompt provides you with a ready-made organizational set-up. Yet, the best essays tend to deviate that formula by changing the order, using different terms when the prompt states “such devices as,” and, perhaps best of all, avoiding terms as the sole organizational motif—essays tend to be stronger when the interpretation and analysis of ideas are at the forefront of the essay.
9. Don’t worry about what the directions state: This essay is inventive because the writer chose to write about something other than what is required! While few students consciously take this attitude, we wonder sometimes about their intentions. Prompts have clear requirements and optional ideas. You must be able to recognize and apply what is required. For example, if the prompt asks for “a novel or play,” you would do well to avoid a poem or short story. If the prompt states “such devices as tone, figurative language, and allusions,” you are only asked to consider these terms—you don’t need to use them. You must, though, analyze stylistic devices. Even though we’ve been told to follow the directions since before kindergarten, many students still avoid required elements in the prompt. Sometimes, this omission alone is enough to keep the essay in the lower half of the rubric.
10. Summarize and paraphrase: I am glad this writer took time and space to tell me what happens in the story or poem, just in case I missed it! By the time we read your essay, we will have read the passage numerous times—we know the passage. Any summary is likely only to bore or frustrate your audience. What we lack are original insights you’ve made about the texts. Try to convince not that you have read the passage, but instead that you know how to apply a close reading to an interpretation you shape. Paraphrasing may be a mental step you take in understanding a complicated text; however, it has no business substituting for analysis in an essay. Writing an essay based on a Shakespearean passage, many students were fond of “translating” Shakespeare into modern slang. This practice is both a distraction and an annoyance.
11. Make numerous literary references: What saved this essay is that, even though this is an essay about a novel, I could tell that the writer has read Hamlet. Your one job is to convince us that you know the poem, passage, or text well. We don’t care about the breadth of your reading—by making references, especially more than one, to The Iliad, the plays of Shakespeare, or a famous novel, you might be thinking that we’ll be so impressed by the scope of your knowledge that we will forgive mistakes and omissions in your essay. As Benjamin Franklin stated, “Your argument is sound—nothing but sound.”
12. Handwriting problems: I won’t judge this student based on his or her handwriting, even though it resembles cuneiform. Many of us who score these essays are quite skilled at reading poor handwriting—but it alters the rhythm of a day of scoring, it can create an unconscious hostility in those who are susceptible, and it hurts our eyes. Print, slow down, or take lessons. Remember Hamlet? Our eponymous hero claims, “I once did hold it, as our statists do, / A baseness to write fair, and labored, much / How to forget that learning, but, sir, now / It did me yeoman’s service” (5.2.33-36). Even he was distasteful of clear handwriting lessons; however, he acknowledges how helpful, possibly even heavenly “ordinant,” all his unpleasant lessons actually were. You have two hours to prove you deserve college credit—summon up your best handwriting.
Comprehensive Book List for the AP Exam, Question 3
Book Title Author #times genre years used
|1984 |Orwell |4 |novel |87, 94, 05, 09 |
|Absalom, Absalom! |Faulkner |3 |novel |00, 07, 12 |
|Adam Bede |Eliot |1 |novel |06, |
|The Adventures of Augie March |Bellow |1 |novel |13 |
|The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |Twain |13 |novel |80, 82, 85, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 99, 05, 06, 08, 13 |
|The Age of Innocence |Wharton |6 |novel |97, 02, 05, 08, 12, 14 |
|Agnes of God |Pielmeier |1 |play |00, |
|Alias Grace |Atwood |3 |novel |00, 04, 08 |
|All My Sons |Miller |2 |play |85, 90 |
|All the King’s Men |Warren |6 |novel |00, 02, 04, 07, 08, 11 |
|All the Pretty Horses |McCarthy |5 |novel |96, 06, 08, 11, 13 |
|America is in the Heart |Bulosan |1 |novel |95 |
|The American |James |3 |novel |05, 07, 10 |
|An American Tragedy |Dreiser |3 |novel |82, 95, 03 |
|Angle of Repose |Stegner |1 |novel |10 |
|Anna Karenina |Tolstoy |7 |novel |80, 91, 99, 02, 03, 06, 08 |
|Another Country |Baldwin |3 |novel |95, 10, 12 |
|Antigone |Sophocles |4 |play |99, 03, 11, 14 |
|Antony and Cleopatra |Shakespeare |2 |play |80, 91 |
|The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz |Richler |1 |novel |94 |
|As I Lay Dying |Faulkner |8 |novel |78, 89, 90, 94, 01, 06, 09 |
|As You Like It |Shakespeare |4 |play |92, 05, 06, 10 |
|Atonement |McEwen |3 |novel |07, 11, 13 |
|The Awakening |Chopin |11 |novel |87, 88, 91, 92, 95, 97, 99, 02, 07, 09, 14 |
|Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man |Johnson |2 |novel |02, 05 |
|The Bear |Faulkner |2 |novel |94, 06 |
|Beloved |Morrison |9 |novel |90, 99, 01, 03, 07, 09, 11, 14, 15 |
|Bend in the River, A |Naipaul |1 |novel |15 |
|Benito Cereno |Melville |1 |novel |89 |
|Billy Budd |Melville |9 |novel |79, 81, 83, 85, 99, 02, 05, 08, 15 |
|The Birthday Party |Pinter |2 |play |89, 97 |
|Black Boy |Wright |3 |novel |05, 13, 15 |
|Bleak House |Dickens |3 |novel |94, 00, 09 |
|Bless Me, Ultima |Anaya |4 |novel |96, 97, 05, 06 |
|The Blind Assassin |Atwood |2 |novel |07, 11 |
|The Bluest Eye |Morrison |1 |novel |95 |
|The Bonesetter's Daughter |Tan |3 |novel |06, 07, 11 |
|Brave New World |Huxley |3 |novel |89, 05, 10 |
|Breath, Eyes, Memory |Danticat |1 |novel |13 |
|Brideshead Revisited |Waugh |1 |novel |12 |
|Brighton Rock |Greene |1 |novel |79 |
|Brothers Karamozov |Dostoevsky |2 |novel |90, 08 |
|Brown Girl, Brownstones |Marshall |1 |novel |13 |
|Candide |Voltaire |6 |novel |80, 86, 87, 91, 96, 04 |
|The Caretaker |Pinter |1 |play |85 |
|Cat on a Hot Tin Roof |Williams |1 |play |00, |
|Cat’s Eye |Atwood |4 |novel |94, 09, 13, 15 |
|Catch-22 |Heller |9 |novel |82, 85, 87, 89, 94, 01, 05, 08, 15 |
|The Catcher in the Rye |Salinger |2 |novel |01, 13 |
|The Centaur |Updike |1 |novel |81 |
|Ceremony |Silko |7 |novel |94, 96, 97, 99, 01, 06, 12 |
|The Cherry Orchard |Chekov |3 |play |06, 07, 09 |
|The Chosen |Potok |1 |novel |13 |
|The Cider House Rules |Irving |1 |novel |13 |
|Cold Mountain |Frazier |1 |novel |08, |
|The Color Purple |Walker |10 |novel |91, 92, 94, 96, 97, 05, 08, 09, 12, 13 |
|Coming Through Slaughter |Ondaatje |1 |novel |01, |
|Crime and Punishment |Dostoevsky |14 |novel |79, 80, 82, 88, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 09, 10, 11 |
|The Crossing |McCarthy |1 |novel |09, |
|The Crucible |Miller |6 |play |83, 87, 05, 09, 14, 15 |
|Cry, the Beloved Country |Paton |6 |novel |85, 87, 91, 95, 96, 07 |
|Daisy Miller |James |2 |novel |97, 12 |
|Dancing at Lughnasa |Friel |1 |play |01, |
|David Copperfield |Dickens |4 |novel |78, 83, 06, 13 |
|The Dead |Joyce |1 |novel |97 |
|The Death of Ivan Illyich |Tolstoy |1 |novel |86 |
|Death of a Salesman |Miller |9 |play |86, 88, 94, 03, 04, 05, 07, 12, 14 |
|Delta Wedding |Welty |1 |novel |97 |
|Desire Under the Elms |O'Neill |1 |play |81 |
|Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant |Tyler |1 |novel |97 |
|The Diviners |Laurence |1 |novel |95 |
|Doctor Faustus |Marlowe |4 |play |79, 86, 99, 04 |
|Doctor Zhivago |Pasternak |1 |novel |10 |
|A Doll House |Ibsen |6 |play |83, 87, 88, 95, 05, 09 |
|The Dollmaker |Arnow |1 |novel |91 |
|Don Quixote |Cervantes |5 |novel |92, 01, 04, 06, 08 |
|East of Eden |Steinbeck |1 |novel |06, |
|Emma |Austen |2 |novel |96, 08 |
|An Enemy of the People |Ibsen |5 |play |80, 87, 99, 01, 07 |
|Equus |Shaffer |6 |play |92, 99, 00, 01, 08, 09 |
|Ethan Frome |Wharton |7 |novel |80, 85, 03, 05, 06, 07, 14 |
|The Eumenides |Aeschylus |1 |play |96 |
|The Fall |Camus |1 |novel |81 |
|A Farewell to Arms |Hemingway |3 |novel |91, 99, 09 |
|The Father |Strindberg |1 |play |01, |
|Fathers and Sons |Turgenev |1 |novel |90 |
|Faust |Goethe |2 |play |02, 03 |
|Fences |Wilson |3 |play |02, 08, 09 |
|The Fifth Business |Davies |2 |novel |00, 07 |
|The Fixer |Malamud |1 |novel |07, |
|For Whom the Bell Tolls |Hemingway |2 |novel |03, 06 |
|Frankenstein |Shelley |6 |novel |89, 00, 03, 06, 08, 15 |
|A Gathering of Old Men |Gaines |2 |novel |00, |
|A Gesture Life |Lee |3 |novel |04, 05, 11, 15 |
|Ghosts |Ibsen |2 |play |00, 04 |
|The Glass Menagerie |Williams |8 |play |90, 94, 97, 99, 02, 08, 09, 12 |
|The God of Small Things |Roy |2 |novel |11, 13 |
|Go Tell it on the Mountain |Baldwin |3 |novel |88, 90, 05 |
|Going After Cacciato |O'Brien |1 |novel |01, |
|The Golden Bowl |James |1 |novel |09, |
|The Good Soldier |Ford |1 |novel |00, |
|The Grapes of Wrath |Steinbeck |9 |novel |81, 85, 87, 95, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13 |
|Great Expectations |Dickens |15 |novel |79, 80, 88, 89, 92, 95, 96, 00, 01, 02, 04, 07, 12, 13, |
| | | | |15 |
|The Great Gatsby |Fitzgerald |10 |novel |82, 83, 88, 91, 92, 97, 00, 02, 04, 07 |
|Gulliver's Travels |Swift |4 |novel |87, 89, 01, 04, |
|The Hairy Ape |O'Neill |2 |play |89, 09 |
|Hamlet |Shakespeare |6 |play |88, 92, 94, 97, 99, 00 |
|The Handmaid’s Tale |Atwood |1 |novel |92 |
|Hard Times |Dickens |2 |novel |87, 90 |
|Heart of Darkness |Conrad |12 |novel |91, 94, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 04, 09, 10, 12, 15 |
|Hedda Gabler |Ibsen |5 |play |79, 92, 00, 02, 03 |
|Henry IV |Shakespeare |3 |play |80, 90, 08 |
|Henry V |Shakespeare |1 |play |2 |
|The Homecoming |Voigt |2 |novel |78, 90 |
|House Made of Dawn |Momaday |2 |novel |95, 06 |
|The House of Mirth |Wharton |1 |novel |07, |
|The House of Seven Gables |Hawthorne |1 |novel |89 |
|The House on Mango Street |Cisneros |1 |novel |13 |
|The Iliad |Homer |1 |epic |80 |
|In the Lake of the Woods |O'Brien |1 |novel |00, |
|Invisible Man |Ellison |23 |novel |78, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 01, |
| | | | |04, 05, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 |
|J.B. |Macleish |2 |play |81, 94 |
|Jane Eyre |Brontë |14 |novel |78, 79, 80, 88, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 00, 07, 10, 13 |
|Jasmine |Mukherjee |3 |novel |99, 10, 13 |
|Joe Turner’s Come and Gone |Wilson |2 |play |00, 04 |
|Joseph Andrews |Fielding |1 |novel |91 |
|The Joy Luck Club |Tan |2 |novel |97, 13 |
|The Joys of Motherhood |Emechta |1 |novel |13 |
|Jude the Obscure |Hardy |7 |novel |80, 85, 87, 91, 95, 09, 10 |
|Julius Caesar |Shakespeare |2 |play |82, 97 |
|The Jungle |Sinclair |1 |novel |87 |
|King Lear |Shakespeare |16 |play |78, 82, 88, 89, 90, 96, 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 10, 11, |
| | | | |12, 14 |
|The Kite Runner |Hosseini |4 |novel |07, 08, 09, 15 |
|Lady Windermere's Fan |Wilde |1 |play |09, |
|Last of the Mohicans, The |Cooper |1 |novel |15 |
|A Lesson Before Dying |Gaines |2 |novel |99, 11 |
|Light in August |Faulkner |9 |novel |79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 95, 99, 03, 11 |
|Linden Hills |Naylor |1 |novel |14 |
|The Little Foxes |Hellman |3 |play |85, 90, 10 |
|Long Day’s Journey into Night |O'Neill |2 |play |03, 07 |
|Lord of the Flies |Golding |3 |novel |85, 92, 15 |
|Lord Jim |Conrad |6 |novel |78, 82, 86, 00, 03, 07 |
|Love Medicine |Erdrich |1 |novel |95 |
|The Loved One |Waugh |1 |novel |89 |
|Lysistrata |Aristophanes |1 |play |87 |
|M. Butterfly |Hwang |2 |play |95, 12 |
|Macbeth |Shakespeare |4 |play |83, 99, 03, 09 |
|Madame Bovary |Flaubert |6 |novel |80, 85, 05, 06, 09, 10 |
|Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |Crane |1 |novel |12 |
|Main Street |Lewis |1 |novel |87 |
|Major Barbara |Shaw |3 |play |79, 96, 04 |
|Man and Superman |Shaw |1 |play |81 |
|Mansfield Park |Austen |3 |novel |91, 06, 15 |
|The Mayor of Casterbridge |Hardy |5 |novel |94, 99, 00, 02, 10 |
|Medea |Euripides |7 |play |82, 92, 95, 01, 08, 11, 15 |
|The Member of the Wedding |McCullers |1 |novel |97 |
|The Memory Keeper's Daughter |Edwards |2 |novel |09, 14 |
|The Merchant of Venice |Shakespeare |6 |play |85, 91, 95, 02, 11, 15 |
|The Metamorphosis |Kafka |2 |novel |78, 89 |
|Middlemarch |Eliot |4 |novel |95, 04, 05, 07 |
|A Midsummer Night’s Dream |Shakespeare |2 |play |06, 12 |
|The Mill on the Floss |Eliot |2 |novel |90, 92 |
|The Misanthrope |Moliere |2 |play |92, 08 |
|Miss Lonelyhearts |West |1 |novel |89 |
|Moby Dick |Melville |11 |novel |78, 79, 80, 89, 94, 96, 01, 03, 04, 07, 09 |
|Moll Flanders |Defoe |3 |novel |86, 87, 95 |
|Monkey Bridge |Cao |1 |novel |00, |
|The Moor's Last Sigh |Rushdie |1 |novel |07, |
|Mother Courage & Her Children |Brecht |2 |play |85, 87 |
|Mrs. Dalloway |Woolf |4 |novel |94, 97, 05, 07 |
|Mrs. Warren’s Profession |Shaw |4 |play |87, 90, 95, 02 |
|Much Ado About Nothing |Shakespeare |2 |play |97, 14 |
|Murder in the Cathedral |Eliot |4 |play |80, 85, 95, 11 |
|My Antonia |Cather |2 |novel |10, 12 |
|The Namesake |Lahiri |2 |novel |09, 13 |
|Native Son |Wright |8 |novel |79, 82, 85, 87, 01, 95, 11, 12 |
|Native Speaker |Lee |2 |novel |99, 07 |
|Night |Wiesel |1 |memoir |15 |
|No Country for Old Men |McCarthy |1 |novel |11 |
|No Exit |Sartre |2 |play |86, 12 |
|No-No Boy |Okada |1 |novel |95 |
|Noah's Compass |Tyler |1 |novel |14 |
|Obasan |Kogawa |7 |novel |94, 95, 04, 05, 06, 07, 10 |
|The Odyssey |Homer |3 |epic |86, 10, 15 |
|Oedipus the King |Sophocles |6 |play |85, 88, 00, 03, 04, 11 |
|Of Mice and Men |Steinbeck |1 |novel |01, |
|Oliver Twist |Dickens |1 |novel |15 |
|One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich |Solzenitsyn |2 |novel |05, 10 |
|One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest |Kesey |3 |novel |01, 12, 15 |
|One Hundred Years of Solitude |Garcia-Marquez |2 |novel |89, 12 |
|O Pioneers! |Cather |1 |novel |06, |
|The Optimist’s Daughter |Welty |1 |novel |94 |
|The Oresteia |Aeschylus |1 |play |90 |
|Orlando |Woolf |1 |novel |04, |
|Oryx and Crake |Atwood |2 |novel |12, 14 |
|Othello |Shakespeare |6 |play |79, 85, 92, 95, 14, 15 |
|The Other |Guterson |1 |novel |10 |
|Our Town |Wilder |3 |play |86, 97, 09 |
|Out of Africa |Dinesen |1 |novel |06, |
|Pale Fire |Nabakov |1 |novel |01, |
|Pamela |Richardson |1 |novel |86 |
|Paradise Lost |Milton |3 |epic |85, 86, 10 |
|A Passage to India |Forster |6 |novel |78, 88, 91, 92, 07, 12 |
|Pére Goriot |Balzac |1 |novel |02, |
|Persuasion |Austen |3 |novel |90. 05, 07 |
|Phaedre |Racine |2 |play |92, 03 |
|The Piano Lesson |Wilson |5 |play |96, 99, 07, 08, 12 |
|The Picture of Dorian Gray |Wilde |1 |novel |02, |
|Plague, The |Camus |3 |novel |02, 09, 12 |
|Pnin |Nabakov |1 |novel |97 |
|Pocho |Villarreal |1 |novel |02, |
|The Poisonwood Bible |Kingsolver |4 |novel |10, 11, 12, 14 |
|A Portrait of a Lady |James |6 |novel |88, 92, 96, 05, 09, 14 |
|A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man |Joyce |11 |novel |80, 81, 86, 88, 96, 99, 04, 05, 09, 10, 13 |
|The Power and the Glory |Greene |1 |novel |95 |
|Praisesong for the Widow |Marshall |1 |novel |96 |
|A Prayer for Owen Meany |Irving |2 |novel |09, 14 |
|Pride and Prejudice |Austen |6 |novel |83, 88, 92, 97, 08, 12 |
|The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie |Spark |1 |novel |90 |
|Purple Hibiscus |Adichie |1 |novel |13 |
|Pygmalion |Shaw |2 |play |92, 08 |
|Ragtime |Doctorow |2 |novel |03, 07 |
|A Raisin in the Sun |Hansberry |10 |play |87, 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, 99, 09, 12, 14 |
|The Rape of the Lock |Pope |1 |poem |81 |
|Redburn |Melville |1 |novel |87 |
|Red Badge of Courage, The |Crane |1 |novel |15 |
|The Remains of the Day |Ishiguro |1 |novel |00, |
|Reservation Blues |Alexie |2 |novel |08, 09 |
|Richard III |Shakespeare |1 |play |79 |
|The Road |McCarthy |1 |novel |10 |
|Robinson Crusoe |Defoe |1 |novel |10 |
|Romeo and Juliet |Shakespeare |3 |play |90, 92, 97 |
|Rosencrantz &Guildenstern are Dead |Stoppard |7 |play |81, 94, 00, 04, 05, 10, 11 |
|Saint Joan |Shaw |1 |play |95 |
|The Scarlet Letter |Hawthorne |11 |novel |78, 83, 88, 91, 99, 02, 04, 05, 06, 14, 15 |
|The Secret Life of Bees |Kidd |1 |novel |13 |
|Sent for You Yesterday |Wideman |1 |novel |03, |
|A Separate Peace |Knowles |3 |novel |82, 07, 13 |
|Set This House on Fire |Styron |1 |novel |11 |
|The Shipping News |Proulx |1 |novel |97 |
|Siddhartha |Hesse |1 |novel |13 |
|Silas Marner |Eliot |1 |novel |02, |
|Sister Carrie |Dreiser |5 |novel |87, 02, 04, 10, 15 |
|Sister of My Heart |Divakaruni |1 |novel |10 |
|Slaughterhouse Five |Vonnegut |1 |novel |91 |
|Snow |Pamuk |1 |novel |09, |
|Snow Falling on Cedars |Guterson |3 |novel |00, 10, 12 |
|Song of Solomon |Morrison |5 |novel |81, 88, 96, 00, 13 |
|Sons and Lovers |Lawrence |1 |novel |90 |
|Sophie's Choice |Styron |1 |novel |15 |
|The Sorrows of Young Werther |Goethe |1 |novel |13 |
|The Sound and the Fury |Faulkner |6 |novel |86, 97, 01, 04, 08, 13 |
|The Stone Angel |Laurence |1 |novel |96 |
|The Story of Edgar Sawtelle |Wroblewski |2 |novel |11, 13 |
|The Stranger |Camus |4 |novel |79, 82, 86, 11 |
|A Streetcar Named Desire |Williams |7 |play |91, 92, 01, 07, 08, 09, 14 |
|Sula |Morrison |6 |novel |92, 97, 02, 04, 08, 12 |
|The Sun Also Rises |Hemingway |6 |novel |85, 91, 95, 04, 05, 12 |
|Surfacing |Atwood |1 |novel |05, |
|A Tale of Two Cities |Dickens |4 |novel |82, 91, 08, 14 |
|Tartuffe |Moliere |1 |play |87 |
|The Tempest |Shakespeare |4 |play |78, 96, 07, 10 |
|Tess of the D’Urbervilles |Hardy |8 |novel |82, 91, 03, 06, 07, 12, 14, 15 |
|Their Eyes Were Watching God |Hurston |10 |novel |88, 90, 91, 96, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 13, 14 |
|Things Fall Apart |Achebe |7 |novel |91, 97, 03, 09, 10, 11, 14 |
|The Things They Carried |O'Brien |1 |novel |04, |
|A Thousand Acres |Smiley |3 |novel |06, 11, 14 |
|A Thousand Splendid Suns |Hosseini |2 |novel |11, 13 |
|To Kill a Mockingbird |Lee |3 |novel |11, 13, 15 |
|To the Lighthouse |Woolf |1 |novel |88 |
|Tom Jones |Fielding |4 |novel |90, 00, 06, 08 |
|A Tree Grows in Brooklyn |Smith |1 |novel |13 |
|The Trial |Kafka |2 |novel |89, 00 |
|Trifles |Glaspell |1 |play |00, |
|Tristram Shandy |Sterne |1 |novel |86 |
|The Turn of the Screw |James |5 |novel |92, 94, 00, 02, 04 |
|Twelfth Night |Shakespeare |3 |play |85, 94, 96 |
|Typical American |Jen |2 |novel |02, 05 |
|Uncle Tom’s Cabin |Stowe |1 |novel |87 |
|The Vicar of Wakefield |Goldsmith |1 |novel |06, |
|Victory |Conrad |1 |novel |83 |
|Volpone |Jonson |1 |play |83 |
|Waiting for Godot |Beckett |7 |play |85, 86, 89, 94, 01, 09, 12 |
|The Warden |Trollope |1 |novel |96 |
|Washington Square |James |1 |novel |90 |
|The Waste Land |Eliot |1 |poem |81 |
|The Watch on the Rhine |Hellman |1 |play |87 |
|The Watch That Ends the Night |MacLennan |1 |novel |92 |
|The Way We Live Now |Trollope |1 |novel |06, |
|When the Emporer was Divine |Otsuka |1 |novel |12 |
|Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf |Albee |6 |play |88, 94, 00, 04, 07, 15 |
|Wide Sargasso Sea |Rhys |2 |novel |89, 92 |
|The Wild Duck |Ibsen |1 |play |78 |
|Winter in the Blood |Welch |1 |novel |95 |
|The Winter’s Tale |Shakespeare |3 |play |86, 89, 06 |
|Wise Blood |O'Connor |4 |novel |82, 89, 95, 09 |
|The Women of Brewster Place |Naylor |4 |novel |09, 10, 12, 14 |
|The Woman Warrior |Kingston |2 |novel |91, 13 |
|Wuthering Heights |Brontë |19 |novel |78, 79, 82, 83, 86, 89, 90, 91, 92, 96, 97, 99, 01, 06, |
| | | | |07, 08, 10, 12, 15 |
|The Zoo Story |Albee |2 |play |82, 01 |
|Zoot Suit |Valdez |1 |play |95 |
Rhetorical Devices
Rhetoric is sometimes defined as an artful deviation from ordinary language. These terms range from simple to complicated—it is not necessary to know each term, but it is important to understand the options available to you as a writer, as well as the complexity of the literature we study. The practice, not always the name, is important. I have taken some definitions and examples from Corbett and Connors’ Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, Quinn’s Figures of Speech, and Harmon and Holman’s A Handbook to Literature.
SCHEMES OF CONSTRUCTION:
a. Anastrophe inverts the normal word order, with the adjective and its noun. “The retort courteous.” “The quip modest.” “The reply churlish.”
The reproof valiant.” The countercheck quarrelsome.” The lie circumstantial.” “The lie direct.” Shakespeare As You Like It
b. Antithesis involves a direct contrast of structurally parallel word groupings generally for the purpose of contrast, e.g., “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
c. Apposition places side by side two coordinate elements, the second of which serves as an explanation or modification of the first. “Barack Obama, President of the United States, was born in Hawaii.”
d. Hyperbaton is any intended deviation from normal word order. Responding to a critique that he had ended a sentence with a preposition, Churchill supposedly replied, “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.”
e. Hysteron Proteron involves a reversal of temporal order. If your parent tells you to “put on your shoes and socks,” you probably would not follow the advice literally. “Let us die, and rush into the heart of the fight.” Virgil
f. Parallel structure (parallelism) refers to a grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of a sentence. It involves an arrangement of words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs so that the elements of equal importance are equally developed and similarly phrased, e.g., He was walking, running, and jumping for joy.
g. Parenthesis is the insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence. “But wherein any man is bold—I am speaking foolishly—I also am bold. . . Are they ministers of Christ? I—to speak as a fool—am more.” 2 Corinthians 11, 21, 23
SCHEMES OF OMISSION:
a. Aposiopesis: Breaking off a sentence before its finish—at times to express an overwhelmed emotional response. “I will have revenges on you both / That all the world shall—I will do such things—/ What they are yet, I know not; but they shall be / The terrors of the earth!” Shakespeare King Lear
b. Asyndeton: The omission of conjunctions between clauses, often resulting in a hurried rhythm or vehement effect. A type of ellipsis. “There to converse with everlasting groans / Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved.” Milton Paradise Lost
c. Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of a word or words which are readily implied by the context. “Haply you shall not see me more; or if, / A mangled shadow.” Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra
d. Hendiadys: A combination of addition, substitution, and usually arrangement; the addition of a conjunction between a word (noun, adjective, verb) and its modifier (adjective, adverb, infinitive), the substitution of this word’s grammatical form for that of its modifier, and usually rearrangement so that the modifier follows the word. Instead of “furious sound,” we see “The sound and the fury.” Shakespeare. More practically, we might say, “try and do better” when we mean, “try to do better.”
e. Metaplasmus: A deliberate misspelling. Just altering a name, from Edward to Ed, for instance, or a more pronounced verbal sleight of hand: “Dog gone it!” replaces a more blasphemous utterance.
f. Polysyndeton: Employing many conjunctions between clauses, often slowing the tempo or rhythm. “I said, ‘Who killed him?’ and he said, ‘I don't know who killed him but he's dead all right,’ and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights and windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was all right only she was full of water.” Hemingway, "After the Storm."
g. Syllepsis: The use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs. This combination of parallelism and incongruity often has a witty or comical effect. Syllepsis applies the same single word to the others it governs in distinct senses (e.g., literal and metaphorical): “Rend your heart, and not your garments.” Joel 2:13
h. Zeugma: Similar to Syllepsis, in that each involves a yoking of words; however, Zeugma technically involves either their idiomatic or grammatical incongruity,: “We don’t just serve burgers, we serve people!” Burger King slogan
SCHEMES OF REPETITION:
a. Alliteration is the repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more adjacent words. “A moist young moon hung above the mist of a neighboring meadow.” Vladimir Nabakov
b. Amplification involves repeating a word or expression while adding more detail to it, in order to emphasize what might otherwise be overlooked. “The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.” Psalm 9:9
c. Anadiplosis repeats the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause. “No sooner met, but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner loved but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy.” Shakespeare As You Like It
d. Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines. “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.” Winston Churchill.
e. Antanaclasis: The repetition of a word whose meaning changes in the second instance. “Your argument is sound, nothing but sound.” Benjamin Franklin
f. Antimetabole indicates the repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order. A true antimetabole will also demonstrate antithesis. “Mankind must put an end to war—or war will put an end to mankind.” John F. Kennedy
g. Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words. “Whales in the wake like capes and Alps / Quaked the sick sea and snouted deep.” Dylan Thomas
h. Chiasmus is the reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses, named after the Greek name for the letter x, which is a palindrome reduced to a single letter. “His time a moment, and a point his space.” Alexander Pope
i. Climax marks the arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance. “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” Romans 5, 3-5
j. Diacope: Repetition with only a word or two in between. “O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!” Shakespeare Hamlet
k. Epanados. Like a palindrome (A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!), this figure provides repetition in the opposite order. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” Shakespeare Richard II
l. Epanalepsis: repetition of the beginning at the end. “Common sense is not so common.” Voltaire
m. Epistrophe: the reverse of anaphora; here a word or phrase is repeated at the ends of successive phrases or clauses. “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 1 Cor. 13:11
n. Epizeuxis: Immediate repetition. “Reputation, reputation, reputation! O! I have lost my reputation.” Shakespeare Othello
o. Isocolon: Repetition of grammatical forms: “Always the dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.” Shakespeare As You Like It or “The Bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
p. Ploce: Repetition of a word in a general and restricted sense: “More Irish than the Irish.” Joyce Or when a statement begins with “A man is not a man when . . . ” or a variation.
q. Polyptoton: Repeating a word, but in a different form. Using a cognate of a given word in close proximity. “So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men, / And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.” Shakespeare, Sonnet 146
r. Symploce: Repetition of both beginnings and endings. “I’ll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.” Shakespeare As You Like It
TROPES:
a. Anthimeria substitutes one part of speech for another. “I’ll unhair thy head.” Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra. Or “The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.” As You Like It
b. Aporia is to talk about not being able to talk about something. “I can’t tell you how many examples of aporia exist.”
c. Apostrophe is a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present. Those are all addressed directly, e.g., “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet
d. Auxesis is a type of hyperbole where details are magnified or piled on to create a significance of order by ascending importance. “Some have at first for Wits, then Poets past, / Turn’d Critics next, and prov’d plain fools at last.” Pope “An Essay on Criticism.” Another definition is magnifying the importance or gravity of something by referring to it with a disproportionate name, such as a lawyer referring to a scratch as a wound.
e. Epanorthosis: Addition by correction. “He in a few minutes ravished this fair creature, or at least would have ravished her if she had not, by a timely compliance, prevented him.” Henry Fielding Jonathon Wild
f. Hyperbole is a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration. It may be used either for serious or comic effect, e.g., The shot that was heard around the world.
g. Irony is the result of a statement saying one thing while meaning the opposite. Its purpose is usually to criticize, e.g., “Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she [France] entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards.” Dickens A Tale of Two Cities
h. Juxtaposition is a poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit, e.g., “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough” (“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound).
i. Litotes (Understatement) is the opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as much less than it really is. "It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.” J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye. Or Swift: “Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worst.”
j. Metalepsis: A double metonymy. In William Butler Yeats’ poem “Leda and the Swan,” Yeats uses the rape of Leda to represent the birth of Helen as well as the subsequent downfall of Trojan society.
k. Metaphor is a comparison without the use of like or as. The poet states that one thing is another. It is usually a comparison between something that is real or concrete and something that is abstract, e.g., Life is but a dream.
l. Metonymy: In metonymy, the name of one thing is applied to another thing that it is closely associated: “Is it not strange that sheep’s guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies?” Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing
m. Onomatopoeia involves the use of words whose sound echoes the sense. “The moan of doves in immemorial elms, / And murmuring of innumerable bees.” Tennyson The Princess
n. Oxymoron is a form of a paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression. This combination usually serves the purpose of shocking the reader into awareness, e.g., “sweet pain”; “jumbo shrimp.”
o. Paradox is a statement that contradicts itself. Although it may seem to be at odds with ordinary experience, it usually turns out to have a coherent meaning, and reveals a truth which is normally hidden, e.g., “The more you know the more you don’t know.” Socrates/Plato
p. Paranomasia: the use of words alike in sound but different in meaning. “The Bustle: A Deceitful Seatful.” Vladimir Nabakov, “Ample Examples,” or “Salute your Solution” Jack White (The Raconteurs )
q. Periphrasis: Substitution of more words for less: a kind of over-dressing of language where a spy being executed is “the elimination with extreme prejudice of an intelligence-gathering operative.” Or, substituting a descriptive phrase for a proper name, or substituting a proper name for a quality associated with it. “You must pray to heaven's guardian for relief.” “He proved a Judas to the cause.”
r. Personification is a kind or metaphor that gives inanimate objects of abstract ideas human characteristics, e.g., The wind cried in the dark. This figure differs from Anthropomorphism, since anthropomorphism is a conceptual presentation of some nonhuman entity in human form, where personification is more limited, in that it involves presentation of some nonhuman entity in figuratively human form with figuratively human characteristics. Zeus is the “all-father” with human characteristics: anthropomorphism; “Father Time” carrying a scythe and hourglass is personification.
s. Pleonasm: Addition of superfluous words. “This was the most unkindest cut of all.” Shakespeare Julius Caesar
t. Praeteritio: Including something while pretending to omit it. “Not to mention” or “to say nothing about” are often the signals. “I will say nothing about my opponent’s long history of legal trouble.”
u. Pun: a play on words which are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings. Puns may have serious as well as humorous uses, e.g., When Mercutio is bleeding to death in Romeo and Juliet, he says to his friends, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.”
v. A Rhetorical Question is a question that expects no answer. It is used to draw attention to a point and is generally stronger than a direct statement, e.g., “How can the poor feel they have a stake in a system which says that the rich may have due process but the poor may not? How can the uneducated have faith in a system which says that it will take advantage of them in every possible way? How can people have hope when we tell them that they have no recourse if they run afoul of the state justice system?” Senator Edward Kennedy. A type of rhetorical question is Hypophora, where one would raise a question and then attempt to answer it directly thereafter, e.g. “What is the typical behavior of adolescents? We find our answer in . . . .” A Procatalepsis is also a type of rhetorical question where one would anticipate another’s argument, then answer it. “Yet this is the prime service a man would think, wherein this order should give proof of itself. If it were executed, you’ll say. But certain, if execution be remiss or blindfold now, and in this particular, what will it be hereafter and in other books?” John Milton
w. Sarcasm is a type of irony that a person appears to be praising something while he is actually insulting the thing. Unlike the similar irony, sarcasm’s purpose is to injure of hurt, e.g., “As I fell down the stairs headfirst, I heard her say, ‘Look at that coordination.’”
x. Simile is a comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of words than, like or as. It is definitely a stated comparison, where the poet says one thing is like another, e.g., The warrior fought like a lion.
y. Synaesthesia: The conflation or concurrent rendering of two or more senses to describe one—especially when one sense is used to describe another. A “loud shirt” or a “sweet sound” are common examples. “But here there is no light, / Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown.” John Keats
z. Synecdoche: In a synecdoche, through metaphor, a part of something is used to signify the whole, or the whole to signify the part. “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?” Marlowe Doctor Faustus. Or the opposite: Canada played the United States in the Olympic hockey game.
Tone and Language
Often a change or shift in tone will be signaled by the following:
* Key words (e.g. but, yet, nevertheless, however, although)
* Punctuation (dashes, periods, colons)
* Stanza and paragraph divisions
* Changes in line and stanza or sentence length
There are at least four areas that may be considered when analyzing style: diction, sentence structure, treatment of subject matter, and figurative language.
I. Diction—Describe diction by considering the following:
A. Words may be monosyllabic (one syllable in length) or polysyllabic (more than one syllable in length). The higher the ratio of polysyllabic words, the more difficult the content.
B. Words may be mainly colloquial (slang), informal (conversational), formal (literary), or old-fashioned.
C. Words may be mainly denotative (containing and exact meaning), e.g. dress, or connotative (containing a suggested meaning), e.g., gown. Or, words may be idiomatic (they cannot be understood literally), e.g. I looked it up in the dictionary.
D. Words may be concrete (specific) or abstract (general).
E. Words may be euphonious (pleasant sounding); e.g., leaves or cacophonous (harsh sounding), e.g., attack.
II. Sentence Structure- Describe the sentence structure by considering the following:
A. Examine the sentence length. Are the sentences telegraphic (shorter than five words in length), medium (approximately eighteen words in length), or long and involved (thirty words of more in length)? Does the sentence length fit the subject matter; what variety of lengths is present? Why is the sentence length effective?
B. Examine sentence patterns (syntax). Some elements to consider are listed below:
1. A declarative (assertive) sentence makes a statement, e.g., I have 26 students in class today. An imperative sentence gives a command, e.g., Stand up, students. An interrogative sentence asks a question, e.g., Who is absent today? A conditional sentence expresses wishes or conditions contrary to fact e.g., If you don’t study, then you will fail the test. An exclamatory sentence makes an exclamation e.g., Everyone earned an A on the test!
2. A simple sentence contains one subject and one verb, e.g., My legs are sore. A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinate conjunction (and, but, or) or by a semicolon, e.g., My legs are sore; the workout was difficult. A complex sentence contains an independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses, e.g., I said last week that my legs were sore. A compound-complex sentence contains two or more principal clauses and one or more subordinate clause e.g., My legs are sore; the workout yesterday was too difficult, even for someone with my superior fitness.
3. A loose sentence makes complete sense if brought to a close before the actual ending e.g., I ran for forty minutes without tiring, even though my knee hurt. A periodic sentence makes sense only when the end of the sentence is reached e.g., Despite the fact that my knee hurt, I ran for forty minutes without tiring. Coherence (logical and progressive arrangement) is achieved either way, depending on the circumstances.
4. In a balanced sentence, the phrases or clauses balance each other by virtue of their likeness or structure, meaning and/or length, e.g., He maketh me lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.
5. Natural order of a sentence involves constructing a sentence before the predicate, e.g., Oranges grow in California. Inverted order of a sentence (sentence inversion) involves constructing a sentence so the predicate comes before the subject, e.g., In California grow oranges. This is a device in which normal sentence patterns are reversed to create an emphatic or rhythmic effect. Split order of a sentence divides the predicate into two parts with the subject coming in the middle, e.g., In California oranges grow. The climax is an arrangement of increasing the order of importance.
6. Juxtaposition is a poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit, e.g., “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/Petals on a wet, black bough” (“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound).
7. Parallel structure (parallelism) refers to a grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of a sentence. It involves an arrangement of words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs so that the elements of equal importance are equally developed and similarly phrased, e.g., He was walking, running, and jumping for joy.
8. Repetition is a device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once for the purpose of enhancing rhythm and creating emphasis, e.g., “…government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
9. A rhetorical question is a question that expects no answer. It is used to draw attention to a point and is generally stronger than a direct statement, e.g., “How can the poor feel they have a stake in a system which says that the rich may have due process but the poor may not?” Edward Kennedy
C. Examine sentence beginnings. Is there a good variety or does a pattern emerge?
D. Examine the arrangement of ideas in a sentence. Are they set out in a special way for a purpose?
E. Examine the arrangement of ideas in a paragraph to see if there is evidence of any pattern or structure.
10. A Transitive Verb, e.g. employ, (communicates action of the subject ) is always followed by a Direct Object, which receives the action and completes the meaning of the verb. The Indirect Object receives the transitive verb’s action, but indirectly: e.g. A high school diploma may only afford a student limited career options. An Intransitive Verb, e.g. thrive, (refers to an incomplete action) does not need an object to receive action.
III. Treatment of Subject Matter
Describe the author’s treatment of the subject matter by considering the following. Has the author been:
1. Subjective? Are his conclusions based upon opinions; are they rather personal in nature
2. Objective? Are his conclusions based upon facts; are they impersonal or scientific?
3. Supportive of his main idea? If so, how did he support his claims? Did he: a. state his opinions, b. report his experience, c. report observations, d. refer to readings, e. refer to statements made by experts, f. use statistical data?
IV. Figurative Language
a. Simile is a comparison of two different things of ideas through the use of words like or as, or even such words as liken, than, or resemble.
It is definitely a stated comparison, where the poet says one thing is like another, e.g., The warrior fought like a lion.
b. Metaphor is a comparison without the use of like or as. The poet states that one thing is another. It is usually a comparison between something that is real or concrete and something that is abstract, e.g., The warrior was a lion in battle.
c. Personification is a kind or metaphor that gives inanimate objects of abstract ideas human characteristics, e.g., The wind cried in the dark.
d. Hyperbole is a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration. It may be used either for serious or comic effect, e.g., The shot that was heard around the world.
e. Understatement (Litotes) is the opposite of hyperbole. It is a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as much less than it really is, e.g., “It little profits that an idle king. . . .” means not at all.
f. Paradox is a statement that contradicts itself. It may seem almost absurd. Although it may seem to be at odds with ordinary experience, it usually turns out to have a coherent meaning, and reveals a truth which is normally hidden, e.g., The more you know the more you don’t know. (Socrates)
g. Oxymoron is a form of a paradox that combines a pair of contrary terms into a single expression. This combination usually serves the purpose of shocking the reader into awareness, e.g., “darkness visible”; “the palpable obscure.”
h. Pun is a play on words which are identical or similar in sound but which have sharply diverse meanings. Puns may have serious as well as humorous uses, e.g., When Mercutio is bleeding to death in Romeo and Juliet, he says to his friends, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.”
i. Irony is the result of a statement saying one thing while meaning the opposite. Its purpose is usually to criticize, e.g., It is simple to stop smoking, I’ve done it many times.
j. Sarcasm is a type of irony that a person appears to be praising something while he is actually insulting the thing. Its purpose is to injure of hurt, e.g., As I fell down the stairs headfirst, I heard her say, “Look at that coordination.”
k. Antithesis involves a direct contrast of structurally parallel word groupings generally for the purpose of contrast, e.g., sink or swim.
l. Apostrophe is a form of personification in which the absent or dead are spoken to as if present, and the inanimate. Those are all addressed directly, e.g., The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.
m. Allusion is a reference to a mythological, literary, or Biblical person, place or thing, e.g., He met his Waterloo.
n. Synecdoche and Metonymy are forms of metaphor. In a synecdoche, a part of something is used to signify the whole, e.g., All hands on deck.
• Also, the reverse, whereby the whole can represent a part, is a synecdoche, e.g., Canada played the United States in the Olympic hockey finals.
• Another form of a synecdoche involves the container representing the thing being contained, e.g., The pot is boiling.
• One last form of synecdoche involves the material from which the object is made standing for the object itself, e.g., The quarterback tossed the pigskin.
• In metonymy, the name of one thing is applied to another thing that it is closely associated, e.g., I love Shakespeare.
Elements of Rhetoric
I. STYLE
• Syntax
• Diction
• Point of view
• Devices of language (alliteration, assonance, etc.)
• Tone
• Imagery
• Figures of speech
• Phrasing
• Coordination/subordination
• Selection of detail
• Parallelisms
• Repetition
II. MODES OF DISCOURSE (Purpose)
• Definition
• Cause/effect (casual analysis)
• Comparison/contrast
• Argumentation
• Description
• Narration
• Summary
• Persuasion (elements of logic—persuading by emotion)
• Classification/division
• Process analysis
Some generalizations about literature that affect tone:
1. Authors usually devalue materialism.
2. As a rule, authors do not value formal religion. They do, however, generally value individual reverence.
3. Authors value mutability.
4. Authors are rarely neutral about the carpe diem theme.
5. Authors’ thinking often runs counter to their own cultural training.
6. Authors are not only our social historians; they are also our social critics.
7. In the conflict between the individual and society, authors value the individual more than the society.
8. Most authors attack overweening pride.
9. Most authors have a critical tone towards war.
10. In much literature, the family is a source of the most passionate kind of conflict.
Words that Describe the Reader’s Perception of the Speaker:
• Humble
• Bold
• Insipid
• Imperious
• Austere
• Confident
• Credulous
• Naïve
• Vivacious
• Sincere
• Vain
• Shallow
• Fatuous
• Haughty
1. Proud
• Audacious
• Insincere
• Innocent
• Triumphant
• Insolent
• Inane
• Gullible
Checklist for Reading Fiction: from Barnet and Cain’s A Short Guide to Writing About Literature
Title
• Is the title informative? What does it mean or suggest? Did the meaning seem to change after you read the story? Does the title help you to formulate a theme?
• If you had written the story, what title would you use?
Plot
• Does the plot grow out of the characters, or does it depend on chance or coincidence? Did something at first strike you as irrelevant that later you perceived as relevant? Do some parts continue to strike you as irrelevant?
• Does surprise play an important role, or does foreshadowing? If surprise is very important, can the story be read a second time with any interest? If so, what gives it this further interest?
• What conflicts does the story include? Conflicts of one character against another? Of one character against the setting, or against society? Conflicts within a single character?
• Are the conflicts resolved? If so, how?
• Are certain episodes narrated out of chronological order? If so, were you puzzled? Annoyed? On reflection, does the arrangement of episodes seem effective? Why or why not? Are certain situations repeated? If so, what do you make of the repetitions?
• List the major structural units of the story. In a sentence or two summarize each unit that you have listed.
• In a sentence summarize the conclusion or resolution. Do you find it satisfactory? Why, or why not?
Character
• List the traits of the main characters.
• Which character chiefly engages your interest? Why?
• What purposes do minor characters serve? Do you find some who by their similarities and differences help to define each other or help to define the major character? How else is a particular character defined—by his or her words, actions (including thoughts and emotions), dress, setting, narrative point of view? Do certain characters act differently in the same, or in a similar situation?
• How does the author reveal character? By explicit authorial (editorial) comment, for instance, or, conversely, by revelation through dialogue? Through depicted action? Through the actions of other characters? How are the author’s methods especially suited to the whole of the story?
• If the behavior plausible—that is, are the characters well motivated?
• If a character changes, why and how does he or she change? (You may want to jot down each event that influences a change.) Or did you change your attitude toward a character not because the character changes but because you came to know the character better?
• Are the characters round or flat? That is, are they complex or highly typical (for instance, one-dimensional representatives of a social class or age)? Are you chiefly interested in a character’s psychology, or does the character strike you as standing for something, such as honesty or the arrogance of power?
• How has the author caused you to sympathize with certain characters? How does your response—your sympathy or lack of sympathy—contribute to your judgment of the conflict?
Point of View
• Who tells the story? How much does the narrator know? Does the narrator strike you as reliable? What effect is gained or lost by using this narrator?
• How does the point of view help shape the theme? After all, the basic story of Little Red Riding Hood—what happens—remains unchanged whether told from the wolf’s point of view or the girl’s, but if we hear the story from the wolf’s point of view, we may feel that the story is about terrifying yet pathetic compulsive behavior; if from the girl’s point of view, about terrified innocence and male violence.
• Does the narrator’s language help you to construct a picture of the narrator’s character, class, attitude, strengths, and limitations? (Jot down some evidence, such as colloquial or formal expressions, ironic comments, figures of speech.) How far can you trust the narrator? Why?
Setting
• Do you have a strong sense of the time and place? Is the story very much about, say, New England Puritanism, or race relations in the South in the late nineteenth century, or Midwestern urban versus small-town life? If time and place are important, how and at what points in the story has the author conveyed this sense? If you do not strongly feel the setting, do you think the author should have made it more evident?
• What is the relation of the setting to the plot and the characters? (For instance, do houses or rooms or their furnishings say something about their residents? Is the landscape important?) Would anything be lost if the descriptions of the setting were deleted from the story or if the setting were changed?
Symbolism
• Do certain characters seem to you to stand for something in addition to themselves? Does the setting—whether a house, a farm, a landscape, a town, a period—have an extra dimension?
• Do certain actions in the story—for instance, entering a forest at night, or shutting a door, or turning off a light—seem symbolic? If so, symbolic of what?
• If you believe that the story has symbolic elements, do you think they are adequately integrated within the story, or do they strike you as being too obviously stuck in?
Style
• Style may be defined as how the writer says what he or she says. It is the writer’s manner of expression. The writer’s choice of words, of sentence structure, and of sentence length are all aspects of style. Example: “Shut the door,” and “Would you mind closing the door, please,” differ substantially in style. Another example: Lincoln begins the Gettysburg Address by speaking of “Four score and seven years ago,” that is by using language that has a biblical overtone. If he had said, “Eighty-seven years ago,” his style would have been different.
• How would you characterize the style? Simple? Understated? Figurative? Or what, and why?
• How has the point of view shaped or determined the style?
• Do you think that the style is consistent? If it isn’t—for instance, if there are shifts from simple sentences to highly complex ones—what do you make of the shifts?
Theme
• Do certain passages—the title, some of the dialogue, some of the description, the names of certain characters—seem to you to have something in common or point especially toward the theme? Do you find certain repetitions of words or pairs of incidents highly suggestive and helpful in directing your thoughts toward stating a theme?
• Is the meaning of the story embodied in the whole story, or does it seem stuck in, for example, in certain passages of editorializing?
• Suppose someone asked you to state the point—the theme—of the story. Could you? And if you could, would you say that the theme of a particular story reinforces values you hold, or does it to some degree challenge them?
Poetry and Poetic Terms
Poetry and Poetic Terms
Poetry is an act of language consisting of the interaction of image, diction, rhythm and form. Poetry comes from poesis, or that which is created or shaped. Aristotle said that a poem is the representation of an act, an act which gathers in the meaning. Good poetry: touches the immediate situation and may bring out a response to change a reader's perception. Better poetry: touches life at broader or more significant points. The best poetry: touches life on all significant planes, and presents a powerful world view.
IMAGERY: The representation in actual words of a particular thing; something that can be experienced by the senses.
Metaphor: an implied comparison which identifies one object with another, gaining meaning through the association.
Simile: a comparison of two separate ideas or images with the use of like, as, than, etc.
Personification: endowing animals, ideas, abstractions, and inanimate objects with human form, character, or sensibilities.
Symbol: A word or image that signifies something in addition to what it represents in the context of the poem.
Allusion: A reference to an event or a person outside the context of the poem (Biblical, literary, or historical).
DICTION: The choice of words
Connotation: The various implications that words or phrases carry with them from association or memory.
Rhyme: Repetition of the same/similar sounds occurring at determined, recognizable intervals.
end rhyme: rhyme at the end of the lines creating a recurring echo.
rhyme scheme: the pattern of rhymes in a stanza.
slant or approximate rhyme: near rhyme; usually the substitution of assonance or consonance for exact rhyme.
Alliteration: Using the same letter sound to create an echo at the beginning of words.
Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds.
Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds as rhyme—the final consonants, and not the final vowels, rhyme (Eye Rhyme): torn, burn
Onomatopoeia: Using words to imitate the sound of a thing.
RHYTHM: The movement of words identified by the sequence and repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables. Each repetition is called a Foot. One foot in a line is called Monometer; two feet Dimeter; three feet Trimeter; four feet Tetrameter; five feet Pentameter; six feet Hexameter; seven feet Heptameter; and eight feet Octameter. The most common are Pentameter and Tetrameter.
Meter: formalized rhythm: the durations, stresses, syllables that allow lines of poetry to fall into equal divisions of time (metric feet).
Scansion: identifying and describing the metric patterns in poetry.
Rhythmic Types (Metric Feet):
Iambic:
➢ Iamb=unstressed followed by stressed syllable: New York
˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´
• It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
Trochaic:
➢ Trochee=stressed followed by unstressed syllable: Shakespeare
´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´ ˘ ´
• London bridge is falling down
Anapestic:
➢ Anapest=two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable: Tennessee
˘ ˘ ´ ˘ ˘ ´ ˘ ˘ ´ ˘ ˘ ´
• And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea
Dactylic:
➢ Dactyl=stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables=manikin
´ ˘ ˘ ´ ˘ ˘ ´ ˘ ˘ ´ ˘ ˘
• Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me
Spondaic:
➢ Spondee=two equally stressed syllables in a row
˘ ´ ˘ ˘ ˘ ´ ´ ´ ˘ ´
• Of pebbles which the waves draw back and fling . . .
Pyrrhic:
➢ Pyrrhic: two unstressed syllables in a row
˘ ´ ˘ ˘ ˘ ´ ´ ´ ˘ ´
• Of pebbles which the waves draw back and fling . . .
Masculine Ending or Rhyme: the line/rhyme ends in a stressed syllable
Feminine Ending or Rhyme: the line/rhyme ends in an unstressed syllable
Eye Rhyme: Words that end a line which appear to, but do not, rhyme—see slant and approximate rhyme above
• imply and simply
FORM: The organization of the elements of a work of art in relation to its total effect; the planned framework, the verse form, the sequence of images and ideas which unite to convey the meaning of the poem.
Speaker: the narrative voice of the poem
Tone: the attitude of the speaker
Setting: the physical time and place and sometimes the atmosphere of the poem.
Syntax: the sentence structure; the grammatical order of words in a sentence or line.
Caesura: a strong pause within a line of poetry
Enjambment: a run-on line in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line to the next.
End-Stopped Line: when each line ends in a pause, usually through punctuation
Blank Verse: unrhymed, iambic pentameter
Free Verse: verse with no regular rhyme or rhythmic structure
Couplet: two successive rhymed lines
Tercet: three successive rhymed lines
Quatrain: a stanza of four lines, one of the most typical stanzas
Terza Rima: an interlocking rhyme of threes: ABA, BCB, CDC, etc. The entirety of Dante’s Comedy was written in this form, which he invented to emphasize the Holy Trinity.
Sonnet: a fourteen line lyric poem with a particular rhyme and rhythm, most likely Shakespearean (English) or Italian (Petrarchan).
▪ Octave: In an Italian sonnet, the eight lines which showcase a problem, idea, or question
▪ Sestet: In an Italian sonnet, the six lines which resolve the problem, idea, or question
▪ Volta or Turn: The switch between octave and sestet (Italian) or the third quatrain and couplet (Shakespearean): a problem gets a solution, a question gets an answer, etc.
Lyric: a brief, emotional poem with a single, unified vision, from a single speaker. The most common form of poetry.
Ode: a single, unified strain of lyric verse, directed to a single purpose, and dealing with one theme; often to or for something significant.
Elegy: a poet's sustained meditations upon death or another solemn theme.
Epic: a long, book length poem covering a serious subject, often a hero’s life; e.g., The Odyssey
Narrative: a dramatic poem telling a story.
Dramatic: Monologue or Dialogue in the voice of a character assumed by the poet, such as Tennyson’s “Ulysses.”
Villanelle: a fixed, 19-line form, where only two rhymes exist, repeating key lines: line 1 is repeated in lines 6, 12, and 18; line 3 is repeated in lines 9, 15, and 19.
Carmen Figuratum (Picture Poem): A poem which, because of its arrangement, visually suggests its principal image.
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TYPES OF NOVELS
Picaresque usually presents the life story of quick-witted rogues and their adventures in an episodic style [Don Quixote]
Gothic combines a desolate setting and mysterious events to create an atmosphere of terror [Frankenstein]
Gothic Romance presents a stormy love relationship within a violent, brooding atmosphere [Jane Eyre]
Novel of Manners defines social mores of a specific group, often the upper-middle class, which controls the actions of the characters [Pride and Prejudice]
Satirical reveals human folly and vices through wit, scorn, ridicule and exaggeration, with hope for reform [Animal Farm]
Realistic portrays life objectively, without idealization; reveals unpleasantness [The Red Badge of Courage]
Naturalistic pessimistically portrays sordidness, squalor and violence through characters who have no control over their destinies [American Tragedy]
Sociological depicts the problems and injustices of society, making moral judgments and offering resolution [Lord of the Flies]
Psychological emphasizes internal motives, conflicts, opinions of main characters, which then develop the external action [The Catcher in the Rye]
Historical centers on individuals, society or events from the past, combined with fictional characterizations [Tale of Two Cities]
Science Fiction imagines the impact of real or hypothetical scientific developments on individuals or society [Fahrenheit 451]
Regional Novel represents accurately the habits, speech and folklore of a particular geographical section [Huckleberry Finn]
Stream of Consciousness presents the total range of thoughts, memories, associations of a character in uninterrupted, endless flow [As I Lay Dying]
components of a Bildungsroman
1. Involves education/formation of the protagonist.
2. Protagonist has a strong sense of uniqueness that also represents his culture/era.
3. There is usually a biographical element.
4. The growth and development of the protagonist positively affects the reader.
5. The protagonist comes into an idealized state of recognition about his life.
COMEDY
Comedy is a type of writing that generally ends well. It was first intended as such, but it also included a less intellectual style than tragedy. Dante’s epic is labeled a comedy since it ends well (in heaven) and is written loosely (in vernacular). Modern comedy contains much more humor, though the humor can both silly and serious. Both tragedy and comedy find their origins in stories that display a disturbance of equilibrium and end with a resolution of order, and comedy centers on irony and incongruity. No subject is beneath or above comedy, as it fails to draw fine distinctions or exempt anyone or anything from its reach.
Because of its ostensibly lighter purpose, comedy aims to use wit and humor. Wit derives from terms related to intelligence, while humor derives from terms loosely meaning eccentricity. A typical comedy involves the recognition of an incongruity of speech, action, or character—these can be manifested through verbal, physical, or satirical means. All these can form the basis for crude jokes and intellectual absurdity. Because comedy is based on irony, and because awareness of irony is intellectual, comedy tends toward an intellectual response, though not all. A comedy often places someone in a naked human state; that is, removed from the auspices of superficiality to reveal faults, limitations, or even bodily function or animal nature. A comedy is naturally inclined to be more honest than other literary forms about human behavior, since much of our humor stems from a connection to the familiar, even the personal. The spectacle of human failure of weakness is brought about through a contrast of appearance, a deflation of pretense, and a mocking of excess; it is especially amusing when the character fails to recognize his or her absurdity—this provides a study for humanity, the notion that we may be forced to face our reality commensurately.
Types of Comedy:
•The Comedy of Manners: This developed out of the comedy of humours that flourished in the 16th and 17th Centuries in England, mocking characters who were unbalanced in their composition of humours. The Comedy of Manners that followed was far more realistic, concerning itself with the manners and conventions of the artificial, highly sophisticated element of society. In these plays, characters more often conform to types than individual identities. The plot is secondary to the atmosphere, the dialogue, and the satire. In these plays, the satire is directed at the follies and deficiencies of characters such as fops, pretend wits, jealous husbands, and the like. Typically, some sort of love-duel or a verbal repartee may develop between two of the principal characters, with much clever wordplay, non-sequiturs, puns, and jokes.
•High Comedy: This comedy stays only on intellectual subjects such as the incongruity and inconsistency of human nature as well as the follies of social manners, often engaging readers’ attention on issues of politics, religion, sex, or marriage. Through wit and clever dialogue, characters mock opponents in argument—it is a far more subtle way to satirize people and institutions such as governments, churches, warfare, and matrimony.
•Low Comedy: This comedy concerns itself less with intellectual, rather than emotional reaction to humorous situations. Its purpose is not societal change, but simple laughter. Typically, such features as fighting, slapstick, noisy singing, boisterousness, boasting, physical deformity, drunkenness, cursing, bodily function, and sex make up the subject matter of a low comedy. Other types of comedy may use elements of low comedy to define character types.
*Burlesque is a type of low comedy, where ridiculous exaggeration and distortion are mainstays. Here, the sublime may be made absurd, honest emotions may be judged sentimental, serious subjects treated frivolously the reverse. Don Quixote is a sustained example, taking an irreverent approach to a subject that had always been treated seriously (knighthood).
*Fabliau was another type of low comedy, typically bawdy. These stories are intended to ridicule their subjects, which often were the clergy and women.
•Farce: A dramatic piece intended to excite laughter and depending less on plot and character than on improbable situations, gross incongruities, coarse wit, horseplay, and general silliness.
•Sentimental Comedy: A type of comedy that celebrated good moral behavior. This was a reaction to the typical elements of comedy—the characters here are so good or bad that they are easy caricatures, and the plots are tortuously constructed to contain a happy ending, with virtue triumphing. These celebrate middle class values and good behavior.
•Romantic Comedy: Serious love is the principal concern here, though other comedic elements are present. An outdoor setting, an idealized heroine (who may impersonate a man), difficult love, violated poetic justice, balancing of character types, an easy reconciliation, and a happy ending typify the romantic comedy.
•Situational Comedy: This comedy focuses far more on plot than other forms—the plot is generally ingenious, full of intrigue and possible danger. The ridiculous, the incongruous, mistakes, plots and subplots, disguises, and mistaken identities often fall under this category.
•Comedy of Morals: These didactic stories use ridicule to correct abuses or problems, especially as the relate to the moral state of people or a class of people.
Irony: a literary term referring to the effect created by a contrast between what is expected and what is actually the case. Although irony is not always humorous, most humor depends on it, and one can easily recognize that the "punch line" of any joke is in one way or another ironic. Since irony can be used in a variety of different ways, there are also terms for particular kinds of irony. The uses of irony can be broken down into two major categories: Verbal Irony and Situational Irony. "In Greek comedy the character called the eiron was a "dissembler," who characteristically spoke in understatement and deliberately pretended to be less intelligent than he was, yet he triumphed over the alazon—the self-deceiving and stupid braggart." (M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms)
Verbal Irony: A statement in which the speaker says one thing but means something quite different. Of course, to recognize such irony, the listener/reader must recognize that the speaker does not really mean what he seems to mean. That is why irony often depends upon contextual clues to signal a meaning other than what is on the surface.
*In the Book of Job, while responding to his friends who have been telling him how they believe he has done wrong and how he must confess to sins he doesn't believe he has committed, Job says, "No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you." While his words seem to praise them, Job really means that they are not wise.
*The opening sentence of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice reads, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Acknowledged by whom? Clearly, the point is not that the single wealthy man wants a wife, but that single women want to find rich husbands.
Situational Irony: A relationship of contrast between what the audience is led to expect within the unfolding of a story's plot and a situation that ends up actually resulting. It is therefore the result of a discrepancy in perspective that is not isolated, in that it involves the contrast between what we knew in one moment with what we have come to know in another. Of course, like dramatic irony, situational irony can range from the tragic to the comic. In comedy, for example, the surprising reversal in circumstances making for situational irony portends can be for the better. But some of the most famous and powerful uses of situational irony are associated with tragedy, where it serves to emphasize how uncertain human prosperity, and how fragile human happiness, can be.
Sarcasm: a sharply mocking or contemptuous remark, often saying the exact opposite of what one means. For example, when a student comes to class fifteen minutes late, the exasperated instructor might say, "How good of you to join us today, Mr. Smith." The teacher really means to indicate his annoyance, and everyone present knows this because of the situation itself (we don't normally thank students for arriving late) and because the professor's tone of voice will indicate that he does not mean exactly what he's saying.
To recognize irony: Irony results from a contradiction between subject matter and tone, between what is being talked about and how it is talked about. Usually a trivial subject is presented in a significant tone, a silly idea in a profound tone, a foolish argument in a scientific, an outrageous in a polite, a horrifying (think Swift!) in a rational, humble tone, and so on.
Look for
1. Exaggerated quantifiers: “So many,” “very much,” “most curious.”
2. Inflated diction: “employed my fancy,” “a vein of parsimony.”
3. Convoluted, parenthetical sentence structure, with excessive restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses, parallel constructions, even triple parallels.
This nymph, to the destruction of mankind,
Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind
In equal curls, and well conspir’d to deck
With shining ringlets the smooth iv’ry neck.
Love in these labyrinths his slave detains,
And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.
With hairy springes we the birds betray,
Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey,
Fair tresses man’s imperial race ensnare,
And beauty draws us with a single hair.
Th’ adventurous Baron the bright locks admired;
He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired.
Resolv’d to win, he meditates the way,
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray . . . .
4. Appeal to authority: scientific, philosophical, with foreign terminology.
This great cavity was filled with a kind of spongy substance, which the French anatomists call galimatias, and the English nonsense.
5. The “barb” or give away line held to the end of the paragraph.
I grant that this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.
6. Exaggeration: using a coordinating conjunction where inappropriate.
I shot him in the heart, and then I had breakfast.
7. Juxtaposition: using sentence structure to draw attention to an ironic statement.
Always obey your parents, when they are present.
Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take--and sometimes tea.
8. Repetition: If a line is repeated, and in between repetitions are lines that seem to go against the literal reading.
Brutus is an honorable man.
Extended Example: Irony from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
Irony: This passage comes from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Caesar has been assassinated by one of his close friends, Brutus, along with other conspirators who believed he was consolidating too much power and going away from the principles of their cherished republic. Marc Antony, another of Ceasar’s close friends, has been allowed to speak at a funeral for Caesar in front of the fickle crowd, who have been convinced of the necessity of this assassination by Brutus.
Take note of the methods of irony present in this text.
ANTONY. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest-
For Brutus is an honorable man;
So are they all, all honorable men-
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honorable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honorable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,
And sure he is an honorable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
FIRST CITIZEN. Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.
SECOND CITIZEN. If thou consider rightly of the matter,
Caesar has had great wrong.
THIRD CITIZEN. Has he, masters?
I fear there will a worse come in his place.
FOURTH CITIZEN. Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the
crown;
Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.
FIRST CITIZEN. If it be found so, some will dear abide it.
SECOND CITIZEN. Poor soul, his eyes are red as fire with
weeping.
THIRD CITIZEN. There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.
FOURTH CITIZEN. Now mark him, he begins again to speak.
ANTONY. But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world. Now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence.
O masters! If I were disposed to stir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong,
Who, you all know, are honorable men.
I will not do them wrong; I rather choose
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,
Than I will wrong such honorable men.
But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar;
I found it in his closet, 'tis his will.
Let but the commons hear this testament-
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read-
And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
And, dying, mention it within their wills,
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
Unto their issue.
FOURTH CITIZEN. We'll hear the will. Read it, Mark Antony.
ALL. The will, the will! We will hear Caesar's will.
ANTONY. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it;
It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;
And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar,
It will inflame you, it will make you mad.
'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs,
For if you should, O, what would come of it!
FOURTH CITIZEN. Read the will; we'll hear it, Antony.
You shall read us the will, Caesar's will.
ANTONY. Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile?
I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it.
I fear I wrong the honorable men
Whose daggers have stabb'd Caesar; I do fear it.
FOURTH CITIZEN. They were traitors. Honorable men!
ALL. The will! The testament!
SECOND CITIZEN. They were villains, murtherers. The will!
Read the will!
ANTONY. You will compel me then to read the will?
Then make a ring about the corse of Caesar,
And let me show you him that made the will.
Shall I descend? And will you give me leave?
ALL. Come down.
SECOND CITIZEN. Descend.
He comes down from the pulpit.
THIRD CITIZEN. You shall have leave.
FOURTH CITIZEN. A ring, stand round.
FIRST CITIZEN. Stand from the hearse, stand from the body.
SECOND CITIZEN. Room for Antony, most noble Antony.
ANTONY. Nay, press not so upon me, stand far off.
ALL. Stand back; room, bear back!
ANTONY. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle. I remember
The first time ever Caesar put it on;
'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii.
Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through;
See what a rent the envious Casca made;
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd;
And as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Caesar follow'd it,
As rushing out of doors, to be resolved
If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no;
For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel.
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all;
For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him. Then burst his mighty heart,
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey's statue,
Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell.
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us.
O, now you weep, and I perceive you feel
The dint of pity. These are gracious drops.
Kind souls, what weep you when you but behold
Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here,
Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, with traitors.
FIRST CITIZEN. O piteous spectacle!
SECOND CITIZEN. O noble Caesar!
THIRD CITIZEN. O woeful day!
FOURTH CITIZEN. O traitors villains!
FIRST CITIZEN. O most bloody sight!
SECOND CITIZEN. We will be revenged.
ALL. Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill!
Slay! Let not a traitor live!
ANTONY. Stay, countrymen.
FIRST CITIZEN. Peace there! Hear the noble Antony.
SECOND CITIZEN. We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die
with
him.
ANTONY. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
They that have done this deed are honorable.
What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That made them do it. They are wise and honorable,
And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts.
I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,
That love my friend, and that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him.
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood. I only speak right on;
I tell you that which you yourselves do know;
Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor dumb mouths,
And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.
ALL. We'll mutiny.
FIRST CITIZEN. We'll burn the house of Brutus.
THIRD CITIZEN. Away, then! Come, seek the conspirators.
ANTONY. Yet hear me, countrymen; yet hear me speak.
ALL. Peace, ho! Hear Antony, most noble Antony!
ANTONY. Why, friends, you go to do you know not what.
Wherein hath Caesar thus deserved your loves?
Alas, you know not; I must tell you then.
You have forgot the will I told you of.
ALL. Most true, the will! Let's stay and hear the will.
ANTONY. Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal.
To every Roman citizen he gives,
To every several man, seventy-five drachmas.
SECOND CITIZEN. Most noble Caesar! We'll revenge his death.
THIRD CITIZEN. O royal Caesar!
ANTONY. Hear me with patience.
ALL. Peace, ho!
ANTONY. Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
His private arbors, and new-planted orchards,
On this side Tiber; he hath left them you,
And to your heirs forever- common pleasures,
To walk abroad and recreate yourselves.
Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?
FIRST CITIZEN. Never, never. Come, away, away!
We'll burn his body in the holy place
And with the brands fire the traitors' houses.
Take up the body.
SECOND CITIZEN. Go fetch fire.
THIRD CITIZEN. Pluck down benches.
FOURTH CITIZEN. Pluck down forms, windows, anything.
Exeunt Citizens with the body.
ANTONY. Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot,
Take thou what course thou wilt.
Satire: Often considered one of the highest levels of intellectual thought, satire began as a way to use comedy as a means of improving humans or human institutions. True satire, then, provokes laughter to effect changes in society. A simple tearing down is not satire, but invective. If the attacks are overly personal, they are sarcastic. Satire tends to deal less with individuals and more with the general qualities of the subjects: fools, oafs, codgers, frauds, etc. Formal satire generally speaks in the first person, where satire is presented directly to the reader; informal satire is less direct, coming through a narrative. Satire can be witty and urbane, gently prompting change in society, or it can be harsh and biting, reacting with contempt and indignation to perceived wrongs.
Types of Satire:
1. Juvenalian—bitter, ironic criticism designed to attack vice and error with contempt and indignation.
2. Horatian—Witty, gentle ridicule of the absurdities and follies of human behaviors.
Terms of Satire: The satirist has many traditional stylistic techniques at his or her disposal. Some of the more common follow:
•Invective: describes very abusive, usually non-ironical language aimed at a particular target (e.g., a string of curses or name calling). Invective can often be quite funny (e.g., in a Monty Python sketch, a man arrives at an office, looking to pay for an argument, but he goes in the wrong door and is greeted with steady invective—after interrupting, he is told that this is abuse, not argument; or Kent’s speech about Oswald in King Lear, where Oswald is called a “knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver’d, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superservicable, finical rogue . . .”), but it is the least inventive of the satirist's tools. A lengthy invective is sometimes called a diatribe. The danger of pure invective is that one can quickly get tired of it, since it offers limited opportunity for inventive wit.
•Caricature: refers to the technique of exaggerating for comic and satiric effect one particular feature of the target, to achieve a grotesque or ridiculous effect. Caricature generally refers more to drawing than to writing (e.g., the political cartoon). Almost all satire relies to some extent on the distortion of caricature. In that sense, satire is not concerned with psychological verisimilitude. The natural state of the target is pulled out of shape to make a satiric point (like a distorting mirror). Often the humor in a satire, especially a long satire, depends upon a fertile basis for the caricature, which enables the writer constantly to amuse the reader with details of the distortion in constantly witty ways.
One key technique linked to caricature is the development of a unique perspective on a common human action. Shifting the reader's perspective to an unusual point may then enable the satirist to caricature normal human actions in a really witty manner. This is most skillfully and famously illustrated in the first two books of Gulliver's Travels, in which the simple disproportion in physical size between Gulliver and the inhabitants of the new worlds enables Swift to describe all sorts of human actions in a way that stresses their ridiculousness.
•Mock Heroic, a particular form of burlesque (see above) is a satiric style which sets up a deliberately disproportionate and witty distance between the elevated language used to describe an action and the triviality or foolishness of the action (using, for example, the language of epics to describe a tea party). Mock heroic appeals to the sophistication of the reader familiar with the epic original and encourages the reader to see the ridiculousness of the heroic pretensions of really trivial people. It is thus an excellent vehicle for making fun of people's pride. The greatest mock heroic satire in English poetry is The Rape of the Lock by Pope. The mock heroic style in the 18th century typically uses a heroic couplet (like so much other poetry of the time): a series of blank verse rhyming couplets, which adds to the comic distance by the high style.
•Lampoon: generally refers to a very harsh and personal attack on a very particular recognizable target, focusing on the target's character or appearance.
•Parody: refers to a style which deliberately seeks to ridicule another style. This may involve, in less talented parody, simply offering up a very silly version of the original. In more skillful parodies, the writer imitates the original very well, pushing it beyond its limits and making it ridiculous. To achieve this second form of parody, the satirist has to be able to compose as well as the original. The very best writers are hard to parody in this second sense, simply because the style of the original is impossible to push any further without revealing that the parody is less skilful than the original. The effect of parody obviously depends upon the reader's being familiar with the original. One curious effect of some parody is that the satire is so skillfully done that it becomes a better work of art than its original and lasts long after the original has been forgotten and the satiric intention is lost (e.g., Henry Fielding’s Shamela or even Joseph Andrews).
•Reductio ad absurdum: is a popular satiric technique (especially in Swift), whereby the author agrees enthusiastically with the basic attitudes or assumptions he wishes to satirize and, by pushing them to a logically ridiculous extreme, exposes the foolishness of the original attitudes and assumptions. Reductios are sometimes dangerous either because the reader does not recognize the satire at work or because the reader fails to identify the target clearly. The most famous example of this technique in an English satire is Swift's "A Modest Proposal."
Satire: Some Basic Techniques
The challenge to the satirist is to get the moral point across with humor, so that the audience or the reader laughs in the appropriate manner. The challenge is to put across serious matters in humorous ways. Satire is not a genre which encourages complex explorations of deep psychological issues in the characters. It's much more like a repetitive insistence on the foolishness of certain kinds of behavior. The problem for the satirist is to keep the jokes coming quickly and with sufficient variety that the audience stays interested. Nothing is staler in art than a satire which repeats itself in predicable ways.
1. First, the satirist sets up a target which will symbolize the conduct he wishes to attack. Satire, in other words, has a clear target. Setting up the target in a way that can generate humor in a variety of ways is an important talent.
2. Second, the satirist will typically exaggerate and distort the target in certain ways in order to emphasize the characteristics he wishes to attack and, most importantly, to provide recurring sources of humor. The target must be close enough to the real thing for us to recognize what is going on, but sufficiently distorted to be a funny exaggeration, often a grotesque departure from normality.
The example of a political cartoon is instructive here. When we laugh at the cartoon of a well known political leader, we are responding to two things: a recognition of the original and of what the satirist has done to distort the original so as to make it ridiculous for a particular purpose.
Many of the attacks produced by satire are going to draw upon the shared cultural milieu of the author and the audience (names of particular people and events, excerpts from particularly well known speeches or plays, references to current affairs, and so on). The aim of the satirist is to deliver an unremitting attack on the target which the audience can laugh at, so that the audience's shared response, its laughter, can effectively deal with the behavior which the satirist wishes to correct. In this connection, satiric irony is important. This is a technique which, as its name suggests, confronts the audience with the discrepancy between what characters say and do and what we fully understand by their actions. To appreciate satire, that is, we have to have a sense of where the satirist is coming from, so that we recognize the distortion and the ridiculous behavior for what it is.
If we fail to see the function of the satiric irony, in other words, we may dismiss the fiction as mere stupidity or we may embrace it as something admirable. The challenge of the satirist is to make the satiric intention clear but not overly obvious, so that the audience derives a certain pleasure from participating in the in-joke, in seeing what the writer is getting at through the humor. That quality of satire makes it, for all its frequent crudity and knock-about farce, a much more "intellectual" genre than many others. To appreciate satire one has to be able to recognize the continuing existence of different levels of meaning (that is, of irony), and the more sophisticated the satire the more delicate the ironies.
3. In assaulting the target in this way, the satirist is going to be pushing hard at the edge of what the audience is prepared to accept. If the satirist wants really to connect with the audience, then the writer is going often to be pushing language at the audience in new ways, taking risks with what they are prepared to accept. After all, if the purpose is to wake people up to the moral realities of their daily situation, then often some fairly strong language is going to be warranted. That, of course, presents the risk of offending the audience's taste. If an audience turns away from the work in disgust, then they are not going to attend to whatever important moral lesson the satirist is striving to highlight. Hence the more aggressive the satirist, the more delicately the writer has to walk along the line of what is acceptable and what is not. It's no accident that expanding the envelope of what is acceptable on the stage or in prose is often the work of our satirists.
This point is worth stressing, because if a satirist is really touching a nerve in the audience, then a common response is to find ways to neutralize the satire. Four of the common methods one can use to do that: (a) take the satire literally and dismiss it as absurd or embrace it as a good idea (the satiric irony is thus lost and the point of the satire evaporates), (b) reject the satire because it is too rude or crude (it offends my taste); (c) reject the satire because it is "unfair" or not sufficiently true to life (this is very similar to point a above); (d) reject the satire by failing to respond to the ironies.
|Characteristics of Tragedy & Comedy: A Debatable List |
|The following list by John Morreall represents a conglomeration of varying theory on the nature of tragedy and comedy. Depending on the play, |
|some of the characteristics are more convincing and others less so. |
|The Cognitive Psychology of the Tragic and Comic Visions |
|TRAGEDY |COMEDY |
|Simplicity: Tragic heroes tend to approach problems and situations|Complex: Comic heroes tend to be more flexible. Life tends to be messier, full of |
|in a fairly straight-forward manner. Life can be understood in |diversity and unexpected twists and turns. It is more difficult to classify experience.|
|simple binaries -- good/bad; just/unjust; beautiful/ugly. | |
|Low Tolerance for Disorder: Tragic plots tend to stress order and |High Tolerance for Disorder: Comic plots tend to be more random; they seem to be |
|process -- the end follows from the beginning. |improvised, leaving a number of loose ends. |
|Preference for the Familiar: Tragic heroes and plots have "a low |Seeking out the Unfamiliar: Comic heroes and plots tend to see the unexpected and |
|tolerance for cognitive dissonance." The violation of the norm is |surprising as an opportunity rather than a norm-violation. |
|what brings about a tragic fall. | |
|Low Tolerance for Ambiguity: In tragedy, things should have one |High Tolerance for Ambiguity: In comedy, ambiguity is what makes humor possible. |
|meaning and have clear-cut application to problems. |Equally, not everything has to make sense in comedy. |
|Convergent Thinking: Tragedy stresses what is past and what is |Divergent Thinking: Comedy is more imaginative, stressing playfulness. It tends to look |
|real. It tends to be more information-gathering based, wanting to|for a variety of answers and doesn't need to solve everything. |
|find and resolve nagging problems. | |
|Uncritical Thinking: Tragedy tends not to call into question the |Critical Thinking: Comedy tends to call attention to the incongruities in the order of |
|accepted order of things. To do so is to suffer the consequences. |things, be it political, social, religious. |
|Emotional Engagement: Tragic heroes tend to respond with strong, |Emotional Disengagement: Comic heroes are often ironic and disengaged from the situation;|
|overpowering emotions--pride, lust, grief, rage. This often |they tend to respond with wit, imagination, or cynicism. They tend to abstract |
|results in extremist attitudes and reactions. In the same way, |themselves from their misfortunes. The audience is expected to react in much the same |
|the audience is expected to respond with cathartic involvement. |way to what the characters undergo. |
|Stubbornness: Tragic heroes tend to stick with a course of action|Adaptable: Comic heroes are more willing to change. Or if they are not, we as the |
|and follow it to their doom. They are firm and committed. |audience find this funny rather than tragic. |
|Idealistic: The tragic vision longs for a clear-cut world driven |Pragmatic: The comic vision is more aware of concrete realities. Comic heroes seek how |
|by principle. It tends to value ethical abstractions, such as |to make it from day-to-day. |
|Truth, Justice, and Beauty | |
|Finality: Tragic actions lead to inevitable consequences. |Reversal: At least for the clever, comic actions allow one to escape the consequences, to|
| |have a second chance. |
|Spirit: The tragic vision tends to value the human spirit. It can|Body: The comic vision is very concerned with the human body--its sexual desires, bodily |
|often be dualistic, prizing the spirit/soul above the body. |functions, craving for food. Suffering is often slap-stick. Comic heroes seem |
|Tragic heroes often long for some higher, greater level of life |comfortable in such a world. |
|than common human existence. | |
|Seriousness: The tragic vision takes its characters and plots |Playfulness: Even if it has its serious side, the comic vision tends to treat large |
|seriously. They are treated as important and make demands upon |portions of life as not quite so serious. |
|us. | |
|The Social Differences between the Tragic and Comic Visions |
|Heroism: Characters tend to be "superhuman, semidivine, |Antiheroism: Characters tend to be normal, down-to-earth individuals. Comedies tend to |
|larger-than-life" beings. |parody authority. |
|Militarism: Tragedies often arise in warrior cultures. And its |Pacifism: Comedies tend to call into question warrior values: Better to lose your dignity|
|values are those of the good soldier--duty, honor, commitment. |and save your life. |
|Vengeance: Offending a tragic hero often results in a cycle of |Forgiveness: In comedies, forgiveness, even friendship among former enemies, happens. |
|vengeance. | |
|Hierarchy: Tragedies tend to stress the upper-class, the noble |Equality: Comedies tend to include all classes of people. The lower classes are often |
|few, royalty, and leaders. |the butt of the jokes, but they also tend to triumph in unexpected ways. |
|Less Sexual Equality: Tragedies are often male-dominated. |More Sexual Equality: Comedies, while often sexist too, are sometimes less so. Women |
| |play a larger, more active role. |
|Respect for Tradition: Tragic heroes often uphold the accepted |Questions Authority: Comic heroes more often question tradition and those in authority. |
|order or champion one tradition against another. | |
|Rule-based Ethics: The tragic vision tends to stress the |Situation-based Ethics: Comic heroes tend to make up the rules as they go along or at |
|consequences of disobeying the accepted order of things. |least be wary of generalizations. |
|Social Isolation: Tragedies tend to stress the individual and the |Social Integration: Comedies tend to focus on the larger community and spend more time |
|consequences of the individual's actions. |paying attention to the interaction between groups. |
COMEDY THEORY
Six elements are often present for something to be humorous:
1. It appeals to the intellect rather than the emotions;
2. It is mechanical (unadaptable, inflexible)
3. It will be inherently human, with the capability or reminding us of humanity;
4. There will be a set of established societal norms familiar with which the observer is familiar, either through everyday life or through the author providing it in expository material, or both
5. The situation and its component parts (the actions performed and the dialogue spoken) will be inconsistent or unsuitable to the surroundings or associations (i.e., the societal norms)
6. It can be perceived by the observer as harmless or painless to the participants.
COMMON SATIRIC TECHNIQUES
▪ Anticlimax – dropping from the sublime to the ridiculous for a bathetic [bathos] effect
▪ Antithesis – a figure of speech with strongly contrasting words or ideas; a contrast of ideas expressed in a grammatically balanced statement [And wretches hang that jurymen may dine. Alexander Pope]
▪ Bathos - a lapse into the ridiculous by a writer aiming at elevated expression; an unintended failure; overly sentimental; if the intent is to provoke tears but the response is laughter, the result is bathos
▪ Burlesque – a composition which derives its humor from exaggerated imitation of a more serious work; a parody that ridicules a serious literary work by treating its solemn subject in an undignified style [travesty], or by applying its elevated style to a trivial subject [mock-epic/heroic]; a person’s action may be burlesqued; a ludicrous or mocking imitation: lofty subject: vulgarity; inconsequential one: mock dignity; ridiculous exaggeration achieved through a variety of ways. For example, the sublime may be absurd, honest emotions may be turned to sentimentality. STYLE is the essential quality in burlesque and one that is ordinarily dignified may be used for nonsensical matters, etc.
▪ Caricature – an exaggerated representation of a character; a cartoon-like portrait in art in literature; a representation in which the subject’s distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect.
▪ Disparagement—speak of in a slighting way; belittle; reduce in rank or esteem
▪ Entrapment – switching the situation to entrap the reader, after having lured him into a sense of comfort
▪ Euphemism – avoiding the description of something outrageous by cloaking it in sheltered terms; understatement often involved
▪ Exaggeration/Hyperbole – exaggeration; overstatement; saying more than is meant, often to produce humor; use of superlatives sometimes involved; overstatement (a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect)
▪ Incongruity—lacking in harmony; incompatible; not in keeping with what is correctly proper or logical
▪ Innuendo – a form of irony in which something derogatory is implied; insinuating or suggesting a harmful idea
▪ Invective – harsh and abusive language directed against a person or cause; a vehicle, a tool of anger. Invective is the bitterest of all satire.
▪ Irony – a double meaning; a contrast of some sort: verbal or situational or dramatic; actual intent is expressed in words which carry the opposite meaning. It is lighter, less harsh in wording than sarcasm, though more cutting because of its indirectness. The ability to recognize irony is one of the surest tests of intelligence and sophistication. Irony speaks words of praise to imply blame and words of blame to imply praise. Writer is using a tongue-in-cheek style. Irony is achieved through such techniques as hyperbole and understatement.
A. Verbal Irony—simply an inversion of meaning; a discrepancy between what is said and what is really meant
B. Dramatic Irony—when the words or acts of a character carry a meaning unperceived by himself but understood by the audience. The irony resides in the contrast between the meaning intended by the speaker and the added significance seen by others.
C. Socratic Irony—Socrates pretended ignorance of a subject in order to draw knowledge out of his students by a question and answer device. Socratic irony is feigning ignorance to achieve some advantage over an opponent.
D. Situational Irony—depends on a discrepancy between purpose and results; the audience or reader knows something important that a character does not know. Example: a practical joke that backfires is situational irony; what actually happens is opposite of what is expected or appropriate
▪ Juxtaposition – positioning side by side or close together mismatching elements, sometimes resulting in comic incongruity
▪ Knaves & Fools: in comedy there are no villains and no innocent victims. Instead, there are rogues (knaves) and suckers (fools). The knave exploits someone “asking for it.” When these two interact, comic satire results. When knaves & fools meet, they expose each other
▪ Malapropism – a deliberate mispronunciation of a name or term with the intent of poking fun
▪ Mock heroic – exaggeration and distortion of a literary epic and its style; elevating the trivial to a level higher that it deserves [A rooster is a handsome hero and his hen, a fair damsel.]
▪ Non-sequitur—inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premise or evidence
▪ Nonsense—subject matter, behavior, or language that is foolish or absurd; extravagant foolishness
▪ Oxymoron- a figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory or incongruous ideas; [bitter sweet; cruel kindness; eloquent silence]
▪ Paradox – a statement which, because of its contradictory nature, seems absurd, but which really is well founded [One short sleep past, we wake eternally, / And death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die. John Donne]
▪ Parody – a mocking imitation of a known person, literary work, movie, or event; writing that employs the manner and style of a well-known work; a composition imitating or burlesquing another, usually serious, piece of work. Designed to ridicule in nonsensical fashion an original piece of work. Parody is in literature what the caricature and cartoon are in art.
▪ Pun (zeugma)—a word employed in two or more senses, or a word used in a context that suggests a second term sounding like it. (special kind of pun: a verb used with two or more objects for comic effect)
▪ Reductio ad absurdum – a method of argument, which carries to an extreme, but logical conclusion, some general idea in order to show its falsity; example: The more sleep one gets the healthier one is: therefore, someone who has sleeping sickness and sleeps for months or someone in a coma is really in the best of health.
▪ Repetition – repeating key words or phrases for comic emphasis
▪ Ridicule—words or actions intended to evoke contemptuous laughter at or feelings toward a person or thing
▪ Sarcasm – a form of verbal irony giving strong and personal disapproval; masking a caustic taunt under the guise of praise; comes from the Greek sarkazein meaning, “to tear flesh”; a sharply mocking or contemptuous remark.
▪ Shock – using shocking details to startle the reader and grab attention
▪ Stereotyping—a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image
▪ Summary statements – summarizing a shocking or fantastic [bizarre; unreal] episode in bland generalizations, often resulting in comic understatement
▪ Tag names – giving names indicative of a person’s basic character; sometimes used ironically
▪ Understatement/litotes – implying the opposite by saying less than is meant; understating shocking or fantastic elements for a comic effect; [one type = litotes]; a form of irony; stress importance by seeming to deny it (emphasizing a positive by doubling a negative)
▪ Verisimilitude – establishing a willing suspension of disbelief in the reader through use of various devices
▪ [fictional letters; fictional documents; statistics’ extensive detail; detailed descriptions of processes; fictional words; describing something fictional by comparing it to something familiar; correcting of one’s errors; lapsing into forgetfulness; making excuses for omissions; digressing from the main point to give details brought to mind about a minor point]
**NOTE—TRAVESTY, BURLESQUE & PARODY are similar, but travesty always makes a mockery of a serious subject, whereas burlesque and parody may do the reverse.
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY
|TRAGEDY |COMEDY |
|Moral |Amoral |
|Death |Marriage, feasting, babies |
|Punishment |Reconciliation |
|Hero involved |Hero aloof |
|Catharsis (purging of pity and fear) |Laughter (purges inhibitions) |
|Logical |Discontinuous |
|Metaphysical order |Accidental (spontaneous) autonomous |
|Importance of the soul |Self-conscious (body) “to be human is inherently funny” |
|Rational |Irrational |
|Assumption that “words mean what they say” |Meaningless in our attempts to communicate. Language is |
| |fallible. |
|Focuses on psychological truth (realism, naturalism) |Everything can also mean its opposite (fantasy, dreams, |
| |surrealism, romanticism) |
|Sense |Nonsense |
“The world is a comedy to those who think; a tragedy to those who feel.”—Horace Walpole
|THE COMIC EPIC IN PROSE—Preface to Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews |
| |
| |
| 1 AS IT is possible the mere English reader may have a different idea of romance with the author of these little volumes; and | 1 |
|may consequently expect a kind of entertainment, not to be found, nor which was even intended, in the following pages; it may | |
|not be improper to premise a few words concerning this kind of writing, which I do not remember to have seen hitherto attempted| |
|in our language. | |
| The EPIC, as well as the DRAMA, is divided into tragedy and comedy. HOMER, who was the father of this species of poetry, gave| 2 |
|us the pattern of both these, tho’ that of the latter kind is entirely lost; which Aristotle tells us, bore the same relation | |
|to comedy which his Iliad bears to tragedy. and perhaps, that we have no more instances of it among the writers of antiquity, | |
|is owing to the loss of this great pattern, which, had it survived, would have found its imitators equally with the other poems| |
|of this great original. | |
| And farther, as this poetry may be tragic or comic, I will not scruple to say it may be likewise either in verse or prose: | 3 |
|for tho’ it wants one particular, which the critic enumerates in the constituent parts of an epic poem, namely, metre; yet, | |
|when any kind of writing contains all its other parts, such as fable, action, characters, sentiments, and diction, and is | |
|deficient in metre only, it seems, I think, reasonable to refer it to the epic; at least, as no critic hath thought proper to | |
|range it under any other head, nor to assign it a particular name to itself. | |
| Thus the Telemachus of the archbishop of Cambray appears to me of the epic kind, as well as the Odyssey of Homer; indeed, it | 4 |
|is much fairer and more reasonable to give it a name common with that species from which it differs only in a single instance, | |
|than to confound it with those which it resembles in no other. Such are those voluminous works, commonly called Romances, | |
|namely Clelia, Cleopatra, Astræa, Cassandra, the Grand Cyrus, and innumerable others which contain, as I apprehend, very little| |
|instruction or entertainment. | |
| Now, a comic romance is a comic epic-poem in prose; differing from comedy, as the serious epic from tragedy: its action being| 5 |
|more extended and comprehensive; containing a much larger circle of incidents, and introducing a greater variety of characters.| |
|It differs from the serious romance in its fable and action, in this: that as in the one these are grave and solemn, so in the | |
|other they are light and ridiculous; it differs in its characters, by introducing persons of inferiour rank, and consequently | |
|of inferiour manners, whereas the grave romance sets the highest before us; lastly in its sentiments and diction; by preserving| |
|the ludicrous instead of the sublime. In the diction I think, burlesque itself may be sometimes admitted; of which many | |
|instances will occur in this work, as in the description of the battles, and some other places not necessary to be pointed out | |
|to the classical reader; for whose entertainment those parodies or burlesque imitations are chiefly calculated. | |
| But tho’ we have sometimes admitted this in our diction, we have carefully excluded it from our sentiments and characters; | 6 |
|for there it is never properly introduced, unless in writings of the burlesque kind, which this is not intended to be. Indeed, | |
|no two species of writing can differ more widely than the comic and the burlesque: for as the latter is ever the exhibition of | |
|what is monstrous and unnatural, and where our delight, if we examine it, arises from the surprising absurdity, as in | |
|appropriating the manners of the highest to the lowest, or è converso; so in the former, we should ever confine ourselves | |
|strictly to nature, from the just imitation of which, will flow all the pleasure we can this way convey to a sensible reader. | |
|and perhaps, there is one reason, why a comic writer should of all others be the least excused for deviating from nature, since| |
|it may not be always so easy for a serious poet to meet with the great and the admirable; but life everywhere furnishes an | |
|accurate observer with the ridiculous. | |
| I have hinted this little, concerning burlesque; because I have often heard that name given to performances, which have been | 7 |
|truly of the comic kind, from the author’s having sometimes admitted it in his diction only; which as it is the dress of | |
|poetry, doth like the dress of men establish characters, (the one of the whole poem, and the other of the whole man), in vulgar| |
|opinion, beyond any of their greater excellences: but surely, a certain drollery in style, where characters and sentiments are | |
|perfectly natural, no more constitutes the burlesque, than an empty pomp and dignity of words, where everything else is mean | |
|and low, can entitle any performance to the appellation of the true sublime. | |
| And I apprehend, my Lord Shaftesbury’s opinion of mere burlesque agrees with mine, when he asserts, “There is no such thing | 8 |
|to be found in the writings of the antients.” But perhaps I have less abhorrence than he professes for it: and that not because| |
|I have had some little success on the stage this way; but rather as it contributes more to exquisite mirth and laughter than | |
|any other; and these are probably more wholesome physic for the mind, and conduce better to purge away spleen, melancholy, and | |
|ill affections, than is generally imagined. Nay, I will appeal to common observation, whether the same companies are not found | |
|more full of good-humour and benevolence, after they have been sweetened for two or three hours with entertainments of this | |
|kind, than soured by a tragedy or a grave lecture. | |
| But to illustrate all this by another science, in which, perhaps, we shall see the distinction more clearly and plainly: let | 9 |
|us examine the works of a comic history-painter, with those performances which the Italians call Caricatura, where we shall | |
|find the greatest excellence of the former to consist in the exactest copy of nature; insomuch, that a judicious eye instantly | |
|rejects anything outré; any liberty which the painter hath taken with the features of that alma mater. Whereas in the | |
|Caricatura we allow all licence. Its aim is to exhibit monsters, not men; and all distortions and exaggerations whatever are | |
|within its proper province. | |
| Now what Caricatura is in painting, Burlesque is in writing; and in the same manner the comic writer and painter correlate to| 10 |
|each other. and here I shall observe, that as in the former, the painter seems to have the advantage; so it is in the latter | |
|infinitely on the side of the writer: for the Monstrous is much easier to paint than describe, and the Ridiculous to describe | |
|than paint. | |
| And tho’ perhaps this latter species doth not in either science so strongly affect and agitate the muscles as the other; yet | 11 |
|it will be owned, I believe, that a more rational and useful pleasure arises to us from it. He who should call the ingenious | |
|Hogarth a burlesque painter, would, in my opinion, do him very little honour: for sure it is much easier, much less the subject| |
|of admiration, to paint a man with a nose, or any other feature of a preposterous size, or to expose him in some absurd or | |
|monstrous attitude, than to express the affections of men on canvas. It hath been thought a vast commendation of a painter to | |
|say his figures seem to breathe; but surely it is a much greater and nobler applause, that they appear to think. | |
| But to return. The Ridiculous only, as I have before said, falls within my province in the present work. Nor will some | 12 |
|explanation of this word be thought impertinent by the reader, if he considers how wonderfully it hath been mistaken, even by | |
|writers who have profess’d it: for to what but such a mistake, can we attribute the many attempts to ridicule the blackest | |
|villainies; and what is yet worse, the most dreadful calamities? What could exceed the absurdity of an author, who should write| |
|the comedy of Nero, with the merry incident of ripping up his mother’s belly; or what would give a greater shock to humanity | |
|than an attempt to expose the miseries of poverty and distress to ridicule? and yet, the reader will not want much learning to | |
|suggest such instances to himself. | |
| Besides, it may seem remarkable, that Aristotle, who is so fond and free of definitions, hath not thought proper to define | 13 |
|the Ridiculous. Indeed, where he tells us it is proper to comedy, he hath remarked that villainy is not its object: but that he| |
|hath not, as I remember, positively asserted what is. Nor doth the Abbé Bellegarde, who hath written a treatise on this | |
|subject, tho’ he shows us many species of it, once trace it to its fountain. | |
| The only source of the true Ridiculous (as it appears to me) is affectation. But tho’ it arises from one spring only, when we| 14 |
|consider the infinite streams into which this one branches, we shall presently cease to admire at the copious field it affords | |
|to an observer. Now affectation proceeds from one of these two causes; vanity, or hypocrisy: for as vanity puts us on affecting| |
|false characters, in order to purchase applause; so hypocrisy sets us on an endeavour to avoid censure by concealing our vices | |
|under an appearance of their opposite virtues. and tho’ these two causes are often confounded, (for they require some | |
|distinguishing;) yet, as they proceed from very different motives, so they are as clearly distinct in their operations: for | |
|indeed, the affectation which arises from vanity is nearer to truth than the other; as it hath not that violent repugnancy of | |
|nature to struggle with, which that of the hypocrite hath. It may be likewise noted, that affectation doth not imply an | |
|absolute negation of those qualities which are affected: and therefore, tho’, when it proceeds from hypocrisy, it be nearly | |
|allied to deceit; yet when it comes from vanity only, it partakes of the nature of ostentation: for instance, the affectation | |
|of liberality in a vain man, differs visibly from the same affectation in the avaricious; for tho’ the vain man is not what he | |
|would appear, or hath not the virtue he affects, to the degree he would be thought to have it; yet it sits less awkwardly on | |
|him than on the avaricious man, who is the very reverse of what he would seem to be. | |
| From the discovery of this affectation arises the Ridiculous—which always strikes the reader with surprize and pleasure; and | 15 |
|that in a higher and stronger degree when the affectation arises from hypocrisy, than when from vanity: for to discover any one| |
|to be the exact reverse of what he affects, is more surprizing, and consequently more ridiculous, than to find him a little | |
|deficient in the quality he desires the reputation of. I might observe that our Ben Jonson, who of all men understood the | |
|Ridiculous the best, hath chiefly used the hypocritical affectation. | |
| Now from affectation only, the misfortunes and calamities of life, or the imperfections of nature, may become the objects of | 16 |
|ridicule. Surely he hath a very ill-framed mind, who can look on ugliness, infirmity, or poverty, as ridiculous in themselves: | |
|nor do I believe any man living who meets a dirty fellow riding through the streets in a cart, is struck with an idea of the | |
|Ridiculous from it; but if he should see the same figure descend from his coach and six, or bolt from his chair with his hat | |
|under his arm, he would then begin to laugh, and with justice. In the same manner, were we to enter a poor house and behold a | |
|wretched family shivering with cold and languishing with hunger, it would not incline us to laughter, (at least we must have | |
|very diabolical natures, if it would): but should we discover there a grate, instead of coals, adorned with flowers, empty | |
|plate or china dishes on the side-board, or any other affectation of riches and finery either on their persons or in their | |
|furniture; we might then indeed be excused, for ridiculing so fantastical an appearance. Much less are natural imperfections | |
|the object of derision: but when ugliness aims at the applause of beauty, or lameness endeavours to display agility; it is then| |
|that these unfortunate circumstances, which at first moved our compassion, tend only to raise our mirth. | |
| The poet carries this very far; | 17 |
| | |
|None are for being what they are in fault, | |
| | |
| | |
|But for not being what they would be thought. | |
| | |
|Where if the metre would suffer the word Ridiculous to close the first line, the thought would be rather more proper. Great | |
|vices are the proper objects of our detestation, smaller faults of our pity: but affectation appears to me the only true source| |
|of the Ridiculous. | |
| But perhaps it may be objected to me, that I have against my own rules introduced vices, and of a very black kind into this | |
|work. to this I shall answer: First, that it is very difficult to pursue a series of human actions and keep clear from them. | |
|Secondly, that the vices to be found here, are rather the accidental consequences of some human frailty, or foible, than causes| |
|habitually existing in the mind. Thirdly, that they are never set forth as the objects of ridicule, but detestation. Fourthly, | |
|that they are never the principal figure at that time on the scene; lastly, they never produce the intended evil. | |
Paper Format
1. At the top left, give the following information:
Your Name
Instructor’s Name
AP English, 2nd period (or similar class information)
Date you hand the paper in—18 August 2012
According to MLA specifications, this information should be double-spaced; additionally, all text in the essay, including the heading, works cited page, and the essay itself, should be in a normal size, readable font, such as Times 12, with no differentiation in font—the title should be the same size, the works cited the same size, and any headers or footers the same size. Additionally, some teachers ask that a description of the assignment be inserted in the heading, typically the line before the date, i.e., Romeo and Juliet essay
2. Follow this with two blank lines (a double space) and your title. Center the title and capitalize the first, last, and each important word in the title. Do not underline the title, put quotation marks around it, or change the font style/size. Make the title specific, meaningful, and interesting, so someone who reads it in a works cited page will understand the focus.
3. Follow this with two blank lines and begin the text of your paper. Indent each paragraph half an inch (one tab). Double-space all the text, including the blocked-out quotations. Number all your pages in the upper right hand corner—precede each number with your last name—for example—Smith 2
4. Italicize titles of books, movies, newspapers, magazines, and plays; put titles of poems, short stories, and articles in quotation marks, unless the poem is book-length, whereupon you would italicize it. Underline any handwritten work to signify italics.
5. Block out quotations that comprise more than four lines of type. Indent the left margin an extra inch—two tabs; the right margin should remain as normal. Do not put quotation marks around blocked-out text. Double space the quotation and do not give any extra space between the quotation and your own text. See 8 and 9 below for the placement of punctuation with quotations, and note the difference with blocked text.
6. Embed/provide lead-ins and follow-ups to your blocked-out quotations, just like the standard quotes. They do not stand for themselves; do not assume that your readers understand exactly as you do.
7. Provide parenthetical page references at the ends of quotations or detailed paraphrases. If all the references in a particular paragraph are from the same couple of pages, you need only one reference after the last quotation in the paragraph. Try to use the author’s name in the text (rather than the references) of your paper: in that case, all you need in the parenthetical citation is the page number. See #16.
8. Quotation marks go outside commas and periods and inside semicolons and colons, unless a parenthetical reference ends the sentence. In that case, the quotation marks immediately follow the end of the quotation, and the parenthetical reference goes inside the terminal punctuation mark. In a blocked-out quotation the parenthetical reference goes outside the terminal punctuation mark. In all cases, you will need to omit the end punctuation from the original quotation: by quoting something, you make it a part of your sentence, which does not end until after the parenthetical citation. The only exceptions are punctuation marks that influence the meaning of the original, such as an exclamation point (!) or a question mark (?).
9. In citing poetry and plays, citation rules change: no longer do you cite the page number. In poetry, you will always cite the line number in your parenthetical citation: (Frost 3) would indicate that the quoted text derives from Frost’s poem on line number three. In a play, you will be even more specific, as you will cite act, scene, and line number. (3.2.197) would indicate the citation for the line quoted from the third act and second scene. You have the option of using Roman numerals or Arabic numerals (as above),—see your teacher for his or her preference, as both are allowed in MLA formatting, though Arabic numbers are preferred. In quoting both poetry and plays, you indicate the change in lines by including a “/” in the transition—note the space on either side of the slash. Below are the first three lines from Matthew Arnold’s Poem “Dover Beach”:
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits
To save space, we sometimes write these out in our line but using the “/” to indicate where the line has changed: “The sea is calm to-night. / The tide is full, the moon lies fair / Upon the straits . . .” (Arnold 1-3).
10. Parenthetical references minimally consist of the page number (no pp. or p.). If the author is not mentioned in the text of your paper, precede the page number with the last name of the author in reference, no punctuation between the two. If the author has written more than two articles and you have not mentioned the name of the article in your text, give a shortened form of the title of the article in quotation marks just before the page number.
11. Internet sources should be approached with significant reserve. You may use only internet sources that are legitimate and documented, not someone’s home page. Use them only if an author is provided, it comes from a reputable company or an educational entity, or if it is a government site. To learn how to cite internet sources refer to the MLA at
12. Plagiarism occurs when you borrow words, statistics, or ideas and represent them as your own. Cite everything you use if you did not originate the language, study, or concept in question. If you paraphrase, you still must cite, since the idea is not yours.
13. Use an ellipsis (. . . ) to indicate information that is omitted—three dots only. If you should remove a phrase or sentence from the existing quotation, the remainder still must make logical sense. When you quote something, it still must form a complete sentence. If the quoted material does not, you must complete the sentence: “The sea is calm to-night. / The tide is full, the moon lies fair / Upon the straits . . .” (Arnold 1-3).
14. Use brackets [ ] to add information that will complete your idea in the quotation. If the original quotation reads, “It is not the influence that causes the Western Canon to be centered on him” (Bloom 74), then this quotation is confusing, since we do not know the identity of "him.” Rewrite as follows: “It is not the influence that causes the Western Canon to be centered on [Shakespeare]” (Bloom 74). Notice that the author’s last name is given in the citation, not the first.
15. Use varying introductory words for quotations, not just “says.” Feel free to use “claims,” “exhorts,” “posits,” “asserts,” “identifies,” “reasons,” “articulates,” “implies,” etc. Be sure the meaning of the word best matches the idea you wish to impart. Obviously, you must use present tense when referring to literature, excepting references to events in different times.
16. Try involving the author in the text of your embedding to the quotation or paraphrase, rather than waiting for the parenthetical citation whenever possible, which can allow you to suggest the significance of the example: Harold Bloom, noted Yale scholar and defender of the Western Canon, claims that Shakespeare’s influence is pervasive (74). In this instance you do not need to cite Bloom again because you have just mentioned his name.
17. Use a comma to introduce a quotation after a dependent clause: Bloom argues, “The influence of Shakespeare on our chaotic age remains persuasive” (74). However, you must use a colon if you have provided an independent clause to precede the quotation. Bloom’s view of Shakespeare’s legacy is strong: “The influence of Shakespeare on our chaotic age remains persuasive” (74). A final way to introduce a quotation is to let the quotation become an integral part of your sentence. Bloom argues that “the influence of Shakespeare on our chaotic age remains persuasive” (74).
18. A works cited page is provided in all cases where you use secondary sources, and in cases where you use a different version of a primary source. The page follows the text, and it is numbered sequentially (along with your last name in the upper right hand corner). Centered at the top, write “Works Cited” with no underline or special font changes. Skip two lines and begin the first citation, starting alphabetically with the author’s last name. Do not indent the first line, but indent every subsequent line of the same entry, making sure to double space throughout.
Writing Terms Defined
An Introduction provides the reader with two major benefits, creative and informative, eliciting an interest in the remainder of the essay (something that draws the reader’s attention), as well as the thesis. Each sentence in the introduction should lead us directly to the thesis—we should be prepared for the thesis’ existence when it comes.
A Thesis Statement is, simply put, an arguable statement. It is not just a main point or the statement of a theme in a work. It should be written in such a way as to demand argument and proof. In a literary analysis essay, the thesis should be an interpretation—it should reflect on the prompt (if one is given). It should be a position that you take with a purpose to prove. Ideally, the thesis should be complicated, taking into consideration such ideas as themes, historical connections, authorial purpose, and style.
A Paragraph should be focused on one idea (which connects to the thesis), not on a plot turn or character; however, one moment in the text or one character may dominate the discussion in the paragraph, but only if an idea is the guiding force of the paragraph (and connected to the thesis). Each paragraph should have a clear topic sentence (usually the first sentence), set-up that leads us to evidence, analysis that looks specifically at the evidence itself, and a larger analysis that connects examples to the topic sentence and the thesis itself.
A Topic Sentence allows the reader to see with clarity what each paragraph will argue—make a claim that you plan to defend. It often appears at the beginning of the paragraph (to direct the attention of the reader), but it can come after a transition or any other device, such as a quotation, that you use.
A Transition marks the movement of your idea from one aspect of the thesis to another. It should bridge the gap between paragraphs by uniting the two ideas that are the focal point of each paragraph. You can bring about a transition through connecting ideas, or by showing contrast. Likewise, we also see internal transitions within paragraphs—any time you move from one concept to the next, the reader must be apprised of why and how that change is necessary and relevant in a clear way.
A Conclusion shows the end of your subject. It is not a restatement of your main points or your thesis. You can revisit the thesis in your conclusion, but it should be in a slightly different light. A conclusion should leave no doubt that the topic is finished. A clinching sentence, something clever to leave the reader with no remaining questions about the issue, is probably the most important aspect of the conclusion.
An Argument establishes the validity of your interpretation. You cannot write an essay without a clear argument. Remember, you are not writing a report about an idea. A report would be about what happens in Romeo and Juliet whereas an argument would seek to establish whether the Montagues and Capulets bear all the blame for the lovers’ deaths. Clearly, readers could disagree with either of these ideas, using evidence from the text to argue either interpretation.
Interpretation is the assignment of meaning to a text or moment in a text—typically, it does not focus on plot, but on abstract ideas that your close reading has led you to believe. It should form the basis of your argument.
Evidence is gathered from the text, primarily in the form of quotations, although minimal summary and occasional paraphrase can be used as evidence. You need no serious evidence to establish plot (unless the moment is under critical dispute), but your evidence should help to establish your interpretation, your argument. Indeed, the quotations that you use should be complicated and worthy of close analysis.
Concrete detail is specific, direct information that you get from a text, or, in your own writing, specificity. It should differ from the abstract in that we can experience something direct—not something “very big” but something that “dominates” or “overshadows” in general language. In literary analysis, we use concrete detail from the text in the form of specific quotations; indeed, smaller quotes, such as single words and phrases, are often better evidence than lengthy quotations. If you use lengthy quotations, be sure that you look specifically at them.
Analysis is your chance to argue interpretation. We analyze quotations in two ways: look closely at the words themselves, the syntax or word order, diction, allusions, metaphors, etc. Also, you must look at the larger implications of the evidence. How do the examples connect to your thesis, your interpretation?
Summary is done to either to show that you have read something (which should not be an issue in literary analysis, where you instead focus on the meaning and significance of ideas), or it is done to set up discussion, in which case you only need to summarize a short amount, likely just a clause in a sentence, to frame the issue for the reader. Instead of writing that Romeo and Juliet commit suicide, you write “When Romeo and Juliet commit suicide, the act suggests that . . . ,” analyzing the meaning after you have quickly instructed the reader about what you wish to reference. Under no circumstances should you have a sentence in your essay that is solely summary.
Paraphrasing is a tool meant to substitute for a quotation, not analyze one. You paraphrase when you can state something more directly and efficiently than the original—to shorten the reference. It still needs to be cited, since the ideas are not yours, even if the words are. Use direct quotations as the primary reference for literary analysis, but you must analyze them directly, looking at the words of the quotation to explain your topic sentence and thesis.
A Source can be Primary or Secondary. A Primary Source is the text you are writing about—the novel, play, or poem that is the focal point of your essay—you can have more than one if you are writing a comparative essay. A Secondary Source is any work outside the main text, such as literary criticism. In both cases, you will need to cite authorship and appropriate locations of examples.
A work’s Theme is not a simplistic moral. It is a central idea to the work, usually in poetry, plays, or fiction, the abstract concept that is made concrete through representation. It is not simply a topic that the work covers, nor is it a motif, such as coming of age, that the work evokes.
Writing Checklist
Prior to submitting your essay, carefully examine your final draft for each item, checking off that you have attempted to address each these to the best of your ability; then, staple this to your completed essay.
1. _____ Employs correct MLA format with in text citations, headings, and works cited (when required).
2. _____ Includes an effective title that is short, honest, and pointed; the title suggest the specific thesis. Does not underline title, put in larger font, put in all capital letters.
3. _____ Is organized into clear, distinct paragraphs
4. _____ Includes an engaging beginning in the intro paragraph that hooks the reader and introduces the thesis.
5. _____ Includes a clear, arguable and succinct thesis located toward the end of the intro paragraph and that is argued throughout the essay.
6. _____ Has each sentence in the introduction leading toward the thesis.
7. _____ References title [properly punctuated], author, genre [TAG] in intro paragraph.
8. _____ Includes a satisfying concluding paragraph which emphasizes the validity of the thesis without repetition, ending with a memorable last line.
9. _____ Has an original topic or treatment that makes reading the essay worthwhile, including such complexities as theme, style, history, and/or philosophy.
10. _____ Does not use plot summary/paraphrasing in place of analysis.
11. _____ Contains only relevant information about the literary work.
12. _____ Has every paragraph and every sentence directly or indirectly supporting the thesis.
13. _____ Includes a bold, thoughtful topic sentence in each body paragraph which supports the thesis.
14. _____ Provides a context before introducing each piece of textual evidence/direct quotation.
15. _____ Provides specific textual evidence/direct quotation that proves or illustrates each idea with direct analysis related to the work’s themes and functionality.
16. _____ Uses quotes from throughout the work, not necessarily in chronological order.
17. _____ Picks intriguing and clever lines to quote and analyze
18. _____ Reflects, appreciates, and analyzes the stylistic complexity of the literary work without complementing the author’s style or themes.
19. _____ Incorporates knowledge of the era or movement the text/author represents.
20. _____ Employs the language of literary analysis.
21. _____ References the author to analyze structure and style (e.g., not just Hamlet’s delay, but Shakespeare’s use of Hamlet’s delay), but does not use the author’s first name (beyond the introduction or possibly the conclusion).
22. _____ Goes beyond arguments made in class discussions.
23. _____ Avoids generalized information gleaned through internet surfing about authors and texts.
24. _____ References parenthetically source of direct quotation (e.g., page number act/scene/line number, line number, etc.); cites credited sources for quoted material in correct MLA formatting.
25. _____ Does not use the phrase “this quote” or “this quote shows.”
26. _____ Modifies quote as needed for coherence (e.g., verb tense, omissions).
27. _____ Offers adequate commentary/explanation on each piece of textual evidence/direct quotation presented in each body paragraph.
28. _____ Develops fully each body paragraph with examples and analysis that support the topic sentence and thesis.
29. _____ Uses several (2-3+, typically) direct quotations/textual evidence in each body paragraph. Employs short, powerful direct quotations.
30. _____ Employs paragraphs which follow a logical order.
31. _____ Includes sentences which show coherence, following a consistent order within paragraphs sequentially, grammatically, and logically.
32. _____ Employs transitions/connective phrases between and within paragraphs.
33. _____ Maintains an even tone throughout, avoiding sudden, unplanned changes in tone without adequate transition.
34. _____ Employs embedded direct quotations through the use of varied lead-ins [before, in the middle or after].
35. _____ Employs commentary that is significantly longer than each direct quotation.
36. _____ Focuses on how ideas and examples work.
37. _____ Avoids generalizations and unproven ideas.
38. _____ Avoids any summary as distinct sentences.
39. _____ Has an informational, distinctive, appropriate and/or consistent tone as well as point of view.
40. _____ Has a style that is both correct and compelling, considering audience and purpose.
41. _____ Uses present tense verbs.
42. _____ Uses active, not passive voice.
43. _____ Uses third person (he, she, it, they), NOT first (I; we; our) or second person (you/your).
44. _____ Uses formal language rather than informal language.
45. _____ Uses elevated, collegiate level diction.
46. _____ Eliminates empty words: stuff, things, a lot, basically, really, very, so (as an adjective), sort of, kind of, etc.
47. _____ Eliminates clichés, colloquialisms, idioms, and slang.
48. _____ Eliminates overused phrases, such as vivid imagery, prime example, etc.
49. _____ Uses concrete language/specific words that are easily understood.
50. _____ Uses strong, active verbs.
51. _____ Minimizes the use of the verb “to be”: is; am; are; was; were; be; being; been.
52. _____ Substitutes an active verb for each of the following: to do; to have; to get.
53. _____ Eliminates repetition, wordiness, and redundancies.
54. _____ Eliminates explanations that begin with who, which, that and when.
55. _____ Eliminates generic filler words such as type, factor, situation, kind, one, aspect, area, and the suffix -wise.
56. _____ Does not use the term “book” but instead uses the genre (e.g., novel, autobiography, etc.)
57. _____ Varies sentence length: short, medium and long and type: simple; compound; complex; and compound-complex where appropriate.
58. _____ Minimizes the use of subject/verb sentence constructions.
59. _____ Combines sentences for greater fluency and effect.
60. _____ Has no two sentences starting with the same word in any paragraph unless used for deliberate effect. Varies sentence beginnings.
61. _____ Eliminates most uses of the following phrases: there is and there are.
62. _____ Avoids run-on sentences or fragments, usage, spelling, homophone, and punctuation errors.
63. _____ Uses commas to offset dependent clauses.
64. _____ Uses a comma before and, but, for, or, not, so, yet and still when these words join independent clauses.
65. _____ Uses a comma between all terms in a series, to set off parenthetical openers and afterthoughts, after introductory clauses or phrases, to enclose parenthetical insertions, and to set off appositives, explanatory words or phrases.
66. _____ Uses parallel constructions.
67. _____ Does not use contractions or abbreviations.
68. _____ Does not have misplaced or dangling modifiers.
69. _____ Employs appropriate or neutral gender choice throughout the essay.
70. _____ Connects pronouns and their antecedents. Has clear referent for each pronoun. Uses correct pronoun agreement (e.g., everyone has his or her opinions)
71. _____ Uses correct subject/verb agreement.
72. _____ Spells-out all numbers if they can be written in one or two words, and be consistent if you spell-out or write numerals, be sure to continue as such.
The Best Essays
•Make bold pronouncements then attempt to prove them
•Pick intriguing and clever lines to quote and analyze
•Are aware of stylistic complexities of the work at hand
•Use information learned in class to inform the discourse, including
terminology, but don’t just repeat this knowledge
•Do not make arguments covered in class discussions the centerpiece of the essay’s argument
•Avoid generalized information gleaned through internet surfing about
authors and texts
•Never apologize for the task at hand
•Understand the necessity of analyzing quotes based on theme and
functionality in the work
•Mention minor characters and specific moments throughout the text to
show a textured reading
•Incorporate knowledge of the era or movement the text/author represents
•Mention the author in reference to events and style
•Contain all parts of the typical essay, including an introduction, thesis,
many claims (with evidence and analysis), and a forceful conclusion
•Never use a repetitive conclusion
•Show how ideas and examples work, rather than merely stating them
•Move from general to specific
•Analyze examples with a thesis in mind
•Avoid unproven ideas
•Create a complicated thesis that is not a simplistic rendering of a theme
•Only use the most miniscule summary, and never as distinct sentences
•Are never repetitive in ideas, words, or sentence types
Writing Self-Reflection
1. Did you create an introduction that is inviting to an intellectual reader?
2. If your introduction is a generalization, have you made sure that it is not too broad? Additionally, did you imbue the discussion of the generalization with specifics that lead the reader toward the thesis?
3. Does each sentence in the introduction lead toward the thesis?
4. Is your thesis argumentative? Does it go beyond class discussion? Is it complex; that is, does it incorporate style, theme, history, etc.?
5. Did you provide an interesting topic sentence for each paragraph that directly connects to the thesis in some way?
6. Did you provide the necessary background information (not summary) that helps the reader to see the unity among your ideas, focusing especially on your audience?
7. Do you provide a wide array of quotations from throughout the text, but not necessarily in chronological textual order—i.e., is the essay thematically structured?
8. Do you set-up each quote by providing a lead-in?
9. Did you avoid paraphrase when analyzing the quotations?
10. Have you used the same verb tense throughout? Present tense?
11. Is the tone of your essay even throughout? Do you avoid any sudden, unplanned changes in tone without adequate transition?
12. Does your essay have coherence—does it flow easily from one sentence to the next, one idea to the next, with no logical, sequential, or grammatical gaps?
13. Did you avoid the use of summary? At the very least, did you make sure that no sentences of summary alone exist within the essay?
14. Did you avoid unnecessary repetition of words within paragraphs (for example, did you repeat any significant words)?
15. Do your sentences vary in size, length, and complexity, depending upon the subject and flow of the essay?
DICTION (WORD CHOICE)
Diction is defined as a writer’s choice of words. The particular words an author uses will affect not only the message the audience (reader) receives, but in the way in which we interpret that idea.
Words have two meanings: denotative – the dictionary definition; the literal meaning of the word as a representation of a person, place, thing, idea of action; connotative – the implied meaning of a word; an author’s communication of connotative meaning is usually made clear through context (the surroundings of a given word or image and its relationship to specific elements in the verbal environment)
In short, the denotation is the direct specific meaning of a word or phrase; the literal meaning. The connotation is everything else: the implications, the suggestions, the associations, the overtones.
Diction is classified into four levels (and words can have both denotative and connotative meanings at all four levels of diction):
1. Formal diction: a dignified, impersonal and elevated use of language. It is exacting in its adherence to the rules of grammar and complex vocabulary.
2. Middle diction: still follows the rules of correct language usage, but is less “elevated.” It reflects the way most educated people speak.
3. Informal diction: the plain language of everyday use. This often involves idiomatic expressions, slang, contractions and simple/common words.
4. Poetic diction: poets sometimes use an elevated diction that is significantly from the common speech and writing of their time. These can be words chosen (or sometimes created) by the poet because they have a special “poetic” quality; an ability to communicate a complex thought in a word or a phrase.
[pic]
▪ Words can be monosyllabic [one syllable in length] or polysyllabic [more than one syllable in length]. The higher the ratio of polysyllabic words, the more difficult the content
▪ Words can be mainly colloquial [slang], informal [conversational], formal [literary] or old-fashioned.
▪ Words can be mainly denotative [containing an exact meaning, e.g., dress] or connotative [containing a suggested meaning, e.g., gown].
▪ Words can be concrete [specific] or abstract [general or conceptual]
▪ Words can be euphonious [pleasant sounding, e.g., languid, murmur] or cacophonous [harsh sounding, e.g. raucous, croak]
▪ Words can be literal or figurative.
▪ Words can be active or passive.
▪ Words can be general or specific.
▪ Words can be understated or overstated.
▪ Words can be simple or pedantic.
The sound of words impact the meaning or tone of the passage overall.
Classes of consonants:
▪ Stops – hard, popping sounds: B, ID, G, K, P, T
▪ Explosives – harsh, sharp, make you spit
▪ Sibilance – whisper, hiss at you: S, Z
▪ Liquids – long, slow, comforting sounds: L, M, N, R
▪ Guttural – hard G’s
▪ Onomatopoeia/Mimetic: the way you pronounce a word imitates its meaning (smooth, gargling, staccato, sludge)
COMMONLY OVERUSED WORDS
When you write, use the most precise word for your meaning, not the word that comes to mind first. Consult this thesaurus to find alternatives for some commonly overused words. Consult a full-length thesaurus to find alternatives to words that do not appear here. Keep in mind that the choices offered in a thesaurus do not all mean exactly the same thing. Review all the options, and choose the one that best expresses your meaning.
about approximately, nearly, almost, approaching, close to
absolutely unconditionally, perfectly, completely, ideally, purely
activity action, movement, operation, labor, exertion, enterprise, project, pursuit, endeavor, job, assignment, pastime, scheme, task
add attach, affix, join, unite, append, increase, amplify
affect adjust, influence, transform, moderate, incline, motivate, prompt
amazing overwhelming, astonishing, startling, unexpected, stunning, dazzling, remarkable
awesome impressive, stupendous, fabulous, astonishing, outstanding
bad defective, inadequate, poor, unsatisfactory, disagreeable, offensive, repulsive, corrupt, wicked, naughty, harmful, injurious, unfavorable
basic essential, necessary, indispensable, vital, fundamental, elementary
beautiful attractive, appealing, alluring, exquisite, gorgeous, handsome, stunning
begin commence, found, initiate, introduce, launch, originate
better preferable, superior, worthier
big enormous, extensive, huge, immense, massive
boring commonplace, monotonous, tedious, tiresome
bring accompany, cause, convey, create, conduct, deliver, produce
cause origin, stimulus, inspiration, motive
certain unquestionable, incontrovertible, unmistakable, indubitable, assured, confident
change alter, transform, vary, replace, diversify
choose select, elect, nominate, prefer, identify
decent respectable, adequate, fair, suitable
definitely unquestionably, clearly, precisely, positively, inescapably
easy effortless, natural, comfortable, undemanding, pleasant, relaxed
effective powerful, successful
emphasize underscore, feature, accentuate
end limit, boundary, finish, conclusion, finale, resolution
energy vitality, vigor, force, dynamism
enjoy savor, relish, revel, benefit
entire complete, inclusive, unbroken, integral
excellent superior, remarkable, splendid, unsurpassed, superb, magnificent
exciting thrilling, stirring, rousing, dramatic
far distant, remote
fast swift, quick, fleet, hasty, instant, accelerated
fill occupy, suffuse, pervade, saturate, inflate, stock
finish complete, conclude, cease, achieve, exhaust, deplete, consume
funny comical, ludicrous, amusing, droll, entertaining, bizarre, unusual, uncommon
get obtain, receive, acquire, procure, achieve
give bestow, donate, supply, deliver, distribute, impart
go proceed, progress, advance, move
good satisfactory, serviceable, functional, competent, virtuous, striking
great tremendous, superior, remarkable, eminent, proficient, expert
happy pleased, joyous, elated, jubilant, cheerful, delighted
hard arduous, formidable, complex, complicated, rigorous, harsh
help assist, aid, support, sustain, serve
hurt injure, harm, damage, wound, impair
important significant, substantial, weighty, meaningful, critical, vital, notable
interesting absorbing, appealing, entertaining, fascinating, thought-provoking
job task, work, business, undertaking, occupation, vocation, chore, duty, assignment
keep retain, control, possess
kind type, variety, sort, form
know comprehend, understand, realize, perceive, discern
like (adj) similar, equivalent, parallel
like (verb) enjoy, relish, appreciate
main primary, foremost, dominant
make build, construct, produce, assemble, fashion, manufacture
mean plan, intend, suggest, propose, indicate
more supplementary, additional, replenishment
new recent, modern, current, novel
next subsequently, thereafter, successively
nice pleasant, satisfying, gracious, charming
old aged, mature, experienced, used, worn, former, previous
open unobstructed, accessible
part section, portion, segment, detail, element, component
perfect flawless, faultless, ideal, consummate
plan scheme, design, system, plot
pleasant agreeable, gratifying, refreshing, welcome
prove demonstrate, confirm, validate, verify, corroborate
quick brisk, prompt, responsive, rapid, nimble, hasty
really truly, genuinely, extremely, undeniably
regular standard, routine, customary, habitual
see regard, behold, witness, gaze, realize, notice
small diminutive, miniature, minor, insignificant, slight, trivial
sometimes occasionally, intermittently, sporadically, periodically
take grasp, capture, choose, select, tolerate, endure
terrific extraordinary, magnificent, marvelous
think conceive, imagine, ponder, reflect, contemplate
try attempt, endeavor, venture, test
use employ, operate, utilize
very unusually, extremely, deeply, exceedingly, profoundly
want desire, crave, yearn, long
ENGLISH CLICHÉS: a small list
1. Sets the stage
2. Throughout time/Throughout history/Since the dawn of time
3. Proves his point
4. For emphasis
5. Prime example
6. Right from the start
7. Brought to light
8. Gets his point across
9. Sing-song
10. To fully express
11. All in all
12. Wreaked havoc
13. The most common
14. Grabs the reader’s attention
15. Gets his message across
16. Sheds light on
17. Paints a picture
INTRODUCTIONS
Functions of an opening paragraph:
►to engage the reader's attention
►to identify for the reader the central issue or subject—setting up and providing the thesis—TAG (introduce title, author, and genre of the literature being written about)
►to create the tone of the essay
Students create problems by ignoring any of these principles, or by including irrelevant details. Think of an introduction as your one chance at a first impression.
Poor introductory sentences:
1. A truism: when a self-evident "truth" is disguised in pretentious rhetoric:
• "Down through history, from Eve to Joan of Arc, from Cleopatra to Eleanor Roosevelt, we find that women have provided inspiration for men and molded their lives, their efforts, and their destinies. For the love of women, men have robbed, murdered, pillaged, gained riches, and gained greatness."
• "There can be no doubt that studying requires concentration."
NOTE: Anything that goes without saying does not need to be said (or written).
2. A complaint about difficulties of writing on the assigned subject:
• "Why do bad things happen to good people? This ancient question is probably too hard to answer."
3. A personal apology to the instructor or excuses in general:
• "Since Shakespeare has been the subject of intense scrutiny for four hundred years, a high school student can hardly be responsible for coming up with an original insight about any of his works.”
• "Ricardo's economic theories are extremely difficult to explain, but I will do the best I can."
4. An obvious dictionary definition:
• "Before entering into a discussion of the wit of Oscar Wilde as displayed in The Importance of Being Earnest, it is first necessary to ask ourselves: what do we mean by wit? Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines wit as being...."
5. Facts no one needs to be reminded of:
• "John F. Kennedy, who served as president of the United States...."
6. Platitudes—true, but hardly original or intriguing:
• "The processes of life are awe inspiring."
7. In most fields of study in the humanities, an announcement of the content of the essay is a bad way to begin. In the social and hard sciences, other conventions often prevail:
• "In this paper, I will explain...."
8. Introducing the title of the text:
• “In Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare . . . .” NOTE: This information, while necessary, needs to go in a place other than the first sentence.
9. The tangential connection:
• “Throughout recorded history, wars have waged. During those wars, some people have distinguished themselves through their friendship in battle. Friendship is a concept that is best understood by . . . .” Note: This essay introduction starts as about one concept (war—or even friendship in war) then switches to something completely unrelated (friendship)—the war is just a distracting tease.
Successful Strategies:
The most typical effective introduction: the funnel opening paragraph
The first sentence is the wide end of the funnel: a focused generalization that provides the necessary context and the subject. Each succeeding sentence in the paragraph narrows the subject. The last sentence of the paragraph, the least general (and most specific) statement, is the thesis of the essay.
An example of a funnel-shaped opening:
The Declaration of Independence is woven into the fabric of American ideals, so much so that its origins have become their own mythology. Yet, the actual document, both in its original form written by Thomas Jefferson, as well as the revised and ultimately published document the Continental Congressional Committee helped to shape, remains as one of the most important arguments ever made. Uncomfortable with changes made to his draft, Jefferson was disappointed with the result. However, both the historical context and the revisions themselves prove the revised version was best for the country.
Effective beginnings: simple and direct openings are best.
1. A direct statement of fact:
• "I underwent, during the summer I became fourteen, a profound religious crisis."—James Baldwin, "Letter from a Region in My Mind."
2. A statement intended to startle the reader with its bluntness or frankness:
• "Lie detectors lie."—Jonathan Kwitney, "The Dirty Little Secret of Lie Detectors."
3. A question or series of questions
• "How does the mind work? To answer that question we must look at some of the work performed by the mind."--Noam Chomsky, "Language and the Mind."
NOTE: Questions must lead somewhere—don’t ask irrelevant questions and always lead toward a direct, clear thesis.
4. An authentic illustrative anecdote:
• "Someone said recently to an old black lady from Mississippi, whose legs had been badly mangled by local police who arrested her for 'disturbing the peace,' that the civil rights movement was dead, and asked, since it was dead what she thought about it. The old lady replied, hobbling out of his presence on her cane, that the civil rights movement was like herself, 'if it's dead it shore ain't ready to lay down!'"--Alice Walker, "The Civil Rights Movement: What Good Was It?"
5. An aptly chosen quotation:
• "To thine own self be true,” the foolish Polonius states early on in Hamlet, in an infamous and ironic line of advice to his departing son.
• George Bernard Shaw, playwright and theorist, once claimed that “A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.”
NOTE: If you use a quotation from the text, be sure it is provocative and that it leads you to your first point. In using a quotation from outside the work that is the focus of your essay, be sure to provide minimal authorial information, be sure the quotation is sufficiently thought-provoking, and be sure your next lines explain the quote in such a way to lead neatly into the remainder of your paragraph.
CONCLUSIONS
Functions of a concluding paragraph:
➢ To make one last effort to convince the reader
➢ To suggest larger implications now that the evidence has been presented
➢ To provide a satisfying sense of closure
Strategies for writing effective conclusions:
1. Make a useful analogy or comparison.
2. Suggest specific actions that the reader should take with regard to the information you've provided.
3. Speculate about what your thesis implies for the future.
4. A fresh, clever restatement of your thesis in light of what you have covered.
5. Circularity: return to the creative opening of your introduction for a circular look at the same subject.
6. A clever, witty last line that encapsulates your main argument.
Poor endings:
1. An unnecessary summary: only scholarly, complex papers need a conclusion that summarizes the material covered in the paper.
2. An empty cliche:
• "So ends the analysis of myself and the question of who am I has been answered in a brief form."
3. An unnecessary announcement
• "And in conclusion, let me say...."
4. A trite truism:
• “And as for the future, only time will tell."
5. A waste basket ending: do not try in the final paragraph to say everything you didn't have room for in the body of the paper.
6. A fade-out:
• "Researchers have so much more to discover in this area. Whatever we say now will be superseded in the near future."
7. A wild surmise
• "From this we see the utter futility of ever trying to help another person."
8. A mirror image (the most common problem):
• The writer merely repeats the thesis and summarizes the main points—a dull and mechanical conclusion.
THESIS STATEMENTS
A thesis statement in an essay is a sentence that explicitly identifies the purpose of the paper or previews its main ideas. Everything in your essay should support the thesis. An effective thesis statement fulfills the following criteria:
➢ Substantial: Your thesis should be a claim for which it is easy to answer every reader’s question: So what?
➢ Supportable: Your thesis must be a claim that you can prove with the evidence at hand. Your claim should not be outlandish nor should it be a mere personal opinion or preference.
➢ Precise: Your thesis must have been narrowed down from a very broad subject; your claim should not be something on which whole books could be written.
➢ Arguable: Your thesis should not be a statement of fact or an assertion with which every reader is likely to immediately agree.
➢ Relevant: Your thesis should be written in response to the task at hand (e.g., summarize, argue, compare/contrast…)
In addition, an effective thesis statement has the following characteristics:
1. A thesis statement is an assertion, not a statement of fact or an observation.
➢ Fact or observation: Things Fall Apart is about colonialism.
➢ Thesis: Things Fall Apart explores the negative effects of colonialism.
2. A thesis statement takes a stand rather than announcing a subject.
➢ Announcement: The thesis of this paper is the difficulty of solving environmental problems.
➢ Thesis: Solving our environmental problems is more difficult than many environmentalists believe.
3. A thesis statement is narrow, rather than broad. If the thesis statement is sufficiently narrow, it can be fully supported.
➢ Broad Thesis: The American steel industry has many problems.
➢ Narrow Thesis: The primary problem with the American steel industry is the lack of funds to renovate outdated plans and equipment.
4. A thesis statement is specific rather than vague or general.
➢ Vague Thesis: Hemingway’s war stories are very good.
➢ Specific Thesis: Hemingway’s stories helped create a new prose style by employing extensive dialogue, shorter sentences, and strong Anglo-Saxon words.
5. A thesis statement has more than one point rather than several main points. More than one point may be too difficult for the reader to understand and the writer to support.
➢ More than one point: Stephen Hawking’s physical disability has not prevented him from becoming a world-renowned physicist, and his book is the subject of a movie.
➢ One main point: Stephen Hawking’s physical disability has not prevented him from becoming a world-renowned physicist.
You can revise your thesis statement whenever you want to while you are writing your essay. Writers often discover what their real purpose and point is while in the process of putting their thoughts into words and then reading what they have written.
CONSTRUCTING A THESIS STATEMENT:
1. Collect your most compelling observations about the literature:
A. The focus on words vs. deeds in Romeo and Juliet suggests Shakespeare sees language as a lesser reality than actions.
B. Throughout the play, the strongest emotions of love and hate find superficial, potentially fraudulent, and inaccurate expression in language and tradition.
C. Misunderstanding and suicide can be traced back to fundamental miscommunication, from the Friar’s misguided but good intent, to the Nurse’s manipulations, to both Romeo’s and Juliet’s unique lives which prevent them from talking directly.
2. Think of something important about human nature, the human condition, etc. from these observations that could be written about without mentioning the literary work.
• Strong emotions, such as love and hate can be hidden or masked by words.
3. Have something meaningful and direct to argue about the literary work (something that incorporates specifics that don’t necessarily go beyond the literary work).
• The Friar’s misguided but good intent, the Nurse’s manipulations, and both Romeo’s and Juliet’s lives which prevent them from talking directly, all contribute the protagonists’ suicides.
4. Work to combine the most central argument, both in its direct form about the literary subject and its broader more thematic implications.
• Through the tragic suicides at the core of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare argues that the limited understanding derived from superficial language can cause irreparable harm and tragedy.
How a thesis works within a body paragraph
Thesis: Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” structurally forces the reader to achieve an empathy with the perils of modern warfare, not easily understood from a civilian perspective.
Key Points
• The switch to second person in the final stanza underscores Owen’s direct attempt at forcing empathy.
• The sheer volume of specific, gruesome imagery that can only be seen in warfare overwhelms the naïve reader.
• The brutal conditions of warfare contradict romantic notions of patriotism that Owen goes on to demolish.
• The gas serves as symbolic of the harsh, arbitrary nature of war that obviates heroism and bravery.
A sample body paragraph and transition:
Throughout “Dulce et Decorum Est,” the reader finds no refuge from the multiplying brutalities of war, here rendered through clever stylistic notions that reinforce Owen’s anti-romantic arguments against civilian glorification of warfare. We find the soldiers in the first stanza overburdened “like old beggars under sacks,” “lame,” “blind,” and “deaf” (1, 6-7). Each image adds to the grim picture of modern warfare the speaker chronicles throughout the poem—one that could only derive from direct participation or observation of warfare. By starting with the deadened sensory perceptions of these hapless soldiers, Owen prepares readers for the startling proclamation of the gas in the second stanza, an event overwhelming enough that it has to be screamed twice; indeed, so numb and “blood-shod” are these men that “someone still was yelling out and stumbling” when the gas is dropped—the soldiers can barely respond (6, 11). These horrific details compound in order to shock readers about the terrors of warfare. Furthermore, the clever arrangement of the poem allows the reader to gain a first-hand understanding of the vile nature of battle in the war, provoked directly with the present tense struggles of the dying man, in words such as “yelling” and “stumbling,” to be followed later by “guttering,” “choking,” and “drowning” (16). These immediate details intimate a reality of warfare not to be understood from the vantage of civilian safety—the “friend” in the last lines of the poem. Consequently, always at the back of the reader’s mind is the notion partially presented in the title, what is “sweet and honorable.” The title, perhaps a perception from the security away from the battlefield, already seems ironic after only a few lines of Owen’s depiction of hardship.
Nowhere in the poem is the hardship of the soldiers more poignantly rendered than in the sudden, deliberate switch to second person in the final stanza, which forces the reader to be a suffering survivor of the gas attack.
LANGUAGE DESCRIPTORS
Words that describe the entire body of words in a text – not isolated bits of diction. Language is different from tone in that it describes the force or quality of the diction, images, details…
|Archaic |characteristic of an earlier/more primitive time |Literal |apparent, word for word |
|Artificial |False |Lyrical |expressing direct usually intense personal |
| | | |emotion (especially in a manner suggestive of|
| | | |song) |
|Bombastic |pompous, ostentatious |Metaphorical |a word or phrase literally denoting one kind |
| | | |of object or idea is used in place of another|
| | | |to suggest a likeness or analogy between them|
|Colloquial |Vernacular |Moralistic |puritanical, righteous |
|Concrete |actual, specific, particular |Mundane |commonplace |
|Connotative |alludes to; suggestive |Obscure |unclear |
|Cultured |cultivated, refined, finished |Obtuse |dull-witted, undiscerning |
|Deflated |reduced in importance |Ordinary |everyday, common |
|Detached |cut-off, removed, separated |Pedantic |didactic, scholastic, bookish |
|Emotional |expressive of emotions |Picturesque |quaint, charming |
|Esoteric |understood by a chosen few |Plain |clear, obvious |
|Euphemistic |insincere, affected |Poetic |lyric, melodious, romantic |
|Exact |verbatim, precise |Pompous |exhibiting self-importance |
|Fantastic |flights of fancy |Precise |exact, accurate, decisive |
|Figurative |serving as illustration |Pretentious |pompous, gaudy, inflated |
|Formal |academic, conventional |Provincial |rural, rustic, unpolished |
|Grotesque |hideous, deformed |Scholarly |intellectual, academic |
|Homespun |folksy, homey, native, rustic |Sensuous |passionate, luscious |
|Idiomatic |peculiar, vernacular |Simple |clear, intelligible |
|Informal |marked by the absence of formality/ ceremony |Slangy |lingo, colloquialism |
|Insipid |uninteresting, tame, dull |Symbolic |representative, metaphorical |
|Informal |casual, relaxed, unofficial |Trite |common, banal, stereotyped |
|Jargon |vocabulary for a profession |Vulgar |coarse, indecent, tasteless |
|Learned |educated, experienced | | |
SYNTAX
At its simplest level, syntax consists of sentence structure, but analysis of style and meaning never relies on one concept alone. Syntax should not be studied in isolation, but rather it should be examined in conjunction with other stylistic techniques that work together to develop meaning. At least four areas can be considered when analyzing style: diction, sentence structure, treatment of subject matter and figurative language.
You can analyze sentence structure in several ways:
1. Examine the sentence length. Are the sentences telegraphic (shorter than five words in length), short (approximately five words in length), medium (approximately eighteen words in length), or long and involved (thirty words or more in length)? Does the sentence length fit the subject matter? What variety of length is present? Why is the sentence length effective?
2. Examine sentence beginnings. Is there a good variety or does a pattern emerge?
3. Examine the arrangement of ideas in a sentence. Are they set out in a special way for a purpose?
4. Examine the arrangement of ideas in a paragraph. Is there evidence of any pattern or structure?
5. Examine sentence patterns. Some elements to consider are listed below.
▪ Declarative: A declarative (assertive) sentence makes a statement: e.g., The king is sick.
▪ Imperative: An imperative (authoritative) sentence gives a command: e.g., Stand up.
▪ Interrogative: An interrogative sentence asks a question: e.g., Is the king sick?
▪ Exclamatory: An exclamatory sentence makes an exclamation: e.g., The king is dead!
▪ Simple Sentence: A simple sentence contains one subject and one verb/one independent clause: e.g., The singer bowed to her adoring audience. The simple sentence is ideal when what you have to say is a single thought. Without unrelated and unnecessary words and thoughts confusing the issue, your meaning will be much easier for readers to grasp.
▪ Compound/Coordinated Sentence: A compound/coordinated sentence contains two or more simple sentences/two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinate conjunction (and, but, or) or by punctuation or by both: e.g., The singer bowed to the audience, but she sang no encores.
It joins two ideas to show a relationship of equal importance; this is known as coordination, and is usually done using a coordinating or correlative conjunction, or a conjunctive adverb. Use a compound sentence when you want to show that two ideas are related, and of equal significance.
▪ Complex Sentence: A complex sentence contains a simple sentence/ independent clause (the "main thought") plus one or more subordinate/dependent clauses (clauses that cannot stand on their own as complete thoughts), usually using a subordinating conjunction: e.g., You said that you would tell the truth. Use a complex sentence when you want to show a relationship between two or more ideas, one of which is more important than the others are. Most of the sentences you write will probably be complex; it is up to you as a writer to decide what thoughts you wish to stress.
▪ Compound/Complex Sentence: A compound-complex sentence contains at least two independent clauses and at least one or more subordinate/ dependent clauses: e.g., The singer bowed while the audience applauded, but she sang no encores.
▪ Loose/Cumulative Sentence: A loose sentence makes complete sense if brought to a close before the actual ending: e.g., We reached Edmonton/that morning/after a turbulent flight/and some exciting experiences OR A prime is what makes a machine run, though there are a great number of things of things that fit into the category of prime mover.
A cumulative sentence is an extended variety of the loose sentence. Often used in description, the cumulative sentence begins with a general statement that it then expands in a series of particulars.
▪ Periodic/Build-up Sentence: A periodic sentence makes sense only when the end of the sentence is reached; its full meaning cannot be understood until the end: e.g., That morning, after a turbulent flight and some exciting experiences, we reached Edmonton OR Across the stream, beyond the clearing, from behind a fallen tree, the lion emerged. It delays the expression of a complete thought until the end, or until near the end.
▪ Balanced Sentence: In a balanced sentence, the phrases or clauses balance each other by virtue or their likeness of structure, meaning, or length: e.g., He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.
▪ Head-on Sentence: The head-on sentence is structured so that its main point appears first, followed by other phrases or clauses that expand or support it: e.g., Lisa’s recommendation received quick approval because it was well thought out and presented in a friendly tone so that no one walked away slighted or offended by her comments.
▪ Minor Sentence: Otherwise known as a fragment, the incomplete, or minor, sentence serves often in advertising and can work, if used sparingly and knowingly, in your writing: e.g., To be announced.
▪ Natural Order: Natural order of a sentence involves constructing a sentence so the subject comes before the predicate: e.g., Oranges grow in California.
▪ Inverted Order/Reversed Sentence: Inverted order of a sentence (sentence inversion) involves constructing a sentence so that the predicate comes before the subject: e.g., In California grow oranges. This is a device in which normal sentence patterns are reverse to create an emphatic or rhythmic effect. Reversal injects freshness, unexpectedness, and originality into your writing.
▪ Coordinated/Subordinated Sentence: You can coordinate ideas or subordinate some to others, or use a mixture of both to create different stylistic effects. Coordinating promotes ideas to equal standing; subordinating tends to tighten your writing and focus your reader’s attention on your main clause. (e.g., Coordinating: During the balance of this year, the company expects to issue $100,000,000 of long-term debt and equity securities and may guarantee up to $200,000,000 of new corporate bonds. Subordinating: Although the company expects to issue $100,000,000 of long-term debt and equity securities during the balance of this year, it may also guarantee up to $200,000,000 of new corporate bonds.
▪ Split Order: Split order of a sentence divides the predicate into two parts with the subject coming in the middle: e.g., In California oranges grow.
▪ Interrupted Sentence: e.g., Will you allow me, or do I ask too much, to introduce ms sister to your acquaintance during your stay?
▪ Juxtaposition: Juxtaposition is a poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another creating an effect of surprise and wit: e.g., “The apparition of these faces in the crowd:/ Petals on a wet, black bough” (“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound)
▪ Parallelism: Parallel structure (parallelism) refers to a grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of a sentence; it is often used for rhythm and emphasis. It involves an arrangement of words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs so that elements of equal importance are equally developed and similarly phrased: e.g., He was walking, running, and jumping for joy. Generally, three items in a series provide a natural rhythm.
▪ Repetition: Repetition is a device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythm and create emphasis: e.g., “…government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” (“Address at Gettysburg” by Abraham Lincoln)
▪ Rhetorical Question: A rhetorical question is a question that expects no answer. It is used to draw attention to a point that is generally stronger than a direct statement: e.g., If Mr. Ferchoff is always fair, as you have said, why did he refuse to listen to Mrs. Baldwin’s arguments?
SIMPLE PRINCIPLES FOR STRUCTURING SENTENCES
Worry about structure – but only after the first draft.
1. Place your main points in main clauses.
2. Place secondary or supporting points in subordinate clauses and phrases.
3. Keep parallel points and details in parallel form.
4. Mix the lengths and types of sentences you write.
Punctuation and Its Effect on Syntax
▪ Ellipses a trailing off; equally etc.; going off into a dreamlike state
▪ Dash interruption of a thought; an interjection of a thought into another
▪ Semicolon parallel ideas; equal ideas; a piling up of detail
▪ Colon a list; a definition or explanation; a result
▪ Italics for emphasis
▪ Capitalization for emphasis
▪ Exclamation Point for emphasis; for emotion
SYNTAX AND SENTENCE LENGTHS
▪ telegraphic (shorter than 5 words in length)
▪ short (approximately 5 words in length)
▪ medium (approximately 18 words in length)
▪ long and involved (30 or more words in length)?
SYNTAX PHRASES AND CLAUSES
▪ Phrase: A group of words that does not contain a subject or verb; the most common phrases are prepositional but there are also participial phrases (begin with a preposition and end with a noun or noun equivalent), participial phrases (function as adjectives) gerund phrases (function as nouns), and infinitive phrases (function as adjectives, adverbs or nouns).
▪ Clause: A group of words with a subject and verb.
▪ Independent Clause: a sentence with a subject and verb.
▪ Dependent Clause: There are three types – an adjective clause, an adverb clause and a noun clause.
o Adjective clauses are dependent clauses that describe nouns or pronouns and start with who, whose, whom, which or that; they usually answer one of these questions: Which one? What kind of?
o Adverb clauses begin with the standard list of subordinating conjunctions (e.g., because, although, if, when, before, since…) and usually answer one of these questions: When? Where? Why? How?
o Noun clauses stand (line any noun) for a person, place, thing or idea and usually begin with one of the following words: how, that, which, who, whoever, whom, whomever, what, whatever, when, whether, where, whose, why.
SYNTAX AND RHYTHM
Rhythm or cadence is produced by the arrangement of words and phrases. The following musical terms describe rhythm:
▪ Largo – slow, dignified, stately
▪ Adagio – slow, in an easy, graceful manner
▪ Moderator – in moderate time
▪ Allegro – brisk, quick, lively
▪ Presto – quick
▪ Legato – smooth and connected
▪ Staccato – with breaks between ideas, disconnected, abrupt
▪ Tremolo – rapid repetition, without apparent breaks (to express emotion)
▪ Vibrato – slightly throbbing or pulsating effect (adds warmth and beauty)
EFFECTS OF SYNTAX
1. emphasis
2. focus
3. change or shift
4. establish or imply relationships and connections
5. reveal persona
6. establish tone
7. establish mood
8. create rhythm
9. aid organization
10. create suspense, shock, surprise
11. create pleasing style
12. allow for development of ideas
13. create clarity, simplicity or economy
14. allow for more depth of ideas
15. make the level of language more or less abstract/concrete
16. make the level of language more or less high
17. avoid excessive or irritating repetition
18. imitate speech
19. create variety
20. create pacin
USING QUOTATIONS
A quotation is a reference to an authority or a citation of an authority. There are two types of quotations: direct and indirect.
1. A direct quotation uses the exact words of an authority and must be identified in your paper with quotation marks and parenthetical documentation.
2. An indirect quotation, or paraphrase, is a restatement of a thought expressed by someone else that is written in your own style that needs to be documented.
Know when to use quotations
• Use quotations when the specific language of a quote is important.
• Use quotations when accuracy is essential -- to indicate the writer's exact position.
• Use quotations to support your argument, rather than relying upon someone else's words.
• Keep quotes to a minimum. A short phrase or sentence is more easily understood than a long quotation.
• Look for the "kernel" or the most important part of the quotation and extract it.
• Paraphrase a quotation in your own words when possible.
Quoting a text or source in an essay is an effective way to further illustrate and support an argument or thesis. There are several ways in which these quotes can and should be used. You might quote a properly cited source when:
-- a line, or several lines of text best express the point that you are trying to convey
-- a text contains supporting details or data that are pertinent to your paper
-- you are repeating a direct quote from a personal interview or article
You can incorporate quotations into your paper in the following ways:
➢ Combine a paraphrase with a quotation (e.g., In her critique of soap operas, Tania Modleski argues that some view television as "a vast wasteland" and soap operas as "the least nourishing spot in the desert" (123).
➢ Introduce a quotation by citing the name of the authority. (e.g., Thoreau believed that "a true patriot would resist a tyrannical majority" (23).
➢ Describe or identify the source of information if it is available. (e.g., In The Coming of Age, Simone de Beavoir contends that the decrepitude accompanying old age is "in complete conflict with the manly)
➢ Use key words from the quotation and make them a grammatical part of your sentence. (e.g., As William Kneale suggests, some humans have a "moral deafness" which is never punctured no matter what the moral treatment (Acton 93).
THE THREE “I’s” WHEN INTEGRATING QUOTATIONS: Introduce, Integrate, and Interpret.
You start by setting up (introducing) the quotation (In the early part of the book, Joe says…); next, you integrate the quotation by setting it off using a colon or a comma (see below for examples); finally, you interpret the quotation (When Joe says this, what he is really indicating is…). NEVER LET A QUOTATION “SPEAK FOR ITSELF.” Notice, “interpret” does not necessarily mean “restate” or “repeat”; “interpret” means to explain the significance of the quotation in regards to your paper. Also notice that you want to avoid using phrases like “This quotation shows” or “In the previous quotation.”
YOU CAN ALSO “ICE” THE QUOTATION
Introduce – establish a context for the quotation; Control and Cite – lead in and cite the quotation; Elucidate – interpret and explain its significance
How much should I quote?
The focus of your essay should be on your understanding of the topic. If you include too much quotation in your essay, you will crowd out your own ideas. Consider quoting a passage from one of your sources if any of the following conditions holds:
1. 1. The language of the passage is particularly elegant or powerful or memorable.
2. 2. You wish to confirm the credibility of your argument by enlisting the support of an authority on your topic.
3. 3. The passage is worthy of further analysis (especially useful in literary analysis essays)
4. 4. You wish to argue with someone else’s position in considerable detail.
If an argument or a factual account from one of your sources is particularly relevant to your paper but does not deserve to be quoted verbatim, consider
1. • paraphrasing the passage if you wish to convey the points in the passage at roughly the same level of detail as in the original
2. • summarizing the relevant passage if you wish to sketch only the most essential points in the passage
Note that most scientific writing relies on summary rather than quotation. The same is true of writing in those social sciences—such as experimental psychology—that rely on controlled studies and emphasize quantifiable results. (Almost all of the examples below follow the MLA system of citation, which is widely used in the humanities and in those social sciences with a less quantitative approach.)
Why is it important to identify my sources?
Quotations come from somewhere, and your reader will want to know where. Don’t just parachute quotations into your essay without providing at least some indication of who your source is. Letting your reader know exactly which authorities you rely on is an advantage: it shows that you have done your research and that you are well acquainted with the literature on your topic.
In the following passage, the parenthetical reference to the author does not adequately identify the source:
The ancient Greeks never saw a need to justify wars that were waged outside the walls of the city state. “Hence we must turn to Roman antiquity to find the first justification of war, together with the first notion that there are just and unjust wars” (Arendt 12). Yet the Roman conception of a just war differs sharply from more modern conceptions.
When you are making decisions about how to integrate quotations into your essay, you might imagine that you are reading the essay out loud to an audience. You would not read the parenthetical note. Without some sort of introduction, your audience would not even know that the statement about Roman antiquity was a quotation, let alone where the quotation came from.
How do I introduce a short quotation?
The following offers just one way of introducing the above quotation:
The ancient Greeks never saw a need to justify wars that were waged outside the walls of the city state. As Hannah Arendt points out in On Revolution, “we must turn to Roman antiquity to find the first justification of war, together with the first notion that there are just and unjust wars” (12). Yet the Roman conception of a just war differs sharply from more modern conceptions.
Since the quotation is relatively short, the brief introduction works.
You could, however, strengthen your analysis by demonstrating the significance of the passage within your own argument. Introducing your quotation with a full sentence would help you assert greater control over the material:
The ancient Greeks never saw a need to justify wars that were waged outside the walls of the city state. In On Revolution, Hannah Arendt points to the role the Romans played in laying the foundation for later thinking about the ethics of waging war: “we must turn to Roman antiquity to find the first justification of war, together with the first notion that there are just and unjust wars” (12). Yet the Roman conception of a just war differs sharply from more modern conceptions.
In these two examples, observe the forms of punctuation used to introduce the quotations. When you introduce a quotation with a full sentence, you should always place a colon at the end of the introductory sentence. When you introduce a quotation with an incomplete sentence, you usually place a comma after the introductory phrase. However, it has become grammatically acceptable to use a colon rather than a comma:
Arendt writes: “we must turn to Roman antiquity to find the first justification of war . . .”
If you are blending the quotation into your own sentence using the conjunction that, do not use any punctuation at all:
Arendt writes that “we must turn to Roman antiquity to find the first justification of
war . . .”
If you are not sure whether to punctuate your introduction to a quotation, mentally remove the quotation marks, and ask yourself whether any punctuation is still required.
Finally, note that you can deviate from the common pattern of introduction followed by quotation. Weaving the phrases of others into your own prose offers a stylistically compelling way of maintaining control over your source material. Moreover, the technique of weaving can help you to produce a tighter argument. The following condenses twelve lines from Arendt’s essay to fewer than three:
What Arendt refers to as the “well-known realities of power politics” began to lose their moral legitimacy when the First World War unleashed “the horribly destructive” forces of warfare “under conditions of modern technology” (13).
What verbs and phrases can I use to introduce my quotations?
Familiarize yourself with the various verbs commonly used to introduce quotations. Here is a partial list:
|acknowledges |believes |counters |disputes |lists |replies |
|advises |charges |criticizes |emphasizes |maintains |reports |
|Agrees |claims |declares |explains |notes |responds |
|Allows |comments |demonstrates |expresses |observes |reveals |
|answers |concludes |describes |implies |opposes |states |
|Argues |concurs |disagrees |interprets |points out |suggests |
|Asserts |confirms |discusses |insists |remarks |writes |
Each verb has its own nuance. Make sure that the nuance matches your specific aims in introducing the quotation.
There are other ways to begin quotations. Here are three common phrasings:
In the words of X, . . . According to X, . . . In X’s view, . . .
Vary the way you introduce quotations to avoid sounding monotonous. But never sacrifice precision of phrasing for the sake of variety.
How do I introduce a long quotation?
If your quotation is lengthy, you should almost always introduce it with a full sentence that helps capture how it fits into your argument. If your quotation is longer than four lines, do not place it in quotation marks. Instead, set it off as a block quotation:
Although Dickens never shied away from the political controversies of his time, he never, in Orwell’s view, identified himself with any political program:
The truth is that Dickens’ criticism of society is almost exclusively moral. Hence his lack of any constructive suggestion anywhere in his work. He attacks the law, parliamentary government, the educational system and so forth, without ever clearly suggesting what he would put in their places. Of course it is not necessarily the business of a novelist, or a satirist, to make constructive suggestions, but the point is that Dickens’ attitude is at bottom not even destructive. . . . For in reality his target is not so much society as human nature. (416)
The full-sentence introduction to a block quotation helps demonstrate your grasp of the source material, and it adds analytical depth to your essay. But the introduction alone is not enough. Long quotations almost invariably need to be followed by extended analysis. Never allow the quotation to do your work for you. Usually you will want to keep the quotation and your analysis together in the same paragraph. Hence it is a good idea to avoid ending a paragraph with a quotation. But if your analysis is lengthy, you may want to break it into several paragraphs, beginning afresh after the quotation.
Once in a while you can reverse the pattern of quotation followed by analysis. A felicitously worded or an authoritative quotation can, on occasion, nicely clinch an argument.
There is some flexibility in the rule that block quotations are for passages of four lines or more: a shorter passage can be represented as a block quotation if it is important enough to stand on its own. For example, when you are quoting two or more lines of poetry, you will probably want to display the verse as it appears on the page:
In the opening heroic couplet of The Rape of the Lock, Pope establishes the unheroic nature of the poem’s subject matter:
What dire offense from amorous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things. (1-2)
If you choose to integrate verse into your own sentence, then use a slash surrounded by spaces to indicate line breaks:
In Eliot’s The Waste Land, the symbols of a mythic past lie buried in “A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, / And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief” (22-23).
How do I let my reader know I’ve altered my sources?
If you need to alter your quotations in any way, be sure to indicate just how you have done so. If you remove text, then replace the missing text with an ellipsis—three periods surrounded by spaces:
In The Mirror and the Lamp, Abrams comments that the “diversity of aesthetic theories . . . makes the task of the historian a very difficult one” (5).
If the omitted text occurs between sentences, then put a space after the period at the end of sentence, and follow that by an ellipsis. In all, there will be four periods. (See Orwell on Dickens, above.)
Many people overuse ellipses at the beginning and end of quotations. Use an ellipsis in either place only when your reader might otherwise mistake an incomplete sentence for a complete one:
Abraham Lincoln begins “The Gettysburg Address” with a reminder of the act upon which the United States was founded: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation . . .” (1).
Do not use an ellipsis if you are merely borrowing a phrase from the original:
In “The Gettysburg Address” Abraham Lincoln reminds his listeners of the principles that had inspired the creation of “a new nation” (1).
If you need to alter or replace text from the original, enclose the added text within square brackets. You may, for example, need to alter text to ensure that pronouns agree with their antecedents. Do not write,
Gertrude asks her son Hamlet to “cast your nighted colour off” (1.2.68).
Square brackets allow you to absorb Gertrude’s words into your own statement:
Gertrude asks her son Hamlet to “cast [his] nighted colour off” (1.2.68).
Alternatively, you can include Gertrude’s original phrasing in its entirety so long as the introduction to the quotation is not fully integrated with the quotation. The introduction can be an independent clause:
Gertrude implores her son Hamlet to stop mourning the death of his father: “cast your nighted colour off” (I.ii.68).
Or it can be an incomplete sentence:
Gertrude implores her son Hamlet, “cast your nighted colour off” (1.2.68).
How is punctuation affected by quotation?
You must preserve the punctuation of a quoted passage, or else you must enclose in square brackets any punctuation marks that are your own.
There is, however, one important exception to this rule. You are free to alter the punctuation just before a closing quotation mark. You may need to do so to ensure that your sentences are fully grammatical. Do not worry about how the original sentence needs to be punctuated before that quotation mark; think about how your sentence needs to be punctuated. Note, for example, that if you are using the MLA system of referencing, a sentence always ends after the parenthetical reference. Do not also include a period before closing the quotation mark, even if there is a period there in the original. For example, do not write,
According to Schama, Louis XVI remained calm during his trial: “The Terror had no power to frighten an old man of seventy-two.” (822).
The period before the closing quotation mark must go:
According to Schama, Louis XVI remained calm during his trial: “The Terror had no power to frighten an old man of seventy-two” (822).
However, if you are using footnotes, the period remains inside the quotation mark, while the footnote number goes outside:
According to Schama, Louis XVI remained calm during his trial: “The Terror had no power to frighten an old man of seventy-two.”1
In Canada and the United States, commas and periods never go outside a quotation mark. They are always absorbed as part of the quotation, whether they belong to you or to the author you are quoting:
“I am a man / more sinned against than sinning,” Lear pronounces in Act 3, Scene 2 (59-60).
However, stronger forms of punctuation such as question marks and exclamation marks go inside the quotation if they belong to the author, and outside if they do not:
Bewildered, Lear asks the fool, “Who is it that can tell me who I am?” (1.4.227).
Why is Lear so rash as to let his “two daughters’ dowers digest the third” (1.1.127)?
Finally, use single quotation marks for all quotations within quotations:
When Elizabeth reveals that her younger sister has eloped, Darcy drops his customary reserve: “‘I am grieved, indeed,’ cried Darcy, ‘grieved — shocked’” (Austen 295).
TENSE USE IN LITERARY ANALYSIS
Use the present tense to describe fictional events that occur in the text: (This use of present tense is referred to as “the historical present.”)
• In Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan tempts Eve in the form of a serpent.
• Voltaire’s Candide encounters numerous misfortunes throughout his travels.
Also use the present tense to report your interpretations and the interpretations of other sources:
• Odysseus represents the archetypal epic hero.
• Flannagan suggests that Satan is the protagonist of Paradise Lost.
• Use the past tense to explain historical context or elements of the author's life that occurred exclusively in the past:
• Hemingway drew on his experiences in World War I in constructing the character of Jake Barnes.
When writing about literature, use both present and past tense when combining observations about fictional events from the text (present tense) with factual information (past tense):
• James Joyce, who grew up in the Catholic faith, draws on church doctrine to illuminate the roots of Stephen Dedalus' guilt.
• In Les Belles Images, Simone de Beauvoir accurately portrays the complexities of a marriage even though she never married in her lifetime.
Use the present perfect tense to describe an event in the text previous to the principal event you are describing:
• The governess questions the two children because she believes they have seen the ghosts.
• Convinced that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him, Othello strangles her.
Use the past tense when referring to an event that happened before the story begins:
• In the opening scenes of Hamlet, the men are visited by the ghost of Hamlet’s father, whom Claudius had murdered.
TRANSITIONS
An essay without effective transitions is like a series of isolated islands. The reader will struggle to get from one point to the next. Use transitions as bridges between your ideas.
What are transitions and how are they used?
Transitions are phrases or words used to connect one idea to the next.
Transitions are used by the author to help the reader progress from one significant idea to the next; in other words, they make an essay coherent.
Transitions also show the relationship between the main idea and the support the author gives for those ideas within a paragraph (or even within a sentence).
Transitions have a variety of specific uses.
1) Transitions within paragraphs
Within a single paragraph, transitions, such as single words or short phrases, help the reader anticipate what will come next. The transition may signal an additional or similar piece of information, or it may prepare the reader for a change or exception to previously stated information.
For example:
Mary Cassatt, one of the few female Impressionist painters, lived in France although she was of American descent. Unlike her fellow painters, who chose landscapes as their primary medium, Cassatt's main subjects were her immediate family. In fact, her nieces and nephews were captured in many of her most famous works of art.
2) Transitions between paragraphs
Transitions between paragraphs serve as connections between old and new information. A word, a phrase, or a sentence signals to the reader that something different is coming and transitions the reader from old to new information.
For example:
Mary Cassatt, one of the few female Impressionist painters, lived in France although she was of American descent. Unlike her fellow painters who chose landscapes as their primary medium, Cassatt's main subjects were her immediate family. In fact, her nieces and nephews were captured in many of her most famous works of art.
For instance, the painting, Mother with Child, shows Cassatt's sister bathing her child. This painting not only illustrates Cassatt's use of her family as subjects, but also highlights the theme of mother and child. The closeness of the mother with her child remains a constant theme of Cassatt's painting and sketching throughout the Impressionist period.
Note: The first sentence of the second paragraph draws the reader's attention to a new idea, a specific example in this case. The following sentence repeats a familiar theme (family members) from the first paragraph and then introduces a new idea (mother and child).
Transitional Phrases
1. Addition: additionally, and, also, besides, further, furthermore, in addition, moreover, next, too, first, second, third, likewise, nor, again, last.
2. Comparison: similarly, likewise, in the same manner, also.
3. Contrast: yet, but, however, still, nevertheless, on the contrary, conversely, even so, notwithstanding, for all that, in contrast, at the same time, although, otherwise, nonetheless, on the other hand.
4. Place: above, below, beyond, farther on, nearby, opposite, close, to the left, here, adjacent to.
5. Purpose/logic: to this end, for this purpose, with this in mind, if, so, therefore, consequently, subsequently, thus, as a result, for this reason, because, since.
6. Result: hence, therefore, accordingly, consequently, thus, thereupon, as a result, then.
7. Summary: to sum up, in brief, on the whole, in sum, in short, as I have said, in other words, in summary, in conclusion, that is, therefore, that is, to be sure, as has been noted, in any event.
8. Examples: for example, for instance, to illustrate, in fact, specifically, indeed.
9. Time: meanwhile, at length, soon, after a few days, in the meantime, afterward, later, now, in the past, after, as, before, next, during, later, finally, since, then, when, while, immediately.
Progression:
First Second Third
One Another Still another
Some Others Still others
First Then Next Finally
Then Now Soon Later
A few Many More Most
Just as significant More Important Most important of all
The conjunctive adverb: grammar lesson:
To use a contrasting word, such as however, the use of a conjunctive adverb is accomplished with the aid of a semicolon (;) and comma (,) setting off the adverb.
Health organizations have issued many warnings about beef tainted with E. coli 0157:H7; however, those warnings were ignored because of the economic costs of fixing what is wrong with the U.S. regulations.
COHERENT SENTENCES – SHOWING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN IDEAS
Addition: additionally, also, too, as well as, besides, equally important, furthermore, in addition, moreover
Result or Cause: consequently, hence, therefore, so, thus, because, then, as a result, accordingly, as a consequence, for this reason, because of this
Restatement: in other words, that is, that is to say, in simpler terms
Summary or Conclusion: finally, in conclusion, to sum up, in summary, all in all, succinctly put, evidently, actually, overall, in brief, briefly, lastly, on the whole, in short, therefore, thus, consequently, accordingly, hence, then
Opposing View or Contrast: at the same time, but, despite this/that, instead, however, on the contrary, in contrast to/on the contrast, contrarily, unlike, conversely, nevertheless, nonetheless, neither, not, yet, but, on the one/other hand, still, besides this, otherwise
Comparison: in the same way, similarly, likewise, in like manner
Example/Illustration: for example, for instance, as an illustration, to illustrate, as a case in point, in particular, in general, namely, specifically, generally
Emphasize An Idea: above all, certainly, especially, in fact, indeed, surely, most importantly, naturally, equally important, of course
Concede A Point: granted, certainly, of course, no doubt, surely, naturally, although this may be true
Qualify A Point: perhaps, probably, for the most part, in part, apparently, seemingly
Direction and Distance: inside/outside, along, above/below, up/down, across, to the right/left, in front/behind of, to the east/north/south/west, beyond, in the distance, away, here, there, further, on/off, beside, in the background/foreground, opposite to, next to, near, nearby, facing, adjacent to, on the near/far side
Time and Frequency: at the same time, currently, previously immediately, often, suddenly, frequently, now and then, at that time, gradually, week/day/hour/minute/second…, occasionally, weekly/daily/hourly…, rarely, during, briefly
Beginning: before then, beginning with, at the beginning, at first, first, initially
Middle: meanwhile, in the meantime, simultaneously, next, then, now
End: finally, at last, eventually, later, in the end
VERBS OF ATTRIBUTION/ALTERNATIVES TO THE VERB “SAYS”
Verbs of attribution, also known as lead-in verbs, signal that the writer is quoting, paraphrasing or referring to another source. “Says” is the most common – and boring if overused – verb of attribution. The following verbs in bold print indicate you are citing someone else’s opinions, or information you found elsewhere. Often these verbs show whether or not the writer or the source author agrees with the cited material. While some verbs of attribution are relatively objective (e.g., illustrates, indicates, mentions, addresses, states, suggests, cites, writes…) others carry more emotional weight and should be used with care (e.g., exclaims, insinuates, retorts, mumbles, whines…) The verbs not bolded are strong replacement verbs for the word “says” in fictional and personal writing.
accepts
accounts for
accuses
acknowledges
acquires
addresses
adds
admits
admonishes
advises
affirms
agrees
alleges
allows
alludes
analyzes
announces
answers
apologizes
appeases
approves
argues
articulates
asks
assents
asserts
assumes
assures
avows
begins
begs
believes
bellows
berates
beseeches
blurts
boasts
brags
cajoles
calls
categorizes
cautions
challenges
charges
chides
cites
claims
coaxes
commands
comments
compares
complains
concedes
concludes
concurs
confesses
confirms
consents
considers
contends
contents
contests
continues
contributes
corrects
counters
cries
criticizes
cross-examines
deals with
debates
decides
declaims
declares
defends
defines
demands
denies
describes
determines
dictates
disagrees
discloses
discusses
disputes
divulges
echoes
elaborates
emphasizes
endorses
entreats
enumerates
estimates
exaggerates
exclaims
explains
exhorts
expostulates
expresses
extols
fears
finds
fumes
gasps
gloats
goads
grants
growls
grunts
guesses
hastens -to say-
hesitates
hints
hypothesizes
illustrates
imitates
implies
implores
indicates
informs
inquires
insinuates
insists
interjects
interposes
interprets
interrupts
interrogates
intimates
intimidates
intones
introduces
jeers
jests
jokes
laughs
lectures
lies
lists
makes known
magnifies
maintains
manifests
marvels
mentions
mimics
mocks
mourns
mumbles
murmurs
muses
notes
objects
observes
offers
opposes
orders
pants
perceives
persists
pleads
points out
ponders
praises
prays
preaches
predicts
prevaricates
proceeds
proclaims
prods
promises
profanes
professes
prophesies
proposes
propounds
promises
prompts
proposes
protests
pursues
puts in
queries
questions
quips
quotes
rants
rates
rails
relates
runs on
rants
raves
realizes
reasons
recalls
recites
recounts
refutes
regrets
reiterates
rejects
rejoins
remarks
remembers
reminds
remonstrates
renounces
repeats
replies
reports
reprimands
requests
resolves
responds
resumes
retorts
reveals
scoffs
scorns
sees
sermonizes
shouts
shows
sighs
sneers
specifies
speculates
spells out
speaks
starts
states
stipulates
stresses
submits
suggests
supports
supposes
taunts
testifies
theorizes
thinks
threatens
tells
urges
uses
utilizes
utters
vaunts
ventures
verifies
voices
volunteers
warns
whimpers
whines
whispers
wonders
writes
yells
DISCOURSE VERBS FOR USE IN ANALYSIS
|Accentuates |
|Accepts |
|Achieves |
|Addresses |
|Adopts |
|Advocates |
|Affects |
|Alleviates |
|Allows |
|alludes to |
|Alters |
|Alters |
|Analyzes |
|Approaches |
|Argues |
|Ascertains |
|Asserts |
|Assesses |
|Assumes |
|Attacks |
|Attempts |
|Attributes |
|Avoids |
|Bases |
|Believes |
|Challenges |
|Changes |
|Characterizes |
|Chooses |
|Chronicles |
|Claims |
|Clarifies |
|Comments |
|Compares |
|compels |
|completes |
|concerns |
|concludes |
|condescends |
|conducts |
|confesses |
|conforms |
|confronts |
|conjures up |
|connects |
|connotes |
|considers |
|constrains |
|constructs |
|construes |
|contends |
|contests |
|contrasts |
|contributes |
|conveys |
|convinces |
|creates |
|defends |
|defies |
|defines |
|delineates |
|delves |
|demonstrates |
|denigrates |
|depicts |
|describes |
|despises |
|details |
|determines |
|develops |
|deviates |
|differentiates |
|differs |
|directs |
|disappoints |
|discerns |
|discovers |
|discusses |
|dispels |
|displays |
|disputes |
|disrupts |
|distinguishes |
|distorts |
|downplays |
|dramatizes |
|elevates |
|elicits |
|elucidates |
|embodies |
|emphasizes |
|employs |
|empowers |
|enables |
|enacts |
|encounters |
|enhances |
|enriches |
|enumerates |
|enunciates |
|envisions |
|evokes |
|Excludes |
|Exemplifies |
|Expands |
|Experiences |
|Explains |
|explores |
|Expresses |
|Extends |
|Extrapolates |
|Foreshadows |
|Heightens |
|Highlights |
|hints |
|hints at |
|Holds |
|Honors |
|Identifies |
|Ignites |
|Illustrates |
|Imagines |
|Impels |
|Implies |
|Includes |
|Indicates |
|Infers |
|Inspires |
|Instills |
|Intends |
|Interprets |
|Interrupts |
|Inundates |
|Invokes |
|Justifies |
|Juxtaposes |
|Lampoons |
|Lists |
|Maintains |
|Makes |
|Manages |
|Manipulates |
|masters |
|Meanders |
|Mimics |
|Minimizes |
|Mirrors |
|Moralizes |
|Muses |
|Notes |
|Observes |
|Opposes |
|organizes |
|outlines |
|overstates |
|paints |
|parallels |
|patronizes |
|performs |
|permits |
|personifies |
|persuades |
|pervades |
|ponders |
|portrays |
|posits |
|possesses |
|postulates |
|predicts |
|prepares |
|presents |
|produces |
|prone to |
|rationalizes |
|reasons |
|recalls |
|recites |
|recollects |
|records |
|recounts |
|refers |
|reflects |
|refutes |
|regales |
|regards |
|regrets |
|repudiates |
|reveals |
|reverts |
|satirizes |
|seems |
|sees |
|selects |
|serves |
|shifts |
|showcases |
|shows (weak) |
|solidifies |
|specifies |
|speculates |
|states |
|stirs |
|stresses |
|strives |
|suggests |
|sustains |
|tackles |
|traces |
|transcends |
|transforms |
|twists |
|underlines |
|understands |
|understates |
|uses (weak) |
|utilizes (weak) |
|vacillates |
|values |
|verifies |
|views |
|wants |
|wishes |
ACTIVE VERSUS PASSIVE VOICE
From The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
Use the active voice.
The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive:
I shall always remember my first visit to Boston.
This is much better than
My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me.
The latter sentence is less direct, less bold, and less concise. If the writer tries to make it more concise by omitting "by me,"
My first visit to Boston will always be remembered,
it becomes indefinite: is it the writer, or some person undisclosed, or the world at large, that will always remember this visit?
This rule does not, of course, mean that the writer should entirely discard the passive voice, which is frequently convenient and sometimes necessary.
The dramatists of the Restoration are little esteemed to-day.
Modern readers have little esteem for the dramatists of the Restoration.
The first would be the right form in a paragraph on the dramatists of the Restoration; the second, in a paragraph on the tastes of modern readers. The need of making a particular word the subject of the sentence will often, as in these examples, determine which voice is to be used.
The habitual use of the active voice, however, makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative principally concerned with action, but in writing of any kind. Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a transitive in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is, or could be heard.
|There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground. |Dead leaves covered the ground. |
|The sound of the falls could still be heard. |The sound of the falls still reached our ears. |
|The reason that he left college was that his health became impaired. |Failing health compelled him to leave college. |
|It was not long before he was very sorry that he had said what he had. |He soon repented his words. |
As a rule, avoid making one passive depend directly upon another.
|Gold was not allowed to be exported. |It was forbidden to export gold (The export of gold was prohibited). |
|He has been proved to have been seen entering the building. |It has been proved that he was seen to enter the building. |
In both the examples above, before correction, the word properly related to the second passive is made the subject of the first.
A common fault is to use as the subject of a passive construction a noun which expresses the entire action, leaving to the verb no function beyond that of completing the sentence.
|A survey of this region was made in 1900. |This region was surveyed in 1900. |
|Mobilization of the army was rapidly carried out. |The army was rapidly mobilized. |
|Confirmation of these reports cannot be obtained. |These reports cannot be confirmed. |
Compare the sentence, "The export of gold was prohibited," in which the predicate "was prohibited" expresses something not implied in "export."
Active/Passive Voice
The English language has two voices—active voice and passive voice. Both terms refer to the use of verbs. Active voice is direct, vigorous, strong; passive voice is indirect, limp, weak, and—sneaky.
Active voice: Dan opened the bag.
Dan is the subject of the sentence, and Dan acted. He did something—he opened. The verb shows him in action. Any other sentence with an active verb could demonstrate the same principle: Rachel cheated. Chris skated. Mollie interrupted. Jamie tripped. Whenever a verb shows the subject of a sentence doing something, the sentence is in active voice.
Passive voice: The bag was opened by Dan.
In this sentence, the subject is bag. But the bag is doing nothing at all. It is having something done to it.
The passive voice differs from the active voice in three ways:
1. The subject expresses the goal of the action.
2. A form of the verb be precedes a verb in its past participle form.
3. The agent of the action appears after the verb in a “by-phrase” (but it may also be dropped).
Bells were rung, horns were blown, confetti was thrown from every office window, and embraces were exchanged by total strangers. (Passive Voice)
Bells rang, horns tooted, confetti streamed from every office window, and total strangers threw their arms around each other. (Active Voice)
The chief weakness of passive voice is its anonymity. It could almost be called the “nobody” voice: it is used by politicians to escape blame (“Mistakes were made.”).
The room was cleaned. The room was cleaned by Daniela.
The flowers were cut. The flowers were cut by Josh.
The lights were turned on. The lights were turned on by Marcos.
Because of the anonymity of this style of sentence, the writer is tempted to include or tag on a name at the end of it. This may help the writer’s conscience, but it doesn’t help his writing. Despite adding the names, the subjects are still not acting; each is accepting whatever the rest of the sentence chooses to dish out. That’s boring and makes for boring, uninteresting writing.
A good way to handle passive voice is to cut off the end of this kind of sentence and switch it around entirely.
Daniela cleaned the room. Josh cut the flowers. Marcos turned on the lights.
When to use the passive voice:
Use the passive voice sparingly. Avoid weak and awkward passives in the interest of variety, avoid long passages in which all the verbs are passive. Although this rule is generally true, there are a few situations where the passive voice is particularly useful.
1. Use the passive voice to express an action in which the actor is unknown:
An anonymous letter was sent to the police chief.
2. Use the passive voice to express an action in which it is desirable not to disclose the actor.
The missing painting has been returned to the museum.
3. Choose the passive when you don’t know who did it, your readers don’t care who did it, or you don’t want them to know who did it.
Because the inspection was not done, the flaw was left uncorrected, a fact that was known months before it was leaked to the press.
Sometimes the passive voice is more convenient, and just as appropriate, as the active voice. In the following sentences, the passive voice is completely acceptable and probably more natural.
Penicillin, a modern wonder drug, was discovered accidentally.
The person who was standing near the entrance was asked to close the door.
The top player was eliminated in the first round.
4. Writing a summary using the active voice.
4. The “objective” passive is often used in the sciences. It contributes to an objective point of view.
The subjects were divided into a high- or low-ability group. Half of each group was randomly assigned to a treatment group or a placebo group.
Whenever possible, you should write in the active voice. The active voice is usually more direct, more vigorous, and more concise than the passive voice.
The students made a contribution. (direct and concise)
A contribution was made by the students. (indirect, awkward, and wordy)
However, the passive voice is useful in situations in which the performer of the action is unknown or unimportant.
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Improving Sentence Style
1. What style of sentences can you find? List the number of loose, balanced, parallel, and periodic sentences. If you have no sentences of one of these types in your paper, rewrite some sentences in that style.
2. How long are your sentences? Count words in the paper, count sentences, and divide to arrive at an average length.
3. Find your longest sentence. What is the length of the sentence before it? After it? If that long sentence is not either preceded or followed by a short sentence, change one of them to a short sentence.
4. What forms are your sentences? Count simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences. If you do not have variety, rewrite some sentences to include these sentence types.
5. Count the number of to be verbs (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been). Find three that can better be expressed as action verbs and rewrite the sentences that way.
6. Count parallel constructions. If there are fewer than three in the paper, rewrite three sentences so they contain parallel elements.
7. How do your sentences begin? If more than half of your sentences begin with the subject, rewrite them in a way that varies the beginning.
8. Check your comma use by applying these four rules:
a. Use a comma before and, but, for, or, not, so, yet, and still when those words join independent clauses.
b. Use a comma between all terms in a series.
c. Use a comma(s) to set off parenthetical openers and afterthoughts.
d. Use a comma to separate an introductory clause or a long modifying phrase from the independent clause which follows it.
e. Use two commas to enclose parenthetical insertions.
f. Use commas to set off appositives, explanatory words or phrases.
9. Have you used any semicolons? If not, find a sentence or a pair of sentences that would be better punctuated with a semicolon and rewrite.
10. Have you used any dashes? If not, find a sentence that would improve with a dash and rewrite.
11. Have you inverted any sentences? If not, rewrite one to do so.
12. You may or may not use parentheses or colons in very essay , but try to do so occasionally.
13. Find all which clauses and rewrite half of them to eliminate which.
14. Eliminate as many of, in, to, and by’s as you can.
15. Find all instances of there is or there are and eliminate as many as possible.
16. Find all instances of it with no antecedent and eliminate.
17. Find all instances of this or that used without a noun. Add a noun or rewrite.
18. Have you used quotation marks? Check for correctness.
19. Have you used apostrophes or colons? Do you need to?
20. Is your diction appropriate for your audience? Check for slang, trite expressions, and garbage words. Eliminate as necessary.
According to Victor Gould, in Experimenting in Effective Writing, there are four major factors relating to a mature writing style:
▪ Ability to write long sentences: Average number of words per sentence: 17-19 in high school; low 20s for early college
▪ Ability to write and control long sentences: Sentence variety is important – mix short, medium and long
▪ Ability to use modifiers: Clauses and phrases that modify (tell more about, add to) the main clause. Subject and verbs are underlined below; the rest of the sentence consists of modifiers:
The night train, in fire and fury, shot through a gully, up a rise, and vanished away over cold earth toward the night, leaving black smoke and steam to dissolve in the numbed air minutes after it had passed and gone forever. From The Dragon by Ray Bradbury
▪ Ability to use structures of coordination within a sentence. When you coordinate parts of anything, you bring them together. In the example below, the author links independent clauses and their subordinate elements.
In silence the men buckled on their armor and mounted their horses. The midnight
wilderness was split by a monstrous gushing as the dragon roared nearer, nearer; its
flashing yellow glare spurted above a hill and then, fold on fold of dark body,
distantly seen, therefore indistinct, flowed over that hill and plunged vanishing into
a valley. From The Dragon by Ray Bradbury
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