Showing posts with label timed essays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label timed essays. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Essay Prompt for "The Storm,"
Write a well-organized essay in which you discuss which literary techniques Chopin uses in order to develop the emotional storm of the characters in the story. Some suggested tools are imagery, metaphor, and setting.
Monday, February 23, 2009
10 Important Reminders
Things Fall Apart
Typed revisions due Friday with originals attached. Please adhere to MLA guidelines.
General Notes for Class:
1) Introductions—stick to your thesis statement. If you promise you are going to write about setting, imagery, and point of view, that’s what you need to write about. Don’t go off topic UNLESS you are using the subtopic as a means to prove your thesis statement.
2) Novels are underlined, short stories get “”quotations. A novel is “entitled.”
3) Not a bad idea to start off the intro with the quote and then paraphrase its meaning and then explain how it is related to TFA.
4) Avoid 2nd person pov when possible
5) Don’t be afraid to take a stand in your essay. This book has an agenda –to show you the African pov, don’t be afraid to vehemently articulate this.
6) Citations must be in the proper, MLA format. “ blah blah blah,” (Achebe, 62).
7) Try to neatly embed your support rather than an awkward insertion.
8) Pay attention to your verbs. If you are using lots of helping verbs,--there is a hint that your verbs aren’t strong enough.
9) Choose a tense and stick with it. Generally, the present tense is stronger.
10) Don’t forget to address the ambiguities and the complexities. Nothing is simply black and white in a text. Achebe is both a powerful warrior and a misogynist. The Christians destroyed a culture in the belief that they were “saving” it. Be sure to define your terms and the questions those terms may provoke.
Typed revisions due Friday with originals attached. Please adhere to MLA guidelines.
General Notes for Class:
1) Introductions—stick to your thesis statement. If you promise you are going to write about setting, imagery, and point of view, that’s what you need to write about. Don’t go off topic UNLESS you are using the subtopic as a means to prove your thesis statement.
2) Novels are underlined, short stories get “”quotations. A novel is “entitled.”
3) Not a bad idea to start off the intro with the quote and then paraphrase its meaning and then explain how it is related to TFA.
4) Avoid 2nd person pov when possible
5) Don’t be afraid to take a stand in your essay. This book has an agenda –to show you the African pov, don’t be afraid to vehemently articulate this.
6) Citations must be in the proper, MLA format. “ blah blah blah,” (Achebe, 62).
7) Try to neatly embed your support rather than an awkward insertion.
8) Pay attention to your verbs. If you are using lots of helping verbs,--there is a hint that your verbs aren’t strong enough.
9) Choose a tense and stick with it. Generally, the present tense is stronger.
10) Don’t forget to address the ambiguities and the complexities. Nothing is simply black and white in a text. Achebe is both a powerful warrior and a misogynist. The Christians destroyed a culture in the belief that they were “saving” it. Be sure to define your terms and the questions those terms may provoke.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Essay Topic for Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe repeats a great proverb that goes "until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Write an essay illustrating how Things Fall Apart is an attempt to give the lions their say (to carry on with the metaphor).
Be sure to address the literary techniques the author uses as a means to convey the larger themes of the novel.
Want to brush up on your history to see what the Brits did and when? check out this entry on Nigeria
Be sure to address the literary techniques the author uses as a means to convey the larger themes of the novel.
Want to brush up on your history to see what the Brits did and when? check out this entry on Nigeria
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Writing Tips Part 2
1. Choose a tense and stick to it. If you begin your essay, "Wordsworth wrote," you have chosen the past tense. Your next sentence can't be "Wordsworth writes."
2. Do not switch to the 2nd person point of view. Example, "In the poem, the author chooses words to show how constraining the form of the sonnet is. Therefore, you can't be as creative if you only have ten syllables to a line!" Instead, revise the line to say,"ten syllables is too rigid a constraint to place on a form of writing intended to express creative thought." Or something like that.
3. Use topic sentences!
4. Stick to proving whatever your topic sentence promises to defend. For example, if your topic sentence says "Wordsworth uses imagery to elaborate on the restrictions of the sonnet." The rest of the paragraph should have examples and analysis of how the images are restrictive and NOTHING ELSE.
5. Use transitional phrases to move from one paragraph to another. For example, while Wordsworth seems to dislike the Sonnet, Keats on the other hand, seems to admire the form.
2. Do not switch to the 2nd person point of view. Example, "In the poem, the author chooses words to show how constraining the form of the sonnet is. Therefore, you can't be as creative if you only have ten syllables to a line!" Instead, revise the line to say,"ten syllables is too rigid a constraint to place on a form of writing intended to express creative thought." Or something like that.
3. Use topic sentences!
4. Stick to proving whatever your topic sentence promises to defend. For example, if your topic sentence says "Wordsworth uses imagery to elaborate on the restrictions of the sonnet." The rest of the paragraph should have examples and analysis of how the images are restrictive and NOTHING ELSE.
5. Use transitional phrases to move from one paragraph to another. For example, while Wordsworth seems to dislike the Sonnet, Keats on the other hand, seems to admire the form.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)