Tuesday, February 5, 2013

This Seat's Taken: AP Lit, February 6, 2013

Focus: Strengthening your writing style and voice through the critical review

1. Announcements!

2. Quick warm-up: How little choices can have a big impact...

"It's my pleasure"   vs.   "You're welcome"

Morrison sweeps up her readers in a state of tortured yet meaningful confusion.
                                                  vs.
Morrison neglects her readers in a state of tortured and insubstantial confusion.


3. Editing the critical review


  • Do the opening paragraph and the plot summary clearly and powerfully convey the tone and purpose of the review?  If not, suggest places where the writer can clarify and strengthen the tone.
  • Do the opening paragraph and plot summary clearly establish the novel's genre, year of publication, structure, and other basic information?


  • Do the body paragraphs evaluate the author's craft as effective or ineffective?
  • Do the body paragraphs focus on specific elements of the author's craft, such as characterization, setting, symbols, motifs, and themes?
  • Remember that the focus here is on how the author effectively or ineffectively creates compelling characters, significant setting, etc.; this differs from straightforward literary analysis.
  • Do the body paragraphs justify the writer's claims by bringing in specific examples/quotations?


  • Does the closing paragraph drive home the writer's evaluation of this novel?
  • Some possibilities for the conclusion: Possible audiences for this book, your projected future for this book, a comparison/contrast to other books by this author...


Please click on the "Writing Reviser" link using FIREFOX, and I will walk you through how to use this tool to edit for active voice, diction, and syntax.

Proofreading checklist:


MLA heading and title
12 point font, double spacing, margins, etc.
Headers on each page (Walker 2)
Quotation citations (Morrison 28)
Italicized titles
Properly spelled author and character names
Formal punctuation
Omitted words
Works Cited

HW:
1. Final draft of critical review is due Friday.
2. Next Beloved Socratic seminar is tomorrow; reading ticket is on imagery.



1 comment:

  1. David thinks he could be wrong about milk and butter from the barn scene
    Dehumanization
    Connecting back to Les Miserables, Fontine and her devolution from a normal working woman to a prostitute selling her hair and teeth
    Barns are dirty, representative of dirty actions
    Halle and Sethe used to make love in open areas such as the corn fields
    Connection between darkness and Beloved, representative of possession?
    Dark place could be the womb?
    Picture of the blueprint for the slave ship comes to mind in connection of darkness, further, the passage of slaves into America
    Ms. Leclaire notes that the middle passage interpretation is legitimate
    References of spider webs and vines in negative connotations, while the quilt is referenced in a positive connotation
    Is Beloved getting her strength from weakening others? Reference to How to Read Literature Like a Professor: “Nice to Eat You”
    Harry Potter reference from Emily
    Discussion about page 91, does Beloved understand her story/the story of her family?
    Bourne Trilogy reference from Ben
    Beloved must have a good understanding of the story
    Beloved is still the angry spirit/child that she was
    Does Denver know? Class says yes
    Tension between Paul D and Beloved, what side will Sethe choose?
    Denver does not want her mother to be reunited with Beloved in fear of Sethe losing the happy condition she is currently in
    Confusion over a dragon reference from chapter 7, believed to be a reference to the Klan
    Why do you think Denver is born on the border between the North and South?
    Blue, lots of blue
    Denver is then middle ground. She is not technically a slave, yet she is not entirely free.
    She is connected to slavery still, due to the reminder on Sethe’s back
    Denver is not held back by memory like the other characters are
    You can’t mold water, Denver is not molded by the past, Denver was born on the water
    Denver is the hope for the future, held back by Beloved
    Connection between Denver and her namesake
    White trash in the South placed even lower than Blacks

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