Before the essay: Develop Critical Thinking Questions

Create five questions like those modeled below that ask how different literary elements are used by the poet Thomas James's "Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh." At least two of the questions must ask comparison or contrast questions with regard to a specific poem of your choice. 

“The Tell-Tale Heart”

1. What point of view is this story, and how does this impact the reader’s trust in the narrator?

2. What is the central conflict in this story, what’s the climax, and what’s the resolution? What does our understanding of the plot do for our understanding of larger themes we take away from the story? 

3. When does the speaker reveal what he’s done and why he’s done it, and what does that ordering of information tell us about the speaker?

4.What is the most powerful image in the story, and how does that image help us further characterize the narrator?

5. How does the narrator describe, in general, his actions? How does his general way of describing his actions further characterize him? What are some specific examples that illustrate our points?

“The Cask of Amontillado”

1. How does this story start differently from the narrator’s point of view?

2. What are some ways that both of Poe’s narrators are similar in character action? In their reasoning of their actions?

3. In comparing both Poe narrators’ plots, what are some general similarities that you can see between the two?

4. What characteristic allows Fortunato to fall into Montresor’s plot, and how then are Poe’s plots similarly structured when considering other literary elements? (Setting, etc. Let’s trace the narrator’s usage across the story’s plot…)

5. How does irony operate differently in both stories?

Editing Run-Ons

First, reviewing two major types of clauses for which we use to edit syntax:

• Dependent Clause (DEP)

• Incomplete thought/fragment: may or may not have a subject and verb, but the idea implies that there is more to come.

• Example 1:  Having eaten.  
• Who ate? What have they eaten? What did eating do?

• Example 2:  At the store. 

• Yes???? This specific example is a prepositional phrase with no context, or subject or verb!

• Independent clause (IND)

• Complete thought/sentence: has both the subject and verb. Most often, there is also a predicate = verb + object/how subject is modified

• Example:  I write poetry. We went to the store. Bourdain is sarcastic.

Run-ons: two or independent clauses/complete sentences that you throw together as one, with either the wrong end punctuation or no end punctuation at all!!!!!!!!!!

• Comma Splices (marked on essays as CS): combine two sentences with only a comma=error.

• IND, IND=wrong

• Run-ons/ Fused Sentences (marked on essays as RO): two sentences without a conjunction or punctuation=error
• IND IND

Before You Fix (Edit), I Must Identify Run-ons

• Mark each of your current end punctuations in your draft with a bar:  |  
• Read for the mind pause: mark where your brain understands a complete thought/idea.
• Read out loud for the breath pause: mark where you hear an idea sound finished.

• The above methods are not enough, so you will have to:

• First, look at your extra long sentences and your sentences that have commas in them (because chances are you may have a comma splice!)
• Then, diagram these sentences further for their parts of speech and clauses: 

• Underline the basic subject, if you haven't...
• Circle the verb that goes with it, if you haven't...
• Box in modifiers

• Then, identify where the sentences seems to restart: when the sentence repeats or changes subject from the beginning of the sentence, draw a straight line ( | ) before the restart.

• Besides looking for repeat parts of speech, look for:

• a completely separate "action" is happening...
• a new idea is started...

Five Methods For Fixing Run-ons (Fused and Comma Splices)

To fix, you need to use one of the five methods below to make the two (or more) sentences coordinate with each other or to make one be subordinate. Each method includes at least a punctuation mark that indicates an end to a complete thought:

• period  (  .   ) or exclamation point or question mark   ( ! or ? )
• or semi-colon (   ;   )  between INDs
• or use the  comma and a conjunction rule (  , + FANBOYS)

1. Make Separate Sentences: An easy fix, find where the two sentences are fused or spliced and place period (or ? or !) between the two clauses. Capitalize the subject of the second sentence.

• Example comma splice: Why should we spend money on expensive space exploration, we have enough underfunded programs here on Earth.   

• Fix: Why should we spend money on expensive space exploration? We have enough underfunded programs here on Earth.   

2. Use a comma and a coordinating conjunction: Another easy fix, find where the second sentence starts and add the comma with the right FANBOYS conjunction.  [Of course, if you have a comma splice, you just need to add the right conjunction after the comma.]

• Example comma splice: Some lesson plans include exercises, completing them should not be the focus of all class periods.

• Fix: Some lesson plans include exercises, but completing them should not be the focus of all class periods.

3. Use a semi-colon to connect two complete thoughts: Also very easy, the function/purpose of a semi-colon is to join two independent clauses/complete sentences. 

• Example fused sentence: Tragedy depicts the individual confronted with the fact of death comedy depicts the adaptability of human society.

• Fix: Tragedy depicts the individual confronted with the fact of death; comedy depicts the adaptability of human society.

4. Use a semi-colon, followed by a conjunctive adverb (a type of transitional word or phrase): More difficult to pull off, though really good to emphasize a relationship between two sentences that are being combined. 

• conjunctive adverb: conjunctive is like conjunction--it means to join, just like a highway junction is the connection of two different routes!

• They are words that imply further action, or a furthering of the idea, such as "thereafter" and "moreover" and "however"

• Example fused sentence:  We ran the race hard we ran to win.

• Fix:   We ran the race hard; moreover, we ran to win. 

5. Turn one of the sentences into the subordinate to the other: The most difficult grammatically for one still getting the hang of sentence structure, but can be worth it for sake of showing a clearer relationship between two ideas.

• One of the independent clauses is turned into a dependent clause by adding a subordinating conjunction to the beginning of the original clause. 

• Example: We went out to a fancy restaurant for dinner; we were disappointed.  (How boring is this grammatically correct sentence!?!) 

• Fix: Subordinating one to the other: Although we went out to a fancy restaurant for dinner, we were disappointed. (Edits make this one sentence where one idea takes importance because of the subordinate conjunction.)

***Which method you choose to use to edit the run-on depends on how you want the multiple sentences to coordinate or subordinate. As we have discussed, the method changes your writing style, tone, and how a reader experiences ideas in relationship to each other. In short, your careful consideration is needed to choose the best one for that moment in the essay.

HW for 11/4:

Besides reviewing the Sinister Poems not discussed, review chapters S-7 and S-8 in Seagull.

Annotations of Benn's Two Poems

Beautiful Youth

         BY GOTTFRIED BENN

The mouth of the girl who had lain long in the rushes

looked so nibbled.  | casual diction a tone of astonishment

When they opened her chest, her esophagus was so holey.

Finally in a bower under the diaphragm  | an attractive place retreat, a lady’s private apartment in medieval times, a shelter

they found a nest of young rats.

One little thing lay dead.   | not human

The others were living off kidneys and liver

drinking the cold blood and had

had themselves a beautiful youth.

And just as beautiful and quick was their death:

the lot of them were thrown into the water. | idiomatic phrase for “bad people”

Ah, will you hearken at the little muzzles’ oinks!

The use of “so” as emphasis for?

Diction and the contrasts in how the rats and the girl are named. Rats=”things” and “the lot of them” and are seen as creatures “muzzles’ oinks”

Little Aster  |an enchanted flower, star-shaped, thought to carry magical powers, “Asters were laid on the graves of French soldiers to symbolize afterthought and the wish that things had turned out differently.”

         BY GOTTFRIED BENN

A drowned drayman was hoisted on to the slab.

Someone had jammed a lavender aster  | Aegeus myth allusion? Cursed by Medea

between his teeth.

As I made the incision up from the chest

with a long knife

under the skin

to cut out tongue and gums,

I must have nudged it because it slipped

into the brain lying adjacent.

I packed it into the thoracic cavity

with the excelsior  (wood shavings for packing)

when he was sewn up.

Drink your fill in your vase! |Coroner talking to the aster!

Rest easy,

little aster!

Essay 2 (On Canvas, too)

Type of assignment: Write a comparative or contrastive analysis of the themes of two poems or two stories.

New skills required: Compare or contrast the assumptions of two works about a single subject, possibly introducing the critical ideas of another writer.

Specific Prompt

Compare or Contrast two pieces’ symbols of death impact on the thematic meaning of each piece: how does each author use these symbols to make thematic statements, and what are those statements? 

Worth: 200 points

Due Dates:

·      Monday, 11/9, by 2pm: Type thesis statement (label) and two body paragraphs for essay. Bring for Peer Workshop.

·      Monday, 11/16, by 2pm: TYPED complete final draft, handed in to professor.

Paper Format Requirements:

• Creative, Informative Title
• 5-body paragraph structure:  Intro | body paragraphs | conclusion
• Bold your thesis statement in each draft
• Use MLA citation guidelines for citing your primary sources – the subjects of your essay
• At minimum: your essay must be at least two and a half pages (2.5), which equals between 600-700 effective words, double-spaced, with at least four developed paragraphs.

Outline help:

I. Introduction to Compare (or Contrast) Essay: What are the symbols of death in each piece?

·       Introduce each author and poem or story

·       Put each piece in context of your thesis statement

·       Introduce your subtopics. You will reintroduce these at the beginning of each Body Paragraph, depending on the order you establish them in your introduction.

·       Use relevant literary terms as they relate to and help develop your thesis argument. Tone and theme are two example words I’d expect to be used by you in your essay, but how are they relevant, contextually, to your argument? 

·       IMPORTANT: use comparative and contrastive language in your thesis and in your topic sentences…words of comparison or words of contrast.

II. Body Paragraphs (The development of the thesis argument by restating and then exploring its subtopic’s arguments)

A.    Body Paragraph 1: 

a.     Start with restating the first subtopic as your topic sentence for this BP!

b.     Why do you find your subtopic’s argument to be valid – give reasons first, not specific examples.

c.     Relevant example from each piece:

·       Text 1 example:

·       Text 2:

·       How are they the same (or different)?

B.    Body Paragraph 2: 

a.     Start with restating the second subtopic as your topic sentence for this BP!

b.     Why do you find your subtopic’s argument to be valid – give reasons first, not specific examples.

c.     Relevant example from each piece:

·       Text 1 example:

·       Text 2:

·       How are they the same (or different)?

C.    If you have a 3^rd BP, then use the same organizational formula!

III. Conclusion:  Wrap up your ideas. Below are a few things to help you do so:

A.    What, again, is your largest argument about how these two are the same or different? Repeat the idea, but feel free (please) to use new language and even develop the idea with further context.  Also, reiterate your body paragraph arguments about how your two subject texts are alike or dissimilar.

B.    Say something of significance about each text as they relate to the theme they both explore. To do so, think about what you’ve learned about the thematic subject and make sure to end on the knowledge each piece gives. 

Annotation of "There She Is"

There She Is

         BY LINDA GREGG

When I go into the garden, there she is.   | Allusion to Eden

The specter holds up her arms to show         | specter=ghost, but also ‘a threat’

that her hands are eaten off.| What do hands symbolize? Eve’s hands taking apple?

She is silent because of the agony.  |Double meaning of silence…(Eve)

There is blood on her face.

I can see she has done this to herself. |Again, Eve was guilty…

So she would not feel the other pain.

And it is true, she does not feel it.

She does not even see me.

It is not she anymore, but the pain itself

that moves her. I look and think

how to forget. How can I live while she

stands there? And if I take her life

what will that make of me? I cannot

touch her, make her conscious.

It would hurt her too much.

I hear the sound all through the air

that was her eating, but it is on its own now,

completely separate from her. I think

I am supposed to look. I am not supposed |Turn —from horror to understanding

to turn away. I am supposed to see each detail

and all expression gone. My God, I think,

if paradise is to be here

it will have to include her.  | Why? What does inclusion signify? 

Allusions to Eve = allegory! (use this term in analysis!)

The image of the ghost is used to represent Eve’s impact…the haunting aspects of Christian culture…

The turn at the end with “I am supposed…” indicates…