Organizational Strategies for the open ended question

1. Organizational Strategies for the open ended question A limited, but useful overview of approaches.

2. Start with a Thesis • Figure out what the prompt is asking you, then select the work and focus you want to write about • While it’s good to write about works you like or know well, don’t try to make a work fit that doesn’t • Figure out your focus – is it asking about a type of character? A type of theme? A type of plot device? Types of literary elements? • Figure out the point – most prompts will ask you to tie to the author’s purpose or the work as a whole, which basically means “So what! What’s the point?” • Tie your focus to the theme or message of the work Put it all together: Thesis = context + method + analysis

3. Start with a Thesis For example: (actual student theses) • In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried the experience of reading and the alternating settings between the Vietnam War and modern day United States shape the narrator’s worldview and reflect the author’s own experience in the war. • In Ian McEwan’s critically acclaimed novel Atonement, the story both begins and achieves its end in a grandiose English country mansion that is all the more “ugly” for its intent “to impose.” The mansion is not only the childhood home of Briony Tallis, an aspiring novelist and the central character, but it is also representative of the oppressive family atmosphere and her own childish pretensions that lead her to commit a crime that she must atone for the rest of her life. • “The horror! The horror!” are the last words of Kurtz the main character of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. They are uttered in a faint whisper by a giant of a man as he looks back on his imperialistic life and realizes how incredibly terrible and evil his actions have been. Throughout this novel, Conrad exposes the evils of imperialism through symbols and allusions, enhancing the overall meaning of the work that there is an innate evil inside every human being.

4. The Onion Just like we learn in layers (think about math or history class, for example) write your essay such that the content gets deeper and more sophisticated with each paragraph • Paragraph 1 – intro that establishes context and thesis • Paragraph 2 – overview and context, starting to get into the argument • Paragraph 3 – specific details that illustrate and go deeper into your argument • continue repeating in subsequent paragraphs, adding more analysis and depth with each paragraph until you’ve finished your points • last paragraph = conclusion (don’t just summarize, assert a point)

5. The Timeline Take the reader on a chronological close reading of the text • Paragraph 1 – intro with a three part thesis • Paragraph 2 –select important details from the exposition of the novel or play that best support your thesis and offer close analysis of those details • Paragraph 3 – REPEAT the same process as in paragraph 2 with the rising action (remember, each body paragraph should have at least two pieces of evidence) • continue moving through the climax, and resolution in subsequent paragraphs, selecting and analyzing specific details that support your thesis until you’ve reached the end

6. The Mechanic Take it apart, one piece at a time. • Paragraph 1 – intro (with a solid thesis!) • Paragraph 2 – tackle your first device, character trait, etc., making sure to include and analyze specific details (plural, not just one!) • Paragraph 3 – repeat with the next device, trait, etc. (don’t forget to transition between paragraphs and ideas) • continue repeating in subsequent paragraphsuntil you’ve finished your points • last paragraph = conclusion (remember, assert the answer to “so what?” rather than just repeating yourself)

7. No matter what organizational approach you choose, GO deep!

8. Open Essay General Advice DO DO NOT • Summarize the entire text • Offer vague generalities that call into question whether you read the text or how well you read it. • Repeat vague phrases from the prompt like “contributes to the work as a whole” and leave it there • Write about Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, short stories, poems, movies, etc. • Write poorly or try to use fancy speak to obscure the fact that you have nothing to say • Include specific details relevant to your argument • Thread in repeated phrases and details from the text • Answer the prompt and articulate a theme of the novel and the purpose of the aspect you are talking about • Write about a text of “appropriate literary merit” i.e. something we read in this class • Write eloquently, but most importantly, write CLEARLY • DO . . . There is no try!

9. Try it out • For each of the prompts you received, work with a partner to come up with: • Work you’d write about • Character, devices, or selection of detail you’d write about • Theme you’d write about • For example, for 2002B you might write about • Hamlet, Hamlet’s secret about Claudius and the ghost, “thus conscience does make cowards of us all” – Hamlet’s doubt, psychological barriers, etc. • Or for 2003, you might write about • Fences, Troy, “can’t visit the sins of the father on the child” – the struggle to break free from the pattern of destructive father-son relationships. • Which prompts would you not be able to write about with the works we’ve done?