Writing About Literature

1. Writing About Literature

2. Answer question in own words • Cut out the important words in question and use them in your answer. • Example: Do you consider Jonas’ community to be a perfect society, a bad place or a combination of good and bad? • Highlight important words • Do you consider Jonas’ community to be a perfect society, a bad place or a combination of good and bad?

3. Use only the important words in answer. • Jonas’ community is supposed to be the perfect society, but the rules, and lack of individuality make it more bad than good.

4. Embedding Quotes • 2. Embed part of the quote into your commentary. • Unfortunately, each year the Chief Elder gives the same speech reflecting on childhood, “the importance of Assignment” and what is to come in the training (50). The community members do not know the thrill of seeing a graduation with music, lights, or personal memories flashed on the screen. Instead, each year the program never varies or changes.

5. Embedding Quotes: Leaving out The Fat • 3.Use an ellipsis, three periods with spaces between them (…), within a quotation to show that part of the original text is left out. An ellipsis at the beginning or end of a quotation is unnecessary.

6. Embedding Quotes: Making Grammar Changes • 4.Sometimes it is necessary to change the form of a word in a quotation (“walked” to “walks”) or to add a word of your own to make the sentence flow. Use brackets, [ ], to indicate anything you have changed. • •Example: At the ceremony of ten each “child’s hair [is] snipped neatly” females “[lose] their braids” and the males are trimmed above their ears (46).

7. Embedding Quotes: What to do with quotes inside of quotes. • 5.Use single quotation marks around material that is already in quotations in the source you are quoting. Single quotation marks are used only inside normal (double) quotation marks. •Example: On the other hand, Lowry does include laughter in the ceremony of twelve when the Chief Elder makes a joke about Asher’s difficulty with language “chuckling a little herself ‘ the difference between snack and smack’” (Lowry 54).

8. Add Transitional Words • 6. Choose a transition word that fits and add a comma. • Example: On the other hand, Lowry does include laughter in the ceremony of twelve when the Chief Elder makes a joke about Asher’s difficulty with language “chuckling a little herself ‘ the difference between snack and smack’” (Lowry 54).