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3 Questions for Literary Analysis. Science Fiction 2013. What sort of writing is it you are analyzing? A poem? A play? A film? A novel? A novel of what genre? If it’s a specific literary device you are analyzing, then which? A symbol? A metaphor? A simile?
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3 Questions for Literary Analysis Science Fiction 2013
What sort of writing is it you are analyzing? • A poem? A play? A film? A novel? A novel of what genre? • If it’s a specific literary device you are analyzing, then which? • A symbol? A metaphor? A simile? • To answer this question, you should also identify the author and give a brief, general outline of the plot What is it you are analyzing?The easiest question to answer…
What is the author trying to say? • What is the author’s message? What position is the author taking? What is the author’s opinion of the matter? What is the theme of the literature? • What does the symbol represent? What is the meaning of the metaphor? What does the thing you are analyzing mean? A slightly more difficult question to answer…
Exactly HOW does the thing in question get the meaning across to the reader? • What makes the thing effective in getting the meaning across? What does the thing you are analyzing do? The question where real analysis is done…
How does character development of a specific character in the story… • contribute to the theme? (ex: carelessness in The Great Gatsby) • persuade the reader to adopt a viewpoint? (ex: approving or disapproving of partygoers in The Great Gatsby) • illustrate an interesting aspect of life, society, or human nature? (ex: social life in the Roaring Twenties under Prohibition) • more prominently convey the ideas of one American Civil Rights Movement leader--Martin Luther King, Jr. and/or Malcolm X? What does the thing you are analyzing do?
Science Fiction 2013 Writing a Thesis-Driven Essay
Prompt: How do both Beggars in Spain and X-Menuse character development of a specific character to more prominently convey the ideas of one Civil Rights Movement leader--Martin Luther King, Jr. and/or Malcolm X? • What is it? Beggars in Spain, X-Men • What does it do? use character development of a specific character • What does it mean? more prominently convey the ideas of on Civil Rights Movement leader—MLK, Jr. or Malcolm X The Variables of the Prompt
Your claim is your thesis statement. • Your position about a writer’s attitude, intent, method, etc. • It must do more than simply restate the prompt. NO MORE: Beggars in Spain and X-Men both use character development to prominently convey the ideas of Martin Luther King, Jr. Our Essay Formula: Claim/ Data/ Warrant
Your data is your evidence (the what does it do?) • salient details that support your claim (the most influential or important elements in a text that help prove your point) • May be short quotations, brief descriptions of characters and/or their actions, plot points, or literary devices (irony, figurative language, etc) Our Essay Formula: Claim/ Data/ Warrant
To write your thesis statement, state your claim and summarize your data Both Beggars in Spain and X-Men… • “use character development of a specific character” …develop the perspective of the protagonist… • “to more prominently convey the ideas of one Civil Rights Movement leader--Martin Luther King, Jr. and/or Malcolm X?” …to draw a comparison to the non-violent, altruistic methods for obtaining equality expressed by Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. Our Essay Formula: Claim/ Data/ Warrant
Your warrant is your explanation of precisely how… your evidence (what it does) supports your claim (what it means) • Your warrant will be the bulk of your one to two page paper. • First, you will present the data using short pieces of evidence directly from the text; then, you will explain what makes these details from the texts effective in doing what you say they do. Our Essay Formula: Claim/ Data/ Warrant
You will have to collect Data and Warrants from both Beggars in Spain and X-Men to fully answer the essay question. Our Essay Formula: Claim/ Data/ Warrant