Reading Day Eight

1. Reading Day Eight

2. Bell Work • Summary – What is a summary? Why is it important? • Analysis – What is an analysis? Why is it important? • Summarize this video. Explain the setting, and describe what is going on. • Analyze the video. What underlying assumptions does a viewer receive from the video? • Modern Family Fair Police • Knowing how to summarize something you have read, seen, or heard is a valuable skill, one you have probably used in many writing assignments. It is important, though, to recognize when you must go beyond describing, explaining, and restating texts and offer a more complex analysis.

3. Summary Notes • Ask the following questions: • Am I stating something that would be obvious to a reader or viewer? • Does my essay move in chronological order, or in the exact same order the author used? • Am I simply describing what happens? • Summary = the WHAT

4. Reading • Begin at “We have stated that” • End at “Those who know how”

5. Produce a Summary • Goal: Produce a clear and coherent summary. • Summarize: • In a well-written coherent paragraph summarize what you read.

6. Ms. Hughes’ Summary • Original Text: This young woman knew that she would ide in the next few days. But when I talked to her she was cheerful in spite of this knowledge. “I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard,” she told me. “In my former life I was spoiled and did not take spiritual accomplishments seriously.” Pointing through the window of the hut, she said, “This tree here is the only friend I have in my loneliness.” Through that window she could see just one branch of a chestnut tree, and on the branch were two blossoms. “I often talk to this tree,” she said to me. I was startled and didn’t quite know how to take her words. Was she delirious? Did she have occasional hallucinations? Anxiously I asked her if the tree replied. “Yes.” What did it say to her? She answered, “it said to me, ‘I am here – I am here – I am life, eternal life.’” • Summary: Viktor Frankl is talking to a young typhus patient in the camp. The woman knows she was dying. Even though she was dying she was happy. He proceeds to have a conversation with her about her ungrateful previous moments in life and how a tree has symbolically made her appreciate small companionships and moments in life.

7. Analyze a Summary: Notes • The Harvard Writing Project - Avoid plot summary. • http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic526630.files/BG%20Writing%20English.pdf • A paper that recounts what happened in a novel is letting the novel’s author rather than the paper’s author structure the paper’s argument. • Sometimes papers fall into plot summary because a student imagines that he or she is writing for a reader unfamiliar with the novel. But if you imagine that you are writing for someone who has read the novel at least once, then you don’t need to rehearse the plot for your reader. • Instead, focus on selected scenes, briefly identifying them before analyzing significant details. Ultimately, you should plot your own paper.

8. Analysis Notes • Ask the following questions: • Is there evidence that supports or contradicts your main point or theme? • What relationship is there between words and visuals? • What are the work's underlying assumptions and biases about the subject? • What's my point? or What am I arguing in this paper? • Analysis = the HOW or WHY

9. Breaking it Down Notes • Analysis requires breaking something—like a story, poem, play, theory, or argument—into parts so you can understand how those parts work together to make the whole. You, the writer of the analysis, get to decide what parts you break into and how you deal with them…you have all the control. How exciting!!! • Remember, analytic writing goes beyond the obvious to discuss questions of how and why—so ask yourself those questions as you read. • Steps in order to analyze a text: • Identify evidence that supports or contradicts your main point or theme. • Consider relationship between words and visuals. • Identify the work's underlying assumptions and biases about the subject. • "What's my point?" or "What am I arguing in this paper?" If you can't answer these questions, then you haven't gone beyond summarizing.

10. Produce an Analysis • Goal: Produce a clear and coherent, thought provoking, analysis. • After you have summarized a piece of today’s plot, analyze it.

11. Ms. Hughes’ Analysis • Viktor Frankl’s discussions with his patients allowed him to see multiple spiritual paths. He often learned from the struggles for existence in others. When one young lady pointed at a tree, for instance, and said, “I often talk to this tree” and it reminded her that “I am life, eternal life” Frankl implied that no matter the horrid scenario spiritual accomplishments can still come to those in dire situations. • Did it….? • Identify evidence that supports or contradicts your main point or theme? • Consider relationship between words and visuals? • Identify the work's underlying assumptions and biases about the subject? • Answer "What's my point?" or "What am I arguing in this paper?

12. Choose which writing below is a summary and which is an analysis. Explain the purpose for each. • The Great Gatsby is the story of a mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby, who lives alone on an island in New York. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the book, but the narrator is Nick Carraway. Nick is Gatsby's neighbor, and he chronicles the story of Gatsby and his circle of friends, beginning with his introduction to the strange man and ending with Gatsby's tragic death. In the story, Nick describes his environment through various colors, including green, white, and grey. Whereas white and grey symbolize false purity and decay respectively, the color green offers a symbol of hope. [Sentences that summarize are in italics.] • In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald provides readers with detailed descriptions of the area surrounding East Egg, New York. In fact, Nick Carraway's narration describes the setting with as much detail as the characters in the book. Nick's description of his environment presents the book's themes, symbolizing significant aspects of the post-World War I era. Whereas white and grey symbolize the false purity and decay of the 1920s, the color green offers a symbol of hope.