What’s the deal with ACE?

What’s the deal with ACE? Literary Analysis Short Answer Essays

A.C.E. stands for… A is for ANSWER, as in ANSWER the question correctly. C is for Cite, as in PUT A QUOTE from the literary selection. E is for Explain or Elaborate, as in explain your answer further, answering WHY or HOW, digging deeper into the answer and probably even connecting the quote to the answer.

What NOT to do… Question: What is the author’s purpose of the literary selection? Provide text evidence to support your answer. Answer sentence: To tell a story.

Why is this not a good answer? Where do I begin? • It’s not a complete thought and therefore not a complete sentence. Look at your neighbor. Say, “To tell a story.” Doesn’t that feel weird?

Sentence or Fragment • A sentence is a complete thought. When you say it out loud, others would know what you’re saying and get something out of your words. • A fragment is NOT a complete thought. When you say it out loud, others will be clueless and you would sound weird.

Sentence or Fragment Sentence: Of all the places I’ve been, I do believe Seville, Spain was my favorite. Fragment: Of all the places I’ve been.

Sentence or Fragment I see this OFTEN: Of all the places I’ve been. I do believe Seville, Spain was my favorite. Because of the period, the clause “of all the places I’ve been” becomes a FRAGMENT. Would you say this by itself? Then don’t put a period after it. It is a dependent clause, and it DEPENDS on the rest of the sentence to make sense.

Why is this not a good answer? Furthermore: 2. “To tell a story.” Really? The novel was written to tell a story? This is considered “deep analysis” to you?

Why is this not a good answer? Also… 3. We need to look at more of the “paragraph” to discover more of why this is not a good answer.

What NOT to do… Question: What is the author’s purpose of the literary selection? Provide text evidence to support your answer. Cite sentence: It was telling a story on pages 35-48.

Why is this not a good answer? Can you REALLY not tell why this isn’t a good citation sentence for the answer “to tell a story.” When you put them together, this is what it looks like: To tell a story. It was telling a story on pages 35-48. What are you noticing is wrong so far?

What NOT to do… Question: What is the author’s purpose of the literary selection? Provide text evidence to support your answer. Explain sentence: I’m putting these quotes because this shows that it is telling a story.

Why is this not a good answer? Oh…My…Gosh… To tell a story. It was telling a story on pages 35-48. I’m putting these quotes because this shows that it is telling a story. What is IT? Where is the quote? The following words also come to my mind: fragment, repetitive, lack of depth, not really saying much of anything. HOW is it telling a story? Is there more to the purpose than JUST telling a story? Did the author have some REAL REASON for writing the novel? How do you know? Why would the author write with this particular purpose?

What else NOT to do? A most common mistake is NOT writing an actual paragraph as an answer. Instead the answers look like this: • To entertain because the book is about war. C) “When the kids played in the corridors, whole troops of them, the buggers, never won.” page 11 E) That means the author’s purpose is to entertain.

What else NOT to do? OR this: The author wrote this novel to to entertain because the book is about war. “When the kids played in the corridors, whole troops of them, the buggers, never won.” page 11. That means the author’s purpose is to entertain.

What is a PARAGRAPH? A paragraph is a group of UNIFIED sentences that are on the same topic. UNIFIED being the operative word here. What does UNIFIED mean?

What is a PARAGRAPH How is this NOT unified? The author wrote this novel to to entertain because the book is about war. “When the kids played in the corridors, whole troops of them, the buggers, never won.” page 11. That means the author’s purpose is to entertain.

What is a PARAGRAPH Too, how is it not really saying anything of actual depth at all: The author wrote this novel to to entertain because the book is about war. “When the kids played in the corridors, whole troops of them, the buggers, never won.” page 11. That means the author’s purpose is to entertain.

What TO do… Here’s one example of a 3.5 answer: The author’s purpose was to entertain. I learned this by reading this exciting, heart stopping story: “Two of them crashed into each other and exploded” (267). This story has lots of good, exciting things like explosions and many struggles, which makes the author’s purpose to entertain.

What TO do… The author’s purpose was to entertain. I learned this by reading this exciting, heart stopping story: “Two of them crashed into each other and exploded” (p. 267). This story has lots of good, exciting things like explosions and many struggles, which makes the author’s purpose to entertain. This answer is not PERFECT but it is beyond the 3: the language “exciting” and “heart stopping” add to the content, while the quote connects directly to these words. Too, the explanation, which could be better; if it were just a bit deeper, not repeating the ANSWER sentence, the person would have been bumped up to a 4.

What TO do… Here’s a 4: The author’s purpose was to show you can be different. Ender was the 3rd child but thought he was like the others; really he was the special one and was able to go to the battle school. “We’re people, not thirds” (7). Peter is acting as if he is just another kid.

What TO do… The author’s purpose was to show you can be different. Ender was the 3rd child but thought he was like the others; really he was the special one and was able to go to the battle school. “We’re people, not thirds” (7). Peter is acting as if he is just another kid. This answer isn’t PERFECT, but it certainly goes beyond the obvious. It gives a unique perspective on author’s purpose. It gives a good explanation, and the quote relates. Too, it has thematic elements - “to show you can be different,” which is certainly moving toward a four.

What’s the deal with ACE?