Response to Literature

What are the instructional goals of this type of essay?

Writing Application 2.2 Write responses to literature:

a. Develop interpretations exhibiting careful reading, understanding, and insight.

b.  Organize interpretations around several clear ideas, premises, or images from literary work.

c.  Justify interpretations through sustained use of examples and textual evidence.

How does one go about doing the above?

First, you have to read.  No matter what you read, you always respond.  If you don’t like what you read, you may close the book and turn it in for another.  If you like the book, you may ask for others by the same author and tell your friends about them.

Second, you have to read deeply.  You have to look for messages from the author “between the lines.”  What does that mean?  You have to look at the symbols and abstracts that are used.  You have to think about what the author chose to foreshadow.  What did the author throw the spotlight on in the book?

Third, you have to choose a clear controlling idea.  That’s the thesis.  Everything you say must support your controlling idea (thesis).  That idea is your interpretation.  It’s your opinion about the character or the author’s craft.  The idea of judging a book by it’s cover is clearly a main idea with The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.

Next, you have to support your opinion, your interpretations, with clear evidence from the story.  Your job is to be a defense lawyer in the case of the People versus Charlotte Doyle.  If you seek to prove Charlotte was brave on her journey, you would point out the most persuasive passages from Avi’s book to support that opinion.  You also save the most powerful piece of evidence for the last part of the paper or paragraph– much as a lawyer would seek to do in a courtroom.  You embed some of the author’s words in quotes into your own wording.  The example from class is:

When Romeo is saying, “If I profane with my unworthiest hand,” he is telling Juliet how much he wants to touch her. (Shakespeare, 24)

Finally, you have to tie all the pieces of the puzzle together in an essay by restating your thesis statement from the introduction, saying essentially the same thing but with different wording.  You also want to point out the lesson or moral of the author’s message to you as a reader.  That’s the beauty of this type of writing:  unless you have seriously misread the story, your opinion is always going to be valid!  You just have to prove it.  Don’t forget to cite the page numbers like this: (Avi, 117).

Go to www.myaccess.com for practice over mid-winter break.  I’ve set up several different choices for you to complete an extra credit essay.  Remember, the Charlotte Doyle essay is assigned, and is due on Monday, Feb. 25, 2008.  You must write this essay for 100 points.  Any other submitted essays that score a 4 or higher will earn ten points extra credit for your writing score in Aeries.  These prompts will be activated on Feb. 16, 2008 and will close on Feb. 23, 2008:

Fish Cheeks, by Amy Tan, Holt pages 352-353

After Twenty Years, by O. Henry, Holt pages 225-228

A Rice Sandwich, by Sandra Cisneros, Holt pages 141-142