On Writing: Some advice

Excerpts from a wonderful guide to literary analysis:

• "Avoid empty words: 'interesting', 'fabulous', 'magnificent', 'excellent', 'tremendous'. Words of praise sound too general and empty. Anyone can come up with adjectives of this sort. Not much help.
• Words that are better, if you want to praise: striking, convincing, memorable, impressive, etc.
• Do not use 'sync' or 'psyche' or 'psycho' or 'psychotic' 
• Do not say 'represent'. Literature never represents. It evokes. It works by resonance, connotation.
• Be careful about word choice. e.g. 'Sarcastic' -- do you mean to say 'ironic' or 'wry'?"
• 'Due to the fact that' = the reason that. ----> far crisper.
• Explore types of sentences: Parallelism (google); Try to hear a sentence in your mind. How does it sound, rhythm-wise? Does it "sound" right? Example of a sentence style, and there are many, many nice possibilities: "Turning to her country in search of happiness, Nora discovers in the land only temporary protection."

                                                                                     

"Prose Commentaries.

Just a reminder. What are the sort of things you'd look at? 

1) Place in plot

2. Plot  -- how important is action? is this a reflective piece with little action? is the action in the centre or at the end? does it provide any help in terms of locating a character -- applicable to longer pieces...

3. Structure - do you see a structure -- series of dialogue followed by focus/narration. Where is the focus? internet/external

4. Point of view? effects? Omniscience?

5. Setting - how imp? atmosphere? visually-- intense? sound? connection with the piece? are they conventional/archetypal? figurative? 

6. Mood - how is it created? consistent? 

7. Tone'

8. Style -- spare? cool? lyrical?

9. Characterization: how active, listening, doing, observers? omniscience? what narrative functions do they serve?

10. function

11. ideas/"themes" - debate? action? editorialising? mouthpiece? symbols? satire?

12. Other -- YOUR OBSERVATIONS -- puzzling evocative striking stuff that you found interesting relevant

Avoid simply describing = make sure you interprete, assess, react, conjecture."

                                                              -Examples of On Writing and advice for writing Prose Commentaries 

                                                                                                   taken from T. Dombrowski's Guide to Better Writing

Some Things to Remember

Hi Everyone!

It's important to understand this assignment is not a Research Essay. In other words, you are not required to do any research for it. I strongly discourage taking stuff from the web. I say this not because of plagiarism -- I am sure you are smart enough to know that EVERY SINGLE IDEA, SENTENCE, PHRASE or THOUGHT, or even HINT OF A SUGGESTION picked from somewhere MUST be CREDITED.  So and So in Such and Such work talks about .....You will then of course be required to give a bibliography at the end.

But this is not a research essay. 

I do not care what anyone else thinks. I only care about what YOU think. What do YOU observe in a work? What are YOUR thoughts/interpretations/sense? Feel free to use a thesaurus, a dictionary -- you can use those things. You could study an essay to learn a thing or two about the writing style. How to write a good sentence? But don't bother getting thoughts from elsewhere. 

That's important to understand. You are trying to analyze the text, and very often -- as a first step, analysis simply means being able to make a claim, pass a judgment, say something about a text, and then to give evidence for it. Sometimes, to creative kids, this can seem like a very obvious process. 'Duh, doesn't everyone know Pedro is enraged by the conditions in which he sees the migrant workers'. (Just a random example). Well, don't assume.  Say this instead. Just making this up: "Throughout the text we see Pedro made highly uncomfortable by the injustice in society. Pedro does not lie to his sister when she asks if he had stolen the money. He does not refrain from putting his wealth at stake. Most importantly, he is ready to relinquish his entitlement to the throne in order to protect his kingdom. He emerges in the story as a true saviour.  This self-sacrificing nature of Pedrol is supported by the serious tone in which the author narrates his experience in the kingdom. References to his nature are replete with words like "honest", "audacious", "truth to power", "rattled by the severity of danger lurking around helpless" etc etc etc.

You get the drift? This is one very small example.

- More soon

On Inspiration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkezDkKMJbE

The Awakening

"A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!" He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, unless it was the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence. Mr. Pontellier, unable to read his newspaper with any degree of comfort, arose with an expression and an exclamation of disgust. He walked down the gallery and across the narrow "bridges" which connected the Lebrun cottages one with the other. "