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Tuesday, February 23, 2016
The Beginner's Guide to Writing a Literary Analysis Essay For Mr. McAteer's Class
by Kaitlyn Sandvik
Before you begin the spiritual journey of crafting an insightful and masterful piece of literary analysis for your AP English class, it is absolutely essential that you understand the critical nature of displaying your own expertise on the complexities the author raised. If you learn one thing from this ridiculously well-written instructional material, let it be that you know the answers to questions the author asks, and you are a damn expert on it all. You could and should reduce the work of the writer into a neatly packaged and singular meaning based only upon your own life and perspective! For reliabilities sake, you should consult Sparknotes or Cliffnotes...but beware, do not resort to entering any form of dialogue at all with your peers, as that will only narrow your understanding of the novel and leave any questions you might have about a confusing text boiling. It isn't as though you should have been tracking important thoughts or noticing what you were noticing while reading, let's be real here, reading with a purpose is so 2010.
Anyway, once you need to start the essay writing process, you should get a bunch of super short quotes that are literal and do not have many literary devices in them to clutter your essay. A quick side note on quote work, never ever ever use complex sentences or the author's name in your essay. Many novices will make those mistakes-hell, those schmucks even analyze what is within the quote, instead of the highly superior method of looking outside the quote to your own thoughts and interpretations.
A complex sentence surrenders your control, don't forget that. While you're taking notes on that, be sure to also remember your essay can only be in the 5 paragraph form-it is the universal model that works best for every single essay. On to the good stuff, you are a brilliant scholar, you practically have won a Nobel Peace Prize, you have been on trips to save starving children in underdeveloped countries while simultaneously somehow teaching a class in an inner-city school the importance of under-water basket weaving over Skype-so you will slay this essay, you will assert your authority on the complex unanswered questions of life and love and death. At the mere age of 17, you have the wisdom of an old sage atop a mountain in Nepal, so please, feel free to enlighten us with the answers that the author could not find-make resolution, it is what you were born to do.
Next, I will address the beef of this burger...the introduction. You read that right, oh boy, I know...how exciting. The introduction is ideally a long, lingering ramble of abstract ideas you may or may not address in the body paragraphs. Write a thesis, but do not feel compelled to follow that line of inquiry-you don't owe anyone anything. But wait, you may ask, dropping that soggy Chipotle burrito onto your tear-stained copy of Mrs. Dalloway, "How did we already start the essay, I haven't even read the book!" Alas, for those of you rebels without a cause who did not read the book, you can resort to the class group chat, this of course, is the only time you will have discussed the book with peers (despite the forum, attempts to form a study group, restructuring of the entire class layout, etc.). You will seek fellow lonely souls for reassurance and spend your night scrambling together a killer essay (caution: while the essay will rock, you may enter an existential crisis at about 3AM, this will be induced from a conglomerate of the intensity of free indirect style and that burrito mentioned earlier). Now, for the body paragraphs. Basically, you have short quotes without antithesis, juxtaposition, or anything really important, their purpose is really for aesthetic appeal. We are not amateurs here, and for that reason we know that this essay is the last word we will ever have to say everything and anything we can about the book. Cram it all in there. Skim the surface, so long as everything is vaguely touched. You cannot leave anything out.
Hey, kiddos, we made it to the end and it's only 5AM! How exciting! Your conclusion. The longest paragraph in the whole masterpiece. This is where we raise new questions and musings that we have not discussed at all in the rest of the essay. It is here that we can start to explore our own tensions and the ambiguous nature of being a teen. Sure Clarissa and Septimus were dealing with some shit, but man, this essay isn't about them! Feel free to get real abstract in the conclusion, consider the existence of a god-does this god have a gender? What is water, really? Can I trust the NSA? Pretty simple, folks. That's it.
PS. Don't bother with spell check or revisions, best to let that "all-nighter" glow shine!
Before you begin the spiritual journey of crafting an insightful and masterful piece of literary analysis for your AP English class, it is absolutely essential that you understand the critical nature of displaying your own expertise on the complexities the author raised. If you learn one thing from this ridiculously well-written instructional material, let it be that you know the answers to questions the author asks, and you are a damn expert on it all. You could and should reduce the work of the writer into a neatly packaged and singular meaning based only upon your own life and perspective! For reliabilities sake, you should consult Sparknotes or Cliffnotes...but beware, do not resort to entering any form of dialogue at all with your peers, as that will only narrow your understanding of the novel and leave any questions you might have about a confusing text boiling. It isn't as though you should have been tracking important thoughts or noticing what you were noticing while reading, let's be real here, reading with a purpose is so 2010.
Anyway, once you need to start the essay writing process, you should get a bunch of super short quotes that are literal and do not have many literary devices in them to clutter your essay. A quick side note on quote work, never ever ever use complex sentences or the author's name in your essay. Many novices will make those mistakes-hell, those schmucks even analyze what is within the quote, instead of the highly superior method of looking outside the quote to your own thoughts and interpretations.
A complex sentence surrenders your control, don't forget that. While you're taking notes on that, be sure to also remember your essay can only be in the 5 paragraph form-it is the universal model that works best for every single essay. On to the good stuff, you are a brilliant scholar, you practically have won a Nobel Peace Prize, you have been on trips to save starving children in underdeveloped countries while simultaneously somehow teaching a class in an inner-city school the importance of under-water basket weaving over Skype-so you will slay this essay, you will assert your authority on the complex unanswered questions of life and love and death. At the mere age of 17, you have the wisdom of an old sage atop a mountain in Nepal, so please, feel free to enlighten us with the answers that the author could not find-make resolution, it is what you were born to do.
Next, I will address the beef of this burger...the introduction. You read that right, oh boy, I know...how exciting. The introduction is ideally a long, lingering ramble of abstract ideas you may or may not address in the body paragraphs. Write a thesis, but do not feel compelled to follow that line of inquiry-you don't owe anyone anything. But wait, you may ask, dropping that soggy Chipotle burrito onto your tear-stained copy of Mrs. Dalloway, "How did we already start the essay, I haven't even read the book!" Alas, for those of you rebels without a cause who did not read the book, you can resort to the class group chat, this of course, is the only time you will have discussed the book with peers (despite the forum, attempts to form a study group, restructuring of the entire class layout, etc.). You will seek fellow lonely souls for reassurance and spend your night scrambling together a killer essay (caution: while the essay will rock, you may enter an existential crisis at about 3AM, this will be induced from a conglomerate of the intensity of free indirect style and that burrito mentioned earlier). Now, for the body paragraphs. Basically, you have short quotes without antithesis, juxtaposition, or anything really important, their purpose is really for aesthetic appeal. We are not amateurs here, and for that reason we know that this essay is the last word we will ever have to say everything and anything we can about the book. Cram it all in there. Skim the surface, so long as everything is vaguely touched. You cannot leave anything out.
Hey, kiddos, we made it to the end and it's only 5AM! How exciting! Your conclusion. The longest paragraph in the whole masterpiece. This is where we raise new questions and musings that we have not discussed at all in the rest of the essay. It is here that we can start to explore our own tensions and the ambiguous nature of being a teen. Sure Clarissa and Septimus were dealing with some shit, but man, this essay isn't about them! Feel free to get real abstract in the conclusion, consider the existence of a god-does this god have a gender? What is water, really? Can I trust the NSA? Pretty simple, folks. That's it.
PS. Don't bother with spell check or revisions, best to let that "all-nighter" glow shine!
Monday, February 22, 2016
How to Write a Literary Essay in Mr. McAteer’s Class
How to Write a Literary Essay in Mr. McAteer’s Class
By Thomas, Mia, Griffen
Like most seniors in Mr. McAteers AP English class, you probably have no idea about how you to write your first literary essay. Maybe you’ve written that you think is good, but in fact, it is utterly terrible. Most of the details are completely irrelevant, literally the only thing that matters is what you paid attention to.
LESSON 1: 99% of the book is irrelevant, as long as you establish control.
John walked over and picked the flower, the flower didn’t like it.
Pay attention to stuff like this.
LESSON 2: Pay attention to what you pay attention to
While you can pay attention to anything, there are better things than others to pay attention to.
TIP 1: Don’t ask a question if you are afraid of the answer.
TIP 2: When in doubt, make Chinua Acheve or Virginia Woolf as the subject of your sentence.
Good example:
Through the establishment of tension between John and the flower, Achebe alludes to the effect of PTSD after 9/11.
Bad example:
By picking the flower, John is expressing his hatred for the flower and the flowers hatred toward him.
LESSON 3: If 75% of your essay isn’t quoted, your doing something wrong.
It would be a really good idea to find the PDF of the book ASAP. The bigger the quote, the less likely he is to want to read your analysis of it. Hide behind your block quotes, they are your best freinds.
Good example
quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quotequote quote quote quote
analysis: antithesis quote quote quote juxtaposition Achebe tension anaphora quote and tension.
Tip 3: QUICK! get up! You’ve been in this section too long!
LESSON 3: If you don’t have the answer, it’s a safe bet that “unresolved conflict” is an acceptable conclusion.
Don’t write anything you are unable to write. You can’t write about what you didn’t pay attention to. Remember that the author is smarter than you so you aren’t expected to know what they’re saying.
R.I.P. George
Writing An Effective Lit Essay
Lit Analysis of Mac’s Class
Via Mads and Jane
Via Mads and Jane
First things first. Don’t read the book. Skip over GradeSaver and Cliffsnotes too. Just read SparkNotes. That’s the best way to ensure you get an A. Because let's be honest. That’s all that really matters.
LESSON 1:
Don’t use quotes… or should you? It’s really up to you, but the way the author writes really doesn't matter. Does Sparknotes use quotes? No. So they don’t matter. All that matters is that the words sound pretty.
LESSON 2:
Absolutely no complex sentences. Always use short, single clause sentences because that is the real way to show the complexity. For example, Shoop is a good source:
Example:
“Jordan's a girl, and she quickly becomes a romantic interest for our narrator. Probably because she's the only girl around who isn't his cousin” (Shmoop, The Great Gatsby).
LESSON 3:
Always mention what the reader thinks and feels while reading.The reader is the most important part of the essay. Discuss your points of views. Don’t worry about the characterization. They don’t matter that much. Are you friends with them? Do you stay up late with them and braid their hair? No. They don’t matter.
Example:
It’s obvious that the reader should feel scared while reading this. The wind and lightning really conveys that the reader should be terrified.
LESSON 4:
The most important thing to remember is to summarize what happened in the book, not to analyze. Assume that the reader of your essay has never read the book, and just wants a rundown of what’s happening.
Example:
First, Jane walked walked down the street. She then promptly turned around and ordered grande chai tea double pump mocha latte with extra whipped cream and skim milk with no sugar with a lemon on the side from Starbucks. It was obviously delicious. The End.
PRO TIP: Grammar doesn’t matter. As long as it’s the right word count and page length, you’re golden.
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