Reviewing and revising to improve your writing.
Are you happy? You’ve almost completed an essay. But you’re not done yet. You can always improve your writing. The way to complete a successful essay is by looking over your work.
Try reading your draft aloud. Ask yourself questions. Do you like the order of your essay? Do you need to add words so your sentences make better sense? Do you need to add any sentences so your paragraphs connect? Do you have ideas that you’d like to add more to?
Do you like your introduction? Your essay body? Your conclusion? Make at least three changes that could improve your essay. Remember that even professional writers make lots of changes!
Proofreading your essay to improve your writing.
It’s time to check your work. Read your improved essay aloud slowly. Look at details of punctuation and grammar in your writing. Are your sentences complete? Do your verbs go with your nouns? Do you need to add any missing punctuation? How’s your spelling?
Remember that the job of proofreading is to catch and change anything that would stop your reader from enjoying your essay. Try catching and changing at least six mistakes.
Publishing your writing.
Congratulations on completing your essay! Finish by saving it on your computer, and by printing it. Share your essay with a family member, friend, classmate or teacher.
WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Write an essay on any movie genre. Try to follow the structure of an essay: in your introductory sentence define the purpose of the essay: give not fewer than three arguments; finish up with the concluding paragraph.
S e c t i o n 3. TEXT ANALYSIS
Plan for Analysis:
Are you familiar with the author of the story?
Look at the title. What is your prediction? Is it suggestive? Does it give any clue to the contents or not? What feelings and expectations does the title arouse?
What is the subject matter or contents? Give a summary of the story. Remember the rules of making a summary (short, given in Present tense. Avoid detailing. Give the plot).
What is the setting? Which details in the story define the setting?
What is the sequence of events? Are they presented in chronological order or are there flashbacks? If any, what is their role in the narration?
Composition (structure):
Plots generally follow a standard arrangement of parts. They are:
Exposition
Conflict
Complication(s)
Climax
Resolution
Does each complication has its own resolution or do they all lead to a common resolution?
Comment on the ways the author creates the stages of complication in a given narrative.
How is the climax traced?
Character study:
Who are the main characters?
Who are the minor characters? What is their function?
What are the physical and moral features of the characters?
What are the feelings the characters express?
What is the way of author’s portraying the characters: direct or indirect?
The narrator: ¹
First-person narrator
Third-person narrator: omniscient narrator (who knows everything about the characters and events).
Limited omniscient narrator (the readers view the events and the characters through what he sees, hears and thinks).
Objective narrator (the readers are presented only with facts, but they must draw the inferences themselves).
What is the purpose of the story? Was the author successful in getting to the purpose?
Comment on the language of the story: choice of words, syntax.
¹ The voice that tells us a story is called the narrator. It may be either first person (I, we), or third person (he, she, it, they).
A first-person narrator recounts events in which he or she has been involved either as a major or a minor participant. Because an “I” narrator must stay in character, he is restricted in what she knows, how she can interpret, and how he can express himself. A first-person narrator offers some advantages. An “I” narrator who is a major character can give us insight into that character’s thoughts and emotions, perhaps enable us to understand some inner transformation. Sometimes we can be drawn into an understanding that goes beyond the narrator’s limitations. This technique is effective for creating humor or irony. One variety of first-person used in this way is the innocent eye.
The three types of third-person narrator range from an almost complete freedom of movement and knowledge to a strict limitation of what can be seen and heard in a particular place at a particular time.
The omniscient narrator is all knowing. He is able to go anywhere, see anything, enter into the minds of any of the characters, and make comments on the story. He is clearly not a character but an author representative telling a story in which he himself is not a participant.
Many authors choose to narrow that omniscience until it zeros in on the thoughts and experiences of a single character, creating what is called the limited omniscient narrator. We seem to stand, unseen, at the shoulder of his character. We view the events and the other characters through what he sees, hears and thinks.
The third-person narrator that we call the objective narrator is often described as a combination tape recorder and camera. We are not taken into the mind of any character. We are given only what could be recorded and photographed – dialogue, setting, actions. We are presented with facts, but we must draw all of the inferences ourselves. The author seems to have disappeared, but that is an illusion. Objective in this narrator’s label doesn’t mean without judgment, for the author is in control, editing the tape and directing the camera.
LITERARY TERMS HANDBOOK
Characterization
Direct: when an author directly states facts about a character’s personality and his appearance.
Indirect: when the author reveals a character’s personality through the character’s words, actions, behavior, or through what other characters say and think about the character.
Complication – disturbs an existing situation in some way. In some stories an event takes place that becomes a complication in the main character’s life and produces a CONFLICT for the character.
Conflict – is a struggle between two opposing forces which creates a tension in a narrative.
Climax – is the point of our highest interest and greatest emotional involvement in the story. So it’s the point of greatest tension, that often involves the most critical decision which the central character must make and which will determine the RESOLUTION.
Exposition – refers to background information, to the context in which the story takes place. Exposition includes both setting and information about characters, so the author introduces us to the people, places and situations we will need to know.
Plot – is the sequence of events or actions. The plot is usually what you tell people about when you share a story with them.
Resolution – it may be a moment of insight, of new understanding, on the part of the main character. In many stories, the resolution is presented in one or two sentences and may not therefore seem like a resolution. Thus “no” resolution can be one kind of resolution; the author’s point may be that the character’s life will be an endless series of complications because the character cannot or will not resolve the central conflict.
Setting – it anchors a story in time and space. Setting includes landscapes and buildings, weather, seasons, physical props and characters’ clothing, as well as the wider culture, working conditions and traditions with which conflicts and action occur. The setting may be as important as any character, becoming a vital force overshadowing characters and plot.
Theme – or the main idea, or the purpose, is a generalization about life that the author wants to communicate by writing a specific piece of literature. It is more than just the subject of a story or its topic. The theme involves an opinion about the subject or topic.
Word choice – the selection of words in a piece of literature to convey meaning, suggest attitude and create images and general atmosphere.
TEXT FOR ANALYSIS
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Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966), known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer. His best-known works include his early satires “Decline and Fall” (1928) and “A Handful of Dust” (1934), his novel “Brideshead Revisited” (1945) and his trilogy of Second World War novels collectively known as “Sword of Honour” (1952–61). Waugh is widely recognized as one of the great prose stylists of the 20th century.
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