You Must Make Frequent Use of the Eraser

AP Comp Name ______

Self-Analysis Worksheet

“You must make frequent use of the eraser if you want to write something that deserves a second reading” -Horace The Satires (35 BC)

One of the keys to being a good writer is learning to revise. Raising our awareness of what we do as writers helps us to revise more effectively. Raise your awareness!

Requirement: Hand in a self-analysis worksheet in which you describe how you applied rhetorical strategies we’ve learned in your narrative. You will list and explain 6-8 different strategies you utilized. Follow the instructions below:

Number and label the strategy.

Skip a line, then copy and paste a passage of text from your narrative, or several bits and pieces of text….

Skip a line and explain why you used the strategy and how it helps to achieve your purpose.

Here’s a sample to follow:

1. Similes and comparisons

Passage:  “Next to me stand my big sister, Patti, and my Aunt Anne, laughing at the way my mouth has fallen open and my eyes have grown wide as beachballs.”  “Even as I sense they are walking out the door, expecting me to follow, I am like a zombie, focused on frosting only.”

Explanation: I use similes throughout my narrative to liven up my writing, to have some fun and to sound unique. My narrative begins with a lot of visual imagery, so to vary my style I moved beyond description and into figurative language. I think similes paint pictures in the audience’s mind, like imagery, but are even a little more creative. I also want my narrative “voice” to sound like a child, and I think comparisons to things like beachballs and zombies help me sound innocent, and childlike, in tone. My story is also supposed to be lighthearted, even a little comic, despite the frightening memory. Since the purpose of my narrative is to describe being lost in the Bronx when I was only five years old, the similes help to explain how it happened, the similes are a little silly and comical, and the similes make the story more entertaining for the audience to enjoy. 2. Appeal to Pathos

Have fun and learn!