Critical Reading Response: due by Friday, March 2: TEN POINTS
1. Read the passage below and the Writing Prompt beneath it.
2. Use the “Plan Your Response” section to gather ideas before you write your answer to the prompt. Some parts of the planning are already done for you, but you have to finish the other parts. Notice the labels in [square brackets] in front of each part of the planning--you will use these labels to organize your planning into your writing.
3. Fill in the missing parts of the essay that has been started for you in the “Writing Your Response” section. Each part of your planning is labeled inside [square brackets]. Insert each planning detail into “Writing Your Response” at the matching [square brackets] spot. Notice that you will repeat your reasons [R1] and [R2] three times in your response. **Copy and paste the “Writing Your Response” section into a Google Doc or into any word processing document and add to it from your completed “Plan Your Response” section. Once your work is done, you should remove all of the labels in [square brackets], including the paragraph labels. Make the finished essay use one font like Arial.***
4. Read the entire finished essay out loud to a partner at home--this should help you to feel familiar with the completed writing task so that you will be able to write an entire well-organized, clear essay without some parts being written for you.
5. To earn credit for this writing work , please type your name and period number at the top of it , print it out, and get it signed by the at-home partner to whom you read your essay out loud. Turn in the signed paper in class by Friday.
Read : “How to Create Suspense”
1 The feeling of excitement or nervousness people feel when they do not know what is going to happen is called suspense. People experience suspense when watching a scary movie or when reading an exciting book.
2 I am an author of horror stories. When I write thrillers, creating suspense is my ultimate goal, and I use several methods to accomplish it. First of all, the author needs to provide the whole story, not only one side. The reader should know what both the hero and the villain are doing in order to understand their actions. Characters are essential to a suspenseful story. If readers don’t like the characters, then they won’t care about the outcome. Also, the characters and their actions need to be plausible, or believable. For suspense to occur, readers need to anticipate what is going to happen. Unbelievable characters ruin the effect.
3 Another way to build suspense is to have a time limit. For example, some stories might have a bomb that is going to explode in 60 minutes or an asteroid that will hit Earth in 24 hours.
4 Finally, the stakes have to be high. The main character must be willing to do anything, or risk everything, to stop a terrible thing from happening.
5 To explain how I successfully create suspense, let’s explore my novel A lone in the Dark. In Alone in the Dark, a woman named Becca is babysitting her sister’s baby for the first time. Becca wants to give her sister a fun night out with her husband, but Becca also wants to prove to her sister that she is responsible. Becca has just put the baby to sleep when the power suddenly goes out. Becca is in her sister’s house, so she struggles to find candles and a flashlight. She appears frustrated, but not scared. In the next chapter, the reader learns why the lights went out: A man stands outside near the electrical wires.
6 At that moment, you as the reader should start to feel suspense. You don’t know if the man wants to hurt Becca or the baby, or if he mistook Becca for her sister, but you do know something is wrong. You need to read on to learn what happens. Later in the book, Becca accidentally steps on her glasses in the dark, which means she can’t see more than shadows. The suspense builds as the doorbell rings. Becca thinks it is the pizza she ordered, but the reader knows the strange man is standing on the porch, holding something behind his back. Becca reaches for the doorknob.
7 At this point, you are on the edge of your seat, yelling at Becca to not open the door. You feel this suspense because I, the writer, told you a stranger is outside. If I had not written that, Becca would simply be a woman who ordered pizza. Suspense happens when you know danger lurks.
8 Since you know Becca will be safe when her sister returns, the story has a time limit. Because Becca needs to protect her sister’s baby, the stakes are high. You care what happens to Becca because you like her and admire her for protecting the baby. All of these elements create a suspenseful novel that encourages the reader to keep reading and discover what happens.
Writing Prompt: Is the book Alone in the Dark a good example of suspense as outlined in the article? Why or why not? Write a multi-paragraph essay analyzing the way the author of the article uses the novel as an illustration of her ideas. Cite details from the article to support your claim.
Plan Your Response : [C] Your CLAIM in response to the PROMPT: R espond to this prompt on your own . Repeat key parts of the prompt in your claim so it is clear for your audience.
[R1] Reason 1 (this comes from your observations): One feature of the article’s definition of suspense is ___, and the novel Alone in the Dark has this.
[Ev 1] Evidence for Reason 1:
[Ex 1] Your Explanation for Evidence 1:
[R2] Reason 2 (this comes from your observations): Another part of the article’s outline of suspense is ___, which the novel also exhibits.
[Ev 2] Evidence for Reason 2:
[Ex 2] Your Explanation for Evidence 2:
Write Your Response: [paragraph 1] I think [C]. [R1] ; additionally, [R2] .
[paragraph 2] [R1]. [Ev 1] . This evidence shows that [Ex 1] .
[paragraph 3] [R2] . Excerpts from the article that illustrate this include [Ev 2] . This evidence shows that [Ex 2] .
[paragraph 4] In conclusion, I think [C] . [R1] . [R2] .