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7 Analysis tips

Angie Burgin Kratzer, NBCT About this Resource A rhetorical is simply a non- writing . Some sources will group all informational texts into just four categories, , , , and persuasion. This grouping is misleading. Persuasion can be an umbrella term since, ultimately, all writing should have a thesis and therefore be persuasive. Narration and description can stand alone, but exposition can be broken down into numerous “sub modes.” What is left entirely out of a four-category grouping is argumentation. This mode must be taught to mastery in any high school or college English class, so argumentation and persuasion are taught discreetly in the unit Argumentation & Persuasion: A Complete Unit. Excluded as well is literary analysis, which is also treated separately in Literary Analysis for Every Student. The following modes are addressed in this resource: Narration Cause-Effect Description Process Analysis Extended Definition Comparison-Contrast Classification and Division Materials for each mode include the following: • a student handout • a graphic organizer • a list of prompts • a rubric with points assigned • a rubric with no points assigned • an annotated, diverse list of suggested models • a tips sheet for analysis of pieces written in the specified mode Suggestions for Use: • Design an AP English Language & Composition class around these modes. At the start of each unit, distribute the handout. Analyze examples of pieces in each mode, write in each mode, and write about pieces in which these modes are used within others as devices and strategies. • In a class, have students construct pieces in each mode. • In any high school English class, address Common Core State Standards™ by studying one essay in each of these modes.

Have questions? Email the author at [email protected] Want more? Join Angie’s email list and get a free pacing guide for AP English Language & Composition. What you need to get started: 1. Download this link for the Google Slides.

Link will be provided in purchased version.

2. Have access to the Internet and a Google Account. (FREE)

3. Open the file on your own Google Drive and engage while in the edit mode.

4. Have printer access to print out the finished product. (OPTIONAL)

If you haven’t created a free Google account, you will need to do that before beginning the unit. Each student will need his or her own account in order to work in Google Slides. Before you add any text to the handouts, it is VERY important to save a copy of the file on your own Google Drive and then edit the copy. You do not want to edit the original file.

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved. http://www.angiekratzer.com/ Because we use description every day in our spoken language, writers can underestimate its power. An elaborate description can kill a , deepen it, or make it come alive. Note the difference in these authors’ approaches:

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

“It is among these hills that the Delaware takes its rise; and flowing from the limpid lakes and thousand springs of this region the numerous sources of the Susquehanna meander through the valleys until, uniting their streams, they form one of the proudest rivers of the United States. The mountains are generally arable to the tops, although instances are not wanting where the sides are jutted with rocks that aid greatly in giving to the country that romantic and picturesque which it so eminently possesses. The vales are narrow, rich, and cultivated, with a stream uniformly winding through each. Beautiful and thriving villages are found interspersed along the margins of the small lakes, or situated at those points of the streams which are favorable for manufacturing; and neat and comfortable farms, with every indication of wealth about them, are scattered profusely through the vales, and even to the mountain tops.” James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers

Novelists Ernest Hemingway and James Fenimore Cooper are known for their description, Hemingway for the clean, direct nature of his and Cooper for the way in which he hovers over an object or person. Both approaches have their place in non- fiction texts as well. Here memoirist Gary Soto, within a longer narrative, describes what it was like to steal a pie:

“In my front yard, I leaned against a car fender and panicked about stealing the apple pie. I knew an apple got Eve in deep trouble with snakes because Sister Marie had shown us a film about Adam and Eve being cast into the desert, and what scared me more than falling from grace was being thirsty for the rest of my life. But even that didn’t stop me from clawing a chunk from the pie tin and pushing it into the cavern of my mouth. The slop was sweet and gold colored in the afternoon sun. I laid more pieces on my tongue, wet finger-dripping pieces, until I was finished and felt like crying because it was about the best thing I had ever tasted. I realized right there and then, in my sixth year, in my tiny body of two hundred bones and three or four sins, that the best things in life came stolen. I wiped my sticky fingers on the grass and rolled my tongue over the corners of my mouth. A burp perfumed the air.” Gary Soto, A Summer Life

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved http://www.angiekratzer.com/ S What can a writer describe? The author of a non-fiction text needs to communicate with an , the reader or listener. He or she needs to put the audience into a position of understanding, and one of the best ways of doing that is to describe the person, scene, event, or object in such a way that the senses are stimulated.

A Place The description of a place can be organized in a variety of ways. The writer might think in terms of physical space and paint a big picture the way James Fenimore Cooper does or give details the way a video camera might capture them if shooting from an airplane. A room can be described from to bottom, around the walls, or from furniture to floor.

A Person A person’s face, gait, character, clothing, and behavior can be described, sometimes in the same passage. Writers often use an effective zoom-in strategy and allow one feature to speak for the rest. For example, a young child’s disheveled clothing could tell a story itself.

An Event Interwoven with narration, an event or episode can be depicted in a variety of ways. The image of a flame thrower scorching brush could open a description of a memoir of trench warfare, and the smell of burning flesh can both repulse and draw a reader in.

Thinking Through the Thesis

As is the case with narrative writing, the thesis in a descriptive essay might be a bit harder both to plan and pin down. Begin with the general impression you want to create and go from there. For example, you might want to create an impression of nostalgia about a summer vacation home, or you might want to take it a step further and sharpen the impression into a more defined thesis, like the human need for fond childhood memories. The length of the description will often determine the specificity of the thesis.

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved. www.angiekratzer.com S Describe your bedroom. Think beyond the physical and associate your room with what it does for you (e.g., provide comfort and safety) or to you (e.g., remind you of something painful).

Create a character sketch of a teacher, sibling, friend, neighbor, or co-worker.

Go to a shopping center and people watch for 30 minutes. Find a person who looks interesting and create a back story for him or her. Use description to help paint the picture of the person’s home life and relationships.

Close your eyes and picture a large meal with your family (such as a milestone birthday or holiday dinner). What do you smell? What do you hear? What do you see? Incorporate all the senses in your description of a one-hour meal.

Imagine the place in which you feel most uncomfortable (e.g., math class, church, the doctor’s office, the mall, a party) and describe the emotions you feel. Analyze their origins in order to develop and defend a thesis.

Narrate a very brief event (e.g., falling, being caught cheating, being told bad news) and use description to do the telling rather than linear .

Recall a bizarre dream. Rather than recounting the dream as a narration, describe it in snapshots.

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved http://www.angiekratzer.com/ Overall Impression Taste Sight or Thesis

Smell Sound

Touch

Begin with a focus on the senses. After deciding what overall impression you want to create about this person, place, or object, or event, make quick notes about the senses’ association with this topic. For example, a carnival might elicit more ideas about sound and smell, but your grandmother’s kitchen might be better served through smell and touch.

Brainstorm analogies with which you might compare your topic. Here’s the trick: MAKE IT FRESH. If you’ve heard it before, it’s cliché.

Make a decision about the method of organization. Top to bottom? Left to right? Head to toe? Before to after? Which method will best serve your overall impression or thesis?

Consider other rhetorical choices you might make. Writers often use , figurative language, and other modes such as narration and comparison- contrast in descriptive writing.

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved. www.angiekratzer.com S ____ The piece has a clear overall impression or thesis. 15 points ____ The organizational strategy contributes to the overall impression or thesis. 15 points ____ Chosen details contribute to the overall impression or thesis. 15 points ____ The author effectively employs the following devices or strategies in the communication of the overall impression or thesis. 15 points ___ imagery ___ figurative language ___ ___ syntax ___ ___ point of view ____ The style of the essay overall demonstrates maturity of voice through sentence formation and word choice. 10 points ____ The essay contains no errors in sentence formation. 10 points ____ The essay contains no errors in usage. 10 points ____ The essay contains no distracting errors in mechanics. 10 points

____ Total Points

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved http://www.angiekratzer.com/ ____ The piece has a clear overall impression or thesis. ___ points ____ The organizational strategy contributes to the overall impression or thesis. ___ points ____ Chosen details contribute to the overall impression or thesis. ___ points ____ The author effectively employs the following devices or strategies in the communication of the overall impression or thesis. ___ points ___ imagery ___ figurative language ___ diction ___ syntax ___ irony ___ point of view ____ The style of the essay overall demonstrates maturity of voice through sentence formation and word choice. ____ points ____ The essay contains no errors in sentence formation. ____ points ____ The essay contains no errors in usage. ____ points ____ The essay contains no distracting errors in mechanics. ____ points

____ Total Points

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved http://www.angiekratzer.com/ This list of pieces was gathered from several anthologies, including The Language of Composition (2008 Edition), The Norton Reader (Tenth Edition), The McGraw-Hill Reader (Eleventh Edition), and 50 Essays (Fifth Edition). Some of these titles are in the public domain and can be found online. Most anthologies include student questions at the end of each piece. Keep in mind that authors do not generally set out to write an essay or speech in a particular mode, so these choices are a bit subjective. What to one reader might be a broadly descriptive text might to another be one of cause and effect.

Barbara Tuchman, “’This is the End of the World’: The Black Death” Tuchman uses graphic, detailed description within a narrative of the plague.

Judith Ortiz Cofer, “The of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” This essay blends several (of dress, vignettes, societal rules) to complete a picture of the origins and consequences of stereotypes.

Annie Dillard, “An American Childhood” This excerpt is a character sketch made up of physical descriptions, dialogue, vivid imagery, and brief .

Natalie Angier, “Drugs, Sports, Body Image, and G.I. Joe” This New York Times article begins with embedded descriptions that introduce a broader argument.

Jamaica Kincaid, “The Ugly Tourist” This short essay plays with point of view with the use of second person to the truth about tourists to tourists.

Joseph Mitchell, “The Rivermen” This short excerpt of Up in the Old Hotel offers a straightforward physical description.

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved http://www.angiekratzer.com/ Like that of a narrative, the thesis of a descriptive piece can be elusive. It’s important to step back and look at the big picture of the essay when making decisions about rhetorical elements to discuss.

What is the overall impression the author is creating? What is the fundamental truth about this person, object, place, or event? What organizational strategy does the author employ? Is description the frame or a device within another mode?

If the big picture is the forest, you have to account for the trees as well! There are rhetorical devices that are particularly important in description.

What sensory language (imagery) contributes to the overall impression or thesis? How does the author use figurative language to communicate the overall impression or thesis? How important is pace? Is the piece slowed down or sped up by sentence length? To what extent is analogy employed? Look for fresh comparisons that help the audience make connections.

©Angie Burgin Kratzer All rights reserved http://www.angiekratzer.com/ Angie Burgin Kratzer is a high school English teacher in central North Carolina, and she holds Secondary ELA and K-12 Academically Gifted certificates. In 2001 and 2011, she earned her Adolescent/Young Adult Literacy certificate from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Her experience includes 18 years in the classroom teaching English 9, English 10, English 11, English 12, AP English Language & Composition, Creative Writing, and Newspaper Journalism; and three years as a curriculum specialist for 6th through 12th grade English Language Arts. She also serves school districts as a consultant and trainer in writing instruction. If you have questions about any of her products, contact her at [email protected].

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