Tutorial on How to Write a Response to Literature Essay

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Tutorial on How to Write a Response to Literature
Essay

• Ms. Carole LeCren
• La Jolla High School
• 2002-2003

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Writing to the Standards

• Find a standard that interests you.
• Find a standard that expresses some of the ideas
  you were already writing about in your journal
  while you read the book.
• In short, find the book you have read that
  matches a standard, or, find a standard that
  matches the book you want to write about.

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The Standards

• There are three sets of standards
• Structural features of literature
• Narrative analysis of grade-level-appropriate
  text
• Literary criticism

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Structural Features of Literature
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3.1

• Articulate the relationship between the expressed
  purposes and the characteristics of different
  forms of dramatic literature (e.g., comedy,
  tragedy, drama, dramatic monologue).

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3.2

• Compare and contrast the presentation of a
  similar theme or topic across genres to explain
  how the selection of genre shapes the theme or
  topic.

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• Both of these standards require that you read
  more than one piece of literature.
• 3.1 is good for drama students.
• 3.2 is good for students who like to read lots of
  different things about the same topic or theme.

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• For 3.1, you need to read more than one type of
  play. For instance, you could read a comedy and a
  tragedy by Shakespeare, and then compare/contrast
  the characteristics of those types of plays and
  the expressed purpose that occurred in those
  plays. For those of you who have to read plays
  for drama, this is a good possibility for you.

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• For 3.2, you need to read several pieces of
  literature about a similar theme or topic, for
  instance, losing family members at a young age.
  The genres of the pieces have to be different (a
  poem, a novel, a play, etc.). Then, in your
  essay, you would compare/contrast how the
  different genres presented the theme or topic.
  You would also need to discuss how a particular
  genre, for instance, maybe poetry, is better at
  presenting a particular topic or theme than
  another genre might be.

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Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text
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• These standards are the ones that cover the types
  of essays you are most familiar with essays that
  analyze the way a book is put together.
• Most of you write journal entries on these types
  of topics, so it should be easy to find journal
  entries that match one of the following
  standards.

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• On the other hand, if your journal entries are
  mostly plot summaries, you may want to take a
  closer look at these standards and consider
  changing how you write journal entries to help
  you focus on the type of information requested by
  these standards.

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3.3 Analyze interactions between main and
subordinate characters in a literary text (e.g.,
internal and external conflicts, motivations,
relationships, influences) and explain the way
those interactions affect the plot.

• This standard focuses on characterization, so if
  you like to write about characters, and how the
  interaction between characters changes or drives
  the plot, then this is the standard for you!

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3.4 Determine characters' traits by what the
characters say about themselves in narration,
dialogue, dramatic monologue, and soliloquy.

• What are character traits? They are similar to
  personality traits--emotions or actions that
  cause people to be who they are and act the way
  they do. Most authors do not spell out the
  personality of a character She was paranoid,
  rude, evil, and obsessed with money. Instead,
  the author lets you come to that conclusion after
  you see how she acts in the book.

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• This standard is simply asking you to find out
  the traits of a character based on what the
  author has put in the book, either in the
  narration (the descriptive storyline), the
  dialogue (what the character says, or what other
  characters say about him/her, or what the
  character says about him/herself.

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3.5 Compare works that express a universal theme
and provide evidence to support the ideas
expressed in each work.

• This is a standard that also requires you to read
  more than one piece of literature.
• If youve read a few books that have the same
  theme, for instance, 1984 and Brave New World and
  The Giver, then this essay asks you to provide
  evidence (quotes from the text, plot, etc.) that
  explain/support the theme.

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3.6 Analyze and trace an author's development of
time and sequence, including the use of complex
literary devices (e.g., foreshadowing,
flashbacks).

• This standard is good for a book that plays with
  the timing in the plot. Like The Odyssey, which
  starts in the middle of the story and then
  flashes back to the beginning, any book that
  doesnt tell the plot in chronological order is a
  possibility for this standard.

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3.7 Recognize and understand the significance of
various literary devices, including figurative
language, imagery, allegory, and symbolism, and
explain their appeal.

• This standard covers any literary device you can
  think of, not just the four listed here. So you
  can include essays analyzing characterization, or
  plot, or theme, or metaphors, or anything else
  you can find in a list of literary devices.

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3.8 Interpret and evaluate the impact of
ambiguities, subtleties, contradictions, ironies,
and incongruities in a text.

• For those of you who like to read novels that are
  a little unusual, crazy, modern, etc. this is the
  standard that you could use to focus on the use
  of language and the structure of the plot.

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3.9 Explain how voice, persona, and the choice of
a narrator affect characterization and the tone,
plot, and credibility of a text.

• This is a good standard if your book has a strong
  narrator with a voice you can hear as you read.
• The standard asks you to discuss HOW the narrator
  affects the characters, and affects the storyline
  and how believable the story is.

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3.10 Identify and describe the function of
dialogue, scene designs, soliloquies, asides, and
character foils in dramatic literature.

• This is another standard that is good for those
  of you who like to read plays, or who must read
  plays for drama class.
• Although it says and in this standard, you
  could probably focus your essay on just one of
  the techniques listed.

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Literary Criticism
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3.11 Evaluate the aesthetic qualities of style,
including the impact of diction and figurative
language on tone, mood, and theme, using the
terminology of literary criticism. (Aesthetic
approach)

• This standard is more appropriate for Advanced
  Placement English (11th grade) where students
  analyze the choice of words by an author, but if
  you feel ready to talk about a book word by word,
  then feel free to try it.

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3.12 Analyze the way in which a work of
literature is related to the themes and issues of
its historical period. (Historical approach)

• This one seems to be popular for students who
  read books set in historical time periods,
  especially the Holocaust.
• In this type of essay, you must be familiar (and
  may even need to research) the history of the
  time period, in order to be able to compare it to
  the themes in the literature.

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Writing the Response to Literature Essay
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Writing the Essay

• After you pick a standard to use as your writing
  prompt, then you need to prepare to write the
  essay.

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Pre-Write

• Re-read your journal entries.
• See if any of them give you ideas to go with one
  of the standards.
• Notice that if you have not been quoting from the
  text of your novel, you may want to start doing
  that in the future, in order to give you some
  helpful material to use in your essay.

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Write Your Thesis

• After you have chosen the book and chosen the
  standard, take a close look at what the standard
  is asking you to do.
• Think of the standard as a question, and your
  thesis as the answer.
• Write your thesis stating it as the answer to the
  question in the standard.

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Example of a Thesis

• Standard 3.5 Compare works that express a
  universal theme and provide evidence to support
  the ideas expressed in each work.
• Thesis The universal theme of a society gone
  wrong is clearly expressed in 1984 by George
  Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley,
  through the use by each author of strong
  characters and a futuristic plot.

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Introduction

• Writing the introduction is simply a matter of
  leading your reader to your thesis. Introducing
  the concept, the idea, the things that writers
  do, etc. until you get down to specifics is one
  way of starting an introduction. Another way is
  to use a quote from the book that capture the
  idea or evidence that you are planning to present.

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Example of an Introduction

• Many authors like to explore the possibilities,
  the what ifs and the outcomes for the future
  that could happen to our planet. Some of these
  writers express such ideas in science fiction.
  But other authors have another agenda to warn us
  of what might happen if we dont watch out. By
  setting their books in futuristic settings and
  giving their characters strong voices, they are
  not trying to predict the future, but instead
  portray how horrible the future might be if we
  dont watch what we are doing.
• The universal theme of a society gone wrong is
  clearly expressed in 1984 by George Orwell and
  Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, through the use
  by each author of strong characters and a
  futuristic plot.

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The Body

• With a clear thesis, the body of your essay
  simply follows the blueprint set out by the
  thesis.
• Where do you think you would go with this thesis?
• The universal theme of a society gone wrong is
  clearly expressed in 1984 by George Orwell and
  Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, through the use
  by each author of strong characters and a
  futuristic plot.

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• Introduce 1984 by George Orwell
• Introduce the strong character and the futuristic
  plot
• Point out how the universal theme is explained by
  these two elements character and plot
• Introduce Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Introduce the strong characters and the
  futuristic plot
• Point out how the universal theme is explained by
  these two elements character and plot

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Conclusion

• With the previous six paragraphs mapped out for
  you, all you need is a conclusion.
• A conclusion should restate the idea presented in
  the introduction.
• It should make or restate some of the most
  important points you made.
• It should not introduce any new ideas that you
  thought of while you were writing--if you want to
  include those, you should rewrite the essay to
  include them, or save them for another essay.

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Thats It!

• Now go out there and try it!

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Works Cited

• Standards from the California English Language
  Arts Standards
• http//www.cde.ca.gov