Title: The Critical/Analytical Response to Text The Craft of Writing an Essay
1The Critical/Analytical Response to TextThe
Craft of Writing an Essay Part 1
- PLANNING THE ESSAY
- WRITING A THESIS STATEMENT
- A Think Aloud Process
2Deciding on your thesis statement The first
step to planning your essay
- The assumption is that you know your text inside
out and have developed your own ideas in relation
to the text - For a literary essay, you are asked to make a
debatable claim that demonstrates your insight on
a specific topic (essential question). Your claim
should strike the reader as an aha rather than
a duh observation
3Diploma exam
- For your Diploma exam, you will be given an
essential question that can be related to a wide
variety of texts. For example - Discuss the ideas developed by the text creator
in your chosen text about the ways in which
individuals struggle to restore honour and
certainty.
4STEP ONE Interpret the question (work the prompt)
- Underline the key thematic words
(honour/certainty) and the key words (struggle to
restore) - develop your own interpretation
- How will you describe honour
- How will you describe certainty
- How will you address the concept of restoration
- How will you massage your interpretations with
your chosen text
5STEP TWODecide on a text and create the question
- Change the statement into a question (that you
can answer) related to a specific text of your
choice - How/Why/When (under what circumstances) do / does
(name character/s) struggle to restore honour and
certainty in authors (name text)?
6STEP THREEBrainstorm a subset of questions
- As you do so, think of possible answers. Let your
imagination roam over all possible questions - How is honour and certainty compromised in the
play? - Which characters (or characters) responses to
this struggle intrigue me? - How does / do the character/s display / interpret
honour and does this interpretation change
throughout the course of the text? - How does / do the character/s display /
interpret honour? - How does / do the character/s display / respond
to certainty? - Which characters (or characters) responses best
demonstrate the struggle with compromised honour
and / or certainty? - What is the nature of the characters (or
characters) struggle (internal/external)? - How does the character (do the characters) of
your choice attempt to restore honour and
certainty? - Is honour and certainty restored in the end by
the actions of your character(s) and if so how?
7STEP FOURCreate your claim blueprint your
supporting arguments
- Look for a pattern (group your ideas) in your
brainstorming that leads to a potential claim - Think of an argument/claim (that contains
potential for debate) - Create at least three supporting arguments that
support your main argument/claim - Be specific have specific incidents from the
play to back up your point
8STEP FIVEWrite your thesis
- A good thesis is not only a debatable claim, but
also suggests the structure of the paper. The
thesis allows the reader to imagine and
anticipate the flow of the paper - Your statement should
- State the topic
- State your insight/interpretation/claim
- Refer the text if you have not already done so in
your introductory paragraph - State specific character(s) involved
- Suggest a sequence of points that logically prove
the essay's main assertion - Be expressed in the present tense
9STEP SIXTest your thesis against the 5-part MTS
(magic thesis statement) formula
- Identify what you are looking at (aspect of
honour and certainty in character/s) - identify the situation you can see / are
describing - State where that leads
- Point out the significance
- Be able to restate your thesis in other words
literally write a sentence following your thesis
that begins with in other words
10FORMULA SENTENCE(When in doubt, try this)
- Think about it this way
- By looking at ___, we see that ___ (unique
insight) which is significant because - Write it this way
- In (name of text), the author (name) develops the
idea that - Consider
- whether your statement implies cause and effect
(a leads to statement), makes connections or
comparisons (an is statement) or comments on a
theme related to the prompt
11LAST STEPTest your thesis (CSSMI)
- Clarity
- Use straightforward language avoid reference to
philosophers/philosophies or anything esoteric - Specificity
- Is your thesis it too vague? For example, the
statement "Shakespeare's characterization
demonstrates his incredible insight as a
playwright" is too vague because your reader
can't be sure what you mean by "insight" or how
it relates to "characterization" - Strength
- Make sure you have at least three arguments (in
mind) that support your thesis - Make sure you have evidence for each argument
- Each argument should be the material for future
body paragraphs - Manageability
- Can you handle the topic within the time
frame/space provided? - Interest
- Does it state the obvious (duh)? If it's so
obvious that nobody could fail to see it, it's
probably not worth writing about
12EXAMPLE 1 (LEVEL 2-3)The struggle to restore
honour and certainty
- Decisions can change a life. We do not know if
anything graceful or miserable will come of our
decisions. The choices that we make may cause
death or fatal disasters. However, honour and
certainty will also be established during the
process of our decisions making. Inner conflict
is one of the most important ways to develop our
ideas about making choices. It provides the right
direction to take actions and helps us achieve
certain goals. In Shakespeares Hamlet, Hamlets
decision to avenge his fathers death helps him
restore honour and certainty. -
- Level 2-3 thesis needs clarification in other
words and paragraph needs blueprinting
13EXAMPLE 2 (LEVEL 4)The struggle to restore
honour and certainty
- The definition of honour is laden with irony. In
one sense, to be honourable is to find personal
integrity or allegiance to moral principles in
another sense, it is society that judges ones
possession of the virtue. In fact religious and
societal beliefs determine what makes an action
honourable or not. In contrast, certainty is
characterized the degree of security felt by an
individual. The play Hamlet focuses on an
individual plagued by uncertainty who finds
himself forced to make several significant
decisions despite the ambiguity around him, and
realizes in the process that the faith in
Christianity he held so strongly merely
complicates his decisions, rather than showing
him which direction to take. Throughout the
course of the play Gertrude, Claudius, and Hamlet
find that in order to restore certainty they must
compromise their honour which, considering the
time period in which was out of the question. In
Shakespeares Hamlet, the characters demonstrate
that honour and certainty often conflict.
Shakespeare uses Hamlet to show that in order to
achieve certainty, it is necessary for honour to
be compromised. In other words, an individual
must be able to reject societal beliefs in order
to find truth. -
- Level 4 a good claim but is this possible to
demonstrate in the play? Does not address the
struggle to restore. This paragraph would also
be stronger if it contained a transition This
can be most clearly seen in Hamlet when.
14EXAMPLE 3 (LEVEL 4-5)The significance of
idealism and truth in an individuals life
- Materialism the philosophical belief that a
conclusive connection between material wealth and
happiness not only exists, but is in fact the
pathway to spiritual enlightenment. This belief
was highly embraced by the Roman Catholic Church
during the 15th and 16th century, much to the
dismay of Protestants trying to establish their
religious rights. Queen Elizabeth was responsible
for nationally recognizing the rights of
Protestants in England, and peace was found
between Protestants and Catholics. William
Shakespeare, a playwright adored by both Queen
Elizabeth and James I, was a Protestant, and he
portrayed these contrasting beliefs into his
plays in subtle ways. Protestants believe in
idealistic thought idealism being defined as the
opposite of materialism the path to
enlightenment is though the mind. Another related
belief of theirs is that if one can find truth in
life, they will discover salvation. Truths
definition is personal and different for
everyoneone is expected to define it for
themselves. Shakespeares play Hamlet juxtaposes
these two beliefs between characters both
idealistic thought and the search for truth in
life prove to be significant to the lives of King
Claudius, Hamlet, and Rosencrantz Guildenstern.
King Claudius belief in an idealistic nation of
Denmark leads him to killing his brother
Hamlets search for truth in life allows him to
come to conclusions about life, death and murder
and Rosencrantz Guildensterns idealistic and
naive truthful outlook on life land them in
mortal danger. - Level 4 that is on its way to a 5 the thesis
needs to make a claim not be an observation
15EXAMPLE 4 (LEVEL 5-almost)The significance of
idealism and truth in an individuals life
- Hamlet could be seen as an unorthodox medieval
detective. He is preoccupied, almost obsessed
with uncovering the truth the truth behind his
fathers murder, and the truth of the ghosts
identity and words. He is also struggling with
ideals notions about how he should behave in
the presence of his God, his peers and family,
and how he should act to restore good to his
kingdom in the wake of his fathers murder. It is
also important to note Hamlets struggles with
the contradictions between certain ideals. Hamlet
could be accused of being indecisive, but this is
a very superficial view. To ask Why is Hamlet
indecisive? is the more effective approach. By
looking at Hamlets character and his internal
struggles, it becomes clear that his questioning
of the truth, his own idealism, and his struggles
with contradicting ideals result in his tragic
hesitancy. - Level 5 almost thesis needs clarification
16The Five Paragraph Essay
- See
- The Craft of Essay Writing Part 2