2017-2018 H-IB World LitLearning Opportunity Notes –

Use these notes to help improve your writing.

Commentary – Socratic seminar “Breaking Gods” (9/5)STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS:

• It is appropriate to use a quote as a hook as long as it is relevant to your thesis and effectively put into context.

• Unify body paragraphs.• Concluding line should relate to topic sentence or thesis.• One subject = one paragraph

• Chapters vs. sections• This novel does not have chapters; it has titled sections.• Place section titles in quotation marks.• Italicize the title of the novel.

STRUCTURE (cont.)

• Proofread to correct run-on sentences and fragments.

• Review ANCHORING RULES.

• Be sure your anchor and quotation form a complete sentence.

• Be consistent with citation information:• The first time, include the author’s last name: (Adichie 7). After that, you can

include only the page number: (8).

• Cite directly following the “quotation” (8), not at the end of the sentence.

CONTENT

• PEE – POINT, EVIDENCE, EXPLAIN

• Back up every point you make with textual evidence.

• Author vs. narrator (ie, “Adichie writes” vs. “Kambiliobserves”)

• More often than not, you should refer to the narrator instead of the author when contextualizing quotations.

CONTENT (cont.)

•Consistently use PRESENT TENSE to discuss the events of a literary work.

•Meaningfully incorporate literary terminology (IB’s “register”).• Instead of “main character,” refer to “the

protagonist.”• Instead of “story,” refer to the “narrative.”

WORDING

• Affect vs. effect

• Avoid idiomatic or informal language:• “sticks out”

• “goes on to say”

• “gonna end”

• “got hectic”

• “messed up”

• “clean slate”

• “to a T”

“Speaking with Our Spirits” – collection of anchored, direct evidence (9/11) • When to use single quotation marks within the normal, double

quotation marks: rarely.

• Use single quotation marks to enclose a quotation within a quotation.

• Example: • Speaking out of fear, Mama says, “‘Let me pour your tea,’ she offered,

although she never served Papa’s tea” (31).

Issues re: anchoring

• Use present tense in your anchors.

• Be more precise in your choice of verbs in your anchors. “Says” doesn’t work most of the time. How much, for example, does Kambilispeak aloud? Instead, she narrates, observes, notes, comments, considers, etc.

• Review what happens to anchor capitalization and punctuation when a writer uses “that” as a conjunction.

• Handwriting - capitals

Punctuation

• Punctuate your sentences.

• Italicize (or underline if you’re hand-writing) foreign terms.

• The ellipsis… Only use an ellipsis if you are omitting unnecessary information within a quotation.

With prose, you will never place an ellipsis at the beginning or ending of a quotation.

• When to capitalize “mama” or “papa”

• If the noun is being used as a common noun, as in, “My mama told me ‘no’,” then it is not capitalized.• Common noun= a general name

• If the noun is being used as a proper noun, as in, “Jaja told me that Papa was on his way,” then it is capitalized.• Proper noun= specific name

Critical Commentary (52-88), 9/18

• Review items:• Present tense• Idiomatic/informal language• Anchor rules• Affect vs. effect• Proofread.• Elements of paragraph unity:

• Use of concluding lines to connect your point to the thesis• New topic (depending on depth of information) = new

paragraph

• Focus your thesis statements and topic sentences.

• Audience: someone familiar with the work (no summary needed or wanted)

• Woman vs. women

• Than vs. then

• Using a gerund as an anchor verb:• Generally, avoid it. If you must, instead of:

Kambili describes Ifeoma, saying , “She laughs a lot” (Adichie 71).

USE: Kambili describes Ifeoma by saying, “She laughs a lot” (71).

– What else is wrong with the anchor?

To what effect? Observation vs. Analysis

• Observation occurs when you identify components of a work.

• A observational thesis statement is not arguable.

• Analysis occurs when you identify components of a work and then suggest what effect those components have on the work as a whole.

• An analytical thesis statement is arguable.

• For the IB assessments, you are required to develop arguable thesis statements.

To what effect? Observation vs. Analysis

• Observational thesis statement:

Beatrice and Ifeoma are established as foils because of their upbringings and responses to marriage.

• - -good with some details – but to what effect? What impact does this relationship have on the novel?

• One answer: The relationship helps to widen Kambili’s perspective. It actually augments Kambili’s characterization and conflict. She sees how her mother’s peer is so starkly different from her mother, and this causes her to begin questioning her way of life.

• Remember to use the concluding line of each body paragraph to connect your point to your thesis statement.

To what effect? Observation vs. Analysis

• Observational thesis statement:

Papa-Nnukwu is characterized mostly through his interactions with his grandchildren and his relationship with his son.

• What effect does Papa-Nnukwu’s characterization have on the novel?

To what effect? Observation vs. Analysis

• Observational thesis statement: There is a lot of imagery in this section.

• Arguable thesis statement: Adichie’s imagery is critical to the novel because it characterizes Kambili and gives meaning to the setting of Abba.

• Arguable thesis statement: The use of imagery to depict Abba and the foil between Beatrice and Ifeoma illustrate how Kambili is beginning to see how uncommon her living situation is.

To what effect? Observation vs. Analysis

• Example of a good set-up to an arguable thesis that is analytical, not observational:• Ifeoma is a foil to Beatrice, and there are contrasts between Kambili’s life in

Enugu and her life in Abba. These factors contribute to the development of Kambili’s struggles.

• What might be a more effective synonym for “struggles”?

Remember to use the concluding line of each body paragraph to connect your point to your thesis statement.

To what effect? Observation vs. Analysis

• Example of an arguable thesis that answers “to what effect”:• Kambili, the narrator in the novel Purple Hibiscus, is indirectly characterized

through her description of her mother and her aunt.

• Through the establishment of Beatrice and Ifeoma as foils, the reader sees Kambili begin to change.

Remember to use the concluding line of each body paragraph to connect your point to your thesis statement.

Daily Tidbit assignment (10/18)

• Review citation format.

• Specifically, “location” means (when you’re citing a website), the URL.

• You should paraphrase the information you post (put it into your own words). If you have to maintain the original wording, put it in quotation marks. If you don’t, it is plagiarism.

Antigone thesis statements (10/31)

• If you have a chance to make revisions, they must be resubmitted along with the original paper by Thursday.

• Definitional – most often, the definition of the tragic hero was defined

• Observational, not analytical• Makes an observation but does not suggest how it affects the literary aspects

of the text: conflict, motivation, theme, characterization, etc.

Antigone thesis statements (10/31)

• Don’t refer to things you don’t have solid evidence to prove (like “all Greek plays”;“all women in Greece”; projecting effects of something after the play ends; authorial intention).

• Isolate your thesis statement in a single sentence to help more clearly communicate your point.• In other words, don’t include the preview of your sub-assertions in the same

sentence as your thesis. What happens is that the literary feature that is being affected by your idea gets overlooked.

Antigone thesis statements (10/31)

• In your thesis statement, connect your main idea to a literary feature (motivation, conflict, characterization, plot, theme, etc.; refer to your lists).

• Review your wording before you hand work in. Read your writing out loud to more easily identify awkward wording that obscures your meaning.

• Proofread.

Antigone thesis statements (10/31)

• Be specific in the wording of your thesis statements.

• Sometimes your point might be arguable, but the way you present it doesn’t convey its arguability.

• Being concise in your thesis statement can work in your favor.

Never Let Me Go Part One Individual Assessment (2/1)• Format for writing which chapter: Chapter Sixteen

• Part One (follow format of novel)

• Capitalize Madame and Gallery.

• Carer- be careful of autocorrect

• Register: novel, not book

• What do we call the students?

Never Let Me Go Part One Individual Assessment (2/1; cont.)• Punctuate titles.

• Unify paragraphs.

• Indent paragraphs.

• Get into the habit of not using contractions while you write.

• Practice with more formal English in your writing.

Never Let Me Go Part One Individual Assessment (2/1; cont.)• Register: novel, not book

• Quotes to remember: "evidence"

• Kathy's narration: present tense

• What she narrates about will be in either past or present tense, depending on context.

Never Let Me GoChs. 18-20 collaborative analysis• Indent (duh)

• Anchors creating run-on sentences

• Verb tense

-Discuss employment if literary devices in present tense, as in "the confession foreshadows" or "the clown symbolizes.”

• Conflict: ____ vs. ____• You don’t have to use the “vs.” structure, but be sure to articulate what is

involved in the conflict.

The Handmaid’s Tale Chs. 2-7 Socratic seminar/commentary (2/27)Basic things:

• Note how to punctuate the title of the NOVEL.

• Paragraph unity – topic sentences and concluding lines

• Avoid abbreviations and contractions.

• “off of” = “on”

Really well done:

Several of you analyzed narrative strategies in attempt to interpret the text. (setting, exposition, dialogue, characterization, flashback, etc.)

The Handmaid’s Tale Chs. 2-7 Socratic seminar/commentary (2/27; cont.)• Handmaid – singular

• Handmaids – plural

• Handmaid’s walk – singular possessive

• Handmaids’ walk – plural possessive

• Republic of Gilead; Gileadean (adj.)

• Capitalize all the neologisms. List them (so far) in your reading notes now.

Paper 1 Strategy: IB’s ASPECTS“Barbie Doll” (3/22)• Learn how to spell “repetition” and “3rd-person omniscient.”

• Good word to learn: vernacular (vs. formal diction or style)

• Recognize the difference between speaker and character.

• In considering “rhythm and sound” – don’t confine yourselves to rhyme.

• Most overlooked aspect: diction

• Avoid previewing your sub-assertions in your thesis statement.

• Okay to do so very generally: Marge Piercy uses conflict and imagery to convey the thematic concerns of beauty.