Mrs. Nada AbiSamra
English
1- IDENTIFY and SUMMARIZE briefly:
.1- IDENTIFY the TEXT:
A- Nature: What Type of text is
this? (Form of discourse)
a- Narrative:
1- Novel: historical, sociological, psychological, philosophical, dramatic, adventure, detective, romance, (auto) biographical, realistic, fictional (science fiction) # factual, sentimental ......
2- Short story: one subject, few
characters, everything goes quickly.
3- Tale: fairy tale, fable (animals/moral
message)
b- Descriptive (an account of an event/situation/experience that provides a lot of
details so that people can imagine what it is like)
c- Explicative/Expository (explain and analyze logically, in detail/ give
information)
d- Argumentative/Persuasive (give arguments to persuade)
What kind of appeal is used?
·
Appeal to Emotions
(pathos)--move the passions, make the end seem desirable.
·
Appeal to Ethics
(Ethos)--impress with one's sound sense/ knowledge of psychology, high moral
character, benevolence.
·
Appeal to
Reason/Logic (logos)--deductive/inductive reasoning.
e- Poetic
f- Injunctive
B- Origin: Where is it taken from?
a- which book? (excerpt, passage, extract from a
book)
b- which newspaper? (article)
c- which magazine?
d- which theatre play? speech? dissertation?
treatise (one subject)? .............
1.2- SUMMARIZE the TEXT briefly:
Who? (characters: age, physical appearance,
clothes..../ occupation...)
When? (time, day, month, year, century, .............)
Where? (country, city, village, place, house......)
What?
(the plot: exposition, complication, climax, resolution)
2- ANALYZE the TEXT: Style + Content
2.1- STYLE:
a- Diction / Tone:
Clear/crisp, heavy/flowing, general/specific, abstract/concrete, formal/informal,
emotive (connotative)/ referential (denotative), affected, stretched,
specialized, strained, sustained/unstrained,
easy, not difficult, simple, familiar, colloquial, popular, vulgar,
slang, Humorous, comic, ironical, touching,
moving, pathetic, tragic, lyric, epic...….. Does it suit subject matter,
purpose, occasion, audience?
b- Coherence devices:
·
Pronouns,
demonstrative adj., conjunctions, … Are they used appropriately? Any repetition
of key words?
·
Repeated words and
phrases: What kind? what for? what do they imply, indicate, express?
·
Links/Joining
words: used adequately? varied? rich? Do they aid coherence?
c- Grammar: Tenses: Are they respected?
Which tense is mainly used? pres./past/fut./cont./perfect...?) What does
it indicate?
d- Sentences:
·
Simple/Compound/Complex/
Compound-Complex
·
Statement
(declarative), question (interrogative), command (imperative), and exclamation.
e- Figures of Speech: Schemes (word order) & Tropes (meaning)
·
Schemes: parallelism,
antithesis, asyndeton, alliteration, anaphora, climax, chiasmus...
·
Tropes: simile,
metaphor, personification, hyperbole, litotes, rhetorical question, irony,
onomatopoeia, oxymoron…
What are they used for?
f- Paragraphs:
·
Short, long
·
Logical pattern,
ideas well tied together, proportioned parts
·
Thesis statement:
clear? Concise? Precise? Includes main ideas?
·
Topic sentences,
supporting sentences…. Well used? One idea in each paragraph? Does each
paragraph develop a separate thought? Do the paragraph become integral parts of
the whole?
2.2- CONTENT: (Analysis,
remember! Not just summary)
A- Who is the narrator? Different than the author?
B- What does he/she relate/describe/talk about/explain?
C- Is he/she involved in the story? Objective/subjective? Omniscient?
Limited omniscient?
D- What is his/her relation to the world and characters he/she describes?
E- What do the characters represent ? What is their importance in the
story?
-What are their relationships to one another?
-What is the world or social group they belong
to?
-Major character? Protagonist? Character foil?
Minor characters? Antagonists?
-Internal conflicts?
F- Any symbols used? What are they?
G- Theme: (it shows the preoccupations of the narrator)
1- The 4 Elements: Air, Water, Fire, Earth
2- The 5 Senses: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste,
Touch
3- Activity: Motion/Immobility, passivity,
inertia
4- Appreciation: Positive/Negative (happy, sad,
nostalgic, homesick....)
H- What is the aim of the narrator? How did he/she proceed to reach it?
Who is the text aimed at? Any moral lesson?
What is the message? How is it conveyed to the reader? (explicit/implicit?)
3- ASSESS: Give your Opinion
3.1- Are the ideas well expressed?
3.2- Did you learn anything from this text?
3.3- Are you For/Against? Why?
3.4- Find another title for the text.
3.5- Do you have anything to add? Advice? Question? General comment?
Nada AbiSamra
Useful Sentences/phrases
· Account of an important/interesting episode
· Historical document/ political discourse/ plea in defense of…
· Dramatic = series of exciting events
· Tale = imaginary story involving magic/adventure
· It deals with the question of
· It aims at showing/denouncing…
· Writer of great narrative power
· The writer, through the narrators words, wants to show…. reveals/discloses…
· He focuses on/ emphasizes/highlights… the elements, events, incident…
· He plays with the paradoxes between… opposes the elements of… brings out the problem/ the debatable question of/ the burning issue of…
· He raises the eternal/ new question of…. Through the problems the characters are living/facing/going through…
· He implies through these words/ this quotation… that…
· The facts prove/disprove the writer's ideas
· As far as I'm concerned…
· I do strongly support… I totally disagree…
· It/he arouses in me the feelings of…
· I cannot but (dis)approve of/ (dis)agree with/ feel moved by/ remain indifferent to…
ANYTHING to ADD?
Nada AbiSamra