Whether you are given a selection of prompts to choose from or just one, knowing something about the various sorts of writing prompts can help you understand what your teacher expects and how you should approach the project.
“Compare and Contrast”
This classic writing prompt can be quite challenging because it sounds almost as if you are being asked to compile a list of similarities and differences. While a list might be of use in the planning stage, this prompt asks you to use what you discover to arrive at a conclusion about the two works under discussion.
Example: “Compare and contrast the two endings for Dickens’ Great Expectations paying special attention to the situation of Stella at the close of the novel.”
Strategy:
Find three
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Then research the ways in which other critics have examined this theme.
Determine your argument. Will you make a claim for similarity (“A, b, and c use x in much the same way.”), difference (“A, b, and c, when dealing with x, take highly individual approaches.”), or superiority (“While a and b deal with x, c clearly demonstrates a richer, more nuanced treatment.”)?
Organize your paper around the works, making each point deal thoroughly with a discrete work. Remember that connections are of the utmost importance for this paper, so pay close attention to your transitions.
“What is the role of women/the role of class/the role of the Other as presented in this work?”
All three examples above serve as first steps to the larger world of literary theory and criticism. Writing prompts like this ask you to examine a work from a particular perspective. You may not be comfortable with this new perspective. Chances are that since your instructor has given you such an assignment, the issues in question will be at least partially covered in
...ce, although both writings are interesting in their own ways, the most interesting aspect of both writings together is that they both have a similar plot and theme. It is rare that two
Lee, Debbie. Literary Analysis Sample Essay. 18 August 2000. Online. Internet. 29 November 2000. Available http://open.dtcc/cc/nc/us/eng135/sample.html
What I learned rather quickly was that these very questions were all apart of why the assignment was given. What at first seemed to be a pointless exercise really answered these questions in a profound way which I want to share with you today. My hope is that you too get a renewed appreciation for writing and it’s history.
In the article, “Understanding Writing Assignments: Tips and Techniques,” author Dan Melzer shares with his audience seven useful suggestions to keep in mind when starting any writing assignment. Melzer’s first tips are for readers to examine their rubrics for any key verbs that will tell writers what approach and genre their paper should have. Knowing what kind of writing your teacher wants will not only help a writer get started, it will also inform a writer what they can research to view examples. Next, he tells his readers to write for their specific audience, to make sure they know their teacher’s expectations, and to take into account what they have learned in class. In these sections, Melzer stresses the importance of asking a teacher
Take Nancy Mairs and James Baldwin for instance. Mairs’s On Being a Cripple seems very different from Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son from a distance. Only when you begin to rhetorically analyze the texts do you see where the two compare and contrast.
What are some specific sentences and/or sections from the work you intend to address or imitate?
You explained how I could start and advised me to focus my work on two characters that have the comparison I want to write on. You also gave me guidelines on how to write, so that the analysis will be in sequence. It became a little easier to write on the protagonist, Vivian and an exact opposite of her Susie. I described Vivian’s character in detail as well as Susie’s. I also had to generate a comparison of both characters to fit my main idea and topic. I added some dialogues from the book for extra clarity to any reader. After so many editing and corrections, I realized that my problem areas in writing were still with sentence fragments, run on sentences, and split infinitives which you correctly pointed
Comparing the Opening Scenes of the David Lean and the B.B.C. Versions of Great Expectations By Charles Dickens
No novel is complete without a good ending. Although the introductory and middle portions are important as well, the conclusion is what the reader tends to remember most. When Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations, he crafted a work that is truly excellent the whole way through. From the moment Pip is introduced until he and Estella walk out of the garden in the final chapter, this book exhibits an uncanny ability to keep the reader wanting more. There is, however, some debate regarding the final portion of the novel. The ending that Dickens originally wrote for Great Expectations is noticeably different than the one that was subsequently published. It seems that he decided to change the final part of the novel at the request of Edward Bulwer Lytton, a close friend and fellow author. Dickens’ decision to alter the conclusion of the story has led to a debate that continues to this day. The beauty of this argument lies in the fact that each person who reads this novel is free to form his own opinion on whether Dickens was mistaken in his decision to modify the ending.
leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes and with an old rag tied
were them of the role of the woman and where her place should be. A
Great Expectations and Oliver Twist are representative of the works produced by Charles Dickens over his lifetime. These novels exhibit many similarities - perhaps because they both reflect painful experiences that occurred in Dickens' past.
"I must entreat you to pause for an instant, and go back to what you know of my childish days, and to ask yourself whether it is natural that something of the character formed in me then" - Charles Dickens
'For a text to be appealing, the audience must see the protagonist in conflict.'(respond critically by making close analysis with the text.) To be completed by the first week of the holidays.
Literature is an intricate art form. In order to attempt to understand the meanings and ideas within literary work, there are many forms of criticism that propose different approaches to its interpretation. Each criticism is crucial to the understanding of how individuals interpret literary works. Since each criticism has a different approach to enrich the understanding literary works, the question is raised whether one criticism should be used over others, whether a certain combination of criticisms should be used, or whether all criticisms should be taken into account. This may all be dependent on the reader’s individual preference or opinion, but each criticism presented builds on the others to create a well-rounded and unique understanding