Open-ended Essay Review Class notes and knowledge (3)

What did you do well? Included a lot of detail from your novels Focused on answering the prompts Provided insightful connections to the meaning of the work Were BETTER about specificity in thesis statements Wrote a LOT (long essays)

What should you work on? Still need to remember AUTHOR and TITLE in introduction Some of you did not relate the theme of the novel to a universal idea (see next slides) Some of your “details” were the most obvious ones, and you didn’t dig beneath the surface You did not always incorporate a discussion of literary elements and techniques A few misread or interpretted the prompt

How to improve? If you got a #15, you need to prove that the theme is universal. i.e. “Janie’s realization at the end of the novel is that she didn’t need marriage to find fulfillment in life.” – UNIVERSALIZED: In the search for meaning in life, love and relationships may provide guidance, but are not the final answer. Independence and internal peace are the keys to fulfillment.

INCLUDE BOTH! Note: It is important to include BOTH the theme of the novel/passage, but also, in your conclusion most likely, provide a connection to show the universality of that theme.

Techniques and Elements When discussing key points of the plot, an added bonus is to discuss them in terms of literary elements, such as “symbolism” or “conflict” Dropping terms (like dropping names), as long as it’s done correctly, will score you higher points because you prove to know both content and technique

And P.S. If you don’t read, or don’t display knowledge of the whole scope of the novel, it is really hard to do well on these essays. Even if the prompt asks you to focus on a more specific aspect, like a journey or conflict, you should still try to draw in important (vital) plot elements and connect them to the focus (i.e. the consequences of the conflict)…