Organize the Commentary

Thematic structure?  Use when passage is characterized by several areas of significance  Content  Description  Chronology  Contrasts

Linear structure?  Use when passage is characterized by natural divisions or sequences that can best be analyzed by section  Paragraphs  Stanzas  Speeches by opposing characters

AVOID THEMATIC  Skipping large components of the genre-based features  Redundancy in “coverage” LINEAR  Plodding along line by line  Tacking on bits in a non-integrated way

YOU MAY…  COMBINE THE TWO APPROACHES if…  You can develop the ideas of meaning and language (especially in poetry) this way  You can best describe content by interpreting the language  You can create a unified analysis – without gaps or unnecessary repetition – this way

INTRODUCTION  Introduce work by title and author by full name  Make clear you have understood significance of text as a whole  Make clear you have understood a unifying principle in it (object, experience, emotion, technique, etc.)

Thesis statement (?)  If not an outright statement, there still needs to be a general sense (conveyed in the first 3-6 sentences) that…  the unifying principle will be central to this commentary  the salient literary features are recognized and highlighted

SAMPLE INTRO 1 In his poem “The Heron,” Vernon Watkins describes the striking sight of a heron standing on a rock by the sea. Through his descriptive images, metaphors, alliteration, complex rhyme scheme, and suggestions of Greek mythology and the Bible, Watkins gives the bird almost epic significance, completely transforming this simple occurrence. (HL May 1997)

SAMPLE INTRO 2 An object that was once an expression of love – a letter, an item of clothing, a fan – means something special to the person who received it, but may gain an additional significance with time, meaning something special to the person who inherits it too. The passage of time brings mystery and fascination. In Eavan Bolland’s poem, “The Black Fan My Mother Gave Me,” she recreates dramatically the elusive circumstances in which the fan was bought for her mother, and she seeks to reconstruct the personal ‘history’ she only partly knows, by pondering the fan in the present moment. Weather, punctuation and diction, among other features, bring alive past and present, linked by the fan. (HL, May 1998)

CONCLUSION  Restate your thesis, or generalizing statement, albeit in different, more conclusive wording  Consider writing out, at least in shorthand, in the preparation stages, so you can use this to read with more confidence in oral commentaries—recopy in written ones—as you near the end of your time allowance

Body paragraphs  Use topic sentences (Consider writing topics in outline – S-V)  Opinions, not facts  Big enough, small enough  Order – Decide, based on your structure, which order – of both paragraphs and points within paragraphs -- best serves your purpose  Progression  Strength of argument  Text-based chronology