Writing: Essays and Literary Analysis: Unit Review

A qualified position: how far something is true and where it stops being true, not a flat yes or no.

Writer, audience, purpose, topic and form, context.

Any two: an arguable thesis, specific evidence, analysis, literary present tense, formal voice, correct citation.

Level 2 (between the lines): it needs interpretation and evidence.

Freewriting, choosing the best sentence, and freewriting again from it to go deeper.

Sample: Although the narrator insists he prefers being alone, his careful attention to every neighbour suggests a loneliness he will not admit.

The thesis plus all topic sentences; read them alone in order to see whether they form a complete argument.

Order of importance (climactic order).

Accurate? Complete? Interesting? Meets the requirements?

Observe → find a pattern → interpret → claim.

At line 10: Take up our quarrel with the foe.

Sample: "ye": old-fashioned "you" makes the warning sound solemn, like an oath or a vow.

"We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, / Loved and were loved" (lines 7-8).

Word, line, pattern, thesis.

Sample: The torch metaphor presents remembrance not as a feeling but as an inheritance, because a torch thrown from "failing hands" must be caught.

Shared ground, the specific similarity or difference, and what the comparison reveals.

Whereas McCrae's Dead want the fight continued, Owen calls the slogan of glorious sacrifice "The old Lie."

It puts both texts in every paragraph, so comparison happens throughout instead of only at the end.

Usual reading → the text → the tension → thesis.

State it fairly → concede → respond with evidence → return to the thesis.

About 10 minutes.

Policy.

The principle that links the grounds to the claim: why the evidence counts.

Relevant, sufficient, credible, current.

Leave it out; use evidence you can verify.

The strongest, fairest version of the opposing argument.

Refute; concede and outweigh; reframe.

False dilemma.

Sample: The poem's tone is elegiac.

Sample: This suggests that readers are meant to feel responsible.

The board approved the plan.

The main clause: it works.

Sample: After three periods, two posts and one heart-stopping penalty kill, the final buzzer sounded. (Main clause held to the end.)

Sample: The speaker addresses "you." This direct address makes readers responsible for the Dead's request.

Topic, evidence, words, framing, conclusion.

Sample: Town officials have not yet acted on residents' concerns about the lake.

The nation's own published statements or office.

Whole essay → paragraphs → sentences → words.

When the essay's argument moves beyond or away from its stated thesis; fix by rewriting the thesis.

Any: adding an alternative interpretation or counterargument, sharpening the thesis with a tension and insight, adding layered analysis, explaining significance.