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Writing · Writing: Essays and Literary Analysis

Writing: Essays and Literary Analysis: Unit Review

1.1 1.2 1.4 1.5 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7About 40 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can plan an essay: decode the task, find a problem, map, organize and audit my content.
  • I can write literary essays with arguable theses, integrated evidence, close reading and critical lenses.
  • I can write argumentative and persuasive essays and rhetorical analyses that use evidence honestly and appeals ethically.
  • I can refine voice, sentences and perspective, and revise drafts to criteria.

Words to know

motive
The puzzle, gap or common misreading that gives an essay a reason to exist.
critical lens
A way of reading shaped by a literary theory, which focuses attention on certain questions and evidence.
synthesis
Combining lenses or sources into one connected claim.
stasis
The exact point of disagreement: fact, definition, value or policy.
positionality
A writer's position in relation to a topic and how it shapes what they see.
reverse outline
An outline made from a draft to test its structure.

Bringing it all together

This unit taught the essay-writing half of the Grade 12 Writing strand: planning content (decoding tasks, finding a problem, mapping and auditing), building arguable theses and integrating evidence, writing literary analysis through formalist and other critical lenses, entering the critical conversation (including Indigenous-centred reading), writing argumentative and persuasive essays and rhetorical analysis, and refining voice, sentences, perspective and drafts. Work through the questions below without notes first, then check your answers.

How to use this review

  1. Answer each set in writing before opening the answers.
  2. Mark each answer: got it, partly, or missed it.
  3. For every partly or missed, reread that lesson's explanation and worked example, then redo its Your turn questions.
  4. Take the quiz last. A score of 8 or more out of 10 means you are ready for a culminating essay; below that, use the parent notes to choose which lessons to revisit.
The unit as one essay-writing processPLANdecode thetask; find aproblem; mapand audit(L1-L3)CLAIMan arguable,specific,significantthesis (L4)EVIDENCEchosen,framed andcited (L5)ANALYSEclose readingand criticallenses(L6-L9)ARGUEargument,persuasion,rhetoric(L10-L11)CRAFT ANDREVISEvoice,sentences,perspective,drafts(L12-L15)
The fifteen lessons follow the life of an essay, from the first reading of a task to the final revised draft.

Reading Grade 12 Essay Tasks: Topic, Purpose, Audience and the Academic Conversation

1

What does critically assess require?

2

Who is the intelligent skeptic?

3

Narrow this topic for 1500 words: Women in literature.

Generating and Developing Ideas: Finding a Problem Worth Writing About

1

Name the four kinds of puzzle to hunt for.

2

What is the believing and doubting game?

3

Continue the chain one link: The inscription now warns the Mighty of their own ruin. So what?

Organizing and Reviewing Content: Argument Maps, Outlines and the Pre-Draft Audit

1

Name the four parts of an argument map.

2

What does it mean if every paragraph link is also?

3

Name the five audit checks.

The Grade 12 Thesis: Arguable, Specific, Significant

1

Name the four thesis tests.

2

Apply the swap test: This text explores the human condition.

3

What is the difference between an open and a closed thesis?

Evidence and Integrating Quotations: Selecting, Framing and Citing

1

Fix: "He hates to have me write a word." (Gilman). This shows he is mean.

2

When should you quote rather than paraphrase?

3

What does (1.5.40) mean in an MLA citation of a verse play?

Literary Analysis I: Close Reading and the Formalist Lens (Shakespeare's Sonnet 73)

1

What does a formalist critic focus on?

2

How do Sonnet 73's metaphors develop?

3

Explain the paradox in line 12.

Literary Analysis II: A Toolkit of Critical Lenses

1

Give the central question of the postcolonial lens.

2

Which Canadian critic is associated with archetypal criticism?

3

Why is a lens not an accusation?

Literary Analysis III: Writing a Lens-Based Essay on "The Yellow Wallpaper"

1

Improve: This essay uses a feminist lens.

2

What is a theory dump?

3

Why is the ending of "The Yellow Wallpaper" ambivalent?

Literary Analysis IV: Lenses in Conversation, Responding to Critics and Indigenous-Centred Reading

1

Name the three moves for responding to a critic.

2

What is a pan-Indigenous generalization?

3

Why might a universal hero's journey be a weak thesis for Medicine Walk?

Two families of essay at a glanceLITERARY (LENS-BASED) ESSAY•Thesis: an arguable claim about how atext makes meaning, often through anamed lens•Evidence: embedded quotations, cited;brief context•Moves: close reading, synthesis oflenses, responding to critics•Voice: formal, literary present tenseARGUMENTATIVE / PERSUASIVE•Thesis: a qualified position on an issue(argument) or a call to a specificaudience (persuasion)•Evidence: credible research; neverinvented•Moves: stasis, refutation, appeals anddevices used ethically•Voice: formal for argument; adjusted toaudience for persuasion
Literary essays argue about how a text makes meaning; argumentative and persuasive essays argue about issues in the world. Both need an arguable thesis and honest evidence.
Just for fun

A thesis, a quotation and a counterargument walk into a bar. The thesis orders first. The quotation repeats exactly what the thesis said, word for word, with a citation. The counterargument says, "Actually, I'll have what she's having, but here is why you might reconsider." They all leave together: that is called an essay.

The Argumentative Essay at Grade 12: Stasis, Evidence and Refutation

1

Name the four stasis questions.

2

Who carries the burden of proof?

3

Qualify: Schools should ban phones.

Persuasive Writing and Rhetorical Analysis: Appeals, Devices and Ethics

1

Identify the device: I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

2

What does a rhetorical analysis explain?

3

When does persuasion become manipulation?

Voice and Diction: A Distinctive Academic Voice

1

Cut the cliché: Since the dawn of time, people have loved stories.

2

Replace: utilize, in order to, due to the fact that.

3

Give an acceptable use of I in a university essay.

Sentence Craft and Fluency: Syntax that Argues

1

Fix the dangler: Hanging on the wall, I studied the wallpaper.

2

Make the character the subject: There is a reversal of meaning by time.

3

Identify: the statue lies in the sand, its face still sneering.

Critical Literacy in Your Own Writing: Positionality and Responsibility

1

Name the five checkpoints where perspective enters an essay.

2

What is the difference between perspective and bias?

3

Name three qualities of a good writer's note.

Revising and Producing Drafts: From First Draft to Finished Essay

1

Name four problems a reverse outline can reveal.

2

Why revise the introduction last?

3

Name the four categories of Ontario's achievement chart.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

A prompt asks you to account for a character's choice. Your essay should mainly:

2.

Which is a problem an essay could explore?

3.

Which thesis passes all four tests (arguable, specific, significant, supportable)?

4.

Which citation is punctuated correctly in MLA 9?

5.

A formalist reading of Sonnet 73 would focus on:

6.

Reading "The Yellow Wallpaper" alongside 1890s medical writing on the rest cure is typical of:

7.

Which response to a critic is a complicate move?

8.

Is a 16-year-old ready to vote? is mainly a disagreement about:

9.

Which sentence has a dangling modifier?

10.

When the body of your essay argues something sharper than your thesis, you should usually:

For parents and teachers

How to use the review results:

  • Misreading prompts, wrong scope, writing for the wrong reader: revisit Lesson 1 (Reading Grade 12 Essay Tasks).
  • Topics with nothing to explain, essays that slide into summary: Lesson 2 (Generating and Developing Ideas).
  • Plot-order essays, reasons without evidence, missing objections: Lesson 3 (Organizing and Reviewing Content).
  • Announcements, device lists, vague or unprovable theses: Lesson 4 (The Grade 12 Thesis).
  • Dropped quotations, citation errors, quoting plot, misattributing a narrator's words: Lesson 5 (Evidence and Integrating Quotations).
  • Labelling devices without effects, ignoring structure or ambiguity: Lesson 6 (Literary Analysis I: Close Reading and the Formalist Lens).
  • Confusing lenses, treating lenses as accusations: Lesson 7 (Literary Analysis II: A Toolkit of Critical Lenses).
  • Theory dumps, biography instead of analysis, ignoring the opposite reading: Lesson 8 (Literary Analysis III: Writing a Lens-Based Essay).
  • Lists of lenses, critics used as authorities, generalizations about Indigenous peoples: Lesson 9 (Literary Analysis IV: Lenses in Conversation).
  • Arguing the wrong stasis, absolute theses, weak or invented evidence: Lesson 10 (The Argumentative Essay at Grade 12).
  • Listing devices without effects on an audience, manipulative persuasion: Lesson 11 (Persuasive Writing and Rhetorical Analysis).
  • Clichés, inflated words, jargon, faceless or chatty voice: Lesson 12 (Voice and Diction).
  • Danglers, long subject-verb gaps, deadwood, monotonous rhythm: Lesson 13 (Sentence Craft and Fluency).
  • Vague reflections, loaded or inaccurate language about people: Lesson 14 (Critical Literacy in Your Own Writing).
  • Revising only for errors, thesis drift, last-minute drafting: Lesson 15 (Revising and Producing Drafts).

Research, citation and Works Cited, other writing forms, spelling, grammar, punctuation, proofreading, publishing and reflection on writing are reviewed in the sibling unit Writing: Research, Forms and Conventions. Reading the texts themselves is the focus of Reading Literary Texts and Reading Informational and Graphic Texts.