ELEVATING YOUR WRITING AND ANSWERING QUESTION

#2 PROMPTS

In preparation for your IB

exams in May

PART I

General comments on your

writing

VARY THE FORMAT OF YOUR ANALYSIS

Don’t repeat the same pattern over and over

again! This makes your writing sound

unsophisticated.

The word blank means blank because when one

thinks of blank, blank is brought to mind. Blank

also blah blah

DIVIDE PARAGRAPHS!

As we prepare for IB exams, you will end up with

some enormous paragraphs. Therefore, you

must decide to divide gigantic AEAs. Do this

through the effective use of reaffirmation

statements after the analysis. This will bring that

portion to a close nicely!

Many of you did this very nicely in your AEAs

TRANSITIONS

One descriptor on the rubric is “coherence”.

This can also be attained with strong transitions

which tie ideas together.• Use strong transitions in your assertions; tie ideas

together. This could even take two sentences.• Use transitions within paragraphs.

ST OP USING “NEGATIVE CON NOTAT ION” SO MUCH

“The words spasms has a connotation of

shaking.”

First, spasms has a denotation of shaking. Next, connotation meaning is the emotions or

feelings connected to a word. Simply saying that a word has a negative or positive connotation is NOT sophisticated enough at this level!!

Figure it out and use it correctly or your score will suffer.

COMPLEXITY AND SUBTLETY

Another descriptor on the IB rubric, this cannot

be mastered unless you deal with all parts of the

thesis in every body paragraph.

Complexity means your thesis is complex Subtlety means that you understand the nuances

of the work. For example, saying the Capote manipulates the reader is good; however, saying the Capote manipulates the reader and makes the reader question their own feelings about feeling sympathy for a murder is what is know as dealing with the subtleties of a work.

SET UP YOUR EVIDENCE

The more context you can set, the more

sophisticated your writing becomes. In fact, you

could even do some GASP analysis before your

evidence:• Capote, in a contiuned effort to evoke sympathy,

uses child-like imagery to describe Perry: “blah blah blah”

• Oh, and use a COLON to introduce a quote!

YOUR AEAS

1. Please read them over and look at the rubric

2. You may rewrite these- if they were late- you

will only receive a maximum of half credit –

12.5/25

3. Should you decide to rewrite, you must follow

these instructions or I will NOT grade them and

you will lose this opportunity

REWRITE- TYPE THESE

1. Highlight anything you add.

Turn in the following in the following order, top

to bottom• Original Rubric• New AEA with changes highlighted• Old AEA

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Getting ready to tackle question #2

REMEMBER FROM 9 T H GRADE . . .

Two ways to structure an answer about two

works:

1. Work by work

2. Aspect by aspect

SAMPLE QUESTION:

. Great literary themes involving love, death, survival and the like have sometimes been treated in ways that are unique or are unexpected. Discuss how two of the works you have studied demonstrate this phenomenon.

You must use at

least two works

studied this

semester

This is the idea you will need to weave into every

paragraph of your essay.

REMEMBER:

An essay that shows merely differences is dull

and unsophisticated

Ex: While Hamlet takes place in Denmark, The

Importance of Being Earnest takes place in

England.

 

In the same way, an essay that merely points out

the similarities is also not worth the time.

AN INTERESTING, ENGAGING ESSAY WITH EITHER:

• Present two very similar ideas and then focus on the slight difference (your “so what?” comes when you analyze why this slight difference is significant)

•  • Or, present two very different ideas and then

find some common ground (again, your so what?” comes from analysis of this commonality)

When you read the essay prompt, notice what they are asking you to do explicitly and also pay attention to the concepts and literary aspects implicit in the prompt.

FIRST THING: UNDERSTAND THE PROMPT ON A BASIC

LEVEL•  • How have authors/works treated “great literary

themes” [great here could imply universal, archetypal even clichéd. ]

•  The word ways here requires you to fill in some literary techniques/devices.

• So, your job is to look at how UNEXPECTED METHODS (literary devices) have created GREAT THEMES (literary features). And then, of course, TO WHAT EFFECT OR WHAT END.

• So, let’s look at unique takes on those first two.

LOVE

• Love:• *Both Gwendolyn and Cecily fall in love with

their suitors’ names (rather than their personalities) and their methods of proposal (rather than the substance of their love

• In Hamlet, love is tied to lust (re:

Gertrude/Hamlet)

• Marriage:

• How is this universal theme treated in both?

Brainstorm now

•  

MARRIAGE

DEATH

Death:

*Anytime death is mentioned in Earnest it’s

treated lightly and comically.

*In Hamlet death isn’t discriminatory; in fact,

the sobering truth is that because there are so

many deaths, the audience feels helpless

HOW I WOULD APPROACH IT:• I think I would choose the idea of love. In my intro, I

would address the common take on love; that it’s a wild emotion, makes people do crazy things, and that is why so much literature deals with it.

• Then, I would have a big HOWEVER that would be my segue to my thesis and therefore a direct response to the question.

• My HOWEVER would suggest that 2 of the dramas each have a different twist on how they deal with love (In Earnest, it’s style over substance, In Hamlet, it is tied need/obligation– I would use the whole Hamlet/Ophelia “for on his love depends the safety of the state”

• THEN I would go on to suggest that each of these twists on the common theme of love reveals the different cultural values of each text/author/time period.

TIPS FOR YOUR INTRO:

introduce plays and playwrights

do not use quotation marks for play titles

instead of writing the full play title every single time, you

can use abbreviations (eg. Death of a Salesman ->

DoaS). Make sure you specify this explicitly.

a clear thesis is key. you must link your ideas to literary

purpose, as always

answer the question posed by the prompt

elaborate more on purpose of items

BODY PARAGRAPHS stay in third person: not “we/you” but rather “the

audience” use appropriate terms when discussing drama. Plays

are constructed differently than novels because they have different audiences.

use parenthetical citations to show which play the quote is coming from

avoid 2 gigantic body paragraphs (ie. one about each play)• Instead divide them up in an interesting way . . .

balance discussion — know both plays well

FOR THIS PRETEND PROMPT

We will answer/outline using the “MAC vs PC”

model and dividing it by play

However we will NOT just plop two enormous

AEAs on each play.

WITH A PARTNER

Create a complex, interesting thesis. We will

share in 8 minutes

NOW

Create an outline or brainstorm for your “essay”