Guidelines for Reading and

Analyzing Unseen Prose

http://www.ferrum.edu/thanlon/StudyQ/Litguide.htm

What is tested?•

Interpretation Of content

Response to new material – detailed analysis

Of viewpoints of author

•Inference from language

•To interpret character and thought

Character•

• Who is the character? What is the character’s status or identity?

•What actions and what kinds of action does the character perform in the passage? From this evidence, what are the character’s traits, qualities, beliefs and values?

Character•

• Identify character’s physical appearance and condition

•Try to judge the way the character speaks and what this tells you about the character’s state of mind. Pay attention to:

•Kind of vocab the character uses

•The character’s tone of voice

Character•

• Try to recognize the way a character thinks. If the character is telling the story, then you will be reading the thought process, feelings and what the character did

•Or you may be directly told/ reach judgments about how a character thinks and feels based on what the character does

Setting•

• What is the setting of the work? Is there more than one?

•Consider historical, period, season, time of day, geographical place, exterior and interior, urban and rural settings

Setting•

• Why has the author chosen to emphasize certain details of the setting?

•Does the setting simply provide a realistic backdrop or does it contain symbolic details?

Setting•

• Are the social class and occupation of the characters significant? Does the economic, social, political or religious environment affect the lives of characters and help to shape the theme of work?

•What mood or atmosphere is created by details of setting? (gloomy, tense, cheerful etc)

Images and Symbols• • What images are used in this work? Literal or figurative?

• Are there repeated images or groups of related images in the work? Significance of these patterns?

•Does any image or action suggest such complex abstract meanings beyond itself that it functions as a symbol in this work?

What is Style?

STYLE

VOCABULARY

RHYTHM

SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION

THEME

SOUND

IMAGERY

Style and Language• • How would you describe the choice of words and their arrangement in this work? Does the author call attention to the way he or she uses words or is this style inconspicuous?

• What are the various connotations of key words in this work?

Style and Language• • If dialect or colloquial speech is used, what is its effect? Is the level of language appropriate for speaker or characters?

• Are there any ironic statements?

•Is the style consistent throughout or does it shift to a different style?

Style and Language•

• Is the style suitable for the subject or theme? Does it contribute to the meaning of the whole or hinder the reader’s understanding?