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Benitez, Kristal T - Written Report

The document outlines conventional writing styles used in literature, focusing on explication, analysis, and comparison and contrast. Explication interprets a work's meaning, analysis breaks down elements to understand their relationships, and comparison and contrast evaluate similarities and differences between texts. Each method requires forming a thesis statement and adhering to formal writing standards.

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23 views5 pages

Benitez, Kristal T - Written Report

The document outlines conventional writing styles used in literature, focusing on explication, analysis, and comparison and contrast. Explication interprets a work's meaning, analysis breaks down elements to understand their relationships, and comparison and contrast evaluate similarities and differences between texts. Each method requires forming a thesis statement and adhering to formal writing standards.

Uploaded by

Charles Peñol
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lesson 6.

Conventional Ways of Writing


about Literature - Explication - Analysis -
Comparison and Contrast
WHAT TO EXPECT?
a. Define what is conventional writing;
b. Identify the conventional ways of writing about literature;
c. Discuss the conventional ways of writing about literature; and
d. Construct an explication, analysis, and comparison and contrast.

PRE-DISCUSSION?
a. What is conventional writing?
b. What are the conventional ways of writing about literature?
c. What is the importance of having different ways in conventional writing?

LESSON OUTLINE

Sometimes you will receive an assignment that is based less on specific subject
matter than on a way of thinking about a text. It might be an approach that could be
applied to many texts, not just the one assigned for study. For example, instead of
asking you to use historical background to explain the role Abner Snopes played in the
Civil War, your instructor might assign an essay that analyses the motives of Snopes or
that compares and contrasts Sarty with the character of another boy depicted in a story
about coming of age in difficult circumstances. Such assignments ask you to use a
specific thinking technique, which has its own rules of governance, instead of looking for
a body of information that may be ordered in numerous ways. Some of the more
common assignments that take this form include making an explication, doing an
analysis, comparing and contrasting, and studying the works of a single author. Each
requires that you formulate a response, your own argument about the topic. The
statement of that position is commonly referred to as your thesis statement.

Conventional Writing

Conventional writing is a type of formal writing style, used by many academic


disciplines, that conforms to the standard rules of grammar, punctuation and language
use. Examples of this is anything you read in a common magazine, newspaper, or
church bulletin is conventional writing.
Conventional Ways of Writing about Literature:

Explication

An explication, sometimes called by its French name, explication de texte,


usually examines a fairly brief work or sometimes a single passage from a larger one. In
it, you are expected to present an interpretation of the work, explain its meaning, or
show how the writer achieves a particular effect. To do so you make a close reading,
noting all the nuances of the language and style and then assessing how they fit
together to create the whole. Explication was a mainstay of the New Critics (Chapter 3).
It is important to remember that an explication is not a summary. That is, it is not a brief
recitation of plot, which can result from following the chronological sequence of events,
nor is it a paraphrase of a poem, which comes from examining the poem line by line or
stanza by stanza. Instead, you should think about the work or passage in terms of
significant literary elements, such as symbols, motifs, or figurative language, and then
point out the meanings and effects they have.

Analysis

An analysis of anything involves dividing it into its parts, then noting how they
relate to or create the whole. Analysis is a traditional assignment popular with teachers
of literature, because it can be applied to the study of characters, plot structure, or
imagery—a wide variety of literary elements. For example, if you were asked to analyse
the character of Sarty in “Barn Burning,” you would think about various aspects of his
being, such as his family background, societal pressures, education, and experiences.
How do these things work together so that in the end he runs away from his childhood
into adulthood? Sometimes an analysis traces the stages of development of an event.
In the case of Sarty’s final act, for example, you would look for signs of his evolving
decision or for formative events that chan ge the way he sees his life—and that of his
father. Analysis is a process, not a single unchanging entity. In an analysis, you will not
be able to discuss every aspect of a work, nor do you need to. Instead, you restrict your
concern to those issues that are pertinent to the character or another literary element
that you are analysing.

Comparison and Contrast

Essay questions on examinations often take the form of comparison and contrast
because the form allows an instructor to assess your knowledge about more than one
topic in a single question. It also makes evident your ability to think critically, as it asks
you to assess the similarities and differences of two persons or things, usually with a
view to evaluating their worth relative to one another. When you meet such an
assignment, you would do well to begin with a simple list of how your two topics are
similar and different in significant ways. If you are comparing two works, they should
have some meaningful point of commonality—for example, the subject, author, or
setting. The word significant is important here, because you cannot draw meaningful
inferences from your study if you are dealing with trivial instances of comparison. In the
end, you will want to draw conclusions about which is better, stronger, more important,
longer-lasting, or more desirable. Without such a central idea, an organizing focus, your
information will remain disconnected bits of data that mean nothing. There are several
different ways to present your conclusions, but two basic organizational patterns are
always available. Say you are comparing “Barn Burning” with “Spotted Horses,” another
short story by Faulkner. Using the first pattern described above, you can present your
discussion of “Barn Burning” in the first half of your paper, then turn your attention to
“Spotted Horses,” noting where the two stories share meaningful similarities but also
where they diverge in other important ways. The second pattern presents one piece of
information at a time about each story. For example, you might discuss the setting of
each story, then the symbolism, followed by the theme. (Of course, there should be
strong connections among the elements you choose to examine.) Both models call for a
conclusion in which you make inferences and generalizations about the essential
sameness, difference, or relative worth of the two texts.

Summary

Conventional writing is a type of formal writing style used by many academic


disciplines that conforms to the standard rules of grammar, punctuation, and language
use. Examples of this are anything you read in a common magazine, newspaper, or
church bulletin as conventional writing. There are three conventional ways of writing
literature discussed: explication, which shows how the form deepens the meaning of the
content; analysis, which takes a step beyond summary and describes the writer's
personal findings and interpretations of the source material; and comparison and
contrast. Comparison in writing discusses elements that are similar, while contrast in
writing discusses elements that are different. A compare-and-contrast essay, then,
analyzes two subjects by comparing them, contrasting them, or both
Assessment
Part I.

True or False
1. Conventional writing is a type of formal writing style, used by many academic
disciplines, that conforms to the standard rules of grammar, punctuation and
language use.
2. An explication, sometimes called by its French name, explication de texte.
3. The diagram makes evident your ability to think critically, as it asks you to assess
the similarities and differences of two persons or things, usually with a view to
evaluating their worth relative to one another.
4. An analysis of anything involves dividing it into its parts, then noting how they
relate to or create the whole.
5. There are three conventional ways of writing literature discussed: explication, analysis,
and news writing.

Part II.

Essay
Discuss the different conventional ways in writing literature. (5 pts.)
REFERENCES:

Dobie, A.(n.d.).Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism.(3rd


Edition). Rosenberg.

Craiker, K. N. (n.d.). Conventional Grammar: What it is and 5 rules NOT to follow.


https://prowritingaid.com/conventional-grammar#:~:text=It's
%20%E2%80%9Cformal%20English%E2%80%9D%20or
%20%E2%80%9C,grammar%2C%20but%20English%20does%20not.

How to explicate a poem. (n.d.). https://www.utoledo.edu/al/english/programs/ma-


literature/how to explicate.html#:~:text=Therefore%20an%20explication%20is
%20a,to%20help%20you%20articulate%20connotations.

summary vs analysis | University of Illinois Springfield. (n.d.).


https://www.uis.edu/learning-hub/writing-resources/handouts/learning-hub/
summary-vs-analysis#:~:text=The%20purpose%20of%20an
%20analysis,interpretations%20of%20the%20source%20material.

Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Writing for Success: Compare/Contrast | English Composition


1. https://www.kellogg.edu/upload/eng151/chapter/writing-for-success-
comparecontrast/index.html#:~:text=Comparison%20in%20writing%20discusses
%20elements,%2C%20contrasting%20them%2C%20or%20both.

Submitted by: Benitez, Kristal T. BSED-ENGLISH 2

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