Online Literary Discussion

from ian wilson on Flickr.com
You are about to embark upon your first online discussion in regards to your selected literary analysis book.
The online discussion is a place where you will respond by recording your thoughts, feelings, reactions, and questions about your book.
Two key questions to ask yourself when you are preparing each blog post are:

  • What was going on inside my head while reading?
  • What was I visualizing while reading?

Here are four possible ways to structure each post for each assignment.  (We will have a total of three posts for this)

COMMENT

Consider what the author is doing and offer criticism or questions concerning the author’s style:

  1. Tell what you like about a particular phrase/part: include the reference (describe the context of the story during which the quotation takes place).
  2. Discuss the writer’s style of writing, explain what you like or don’t like about it. Explain how it is effective in conveying a meaning. Why would the author choose to use it? Make sure to include a brief example, from the story, of it.
  3. Write down striking words, images, phrases, or details. Speculate about them. Why did the author choose them? What do they add to the story? Why did you notice them?
  4. Identify any gaps or ambiguities in the text.
  5. Try arguing with the writer. On what points, or about what issues do you agree or disagree with them on?
  6. Point out effective examples of figurative language (or other literary devices) and explain why they are effective.
  7. Discuss an emotional response you felt towards a character or event in the novel (shock, surprise, fear, happiness, relief, etc.). Why do you think it affected you the way it did?

ANALYZE

Look closely and critically about the characters, setting and events (plot):

  1. Give your opinion about how a character should have worked out a conflict.
  2. Tell what makes a particular character/setting appealing to you.
  3. Explain the importance of one of the secondary characters.
  4. Share how events of this novel have caused a change in your views.
  5. Discuss the qualities of a character you dislike and explain why.
  6. Analyze whether your knowledge of a character was gained mostly from what s/he does, what s/he says, or what is said about him/her by others.
  7. Discuss ways in which the character changed throughout your reading and what caused those changes.
  8. Examine the values/personality of a character you like and explain why.
  9. Examine the values/personality of a character you dislike and explain why.
  10. Discuss how the setting contributes to or affects the events/characters of the novel.

CONNECT

Explain the relationship between the text and self, text and other text, or text and world:

  1. Compare an event/belief in the story with a similar one in your own life.
  2. Compare a character’s emotional response with yours in a similar situation.
  3. Compare and/or contrast the society of this novel to the one you live in.
  4. Compare and/or contrast two characters/ideas/beliefs that appear in the same book, or in a different novel, movie, etc.
  5. Compare and/or contrast events/beliefs in the novel to events/beliefs in the real world.

QUESTION

Raise questions about the text:

  1. Question the author’s writing style, character’s actions, events that unfold, etc.

Ex. “Why would the author choose to omit details about Mason’s childhood when……”

  1. Offer a suggestion or prediction for your questions.
  2. What perplexes you about a particular passage?
  3. Try beginning with, “I wonder why…” or “I’m having trouble understanding how…”
  4. Think of your blog as a place where you can carry on a dialogue with the author or with text in which you actually speak with him or her. Ask questions and then have the writer or character respond.

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Blog Responses/Replies

1st Comment Thread:  Finish by Friday, March 20th EC

2nd Comment Thread: Finish by Thursday, April 2nd

3rd Comment Thread:  Finish by Thursday, April 9th

Since the online environment is a kind of conversation, you will also be expected to respond to others’ posts.  For each post you write, comment on one other post.  To create a response:

  1. Read the original post carefully.  Choose one person to respond to.  Respond to someone who does not yet have a student comment (my comment does not count for this).
  2. Consider the type of response in the original post to help you tailor your response. For instance:  you might extend on a COMMENT by adding additional information, deepen the ANALYSIS offered, CONNECT further or suggest a different relationship, or provide textual evidence as a potential answer for a QUESTION.
  3. Your response does not have to be as long as an original post of two paragraphs, but it should be thoughtful and complete.
  4. It should leave room for debate or further comment.  It should NOT simply be a compliment or “I agree.”
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THE DETAILS

1st Post Due: Monday, March 16 BC (before class)

2nd Post Due: Tuesday, March 31, BC

3rd Post Due: Tuesday, April 7, BC

TITLE:  Literary Analysis #1 (or another creative title, as long as you have #1 in the title)

Category: Literary Analysis

Media to include:  Picture that symbolizes a section of your book along with a caption that explains that symbolism

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 **This assignment has been adapted from Mary LouiseWells, This is Your Brain on English Blog

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