Thursday/Friday, October 1st and 2nd

For today, you wrote your first piece of carefully crafted literary analysis.  We are going to go over these when you come into class next week. For now, I want you to reflect on the writing you produced. 

1. In Schoology, you will see a discussion board posted. For this response, you will need to pull up your piece of literary analysis and do a close read of the writing techniques that you employed. 

Consider the following questions:

• The claim was provided for this exercise, but we are going to practice full-reflection, so you can get in the habit. Does the claim identify the usage of a literary device? Does the claim address the how this device is employed by the author? Does the claim speak to the effect of this device on the text? 
• How do you introduce and integrate your textual evidence in your writing? Is it smooth? Do you use cue words that provide insight to what is the goal of the quotation that will follow? How effective are your link phrases/transitions. Is the speaker clearly identified? (Differentiated from author)
• Do you use proper citation? Is Fitzgerald referenced? 
• How well do you explain/explore your evidence? Do you "sum up" your evidence, or do you discuss it piece by piece? Does your explanation speak to its support of the claim.. NOT paraphrase what the quote says. (Big difference). This part is where you are digging into the HOW the text works and into the WHY it is relevant. (THIS IS THE LIFE BLOOD OF ANALYSIS... the how you see it force of your writing)
• Do you transition effectively to your next example/evidence? (repeat the process).
• Does your conclusion statement simply restate or does is synthesize the argument? Synthesis is where you process how all of what you mentioned before results in your claim or argument. It can also speak to its relevance or evaluation of its purpose. 

Your reflection needs to be an honest assessment of your writing. What are you doing well? What is missing? What do you need to improve upon? Why? What was a struggle for you? What new process did you learn? 

I can offer feedback and feedback, but if a writer doesn't understand how techniques work and how to wield them, then they never really become their skill.. This is how writers improve their craft. 

2. When you are done with your reflection, YOU MAY go back to your original piece and make revisions. Any revision you make, I would like you to use a different colored font. 

3. Reading- We are going to need to be through Chapter 6 by the end of next week. 

4. I will be doing a LP informal check in the next week. Take some time this weekend to get these organized so they are working for you.