Answering the analysis question

Working the prompt1. Check the time: note the time2. Analyze the prompt—circle

essential terms Ex: The following paragraphs are from the opening of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. After carefully reading the excerpt, write a well-organized essay in which you Characterize Capote’s view of Holcomb, Kansas and analyze how Capote conveys this view. Your analysis may consider such stylistic elements as diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and selection of detail.

Analyzing the promptThe following paragraphs are from the

opening of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. After carefully reading the excerpt, write a well-organized essay in which you characterize Capote’s view of Holcomb, Kansas and analyze how Capote

conveys this view. Your analysis may consider such stylistic elements as diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and

selection of detail.

Analyzing the prompt

• If the question reads such as you may use your own selection of techniques, strategies, and devices.

• You must use more than one device• Note title of work, author, date of

publication, genre can prove helpful in determining audience and therefore purpose

Read/annotate passage-8-10 minutes

• Skim to get idea of passage• Reread, using marginal notes (mess up

text, complete double entry diary)• Reread slowly, using your notes• Reread to confirm that you get the

entire passage.• Do not skim only to retrieve strategies

for essay; may not get the point of the passage

Opening paragraph

• Catches eye of reader• Sets tone of essay• May increase score by ingratiating

yourself to reader. • Do not depend wholly on good

style, voice, however

What to include in intro paragraph

• Author, title• Segment of question Ex: Capote’s

view of Holcomb• Elements you will refer to in essay in

the order in which you will address them

Example A• In the opening of In Cold Blood, Truman

Capote presents a picture of the town of Holcomb, Kansas. Through structure, structure, selection of detail, and a detached toneselection of detail, and a detached tone, Capote’s view of Holcomb portrays small town life as dull and ordinary.

• Strategies--shadowedStrategies--shadowed• Effect—italicized• Purpose--underlined

Example B• Holcomb, Kansas, Holcomb, Kansas.

Even the sound of the place is boring and uninteresting. Moreover, Truman Capote seems to agree with this in his opening to In Cold Blood. Most readers would be inclined to pass by this sleepy, bland, and undistinguished hamlet. This view is developed through the author’s author’s tone, structure, and selection of detail.tone, structure, and selection of detail.

• Strategies--shadowedStrategies--shadowed• Effect—italicized• Purpose--underlined

Example C• “Like the waters of the river, like the motorists

on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped here. This is the town of Holcomb, Kansas.” Using a reporter’s objective tone, Using a reporter’s objective tone, specific structure, and selection of detailspecific structure, and selection of detail, Capote in the opening of his novel shows the town much like any other American town, perhaps to lull readers to believe into a false sense of security.

• Strategies--shadowedStrategies--shadowed• Effect—italicized• Purpose--underlined

Example D

• In Cold Blood is a very appropriate title, because Capote presents a cold and unemotional view of Holcomb, Kansas. His His tone, structure, and selection of detailtone, structure, and selection of detail creates a distant and detached picture of this desolate farm community thus showing this type of crime could occur anywhere.

• Strategies--shadowedStrategies--shadowed• Effect—italicized• Purpose--underlined

Which type do you use?

•Sample A restates the question

without elaborating: to

the point and correct but does not catch reader’s interest.

• Use if you feel unsure or uncomfortable with prompt

Which type do you use?

•Sample B reflects writer who has a voice; he/she has determined Capote’s view and understands how view is created.

Which type do you use?

•Sample C immediately places the reader into the passage by

referring specifically to it.

Which type do you use?

•Sample D reveals mature, confident writer who is unafraid to make his or her own voice heard;

ties in some aspect of passage with his/her analysis.

What next?

USE transition from intro to first body paragraph

• Transitional expressions• Word, phrase, that is used in thesis• Idea that is used in thesis

Arrangement of body paragraphs

• Follow the format set forth in your thesis statement.

• This will assist your reader in following your logic

What goes in the body of essay?

Use specific references to passage1. Explain the strategy the author uses (first

person narrative)2. Give specific examples from the text to

illustrate the strategy (Do not always paraphrase the original. Directly refer to the original. (explicit examples.)

3. Explain why the author uses this technique and what overall effect it has on the work.

.

How do you move from one idea to another?

Use connective tissue to stick to the question

1. Repeat key ideas from prompt and your opening paragraph

2. Use synonyms town/village, hamlet

bland/ordinary/undistinguished

Examplepresents a cold and unemotional view of Holcomb, Kansas. His objective tone, structure, and selection of detailHis objective tone, structure, and selection of detail creates a distant and detached picture of this desolate farm community thus showing this type of crime could occur anywhere.

Capote utilizes an objective tone , much like that of a journalist in his description of the town. For example, in “Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there “ the author categorizes very ordinary life and all of its mundane behavior s in order to demonstrate how typical the town is. In so doing, he draws a parallel between Holcomb and the readers’ towns.

Conclusion• Briefly restate thesis.• Capote repeatedly draws on the readers’

sense of security in recognizing their hometowns .

• Draw conclusions about the authors’ motives

• After he lulls them to this point , he then reveals the horrific crime that befell the family of the sleepy farm town.

• .

Clincher: return to attn getter In Cold Blood is then effective not only to explain the details of the story style, but equally effective in describing Capote’s disregard of the horror of the audience