This week’s video lessons by Susan Barber and Carlos Escobar focus establishing a line of reason and reviewing effective essays for FRQ2. Please view each of the following videos and complete the practice assigned.

1. Establishing a Line of Reasoning 2. Deconstructing Prompts and Close Reading 3. Review Student Samples for Effective Writing 4. Deconstructing Prompts and Close Reading 5. Review Student Samples for Effective Writing

1. Establishing a Line of Reasoning

Goal:

Develop a thesis statement that conveys a defensible claim about an interpretation of literature and that may establish a line of reasoning.

A line of reasoning is the progression of your claim throughout your essay.

Foundational vs Complex Introduction/Thesis

Prompt: In following excerpt, two characters who have been living on the Blithedale farm—a community designed to promote an ideal of equality achieved through communal rural living—are about to part ways. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well written essay, analyze how the author uses literary elements and techniques to portray the narrator’s complex attitude toward Zenobia.

Line of Reasoning—Thesis:

Student Samples:

In the following interchange, excerpted from Nathaniel Hawthorne novel portrays the narrator’s love and obsession for Zenobia. Throughout the section, the author uses a lot of diction and imagery to signify the narrator’s attitude towards Zenobia.

Mr. Escobar’s commentary: The thesis tells us that the narrator feels love and obsession—so that WILL earn the thesis point.

Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the way the narrater feels about Zenobia in the few paragraphs. The narrator feels as though Zenobia may not be entirely authentic. He feels spite towards her and her new life after Blithedale. Hawthorne is able to potray these feelings through the use of first person point of view and sophisticated diction. These literary techniques establish the tense tone of the excerpt.

Mr. Escobar’s commentary: The language doesn’t create a link or a development of ideas.

The shift and internal resolution that the narrator experiences create resolution in her attitude towards Zenobia. Where at first she was complacent in her acceptance of Zenobia’s oppulent lifestyle, she turns scornful and resentful as she regains control over Zenobia’s proud aura and façade.

Ms. Barber’s commentary: Shifts are a great way to analyze and establish a line of reasoning.

Mr. Escobar’s commentary: Notice the wording—the word shift shows us that a change will happen. The thesis discusses chronologically the shift that happens in the narrator’s attitude toward Zenobia.

Line of Reasoning—Body Paragraphs:

Student Sample:

[…] It is beautiful, “the fulfillment of every fantasy of the imagination,” but although the narrator is “dazzled,” he is uneasy and feels a “bitter sense of shame.” Hawthorne magnifies this feeling of shame through terms such as “costly self-indulgence” and “redundance of personal ornament,” the narrator expresses his disapproval of Zenobia’s overly-indulgent lifestyle, which is fundamentally different from the values of his own community. He further […]

Strengthening Line of Reasoning

Student Sample:

In paragraphs 7 and 8 after brief conversation between characters, the narrator is not afraid to voice his criticism. Hawthorne has him do so in a brief monologue directed at Zenobia. It is within this monologue that his true feelings come out, and have a strong affect on Zenobia’s state, causing her to become flustered. By having the narrator express his criticism in the form of a monologue, a stronger effect is delivered on the audience, and, in this case, Zenobia. This reflects the narrator’s strong attitude towards Zenobia.

Ms. Barber’s commentary: Quotes need to be pulled in to the analysis. What specific phrases cause that strong effect? Why would these specific words and phrases cause her to be flustered?

Line of Reasoning

Claim(derived from thesis) Evidence(multiple/concise)

Commentary

Words and phrases guide the analysis

Assignment: Respond to the following prompt. Try your best to make this as close to your exam day set up as possible: time yourself, write or type as you will on exam day, sit where you’ll sit on exam day!

Type your response here. Use as much space as needed!

2. Deconstructing Prompts and Close Reading

Look at the student example—there is not one RIGHT way to write an essay. Some introductions will be extremely short and only include the thesis and establish a line of reasoning, others will be like this example. Think about what you wrote and how you can make it better.

Goal:

Develop commentary that establishes and explains relationships among textual evidence, the line of reasoning, and the thesis.

Developing CommentaryClaims provide answers.Evidence provides proof that claims are text-based.Commentary…

clarifies the link between the claims/evidence of the thesis. extends the analysis beyond the text. delineates new depths of understanding as the essay progresses

Function of CommentaryAs you develop your commentary, your analysis becomes clearer.

Assignment:No longer focus on a single skill. Consider all previous lessons to improve this body paragraph AND/OR improve one of your own body paragraphs. Also, consider the Key Questions Ms. Barber poses in the video around 27:22. Henchard’s relationship with his daughter is not just negative, but it is complex because he constantly seeks her presence. However, Elizabeth busies herself “with manual labors” and “she would go to the kitchen instead. The harshest treatment of Elizabeth centers on how she speaks. “If you bide where you be a minute.” Then her father said that she was “only fit to carry wash.” This relationship probably mirrors other people’s relationship with their parents.

Reminder- You can access practice prompts on your own. See the instructions at the end of the video.

Record your improved paragraph here.

3. Review Student Samples for Effective Writing

Goal:

You DO NOT earn the point if you:

Attempt to contextualize your interpretation, but such attempts conist predominately of sweeping generalizations.

Only hint or suggest other possible interpretations. Make a single statement about how an interpretation o fthe passage comments on something

thematic without considerbly maintaining that thematic interpretation. Oversimplify complexities in the passage. Use complicated or complex sentences or language that is ineffective because it does not

enhance your argument.

4 Paths to Earning the Sophistication Point

1. Identifying and exploring complexities or tensions within the passage.2. Illuminating the student’s interpretation by situating it within a broader context.3. Account for alternative interpretations of the passage.4. Employing a style that is consistently vivid and persuasive.

FOCUS ON ROW B of Rubric (Evidence and Commentary) and you’ll likely receive the sophistication point.

Soph

istica

tion Develop

commentary that establishes and explains relationships among textual evidence, the line of reasoning, and the thesis.

Soph

istica

tion Select and use

relevant and sufficient evidence to both develop and support a line of reasoning. So

phisti

catio

n Demonstrate control over the elements of composition to communicate clearly.

Assignment:

Reread The Mayor of Casterbridge noting complexities and tensions within the text.What do you notice?

Shifts Contrasts Repetitions Similarities Anything else that stands out

Record your notes here.

4. Deconstructing Prompts and Close Reading

Think—What? How? Why? How does the passage begin? Think about shifts, contrasts, and progression of ideas. Are there any other shifts?Is there new or surprising information revealed?What can I learn from the end of the passage?

Steps to Success:1. Deconstruct your prompt. Spend a couple of minutes reading information on context and note

the specific writing task.2. Read the passage and break into sections (chunks) based on shifts or obvious changes in the

text.3. Reread and take notes.

a. What do you notice? (claims)b. How does the author communicate this? (evidence)c. Why is this important? (commentary)

4. Draft thesis and outline your body paragraphs—VERY IMPORTANT. How are you going to break your paper down to support your thesis?

5. Write your essay.

Prompt: What is the complex relationship between Henchard and Elizabeth?Sample Exemplary Thesis (and introduction): In the excerpt from The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy reveals the complex, affectionate, yet shielded relationship between Elizabeth-Jane and her father, Michael Henchard. Both Henchard and Elizabeth-Jane become entangled in their own different perspectives of the relationship. Elizabeth-Jane believes that Michael’s reprimands mean only that he despises her, and Michael dislikes that Elizabeth-Jane has to live a low-class life and reveals his love through reprimanding her, creating a barrier to emotional connection and understanding in their relationship as father and daughter.

Order of Argument (Line of Reasoning):1. Henchard is cold, chiding, and domineering and EJ changes to please him2. No matter how much she tries, Henchard is ashamed of her outward appearances3. The more refined she becomes which matches her kind heart, the more he dislikes her

Assignment: Read this passage carefully and annotate it. Approach this the same way that you will approach the exam. If you’re going to print it on exam day and handwrite notes, do so. If you’re going to do it on your screen, then try that.

5. Review Student Samples for Effective Writing

Clear, defensible thesisTopic sentences define purposes of paragraphApt, specific, embedded quotations found throughout essayLine of reasoning is establishedCommentary m akes up most of body paragraphsGrammar rules are followedWriting develops ideas. Repetition of claims/commentary is not helpfulPlot summary is not the goalDiscuss the function of multiple literary techniques

Effective Writing