Personal Responses to Literature

The following are questions that might assist you in thinking about (and responding to) your selected work. Read over the list and select those questions that interest you the most.

1. What character(s) was your favorite? Why?

2. What character(s) did you dislike? Why?

3. Does anyone in this work remind you of anyone you know? Explain?

4. Are you like any character in this work? Explain.

5. Overall, what kind of a feeling did you have after reading this work?

6. Dod any incidents, ideas, or actions in this work remind you of your own life or something that happened to you? Explain.

7. do you feel there is an opinion expressed by the author through this work? What is it? How do you know this? Do you agree? Why or why not?

8. Do you think the title of this work is appropriate? Is it significant? Explain. What do you think the title means?

9. Would you change the ending of this work in any way?

10. What kind of person do you feel the author is? What makes you feel this way?

11. How does this work make you feel?

12. Do you share any of the feelings of the characters in this work? Explain.

13. Sometimes works of literature leave you with the feeling that there is more to tell. Did this work do this? What do you think might happen?

14. Would you like to read something else by this author? Why or why not?

15. What do you feel is the most important work, phrase, passage or paragraph in this work? Explain why it is important.

16. If you were an English teacher, would you want to share this work with your students? Why or why not?

17. What do you think you will remember most about this work of literature?

18. What issues in this work are similar to real-life issues that you've thought about or had some kind of experience witH/ How has the story/novel clarified or confused or changed your views on any of these issues?

Approaches to Writing the Analysis Chapter

Literary Specialist Project
Chapter Two: Analysis of Literature


Begin by reviewing the ideas listed on “Literary Analysis Chapter” on our blog. Once you have done that, consider the following:

Approach to Discussing a Novel
(Summary/Character/Key Moment/Theme/Symbol/Personal Response)

a. Brief summary of the novel to acquaint your reader with the subject matter and the narrative line of the work.

b. Analysis of a key character. In this section, you would chart your character’s growth development throughout the novel.

c. Discussion of a key moment in the novel and how it serves as a “turning point” or a “moment of enlightenment” for your character.

d. Discussion of a major theme in the novel. Now that you have read the novel, what is a major theme/issue that surfaces? This theme will probably be linked to the key character (and perhaps to the “turning point” in the character’s life).

e. Dominant symbol in the novel. You might have a novel that features a key image/symbol that reveals something about the major character or enhances a particular theme in the novel.

f. Personal reaction to the novel. Take a look at the blog section called “Personal Responses to Literature.” You might find a few of these questions help to guide you in writing your reactions to the novel.

g. As you can see, if you follow the above format, you will arrive at a rather long chapter that analyzes your selected work of literature in rich detail.



Approach to Discussing Short Stories
(Character Types/Character Connections/Themes/Symbols/Settings/Personal Responses)

a. Should you decide to select several short stories, your analysis chapter will certainly take on a different structure than the analysis of a novel.

b. You might want to decide which stories you are going to analyze by linking several stories that are similar in storyline, theme, or character type. For example, if you were selecting short stories by Poe, you might want to select three or four, each of which has a “mad man” as a key character. Then, you could talk about each of these characters and how each is similar to (or different from) the characters in the other selected short stories.

c. If you don’t have similar types of characters in your short stories, you might still want to look at the separate characters and see if you can discover connections among them. This, then, would allow you to introduce each one of your characters, one story at a time.

d. After you have considered characters, you might want to look through your selected stories and see if a dominant theme emerges in each. You could then take your reader through each story (in the same order as you introduced your characters) and discuss the theme/issue in each.

e. Once you have worked through characters and themes, you might want to discuss a dominant symbol or image at work in each of the stories. If you have stories that don’t really have dominant symbols or images, you might want to consider the author’s creation of setting in each of the stories and how the setting builds a specific atmosphere.

f. Once you have worked with character, theme, symbol/setting, you will find that you have given your reading audience a pretty strong understanding of the selected stories.

g. You might find that sharing your “personal reactions” to each of the stories would be a fitting way to wrap up your analysis chapter. Again, refer to the section called “Personal Responses to Literature” in its separate section on our blog.

Documenting Your Paper -- MLA Style

For the best website on how to do your parenthetical documentations and how to prepare your "Works Cited" page, visit the following website:

www.dianahacker.com

Diana Hacker is a professor of English whose book, A Writer's Reference, is one of the most used grammar books at the university. Her publisher has created her website and when you visit it, click on MLA Guide. You will then be directed to several strands which will give you all the information you need.

Visit "MLA in-text citations" It features a pull down screen to show you different ways to do your parenthetical documentations (depending on the information you have).

Also, visit "MLA list of works cited" to see how to create your citation for whatever source you have (whether it's a novel, a website, or a reference article).

It will take you about fifteen minutes to navigate her website, but once you see her system, you'll understand it completely.

Bookmark this fabulous cite and use it throughout your high school career when you're required to use MLA (or any other) format.

Hacker's site also includes a sample MLA style paper (done in PDF version) so you can see how a full-length student paper looks.

Student Sample of Biographical Chapter

C.S. Lewis – Biographical Sketch


Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His father, Albert Lewis, was a successful police solicitor whose father had emigrated from England. Clive’s mother, Florence Hamilton, had a degree in mathematics and logic from Queen’s College, and came from a long line of Christian clergymen. Warren Hamilton, or “Warnie,” who was three years older than Clive, was his only sibling. In August of 1908, when Clive was only nine years old, Florence passed away from cancer. Albert suffered endless grief during this time, for his father had passed away a few months before his wife, and his brother Joseph died only a few weeks later (Hooper 1-17).

Slowly, everything comforting and safe was pulled away from Clive. His father, trying to do the best he could, moved his son into a boarding school in England to be with his brother. Clive went through five changes of schools and tutors between England and Ireland before he settled down at Oxford University. Nevertheless, he left again in 1917 to join the army and fight in the First World War. He was wounded in battle against the final German attack on the Western Front, and years later, he returned to Oxford (Hooper 1-17).

Through his school career, Clive’s once happy Christian upbringing turned to atheism, but wit the steady help of friends such as J.R.R. Tolkien, he slowly came back to Christianity. His final conversion happened, surprisingly enough, in the sidecar of his brother’s motorcycle on the way to the Whipsnade Zoo. The other great joy in his life was the formation of the “Inklings,” a group of friends who met to read and talk about their compositions. The group started in 1933 and continued until Clive died in 1963.

Authors Used In the Past

Literary Specialist Project: Authors Used in the Past

The following are arranged in no particular order:

1. Dashiell Hammett (American detective novelist)
2. Mark Twain (American 19th century novelist)
3. Louisa May Alcott (American 19th Century)
4. Edgar Allan Poe (American 19th Century)
5. Jack London (American 20th Century)
6. James Michener (American 20th Century)
7. F. Scott Fitzgerald (American 20th Century)
8. Ernest Hemingway (American 20th Century)
9. Edith Wharton (American 19th Century)
10. Jules Verne (French 19th Century)
11. Leo Tolstoy (Russian 19th Century)
12. H.G. Wells (English 19th Century)
13. Charles Dickens (English 19th Century)
14. George Eliot (English 19th Century)
15. Wilkie Collins (English 19th Century)
16. Agatha Christie (English 20th Century)
17. Dorothy Sayers (English 20th Century)
18. Colette (French 20th Century)
19. Albert Camus (French 20th Century)
20. Robert Louis Stevenson (English 19th Century)
21. William Shakespeare (English Renaissance)
22. Thomas Hardy (English 19th Century)
23. Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian 19th Century)
24. Beatrix Potter (English 19th Century)
25. James Barrie (English 20th Century)
26. Daphne DuMaurier (English 20th Century)
27. Stephen King (American 20th Century)
28. Victor Hugo (French 19th Century)
29. Gertrude Stein (American 20th Century)
30. Rudyard Kipling (English 19th Century)
31. Sir Thomas Malory (English Renaissance)
32. Anton Chekhov (Russian 20th Century)
33. Henrik Ibsen (Swedish 19th Century)
34. Eugene O’Neill (American 20th Century)
35. Tennessee Williams (American 20th Century)
36. Arthur Miller (American 20th Century)
37. Raymond Chandler (American 20th Century)
38. Herman Melville (American 19th Century)
39. Hermann Hesse (German 20th Century)
40. Honore de Balzac (French 19th Century)
41. Robert Heinlein (American 20th Century)
42. Isaac Asimov (American 20th Century)
43. J.R.R. Tolkien (English 20th Century)
44. C.S. Lewis (English 20th Century)
45. W. Somerset Maugham (English 20th Century)
46. Willa Cather (American 20th Century)
47. H.P. Lovecraft (American 19th Century)
48. Guy de Maupassant (French 19th Century)
49. Lewis Carroll (English 19th Century)
50. George MacDonald (English 19th Century)
51. Stephen Crane (American 19th Century)
52. Theodore Dreiser (American 20th Century)
53. Sinclair Lewis (American 20th Century)
54. Thomas Wolfe (American 20th Century)
55. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (English 19th Century)
56. Oscar Wilde (English 19th Century)
57. George Bernard Shaw (English 20th Century)
58. Gustave Flaubert (French 19th Century)
59. Carson McCullers (American 20th Century)
60. Harper Lee (American 20th Century)
61. John Steinbeck (American 20th Century)
62. Aldous Huxley (British 20th Century)
63. Alexandre Dumas (French 19th Century)
64. Amy Tan (American 20th Century)
65. Phillip Pullman (British 20th Century)
66. Franz Kafka (German 19th/20th Century)
67. Madeleine L'Engle (American 20th Century)
68. Tom Clancy (American 20th Century)
69. Daniel Defoe (British 18th Century)
70. Pearl S. Buck (American 20th Century)
71. Alice Walker (American 20th Century)
72. Toni Morrison (American 20th Century)
73. Richard Wright (American 20th Century)
74. Maya Angelou (American 20th Century)
75. James Baldwin (American 20th Century)
76. Jane Austen (British 19th Century)
77. Rudolfo Anaya (American 20th Century)
78. Isabel Allende (Chilean-American 20th Century)
79. Zora Neale Hurston (American 20th Century)
80. Boris Pasternak (Russian 20th Century)
81. Henrik Ibsen (Swedish 19th Century)
82. Alexander Pushkin (Russian 19th Century)
83. Tim O'Brien (American 20th Century)
84. Erich Maria Remarque (German 20th Century)
85. Antoine St. Exupery (French 20th Century)
86. Ursula LeGuin (American 20th Century)
87. Katherine Kurtz (American 20th Century)
88. Orson Scott Card (American 20th Century)
89. Ray Bradbury (American 20th Century)
90. Anne Rice (American 20th Century)
91. George Orwell (British 20th Century)
92. Nadine Gordimer (Africa 20th Century)
93. William Golding (British 20th Century)
94. O'Henry (American 19th Century)
95. L. Frank Baum (American 20th Century)
96. Stephen Crane (American 19th Century)
97. Irving Stone (American 20th Century)
98. Roald Dahl (British 20th Century)
99. William Faulkner (American 20th Century)
100. Flannery O'Connor (American 20th Century)
101. August Wilson (American 20th Century)
102. Thornton Wilder (American 20th Century)
103. Cormac McCarthy (American 20th Century)
104. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (American 20th C)
105. Neil Simon (American 20th Century)

Samples of Student Papers from the Past

Forthcoming.

LIterary Specialist Oral Presentation Rubric

Literary Specialist Project Speaker _______________________

Oral Presentation (10 minutes)

Scoring Guide

I. Knowledge of Subject Matter

1 2 3 4 5

II. Organization of Material

1 2 3 4 5

III. Ability to Gain Listener’s Interest/Level of Engagement

1 2 3 4 5

IV. Voice Projection/Modulation

1 2 3 4 5

V. Eye Contact

1 2 3 4 5



Final Comments on Presentation:










A = 22-25 points
B = 19-21 points
C = 16-18 points
D = 13-15 points
F = less than 13 points

Literary Specialist Project Rubric

This section will be forthcoming.

Reflection Chapter

The Literary Specialist Project
Stage 3: Reflection Phase


This is the last major section in your literary specialist project. It is your opportunity to look back on your work as a scholar during this research project. There is no one right way to compose this section. This “chapter” should serve as a conclusion to your project. In essence, you are bringing the curtain down on your research; therefore, you should do so in as clear, as personal, and as elegant a fashion as possible.

In terms of length, I would imagine that this might be anywhere from one to three pages in length (typed, of course).

Consider the following types of questions. Reflect on your own work and decide what final points you would like to make about your author and about yourself, as the researcher. Answer those that seem most appropriate to you:

1. What are your final thoughts on your selected author?
2. What do you now know about your author that you didn’t know before?
3. If given the chance again, would you still select your particular author?
4. What observations have you made about your own growth as a literary specialist?
5. Is there anything you would do differently if you could start over?
6. What new discoveries did you make about your author or your selected work of literature?
7. Have you grown intellectually as a result of this project?
8. Is there a possibility that you will continue to read more writing from this particular author?
9. Is there anything else that you would like to add?


Final Notes: Keep the writing clear, articulate, and formal. Since this is the reflection phase, it is appropriate to write in first person.

Remember, this is your closing section, so create a majestic ending!

Literary Analysis Chapter

Literary Specialist Project
Phase Two -- Literary Analysis

In this section, your prime objective is to focus on a key work (or set of works) by your chosen author and to discuss that work from a variety of perspectives. You want to demonstrate your thorough knowledge/understanding of the work, as well as make possible connections between the work and information covered in the biographical section. There is no one right way to complete this section; it will depend on the author, the selected work, and your own background knowledge into literary analysis. The following are possible aspects to include in your analysis.

1. Brief Summary -- Acquaint your reading audience with a “skeleton” sketch of the work. This should give your reader an outline or overview of the work (e.g., type of novel, key characters, key themes, and the like). Students working with poetry might focus on the type of poetry and the essential subject matter found in these poems.

2. Discussion of Character -- Discuss one of the key characters found in the work. You might examine a character’s traits, growth/development, contribution to the work as a whole, and the like.

3. Biographical Connections -- Perhaps your selected work has strong connections with the author’s own life. If so, you might wish to draw connections between the author’s personal experiences and those experiences found in the novel.

4. Themes and Ideas -- Discuss some of the key themes/ideas found in this literary work. For instance, Dickens tends to chart the journey of an individual amidst the horrors of nineteenth-century England. Similarly, Charlotte Bronte tends to focus on the inner, passionate nature of her heroines. Think about your selected literary work and the key ideas/issues which emanate from it.

5. Personal Reactions to the Work -- You might wish to include a section in your analysis which charts your own reading of (and reaction to) the literary work.

6. Genre Approach -- Perhaps you will discuss your literary work’s connection to a particular literary genre. For instance, a student reading Tolkien’s The Hobbit might discuss how the novel fulfills the requirements of the fantasy novel.

7. Other Approaches -- Perhaps you have another perspective from which to discuss your selected literary work. If so, share this idea with me and I’ll tell you what I think. Just ask!

Final Note: Your analysis can include many of the above. Just be sure that your paper is well-organized and that your readers can easily follow the structure of your thinking/writing.

Biographical Chapter

Literary Specialist Project -- Phase One
Possible Approaches to the Biographical Section


As you are collecting information on your selected author, you might want to consider the following “possible approaches” to the overall outline of the biographical phase of your project. These approaches give you possible ways to design your collected data. Use the ones that interest you or pertain to your particular author.

1. Give a brief overview of the life of your author (dates, birthplaces, key events, interesting details) in order to introduce your reading audience to your writer.

2. Did your author have traumatic experiences or interesting life events which might have influenced his writing? (For example, Virginia Woolf’s lifelong bout with depression definitely had an influence on her writing. Similarly, Charles Dickens’ love for the theatre and acting is revealed in the dramatic nature of his novels).

3. What personality traits best describe your selected author? (For instance, was she gregarious, isolated, eccentric, outgoing, shy, or dazzlingly brilliant?) What traits would best fit this author?

4. Are there other famous people who might have influenced your author? (For example, we know that Wordsworth was great friends with Coleridge--as Shelley was with Byron.)

5. From what you know about your author, did he get along with his family? (One is reminded of the difficult marriage of Thomas Hardy and how it inevitably influenced the “relationships” in his novels.)

6. In what way did your author influence or change the particular literary form in which she was working? For example, think about the growth of the mystery novel as a result of the work of Agatha Christie; or of the influence of Arthur Conan Doyle on the detective novel. How did your particular author change or advance literature?

7. What other interesting aspects concerning your selected author should be placed in this section of the research project? Remember, you want to make this section both interesting and informative for your reading audience.

Literary Specialist Project Overview

Introduction to the
Literary Specialist Project

This project is designed to allow you an opportunity to become a specialist on a single author from world literature--from the Middle Ages to contemporary times. We will be spending the next six to eight weeks on this research project; therefore, the grades you earn on this project will “set the tone” for your semester grade in this course. As a result, it is vital that you choose your author carefully, organize your time wisely, work diligently, and produce a finished product that showcases your strengths in all aspects of English (research, planning, reading, and writing).

Because of the intensive nature of this project, it will be important to divide up the project into several phases. I will be giving you deadlines throughout the project. For each deadline, an aspect or “chapter” of the project will be due. I will then be able to guide your work and give you immediate feedback on each “chapter.” This will ensure that your work is of the highest quality and that the end result is a literary specialist product that you can be proud of this year (and in years to come).

Phases of the Literary Specialist Project

I. Biographical Research -- During this phase, you find out as much as you can about the life and times of your selected writer. You will take voluminous notes on your author and will consult a variety of sources (e.g., a standard biography, encyclopedia articles, information from literary handbooks, periodicals (if applicable), websites, and the like). The goal of this phase is for you to become thoroughly acquainted with your writer. At the end of this phase, you will turn in a biographical report on your author. More on this report will be given at a later date.

II. Examining a Key Work by this Author -- During this phase, you will read at least
one key literary work by this author. You will read this in the light of the newly-
acquired information that you have gained on this writer. After you have read
a work, you will write a paper which investigates this work from a variety of
perspectives. The goal of this phase is to read a work and write an interpretive
analysis of the work.

III. Reflection Phase -- As the project enters its final phase, you will reflect on your author, his/her work, and all the information you have gained from your research. You will then write a reflection paper in which you discuss your findings. This is a free-style essay that allows you to consider your growth as a literary researcher. More on this phase will be given in class.


IV. Bibliography -- In this phase, you will create a bibliography of all the sources you consulted during this project. As a result, it is vital that from the very first day you keep track of all the sources consulted during the project. Keep track of all the references you consult by jotting down key points in your journal. This is an easy section to do--as long as you’ve been organized throughout the entirety of your research.

V. Oral Presentation -- During this stage, you will give a seven to ten-minute presentation to the class in which you discuss the key results of your literary research.


Because you will be doing the work in stages, and receiving feedback throughout the project, it is vital that you work diligently and steadfastly to create a project worthy of your fine English abilities. The grade that you receive on this project will greatly influence your semester grade. If you want a high grade at the semester, create a first-rate project.

Welcome to our Literary Specialist Blog!

Welcome to a blog that you're going to be visiting very frequently over the course of the next twelve weeks. This will be our literary specialist blog and will contain all the assignments and ingredients for the project. Basically, by visiting the different sections posted here, you will see the step-by-step approach that I will be using as you become true specialists of literature. This blog will contain the directions for each of the "chapters" of our project. Moreover, I will be posting "tips for success" here. You should visit the blog frequently, especially if you've got questions on the project. While I will be going over all of this information in class, this blog will give you a chance to review each of the components at your leisure. I will also be posting samples of student projects from the past so that you can see how others went about accomplishing this project. Finally, I will be inserting links to help you with the MLA documentation techniques that we will be using for the research phase of this project. Think of this blog as "one-stop shopping" for your literary specialist project. Everything that we could possibly use to be successful in this project will be posted here. Also, I will be posting a "Questions/Concerns" section so that you can post any questions, concerns, or problems that you have while working through this project. I will be visiting the blog on a daily basis throughout our project and can use this section to answer any concerns that arise while you're away from class.

Here we go! Best wishes on your researching/writing/reading journey! Literary Specialists of the World, Unite!