Senior English Critical Writing Handbook - Selwyn House School

CRITICAL WRITINGANDREADINGATSELWYN HOUSE SCHOOL

TABLE OF CONTENTSAcknowledgments 2What is a Critical Essay? 3Analysis 3Interpretation 4The Structure of the Critical Essay 7A Sample Essay 7Paragraph Development 9Essay Development 11Critical Style 13Form of the Critical Essay 16Format 16Quotations 17Works Cited 21The Analysis of Fiction: a Procedural Outline 22Plot Analysis 22Character Development 27Setting 30Theme 31Style 33Point of View 34MLA Citation Guide Appendix 1Marking Symbols Appendix 2Sample Student Essay Appendix 31

AcknowledgementsThis handbook was originally conceived and produced in 1984 by Dr. Bryon Harker, who servedas the Head of the English Department for approximately two decades. In 2006, the handbookwas reissued, in a slightly re-edited and revised edition. I knew Byron Harker for years before Icame to Selwyn House, but from the moment I came, he became my mentor, my colleague, andmy friend. Byron was meticulous in all that he did, and his evaluation of his colleagues asteachers was in large part based on their all-consuming interest in developing the boys of SelwynHouse into perceptive, analytic readers and careful, creative, and circumspect writers. Thishandbook reflects this clearly. As I retire, I am more aware than ever of the impressive legacyleft to me and to the English Department by Byron, my predecessor. I could not wish better forthe School than for this legacy to continue in Byron’s memory so that his words and ideas will,as our School hymn states, open "...portals to knowledge and pathways to truth." He would belooking down in approval.Kathleen BiggsHead: Department of EnglishSelwyn House SchoolJune 20062

WHAT IS A CRITICAL ESSAY?A critical essay is a special kind of expository essay: it develops a thesis (a thesis being thecontrolling argument of an expository essay) about the technique, meaning, or effect of a literarywork. Instead of merely informing the reader about what a work contains, as would anexpository essay on that work, a critical essay analyzes how the effects of the work were createdand why. The question why here involves the writer of the critical essay in interpreting themeaning of the work. The critical essay, then, tries to get one step higher than the expositoryessay, and it is in this sense of getting a higher view that the word “critical” is used.NOTE: In this context, the word “critical” does not mean “fault-finding;” instead, it means“analytical and interpretive.”The “critic” who writes a “critical essay,” then, is not so much a “literary critic” because he tellsus whether a book is good or bad as because he explains how and why a book is good (he wouldpresumably not find it worth his while to analyze and interpret a bad book—at least not usually).Critical essays perform two basic functions: analysis and interpretation.Analysis“To analyze” means literally “to name and describe the constituent parts of a thing.” Analyzingan idea or a thing like a book, however, is not as simple as analysing a chemical compoundbecause these “things” are not like material objects. It has become conventional, however, tospeak of a literary work as being “composed” of the following five elements: (1) plot, (2)characterization, (3) theme, (4) setting, and (5) style. In this handbook we work primarily on thebasis of this conventional view, and because you as a young writer will to a degree be “anuninformed person,” we have given in a section below (“The Analysis of Fiction: A ProceduralGuide”) a detailed set of instructions on how to write analyses of plot, characterization, theme,setting, and style. The inexperienced writer will do best to follow the conventions before he triesmore original approaches. In analyzing plot, for example, he might well begin by adopting theconventional analysis provided by Gustav Freytag, who, in 1865, said that a dramatic plot isroughly pyramid-shaped, being composed of the status quo, the inciting force, the rising action,the turning point, the climax, and the denouement. Freytag’s analysis is now so firmlyestablished that it is hard to see the construction of a plot in any other way than his. Withoutknowledge of it, a writer must seem to others to be “uninformed.”It is important for your creative development, however, to realize that there are many ways ofanalyzing a thing: no one of these is “the correct” one; they are only more (or less) reasonablewhen compared with one another from an informed point of view. The easiest step towardsliberating your analyses from the conventional is to see that the elements of literature not only dooverlap but also ought to overlap. A useful geometrical figure for such a situation is the Venndiagram, such as that below, which symbolizes the interaction of plot, characterization, theme,setting, and style:3

How does this Venn diagram stimulate analysis? Let us say that you have decided thatcharacterization is the element that most contributes to the success of a novel you are writingabout. Your best procedure for a critical essay would be first to ask yourself what methods theauthor has used to create the most striking and significant of his characters. Your list mightinclude what the author says of him (“direct characterization”), what others say of him, what hesays of himself, both in conversation and thought, what characters parallel or contrast with him,and so forth. The most important method, however, will nearly always be the way in which acharacter acts. Now the moment we mention action, we are speaking about plot; consequently,we must see that plot and characterization overlap in a most powerful way. In fact, the mostimportant elements of plot, characterization, theme, setting, and style are precisely the elementsin each that overlap. A Venn diagram, then, stimulates creative analysis by showing us that twothings we thought were separate were really, in their most important essentials, some larger thirdthing. The best way of constructing a plot, for example, is to start with a set of distinctivecharacters and then describe what these characters would do, given a certain setting in time andplace. To analyze a plot in the best way, it is only necessary to know which is the best way ofconstructing it and then determine whether the author appears to have taken that way. A geometricalfigure like the Venn diagram does, then, give you as an analyst (and also as a creator) aliberating boost.The geometrical figure brings into a single focus, then, the implications of all the elements of aliterary work; in doing so, it allows analysis and interpretation to proceed simultaneously.InterpretationTo interpret a thing is to explain what it means. Very often an essay that relies in its analysis onthe standard or conventional divisions of a topic does very little interpreting other thanexplaining the quotations excerpted from the work; such an essay only suggests an interpretationof the work, rather than spelling the meaning out explicitly. More often than not, the writer of theconventional critical essay waits until his concluding paragraph to interpret—an excellent place,since the end of any composition is what the reader remembers best, and the place, consequently,where the writer is wisest to wax eloquent. The writer who has analyzed in an original way, onthe other hand, will automatically have spread the interpretation of the work throughout the4

essay, and he will, as a consequence, have been writing all along an essay of greater significancethan his more conventional brother. At the beginning, therefore, while you are still followingconventional modes of analysis, make sure that you use your concluding paragraphs to interpret:relate the aspect of the work that has been the object of your attention to the other aspects of thework, especially to theme.A critical essay that is truly valuable for the writer as well as for the reader, then, informs thereader about the contents of a literary work, just as would an ordinary expository essay; but itinforms the reader only incidentally, as an automatic by-product of analyzing the work.Similarly, a good critical essay persuades the reader that the writer’s opinion is correct, just aswould an ordinary expository essay; but it persuades the reader incidentally, as an automatic byproductof interpreting the work. The writer of a good critical essay will seem to be achievingspontaneous, intuitive insights into the working operation of a book, and such insights are morepersuasive, again, than the arguments in a debate could be. As a student learning how to writecritical essays, you ought to aim to elicit from your teacher a comment like this: “You haveachieved some genuine insights into this work. Congratulations:”A WARNING ABOUT PLAGIARISM: The policy of the English Department is to give astudent 0 when it can be indisputably proven that even in a single instance he has presented ashis own the language or thought of another person.Make sure that at least two thirds of what you write is your own. Quotations or paraphrases ofany kind, from primary or secondary sources, ought to form no more than a third the length ofyour paper. You can best insure that your essay has the proper degree of originality if you makeyour own notes on the book you are writing about the first thing you do. Then make a tentativeoutline or even a first draft of your essay before you look at any secondary sources. When youmake notes on secondary sources, keep a scrupulous record at the time of the pages and booksfrom which you are gathering ideas or quotations. Such a record will not only get you around theproblem of trying at the last moment to remember where things come from; it will also get youaround the problem of trying to distinguish which ideas are your own and which those of a critic.DO NOT LET YOUR SECONDARY SOURCES CROWD YOU OUT OF YOUR OWNESSAY.It is our aim to promote the enjoyment of literature first and foremost, and after that to promoteindependent thinking about it. Don’t allow yourself, then, somehow to become dependent onwhat a certain writer says about a book; instead, use what he says by arguing against him, byquoting him briefly to corroborate what you have thought out for yourself, or by extending hisargument with detail you have extracted from the work in question. Do not assume either that heis right: after all, his essay merely expresses his opinion, just as yours expresses your opinion.If you are having trouble handling secondary sources, go to your teacher for advice—but don’twait until the last moment. It sometimes appears that people plagiarize out of desperation.Having waited until the night before the essay is due, they copy someone else’s work. Thesepeople deny themselves the “higher” kind of enjoyment of literature that writing a critical essayis intended to promote, the intense pleasure of having discovered what a book is about, a joy akinto that of the experimental scientist or to that of the creator of the work in question. What theplagiarist does, beyond this denial of creativity, is to destroy his own trust in himself as a moral5

eing. If you really cannot remain independent of the critics, do not consult them. Both you andyour teacher will respect that decision far more than its opposite.6

THE STRUCTURE OF THE CRITICAL ESSAYA Sample EssayThe example that follows is set out in such a way as to illustrate the framework of the criticalessay while at the same time informing the reader about the details of the structure.Characteristics of the Critical Essay (Title)Introductory Paragraph(Preamble) One way to present our ideas to large numbers of people is to write for magazines, journals, andnewspapers. Although each of these kinds of publications has its own format, one of the most widely accepted waysto present reports and arguments is in the form of a critical essay. (Points) A critical essay consists of anintroductory paragraph, a thesis statement, supporting paragraphs connected by “verbal bridges” (transitionaldevices), and a concluding paragraph. (Thesis)The critical essay is often the best way to express your views about animportant piece of literature.Body ParagraphThe introductory paragraph gives a broad overview of the topic to be discussed. It begins with general statementsand then gradually helps readers narrow their attention to the specific points to be made in the essay. The general,broad statements are called “the preamble” (“pre” meaning “before” and “amble” meaning “a slow walk,” a“preamble” is a preliminary walk around the topic); the specific points to be made in the essay are presented in thethesis statement, which enumerates them in a one-sentence “road map” for the essay. For some specific kinds ofexpository essays (like historical arguments, for example), it is possible to present the thesis statement first, but itusually makes for better unity and greater clarity to present it last.Body ParagraphFollowing the introductory paragraph come the paragraphs that make up “the body” of the essay, that is, the largest,“meatiest,” section. Each body paragraph develops one of the points enumerated in the thesis statement. In a “topicsentence” (usually the first in the paragraph), that point is expressed as an opinion or given as a fact. In severalsucceeding sentences the writer explains, illustrates, defines, or analyzes the idea expressed in the topic sentence. Hemay also compare ideas, give facts, show cause and effect, or present quotations. Each body paragraph is “roundedoff” in a final way in a “clincher sentence” that “clinches” the argument presented in the paragraph or that re-statesthe topic sentence in different words.Body ParagraphTo connect all sentences and paragraphs smoothly, the writer uses transitions, which act as guides or bridges toenable readers to see new directions in the relationships between the ideas in the essay. Transitions may be singlewords (“moreover,” “otherwise,” “conversely,” “therefore”); they may be phrases (“in the same way,” “in thedistance,” “in fact,” “in other words”); or they may be clauses (“that is to say,” “it follows that”); or they may bewhole sentences. However small or large they be, transitions summarize what has gone before and foreshadow whatis yet to come.ConclusionThe essay concludes with a paragraph that re-states the thesis, summarizes the essay, and extends the importance ofthe thesis. The writer ought to avoid writing a one-sentence concluding paragraph. If he hasn’t enough material for aproper paragraph (a paragraph being defined, after all, as a group of sentences), he usually makes the last sentenceof his final body paragraph also the conclusion of the essay. To make such a procedure satisfactory, it is best hearrange the body paragraphs in ascending order of importance (climactic order), so that he ends strongly with hismost telling point. A conclusion ought to be strong because it is what comes last that the reader remembers mostclearly. The whole idea of an expository essay is to begin strongly with a clear thesis statement, to fill the middlebody paragraphs with vivid detail that supports that thesis statement, and to end strongly with a conclusion that7

encapsulates the meaning of the essay in as memorable a form as possible: clear beginning, full middle, strongending.The form illustrated above must be understood as very basic, of course, and somewhat flexible.The fundamentals are an introduction, a series of body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The introductionand conclusion can, under special circumstances, be condensed to a single sentence each;but if they are so condensed, they ought to be attached to their neighbouring paragraphs ratherthan being allowed to stand by themselves. The number of body paragraphs is, of course, alsovariable. Just be careful not to write either a series of very short paragraphs or a series of verylong ones: about two paragraphs per page of double-spaced typewritten manuscript is a goodgoal. Toward the end of your essay, present your most important point, elaborated at fuller lengththan the others, and providing a focus towards which you and your reader may direct your fullestattention.8

THE STRUCTURE OF THE CRITICAL ESSAYPARAGRAPH DEVELOPMENT.Write paragraphs that develop their topics fully by means of supplying examples for allgeneralizations, explaining terms or situations, explaining meanings of difficult quotations,quoting from primary and secondary sources, or describing a series of events. Do not be contentto give only a single illustration of an opinion; if you do so, you will invite your reader to judgeyou as a writer without enough information or without enough wit to argue solidly. Please notethat paragraphs should not consist of a single sentence. The sentences that stand by themselves ina student’s essay are likely to be either the topic sentence for a paragraph that follows or theclincher sentence for a paragraph that precedes. The student has correctly intuited that thesesentences are more important than their neighbours, but he has not seen that, in fact, they belongwith their neighbours. The idea that a paragraph ought to have both a topic and a clinchersentence implies, of course, that it must consist of at least three sentences (the third being asentence that develops the topic sentence). Beyond that, how long ought a paragraph to be? Setas a goal to write four to eight sentences (50 to 200 words); try, within this goal, to avoid writingsuccessions of very short or very long paragraphs. Two to three paragraphs a page is about right.Topic SentencesTopic sentences ought to be opinions strong enough to support several developing ideas. Makesure your topic sentences are genuine opinions and not some such formulation as, “The firstexample of this motif occurs at I.vii.67-68.” That sentence offers no opinion; it merely locatessome lines in a play. To make it into a good topic sentence, one must change it into an opinionthat can be supported (and, incidentally, change the main verb from the weak is): “In the firstoccurrence of the sleep motif (I.vii.67-68), Lady Macbeth invites her audience to see drunkensleep as the temporary death of reason.”.NOTE: You must write a clearly-identifiable topic sentence (expressing an opinion that can besupported) for every paragraph you write.Developing SentencesMake sure that every sentence you write advances your argument perceptibly (the word“argument” here means the opinion expressed in your topic sentence). Do not make the mistakeso common in student papers of assuming that repeating yourself in different words is the sameas developing a paragraph. You must present examples, trains of reasoning, explanations, chainsof events; these details will be the real “meat” of your paragraphs-and of your essay as a whole.One of the most powerful ways of developing an idea is to introduce quotations. These ought tobe of varying lengths, from a single word or phrase to a whole paragraph—or sometimes, severalparagraphs. The primary thing to remember about using quotations is that they must form partsof your own sentences. Please note that inset quotations do not come at the end; instead, theycome in the middle of your paragraph. Quotations properly do so because they are,grammatically, parts of the sentences that introduce them.9

NOTE: Quotations are parts of developing sentences: they are neither topic nor clinchersentences. Hence, quotations that are long enough to inset (four lines or more in prose, two inpoetry) do not normally appear last in a paragraph.Clincher SentencesEvery paragraph must have a sentence that rounds off the paragraph in a final way, a sentencethat clinches the argument presented in the topic sentence and supported in the developing sentences.A clincher sentence must not supply supporting detail; it must return the reader to thelevel of the topic sentence. The paragraph that serves as an example in Section 2 above illustratesthese points clearly. The close relationship between the topic sentence and the clincher sentenceimparts to the paragraph unity and finish: one clear idea is stated at the beginning, developed inthe middle, and re-emphasized at the end.10

THE STRUCTURE OF THE CRITICAL ESSAYESSAY DEVELOPMENTThe idea stated above that a paragraph gains unity and finish by developing a close relationshipbetween its beginning, middle, and ending applies also to the essay as a whole. Just as eachparagraph must begin with a clear topic sentence expressing an opinion that can be supported, sotoo an essay must begin with an opinion that can be supported (the thesis statement). Thedeveloping sentences in a paragraph correspond to the developing paragraphs in the essay as awhole, and the clincher sentence of a paragraph corresponds to the concluding paragraph in theessay. Because it is often difficult for students to apply these ideas to their own essays, therefollows some practical advice.Writing a Thesis StatementA thesis statement in ideal form consists of an opinion that can be argued, plus a number of briefphrases or clauses which enumerate the major reasons for believing the opinion. We recommendthat you write shorter thesis statements that present arguable opinions but merely touch on thesub-topics contained in your essay.It is useful to precede thesis statements with preambles that briefly sketch the plots orcharacterize the atmospheres of the works in question. Do push yourself to be ambitious withyour introduction, to write a good preamble and as ideal a thesis statement as is possible; but ifyou have difficulty, leave your introduction to the last, when it will occur to you more easily howyou can formulate an opinion that binds all your body paragraphs together. Above all, don’t waitto be inspired by a “fabulous” beginning. Most people find that they can write fairly fluentlyonce they find a way to start, and that consequently they spend a good third of their effort tryingto get going. If you recognize yourself in this description, try writing the inner paragraphs first,demanding of yourself only that you write a paragraph at a sitting; when you’re finished all yourbody paragraphs, find a few examples and points that you haven’t included so far and try todistribute them in your introduction and conclusion. This method of working is called“chunking;” it alleviates the sensation that you have a huge sea of work ahead and only theleakiest of boats to get you across it. Break up the big task into manageable “chunks,” the last ofwhich is to write your introduction and conclusion. Having done this, you will probably want toscrap whatever introduction you wrote originally (if, indeed, you did write one).Writing Body ParagraphsAs you read your primary source (the play or novel about which you are writing), write downideas that come to you and quotations you think might prove useful. In as complete a form aspossible, write each of these on a single 3 X 5 (or 5 X 8) index card. Make similar notes forsecondary sources, making sure you put down page numbers and titles so that you won’t have togo back to check on them, and so that you know definitely which ideas are yours and which aresomeone else’s (we often have “sticky fingers” in this respect). Keep a separate group of cardsfor your bibliography: on each card, write the complete bibliographic information in exactly thecorrect form. When you have finished this “research” phase, sort your cards into stacks, each11

stack consisting of cards about one sub-topic. Arrange each stack in a reasonable order. Nowbegin to write. Start with a topic sentence that expresses an arguable opinion about the sub-topic(facts like, “There are four main characters,” are not arguable, and therefore they make veryweak topic sentences). Then simply take each index card up in turn and write the inner,developing sentences of your paragraph. If you have written the cards conscientiously in ascomplete a form as possible, it ought to be very little trouble to translate your cards intoserviceable sentences. Last, re-read your topic sentence and write a clincher sentence thatmatches it for importance and re-emphasizes its central idea or key word. (When it comes timeto write your bibliography, proceed in the same way: simply put the cards in alphabetical orderaccording to the authors’ last names and copy them from your cards.) A lot of students find thisway of working sounds entirely too dry and business-like, claiming that it takes all the romanceof inspiration out of the writing. We nonetheless recommend that you try it; you will discoverthat it allows for plenty of inspiration but that it does so at the point of generating ideas aboutdetails, the point at which many students fall down. These students often complain that theycannot possibly find enough to say to fill out a ten-page paper. The method of working describedhere almost guarantees a way around that difficulty.The “meat” of every body paragraph ought either to be a series of sentences that present specificdetails of the story or a fairly long quotation from the book. Try to avoid presenting a series ofexamples all of which have the same importance and which appear in sentences of the samelength: the secret of order and of unity is to make one thing predominate over others. Present afew small examples first and then one important one which you explain at greater length than theothers.Avoid allowing more than a couple of these points of focus to derive from secondary sources.Make sure you do not allow any critic to push you out of your own essay: the place for quotationsor paraphrases from critics is at the edges of your own thought: make your thesis argueagainst the thesis of a critic; make your thesis extend and elaborate on his; quote or paraphrasehim in your clincher sentences, or in your concluding paragraph. Above all, do not depend onhim.Writing Concluding ParagraphsBegin by referring to your thesis statement; re-state the gist of it in different words, and then goon to extend its importance or implications. As we have pointed out above, you may do thissometimes by relating your topic to the theme of the book, the idea its plot demonstrates to betrue. It is a good idea not to use up all your examples in body paragraphs (dig out more than youneed) because very frequently you can press these into service in some such statement as thefollowing: “This same basic pattern may be observed in a wealth of other cases.” (Then providea list.) Another useful technique for conclusions is to give some evaluation of the work(provided, of course, that your essay as a whole hasn’t been an evaluation). Explain in two orthree sentences how the considerations contained in your essay have altered your opinion of thework. One last very powerful way of concluding is to find a quotation that expresses what youthink of the work as a whole (or the aspect you have dealt with) in an impressive way that youyourself could not match for eloquence.12

THE STRUCTURE OF THE CRITICAL ESSAYCritical Style: Characteristics Of Formal EnglishOne important reason for learning to write critical essays is that by doing so a student learns towrite formal English, the language used by reputable writers when addressing an educatedaudience in a straightforward and serious way. The ability to write formal English forms anessential part of the equipment a student will need to achieve success at higher levels ofeducation; all his essays and assignments at university must be written in formal English.Writing formal English requires much more practice than does writing informal or colloquialEnglish (the kind of language that forms good conversation, because formal English employs(1) more difficult and technical vocabulary than does ordinary English, as well as requiring(2) more complicated sentences,(3) paragraphs denser in content and tighter in organization, and(4) adherence to the strictest rules of grammar.Anglophones are much looser in their grammar than speakers of almost any other language, andconsequently grammatical infractions appear “normal” enough over time to seem “correct.” Inconversation, for example, hardly anyone says, “This is he,” or, “I should like to go,” as heought, according to the rules of English usage; instead, a person usually says, “It’s me,” and, ”Iwould like to go.” The level both of spoken and of written English has, then, a “natural”tendency to deteriorate towards vulgar English or slang; consequently, young writers are oftencompletely unaware that the language they use contains many expressions and grammaticalstructures that are unacceptable in academic writing assignments (the expression “to put someonedown” is a case in point). Students need to cultivate a constant awareness that formal usageis so selective that it disallows even such ordinary things as contractions (“I’m,” “don’t,”“isn’t”). Beyond such “negatives,” follow the conventions of formal English discussed below.DictionThe word “diction” means “choice of words,” not “enunciation” (pronouncing consonants andvowels clearly and correctly). Since formal English is written by an educated writer for an educatedaudience, it generally employs a more difficult and technical vocabulary than does anyother level of usage. Do not, however, be led into thinking that you must strain to use big words.LIMIT YOUR USE OF TECHNICAL EXPRESSIONS TO THOSE WHOSE MEANINGS ARECOMPLETELY CLEAR TO YOU. You should, nonetheless, make a concerted effort constantlyto increase the range of your vocabulary by using dictionaries, word lists, thesauri, and handbooksof literary terms. You ought constantly to remind yourself that VOCABULARY IS THEKEY TO IDEAS; the more vocabulary you can use correctly, the more plentiful will be yourideas. For the purposes of critical writing, the application of the simple literary terminology youwill find later in this handbook will often supply you with the ideas you need in order to developyour essay. To show that a character is a“foil,” “confidant,” “stereotype,” “arch-type,” or “tragichero,” for example, often forms the basis of an essay on characterization. In brief, then, youought to use the highest level of diction consistent with the seriousness of your endeavour and ofyour own, real vocabulary; be as straightforward in your language as you would be if you were13

explaining the technique of a literary work to a friend of your own age and ability. Use literaryterms mostly as a basis for the generalizations you intend to support in your essay.Point of ViewFormal English must be written from the objective point of view: the writer must not refer tohimself nor draw attention explicitly to the methods he follows; he must keep his own and hisreader’s attention solely on the literary work about which he is writing. (Such attention to theobject he is looking at explains why the writer of formal English is said to take the objectivepoint of view; the opposite, or subjective point of view, directs attention to the observer, thesubject.) Nowhere in your essay ought you to use first-person, personal pronouns (I, me, mine).Use instead such anonymous terms as the reader, the speaker, one, the observer, _a person; orcouch your sentence in the form of an opinion that does not say it is an opinion (instead of “Ithink this plot is weak,” for example, say, “This plot is weak.”). Here is an introductory paragraphthat violates the convention about point of view:In my essay on imagistic motifs in Macbeth, I have chosen to discuss the motif of sleep and death. A motif is arecurring image that helps to unify a play or novel and that gives additional force to its theme. In my essay, I amgoing to give four examples of the motif of sleep and death and talk about each one.Re-written in correct style, this paragraph might read as follows:Shakespeare uses imagistic motifs, resonating patterns of imagery, to help unify his plays and to present their themesmore forcibly. One of the most important of these motifs in Macbeth associates sleep with death, as in the phrase,“sleep, death’s counterfeit.” As the play develops, the likeness of sleep to death shifts from benevolence (sleep anddeath appear as “balms” for the sores inflicted by fate) to malevolence (sleep and death are the occasions for hellishpunishment), until finally both Macbeth and his lady approach the “death” of insanity, marked for Macbeth byinsomnia and for Lady Macbeth by sleep-walking.In comparing these two paragraphs, notice especially that the theses with which they end contrastwidely in objectivity: the first draws attention to the writer and his methods; the second looksonly at the topic.Sentence StructureFormal English is grammatically more complex than informal English or slang because it is usedto speak about ideas and the relationships between ideas. It is useful to think about presentingideas (generalizations) in simple principal clauses and the relationships between ideas insubordinate structures, often signalled by specific conjunctions. The point is to say as much aspossible about ideas and their relationships, but to say it in as few words as possible. Tryespecially to avoid writing a succession of simple sentences (choppy style) or a succession ofcompound sentences, since both these practices leave the reader to determine for himself whatthe relationships between ideas are, the one by providing no conjunctions, the other by providingconjunctions like “and” and “or” that put ideas on equally important levels.It is extremely valuable for the young writer, therefore, to work extensively at learning how tocombine groups of simple sentences and to increase his awareness of sentence types available forthis purpose. He ought to try, for example, to begin many of his sentences with another elementthan the subject, to write using colons and semicolons correctly, and to form parallelismsproperly.14

Verbs: Selection, Voice, And TenseSelectionTry as much as possible to avoid using the verbs to be and to say; choose instead short, powerfulverbs in the present tense and in the active voice. Here are a few verbs you might choose assubstitutes for to be: develops, follows, characterizes, describes, displays, urges, explains,portrays, includes, relates, concerns, theorizes, believes, intimates, implies, infers, thinks,constructs, delivers, supplies, refutes, increases, writes, marks, considers.VoiceFor the most part, avoid the passive voice because it leads to wordiness and confusion. It alsoinvolves your using the verb to be excessively. Instead of saying, “Steinbeck is regarded bycritics as . . . ,” say, “Critics regard Steinbeck as . . . .” The passive voice is correct and useful,mind you; but you must guard against using it because, as an inexperienced writer, you willnaturally and automatically use it too often.TenseIt is conventional in speaking of literature to regard both an author and his books as still existingin the present. Thus, for example, you ought to say, “Golding develops his two main charactersas foils for one another,” instead of, “Golding developed his two characters as foils for oneanother.” It is also conventional to narrate the action of the plot of a work as if it were happeningin the present: write “Ralph then discovers,” not “Ralph then discovered.” It goes without sayingthat you must keep consistently to the present tense throughout a composition of this type.Failure to do so is one of the most common of errors in student papers. Do not assume that youwill be immune to this disease: proofread carefully.15

THE FORM OF THE CRITICAL ESSAYFORMATEssays should be word processed, if possible, but handwritten papers are acceptable if neatlyprepared. All essays must be printed on good quality, letter-sized, white paper. Use a simple fontsuch as Times New Roman in 12 point type. Use the default margins and tabs provided by yourword processing software.PaginationNumber pages consecutively throughout the paper (using Arabic numerals) in the upper righthandcorner of the page, preceded by your first name, counting from the second page of your textand including the Works Cited page. Because the title ought to appear as clearly as possible onthe first page of the essay, the page number for this page only is to be placed at the bottom of thepage, centered, with a dash and a space on either side of the number. Do not put periods,parentheses, or circles around page numbers.Title PageIn the upper right-hand corner write (a) your name, (b) your grade and form (with a capitalletter), and (c) your teacher’s name. In the center of the page, and in block capital letters (everyletter a capital), write the title of your essay. In the lower left-hand side of the page, write (a) thedate on which you submit the essay, and (b) the word count. See the sample essay in Appendix 3at the end of this document for an example.Comment PageLeave a blank and unnumbered page after the title page to allow room for your teacher’scomments.Spacing and ParagraphsDouble-space the text throughout. Begin each new paragraph with a standard tab indentation.16

THE FORM OF THE CRITICAL ESSAYQUOTATIONSQuotation is one of the most important kinds of evidence the writer of the critical paper suppliesin support of his thesis.NOTE: The noun form is quotation, not quote, which is the verb form.Many students quote too much, and their essays read like strings of other people’s sentences.Make it a rule to limit quotations of all kinds (direct, indirect, paraphrase) to one-third the lengthof the whole essay. Whenever you borrow either the language or the ideas of someone else, youmust state your source. See that all quotations correspond exactly with the originals in wording,spelling, and interior punctuation. If you omit material within the quotation, indicate theomission by three, spaced periods (. . .). If you omit material at the end of a sentence or at thebeginning of a new sentence, indicate the omission by three spaced periods in addition to thesentence period (. . . .).If you should wish to insert some comment of your own within the quotation, or if you alter thegrammar of the quotation to suit that of your own sentence, place this comment or change insidesquare brackets [ ], not parentheses. Should you notice an error in a passage you wish to quote,you may indicate that the error is not yours by inserting the word sic between square bracketsafter the word in error.Immediately following the quotation, write the last name of the author and the page number andenclose within parentheses. If your source does not have an author, replace with a shortenedform of the title.Prose Quotations of Fewer than Four LinesRun into your text (i.e., make part of your own sentences) passages that occupy fewer than fourlines of your manuscript.Use double quotation marks around all words quoted. Ignore the punctuation the author suppliesat the end of a passage; instead, punctuate the end of your own sentence. A typical passagemight read as follows:Though most readers would agree that Hamlet and Gertrude are close, few would assent to Ernest Jones’ assertionthat the infant Hamlet’s affection for his mother “contained elements of a disguised erotic quality” (Jones 219).In the original passage Jones had placed a comma after quality; in the quotation, the writer hasignored that comma, put in a quotation mark, noted the page number of the book from which hehas quoted [note that he has used no abbreviation for page or pages], and put the period that endshis own sentence after the final parenthesis. Put the author's surname in the first time you cite hiswork and the first time you cite him after having cited someone else; otherwise, put down onlythe page number(s).17

Prose Quotations of Four Lines or More (Inset Quotations)Indent 1" from the left margin each line of the quoted passage, but go all the way to the rightmargin. Follow the example above to indicate the page number(s) from which the passage hasbeen extracted. Double-space inset quotations. Write an introductory principal clausecompletein all its grammar (subject-verb-complement) -before the quoted passage, and end itwith a colon, as follows:Ernest Jones begins his famous essay “Tragedy and the Mind of the Infant” as follows:As a child Hamlet had experienced the warmest affection for his mother, and this, as is always so,had contained elements of a disguised erotic quality, still more so in infancy. The presence of twotraits in the Queen’s character accord with this assumption, namely her markedly sensual nature andher passionate fondness for her son. (218-19)Note that it is conventional not to include the hundreds digit in the second number, if it be thesame as the first. For inset quotations only, the terminal punctuation comes before the pagenumbers—presumably to allow for a terminal question mark, which would undoubtedly lookvery odd after the parenthesis.No quotation marks appear outside an inset quotation: insetting takes the place of thequotation marks. The advantage of inset quotations is that the writer can set them down exactlyas they appear in the original; he does not have to worry about double and single quotationmarks.The writer should take care that inset quotations—especially long ones—be fully justified andnot merely decorative or pretentious. After the inset quotation, the writer must point out thedetails in the quotation that support his introductory opinion. Please note that the writer’sexplication of the inset quotation is part of the larger paragraph and is therefore not indented.Ideally, the writer should also supply a clincher sentence to the entire paragraph. Here is anotherexample of the inset quotation that might help clarify its use:When Bert Munroe finally comes into the meeting an hour late, excusing himself because he has had to pick uphis hired man, who is out in the car sleeping off his drunkenness, Molly knows sub-consciously that the man is herfather (hence the language of the body's acting independently of the mind and of wondering why she is acting as shedoes):Molly's throat closed with terror. For a second she thought she was going to faint. "Excuse me, Imust go," she cried, and ran out of the room. She walked into the dark hallway and steadiedherself against the wall. Then slowly and automatically she marched out of the front door and18

down the steps. The night was filled with whispers. Out in the road she could see the black massthat was Bert Munroe’s car. She was surprised at the way her footsteps plodded down the path oftheir own volition. "Now I‘m killing myself," she said. "Now I’m throwing everything away. Iwonder why." (Steinbeck 14)To Molly, "killing herself" clearly means actually confronting reality in the shape of her real father;"remaining alive," then must mean running away from reality and retaining her romantic illusions.Again, note that the inset quotation does not end the paragraph; a proper clincher sentence,drawing on the materials on the quotation, ends the paragraph. Note, too, that the clinchersentence does not appear as a separate paragraph. The inset quotation—like everything else inthe essay—is double-spaced.Poetry (two lines or fewer)Run into the text quotations of fewer than two lines.Put double quotation marks around the words quoted, and denote a line break by a virgule (orslash):By the end of Act III, Hamlet has begun to take an almost perverse delight in competing rather brutally and callouslywith Claudius’ schemes, remarking at one point, for example, “O, ’tis sweet/When in one line two crafts directlymeet” (III.iv.213-14).Note that for Shakespeare (only), the act number is denoted by capital Roman numerals; thescene number, by small Roman numerals; and the line numbers, by Arabic numerals. Periodsseparate the three segments of the citation. Again, ignore any punctuation at the end of theoriginal passage, put the source in parenthesis after the final double quotation mark, and put theperiod after the final parenthesis.Poetry (two lines or more)Poetry of more than two lines should be inset 1inch from the left margin and should follow theline breaks, punctuation, and spacing used by the author.Another aspect of Horatio’s role as Hamlet’s confidant, his confirming Hamlet’s impressions andobservations, appears most importantly in Hamlet’s adjuration that Horatio watch Claudius’ reactions to The Murderof Gonzago and second Hamlet’s opinion:There is a play to-night before the king.19

One scene of it comes near the circumstanceWhich I have told thee of my father’s death.I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,Observe my uncle. If his occulted guiltDo not itself unkennel in one speech,It is a damnéd ghost that we have seen,And my imaginations are as foulAs Vulcan’s stithy. Give him heedful note,For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,And after we will both our judgments joinIn censure of his seeming.(III.ii.67—79)Hamlet apparently feels that by himself he may distort the facts, but that with Horatio, he will not. Horatio thusbecomes, as it were, a second Hamlet.20

THE FORM OF THE CRITICAL ESSAYWORKS CITEDNOTE: In Middle School, you learned a form of documentation called APA (AmericanPsychological Association). You may and probably should continue to use this form ofdocumentation for history and social studies papers. For English papers, however, you shoulduse MLA (Modern Languages Association) documentation, which is detailed below. When youare in university, you will discover that you need to be familiar with both APA and MLAdocumentation styles, as university departments differ in what style guides they use.Page FormatOn a new page, centre the title Works Cited or Bibliography on the top line – do not underline,italicize, or bold the title.Alphabetize entries by last name of authors or by the title if there is no author (ignore A, An, orThe) – do not number the entries.Double-space all entries and do not skip lines between entries.Capitalize book and article titles.Italicize titles of books and playsUse quotation marks around magazine titles, most poetry, book chapters, and short stories.Indent the second line of the entry (if there is one).MLA Citation StylePlease refer to Appendix 1 at the end of this handbook.21

THE ANALYSIS OF FICTION: A PROCEDURAL OUTLINE.In good fiction, the five conventional elements (plot, setting, character, theme, and style) workextremely closely together. The events of the plot ought to strike us as having arisen directly outof the characters of the major actors in the story. The setting ought to influence the characters ofthese actors and thus indirectly help to determine the course of events. Finally, the resolution ofthe plot, along with the author’s style (particularly, his use of symbols or other imagery), oughtto suggest what idea (theme) he wishes to demonstrate as “true.”It will occur to the insightful student, as a result of his recognition of this unity among theelements of good fiction, that to deal with a single aspect, isolated from the others, is somewhatartificial and perhaps even misleading. He will do well, therefore, to draw into his concludingparagraph some of the interconnections between elements that his single-minded analysis has leftout of consideration. If he has, for example, written a plot analysis, he might well, in hisconcluding paragraph, explain how the resolution of the plot implies the theme of the book.Some student writers, may, in fact, find that they are able to produce more solidity and interest intheir essays if they deal throughout with two (rarely more) aspects. It is best in such cases tomake one of these plot since, as may be inferred from the preceding paragraph, plot inter-relatesto more of the other aspects than does any other element. The most fruitful connection is thatbetween plot and character; the next most powerful, that between plot and theme. Your essayought in some such way as these attempt to re-synthesize the elements it has separated, so thatthe reader once again gets a view of the work of fiction as a whole.In analyzing fiction, the writer must see things from the point of view of one who seeks to findout how his author has created the effects of his work of art; that is, the writer must take the technicalpoint of view of the artist. If his topic be plot, for example, he must not be content merelyto recite the story; he must try to explain how the plot is structured. To do this properly, he willhave to consider the placement (or order) and purpose of such items as flashbacks, digressiveepisodes, relief scenes, crises, climaxes, and denouements. If he writes about characterization, hemust remember that his primary purpose is to explain the methods whereby the author hascreated his characters; to describe what the characters are like is only a secondary and incidentalfunction of characterization analysis. So, too, in thematic analysis, the main point is to explainhow the author develops his theme; to identify that theme is only the first step. The criticalwriter, then, must continually remind himself that his concern is not primarily what an authordoes but how he does it.PLOT ANALYSISA plot analysis is an examination of the form of a work; its purpose is to determine how theauthor has designed his work. The best approach is to consider four elements of plot: theinitiating conflict, the action that develops this conflict, the order in which the action occurs, andfinally the devices through which the author secures unity over his plot. Because he ought toconsider conflict only as the origin of the plot, the student ought not to write a separate sectionon conflict; his plot analysis, accordingly, will be composed of three sections, one each onaction, structure (order), and unity. We nonetheless begin this explanation with a considerationof conflict.22

ConflictAristotle, our first and most influential theorist on plot, tells us that all good plots begin withconflict: the protagonist (the chief character) desires to achieve a goal, but circumstance(sometimes in the form of an opposing character, the antagonist) works against the achievementof that goal. The plot, says Aristotle, ought to work like the tying and the untying of a knot (thelast part of a plot is called the denouement, which is French for “untying”). As the protagonistworks against odds to gain his desire, events become tied into complications; but the knot intowhich the complications have become tied loosens after the protagonist faces, at the climax, thegreatest of the obstacles that conflict with his desires. Conflict, then, is properly considered theorigin of plot, and the working through of conflict towards resolution constitutes the very substanceof the plot.First identify the major conflicts that form the plot. Decide for yourself what the protagonist’sgoal is; the three or four most important forces working against the achievement of that goal willeach produce a sub-plot you ought to deal with in a separate section of the portion of your essaydevoted to action. It is a good idea to put the conflicts in climactic order, which entails puttingthe least important conflict first and working from there up to the most important. Such an orderprovides automatically the material for a concluding summary at the end of the analysis you willmake of action.NOTE: Identifying and classifying conflicts is a preliminary organizational step in writing theaction section of your plot analysis; you ought not to write separate paragraphs about conflict.It is sometimes helpful to classify conflict as internal or external. Internal conflict pits a managainst himself; within him, two or more forces or desires oppose one another. External conflict,on the other hand, pits a man against some force outside himself. The most frequent externalconflict opposes a man with another man, but quite often an external conflict pits a man againstsome natural force (storm, mountain, sea, shark). In addition to such physical forces, a man maystruggle externally against a non-human force such as society, fate, or the gods; we call such aconflict metaphysical (above the physical). The classification of conflicts ought never to beconsidered strong enough to appear as the basis for a topic sentence; it is usually worth no morethat a passing, adjectival status (“The plot arises from the protagonist’s metaphysical conflictagainst fate.”). The one place where classification of conflicts may figure more largely is anessay that evaluates a literary work. There it is useful to remember that critics consider internalconflict to be more worthy than external conflict, and metaphysical conflict more worthy thanphysical conflict. Classification of conflicts ought to help you to state the status quo and toarrange the treatment of sub-plots.ActionFirst list the principal dramatic events as they would occur chronologically; second, place thoseevents into the various sections of Freytag’s pyramid, a diagram that represents dramatic actionas a lop-sided triangle, the long, left-hand slope comprising the events that “rise” to a climax (theapex of the triangle), and the short, right-hand slope comprising the events that “fall off” fromthe climax. As you write about each of the sub-plots that originates from the major conflicts, youought to keep constantly in mind a picture of the pyramid for that sub-plot.23

In his book The Technique of the Drama (1863), the German critic Gustav Freytag characterizedthe typical plot of a five-act play as a pyramidal shape, consisting of a rising action, climax, andfalling action. Subsequent critics have specified the following internal parts:(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)introduction (or status quo): the author introduces the reader to the setting in time andplace and to the major characters; he frequently explains, in the exposition (often foldedinto conversations near the beginning of the work), what has happened before the workopens; the writer makes clear the main lines of conflict that will generate the plot.rising action (or complication): the author introduces a series of alternating barriers andconquests that retard and impel the protagonist’s progress towards his goal, causing anintensification of suspense as the reader moves to the climax.crisis (or turning point): the point at which the protagonist faces the most formidablebarrier to achieving his goal, and the point at which events seem to turn against him mostdecisively; the crisis precipitates the climax.climax: the event that resolves the conflict; at this point the various plot lines cometogether in a peak of excitement and intensity; frequently the crisis and the climaxoverlap to become the same event.denouement: what ensues as a result of the climax; after the excitement of the climaxdissipates the tension, the truth comes out and all the threads of the plot are unravelled; anew status quo prevails.NOTE: The denouement often involves a reversal of the protagonist’s fortunes, either to thetragic catastrophe or the comic success; and the reversal frequently depends on a discovery orrecognition. This discovery is the protagonist’s recognition of something hitherto unknown tohim: Cesario reveals to the Duke at the end of Twelfth Night that he is really Viola; the fact ofIago’s lying treachery dawns upon Othello; Fielding’s Joseph Andrews discovers, on theevidence of a birthmark, that he is really not a peasant but a gentleman.It may be helpful to you in writing this section of your plot analysis to try fitting your plot as awhole to the following chart:The Actor’s Ideal Desire Plot Chart24

The Actor’s Goal Plot ChartA. Characterize the actor and state his goal. Explain why he wants his goal and why hecannot have it.B. Major Barrier that sets off the major, continuing conflict.C. Conquest by actor of this barrier (usually cleverly or bravely).D. Dangerous Detour sends the actor off in the wrong direction.E. Escape from the Detour.F. Failure or setback when the actor thought he was on his way to achieving his goal.G. Greatest Gain so far is made. Actor is sure that the goal is within his grasp.H. Hopeless Hades, supercrisis, or reversal of the goal. Whatever the actor has been strivingfor is certainly impossible to attain at this nadir or lowest point of the story. Althoughfailure seems unavoidable, the Hopeless Hades magically contains the means ofaccomplishing the goal. (An unhappy story ends just before this point.)I. Ideal Desire is achieved and “All’s well that ends well.”Having offered this chart, we must also offer some caution in its use. It is well to remember, firstof all, that the chart is very much more simplified than most plots. Use it, therefore, to supplyyourself with the bare bones and do not force your story to fit the formula. Second, rememberthat most novels and plays contain double plots or several sub-plots, so that you may have toconstruct a chart for each of these.StructureThe second section of your plot analysis details the major deviations from chronological orderand explains the reasons for them. The most common deviations include exposition, flashback,foreshadowing, inverting cause and effect, framing the main story, introducing digressionaryepisodes, and circling back at the end of the story to the same conditions that originated thecentral conflict.(a) Exposition. Stories almost always begin with a well-matured situation, so that the reader doesnot usually enter the story at its real beginning. After having taken his reader through the firstmoments of crisis, the author of such stories often pauses before going on to give the reader thepart of the story that happened before the point at which the book began. This rehearsal ofprevious circumstances is called the exposition (because it exposes the facts).(b) Flashback. A flashback is a fairly large section of the book in which the reader understands,by convention, that he is to imagine himself a viewer of actions that have happened much earlier.A writer uses flashbacks to introduce exposition, to delineate character, to avoid the monotony ofchronological order, and to imply the continuing influence of the past on the present. Do notconfuse a flashback with a momentary and short remembrance by a character of a past incidentor atmosphere; a flashback is a significant chunk of writing.25

(c) Foreshadowing. A foreshadowing is a momentary hint of an event (usually dire) towardswhich the action is building. In this sense, it is the opposite of a flashback, although it coversvery much less space than does a flashback.(d) Inverse Causal Order. Events narrated in inverse causal order place the effect of a givenaction before its cause. Such an order is frequent in murder mysteries, for example, which oftenbegin with the discovery of a dead body and only gradually reveal what has led up to the murder,leaving last of all, the revelation of the murderer’s identity.(e) The Frame Story. This term is an analogy to painting: it compares the shape of a particularkind of narrative form to the look of a painting in its frame. The main plot corresponds to thepicture; a minor sub-plot involving the narrator as a participant corresponds to the frame aroundthe picture. The sub-plot breaks into two parts, one of which appears as an introduction to themain plot, and the other of which appears as a coda or tail-piece to the main plot. WutheringHeights, for example, begins with the visit of a Mr. Lockwood to a remote area in the Englishheath country. The main plot is a story he learns there. When he finishes telling that story, he reappearsas the visitor once again, having given the main story to us as an omniscient andpurportedly anonymous narrator.(f) Episodic Structure. Fiction following episodic structure gives us a weak main plot (sometimesreduced to the level of a frame story) in chronological order, but interrupted by a series of selfsufficientshort stories or episodes. Cannery Row, for example, is a collection of stories, each ofwhich characterizes one of the natives of the town of Cannery Row; the stories hold looselytogether by a main plot that involves the celebration of an unsuccessful party followed later bythe celebration of a successful party meant as compensation for the first. The Bridge of San-LuisRey gives us five episodes, composite biographies of key people living in Lima during theseventeenth century. All that holds these episodes together, apart from an insignificant sharing ofcharacters and settings, is the common coincidence that the people whose biographies form themeat of the book meet their deaths when a bridge falls.(g) Cyclical Order. In a book employing cyclical order, the ending meets the beginning in such away that the events might happen all over again, endlessly tracing a circle.UnityIn the first sentence of this section, enumerate in climactic order the major devices throughwhich the author of the book in question has unified his plot, that is, made it a single thing. Thendeal with the first of these in the remainder of your first paragraph, and with the rest of them insubsequent, separate paragraphs.If the work of fiction be good, its author may use many of the following devices:(a) dramatic preparation or foreshadowing;(b) plot devices (physical items, coincidences, confrontations, recognitions, supernaturalappearances, dei ex machina, plays-within-plays) that connect different plot lines ordifferent parts of the same plot line;(c) parallel ideas (themes), characters, or situations(d) restriction of setting in time and place;26

(e)(f)(g)(h)(i)(j)(k)resonance (echo) in imagery or words;focus on a central character;character links (relations, friends, colleagues);motivation common to two or more characters;a single and continuous point of view, or a discoverable pattern in a shifting point ofview;a consistently-maintained tone (the mood of the narrator); andrestriction of the number and variety of themes and consistently introduced developmentof themes.NOTE: Do not write about all of these; write only about the most important three or four.Since it is highly unlikely that all eleven methods will merit full paragraphs, the student maywish to group items (a) through (c) together under the heading “unity of action,” items (d)through (j) as “stylistic unity,” and leave item (k) as “thematic unity.” Of these three groups, thefirst is by far the most important: its parts must always be considered, whereas some parts of theother groups may often be omitted.CHARACTER DEVELOPMENTThe main point of any analysis of Pride and Prejudice characterization is not what the charactersare like, although that comes into it incidentally; the point is to illuminate the methods throughwhich the author gets us to believe in his characters as real people with whom we may identify orwith whom we can imagine ourselves relating. The author reveals character either by directmethods or by indirect methods: when the traits of a character are mentioned by the author or byanother character, we have direct characterization (“He’s a mean old skinflint.”); when only thebehaviour from which we infer traits appears, we have indirect characterization.Direct CharacterizationSometimes an author tells his reader explicitly what his characters are like. If he does so, his“canned” character sketches will often appear just after he has first introduced the character, andusually just after he has allowed us to see the character in speech and action for the first time. Inthe opening chapter of her, for example, Jane Austen first shows us Mr. and Mrs. Bennet as theytalk to one another about the young man who has just rented Netherfield Park; then she tells usabout the pair and so confirms and expands the inferences and judgements we have begun tomake: “Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice,that the experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understandhis character. Her mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding,little information, and uncertain temper.” The student ought to be careful to quote such passagesbecause in them the author often gives the salient traits which form not only the basis of thecharacter’s presence “on stage,” but also the motivations that lead the character into action. Thestudent ought also to remember that direct characterization is almost never used alone.Indirect CharacterizationReactions of Other Characters27

Our opinion of a fictional character is influenced both by what others say about him and by theway others react to him. We must, however, qualify our acceptance of another character’s viewby considering how reliable he is, and we must infer our own views from the external words andgestures of the other characters.Physical ExternalsA character’s physical appearance may reveal his nature; but while descriptions of his appearanceare usually given to us directly, we are usually asked to make our own inferences fromthem. A character’s surroundings (clothes, possessions, environment) also reveal his nature.Such details as John Doe’s turned-up collar and low-slung jeans, or Andy Smith’s reading of TheAtlantic Monthly both individualize characters and put them into recognizable social groups, thussetting them off from many other people. Be careful not to make this aspect part of your analysisunless it forms a truly major part of the characterization, so that what the character looks likeagainst the background of his environment makes a difference to the action.SpeechThe student should try to learn as much about character through the way he speaks as throughwhat he says. The grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary—all the elements of style—revealthe social and educational level of the character and demonstrate how his mind works.Revelation of ThoughtsThe most important traits of any character involve the urges that struggle against one another inhis mind. Much modern literature replaces outward action with the inner action of the struggle ofone set of urges against another. The portrayal of internal conflict often occupies a lengthypassage of direct introspection called interior monologue. Following the example of JamesJoyce, many modern authors attempt in their interior monologues to mirror realistically both theform and content of reverie: instead of well-rounded sentences, the author uses parts of sentencesand odd punctuation; instead of centering on one group of thoughts, the author puts thoughtsdown as they might really occur—in visual jumbles of disordered associations. Suchunconventional monologue is called the stream of consciousness because in it the surface litter ofthe mind floats uneasily on the deep currents and desires that well up from the unconscious levelof the mind.Parallel and ContrastMajor characters often have friends or enemies who help to reveal character either by showingthe same traits themselves or by showing opposite traits. A few such characters have specialnames. A confidant (confidante is the feminine form) is usually a friend to whom the protagonistreveals his important concerns. The conversations between protagonist and confidant allow theauthor to reveal the thoughts of the protagonist without resorting to artificial interior monologue.They also allow him to develop the theme fairly explicitly.So, too, do conversations between protagonists and foils (characters whose salient traits or majordecisions contrast with those of the protagonists in such a way as to make the protagonists’characters appear more clearly, as the setting (foil) of a jewel heightens the brilliance of thejewel). Sometimes a foil is so important to the action that he represents one whole side of theconflict that generates that action; in such a case we call the foil the antagonist. The student must28

give an antagonist almost as much attention as he gives the protagonist. A similarly equaldivision of attention is in order when the author develops two characters as if they were twocomplementary aspects of a single personality (the technical term is doppelganger, German for“doublegoer”). John Steinbeck develops Lennie and George in this fashion in his novel Of Miceand Men, Lennie having a weak mind in a strong body; George, a strong mind in a weaker body.In all parallel characters lies an implicit imperative that the reader see both the characters andtheir actions as a unity.Symbolic ValueA writer may impart symbolic value to his characters on two levels: he may make them representativeof some section of humanity at large, or he may make them symbolic of an abstractvalue (such as wisdom or judgement). Both levels develop theme. In older fiction, one frequentrepresentative character was Everyman, whose name implies that what happens to him happenssymbolically to all of us. Occasionally a character’s name declares his symbolic significance, asdo the names of Dicken’s Little Father Time or the son, Trouble, born to Madame Butterfly.Names like Joshua or Ruth carry Old Testament connotations, while the name Sophie means“wisdom.”ActionThe most important method of revealing character is to see what that character does—or fails todo, or refuses to do. As he reads, the student ought continually to ask himself, “What traits ofcharacter does the action reveal?” He must also try to avoid becoming so engrossed in the plotthat he forgets to make inferences about character.Organizing the Character AnalysisConfine your analysis of characterization to one character, making it the central concern of youranalysis first to list, in climactic order, the character’s major three or four traits (which mayinclude at least one major internal conflict); second to explain how, exclusive of the action, theauthor develops the traits; and third, to identify the action through which the traits develop orreveal themselves. Frequently in the last of these three approaches, it is possible to divide theaction into four or five major stages, each marked by a major event, and trace the changes orrevelations of character through each stage.You may find that you must speak of the characterization of several other members of the cast inorder to accomplish these three aims, especially if the author uses the method of parallel contrast.In general, however, you ought to consider your discussion of minor characters incidental to yourmain business.In discussing minor characters, you ought to remember that an author cannot be expected todevelop all characters equally. Consequently, minor characters are often flat (individualized byonly a few traits) rather than rounded, static (unchanged by rising action or climax) rather thandynamic, stereotyped (made to fit well-recognized roles such as the tough detective or the dumbblond) rather than individualized and motivated by the plot rather than motivating the plot(making the action rise out of their characters). While in general an author ought to develop hischaracters as fully as possible, minor characters cannot appear to be fully rounded individuals.29

SETTINGSetting includes (1) the general location of the action and the specific locales of its incidents; (2)the atmospheres of these locales; (3) the historical time during which the action proceeds and theduration of its incidents; and (4) the nature of the social milieu of the characters, including itspolitical, social, and economic institutions (parliament, marriage customs, employment). Theessay on setting ought primarily to estimate the importance of the setting in determining theaction or the effect of the work in question. Setting will figure largely in Utopian and futuristicfiction, in stories involving the journey motif, and in romances (stories in which the supernaturalintervenes in the action in a magical way).The essay ought to begin by identifying the setting in time and space. This identification maybest be accomplished in a single sentence in which the author appears as subject: “Steinbeck setsCannery Row in the Monterey, California of the Depression years just prior to World War II.”Two or three sentences descriptive of the general atmosphere should follow, working toward thelast sentence in the introductory paragraph, the thesis statement. The thesis should express thestudent’s opinion as to whether the setting serves merely as a background to the action, as amotivating force behind the plot, as the essential element in the atmosphere, or as a medium forconveying theme. (Presumably, the student will not write on setting if it does not contributeheavily to the action of the book.) To complete his thesis statement, the student should suggestthe most important bits of evidence with which he intends to support his opinion.Setting and PlotIn many stories, what happens is so closely related to the setting that we can virtually say that theaction is determined by it. Fiction in which travel forms an important pattern exhibits thistendency: the Mississippi River, for example, affects the actions of Huck Finn; the Oklahomadustbowl affects the actions of the Joads in The Grapes of Wrath. Many stories, such asHemingway’s A Farewell to Arms and Bronte’s Wuthering Heights are organized geographicallyaround two opposed symbolic settings.The story of fixed locale (an island, a ship, an airplane, a prison, a town) generally depends to aneven greater extent upon events that arise out of the character of the setting. The plot of The Lordof the Flies, for instance, arises out of the isolation of a group of schoolboys on an island; and thesetting lends philosophical depth to Golding’s theme, since we accept the island as a microcosm(a small world that mirrors in representative form all the features of the larger world, themacrocosm). Such a symbolism shows that if setting is important to a novel beyond serving as abackground to the action, it generally has a part both in determining the action and in suggestingideas or themes.Setting and ThemeWriters who present setting as a determinant of action point to the age-old thematic dispute aboutfree will: does man determine his own destiny from within himself? or do forces lying outsidehis control determine his destiny? The writer supports one or the other of these alternatives byresolving the conflicts that develop the plot. In her book Anthem, Ayn Rand, for example, plotsthe conflict between her protagonist and the collectivist society as a successful rebellion of the30

spirit of freedom against the spirit of slavery; at the end, in the free air of the Uncharted Forest,her protagonist sings a victory anthem containing his beliefs. In Rand’s book, setting not onlydetermines action but also symbolizes theme.One special symbolic setting involves pathetic fallacy (the figurative implication that thesituations of the characters provoke and reflect the concern and participation of the physical andspiritual environment). In Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, for example, Gatsby’s struggle to identifywith the values of East Egg rather than with those of West Egg takes place on the roadbetween the two, where the gigantic billboard face of Dr. Eckleberg judges the rightness ofGatsby’s decision.THEMEThe theme of a work of fiction is the idea the plot demonstrates, in its resolution, to be theauthor’s fundamental version of the truth. Believing, for example, that it is impossible to reshapethe present to conform with illusory past desires, Fitzgerald plots Gatsby’s attempt to reshapehis own past in such a way that when Gatsby tries to fulfill his obsession for Daisy, hemeets his death. The first business of an essay about theme is, naturally, to identify the maintheme by examining the author’s resolution of the plot, an action that shows which side of themajor conflict he approves.The next business, still within the introductory paragraph, is to identify whatever subsidiary“truths” (sub-themes) work with the main theme. Here is a list of a few common themes expressedas aphorisms:All that glitters is not gold.The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.Don’t count your chickens before the eggs_ have hatched.Never cry, “Wolf:”Do not be ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.Behave towards everyone as if receiving a great guest.The glory is never in falling, but in rising every time you fall.Doubt is the key to knowledge.Fishes see the worm, not the hook.The best horse cannot wear two saddles.Defeat is not bitter if you don’t swallow it.When you can be yourself, why try to be someone else?A small leak will sink a great ship.Everyone is a moon and has a dark side he never shows.Minds are conquered by love and generosity, not by arms.The task of identification complete, the student should formulate a thesis statement; thesubstance of it should be that the author develops his themes through certain methods as outlinedbelow:Explicit Statement31

The most important of these methods may be explicit statement. The student should quotewhatever passages speak of the main theme and the sub-themes directly and explicitly.Conventional, third-person narratives and often first-person narratives nearly always includesuch passages.Recognition ScenesMany authors resort to stopping the action at some point near the crisis, limiting the setting toone locale, and presenting two principal characters in confrontation. At such places the readersees the theme of the work struggling towards formulation both in words and in attitudes. Here isa list of the opposing values such characters may represent in confrontation (it is not, of course, acomplete or exhaustive list):Commonsense versus ImaginationHope versus DespairBrotherly Love versus BigotryLife versus ArtInnocence versus ExperienceResponsibility versus IrresponsibilityCourage versus CowardiceLove versus WarTenderness versus ViolenceForgiveness versus RevengeActivity versus PassivitySincerity versus HypocrisyDiscipline versus IndulgenceIntelligence versus IgnoranceSensitivity versus InsensitivityMaturity versus ImmaturityAppreciation versus RejectionIdealism versus MaterialismCapitalism versus CommunismIndependence versus ImperialismPatience versus Temper and ImpatienceResilience versus RigidityOptimism versus PessimismPatriotism versus TreasonSensuality versus SpiritualityBoredom versus EnthusiasmBeauty versus UglinessIndividuality versus ConformityFreedom versus DeterminismKnowledge versus HappinessTradition versus OriginalityNature versus ArtificeHumility versus PrideAction versus Contemplation32

In stating theme from out of such opposed sets of values, the student need merely say that theauthor values one over the other and then give the reasons.TitleAnother important method for developing theme is the title. The student should find out whetherthe title alludes to some other work or passage; and if it does so, he should first set down the fullcontext of the allusion and then suggest how it relates to theme. The best way to check forallusions is to look up the key words in the index of The Oxford Book of Quotations (or a similarreference book). The likeliest sources are the King James Bible and Shakespeare’s plays. If thetitle is a person’s name or the name of a place, the theme makes some statement that explains theauthor’s fascination with a character or a setting. Discussion of the significance of the title is oneof the best ways to end an essay on theme because the writer hopes that we will remember histitle after all else is forgotten; and consequently, his title functions as a shell into which he putsthe “nut” of his message.ActionSince action is the working through of conflict, a writer will likely have a thematic messageimplicit at every important moment of the plot, but above all, he will show by the resolution ofthe conflict which side of the conflict he sides with or wishes us to side with.STYLEAn author’s style is his personal manner of writing. Included as elements of style are generalfeatures such as diction (choice of words from all levels of usage: slang, dialect, colloquialspeech, or formal English), syntax (word order and grammatical structure), and imagery (simile,metaphor, symbol, personification, metonymy, imagistic motifs, mythological patterns,archetypes, hyperbole, oxymoron, antithesis, irony, apostrophe); dialogue; point of view; andtone.General FeaturesFirst briefly characterize the author’s style as prosaic, poetic, aphoristic, journalistic, visual,realistic, cinematic, or the like; and second, explain in extended form, through severalparagraphs, what features justify this description. Quotation must occupy the central place inyour presentation of evidence: you must quote a passage of some length, setting it into themiddle of a paragraph, and write several sentences that point out in this passage the features thatcontribute to the effect named as the primary one. Descriptive passages are very apt for thispurpose, especially those that open chapters in novels.It is perhaps easiest to speak of the author’s style as prosaic or poetic. A prosaic style aimsprimarily to convey information; to do so as efficiently as possible, it uses simple diction, normalsyntax, realistic dialogue, and straight-line narration (cause leads to effect; effect becomes causefor further effect, and so forth). A poetic style calls attention to itself as much as to theinformation it conveys. It asks to be admired for its grace, fullness, and imaginativeexpressiveness. It therefore employs unusual or poetic diction, syntactical inversions, images,33

symbols, poetic description, allusions, and rhetorical devices (puns, balanced sentences,aphorisms, epigrams, oxymorons, paradoxes, and so forth).DialogueIn modern novels, the tendency is to convey much of the important action through dialogue; butin novels from all ages, both dialogue and narration convey action. The task of this section isfirst to estimate the importance of the dialogue by stating how much action the author conveys indialogue and how much by narration and second to justify describing the dialogue as mechanical(merely “cranked” out to fill up space rather than to match reality) if it carries little of the action,or as realistic if it carries much of the action. The development of the section must includequotation; it is best to quote one whole exchange of, say, ten to twelve lines.ToneClosely related to point of view is the writer’s predominant mood or attitude toward his subject,the audience, or himself, which we call the tone of the book. The writer’s tone is often conveyedthrough his narrator and suggest the emotional colouring or emotional meaning of a work. As aconclusion to his essay on style, the student should attempt to identify the tone and to suggestwhat general effect the tone exerts over the average reader. The tone results from the intendedgenre (literary kind—tragedy, romance, elegy, and so forth), and it thus points to the centralpurpose of the work and relates style to theme.POINT OF VIEWThe narrator’s relation to his fictional world and to the minds of his characters we represent byanalogy: the narrator stands at a certain point from which he views events and characters.Because the point of view of the narrator largely determines the reader’s perception of events,the student must first identify the narrator’s point of view and second suggest what effect theadoption of that point of view has on the whole work of fiction. The various possibilities reduceto the four summarized in the following diagram:First Person Limited Omniscient Omniscient Objective(Third Person Limited) (Unlimited) (Dramatic)First PersonThird Person Limited34

Third Person OmniscientObjective/DramaticThe large circles represent the fictional world of the story; the small circles (A, B, and C)represent the principal characters; N represents the narrator. Each line connecting narrator tocharacter either enters the circle of character or stops short of it, representing, respectively, thenarrator’s assumed right to enter a character’s mind or his agreement not to do so. A first-personnarrator participates in the action, though often in a subsidiary role; but he cannot enter theminds-of the other participants. A narrator who takes the point of view of a third person withlimited omniscience (power to know everything involved in the story, including the minds of thecharacters) penetrates the minds of only some characters, whereas a fully omniscient narrator hasunlimited access. The objective point of view almost eliminates the narrator’s presence in thenovel: he gives nothing except the speeches and actions of the characters, requiring the reader toinfer character and action as he would in a drama.Most modern books shift continually among these four basic points of view. In order to get thereader to identify with the major characters (that is, to imagine himself to be the character), forexample, the author may temporarily adopt the points of view of those characters, returningsubsequently to a more omniscient view to narrate the larger action. Should the point of viewshift in this manner, the student ought to set out the major succession of the points of view andsuggest the author’s purpose in so shifting. Generally, the author shifts point of view to suggestthat each person’s private truth must be appreciated and that the “truth” lies somewhere betweentheir positions.35

Appendix 1MLA CITATION STYLEThis guide provides a basic introduction to the MLA citation style. It is based on the 6th editionof the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers published by the Modern LanguageAssociation in 2003.The MLA Handbook is generally used for academic writing in the humanities. The handbookitself covers many aspects of research writing including selecting a topic, evaluating sources,taking notes, plagiarism, the mechanics of writing, the format of the research paper as well as theway to cite sources.This guide provides basic explanations and examples for the most common types of citationsused by students. For additional information and examples, refer to the MLA Handbook.Parenthetical references in the textParenthetical documentation allows you to acknowledge a source within your text by providing areference to exactly where in that source you found the information. The reader can then followup on the complete reference listed on the Works Cited page at the end of your paper.In most cases, providing the author's last name and a page number are sufficient:In response to rapid metropolitan expansion, urban renewal projects sought "an order in whichmore significant kinds of conflict, more complex and intellectually stimulating kinds ofdisharmony, may take place" (Mumford 485).If there are two or three authors, include the last name of each:(Winks and Kaiser 176)(Choko, Bourassa, and Baril 258-263)If there are more than three authors, include the last name of the first author followed by "et al."without any intervening punctuation:(Baldwin et al. 306)If the author is mentioned in the text, only the page reference needs to be inserted:According to Postman, broadcast news influences the decision-making process (51-63).Parenthetical documentation is not used for electronic or web documents if there is nopagination.Further examples and explanations are available in Chapter 6 of the MLA Handbook.Works Cited36

The alphabetical list of works cited that appears at the end of your paper contains moreinformation about all of the sources you've cited it allowing readers to refer to them, as needed.The main characteristics are:• The list of Works Cited must be on a new page at the end of your text• Entries are arranged alphabetically by the author's last name or by the title if there is noauthor• Titles are underlined (not italicized) and all important words should be capitalized• Entries are double-spaced (for the purposes of this handout, single-spacing is used)Below are some examples of the most common types of sources including online sources (weband databases).Book with one authorMumford, Lewis. The Culture of Cities. New York: Harcourt, 1938.Book with two or three authorsFrancis, R. Douglas, Richard Jones, and Donald B. Smith. Destinies: Canadian History SinceConfederation. Toronto: Harcourt, 2000.Book with more than three authorsBaldwin, Richard et al. Economic Geography and Public Policy. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2003.Two or more books by the same authorReplace the author's name by three hyphens and arrange alphabetically by the book's title.Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.New York: Viking, 1985.------. The Disappearance of Childhood. New York: Vintage, 1994.Anthology or compilationAbate, Corinne S., ed. Privacy. Domesticity, and Women in Early Modern England. Burlington,VT: Ashgate, 2003.Work in an anthology or an essay in a bookNaremore, James. "Hitchcock at the Margins of Noir." Alfred Hitchcock: Centenary Essays. Eds.Richard Allen and S. Ishii-Gonzales. London: BFI, 1999.37

Book by a corporate authorAssociations, corporations, agencies and organizations are considered authors when there is nosingle authorOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Action Against Climate Change:The Kyoto Protocol and Beyond. Paris: OECD, 1999.Article in a reference book or an entry in an encyclopaediaIf the article/entry is signed, include the author's name; if unsigned, begin with the title of theentryGuignon, Charles B. "Existentialism." Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. EdwardCraig. 10 vols. London: Routledge, 1998.A translationKafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. and Ed. Stanley Corngold. New York: Bantam, 1972.A government publicationCanada. Dept. of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Freedom From Fear: Canada's ForeignPolicy for Human Security. Ottawa: DFAIT, 2002.United Nations. Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs. Population Division. Charting theProgress of Populations. New York: UN, 2000.Book in a seriesBloom, Harold, ed. Andre Malraux. Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.Article in a journalFerrer, Ada. "Cuba 1898: Rethinking Race, Nation, and Empire." Radical History Review 73(1999): 22-49.Man, Glenn K. S. "The Third Man: Pulp Fiction and Art Film." Literature Film Quarterly 21.3(1993): 171-178.Article in a newspaper or magazineSemenak, Susan. "Feeling Right at Home: Government Residence Eschews Traditional Rules."Montreal Gazette 28 Dec. 1995, Final Ed.: A4.Driedger, Sharon Doyle. "After Divorce." Maclean's 20 Apr. 1998: 38-43.A review38

Kirn, Walter. "The Wages of Righteousness." Rev. of Clouds Splitter, by Russell Banks. NewYork Times Book Review 22 Feb. 1998: 9.Kauffmann, Stanley. "A New Spielberg." Rev of Schindler's List, dir. Steven Spielberg. NewRepublic 13 Dec. 1993: 30.Television or radio program"Scandal of the Century." Narr. Linden Maclntyre. The Fifth Estate. CBC Television. 23 Jan.2002.Sound recordingEllington, Duke. "Black and Tan Fantasy." Music is My Mistress. Musicmasters, 1989.Film, video recording or DVDThe Shining. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Perf. Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall. Warner Bros., 1980.Macbeth. Dir. Roman Polanski. Perf. Jon Finch, Francesca Annis, and Nicholas Selby. 1971.DVD. Columbia, 2002.Musical composition, published scoreBeethoven, Ludwig van. Symphony no. 4 in B-flat major, op. 60. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2001.Work of art, photographed, in a bookCassatt, Mary. Mother and Child. 1890. Wichita Art Museum, Wichita. American Painting:15601913. By John Pearce. New York: McGraw, 1964. Slide 22.Article from a databaseProvide the same information as you would for a printed journal article and add the name of thedatabase, the platform of the database (if applicable), the access provider (Selwyn HouseSchool), the date of access and the general URL for the databaseNOTE - If the article is in HTML only, pagination is not required. However, you can include thestart page followed by a hyphen, a space and then a period. If a PDF version is available, providepagination.Brennan, Katherine Stern. "Culture in the Cities: Provincial Academies During the Early Yearsof Louis XIV's Reign." Canadian Journal of History 38.1 (2003): 19-42. CBCAComplete. ProQuest. Concordia University Libraries. 29 Mar. 2004.39

Dussault, Marc and Bruce G. Barnett. "Peer-assisted Leadership: Reducing EducationalManagers' Professional Isolation." Journal of Educational Administration 34.3 (1996): 5-.ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. Concordia University Libraries. 29 Mar. 2004.Heming, Li, Paul Waley, and Phil Rees. "Reservoir Resettlement in China: Past Experience andthe Three Gorges Dam." The Geographical Journal 167.3 (2001): 195-212. Academic SearchPremier. EBSCOhost. Concordia University Libraries. 29 Mar. 2004.Web page"Joyce Wieland." Celebrating Women's Achievements: Women Artists in Canada. 2000.National Library of Canada. 29 Mar. 2004. .Internet siteLegends of our Times: Native Ranching and Rodeo Life on the Plains and Plateau. 22 Jan. 1999.Canadian Museum of Civilization. 29 Mar. 2004..Article in online periodicalSehmby, Dalbir S. "Wrestling and Popular Culture." CCLWeb: Comparative Literature andCulture 4.1 (2002). 29 Mar. 2004 .40

Appendix 2MARKING SYMBOLS USED BY THE SECONDARY ENGLISH DEPARTMENTAWK Awkward phrasingCAP Incorrect capitalizationFRAG Sentence fragmentREP Repetitive phrasing or grammarSPCSSpelling errorComma splice (2 principal clauses joined by comma)FUSEDROSFused sentences (same as above, but without the comma)Run-on a rambling sentenceCOLLDANGColloquial language (an error only in formal essays)Dangling verbal or modifierMMREDMisplaced modifier (not next to word modified)RedundantWW Wrong wordDIC Faulty dictionNP Begin a new paragraph hereAGRGRIncorrect agreement in number, case or person between noun and pronoun or subjectIncorrect grammar (usually agreement)DEV Paragraph poorly developed-lacking specific examplesUNBroken unity (lack of transitional devices; sentence or paragraph about more thanthing)EXP Idea poorly or unclearly expressedVV, VT, VM Incorrect verb voice, verb tense or verb moodCHOPPY Simple idea expressed through a series of simple sentences that should be combinedC-&-D Cat-and-Dog sentence (compound sentence about 2 subjects)SYNSTYSyntax (wrong or awkward word orderStyle (Failure to remain objective, explicit use of `I' or "you"FORMIncorrect format for quotation, footnote, bibliographic entry; violation of manuscriptrulesLOG Illogical reasoningPUNC, PWKIncorrect punctuationWeak wording, argument, conclusionhackneyed Over-used expressionCONJ Inaccurate conjunctionSUB Subordinate one clause to anotherAnd-So Too many compound sentences joined with expressions like "and so"SEQ Non sequitur (one sentence fails to follow another)PR Pronoun reference errorECHO Unconscious or unpleasant echo in sound or phrasingORG Ideas about one subject presented in more than one place41

Appendix 3Donald MacGregor, 11BEnglish 110-516Ms. Kathi BiggsT H E C H A R A C T E R I Z A T I O N O F O P H E L I AI N W I L L I A M S H A K E S P E A R E ' SH A M L E TApril 7, 20032 300 words42