Imagery, Shift, and Authorial Intent: September 13, 2018

Focus: How do we use imagery to unravel authorial intent?

1. Warming up with our old friend, Billy Collins, and a straightforward poem (with partners)

Remember that it all boils down to these two questions:

What is the author trying to do?

How is he/she doing it?

Two useful techniques: 

(1) Explore the imagery/diction.
(2) Find the shift (circle your buts).

2. Applying the same process to the complicated poem from Tuesday's timed writing

3. Analyzing sample essays as a class

• Which ones are the strongest, and what do they have that the others don't?

4. Offering constructive feedback to each other's drafts

• Underline the thesis and comment on it. 

• Underline the sentence in the first body paragraph that best captures its argument. Then, do the same for the second body paragraph (and the third, if there is a third).

• Identify one structural success you see in this essay (see blue questions below for ideas). 

• Identify one structural aspect that writer could improve upon (see blue questions below for ideas)

5. Rewriting your thesis and topic sentences to emphasize complexity

HW:
1. For FRIDAY: Read Chapters 14, 15, and 16 and compose a reading ticket for Socratic.

2. For next THURSDAY, SEP 20: College essays due (you'll a get a "Night-Before Checklist" next week).