The 10 Commandments of IB Analysis: IB Analysis and Fundamentals of Composition Guide #1: Despite the vagueness or the complexity of a given analysis prompt, assume that analytical prompts are essentially asking the following two basic questions: What is the (abstract) meaning of the text? How do you know? TO DETERMINE THE ANSWER TO THESE TWO QUESTIONS Analyze texts for (1) THEME (4) SATIRE (7) AMBIGUITY the effects of (2) TONE (5) IRONY (3) PURPOSE (6) PARADOX These are all effects, meaning they have an effect on the audience in ways purposefully intended by an author by the author s use of literary, poetic, or rhetorical devices/techniques. By identifying these effects, you are more easily able to determine the piece s universal idea, which is also, technically, an effect. DO NOT CONFUSE TONE WITH MOOD! To determine how these effects may be created, look for the presence of the following and consider how they are used in relation to each other and in relation to the text itself: Rhetorical Strategies, SUCH AS Argument by Analogy Classification Comparison/Contrast Description Example Process Analysis Persuasion Parody Definition Cause/Effect Illustration Narration Anaphora Antithesis Asyndeton Connotation Denotation Induction Deduction Hortative Sentence Inversion Juxtaposition Metonymy Synecdoche Parallelism Peroration Oxymoron Paradox Polysyndeton Qualifiers Syllogism Trope Understatement Wit Zeugma Development and Organization Strategies: Stylistic strategies Organizational Patterns Narration Chronological Poetic Cause/effect Expository Compare/contrast Argumentative Problem/solution Persuasive NOTE: Writers often use multiple development strategies in a single piece determine these elements according to a paragraph-byparagraph basis, or a sentence-by-sentence basis! Aristotelian Rhetorical Appeals: Ethos the appeal to people s sense of ethics. Pathos to appeal to people s sense of emotion. Logos to appeal to people s sense of logic. Devices Such As Motif/Repetition Allusion Style Parallelism Dialogue Shifts in time, style, or purpose Onomatopoeia Symbol Assonance Consonance Hyperbole Understatement Ambiguity P.O.V Connotation Denotation Analogy Characterization Synecdoche Metonymy Anaphora Foreshadowing Figurative Lang. Juxtaposition Iconography Non Sequitur Simile Pun Rhetorical Question Zeugma Juxtaposition Metaphor Techniques Writers Use: Figurative Techniques, Such As Syntax, Such As For Example: For Example: Extended Metaphor Alliteration Flashback/Flash-forward Parallel Structure Narrative Framing Coordination Stream of Consciousness Subordination Allegory Caesura/Enjambment Personification Repetition Symbolism Parody Techniques and Devices that Directly Affect the Development of Tone: Diction Imagery Details Language Syntax #2: The concrete always reveals the abstract. Go beyond literal meanings (see Rule #4) and discover what is truly being said through the writing. 1
#3: Always look for the metaphor. Everything can be a metaphor, including the text itself, as all texts are products of their time and place. #4: Thou shalt not commit plot-summary. #5: There are two ways to analyze literature. One is to analyze a work to gain greater insight into and a greater appreciation of a work of art, to observe an author s use of literary, poetic, or rhetorical techniques and devices as a craft. The other type of analysis is rhetorical analysis. In this analytical mode, you are always cognizant of rules #2 and #3 and you recognize that all texts are arguments, or as Thomas Foster asserts in Chapter 13 of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, it s all political. You will be asked to do both types of analysis throughout the year. #6: All texts contain contrasts, as all texts are constructed around some type of conflict. Conflicts are built on contrasts. Of great significance are juxtapositions, so when analyzing seek out juxtaposition. Contrasts essentially boil down to a conflict between these two basic universal ideas/ideologies: ROMANTICISM The ideal world The perfect world The beautiful The true The pure The innocent The pastoral REALSIM How it really is The seedy, gritty, mechanized The ugly Falsehood The exploited The experienced The urban #7: Like contrasts, all texts contain shifts. Shifts are when an author makes a change of some type, such as a stylistic change perhaps, which is significant in regards to purpose or in creating an effect. Shifts are not only markers for finding contrasts, but they are a good place to analyze how contrasts are developed within a text. Of great significance are shifts that create incongruity. If something doesn t seem to follow if it s a seeming non sequitur do not assume authorial ineptitude. It could be the use of incongruity to create an effect, such as ambiguity for example. FINDING SHIFTS: Often a change in tone will be signaled by 1. Transitions Transitions may serve to add to, compare, contrast, provide an alternative, summarize, emphasize, prov example, intensify, show time. 2. Punctuation dashes, periods, colons, commas, etc 3. Stanza and paragraph divisions 4. Changes in line and stanza or sentence length #8: Do not merely identify an author s use of literary, poetic, or rhetorical devices/techniques. You must demonstrate the effect of an author s use of literary, poetic, or rhetorical devices/techniques. Connect the use of devices to the development of theme, tone, purpose, satire, irony, paradox, or ambiguity along with an exploration of how these effects, in turn, influence and develop a universal idea. #9: When asked write an analysis essay focusing on a novel, such as with your Works-In-Translation (WIT) Essay, focus on a passage or on a series of brief, easy-to-digest passages you believe epitomize(s) the universal idea your thesis is ultimately asserting that the text is asserting or expressing. All interpretations must rest on direct textual evidence and demonstration of the effect or effects of an author s use of literary, poetic, or rhetorical devices/techniques. #10: When responding to a specific analysis prompt, remember the prompt is the prompt, not something else. It does not offer suggestions that are optional to address. Read the prompt with rapt attention, address the prompt directly. Do not merely get to the general idea of the prompt or to substitute your own ideas for the prompt. Furthermore, do not bury your thesis statement when responding. Get straight to the point by directly addressing the prompt up front. 2
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