Lesson 2: Identifying Elements of Different Genres PDF

Lesson 2: Identifying Elements of the Different Genres Literature It contains hidden treasures, filled with mysteries to be revealed and intrigues to be discovered.  Interpretative skills involve learning to examine and analyze the literary elements and techniques that work together in a t...

Lesson 2: Identifying Elements of the Different Genres Literature It contains hidden treasures, filled with mysteries to be revealed and intrigues to be discovered.  Interpretative skills involve learning to examine and analyze the literary elements and techniques that work together in a text. These literary elements and techniques include meaning, form, voice and tone, characters and characterization, and Meaning Ask these questions to help you identify and understand meaning. 1. What is the work about? What is the theme? 2. What effect or impression does the work have on the reader? 3. What is the argument or summary of the work? 4. What is the writer's intent? Form 1. How has the writer organized the literary work to achieve the effect or express the meaning? 2. How is the work structured or planned? As prose or poetry? As topics or scenes? As a long narrative, several short stories, or episodes? 3. Into what genre could the work be placed? 4. What method of organization or pattern of development was used within the structure of the work? Voice and Tone 1. Who is telling the story? 2. How is the speaker or narrator characterized or his character revealed? By action or by description/ expressed or implied? 3. From what perspective is the story told? By a person outside of the story or by someone actually involved in the narrative? 4. Is the speaker (the one telling the story) and the author or writer of the work the same person? Voice and Tone 5. If the writer and the speaker are two different individuals, are their attitudes toward the subject, events, and readers the same or different? 6. What is the author's attitude toward the material, subject, or theme? 7. What is the speaker's attitude (if different from the author) toward the theme? Toward the reader? material, subject, or Voice and Tone 8. Is the tone playful? Serious? Angry? Formal? Pleading? Joyful? 9. What is the atmosphere of the work (the way in which the mood, setting, and feeling blend together to convey the prevailing tone)? Character and Characterizatio 1. Who are the people in the n work? 2. How do dialogue (what he or she says) and action (what he or she does) reveal a character's personality traits? 3. Is there a principal character? 4. What is the character's motivation? Character and 5. Is the character's personality Characterizatio revealed directly by the speaker telling the reader or n indirectly by the character's own words and deeds (requiring the reader to come to conclusions about the character based on dialogue and action)? 6. In a non-narrative work, how would you characterize the speaker or the writer? How would you characterize the Language 1. Does the selection include any imagery (the use of (Uses and sensory images to represent someone or something)? Meanings) 2. What figures of speech does the writer use, and what effect do they have on the meaning of the selection? 3. How does the writer use diction (word choice) to convey meaning? 4. What is the impact of the words, phrases, and lines as they are used in the selection? Language (Uses and 5. Did the writer intend the words used to convey the Meanings) meaning normally assigned to those words (denotations)? 6. Did the writer intend that some words would imply additional, associated meanings for the reader (connotations)? Language 7. What is the significance of (Uses and those implications to the meaning of the selection and Meanings) the intent of the writer? 8. How does the use of denotation, connotation and syntax (how the words are structured and grouped to form meaningful thought units) relate to the style of the selection? 9. Does the language of the selection include any Language 7. What is the significance of (Uses and those implications to the meaning of the selection and Meanings) the intent of the writer? 8. How does the use of denotation, connotation and syntax (how the words are structured and grouped to form meaningful thought units) relate to the style of the selection? 9. Does the language of the selection include any elements of propaganda? Thank you!