Writing Homework Help

Freytag’s Pyramid Plot Diagram Template.docx (51.592 KB)

Reading Journal 1: Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapters 1 to 11

Note:  Journals entries will not be graded on grammar; they will be graded simply on completeness, display of thinking process, and effort. 

Your journal will consist of three steps:

Step One–Summarizing (What?)

Summarize the narrative by identifying all of the plot elements before the climax in the first half of the novel using a Freytag’s Pyramid (see attachment).

PLEASE NOTE THAT AN ADEQUATE FREYTAG’S PYRAMID MUST BE THOROUGH, INCLUDING MOST RISING ACTIONS AND COMPLICATIONS OF THE NOVEL. ADD NUMBERS IF NEEDED.

Step Two–Responding (So What?) 

Immediately following the summary, write your personal reaction to what you have just read (so what?).  At this point, you want to explore your reaction to the text and connect the new information to your existing web of knowledge.

YOUR RESPONSE TO THIS PART OF THE NOVEL SHOULD BE AT LEAST 250 WORDS.

Step Three–Analyzing (How did the writer write? and Why did the writer write this way?)

To complete Step Three, choose from the prompts as follows:

• ONE prompt from Part 1 and TWO prompts from Part 2
• OR TWO prompts  Part 1 and ONE prompt from Part 2

Part 1: Literary Elements

The answer to each chosen prompt must be a paragraph of at least 200 words:

• Who is the narrator of the novel and how does that choice of narrator affect the telling of the story?  How might the story change if someone else narrated the story?
• Choose three main characters from the novel and complete the following for each of those three chosen characters:
  • What is the major problem facing the major character?
  • What is the conflict that this character faces?
  • What are the motivations (such as love, hate, fear, jealously, competition, etc.) behind this character’s actions? 
• Identify two specific symbols within the story, describe them and what they represent, defending your viewpoint of those two symbols.
• Identify a motif of the novel (a recurring topic, character, or verbal pattern–see glossary), describe it, then describe at least three occasions when that motif appears in the story.
• Identify a theme of the novel, describe the theme, and defend why you think it IS a theme, identifying how the theme seems to explain the whole story, how that theme has universal importance, and how this theme applies in all times and places.

Part 2: Literary Techniques

The answer to each chosen prompt must be a paragraph of at least 200 words:

• Identify the author’s use of one of the following literary techniques and discuss how the author demonstrates that technique through his/her use of language:
  • Tone
  • Irony
  • Suspense
  • Foreshadowing
  • Time Interruptions
• Discuss how the author successfully or unsuccessfully conveys the language of the specific, different characters (dialect and dialogue) through the novel.
• Discuss how the author uses imagery to create appeal within the novel through the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
• Discuss how the author uses figurative language (see the following list of types), giving specific examples and explaining the effect of the figurative language on the readers.  Following are examples of types of figurative language:
  • Metaphors
  • Similes
  • Personification
  • Idioms
• Identify the author’s use of allusion (a brief, indirect reference to another literary work, usually for the purpose of associating the tone or theme of the one work with the other), identify the other literary work and its cultural meaning, and discuss why the reference may enhance the meaning of the story for the audience.

YOUR ANALYSES TO THIS PART OF THE NOVEL SHOULD ADD UP TO AT LEAST 600 WORDS FOR ALL THREE PROMPTS.

Also there is a video you should watch its called 

“Making a Way Out of No Way (1897 to 1940)”.       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMJtL2_oivo