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Analyzing Authors’ Structural Choices

You have been analyzing how authors use certain structures to shape, or form, their writing. These structures include word choices, sentence structure, and paragraph structure, as well as the placement of sentences and paragraphs in relation to each other and the narrative as a whole. The emphasis here is on how the story is written, that is, how these structures add style and meaning to the story.

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Keep these questions in mind: How have the author’s structural choices affected the style and meaning of the writing? When comparing the two excerpts, how are the effects similar or different? Use information from Part 1 to help you organize your ideas. Include the text evidence you found while reading to help support your ideas.

Remember to:
• Refer to the excerpts by title throughout your writing.
• Identify specific examples of structural choices.
• Compare and contrast the structural choices in the excerpts.
• Explain the effects achieved by these structural choices.

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Analyzing Differences in Points of View


Point of view is the perspective from which information is given to readers. Often writers use the third-person omniscient point of view to give readers more information than the characters themselves have. This technique influences how characters see events as they unfold.

Limiting each character’s point of view allows the author to introduce dramatic irony, which occurs when the reader knows something that a character does not know. Authors can use differences between the points of view of the reader and characters to create effects such as suspense or humor in their stories.

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1. Does the reader have an omniscient or limited omniscient perspective? How do you know?
2. From whose point of view is the story mainly told? What text evidence supports your conclusion?
3. What do the mother and reader know that her children do not?
4. How does the author create dramatic irony in the text? What effect does the dramatic irony have?

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Remember to:
• Introduce the passage by naming the text and telling its characters.
• Explain the plot of the story, using sufficient details but leaving out unnecessary information.
• Identify the points of view of the reader and characters.
• Describe effects created by differences in the point of view of the reader and characters.
• Consider how the text and effects would be different if the story were told from a different point of view.
• Use evidence from the text to support your analysis.

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Summarising


A summary is an overview of the important details in a book or story. It should be concise, yet specific enough to be informative to your audience. A quality summary includes the theme or central idea in a story. Story elements such as characters, setting, and plot contribute to the theme of a story. It is important to analyze how the various elements come together to support a theme in a story.

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•Introduce the story by outlining the characters, setting, and plot
•Name the story and author specifically
•Explain the plot, using sufficient details, but leaving out unnecessary information
•Discuss Jake’s interactions with the Applewhite family
•Explain the theme and how it is supported by the key details in the story elements

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Main Idea and Theme: Fiction

Stories of every length are about characters doing things in some place, at some time. Characters, setting, and plot work together to tell the story. The theme is the heart of the story: the driving force. It expresses a universal idea and is what the author is trying to say or to teach you. Theme is reflected in the story elements of character, setting, and plot.

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Part 2: Writing Instructions

Write a one- to two-paragraph summary stating the theme of the excerpt and explaining how it is revealed by the story elements in the excerpt. Use information from Part 1 to help you organize and develop your ideas. Include the text evidence you found in the excerpt to help support your ideas.

Remember to:
• Introduce the excerpt by title and author, and, in one or two sentences, explain what the excerpt is about.
• Clearly state the theme of the excerpt.
• Demonstrate how the character, setting, and plot, including conflict, reveal the theme.
• Use evidence from the excerpt to support your response.

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Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions

When you analyze a text, you take it apart to search for big ideas, to find important facts and details that support those ideas, and to make meaningful connections among ideas. The facts and details you identify are evidence, or proof that you can use to support your interpretations and conclusions. Some facts and details are stated explicitly, leaving no question about what they mean. Other facts and details lead to indirect conclusions, or inferences. You must interpret the evidence the author has provided.

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Part 1

1. What is the main idea of the story?

2. What explicit statements support the main idea of the story?

3. What are at least three details that describe the main character?

4. What inference can you make based on these details?

5. What information about the main character seems to be missing or incomplete?



Part 2: Writing Instructions

Write a one- to two-paragraph analysis of “Playing with the Boys.” How well does the author elaborate on and support the story’s main idea? Use the information from Part 1 to help you organize your ideas. Use the text evidence you found in the passage to support your analysis.

Remember to:
• Introduce the passage by naming the text and identifying its main idea.
• Identify explicit statements in the text that support the main idea.
• Use textual evidence related to the main idea to state an inference.
• Explain how the author could have provided more or better support for the main idea.

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