English 10A Glossary - Vocabulary Words
Let’s look at some identifying features of central ideas:
They express a main point.
They drive the author’s message.
They are often not stated directly.
There can be more than one in a text.
Look for Repetition
Are certain words, ideas, or descriptive images repeated? If an author says something more than once, it’s a good indicator that it’s important to his or her message.
Consult Text Features
Are there titles, headings, and subheadings that provide information? These can be guideposts for a central idea’s development. You might find these helpful in news articles or longer pieces of informational text.
Find Topic Sentences
The first or last sentence of a paragraph sometimes provides an overview of a bigger point the author wants to make. Some types of informational texts do not include topic sentences, but you would be able to find them in a social studies or science textbook, for example.
Notice Calls to Action
If an author includes a call to action (an invitation for readers or listeners to take some desired action), it can be a good indicator of the text’s central message. Notice when an author asks the reader or listener to do something. You might see a call to action in a speech or piece of persuasive writing.
Ask Why
Authors don’t include information and ideas randomly. Every detail serves a purpose. Asking yourself, “why did the author include this?” can help you think about how that detail might be contributing to the central idea.
1. Make a claim that states a central idea you’ve identified.
2. Explain how the central idea is revealed in the text.
3. Provide evidence that supports your text analysis.
Let’s review some important elements about an author or speaker’s purpose:
An author or speaker’s purpose is their reason for writing a text or giving a speech.
A single text may have multiple purposes.
The purpose may be to inform, persuade, or entertain.
There will also be a specific goal related to these purposes.
When you analyze an author or speaker’s purpose, consider how the author accomplishes his or her purpose.
When you consider the audience of a text or speech, you want to think about who the author or speaker is addressing and how they are appealing to them.
A message is what an author or speaker wants to convey about a topic.
Here are some key elements about the message:
It is not always stated outright.
There may be more than one in a single text.
It is often closely connected with the purpose and audience.
When you write to someone, you’ll want to organize your thoughts into three sections:
Greeting. Include a salutation (examples: "Dear [name]," "To Whom It May Concern," "Hello,") to your letter’s recipient. They are your audience.
Body. Explain to your recipient why you are writing to them (purpose), and what information you are sharing with them. Include your thoughts, analysis, and message.
Closing. Ask the recipient to share their thoughts with you and include a closing with your signature.
In informational text, a writer or speaker’s tone also refers to his or her attitude. Tone in a text is the author’s attitude toward the subject he or she is writing about.
A writer’s tone toward the topic could be serious, humorous, critical, optimistic, playful, or any number of other attitudes.
Authors and speakers purposefully choose the words they include in their writing for specific effects. This careful selection of words is called diction.
Diction can serve various purposes, such as evoking feelings, emphasizing specific points, and creating imagery.
The syntax of a text refers to the way the words are arranged in a sentence. How are the sentences structured? Are they long or short? Complicated or simple? Does the writer repeat certain sentence patterns?
Syntax contributes to a text’s pace and tone. Along with diction, syntax can also express the writer’s feelings about his or her subject.
Formal style: This style of writing is used for professional or academic (school or research related) purposes. It is less personal than writing for friends or family. The wording is concise (short; not wordy) and less informal.
The experiment was successful.
Objective tone: This is an impersonal (without personal opinion) style of writing that gives the reader information without revealing the writer’s personal feelings or biases.
The movie lasted for three hours.
diction: an author's word choice
syntax: the arrangement of words and phrases to form sentences; referred to as sentence structure
poetic device: a tool used to shape a poem’s meaning, develop a rhythm, or evoke a feeling or mood (everything below is considered a poetic device)
rhythm: the pace of a poem created by sound devices
sound device: a device poets use to create rhythm in poetry, such as rhyme and repetition
rhyme: the repetition of similar sounding words, occurring at the end of lines in poems, or sometimes internally
repetition: repeating a word or phrase to emphasize a concept or idea
Here is one strategy you can use when reading and analyzing poetry:
Look at the title and make a prediction (guess what might happen in the poem).
Conduct a first read of the poem to get the gist of the poem and summarize.
Revisit your prediction to add or clarify.
Read the poem a second time and take note of diction and syntax.
Read the poem a third time and take note of the sound devices.
Read the poem a fourth time and analyze how these poetic devices impact the tone, mood, and voice of the poem. During this reading, dive deeper into what the poem means and how you connect to it.
Poets purposefully select words for specific effects:
to evoke feelings
to emphasize specific points
to create imagery
These effects help you understand the mood, tone, and voice of a poem.
Here is how to analyze diction in a poem:
Note and define unfamiliar words.
Look for the repetition of words or words with similar meaning.
Consider the connotations of the chosen words.
Syntax refers to how words are arranged in a sentence.
When analyzing syntax, consider the following questions:
How are lines or sentences structured?
Are they long or short? Complex or simple?
How are lines or sentences punctuated?
Are some patterns repeated?
Syntax contributes to the mood and tone of a poem. Along with sound devices, syntax contributes to the pace and rhythm of a poem.
In poetry, rhyming is a sound device used to create rhythm or pace. A rhyme scheme refers to a poet’s intentional pattern of lines that rhyme.
To determine the rhyme scheme of a poem, mark each line in a poem with letters. The lines that have the same rhyme get the same letter.
For example: A couplet is two lines within a stanza or poem that rhyme.
Whenever we struggle with wills to bend, a
remember the hearts you cannot mend. a
The first line would be given the alphabetic letter a. The second line would also be marked a to indicate that they rhyme. This example couplet has an aa rhyme scheme.
aabb
This stanza from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Recuerdo" has an aabb rhyme scheme. Every two lines rhyme:
We were very tired, we were very merry— a
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. a
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable— b
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table, b
abab
In this stanza from William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," the first and third lines rhyme, and the second and fourth lines rhyme. The rhyme scheme is abab:
Continuous as the stars that shine a
And twinkle on the Milky Way, b
They stretched in never-ending line a
Along the margin of a bay: b
abcb
The rhyme scheme abcb is found in this stanza from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme. This rhyme scheme is common in ballads:
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: a
He cannot choose but hear; b
And thus spake on that ancient man, c
The bright-eyed Mariner. b
(note: the word hear is a hint for how to pronounce "Mariner.")
Works of literature often contain lessons or messages about life that can apply to all readers. These are what we call themes. We can see themes develop as we read about a text’s plot and characters, but the lessons relate to people and experiences beyond the text itself.
Texts often have more than one theme, and themes are usually not directly stated, so pay close attention to the following elements:
specific details
characterization, including a character’s choices and motivations
plot events
Each time you read a text, you discover something new about how various elements work together to convey a message about life.
Here are some steps to follow:
Read the text to get the gist, or basic understanding, of the plot. You should be able to summarize the key events.
Read the text a second time to examine the characters and any conflict present in the text.
During the second read, notice how the conflict impacts characters or any interactions between several characters. Consider how the conflict is resolved and what message the resolution sends.
We will use this framework to craft our analysis:
Clearly state the theme of each text.
Use textual evidence from each text that shows the details that develop the theme.
Discuss any similarities and differences.
Whether an op-ed, a commercial, or something else entirely, all arguments share similar features.
Claim: This is the main argument of the text or the thesis statement. A claim must be arguable and supportable.
Reasons: These are the ideas that support the writer’s claim.
Evidence: These are specific details and examples that show the connection between the claim and the reasons. Evidence could be data, expert opinions, statistics, facts, or personal stories.
Counterclaim: This is the other side of the argument or the opposition’s view.
Refutation: This is when the writer dismisses or disproves the opposition’s view.
If you need more information, see these notes from Unit 3 of ENG 9B.
When writing an argumentative text, it is important to introduce your claim or position clearly for your audience. Think of the claim as answering the question, “What does the writer think?”
Many writers open their text with a hook or an attention grabber to draw the reader into the text. Here are some examples of hooks:
rhetorical question (a question expressed to make a point or produce an effect)
quote
analogy (a comparison that explains something through its relationship to something else)
anecdote (a short narrative/story that relates an interesting or amusing incident, usually in order to make or support a larger point)
It is also important to include brief context or background on the argument before stating the claim. This helps the reader understand the need for the argument.
As you read the text, consider the following questions:
What hook does the writer use?
Does the writer provide a brief context?
Is the claim clearly stated?
Is the claim arguable and provable?
After stating a claim, a writer must support or develop that claim by providing reasons. Reasons are ideas that explain why the writer’s opinion is appropriate or necessary.
For example, if a writer says that school uniforms should be banned in public schools, the writer must offer reasons why uniforms should be banned. One reason could be that uniforms are too expensive.
Think of reasons as answering the question, “Why does the writer think this?”
In addition to providing reasons, the writer must support those reasons using specific details or evidence. Evidence could be data, facts, anecdotes, or an expert opinion.
For example, a reason for banning school uniforms is that uniforms are too expensive. Evidence to show this is true could be data about the costs of school uniforms compared to regular clothes.
Think of the evidence as answering the question, “How does the writer know this to be true?”
Writers strengthen their arguments by acknowledging opposing views, or counterclaims.
For example, a writer states that school uniforms should be banned because they are too expensive. The writer can acknowledge the opposition:
Some might say that uniforms are beneficial because they prevent bullying based on students’ ability to afford the latest fashions.
Effective arguments refute counterclaims to show fault or weakness in the opposition’s argument. For example, the writer can refute the bullying counterclaim:
Although some might say uniforms prevent bullying, the same can be said about wearing regular clothes since uniforms do not always take all body types into consideration.
The refutation strengthens the argument and builds the writer’s credibility.
The last part of an argumentative text is the conclusion.
In the conclusion, writers sum up their thoughts and restate their claim.
Writers do not present any new reasons or evidence. They may, however, leave the audience with an insightful statement or a question that will lead the reader to reflect on the argument presented.
For ideas on how to write a conclusion, see these notes from English 9B.