NAME______DATE_____
Critical Lens Essay Packet
Reminders and Directions:
A critical lens essay requires that you make connections from a given quote to two literary texts (short story, play, or book) through the choice of a literary element. For the essay that you are about to write, you need to choose characterization as your literary element. You have had a lot of practice with this in writing about The Crucible.
Brainstorm
Step One: Read the quote
Step Two: What texts does the quote remind you of?
Step Three: Think of a character from two different texts?
Step Four: How are they related?
Now you are ready to write your introduction:
Copy the quote down as your first sentence.
Own words: Write what the quote is trying to say or what the quote means in your own words.
Agree or disagree with the quote and state why
Thesis statement that mentions both text (book, short story, play) connection.
Body Paragraph
Name the title of the text in the first sentence, the character adjective, and the connections to the quote. Do this just like you did for the first sentence of your character analysis paragraphs for The Crucible. Develop your paragraph, choosing details that prove your character is the adjective you assigned them: example if I had to prove Rebecca Nurse is well-respected, I would only pick details that show that side of her. In the last sentence of the paragraph make sure you have connected the character to the meaning of the quote.
Body Paragraph
Name the title of the second text in the first sentence, the character adjective, and the connections to the quote. Do this just like you did for the first sentence of your character analysis paragraphs for The Crucible. Develop your paragraph, choosing details that prove your character is the adjective you assigned them: example if I had to prove Gatsby is tragic, how would I do that? In the last sentence of the paragraph make sure you have connected the character to the meaning of the quote.
Conclusion
I relate both texts back to the critical lens quote. I show how they are deeply connected. I make sure that I have the finer points of my analysis in here. I am not repetitive.
Please Do and Please Don’t
-Underline titles of plays or books
-Only write in first person for the introduction, “I agree/disagree with this quote…”
-Stick to characterization only
-Well-developed body paragraphs of at least 8 sentences
CRITICAL LENS QUOTE
“No two persons regard the world in exactly the same way…”— J. W. von Goethe
“Introduction to the Propyläen”
from Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books, 1910
Brainstorm
Step One: Read the quote
Step Two: What texts does the quote remind you of?
Step Three: Think of a character from two different texts?
Step Four: How are they related?
Now you are ready to write your introduction:
Copy the quote down as your first sentence.
J. W. von Goethe once said, “No two persons regard the world in exactly the same way…”
Own words: Write what the quote is trying to say or what the quote means in your own words.
______
Agree or disagree with the quote and state why
______
Thesis statement that mentions both text (book, short story, play) connection.
______
Body Paragraph 1 Organization
Title ______by ______
Character connection
Adjective that connects the character to the meaning of the quote.
Details that I am going to use to connect them.
Analysis that I am going to use of the character.
Relate the analysis directly back to the meaning of the critical lens quote.
Body Paragraph 2 Organization
Title ______by ______
Character connection
Adjective that connects the character to the meaning of the quote.
Details that I am going to use to connect them.
Analysis that I am going to use of the character.
Relate the analysis directly back to the meaning of the critical lens quote.
Conclusion
Compare and contrast the characters and their experiences.
How do they each relate to the quote?
Analyze the character(s) (what they have said, done, thought, others think about them).