How to Select an Analyzable Quotation
What’s more productive for writing: the six-line speech that tells the entire story of a conflict, or the three precise words that communicate a shift in tone? A lengthier quotation may appear to carry more…
LitPath Course
Narrator, Author, Character: What’s the Difference?
“I had always been the sensible one.” Someone begins their essay with these words. They seem, of course, like a statement that is true. But are they actually the author, or are they the narrator…
What to Mark During a Close Reading of a Short Passage
Keep a pencil near a short passage, but make yourself one rule: never mark every sentence that feels “important.” Instead, only note something that changes something else, repeats something else, clashes with something else, or…
Plot Summary vs. Literary Analysis
A student completes a short story and writes the following: “In the story, the protagonist leaves the house, has an argument with her brother and then leaves again when she learns an important lesson about…