Organising+a+commentary

A commentary is an essay in which you discuss the effects an author has created in a poem or prose passage. The keys to writing good commentaries are clear organization, understanding of literary techniques, and the ability to explain how the author uses these techniques to affect the reader. There is no such thing as a formula for a good commentary. Try to balance sharp-edged critical analysis with personal impression. Throughout your commentary, avoid merely stating the obvious, though certainly the obvious should be stated. A sense of questioning, challenging, puzzling through ambiguity, considering alternate responses or interpretations, and giving personal responses can most effectively distinguish a good commentary from a mediocre one.

**Preparation **

 **There are certain things you should consider when making your notes and planning your commentary:**
 * 1) 1. Read through the extract quickly. Circle words or phrases which immediately strike you as worth comment.
 * 2) 2. On your working paper, write brief notes placing the passage in context: where in the work does it occur and how does it relate to the rest?
 * 3) 3. Think about why this particular passage has been chosen and use this as a core for organizing your commentary.
 * 4) 4. Make brief notes for an introductory statement to indicate what subjects you intend to bring up. Consider points in character, plot, theme, tone structure, diction, etc. depending on whether your passage is poetry or prose.
 * 5) 5. Organize your notes into a logical outline.

  **Organization **
 * 1) 1. ** __Meaning __** : What is the central impact of the poem or prose passage? Does it seem organized around a viewpoint or a series of viewpoints? Does it work through irony or ambiguity: what discrepancies exist between stated and implicit meaning?
 * 2) 2.   __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> **Title (of a poem** ) __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">: How much does the poem depend upon the title? Is there a subtle sense of the title complementing, undercutting, inducing misleading expectations, setting up assumptions, establishing mood, etc.?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">3. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">**__Tone__** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">: Can you hear the voice in the passage? Who is the speaker? Does the voice shift? Is the voice ‘overheard’ or is it projected towards a consciously calculated audience?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">4. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">**__Mood__** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">: Mood is dependent on tone, but not necessarily the same. The tone for example can be ironic, but the mood somber. Mood really refers to the emotional atmosphere of the whole passage rather than the quality of voice. Remember that mood, like tone, can shift.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">5. __** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Form **__ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">: Be alert to structure and pattern. Is there, for example, a linear development, a circular structure, an echoing motif? What is the connection between form and content? How are the ideas structured? Are there shifts in time or tone or point of view? In a poem note first and last words of lines, sentences, emphasis, and end-stopping. A few comments on any traditional patterns and their appropriateness (sonnet ode, ballad, etc.) can be illuminating. Are there regular stanzas with tight rhyme or longer units with loose or no rhyme?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">6. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">**__Diction and Syntax__** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">: Do not merely describe; consider the effects, the success, your impressions. Note level: simplistic monosyllabic? pedantic? colloquial? slangy? Examine for effective word choice: vigorous verbs for strong action or everyday words for matter-of-fact tone? Are words chosen for their sounds? Syntax: are the sentences complex, elliptical simple, fluid, sputtering? Are questions used? To what effect? In a poem: is it written in sentences? What is their effect? Is the poem “grammatical”?
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">7. __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Sound **__ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> __**:**__ Be sensitive to the sounds of words, paying attention to repeated sounds and appropriateness to content. Do sound likenesses connect words to create a meaning otherwise unclear? Note the effects of __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">alliteration __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">, __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">assonance __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">, and/or __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">consonance __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">. In a poem:
 * o  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">** __Rhyme__ **: point out the effect of internal/close/partial rhymes. Are specific parts of speech stressed (all nouns?) Does end-stopping affect the power of rhymes? Are the rhymes masculine or feminine? What is their effect?
 * o <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rhythm: Regular or irregular? Effect? Where does major emphasis fall? Lilting, smooth, jolting, rushing, staccato, etc? Particularly note spondees or sudden changes in rhythm. Make connections between use of rhythm and other effects of the poem.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">8. __** <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Imagery **__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">: Do not list images. Does the poem or prose passage develop through imagery? Do the images develop through the poem or prose passage? What is the purpose of the images? What are the effects? Do the images come from related or diverse sources? Are images complemented by other sense-related words?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">9. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">**__Figurative language and literary devices__** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">: Again do not simply list. Does the imagery of the passage arise from the metaphors, similes, personification, or any other figures of speech? How successful are these figures of speech? What effects do they have on theme or (in a prose passage) setting, plot and character development? Are there any symbols in the text and if so, are they structural or incidental? Literal or figurative? Concrete or abstract? What are the effects of the symbolism in the poem or prose passage? (Note: be careful not to overinterpret!)

__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">A.<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> **Introductory Paragraph(s)** __ <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">An introduction can include many different kinds of issues, but ideally it will provide some kind of angle or unifying principle. Try to be brief and move promptly into your task: to assess //what// the text is doing and analysis of //how// it does it.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">The first paragraph might include the following:

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">For a poem: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">For a piece of prose: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">**__B. The Body of the Essay__**
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">1. A statement of the poem’s central idea or intended effect.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">2. Identification of the ‘situation’ of the poem and its voice and tone (if relevant).
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">3. A focus on the craft of the writer and the most significant and pervasive of his/her techniques.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">1. Identification of the type of prose and the author’s intention.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">2. Identification of voice and tone of persona (if relevant).
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">3. Focus on the central idea.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">4. The primary emphasis or direction of your commentary.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">This will be developed according to the type of passage you are dealing with and what you have found in your analysis. Beware of fragmentation and mere listing or ‘clumping’ of details. All the evidence should be seen to contribute to the central effect or idea that you have identified in your introduction. Organize your essay into logical divisions. Two possibilities might be:
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">1. By <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> **techniques** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">used by the writer. eg) an introduction that focuses on the writer’s use of ironic contrast to develop a theme. Subsequent paragraphs might then in turn identify and illustrate contributing contrasts or ironies, contrasting settings, contrasting voices, deliberate shifts in pattern or structure, etc.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">2. By following <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> **structure of the original text** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> . eg) an introduction that pinpoints the writer’s deliberate building of a narrative to a climax. Subsequent paragraphs trace this development with a variety of relevant techniques, through the stanzas or paragraphs of the original. (warning: this second method of organization tempts one into a mere retelling of a story, or a kind of ‘walk-through’ of a poem. Keep your purpose, analysis of craft, in mind)
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">3. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: justify;">Avoid making sweeping generalizations without proof. It is important that you support your ideas with specific textual references.


 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">__C. Concluding Paragraph__ **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Do not attempt to summarize what you have already said. But you may remind the reader of the central effect or idea to which all the evidence has been directed. Focus (or refocus) on the intention of the writer and the purpose of the piece of writing. If anywhere, this is where you might venture a personal evaluation of the effectiveness of a technique or a comment on the idea or theme, but don’t launch into anything too extensive.