First off, in class we learned about DIDLS. It stands for Diction, Imagery, Details, Language and Syntax. These are techniques that authors use to create effect and meaning in their works. It is pretty hard for me to find these things in the works that we’ve examined so far. If you give me time I can manage it, but during the essays that we will be writing I don’t have time and I really need to work on this.
Diction is the word choice that authors use. It cannot be more then one word because then that would be syntax. We considered what it means when the author uses elevated language. According to Ms. Holmes, it’s for humor, written in a certain time or used in period pieces. It can also be used to show the education or comfort levels of the characters. The comfort level was something I’ve never put a lot of thought into before. Of course I’ve notice subconsciously the comfort levels based on what they say, how they act or how they describe a character but I didn’t really consider that as something you could pull apart. Honorific and Pejorative words are also things that I subconsciously got but it took explaining and pointing out for it to really click in my mind that this was diction. One thing that I did notice was connotation and denotation. I have looked but words in the dictionary and thought their meanings were pretty innocent but upon talking to an adult or just reading in context that it didn’t seem quite as innocent. That’s something that I think I’m pretty good at, well, at least better then finding some of the other things.
The class went over imagery next. According to Ms. Holmes, imagery must be vivid enough to picture yourself there and uses all six senses. Smell, sight, touch, taste, sound and spirit are apparently needed to create imagery.
Close reading is another thing that the class went over. I learned that you should read over the text three times, write important notes all over it and think deeply to uncover the true meaning. I’m having a hard time with this. I think I might need more practice at looking and something and deciding that something is there. It is so hard to do quickly! I am not the first one to find anything and if I do find it, then everyone else did too. I want to know how I should be looking deeper at it. What am I doing wrong? How can improve this? I’m frustrated!
Next we learned about writing our first paragraphs for our essays. You should have an intriguing beginning, a middle sentence that switches to the topic and introduces it and then you should have your thesis in as many sentences as you deem necessary. I found this challenging but I enjoyed that we had a sort of formula, something that can work almost every time. The thesis was a little harder to write. We had to include meaning, techniques, effects and anything else that the prompt specified (TAP). Finding the deeper meaning is always hard for me. I can get a sense of what they are getting at, but putting that on paper is challenging and it is difficult to trace back to how I felt that way. Maybe I need to work on monitoring my reactions to literature.
Essays were the next step. This was difficult to say the least. All my issues with close reading and thesis writing were not exactly assets in this endeavor. I’m planning on doing better next time.
I too often find myself struggling to find a "true meaning" when doing analysis for close reading. I think this will be something that will eventually work itself out and become more clear to us each time we work practice working with closed readings. I think this also involves knowing what to look for, and that often does not involve simply reading the text itself. As was mentioned, it's often important that we bring in outside aspects such as background information about the author, the time at which it was written, and the culture that it was written. These key details can help us to better grasp what it is exactly that the author is attempting to convey.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree on the essay timing thing. In 40 minutes im having trouble seeing all of those techniques.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can tell, you have all the things that we covered in class. You said a lot about Diction, so it is clear even though you had trouble with it, now you fully understand. I saw some about imagery, but nothing about details or language.
I really like what you're saying about finding the deeper meaning. Not only can I relate to that sentiment, but by writing it here it is clear that you recognize where your problem is.
Not only did you reiterate what we did in class, you were able to relate both your strengths and weaknesses in this post while connecting them to your previous experience. Way to go, Emily.
I completely know how you feel about close reading; it frustrates me too! Hopefully we'll get better at it, but right now it's just difficult, especially when other people seem to be finding things so easily! This is a really well written post. Not only did you address everything we learned in class, but you also connected each point to your experience and past knowledge. It's both informative and personal. You did a great job with this assignment!
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