How to avoid story telling in Text Response

[link125]

I'd appreciate if you could share your tips

It's a problem I've been having :S

[brenden]

Well other than being consciously aware of what you're writing, after presenting evidence you could make a deliberate effort to use verbs pertaining to the author. Eg. "Harry, if you die, who will kill Voldy. And I'll be left all alone?" In this quote, Rowling highlights the gravity of Hermione's situation, reinforcing one of the novel's motifs of friendship camaraderie"
If you talk about what the author is doing, WHAT it achieves, HOW it reinforces any themes/your contention and WHY the author has included that evidence then you should be alright with not retelling the story.

[My name aint bob]

Im not a very good English student, but before i write i actually change the prompt to the essays slightly, and respond to the one i make instead. (im doing ransom by the way)

eg. the prompt: Women have no important role in Ransom.

i would change it and respond to: what is malouf using women to show in  ransom.

you have to be weary how you change it, but i find it keeps my essays on track more

[sandaygirl]

try and say a sentence about the story then explain it and how it fits to the prompt !

[Felicity Wishes]

I just constantly try to tell myself that the reader of my essay has read the text so they don't need a summary..

But it's pretty much what the others have said; only mention the parts of the plot that can support your contention. Example: Through directing Cosi Fan Tutte with the patients, Lewis was continuously exposed to their idiosyncrasies, allowing him to truly understand the nature of the mental ill, helping his understanding become more realistic, as compared to his stereotypical understanding at the beginning of the play, where he believed that the patients would simply 'go berserk' without their medication. ~ Pretty rough example but here I just just mentioned what NEEDS to be said, rather than saying something like; University student, Lewis Riley is introduced in the play as someone timid and weak, he is introduced to the patients by social worker, Justin and is rather wary of them. Nick and Lucy leave and Lewis does not know how to take control. He weakly shakes Cherry's hand, suggesting that she is delicate, then he introduces himself to the patients but Roy and Doug end up doing most of the talking. Rehersals continue and... etc etc ~ You can see from that bad example that I have included too many unnecessary things and it needs to be more direct with less babbling. Hope that helps. 


 

[charmanderp]

Well other than being consciously aware of what you're writing, after presenting evidence you could make a deliberate effort to use verbs pertaining to the author. Eg. "Harry, if you die, who will kill Voldy. And I'll be left all alone?" In this quote, Rowling highlights the gravity of Hermione's situation, reinforcing one of the novel's motifs of friendship camaraderie"
If you talk about what the author is doing, WHAT it achieves, HOW it reinforces any themes/your contention and WHY the author has included that evidence then you should be alright with not retelling the story.

Listen to this guy, he arbitrarily used a Harry Potter example which makes him better than everyone else.

Even if said example doesn't actually exist.

[werdna]

Like Brenden said, it's good to make references to the author/director and how they construct meaning - words like 'demonstrates', 'explores' and 'evokes' would be perfect for this. However, you'd want to alternate between this and what is called nominalisation, where you turn verbs/adjectives into their noun form. Instead of saying 'depicts' or 'explores' repetitively, say 'The author's depiction of...' or 'The director's exploration...' which automatically forces you to analyse and say something worthwhile rather than fall into the trap of storytelling. Another example - instead of saying 'Antonio HUNTS for the jaguar and...', reword this to 'The HUNT that endures with the jaguar...' which again forces you to analyse rather than storytell. So alternate between verbs and nouns.

Another easy way to avoid storytelling in a text response is to have your paragraphs based on thematic or broad ideas (or characters if it's a character based topic) rather than anything based on plot or events. This will ensure that all your metalanguage based examples relate back to that topic.

[Tomanomanous]

I guess one method could be to constantly think in your head why the author has put this section into the book and what message he/she is trying to bring across to the reader - or how it supports the message.

[charmanderp]

I just constantly try to tell myself that the reader of my essay has read the text so they don't need a summary..

Actually from experience you should work under the assumption that the examiner hasn't read the text, or doesn't know it very well. I know that for Lit, sometimes the examiner who marks your piece will have not read the text it's a response to.

For Lit, I always provided, at the start of a paragraph or analytical discourse, a few sentences which contextualised the paragraph. With English, if you're drawing on an event or quote as evidence it's similarly vital that you in someway contextualise it. Not only does this make it more clear how it's relevant to your analysis, it also shows a greater appreciation of the text at large.

[Felicity Wishes]

I just constantly try to tell myself that the reader of my essay has read the text so they don't need a summary..

Actually from experience you should work under the assumption that the examiner hasn't read the text, or doesn't know it very well. I know that for Lit, sometimes the examiner who marks your piece will have not read the text it's a response to.

For Lit, I always provided, at the start of a paragraph or analytical discourse, a few sentences which contextualised the paragraph. With English, if you're drawing on an event or quote as evidence it's similarly vital that you in someway contextualise it. Not only does this make it more clear how it's relevant to your analysis, it also shows a greater appreciation of the text at large.

Oh wow. I've been advised against that all year but I guess what I'm referring to is that the reader doesn't need a whole overview of the whole plot which is what me and a lot of my classmates had been doing at the start of the year, we'd provided the evidence but with so much unnecessary plot details which kind of made the essays seem like a replay of the story with ideas chucked in, rather than an essay that actually explored the topic which is why my teacher told us to 'assume the reader has read the text' so that we just provide the context briefly rather than going overboard.

[lexitu]

I just constantly try to tell myself that the reader of my essay has read the text so they don't need a summary..

Actually from experience you should work under the assumption that the examiner hasn't read the text, or doesn't know it very well. I know that for Lit, sometimes the examiner who marks your piece will have not read the text it's a response to.

For Lit, I always provided, at the start of a paragraph or analytical discourse, a few sentences which contextualised the paragraph. With English, if you're drawing on an event or quote as evidence it's similarly vital that you in someway contextualise it. Not only does this make it more clear how it's relevant to your analysis, it also shows a greater appreciation of the text at large.

Oh wow. I've been advised against that all year but I guess what I'm referring to is that the reader doesn't need a whole overview of the whole plot which is what me and a lot of my classmates had been doing at the start of the year, we'd provided the evidence but with so much unnecessary plot details which kind of made the essays seem like a replay of the story with ideas chucked in, rather than an essay that actually explored the topic which is why my teacher told us to 'assume the reader has read the text' so that we just provide the context briefly rather than going overboard.

Agree. For English, examiners have studied every single text so you can assume an informed audience

[link125]

Thanks for the responses

I think I just need to find the middle ground between providing too much context and too little. Provide a tiny backdrop that is meshed with my discussion of the prompt without including any unnecessary details

[charmanderp]

I just constantly try to tell myself that the reader of my essay has read the text so they don't need a summary..

Actually from experience you should work under the assumption that the examiner hasn't read the text, or doesn't know it very well. I know that for Lit, sometimes the examiner who marks your piece will have not read the text it's a response to.

For Lit, I always provided, at the start of a paragraph or analytical discourse, a few sentences which contextualised the paragraph. With English, if you're drawing on an event or quote as evidence it's similarly vital that you in someway contextualise it. Not only does this make it more clear how it's relevant to your analysis, it also shows a greater appreciation of the text at large.

Oh wow. I've been advised against that all year but I guess what I'm referring to is that the reader doesn't need a whole overview of the whole plot which is what me and a lot of my classmates had been doing at the start of the year, we'd provided the evidence but with so much unnecessary plot details which kind of made the essays seem like a replay of the story with ideas chucked in, rather than an essay that actually explored the topic which is why my teacher told us to 'assume the reader has read the text' so that we just provide the context briefly rather than going overboard.

Agree. For English, examiners have studied every single text so you can assume an informed audience

I probably phrased my post poorly; assume an informed audience, but relating a quote to a specific event or giving it some content can strengthen its position in your argument. Although this is probably more important for Context.

[brenden]

but relating a quote to a specific event or giving it some content can strengthen its position in your argument.

Yeah I second this. Sure, you can bust out a Hermione quote, but it'll be a lot more effective if you show that it's right before they twist the time-turner.

[Lolly]

I know that for Lit, sometimes the examiner who marks your piece will have not read the text it's a response to

Am I the only person who finds this disconcerting...?