Quote Responses

On days indicated on the calendar, you will submit a quote response on an assigned work. I say "submit," but because you will be writing these assignments in Google Drive, I will be able to see your work on them even before the due date. So the deadline is actually when you should be finished so that I can evaluate your work.

The goal is to think about a work we are reading and write short paragraph responses to three different quotations. The exercise, therefore, has three sections. To earn credit for the assignment, please follow the requirements and guidelines.

1. Ethics: Choose a sentence or short passage from the work that reveals the ethics of a character or the narrator. After typing the quotation, identify what the person values and explain how you can tell. How does the language justify your interpretation? Do not identify a personality trait the person has; instead, identify an idea or virtue that he or she values. For example, "This passage suggests that Edna wants the men in her life to serve her, just as she has been expected to serve." That is how you would start your response. Then you would explain how your chosen passage actually reveals that idea to you. Where in the language do you sense the truth of your statement? How did you get there? Be careful here. Don't chose a passage that reports a value directly. If you simply repeat what the passage says, you will fall short. Look for implications.
2. Conflict: Choose a different sentence or short passage that underscores an important conflict in the work. After typing the quotation, identify the conflict you see and explain how the language reveals it to you. Make sure you understand what "conflict" means before attempting this one. You need to practice the following expression: "conflict between      A      and      B     ," the two blanks containing the specific ideas, choices, or attitudes that are in disharmony. For example, "This passage underscores a conflict between Edna's desire to free herself from social expectations and Leonce's need to maintain the status quo to secure his financial stability." This is how you would start a response. Then you would explain how your chosen passage actually helps you see that. Be careful. If your response is too obviously tied to the literal words of the quote, you will fall short. Look for implications, not reports.
3. Craft: Choose another different sentence or short passage that showcases a feature of the author's way of using words in the work. After typing the quotation, describe the feature that attracted your attention and explain the effect it has on your experience reading the work. Do not interpret the passage; instead, show how the author's use of words creates the meaning you see, helps you see the meaning. For example, "This passage contains a metaphor comparing Edna's longing for freedom to the act of swimming in a great expanse of water." That is how you would start your response. Then you have show how that comparison makes sense and explain the effect of that metaphor on your ability to understand the text. If you simply demonstrate your understanding by interpreting the passage, you will fall short.

ethics: The values, attitudes, or point of view that guides an individual's behavior, desires, and choices. Ethics define right and wrong, helpful and hurtful, etc. There is always a value system in or behind a work, and one way to make sense of a story is to identify the shape and size of that system. Even if we happen to disagree with the values held by a character (not always the same as the author, remember), we can benefit from literature that helps us see another point of view more clearly.

conflict: Any clash between one attitude and another, one behavior and another, one desire and another, or one choice and another that leads to crisis. If you have ever asked yourself the question "What should I do now?" you might know something about crisis. In literature, conflicts between characters or conflicts within the mind of a character or speaker allow us to observe crisis from a distance, but we can still be affected.

craft: The way an author uses words should matter in a work of literature, and most of the time it does matter. So we must pay attention to the author's language. Word choice, tone of voice, the rhythm of phrases, the level of detail, etc. all contribute to our impression of an author's style. Style is important to analyze in literature because in the end, we are reading words crafted to create a memorable effect.

Evaluation

• A quote response that is complete, follows the guidelines, and is clearly written will earn full credit for being done on time.
• If your quote response demonstrates any serious problems, I will ask you to do it again. Serious problems include failure to respond according to the guidelines or failure to exercise great care in proofreading your work for grammar and clarity.
• To earn credit, your three quotes must be unique and carefully chosen, your responses must be professional and edited carefully, and all parts of the quote response must be filled in, including (a) the name of the work and your name at the top and (b) the page numbers of your quotes (and other blanks where appropriate).
• Please use the quote response template to type your work. When you open this document, you can go to "File" to "Make a copy"; then rename the document (LastName.FirstName.QR1.F13) and put it in your assignments folder in Google Drive. Leave the formatting in the quote response template as is.
• No fewer than 100 words per response, not including the quotation itself. The strongest Quote Responses will go beyond the minimum length requirement.