May 6, 2009
Group: Team Pants
Novel: Breaking Dawn
Chelsea and Lauren B. summarized Breaking Dawn in such a way that leaves all the details were left for the reader to find out and for them to know. Enough in formation is given to follow the story and they stated it in a precise to the point manner leaving no margin of error. The analysis was very well written out; no mistakes my eyes could spot. Other than the triangle being a little dificult to read everything is stated clearly, simply, and as a matter of factly way that anyone can understand. Having read the book myself I give them a thumbs up; it was a job well done.
Group: Rosie
Novel: Of Mice and Men
For April's literary analysis Rosie chose Of Mice and Men as always she used fabulous diction and great imagery. There was enough information to paint out a picture but at the same time not give away all the juicy details. She leaves a little for ones imagination to start churning. The triangle is nicely organized, concise and simple; it gives a bit more emphasis on details in the given summary which is a nice touch. Although everything is very well thought out and written at points it seemed like there was too much detail and it goes too far into explanation. Other than that the analysis is another triumph for Rosie.
Group: CJJRS
Novel: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The summary written by the group CJJRS on the novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is impresive and, without a few little errors here and there, perfect. They were able to capture the escense of the story and not get wrapped up in all the small but significant details that go along with it. The triangle lacks a little skill but it is stil understandable and states the events clearly. They could work on there diction just a tad bit more but the sentence structure is great along with everything else.
Apple and Bradley did a great job of summarizing the novel. They only gave the main points and did not give away too many details. Better diction would have been prefered when summarizing the novel. I believe better words should have been used to get the message across. Although not too many details were given, the ending was clearly stated. I think Apple and Bradley could have added more life to the summary to make the novel seem more intriguing.
April 2, 2009
Title: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Group:AP Lunch (Josh Browne)
Josh Browne summarized The Jungle in a very clean and organized fashion. There was flow to his analysis, which made the stories summary easy to understand and follow. Otherwise, there were only a few minor mistakes that were recognized. In the first paragraph, the words Chicago and known are without space in-between them. Furthermore, poor diction is used as the word “crappy” was used to describe the house that Jurgis’s family first live in. Otherwise, Josh did an excellent job of summarizing The Jungle.
Tanner well-informs the reader what the novel, The Color of Magic, entails. Tanner makes it sound like quite an outlandish novel that experiences much adventure. Although, there were minimal grammatical errors noticed such as unplaced commas. Otherwise, this novel appears interesting and the summary makes The Color of Magic an appealing novel to read.
Apple and Bradley did a great job of summarizing the novel. They only gave the main points and did not give away too many details. Better diction would have been prefered when summarizing the novel. I believe better words should have been used to get the message across. Although not too many details were given, the ending was clearly stated. I think Apple and Bradley could have added more life to the summary to make the novel seem more intriguing.
Title: The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
Group: AP Lit Duo
The novel sounds interesting. It seems to have a level of mysteriousness that can make it a page turner. The summary was explict but the novel did not lose it's interest. The summary seems to be missing the falling action. I'm sure the falling action is included in the summary but within a different heading. Overall the AP Lit Duo did a fantastic job summarizing the novel.
March 3, 2009
Title: Wuthering Heights
Group: Literary Gathering
Literary Gathering properly summarized the novel Wuthering Heights. They provided many detailed facts about the novel and characterized the characters well simply by describing the plot. A few punctuation errors were found, but they were not critical mistakes. Furthermore, the theme of the novel is stated very smoothly and makes sense according to the summary. Also, the tone stated of the novel seemed to be accurate. Literary Gathering did a fantastic job on their literary analysis!
Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Group: AP Lit Duo
AP Lit Duo does a simple job of summarizing the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. They don't expell too much information as to make the reader not want to read the novel. The conflicts are properly exposed and their explanations are well adressed. Moreover, the only fault found was the lowercased letters of some of the character's names. Otherwise, bravo to a well nararrated summary.
Title: Eclipse
Group: Team Pants
Team pants summarized this novel too well. By this it is meant that the summary was too detailed and gave too much information. What is great is how those who read the summary know the conflits within the story. One can tell the anaylsis was well thought out because each sentence flows with one another. For those who have not read the novel and intend on doing so, reading the anaylsis is not recommended.
Titile: Candide
Group: CJJRS
The analysis was well written. It makes anyone want to read the novel. The anaylsis captures the exictment within the novel. The falling action and the resolution is not very clear but this benefits those who do not want a spoiled ending. It is great that this group made a story that is over a century seem entertaining.
Feb. 3, 2009
Title: Twilight
Group: Team Pants
The novel Twilight is fairly well summarized by the group Team Pants. Something to look into next time an analysis is done might be not to give the small details that normally keep the reader in the book rather than give them all away in a sort summary. One always has to leave a little for the reader to find out. Other than that everything seemed well writen and thought out and no gramatical errors that my eyes can see so good job Team Pants.
Title: Animal Farm
Group: Cjjrslit
The Group Cjjrslit explained the novel Animal Farm in a way that was both understandable and informitive without giving away too much information. Everything was sweet and simple although I would recomend revising their work to sift out unnecessary errors. All in all everything was depicted very nicely the characters and relationships were easy to tell apart and thing ran smoothly. Great job!
Title: The Phantom of the Opera
Group: Literary Gathering
Overall Literary Gathering did a good job. All the information was in the correct places, gramatically it was writen well. The only problem is that there was some confusion when the characters were described using thrid person pronouns such as "he" but after reading over it a couple of times I came to understand who "he" was refering to. Overall it was well summerized.
Title: The Great Gatsby
Group: Ap Lunch
In the exposition AP Lunch made a statment about Tom Buchanan being a "loser" and although this may be true it is still an opinion and summeries should not be biased becaus it affects crediblity. As a whole it was well written and not too many details were given away.
Literary Critiques 12-1-08
1) Tanner Johnson has done an excellent job of outlining and explaining the basic plot of Fahrenheit 451. There was an appropriate amount of information for the novel to be understood. Tanner has set out the most important and intriguing parts of the book to make it appear interesting. The way that the analysis is set out on its own page is very organized and brings the parts of the book report, the Freytag Pyramid and summary, together. Overall, it’s simple to navigate from one page to another and easy to understand the plot of Fahrenheit 451.
2) Shelby Rudy and Miguel Tremblay have done a fabulous job displaying the novel, Speak, on their website. Although, I felt as if I didn’t need to read the book since I felt like I obtained all of the information that I needed from it through the analysis. Moreover, the depiction of the novel laid many of the events out in a neat and organized way. The only issue that was recognized was that there were a few grammatical errors.
3) Josh Brown made a very colloquial analysis of the book The Kite Runner. Though at no point in the summary did I find out why exactly kites were fighting, I still found that I walked away from the website --metaphorically of course-- with a general understanding of, not only the story's overall plot, but more importantly, the interactions of the characters within the story and the emotions driving all of the character's interactions.
4) Cjjrslit's website featured the book Night. A book that is widely considered a classic and one of the stable readings of World War II jewish literature. I can only imagine how gruesome the book must have been after reading the analyasis on the website, no matter how many times I read about the holocaust or WWII prison camps the stories that the survivor's tell always sends a chill up my spine and leaves me with a cold loathing of humanity that the main character of the book seems to share by the end of the novel.
I thought it was cool how the main protagonist in the story remains anonymous throughout the book. Come to think of it I don't believe I've ever read a piece of fiction that disassociates itself from the main character in such a way. Fight club definitely seems like something I'd want to read, despite the fact that the movie has been out for eons and I've still yet to see it. I digress, the most interesting aspect of the novel to me is how it appears that the main protagonist actually has split personalities within him, and the split personality is actually the narrator! What a twist!
Eragon: By AP lunch
Upon inspection Eragon seems to me to be Star wars told via a lord of the rings style medieval setting. This both intrigues and upsets me as an individual. One one hand Star wars is a fantastic series with memorable characters, fascinating plot points and shining dialogue, and It'd be reall interesting to see how this translates to paper form and then changes into a swords and wizards medium. On the other hand it upsets me how the author can so blatantly rip off plot points from the star wars franchise with little or no respect for creative or imaginative properties. If I was lucas I'd so for all of the copy with book does from his work.
