World Lit Paper 2 Prep
GENERAL INFORMATION:
1. The assignment must be the independent
work of the candidate. You must work
independently, but with teacher supervision.
All work connected with your assignment must
be your own.
2. Ask Ms. Disher-Campbell to:
a. help you decide which kind of assignment you should
attempt
b. help you decide on the work on which assignments will be
based
c. help you focus the assignment by defining a specific topic
d. help you with the title of the assignment
e. help you decide on the form of imaginative pieces (poem,
diary, letter, whatever)
f. help you decide if you need to consult secondary sources
g. discuss your outlines with you to make sure proposals meet
the requirements of the assignment
h. suggest to you how to modify your proposal if it’s unsuitable
i. discuss you proposal in terms of the assessment criteria
• 3. Keep all drafts of your paper, either on
your computer or as hard copies – including
proposals, outlines, and just plain doodling. It
may be necessary for me to verify the
authenticity of your paper and if I can see
multiple drafts, that will be sufficient in most
cases. Be sure to turn in your rough draft on
time so that I can give you the most efficient
help on this assignment.
• First Drafts of WL Assignments
Teachers may make general comments about the first
drafts of assignments but must neither correct them
nor write comments on the drafts themselves. These
comments may be oral, but if in writing must be on a
separate sheet.
• After making general comments about the first drafts of
assignments, teachers should provide no further
assistance unless a candidate abandons a proposed
assignment and begins a new one. In this case, teachers
should provide guidance for the new proposal in the
same way as for the original one by encouraging the
candidate to produce an outline and making general
comments on any first draft produced.
THESIS STATEMENTS:
STRONG OR WEAK?
Strong Thesis Statements
have/do the following:
• Use evidence from the text to support claims (i.e.
anaphora develops the speaker’s tone… ellision affects
the sound of the words in Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn
Ferry”…)
• Hint at larger meaning—if you say a device exists, WHY
did the poet choose it and HOW does he/she use it?
What is the THEME?
• Are general enough to cover the main points/purpose of
the poem, but specific enough to give you something to
discuss
– Weak: “Szymborska’s ‘Still’ is about Jews riding in a boxcar
to a concentration camp.”
– Stronger: “S’s ‘Still’ uses a cyclical repetition, anaphora, and
a distant tone to establish the speaker’s physical and
emotional disconnect from the Jews in the boxcar.”)
Strong or Weak?
• “Through the use of anaphora, Szymborska
creates a helpless and anxious tone in her
poem, ‘Still’ as a response to the damage from
war and oppression that is comparable to the
tone of Satrapi in Persepolis.”
Strong or Weak?
• “By using a third person omniscient narrator,
Szymborska juxtaposes the position of her
speaker against the state of the Jews in the
boxcar in her poem ‘Still’.”
Strong or Weak?
• “Through her use of repetition and somber
tone, Szymborska establishes the feeling of
the mechanical, cold precision of the
Holocaust in her poem ‘Still’.”
Strong or Weak?