English 101
Essay #4 Worksheet
15 points
Due Date:
Thu 3/3: We will work on this in class, and then you will keep it to work on further. It
will be turned in to me with your final Imitation package.
Format: Handwritten or typed. Paper submission.
Length: About 3 pages typed or 6 pages handwritten, unless your handwriting is tiny.
This should be very long, as you should have a lot of observations.
Instructions: Study the essay you are going to imitate, looking at it in all the following
ways. Do not skip any of them! Write down all of your observations about all of the
following elements. This will take a long time. You will need to be working on this over
several days, so do not leave it until the last minute.
In class on the due date, you will exchange your observations with others who are
working with the same essay.
Overall:
 Overall theme and idea. What’s the main idea? What deeper theme might there
be?
 How long is the essay? Why do you think the author made it this length?
 Title: How does it relate to the essay?
 Thesis: Is it explicitly stated? If so, where is the thesis placed--beginning, end,
somewhere in the middle? If it is not explicitly stated, how does the writer build
to it, and where does a reader figure out fully what it is?
 Overall organizing principle. Is it chronological? Stream of consciousness? From
the general to the particular? From the particular example to the general?
 How does the theme and idea fit with the structure and style that the writer has
chosen?
 Beginning and end: how do they relate to each other?
Paragraphs:
 Paragraph order: how does the order of the paragraphs help to develop the
idea?
 Paragraph length: Are they all the same length? Different lengths? Why do you
think the author chose these sizes of paragraphs?
 Order within paragraphs: how does each paragraph develop its idea? Does it use
PIE, or a variation of PIE, or some other structure?
 Do any of the paragraphs do surprising things, or challenge your idea of what a
paragraph should be?
(over)
Sentences:
 Length: Are they all the same length, are there different lengths? What’s the
average sentence length? Is there a lot of contrast between short and long
sentences? What is the effect of this?
 Sentence rhythm and sounds: Read some sentences aloud. How do the rhythms
and sounds of the sentences reflect or enhance the meaning? Does the music of
the sentence dramatize the idea in the sentence?
 Grammatical structure of sentences: Are there a lot of single-clause sentences?
Are there a lot of compound sentences (clauses joined by coordinating
conjunctions)? Are there a lot of subordinated clauses (review our list of the
different kinds of conjunctions)? How does the author’s choice of sentence types
reflect the meaning?
 Coordination, parallelism, repetition: Within sentences, are there lists of things,
or elements presented in a series? Are words or phrases repeated within
sentences or from sentence to sentence? What is the effect of this?
Words
 Level of vocabulary: Is it fancy or plain or somewhere in between? Do you think
it is average for the audiences of the time, or might it have been fancy or plain to
those audiences as well?
 Length of words: Are there a lot of long words? A lot of short words? Are there
any series of many short words in a row? Or many long words in a row? What is
the effect of this?
 Verbs: What particularly active and precise verbs do you notice?
 Nouns: What particularly strong and specific nouns do you notice?
 Adjectives and adverbs: Are there a lot of them? A few of them? Do any of them
particularly stand out as adding valuable meaning?
Literary Devices
 Metaphor and simile: Does the writing contain a lot of metaphor and simile?
What are some specific examples and how are these apt for the purpose?
 Sensory imagery: Does the writing contain a lot of specific sensory imagery?
What are some specific examples and how do these enhance meaning?
 Symbol: Do any of the elements in the writing rise to the level of symbol,
standing for something greater than themselves, something that perhaps reflects
a deeper meaning for the whole piece?
 Literary or historical allusion: Does the essay refer to literary works or historical
events? Why does the author do this? What is the effect in the essay?