The exam is comprised of a poem which you will analyze, sight passage (essay) which you will deconstruct, and a theme paragraph which links to various works that you’ve studied this year.
To prepare, you need to be familiar with the terms on this page and any others covered throughout this course and be able to apply them to the sight essay.
Essay Terms:
Thesis
Tone
Point of View
Purpose
Intended Audience
Demographic
Rhetorical/Poetic/Literary Devices:
Alliteration
Allusion
Anaphora
Antithesis
Archetype
Assonance
Cacophony
Consonance
Emphasis
Effective Diction
Euphemism
Hyperbole
Imagery
Irony
Juxtaposition
Metaphor
Motif
Onomatopoeia
Oxymoron
Paradox
Personification
Repetition
Rhetorical Questions
Rhyme
Pun
Simile
Statistic
Symbol
Understatement
Structural Techniques
Active vs. Passive Voice
Balance
Contrast
Sentence Variety
Sentence Fragment
Parallel Structure
Periodic Sentence
Chronological Order / Reverse Chronological Order
Ordered by Importance
Comparative Structure
Spatial Order
Sensory Order
Typography
Textual Features (ie. Headings, Captions, Insets)
Sentence Length
Paragraph Variety
Short Sentence
Sentence Structure
Punctuation
Repetition
Essay Selections:
For additional practice, we’ll also review the essay analysis process and deconstruct some of the following sight passages in class. Review the “Essay Deconstruction Note” on Mr. Bignell’s website, and practice deconstructing to following essays by answering the questions following.
The Act of Writing:
“Say Hi or Die” p. 85
“The Step Not Taken” p. 140
“A Nice Place To Visit” p. 205 Essays: Thought and Style
“Labour Day is a Dreaded Bell in the Schoolyard of the Mind” p. 2
“Blasting Music To Drown out Reality: p. 5
“My Speech to the Graduates” p. 12
Essay Deconstruction Questions:
1. Consider the title, comment on why it is effective.
2. Identify the point of