ENG170 7
Paper details:
The goal of this assignment is to sharpen your ability to select quotations for commentary and questions.
1. Taking John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids as your source, identify a “block” quotation (meaning a passage of about 5-10 lines, either of the main text or dialogue). Try to find a passage that is particularly rich in suggestion or that surprised you.
2. Write a commentary of about HALF A PAGE SINGLE SPACED on the passage. In the commentary, you may consider one or two of the following questions:
What kinds of words/vocabulary does the author use?
What does the choice of vocabulary suggest in terms of meaning or connotations? (an example would be the passage in The Day of the Triffids when the narrator compares agriculture to warfare)
What tone or style does the author choose and why? (is it plainly descriptive, colorful, emotional, suspenseful? How so and why?)
How does the author imply or suggest ideas without stating them explicitly?
3. Write two questions that come up for you in response to the quotation and the commentary. These should be written along the lines of the discussion questiocgons we take up in class.
