READING LITERATURE needs to be an active a process. Your brain needs to be engaged and we are going to work on training your brain to approach literature for more than JUST ANSWERING simple questions. Your goal is to UNDERSTAND and to understand you need to ASK QUESTIONS!
If you find yourself struggling with a piece, try to ask yourself some of these questions and see where the answers take you.
- Who is speaking? To whom? In private or in public?
- What is the speaker’s attitude toward the matter he or she is relating?
- What does the writer think of the speaker?
- Does the speaker undergo any change or growth? Do any other characters?
- What is the effect of the way that the work begins? Of the way it ends?
- What are the principal recurring elements in the work?
- What kind of world (setting, society, cosmos) is portrayed or implied in the work?
- How does the work resemble other works you have read – both in this course and elsewhere? How does it significantly differ?
- In what ways is your paraphrase an inadequate restatement of the original?
- How is the way the work is written related to what is written about? The implications of the metaphors? The effect of meter, rhyme, alliteration?
Question Guide
As you begin to create your own thought-provoking questions about the literature you are reading, consider the following:
Create questions that:
• are open-ended or require an extended response or explanation.
• are not necessarily answered “right in the text,” but require readers to form their own opinion or interpret what they are reading for themselves to arrive at possible answers.
• do not always have a definite answer. Many times literature leaves readers with more questions than answers.
• you are curious about—you may not have an idea formed yet, but you would like to hear what others have to say about the topic.
As you write your questions, think about these ideas:
• Characters and their actions, choices, and consequences
• Problems in the story
• Where and when the story takes place and how it impacts the overall plot
• How you feel about the literature: the characters, how the author wrote, use of language, style of the writing, etc.
• What you understood and what is still confusing to you
• Questions you would ask the character if you were to interview him or her
• The speaker, shape of the text on the page, use of punctuation, word choices, images, and how these elements affected your understanding of the work
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