Getting started
You know the story, its characters and its techniques. Now you put this knowledge into writing. In class tests you will typically get three kinds of tasks: summarise (comprehension), analyse (analysis) and comment or write creatively (evaluation, creative task). This lesson shows you how to write an analysis paragraph, a personal response and a creative text about The Open Window.
Auf Deutsch: Die drei Anforderungsbereiche heißen im Englischunterricht oft comprehension, analysis und evaluation / creative writing. Achte auf die Operatoren in der Aufgabe: summarise, describe, analyse, explain, comment, write.
Explanation
Task words (operators)
| operator | what you do |
|---|---|
| summarise / outline | give the main points in your own words, simple present, no quotations |
| describe | say what something is like, with details from the text |
| analyse / examine | look at how the text works (techniques) and what effect they have, with evidence |
| explain | make clear why something is so |
| comment / discuss | give your opinion with arguments |
| write (a diary entry, a letter, …) | creative task, keep to the facts of the story and the text type |
An analysis in four parts
- Introduction: title, author, year, text type, topic, and a short thesis that answers the task.
- Main part: several paragraphs, each with one aspect. Each paragraph uses statement, evidence, explanation (lesson 3) and names the effect on the reader.
- Conclusion: sum up your findings and answer the task in one or two sentences.
- Language: simple present, formal style, linking words, short quotations with paragraph numbers.
A personal response
A personal response asks what the text means to you. It is still a text with reasons:
- say what you liked or found interesting and why,
- name a passage or a stylistic device that impressed you and explain its effect,
- compare with your own experience or other stories, if it helps.
A creative task
Typical tasks: a diary entry, a letter, an interior monologue, a scene from another point of view. Rules:
- stay true to the facts and characters of the story,
- choose the right form (date for a diary, greeting for a letter, first person),
- show the character's feelings in his or her own voice.
Examples
Example 1: Analysis paragraph
Task: Analyse how Saki creates surprise in "The Open Window".
Saki creates surprise mainly through the point of view. The third-person narrator presents the events from Framton's perspective, for example "To Framton it was all purely horrible" (paragraph 20), and never reveals Vera's thoughts. As a result, the reader trusts Vera's story as much as Framton does. When the men walk across the lawn "in the deepening twilight" (paragraph 25), the reader shares Framton's horror. Only the last sentence reveals the truth, and the reader suddenly understands that the tragedy was invented.
Example 2: Personal response
What impressed me most is how calm Vera is. Right after Framton's escape, she invents a second story about dogs and a grave on the banks of the Ganges. She tells it "calmly" (paragraph 29), as if nothing had happened. I found this both funny and a little frightening, because she seems to enjoy controlling other people. The dry last sentence made me laugh and want to read the story again.
Example 3: Creative task (beginning)
Framton's diary, that same evening: I shall never forget this afternoon. The child seemed so serious, so sad. And then they came across the lawn, the coat, the dog, even the song. My doctor ordered rest. Instead I have seen three dead men walk home for tea.
Rule
Read the operator first. Analysis: introduction with thesis, paragraphs with statement, evidence, explanation and effect, conclusion. Personal response: your view with reasons and text references. Creative writing: keep the facts, choose the right form, use the character's voice.
Exercises
Grundlagen
- Which operator fits? summarise, analyse, comment a) Look at the use of irony in the story and explain its effect. b) Give the main events of the story in your own words. c) Do you think Vera's trick is harmless fun? Give your opinion.
- Write an introduction for an analysis with the task: Analyse how Vera is presented in the story.
Weiter
- Write one analysis paragraph on the task: Analyse the function of the setting. Use at least two quotations.
- Write a personal response (80 to 100 words): Did you like the ending? Why or why not?
Knobeln
- Choose one creative task (150 to 200 words): a) Write Vera's diary entry for that evening. b) Framton writes a letter to his sister about his visit. c) Write the scene in which Framton tells his doctor what happened.
Lösungen
- a) analyse b) summarise c) comment
- For example: In Saki's short story "The Open Window" (1914), a fifteen-year-old girl frightens a nervous visitor with an invented ghost story. Vera is presented as a clever, calm and manipulative young girl who uses her talent for storytelling to control the adults around her.
- For example: The setting supports Vera's lie. The story takes place in a quiet country house, a "restful country spot" (paragraph 11) where Framton does not expect tragedies. The open French window on an "October afternoon" (paragraph 12) is an unusual detail that seems to need an explanation, which gives Vera the starting point for her story. At the climax, the "deepening twilight" (paragraph 25) turns the hunters into ghostly "figures". In this way the setting makes the lie believable and increases the shock.
- Expected: a clear personal view with at least two reasons and a reference to the text, for example to the last sentence or Vera's calm second story. Both a positive and a negative view are possible if they are supported.
- Expected: first person, the right form (date and Dear diary or a letter with greeting and closing), facts consistent with the story (the visit, the lie, the men, the escape), the character's typical voice: Vera proud and amused, Framton shocked and self-pitying.