The Explication Essay

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Do Now:

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• What does it mean to explicate something?
• How is this different than summarizing?
• What do you think an explication paper would entail?

Explication Essay: What is it?

Definition: Explication is an exercise where you closely read, consider, and analyze a passage in DETAIL. It is the process of making something CLEARER.

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Goal: To consider the patterns of language and meaning in a passage and to relate it to the play’s dramatic context.

Basically, by looking super closely at a passage, you are equipping yourself to share your response to the entire play by explaining the reasons for feeling the way you do about a specific part of it.

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Through this process, you will explore the play’s plot, characters, language, and form.

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A good Explication:

• Connects the poetic devices in a poem with the ideas and emotions it conveys to a reader.
• Accounts for the contribution of every line, ideally of every significant word, especially for a short passage.
• Discusses form as well as content: not just the themes or argument, but also how the author presents, manipulates, and styles the material.

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How should you work and plan?

Annotate and read carefully!

• Mark up the passage, noticing any poetic or rhetorical devices
• Then, explain how these techniques advance the meaning of the play or a key concept that a first-time reader might have missed.
• Your thesis will state this discovery explicitly.

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Your Explication Essay must analyze form as well as content: not just the themes and ideas in the passage, but also how Shakespeare crafts and styles the language.

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What are your goals?

Analyze rhetorical and literary devices:

• Simile
• Metaphor
• Alliteration
• Personification
• Enjambment
• Parallel structure
• And so on...
• Through your explication of these things, reveal an important aspect of the passage that otherwise would have gone unnoticed

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Be specific!

• Build your thesis statement on your discovery
• Make your pose as clear and concise as possible
• Don’t waste time trying to sound impressive

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What is your task?

You will be choosing between 4 different key passages from AMND and writing a 2-3 page Explication Essay (500-800 words).

I will be looking to see...

• How effectively you set the context of the passage
• How well you understand the text
• How well you support your interpretation of the text (through quotations)
• How well you "unpack" any figures of speech or rhetorical devices in the passage
• How well you understand the character(s) speaking, and the influence that character may have on the meaning of the work as a whole
• How well you interconnect the passage to related issues and characters in the play

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Let’s practice annotating!

As I model my annotations, make a list of some of the things you see me doing.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WYe3kCFXD9Oaci7CceZl9AoszlACJxNS0--W_h_4W7s/edit?usp=sharing

Extra Guidance

This document has a helpful list of steps to think through as you explicate the passage.

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Choose a passage for your Explication Essay

Option 1: Titania

Option 2: Helena

Option 3: Hippolyta/Theseus

Option 4: Puck

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*Copy and paste your chosen passage into the Annotation Checklist assignment on Google Classroom.

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