Which reading from this section was most interesting? Which of the characters/stories/poems was most compelling?

Question

Which reading from this section was most interesting? Which of the characters/stories/poems was most compelling? Why? Explain what makes these works and characters memorable using evidence from the reading.

The sections: Wordsworth & “We Are Seven”, Browning & “The Cry of the Children”, or Flaubert

Answer 1

This question is basically asking students to do a close reading of the text. In other words, students should focus entirely on coming up with ideas they find in the text (the reading), and not bring in their own ideas about what's going on. This is called a formalist approach. The idea is to extract meaning from the text rather than inserting meaning. This is why the question is asking the student to provide evidence from the text. The point is to learn how to read based only on the evidence that is provided. It also constitutes an understanding of how an author chooses what language to use to get across an emotion or a point.