Control Over the Elements of Composition
Conventions exist so the reading is free
- Grammar and mechanics that follow established conventions of language allow writers to clearly communicate their interpretation of a text.
- The stated purpose is communication, not correctness for its own sake.
- Every error the reader has to repair is attention taken off your argument.
The stated purpose of following conventions is to...
Every error the reader repairs is attention taken off your argument.
The conventions that cost most in this subject
- Write about literature in the present tense: the narrator refuses, not refused.
- Name the speaker or narrator, never the author, for anything happening inside the text.
- Punctuate quotations exactly, and mark a poem's line break with a slash.
Literary analysis is written in the past tense.
The present tense is standard: the narrator refuses, not refused.
For anything happening inside the text, name the speaker or narrator, never the ____.
The author is for statements about the writing itself.
Sentences that survive being read once
- An exam reader reads your essay once, at speed.
- Keep the subject and its verb close together, and put your claim in the main clause.
- A sentence that needs re-reading has cost you the point it was carrying.
Does this sentence follow the conventions?
Sort each sentence by the convention it keeps or breaks.
Write about a text in the present tense. The narrator refuses is standard in literary analysis; the narrator refused reads as retelling the plot rather than analysing the text — and it is the single most common convention error in exam essays.
Select all the things control is not.
Clarity is exactly what control is.
What control is not
- Control is not elaborate vocabulary, and it is not length.
- A long word used slightly wrongly costs more than the plain word would have earned.
- The rubric rewards clarity of interpretation; ornament is neutral at best.
Put the final pass in the order this lesson gives.
An exam reader reads your essay once, at speed.
A final pass, in this order
- Tense: is every verb about the text in the present?
- Attribution: have I written the author where I meant the speaker?
- Quotations: is every one punctuated exactly as the text has it?
Before: The author showed that she was angry, when the narrator said "she never forgave the house". After: The narrator's phrase "she never / forgave the house" places the refusal before its object. Present tense, right attribution, exact quotation, and a claim instead of a retelling.
Conventions allow a writer to communicate an interpretation clearly — that is their stated purpose. In this subject: present tense, name the speaker or narrator not the author, punctuate quotations exactly and mark a line break with a slash. Control is clarity, not vocabulary or length.