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By Friday, you should have read and discussed in class “Move 3 . . . Asking ‘So What?’” (WA 21-23). After using the Method or Notice and Focus to find a significant detail, this move allows you to strengthen your analytical skills by asking why this detail matters. When you are tempted to stop thinking too soon, asking “so what” will press you onwards! Through this technique, we move to making interpretive leaps.
For your second Blog Post, you will come up with a chain of “So What’s” (see p. 23 of Writing Analytically). Write down your work for each step and then post all steps on the blog.
1. Select a passage from Divergent (2-3 sentences maximum) with a significant concrete detail. Write it down here, and cite the page number. Summarize this passage in 1-2 sentences, including the context.
Example: Aldous Huxley writes in Brave New World that “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced” (150).
Summary: In this passage, one of the characters, Helmholtz, is expressing his thoughts on language use, along with his frustration that his use of language seems to be ineffective. This concrete detail is a simile that compares language to x-rays, a scientific tool or technology.
2. Come up with a chain of at least three “So What’s,” following from this observation, linking them clearly to each other. Include a guiding question to direct your inquiry. Label all steps clearly. Here are some possible guiding questions:
So What Step 1:
QUESTION:
Example: Why compare words to x-rays?
ANSWER
Example: X-rays are associated with science, and more specifically with a procedure or technology that is supposed to identify internal problems and bring them to light. By associating language use with this technology, Huxley implies that words have the power to act on the readers like an x-ray, taking something that is buried or implicit and making it explicit.
So What Step 2:
QUESTION:
Example: What is the significance of the implication that words have the power to expose something that is buried?
ANSWER:
Example: If an x-ray exposes buried problems, like a broken bone, Huxley implies that people who are unable or not allowed to read are also unable to come to an understanding of what might be wrong with themselves or the world they are living in.
So What Step 3:
QUESTION:
Example: Where does this observation bring us?
ANSWER:
Example: This suggests that language use has high stakes. If language use has such high stakes, and is supposed to help the health of individuals, one might wonder whether writers have a responsibility to their readers to use words “properly.” In the world that Huxley portrays, Helmholtz expresses frustration that he is unable to “make any use of the power” to write in a way that “pierces” people. What does this tell us about the “health” of a world where people are prevented from writing and reading freely?
By Friday, you should have read and discussed in class “Move 3 . . . Asking ‘So What?’” (WA 21-23). After using the Method or Notice and Focus to find a significant detail, this move allows you to strengthen your analytical skills by asking why this detail matters. When you are tempted to stop thinking too soon, asking “so what” will press you onwards! Through this technique, we move to making interpretive leaps.
For your second Blog Post, you will come up with a chain of “So What’s” (see p. 23 of Writing Analytically). Write down your work for each step and then post all steps on the blog.
1. Select a passage from Divergent (2-3 sentences maximum) with a significant concrete detail. Write it down here, and cite the page number. Summarize this passage in 1-2 sentences, including the context.
Example: Aldous Huxley writes in Brave New World that “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced” (150).
Summary: In this passage, one of the characters, Helmholtz, is expressing his thoughts on language use, along with his frustration that his use of language seems to be ineffective. This concrete detail is a simile that compares language to x-rays, a scientific tool or technology.
2. Come up with a chain of at least three “So What’s,” following from this observation, linking them clearly to each other. Include a guiding question to direct your inquiry. Label all steps clearly. Here are some possible guiding questions:
- What does the observation imply?
- Why does this observation matter?
- Where does this observation get us?
- What do we make of the significance of this observation?
So What Step 1:
QUESTION:
Example: Why compare words to x-rays?
ANSWER
Example: X-rays are associated with science, and more specifically with a procedure or technology that is supposed to identify internal problems and bring them to light. By associating language use with this technology, Huxley implies that words have the power to act on the readers like an x-ray, taking something that is buried or implicit and making it explicit.
So What Step 2:
QUESTION:
Example: What is the significance of the implication that words have the power to expose something that is buried?
ANSWER:
Example: If an x-ray exposes buried problems, like a broken bone, Huxley implies that people who are unable or not allowed to read are also unable to come to an understanding of what might be wrong with themselves or the world they are living in.
So What Step 3:
QUESTION:
Example: Where does this observation bring us?
ANSWER:
Example: This suggests that language use has high stakes. If language use has such high stakes, and is supposed to help the health of individuals, one might wonder whether writers have a responsibility to their readers to use words “properly.” In the world that Huxley portrays, Helmholtz expresses frustration that he is unable to “make any use of the power” to write in a way that “pierces” people. What does this tell us about the “health” of a world where people are prevented from writing and reading freely?
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