What's next for K/H: Writing Commentary and The Metamorphosis

Now that our EOC is behind us, we turn our attention to building skills for next year. All levels of English III have an increased focus on literary analysis. (English III AP also does a lot of nonfiction/rhetorical analysis.) I know that one of the principle skills you'll need for next year is writing commentary.

Commentary in a paper looks like this: You've written an introduction. You've given a topic sentence to narrow and define the topic for this paragraph. Then, once you've given the text evidence you would like to discuss, you include some thoughtful commentary. When you are writing commentary, you are explaining the connections you made when you were reading, the very same connections you've now proven with quotes. You're not explaining the piece in a summary; that's basic. You're explaining the connections and insights and thoughts you have about whatever topic (theme, tone, satire, etc) your teacher has asked you to look for and write about. Writing great commentary requires that you have read the text with detailed attention, and calls on superb annotation skills.

So, as we read The Metamorphosis, writing commentary for literary analysis is our skills focus.

Full Text: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka