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Stage IV. Second Reading
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Using the information you gathered during the pre-reading observations and the fact-finding stage, your task here is to further examine the surface structure of the text and explore the elements that make the essay an exposition or an argument.

Task 1. Ask Yourself. At this point, can you determine the format of the sample essay? Review the tasks you completed in the Introducción al ensayo and use them to determine your answer. Write your answer here, then come back and check it when you have finished this section.

1.
This essay is

Strategy 1. Review Relevant Syntax

Task 1. Decode Verbs.

2.
In previous tasks you identified the most important verbs in each segment of the essay. Decode those verbs so that you know who does what to whom, and record the information on a Verbal Elements chart (see Appendix).

Task 2. Transfer and Decode Pronouns.

3.
Transfer the pronouns you identified in the first reading. Decode them and record the information on a Pronoun Identification chart (see Appendix). Make sure that you can identify the antecedent of each pronoun.

Task 3. Compare.

4.
Share your results from Tasks 1 and 2 with your study group. Discuss the impact of the verb tenses and pronouns you identified on the overall tone of the essay.

Task 4. Decode Sentences.

5.
Use a Parts of Speech chart (see Appendix) to decode the sentences that contain the verbs and pronouns you identified in the previous tasks.

Strategy 2. Relate Actions to Characters

Note: This strategy is applicable when the essay is un ensayo poético, un ensayo dramático, or un ensayo narrativo. If that is the case, complete the following tasks.

Task 1. Create Word Wheel.

6.
Create a word wheel for each "character" in the essay and record the information related to that character. Focus on the character's function in the essay. What does the character do to deliver the essayist's message? What perspective does the character provide? Support the entries on your word wheels with specific textual references.

Task 2. Compare and Contrast.

7.
If applicable, document the relationship between the characters using a venn diagram (see Appendix) to indicate the similarities and differences both in who they are and what they do.

Study Hint: Recognizing Essays

In order to understand the essay as a literary form, it is important to be able to recognize one when you see or hear it, and to be able to identify the literary devices that the essayist used to accomplish his/her goal. Designate a block of time during which you will analyze everything verbal and written you encounter for its expository or argumentative devices. Drawing on what you have learned so far, determine what you will attend to before you begin your analysis, including the rhetorical clues you will look for. Report your most interesting findings to your study group and/or the rest of your class. You might be surprised at how often in our daily lives we are, knowingly and unknowingly, verbally or nonverbally, brought into the essayist's "dialogue" about issues of the world around us.

Strategy 3. Summarize Each Segment

Task 1. Identify Topic Sentence.

8.
Using your working copy of the essay, bracket or underline the topic sentence(s) of each segment. If there is no clear topic sentence, invent one and write it in the margin next to the segment.

Task 2. Delete Information. Skim your working copy, segment by segment, and draw a line through redundant information or information that is not relevant to the focus and purpose of the essay.

Task 3. Generalize.

9.
Look at the information left in the segment. Can it be generalized?

Task 4. Summarize.

10.
Based on the results of Tasks 1, 2, and 3, summarize the segments and determine the format and function of the essay. Is it expository or argumentative?

Task 5. Check Yourself.

11.
Go back to the beginning of this stage. What essay format did you guess? Were you right?

Strategy 4. Create Thematic Structure

Task 1. Identify Thematic Elements.

12.
Review Tasks 1-9 of IV. Estrategias de persuasión: la lógica formal y la lógica informal, where you explored the elements that an essayist can use to develop la exposición or el argumento. Identify in the essay the elements that the essayist uses to develop his or her perspective (los silogismos, los teoremas, los axiomas). Extract the statements in the essay that represent those elements.

Task 2. Complete Thematic Structure.

13.
Enter the information from Task 1 into a sequence chain (see Appendix). Each link in the sequence chain should reflect the logical train of thought the essayist employs in order to develop the focus of the essay from the beginning to the end.
14.
NOTE: Upon completing these four stages, you have fulfilled your responsibility as the reader of the essay. The information you have extracted from the essay has prepared you to contribute intelligently to any discussion. If you really have absorbed the elements of the essay, you will be able to employ them in your own contributions to the discussions about the essay. How might you persuade your classmates or your instructor to accept your point of view?







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