1. The general form of the 250 word paper is this: (1) an analytic title that makes clear the thesis of the paper; (2) a first paragraph that gives the thesis of the paper clearly and fully; (3) one or two paragraphs that give the evidence for this thesis. I insist that evidence be concrete and specific, and I insist on brief, appropriate quotations from the text.
2. Avoid excessively general or banal statements, such as (these are taken from actual papers):
"Il est peut-être possible d'apprendre quelque chose sur un poète ou deux poètes par une comparaison entre les deux poètes."
"Le lecteur est obligé de lire le poème plusiers fois avant de le lire à haute voix. Comme ça il comprend bien le message du poète et le ton qu'il faut appliquer."
3. Don't go to outside sources for help in interpreting a work. Test your ideas on your fellow students, or come and see me.
1. Grammar and style can count for up to 50% of your grade. Although insight and sensitivity to a text are valued, it is hard to judge these if grammatical mistakes make sections of your paper impossible to understand.
2. Make sure that you are using the correct verb forms. I have seen -é as the ending for the imperfect, as in "le garçon voulé embrasser la belle jeune fille ..." Try to avoid substituting the infinitive for the past participle, as in "Ronsard a aimer cette dame."
3. Bear in mind that written work requires formal discourse, not familiar or colloquial. A conclusion like this one should be avoided:
"Bravo Beaudelaire, vous avez réussi!"
4. Don't forget that the person who composed the work is not necessarily the same as the "I" who speaks. This is called the "intentional fallacy." We cannot know what the true intentions of the writer were. While works can (and do) incorporate elements from a writer's life, writers often have strategies and play roles, construct personas, etc. Base your interpretation on what is happening in the text, not on what you think you may know about the writer's life. For example, you should avoid making statements like this about Victor Hugo's poem "Paroles sur la Dune":
"Evidemment, Hugo était dans une période de la dépression..."
5. Make sure that your statements are factually correct, and that your interpretation is credible:
"Toutefois, la forme de ce poème est celle d'un alexandrin..." (the alexandrin is not a poetic form. It is a type of verse.)
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| translating "death" | the verb is "mourir" whose p.p. is mort
la mort=death le mort=the dead man la morte=the dead woman |
| monter and montrer | Montrer means "to show," while monter signifies "to ascend, to rise" (instransitive-no direct object) and "to bring up" (transitively). |
| raconter and rencontrer | Raconter means "to tell, recount" and rencontrer means "to meet." Other variations of raconter are conte ("tale") and conteur ("storyteller"). |
| Conte et ses homonymes | conte (m.)= tale
compte (m.)=account se rendre compte de qqc= ro realize something comte (m.)=count (an aristocratic title) |
| Which verb form to use after a preposition in French. | French prepositions are NOT followed by a present participle as in English, but rather by an infinitive: Noreddine died without knowing who had killed him= N. est mort sans savoir qui l'avait tué. There is one notable exception to this rule, en, since en + present participle forms what is known as the gérondif in French. Ex. En faisant des efforts, tu réussiras (by trying you will succeed). |
| How to say "to make someone sad, happy, rich, angry." | This is achieved by the construction rendre qqn + adjective in French. For example, she made me (a woman) happy: elle m'a rendue heureuse. |
| About | This story is about: Dans ce récit il s'agit de ... (since s'agir is always impersonal and can only have the singular il as a subject, you put the subject in English into a prepositional expression, such as dans ce récit). Or: Ce récit traite de ... / Ce récit décrit / Dans ce récit il est question de
With regards to the use of personification in Hugo's poetry...: En ce qui concerne / Quant à l'utilisation de la personnification dans la poésie de Hugo.... |