#17 - Prompt Analysis: Outline for Analytical Writing 

Objectives:

I will mark a prompt (verb, topic, required texts/elements), write a working thesis, choose two pieces of evidence from each required text, and complete a four-part outline.

Notes:

Task verbs: analyze, compare, explain, evaluate, argue, trace, synthesize, solve, improve, elaborate, propose, conclude, justify, support, etc. etc.

A prompt is a contract: every body paragraph must pay what the prompt asked for. 

Thesis = answer to the prompt in one precise sentence. ATC = Answer + Textual Evidence + Commentary.

The 6-Step Prompt Attack

1. CIRCLE the task verb. What must you do intellectually? (analyze / compare / explain / evaluate)

2. UNDERLINE the topic. What idea is in play? (death, memory, honor, language, the living…)

3. BOX the required texts or elements. Both texts? Devices? A judgment (“more lasting”)?

4. REWRITE the prompt as a question you can answer in one sentence.

5. LIST the must-haves. If you omit one, the essay is off-prompt.

6. ANSWER the question = working thesis. Then choose evidence that actually proves that answer.

Example:

Prompt - Trace the narrator’s shifting attitude toward the raven across the poem (curiosity → hope → anger → despair). What specific lines or stanzas mark the major shifts, and what do they reveal about the theme?

1. CIRCLE the task verb.

   1. Trace

2. UNDERLINE the topic. 

   1. narrator’s shifting attitude toward the raven

3. BOX the required texts or elements. Both texts? Devices?

   1. curiosity → hope → anger → despair

   2. reveal about the theme

4. REWRITE the prompt as a question you can answer in one sentence.

   1. How does the narrator’s attitude shift towards the raven (curiosity → hope → anger → despair) and what does that progression show about the thematic topic?

5. LIST the must-haves. If you omit one, the essay is off-prompt.

   1. Name all four stages in order.

   2. Cite specific lines or stanzas for each major turn.

   3. Explain what each shift shows (not just “he gets mad”).

   4. Tie the whole arc to theme (inescapable grief / memory that will not leave / the failure of reason and hope against “Nevermore”).

   5. Stay inside “The Raven” and do not wander into biography or other poems unless they serve the theme claim.

6. ANSWER the question = working thesis. Then choose evidence that actually proves that answer.

   1. The narrator’s movement from amused curiosity to desperate hope to rage to permanent despair maps the poem’s theme: once grief has taken hold, every attempt to explain, forget, or bargain with loss only confirms its permanence; the raven does not change—the speaker’s mind does, until “Nevermore” becomes the condition of his soul.

Assignment: 

Students will choose one of the prompts below and complete the 1-6 prompt analysis steps. Completed Prompt Attack chart + working thesis + outline (intro / body 1 / body 2 / close) using evidence from “The Raven” and Pericles’ Funeral Oration.

1. Core CompariBoth texts address death and remembrance, yet one presents private, unending despair and the other public, purposeful honor. How do genre (poem vs. oratory), historical context, and purpose shape these radically different responses to loss?

2. On Resilience: "The Raven" ends with the soul unable to be "lifted nevermore." Pericles urges the living to emulate the fallen and continue building the city. Which response do you find more resilient or humanly valuable? Why? Use evidence from both texts in your reasoning.

3. Language & Power: Poe uses poetic devices (repetition, sound patterns, symbolism) to trap the narrator in grief. Pericles uses rhetorical devices (parallelism, antithesis, appeals) to inspire collective action and pride. How does each author’s craft demonstrate the power of words to either paralyze or mobilize in the face of tragedy?

4. Individual vs. Collective: The narrator in "The Raven" is utterly alone with his grief. Pericles emphasizes the city, the tribe, the shared sacrifice, and the collective memory. What are the strengths and limitations of each approach to processing loss?