Author's Style or Influence Lesson
Students Write Paper on Study of Author's Biography, Plot and Style
Feb 12, 2008
Books written in a series offer a unique writing assignment opportunity. Students can choose an author they enjoy and study his or her work.
Planning Author Study Lesson
1. Tell students to read two-to-three books written by one author. These can be books in a series or random books by the same author.
Examples of authors who have books in a series:
- Meg Cabot: Princess Diaries series (Volumes 1-9) [Harper Teen, June 2001-Decemeber 2007]
- Eoin Colfer: Artemis Fowl series (Books 1-5) [Miramax, May 2002-September 2006]
- Margaret Peterson Haddix: Shadow Children series (Boxed Set, Books 1-3) [Aladdin, September 2004]
- Anthony Horowitz: Alex Rider series (Boxed Set, Books 1-5) [Scholastic, 2007]
- D. J. MacHale: Pendragon series (Series 1-4) [Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, September 2002-September 2003]
- J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter series (Boxed Set, Books 1-7) [Arthur A. Levine Books, October 2007]
- Lemony Snicket: Series of Unfortunate Events series (Boxed Set , Books 1-13) [Harper Collins, October 2006]
2. Middle school, freshmen and sophomore students might not have had much experience analyzing an author’s style. Take time to discuss author style and influence in class. To familiarize students, use the questions about author’s style that are part of the example handout material to discuss a book that the whole class has read.
2. Create a handout that explains the writing assignment. The assignment can consists of three main parts: background about author, summaries of the books and a style analysis.
Example Items for Writing Author Study Assignment Handout for Students
Background Check
Research information about the author. Do more than copy the blurb on the book or copy paste from a website. Try to look at least three sources and include a works cited or bibliography page.
Summary
Write a summary for each novel. Discuss the characterization, plot, and theme.
Each novel should have a separate summary. Make sure to include an introduction, body, and conclusion in each summary.
Author's Analysis
Write an analysis about the author’s style. To write this part of the paper, try to answering some of these questions:
- Author’s choice of setting and point of view: How does the setting impact the novel? In what point of view was each novel written? Why did the author choose the particular setting and point of view?
- Author’s choice of conflict and plot: How did the author use conflict in the plot to move the stories from the beginning to the end?
- Author’s choice of character interactions and conflict within the plot of the novels: How do the character’s relationships, communications, and conflicts affect the plot? Make sure to discuss the type of characters, e.g. flat, round, dynamic, and static and why the author chose the characters to be that type.
- Author’s choice of theme: Identify similar themes that the author uses across the novels?
- Author’s choice of figurative language: How does the author use figurative language, sound devices and literary techniques in the novels?
- Author’s choice of genre: How did the author’s choice of genre affect the theme or topic?
- Author’s choice of mood and tone: What are ways the author shows mood and tone through word choice, figurative language and syntax?
- Author’s choice of symbols: How does the author’s choice of symbols give deeper meaning to the story?
To assess paper, create a rubric. Use the following as criteria:
- Content
- Organization
- Mechanics, Usage, Grammar and Spelling
This writing assignment will get students to think beyond writing a basic summary or book report of the novels. Students tend to not do as well on author’s purpose and influence questions on standardized tests. This lesson can help their understanding of this as well.
