Daily Commentary

Practicing the ATC

Week 2
 Day 1: Diction
An aged man is but a paltry thing
A tattered coat upon a stick
--W.B. Yeats
Sailing to Byzantium
ACECES Question
What does the authors
choice of the word
tattered communicate
about the speakers
attitude toward the aged
man?
Questions to consider:
What picture is created by the
use of the word tattered?
By understanding the
connotations of the word
tattered, what do we
understand about the
speakers attitude toward
an aged man?
 Day 2: Detail
ACECES Question:
An old man, Don How do the details in this
Tomasito, the baker, passage express the
played the tuba. When speakers attitude toward
he blew into the huge Tomasito and his music?
mouthpiece, his face Questions to Consider:
would turn purple and The first sentence is a general
statement. What details in the
his thousand wrinkles second sentence enrich and
would disappear as intensify the first?
his skin filled out. What attitude toward Tomasito and
his playing is conveyed by these
--Alberto Alvaro Rios details?
The Iguana Killer How is that attitude communicated?
 Day 3: Imagery
ACECES Question:
It was a mine town, Compare and contrast the
uranium most recently. two images of ground
and earth. What
Dust devils whirled emotions and ideas do
sand off the mountains. these images evoke?
Even after the heaviest Guiding Thoughts:
of rains, the water There are two images associated
seeped back into the with land (ground and earth)
in the third sentence. What is
ground, between depicted in each image?
stones, and the earth What emotions do these images
was parched again. evoke?
Which words are most important in
--Linda Hogan, Making creating these images and
emotions?
Do
 Day 4: Tone
What a thrill ACECES Question:
My thumb instead of an What is the poets
onion. attitude toward the
The top quite gone cut? Based on that
Except for a sort of a hinge attitude, infer Plaths
attitude toward life in
Of skin, general.
A flap like a hat,
Questions to Consider:
Dead white.
What words, images and
Then a red plush. details create this tone?
--Sylvia Plath How does the use of colors
Cut: For Susan ONeill Roe intensify the tone?
(Dead white;
red plush)
 Day 5: Syntax
ACECES Question:
When I am too sad and How does the sentence
too skinny to keep structure affect or
keeping, when I am a reflect the on the ideas
tiny thing against so and meaning of this
many bricks, then it is passage?
I look at trees. Question to Consider:
--Sandra Cisneros What grammatical structure is
repeated in this sentence?
The House on Mango This is a sentence that delays
Street the subject and verb to the
end. What idea is
emphasized by the end-focus
in this sentence?