Faculty of letters Prof.

Chourouq Nasri
Department of English Fall 2021

How to comment upon a text?

What is a commentary?

A commentary does not deal with the writer’s life or times. It is not a paraphrase or a summary though
it may include a summary.
A commentary reveals your sense of the meaning of a text.
A commentary is chiefly concerned with describing, analysing and interpretation.
The reader must not only know your understanding of the text, but help reader see things from your
point of view.

First step:

- Read the text a number of times to find out:

- What it is about
- How it says it
- Various elements are used to build a commentary.
- Comment must center on the work.
- Your approach depends on the nature of text.
- Seize the clues and hints offered in the text.
- The value of your comment depends also on your own response.

I- Introduction:

1• Where is the passage taken from?

2• What is the genre of the passage?
→ You may have to make it clear whether the passage is descriptive, explanatory …whether it is a
dialogue, a monologue …
3• What is the passage about?
→ You are expected to give a brief summary of the subject-matter.
You are to summarize the ideas of the text in one or two sentences without commenting on them
yet.

II- Analysis of the text proper:

• In a commentary, you convincingly argue a thesis. Then, you defend it by providing coherent and
plausible (persuasive arguments).

• The way the passage is constructed

→ You may have to say a word about the main lines of the construction of the passage.
If several stages/elements are obvious just say so.
→ If there are no clear-cut divisions, say so.

2• Announcing the points for discussion

→ You must state the main points of interest you are going to consider under separate headings. They
must be the result of a logical reorganization of the elements you have discovered worthy of interest in
the course of your reading of the text (they will enable you to show clearly the essential interest of the
text. The points for discussion depend on the genre of the passage).

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→ A good comment accounts for the details of the work; connection between the various elements of
the work (characters in a story; images in a poem); and between the work and a cultural context.

- Use of time; narrative progression, flashbacks; characterization, the art of character-drawing,

psychological interest; the main theme, the handling of the themes; irony; aspects of the comic;
language, imagery, symbolism; setting, the building of atmosphere.

Conclusion

→ Assessing the value of the text

You should say what the value of the text is and what light it throws on the problems discussed.

Some useful expressions:

a- What the writer does:

- He tells a story, narrates an experience

- He describes, depicts
- He portrays, outlines a character
- He tackles a subject, treats it
- He raises a point, an issue
- He focuses attention on
- He lays stress on
- He illustrates
- His intention is to
- He succeeds in bringing, conveying to the reader
- By means of particular devices, he manages to
- He makes a strong appeal to the reader’s imagination

B- Referring to the writer’s words:

→ You must necessarily support your views by constant reference to the text in the following way:
- This is well illustrated by the following statement “…”
- As the writer puts it
- The author, to quote his own words, says that “…”

→ You may want to draw attention to the use of repetition

- Quite significantly, the writer uses the word … X times
- The word … is repeated twice

→ You may want o allude to words in capitals

- The capitals signify that

→ In italics
- The writer uses the italics to draw attention to
→ You may want to emphasize the special value of some words
- These words are suggestive of
- This quotation carries biblical echoes

c- Drawing attention to a particular point

→ You may want to point out a special effect, with terms like:
- It is interesting to note
- What is particularly striking in this passage is

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- The most obvious feature of the passage is
- The emphasis falls on
- The writer betrays an obsession with

→ Discovering such effects requires a close scrutiny of the text.

- When we read the text closely, we are inevitably struck by
- If we pay close attention to the writer’s words, we see that

d- Referring to a particular passage in the text

→ Reference to a particular passage situated at the beginning, in the middle, at the end can be
expressed thus:
- The very beginning of the passage throws light on
- Towards the end
- In the last sentence
- From line … to line …
- Let us consider the middle of the passage

Literary vocabulary:

Interior monologue or stream of consciousness; the time-sequence; time-shift, flashbacks; the narrative
mode; the narrative line; the narrative structure; aesthetic distance or distanciation; figures of speech or
figurative language; the setting; characterization; humour, satire, irony; an eponymous novel;
defamiliarization; intertextuality; the comic novel; the experimental novel …

Summary:

A summary is a brief restatement of the plot.

Here are a few principles that govern a summary:

1- a summary is much briefer than the original text

2- it usually achieves its brevity by omitting almost all of the concrete details of the original
3- a summary is as accurate as possible
4- a summary is written in the present tense

Summaries have their place in essays, but remember that a summary is not an analysis.

Paraphrase:

A paraphrase is a word by-word translation of someone’s words into your own. But although a
paraphrase seeks to make clear the gist of the original, it may change its meaning. Still, (Granted
that a paraphrase may miss a great deal) it often helps you to understand at least the surface
meaning.