Article # _________
Name: ____________________________ Period____
Article of the Week – SOAPSTone Reading Strategy:
Identify the speaker and make your assumptions in 2 sentences.
Who is the voice that tells the story? The author and the speaker are NOT necessarily the same. An author may choose to tell the story from any number of different points of view. Is someone identified as the speaker? What assumptions can be made about the speaker? What age, gender, class, emotional state, education, or…? In nonfiction, how does the speaker’s background shape his/her point of view?
The speaker is Elie Weisel. She is telling the beginning of the speech from the point of view of a jewish boy during the Holocaust. She also asks questions the commander In chief of the army several questions.
Describe the occasion (both larger and immediate) in 3 sentences.
What is the time and place of the piece -- the (rhetorical) context that encouraged the writing to happen? Is it a memory, a description, an observation, a valedictory, a diatribe, an elegy, a declaration, a critique, a journal entry or…? Writing does not occur in a vacuum. There is the larger occasion: an environment of ideas and emotions that swirl around a broad issue. Then there is the immediate occasion: an event or situation that catches the writer’s attention and triggers a response.
The occasion is revolving around the incidents and tragedies that were involved in the holocaust. The large occasion is the concept of not wanting to repeat history and comparisons of the old times vs modern day time. The smaller occasion is the details of specific incidents, prisoners and concentration camps.
Describe the audience and our assumptions about the audience in 3 sentences.
Who is the audience – the (group) of readers to whom this piece is directed? The audience may be one person, a small group, or a large group; it may be a certain person or a certain people. Does the speaker identify an audience? What assumptions exist about the intended audience?
People with relatives that were held captive during the holocaust or Jewish people would be most interested or able to relate to this article the most. There is a large audience that would benefit from reading this article to help prevent history from happening again. There is an assumption that Jewish people would want to read this article.
Identify the author’s purpose in 4 sentences and analyze how the author is trying to achieve this purpose.
Why was this text written? You should ...