How to Write an Explication

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How to Write an Explication

These are instructions that you may find on your mid-term and/or final exams:

Choose __ of the above quotations to explicate. Choose only one quote per author or work. Write a well-developed paragraph of 75-100 words in which you provide as much of the following information as is applicable to each quotation:

the author
the title
the verse or prose form (the genre)
the speaker of the lines and to whom they are spoken
the approximate location of the lines within the larger work
the significance of the lines themselves
the relationship of the lines to the larger work of which they are a part
particular characteristics of the author evident in the lines
particular characteristics of the period evdent in the lines
particular techniques evident in the lines (espcially in poetry)

Do not include any irrelevant information in your explications. Be careful of your grammar because you will lose points for such errors as fragments, fused sentences, comma splices, and errors in subject-verb agreement and verb tenses. Also remember that proper nouns are capitalized and that at least rudimentary spelling should be observed.

Here is a sample quotation and two sample explications. Strive to model your explication after the second example.

Quotation:

Here stood that trunk, and there that chest;
There lay that store I counted best:
My pleasant things in ashes lie,
And them behold no more shall I.
Under thy roof no guest shall sit,
Nor at thy table eat a bit.

A TERRIBLE EXPLICATION	COMMENTS
These lines are from Anne Bradstreet's poem "Upon the Burning of Our House." She is remembering all the possessions she lost in that fire. Anne Bradstreet was one of the original Puritan settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Both her husband and father served as governors of that colony. Her poems were first published in an anonymous volume titled *The Tenth Muse*. Anne Bradstreet shares the Puritan characteristics of other writers of that time in that she refers to God in this poem. Other poems by Bradstreet include "Contemplations" and "To My Dear and Loving Husband."	If this explication were worth 15 points, the writer would be lucky to receive three points credit. Although none of the information is incorrect, the paragraph is nothing more than a regurgitation of facts about Anne Bradstreet -- facts irrelevant to the lines in question. Please do not write explications like this one.

A TERRIBLE EXPLICATION

COMMENTS

These lines are from Anne Bradstreet's poem "Upon the Burning of Our House." She is remembering all the possessions she lost in that fire. Anne Bradstreet was one of the original Puritan settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Both her husband and father served as governors of that colony. Her poems were first published in an anonymous volume titled The Tenth Muse. Anne Bradstreet shares the Puritan characteristics of other writers of that time in that she refers to God in this poem. Other poems by Bradstreet include "Contemplations" and "To My Dear and Loving Husband."

If this explication were worth 15 points, the writer would be lucky to receive three points credit. Although none of the information is incorrect, the paragraph is nothing more than a regurgitation of facts about Anne Bradstreet -- facts irrelevant to the lines in question. Please do not write explications like this one.

A COMPETENT EXPLICATION COMMENTS

These lines are a stanza from Anne Bradstreet's poem "Upon the Burning of Our House." This poem, in iambic tetrameter couplets, is one of Bradstreet's later poems in which she speaks out in a personal voice. In these particular lines, she reveals the very human sorrow she feels at the loss of her home and such precious household items as her chest and table. This stanza occurs about midway through the poem and represents the low point of her grief. Truly a Puritan, however, Bradstreet in the subsequent stanzas comes to grips with the fact that worldly possessions are vanity. She rebukes and cheers herself with the thought that there is a house in Heaven that nothing can ever destroy. In this explication, the writer has dealt with the lines in question and has not introduced extraneous materials. Try to make your explications similar to this one. The trick is to follow the outline given in the instructions as closely as possible. In your explications, however, you should disregard items in the outline which clearly are not applicable to the particular quotations.

A COMPETENT EXPLICATION	COMMENTS
These lines are a stanza from Anne Bradstreet's poem "Upon the Burning of Our House." This poem, in iambic tetrameter couplets, is one of Bradstreet's later poems in which she speaks out in a personal voice. In these particular lines, she reveals the very human sorrow she feels at the loss of her home and such precious household items as her chest and table. This stanza occurs about midway through the poem and represents the low point of her grief. Truly a Puritan, however, Bradstreet in the subsequent stanzas comes to grips with the fact that worldly possessions are vanity. She rebukes and cheers herself with the thought that there is a house in Heaven that nothing can ever destroy.	In this explication, the writer has dealt with the lines in question and has not introduced extraneous materials. Try to make your explications similar to this one. The trick is to follow the outline given in the instructions as closely as possible. In your explications, however, you should disregard items in the outline which clearly are not applicable to the particular quotations.

Black-and-white drawings courtesy of J.O.D.'s Old Fashioned Clip Art Collection.