Deductive Analysis of Dillard’s “Seeing”

Description

Task: Write an analysis of Annie Dillard’s “Seeing,” in which you explore the various ways she explains “seeing” and how she connects and builds them throughout her essay and leads her readers to her visionary experience seeing the “tree with the lights in it.” Very important: Your task is to analyze what Dillard says and how she says it (and how everything is interrelated)—and not what you think she says or how you feel about what she says.  You need to provide a clear connection between the points and observations she makes in her essay and how it leads to her vision of the “tree with the lights in it.”  Make sure you clearly explain any use of metaphor, simile, or personification.   Do not write from the perspective that Dillard is trying to show us how to see or how to better enjoy our lives or be happy. She is not telling us what to do. Dillard is writing about her thoughts and experiences.  You are analyzing that, so make you sure you write from that perspective.   Anytime you wish to offer an interpretation make sure that you make a clear connection with what she actually writes. Do not write that she “says things” or “means to say things” when she has not said those things.  Write from the perspective of what she says.   1.       Make sure your sentences are focused and that you take the time to effectively combine sentences using coordination and subordination. 2.       Make sure you attempt to meaningfully and effectively use coordinators, subordinators, conjunctive adverbs and transitional expressions to provide, where appropriate, clear transitions between your ideas. 3.       Make sure you provide meaningful and relevant context for your quotations, paraphrasing, and summaries.  Be sure you also provide (a) relevant explanations of them and (b) specific analysis. 4.       Make sure you attempt to provide effective transitions between your paragraphs. 5.       Make sure you use a variety of methods for providing context for your quotations and that you follow  the correct formatting. 6.       Make sure your conclusion and thesis are a synthesis of everything you have discussed in the essay (and that it relates to her various explanations about seeing and how it all leads to her visionary experience of seeing “the tree with the lights in it”)   DO NOT USE “I” OR “YOU” Do not use outside resources ONLY use the reading “Seeing”