TU || Important question for B.A. Third year Critical Thinking

Level: B.A. Third Year || Code: 315 || Subject: Critical Thinking

Q. How are language, literature and education related to each other?

Ans: We use language for the purpose of communication. Most of the time, we are unknown to the system of our language, Language is a system that we learn in the process of socialization along with our growth and development. 

Language is the medium of communication, It is language that exists as a system for human activities and the world. Language is creative;It is language that has its own system on the basis of its rule, regulation and grammar. Learning and teaching language is possible because of its system and rules. Common day to day language is different than the literary language. 

Literary language is more expressive, more functional and more powerful in its expressive, Language used in literature may not follow strict rule of language /literature, Grammar is the rule and regulation behind any language, it is the obstacle or constraint for the creative and innovative use of language. Language always believes in freedom. 

The role of language study in literature is often problematic some people claim that knowing about language is not essential in case of literature. Literary language is often deviated one. Knowing grammar and limiting oneself in grammar & rules can stop the potential creative power of language. Every day we see sine words being changed. 

Literature tries its best to deviate common implication of linguistic items. In text, followers of literature demand liberty of language in literary text. Linguist all the time cannot guide literary text from the perspective of traditional grammars and its context. Language is always filled dynamic and ever- changing; we can't limit words with certain fixed menu. Literature has become the subject of human study and one of the aspects of education as well. To get familiar with literature and its various forms, proper education is compulsory. Common language has strict system; we have traditional grammars and its rule, Our common language is based on the proper rule of linguistic structure, and study of language is the part of education.

For HSEB Model Questions are here: https://www.meropaper.com

TU || Important model question for Essays and short stories

Level: B.A.II Year || Subject: Essays and Short Stories || Code 312

Essay and the Other Forms of Literature:

We know that essay use to words to express ideas that are directly addressed to the readers. The writer is directly present in the text and hi/she wants to persuade us on his/her ideas. We already know the there are four forms of literature. However, the for forms of literature have there different basic qualities. Essays are different form story, poem and drama. But it has also some similarities with them. So, we should compare essays and other forms of literature for their similarities and differences. We get the literary qualities in all the four types of essays such as persuasive essays, narrative essays, dramatic essays and poetic assays. Persuasive essays are the most original and typical forms of the essays. We find arguments, reasons and logic in persuasive essays. There is the central thesis (main idea) In every text which is justified by many supporting materials such as analogy, comparison, facts and details. Narrative essays are similar to the story in their structure or form.  The writers take the role of the narrator to express their idea. They make beautiful stories or narrate interesting events to support their ideas. We know that the narrative essays are only similar to stories but actually, they are not stories; they are essays. So, their main purpose is to persuade us on their ideas and concepts. Persuasive essay persuades us by argument but narrative essay persuades us by the appeal, events and consequences made in the form of the story.

Dramatic and poetic essays also try to persuade the readers by the appeal, events and consequence. Dramatic essay takes the form of dialogue and interaction. The whole essay is written in dialogue form. It also use other basic elements of drama such as setting, plot, characters, development of actions, etc. The writers give their ideas by the mouthpiece character other central character. The character who gives the writer's ideas is called the mouthpiece character or the spokesperson. Usually, what the main character realizes is the central idea. Sometimes the central idea is derived from the conclusion of events. Anyway, dramatic essays are similar to short dramas in the form. Poetic essays are similar to poems in their deep feelings and thoughts. The writers take the role of the meditative speakers because they seem to be talking to themselves but not to the readers. They do not care what the readers are thinking or what their reaction would be. But they just go on telling about their ideas in an appealing (arousing) way. Ultimately, they persuade the readers by their appeal. Therefore, we boldly say that all types of essays try to persuade the readers on their ideas and concepts. So, persuasion it at the heart of all essays. The distinctions among persuasive, narrative, dramatic and poetic essays help us to categorize them. If we can recognize these four forms of essays, we can write better commentaries. We will appreciate the text very well and very easily. So, it is important to know the similarities and differences between the essays and other forms of literature.  

TU || Important model question for Essays and short stories

Subject: Essays and Short Stories || Level: B.A. 2nd Year || Code: 312

Approaching an Essay

After we have read the elements of essay, we should be prepared to deal with them. The techniques and methodologies to deal with essay is called approaching an essay. This is our encounter with the essay. It teaches us how to read the essay fruitfully, effectively and skillfully. It teaches some simple methods to approach (deal with) an essay. These, methods are:

1. First, we should read the essay in our own style for own pleasure. Then rethink about it decide what type of essay it is among four types (persuasive, narrative, meditative and dramatic).

2. If it is a persuasive (argumentative) essay, we should be more careful to find the arrangement of ideas. We must decide the main idea and its supporting materials. most of the, time, we should find the analogies (examples, data, anecdotes, comparisons, etc.) Decide the relevance of those analogies. And also decide the personality of the essayist in the text how he has presented his view. Finally, make your response to his view and evaluate the presentation.

3. If it is a narrative essay, give attention on its narrative elements. Look at the description, dialogue and commentary. Find the issue the essayist is focusing. Read the essayist's commentary of the story in the essay. It helps you decide the essayists idea. Once you have found the main idea, find the story as supporting materials. Finally, make your response to his idea. Evaluate how convincing it is and the way of narration.

4. If it is a meditative essay, we should re-read it paying attention to the image symbols and their suggestive ideas. The images generate and suggest some ideas about the main point. These images help us get the implied meaning. Look carefully how the writer goes one image to another image. So see the image and their suggestive meaning. Finally, comment on the persuasive dimension and writing style.

5. If it is a dramatic essay, our second reading should focus on the dramatic elements of the essay such as character, setting, dialogue and plot. Manly, decide if there is one character speaking with author's voice. If he is dominating character who brings others into conclusion, he is the spokesperson. Then, scene-setting is also important that can give some sense for main point. Finally, look carefully to dramatic movement to climax and resolution because it gives the author's persuasion. Lastly, write your response to his idea and presentation. 

6. Sometimes, essay may be written in the combination of all four forms. The longer it is, the more rich and complex it becomes. Be the more careful to them and write a good commentary on their mixed qualities.

7. When you read poetry, drama or a story, be careful to find the essay like elements in them because they can really be essays. The ability to analyze an essay makes you more efficient to analyze every form of literature.

In this way, we should prepare ourselves to encounter an essay. This method is really practical and helpful. If we use these methods while approaching an essay, we will be able to discover ideas of the essay and write a good commentary.

[If you are prepared, try to read and write commentary for the given essay below. Do exercise on these essays. If you are still not confident to use these methods to deal with the essays, look at the commentary I have written for you. Please, try yourself before you look at the commentary of the essays on this guide. If you try, your skill will surely develop. This is my personal request for you.]

[Note: In your exam, you will be asked to write short notes from the elements of essay as well as from the elements of fiction. These questions will carry 10 marks altogether. So, the elements are very important. Long questions from essay and fiction will carry 30 marks and the rest of the 30 marks will be asked from the important extracts.]

TU || Important model question for Essays and short stories

The Essays as poem: Meditation
(Poetic/ Meditative essay)

Meditative essay is similar to the poem; and the essayist is similar to the poet in many ways. Chiefly, meditative essay uses image and symbols to show the main idea. The essayist writers anything that randomly comes to his mind. But the images that come to his mind give some sense. When we are meditating, we are engaged in conversation with ourselves. we are talking to ourselves and trying to discover some deeper truth. We are engaged in the complex thinking trying to discover the truth. we do not possess the truth but we are in the process of finding it. The writer of the meditative essay also does the same. So, the meditative essay is the thinking on the paper. The writer is trying to say something remarkable and he presents his complex thinking process on the paper. The essay is a recorded testimony whatever comes in his mind. In this sense. we remember the 16th century essayist, Moutaigne who said that the 'essay' is trying to write or thinking on the paper. we know that the meditative essayist writes whatever comes in his mind while thinking. So, he is not conscious to persuade the readers. He is just engaged to find the idea and truth. Thus, the readers are not easily persuaded by his essay and they feel difficult to grasp the concept. The writer of the persuasive essay is open, practical and logical but the writer of the meditative essay is headlong, imaginative and indifferent. Meditative essay, therefore, presents disconnected ideas and images in the essay. The readers do not find the connection between his ideas and images but he sees the connection between them. So, he associates the different images for the main purpose.

Meditative essay uses a lot of images and details. These images and symbols are the great supporting materials that help us find the main idea. we can find wat the essay is about by associating these symbols. We should try to decide the suggestive or connotative meaning of the symbols. We will get more reward if we read concentrating deeply in the image and their symbolic meanings. We have to take the text as the open texture but not the writing style. The writing style and structure may be disjoined, complex and loose but the meanings of the images give some sense.

The essay 'Spring 1941' by E.B. White is very good example of this type. In this essay, he wants to show the violence of Second World War (in 1941). He also implies that still he has some hope of regeneration in his mind. He writes everything about war, violence and regeneration whatever comes in his mind. But his strange and disjoined images give a sense that he still has a hope of new spring in the middle of violence. This is the main idea of the essay and we can understand it by associating his images, details and their symbolic meanings. Therefore, a meditative essay does not pay attention to the readers but it just presents disjoined images and details that help us understand the meaning.

TU || Important question for B.A. Third year Critical Thinking

Level: B.A. Third Year || Code: 315 || Subject: Critical Thinking

Q. Discuss text, grammar and discourse.

Ans: A text is a stretch of language complete or partial, which comprises one or more units of meaning. A text can be jumble of unrelated sentences. It is just the collection of sentences which may or may not be coherent, sense making or related to each other. The definition of text is complex one. Sometimes a word or a single sentence is also considered as the text. Text does not care whether the sentences are related or not. To be a text, it is not necessary to produce any message, idea and sense. Text has no relation to grammar, size and length. Text can be oral or written as well.

Text is a unit of language in use. It is not defined with grammatical criteria. Tex is not defined by its size. Sometimes, single words like War, Peace or 'No' function as the text. Text is the guideline to discourse. A text is transformed into discourse when it forms a coherent whole. All the text may not be discourse. To be discourse, a text is required to communicate and make sense. The which is not coherent and fails to produce any sense out of it is just a use of language. In discourse a text is realized in a knowable context. A reader can feel and understand the text only when it is transformed into discourse. There are various types of discourses; normally we categorize discourse in the groups of informative, directive and expressive.

Grammar is the rule or constraint behind the use of language. Grammar has its relation to the structural aspects of the language. It is because of grammar language survives as the system. Grammar is established pattern and rules and regulation behind the use of language. In any language, grammar is necessary for its continuation. Because of grammar language learning and teaching are possible.

A phoneme is a speech sound. It is different from letter by the virtue of the sound. Phonology is the study of how speed sounds contribute to meaning.

Morpheme is the minimum grammatical unit as defined by Bloomfield. Morpheme is the smallest unit of word that cannot be further split. All words are morphemes but all morphemes are not words. Morpheme is the smallest unit of a word. A word can have one or more than one morpheme.

A word is often defined as a lexical item. For traditional grammarians, a word is a minimum free form. The definition of word is really problematic. A word cannot have its own existence always.

Group is defined as the phrase in traditional Grammar. There are four syntactic group in English. These groups mean nominal group, verbal group, prepositional group, adverbial group. In a sentence these groups have their own place and roles. The clause is the syntactic unit above the group, and usually complement (C) and adjunct (A).

TU || Important Notes for B.A. 2nd year (Essays and Short Stories)

The Essay as Story: History

(Narrative essay)

Narrative essay is written in the form of story. It tries to persuade the readers by using stories and storytellers. The essayist can use one or more than one stories in a single essay to give some ideas. The stories can be made by the essayist himself or he can borrow it from somewhere. He presents the story by the means of description, narration, dialogue and commentary, We should look at the commentary more attentively because he gives his views, ideas and concepts in his commentary. It carries the main point of the essay implied or directly stated. Therefore, commentary helps us understand the main point of the essay.

Yes, narrative essay and stories are almost similar because these essays tell the stories but we should make ourselves cleverer now. we can find the differences between them because narrative essays focus on some issues of the story but a pure story focuses only on the beauty of literature. The second difference between them is that the narrative essay has commentary but the story does not have. The essayist connects the idea of the story with his main point but he story writer does not connect. A story writer tells a beautiful story and gives us pleasure. Narrative essay focuses on a particular event, action, place or person. Sometimes, the essayist tells us clearly what issue he wants to raise by that particular event, action, place or person but occasionally they leave the ideas to be detected by the readers. In such cases, we feel difficult to grasp can the. But the cleaver readers. finds the depth of insight. The tactful reader can find what the essayist wants to suggest. Therefore, we should try to find out the suggested meaning of the stories in the essay. The implied (suggested) meaning is the deeper truth. If you got this deeper truth, you killed the bird, success!

Keep in mind that the essayist does not tell the story for pleasure but he tells it to support his main point. So, you should not limit yourself on what, where and when like a journalist. You should try to find out how and why like a historian. It is the best way to discover the main point when the essayist does not give it clearly.

The Hurled Astray by Nora Ephron is a good example of the narrative essay. In this essay, she has used two short stories in order to show her idea. Her main point is that the women's revolution changed the man- woman relationship. people in her time were all confused how to behave in the changed social condition after the women's revolution in 1960s. Ephron wants to expose this confused social situation in her essay. So she brings the two different short stories, the story of Garry Cooper and the story of Mr. Korda that are related to man- woman relationship. She supports her main idea by bringing these two short stories. In this way, narrative essay borrows one or more than one stories to give some important idea.