For this assignment, answer these questions about your short story: What are the big ideas at work? What does this story tell us about human nature? What are the principles this story asks us to contemplate?
Analyzing a short story “Good People” David Foster Wallace fundamentally different than analyzing a poem because the short story allows for detail, complexity and story arcs that are often not the focus of poetry, which is closer to distilled language, highly stylized and condensed. The short story uses prose to create contradiction, conflict, subtlety and fully realized characters.
For this assignment, answer these questions about your short story: What are the big ideas at work?
What does this story tell us about human nature? What are the principles this story asks us to contemplate? Use the literary devices outlined on pages 2-3 of The Dictionary of First Concepts handout to analyze the techniques used to create meaning in your story.
Organization: The introduction should give some key background on the story and where it fits in the canon of the author’s works.
Any historical details concerning the author or the circumstances surrounding the story’s creation should remain in the introduction or conclusion.
The thesis should indicate the theme (big idea, principle or overall message of the story) and which literary devices you will use to analyze the story. The body will identify where, how and to what effect your chosen literary devices work in your short story.
Use quotes (but none longer than 2-3 lines at a time), paraphrasing and outside sources to root your essay in textual analysis. Organize the body so your analysis builds on each previous paragraph, giving us the basics first and ending on whichever element you feel is the culmination or unifying element of all the rest.
The conclusion should restate your thesis and examine any new understandings about the literary devices and themes that arise from analyzing the short story. What should we take with us about this subject? What have you uncovered in the short story that is worth remembering? Main focus on Romanticism, Naturalism, Classicism.
You have been at your company for a while and become quite familiar with the different systems and processes it relies on. You know the areas where there’s room for improvement all too well. You’ve been able to identify problems and actually come up with ideas that could transform the way things are done and save the company thousands of dollars.
You might already know, it can take a while to effect changes at most companies—especially those that are well-established. This is partly because of all the decision-makers involved. That said, it’s totally possible to bring your ideas to life. Just be prepared to explain them many times, get everyone onboard and actually execute.
I spoke to Neel Premkumar, founder and CEO of FORTO, the top-selling coffee shot in the U.S. As an entrepreneur, Neel has extensive experience building systems and processes that increase the efficiency of his company. He outlines the steps anyone—from a business owner to an intrapreneur—can take to make their valuable ideas a reality:
Test before presenting
Before you start getting people onboard, put your ideas to the test and make sure they actually work. In order to convince others to invest in it, you will have to show that it can achieve the goal it is intended for—whether that be saving the company thousands of dollars, helping boost sales or making internal processes more efficient. Challenge your concepts as much as you can.
When in doubt, consult with experts you admire. Get in touch and set up meetings to pick their brain on your ideas. “Much like starting an entrepreneur would do their research before starting a business,” Neel says, “you have to validate your idea or product before launching to market—which in this case, is your company.’