colonelsalt Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 Does anyone know if it would be appropriate to have the topic of my Extended Essay for English A (Lang. & Lit.) be an analysis of a non-fiction book? I've been wanting to write an essay comparing Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich from 1937 to a contemporary self-help book, but I'm unsure if this fits into the 'Literature' aspect of the course, or if I would have to make the language (grammar, syntax, etc.) the focus of the essay for it to be appropriate. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrashmaster Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 I read Think and Grow Rich. (Just thought I'd mention that) I think you have a clever idea there, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea. You do need to be analyzing it for the choices of the author to convey meaning through literary choices. Can you do that with a self-help book? If they have any symbols, they have to explain them explicitly, so your analysis won't be very impressive. They don't have traditional poetic features like alliteration, assonance, etc. What could you look at for 4000 words? If I were you, I'd do something else. But ultimately you and your EE advisor and maybe your IB coordinator need to decide if it's acceptable (but to reiterate: Even if it is 'acceptable,' that doesn't mean it has the potential to score as highly. You should try to do something original that's still within the realm of literary analysis to do well). 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colonelsalt Posted March 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 (edited) Right; this is about what I was expecting. Simply looking at the differences in content (emphasis on spiritual ideas in Think, importance placed on weight loss in modern book, etc.) would not be suitable for the subject. That being said, the book does actually make use of a number of literary devices as far as the language goes, and I think that contrasting this with what's used in modern self-help (and subsequently analyzing why certain things are phrased differently, for example) could easily fill the 4000 mark, but I just had to make sure this would have to be the focus of my essay before I began my research. Edited March 30, 2015 by colonelsalt Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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