How to Study a Novel: 111 (Palgrave Study Guides:Literature)

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When you have become accustomed to looking at a novel in greater depth, you might be interested to know that there are four possible stages in the process of understanding what it has to offer and what can be said about it. These are the four, in increasing degree of complexity. Reading is a fantastic way to build vocabulary; when your students encounter new vocabulary while reading, encourage them to employ several strategies to decipher the word before resorting to their dictionaries. Secondly, students should look at the context in which the word is used, not just in the sentence itself but also in the preceding and following paragraphs. What clues can the students find to the word’s meaning? Once students have had a good chance to examine the novel’s covers in small groups, get them to generate questions they have about the book and its contents. To help you get started, I've included a list of 100 popular novels in the free guide. Your school or local librarian can also be a great person to connect with to get suggestions.

Your first reading of the novel should focus on reading only, rather than starting off by taking a lot of notes. Take time to think about the characters, and to form opinions about their behaviour. Question what you are reading and try to predict what may happen next. Make sure that your reading time is undisturbed that you can fully concentrate on absorbing the story, and don’t be afraid to take breaks. These are the important underlying issues with which the novel is concerned. They are usually summarised as abstract concepts such as – marriage, education, justice, freedom, and redemption. These might only emerge slowly as the novel progresses on first reading – though they might seem much more obvious on subsequent readings. A novel study is essentially the process of reading and studying a novel closely. There are three formats the novel study can follow, namely: Vocabulary is only one aspect of comprehension. Novel studies afford students a valuable opportunity to develop their deep comprehension abilities.

They got started in 1996 by preserving the Internet itself, a technology whose popularity was just starting to rise. The content that was published online was transient, just like that of newspapers, but nobody was keeping it. There is no single purpose for doing novel studies in the classroom. In fact, the purpose of the novel studies you do may differ across the year. Romance novels revolve around a love story, typically between two people. This relationship is usually beset by struggles along the way that the couple must overcome to find happiness together. Another common feature of romance novels is the love triangle. These novels also typically feature a happy ending. Examples of romance novels include Pride and Prejudice (1812) by Jane Austen and The Notebook (1996) by Nicholas Sparks. Mystery novel

There’s nothing wrong with reading a novel just to pass the time, or as an alternative to watching TV. But if you want to get more out of your reading experience, if you want to start appreciating the finer points of literature, or if you want to make a serious study of the books you read – then you need to go in at a deeper level. For this you may need new reading techniques. Teen romance books are published by Swoon Reads under Feiwel and Friends, a Macmillan imprint. Publishing books that capture the ferocity of youthful love is Swoon Reads’ exclusive focus. However, my goal is to get students thinking, talking, and writing about their reading, and listing the narrator and point of view is a simple one-sentence answer. The flexibility of the novel study format lends itself well to almost any age group; just be sure to choose a text that matches the general reading ability of your class. For older kids, you may even want to involve them in deciding what text to study. Thriller novels are active and intense. They are named as such because they aim to invoke thrill and suspense in their readers. This may come from the novel's plot revolving around the characters' need to solve or discover something. Thrillers attempt to surprise their readers, characterised by their many narrative twists and turns. Psychological thrillers are particularly popular. Gone Girl (2012) by Gillian Flynn and Misery (1987) by Stephen King are both thrillers. Historical novelDeciding what is most important will help you to digest and remember the content of the novel. The process of deciding will also help you to separate the more important from the less important content. When I consider how long a novel study should take, I think about the amount of time I'll be able to devote to the book each day and any scheduling concerns (like extended breaks).

There isn’t one single formula or a secret recipe for the successful study of a novel. But to do it seriously you should be a careful and attentive reader. This means reading, then re-reading. It means making an active engagement with the book, and it probably means reading more slowly than usual. And it means making notes. The whole-class format is perhaps the most widely used in the classroom context. In this format, each student will usually have a copy of the text and follow along while the teacher or another student reads. Anyone who wants to study novels online especially adult literature can join the online community Riveted by Simon Teen. You may read YA books for free here at Riveted by Simon Teen, find your new favorite books and writers, compete to win recent and forthcoming releases, and more. Fiction: A key characteristic of a novel is that it is fictional. The stories being told have been created by the author. There is no option three! If you are not serious enough to study the novels prescribed in the syllabus and the option two doesn’t work for you, you should look for other choices in your academic pursuit or start with a job.

Below are two examples of texts that fit into the novel genre. North and South (1854) by Elizabeth Gaskell