The Forest or the Trees? Or How to Write about Literary Elements

Have you ever heard the saying "Can't see the forest for the trees"? Usually this means that you are so focused on the small details (the individual trees) that you can't see the big picture (the forest). In other words, try to see the bigger picture rather than getting distracted.

To be a great reader and writer, you need to be able to see all the details and decide whether we're looking at the trees and the forest. What??? Simply put: you have two ways to analyze literary elements. If you are reading an entire book, you need to look at the forest, the big picture (things like theme, setting, or character change). If you are reading an individual page, poem, or passage you should look at the trees or specific language and literary devices (things like metaphors, symbols, repetition, alliteration, or juxtaposition). 

How is this useful to you? For the regents you have two tasks that involve the use of literary elements. The literary element paragraph and the critical lens. For the paragraph you are writing about the trees, for the critical lens you are writing about the forest.

Examples:

The Forest: A study of setting in Flight. 

The Trees: A study of the repetition in a passage of Flight.