ICTW DEBRIEF“’Repent Harlequin!’ Said the

Ticktock Man”

TITLE FORMAT “‘Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktock

Man”

Pay attention to the punctuation and capitalization

INTRODUCTIONS No rhetorical questions No quotations (from the text or general

quotations) No clichés

FOR EXAMPLE,Do you

ever read something in a book and the words make you picture something in your head? In Harlan Ellison’s “’Repent….

“Chaos is a lot like gravity, all it needs is a little push.” – Heath Ledger as The Joker

The jelly beans the Harlequin used in the short story “’Repent…

GOOD SAMPLE INTROIn his short story, “’Repent

Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” Harlan Ellison depicts a futuristic society that seems obsessed with time. Through this reoccurring theme about the importance of time, Ellison manages to drive home a lesson to the reader about the value of time and its impact on society. This impact is easily seen, especially in a dystopian world where daily life hinges on time itself.

QUOTATIONS

#1 BLEND THE QUOTE

Stuck in the paragraph Blended

He used the jelly beans to disrupt everyone’s shift. “Jelly Beans! Millions and billions of purple and yellows and greens…The shift workers howled and laughed and were pelted.” To me it seems as he accomplished his plan, he disrupted…

All of this is run by one powerful leader. The Ticktock man “is capable of revoking the minutes, the hours, the days, the nights, the years of your life.” The Ticktock man rules through fear and death…

OTHER ISSUES WITH QUOTATIONS Too long: Your quote should not take up

more than 3 lines. Choose the best part of the quote and use ellipses.

Weak/does not support claim: Sometimes you have chosen a quote that does not directly support the claim that you have made. Choose your quotes WISELY.

EXAMPLE:Time is the most important aspect and

the focus of the story. In the story time is thought to be equal or more important than your life. “You don’t call a man a hated name, not when that man, behind his mask, is capable of revoking the minutes, the hours, the days and nights, the years of your life.” Time is supposed to help you not hurt you.

* Is that really the best piece of evidence that could have been chosen to support that claim?

CHANGE THE QUOTE WHEN NEEDED TO BETTER FIT YOUR SENTENCE-MLA

The Harlequin spills one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of jelly beans onto the factory floor, which causes all activity and “the master schedule was thrown off by seven minutes.”

The Harlequin spills one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of jelly beans onto the factory floor, which causes all activity and “the master schedule [to be] thrown off by seven minutes.”

PARAGRAPHS Indention – be reasonable TS/claim, EV, CM, CM, EV, CM, CM, CS NEVER begin a paragraph with a

question or a quotation NEVER end a paragraph with a question

or a quotation Do not give your opinion – just say it

JUST SAY IT In my opinion,

Ellison uses this idea to really explain that our life is run by time…

This quote specifically shows how the actions of one person screwed up the whole communities schedule.

In my opinion, Ellison uses this idea to really explain that our life is run by time…

This quote specifically shows how The actions of one person screwed up the whole communities schedule.

OPINION & THE PROMPT: ASSESSING THE MORALITY OF ELLISON’S STORY

The decision to take time off someone’s life shouldn’t be made by such an unimportant mistake. Time is important to some extent, but not to the point where a human life should be taken as punishment for being late.

ANSWERING THE BIGGER

QUESTIONWhat does Ellison seem to be

saying…

TOO SHORTIf you wrote less than ¾ of the front page

then it is very likely that you failed. You simply cannot develop a substantial

argument in that amount of space. What you have may be good but it is not enough. one

body paragraph with one example and a few commentary sentences, while they may be

on point and well written, will cause your essay to be severely underdeveloped.

LITERARY PRESENT TENSE Harlan Ellison describes a world… The Harlequin disrupts

VS

The Harlequin disrupted

MORE… If you still have questions about your

ICTW there are two more steps that you can take.

1-go to the weebly and download the rubric AND the sample essay. Read through them both.

2-attend tutorials (you must do 1 first and bring it with you)