methodology : how to write an essay or commentary

METHODOLOGY :
HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY OR COMMENTARY
LE COMMENTAIRE DE LITTÉRATURE/ WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE .............. 2
1. THE COMMENTARY (PROSE AND POETRY) ................................................. 2
1.1. BEFORE WRITING: ........................................................................................................................................ 2
1.2. WRITE A ROUGH DRAFT: .............................................................................................................................. 2
1.3. WRITING UP THE FINAL VERSION: ................................................................................................................ 3
1.4. THE INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 3
1.5 THE DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................................................................... 3
1.6 THE CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 4
2. THE COMPOSITION OR ESSAY IN LITERATURE............................................. 5
3. EXAMPLE : TEXT COMMENTARY ON A LITERARY EXCERPT .......................... 7
LE COMMENTAIRE DE CIVILISATION ............................................................. 11
1. REMARQUES GENERALES ......................................................................... 11
2. TRAVAIL PRELIMINAIRE ............................................................................ 11
3. ELABORATION DU PLAN ........................................................................... 12
3.1. L'INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 12
3.2. L'EXPLICATION DU TEXTE .......................................................................................................................... 13
3.3. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................. 13
3.4 LES PIEGES A EVITER ................................................................................................................................... 13
4. METHODOLOGIE : DU VOCABULAIRE POUR LE COMMENTAIRE DE TEXTE EN
CIVILISATION ................................................................................................ 14
4.1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 14
4.2. THE BODY OF YOUR COMMENTARY .......................................................................................................... 15
4.3. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................. 17
4.4. ADDITIONAL REMARKS .............................................................................................................................. 18
4.5. ADDITIONAL VOCABULARY (SYNONYMS) ................................................................................................. 18
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LE COMMENTAIRE DE LITTÉRATURE/ WRITING
ABOUT LITERATURE
Les quelques conseils méthodologiques qui suivent ne sont guère différents d‟année en année et ce qui
est vrai pour les années de licence reste vrai au niveau du master, et même au-delà1. À chaque étape
seules augmentent la difficulté du texte à commenter, la sophistication de la problématique, le recours
à des grilles d‟analyse / de lecture plus théoriques.
Vous trouverez ci-dessous, en anglais, le rappel des étapes à ne pas négliger :
1. en matière de commentaire proprement dit (ici dans l‟optique de l‟analyse textuelle – close reading
–) et ce pour un extrait précis, bien délimité, d‟une œuvre.2
2. en matière de dissertation, c'est-à-dire de réflexion construite à partir d‟une question, d‟une citation,
ou de concepts / notions clés d‟une œuvre, ici scrutée en son entier.
En fin de document, un exemple est mis à votre disposition. Il s‟agit d‟un commentaire de texte sur un
passage de Joyce, extrait de Lectures de A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man3
1. THE COMMENTARY (PROSE AND POETRY)
1.1. BEFORE WRITING:


Read the passage for analysis or poem at least three times. Make sure you understand all the
words, including their pronunciation (use the Oxford English Dictionary and the Longman
Pronunciation Dictionary).
Use the checklists below and go through your text line by line, underlining significant words
and features and making rough notes.
1.2. WRITE A ROUGH DRAFT:


Underline words, phrases and formal features which stand out. Try to say exactly why the
underlined items stand out, to explain the effects produced, the meanings you are able to
detect etc. (emphasis, understatement, opposition, accumulation, balance, tone, momentum,
repetition etc). You will probably notice that certain themes or features occur several times
and will need to be grouped together when you write your final version
Group together your “things which stand out” into sets or categories which bring together
recurrent or related features, stylistic and/or thematic. Number the groups or give them mental
subtitles. These categories will form the different parts and paragraphs of your commentary.
1
Ils sont adaptés d‟un document établi en 2008 par M. Tang pour le département d‟anglais de Rennes 2.
Le commentaire linéaire est à éviter autant que faire se peut. C‟est là il est vrai une affaire d‟habitude ou
d‟école. Les anglo-saxons privilégient souvent le deuxième type d‟analyse quand l‟université française réclame
aujourd‟hui des problématiques « serrées ».
3
S. Jousni, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Coll. Didact Anglais, 2009.
2
2
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
Make a plan. Arrange the parts starting with the most obvious or easily accessible aspects of
the poem to the less apparent or more complex ones, the ones that raise “problems” of
interpretation. It is these problems that your commentary should work to resolve (its
“problématique”).
Link up: the line of argument (the “problématique”): Think about how you will link up
one part/set of ideas to the next one. Each part should follow on logically from the previous
one and take the analysis one step further, in order to deepen our appreciation and
understanding of the passage or poem.
1.3. WRITING UP THE FINAL VERSION:
The final version should have an introduction, a development containing between 2 and 4 parts, and a
conclusion. Leave a blank line between each part, in order to clearly signal the different stages of the
analysis. Things to remember:
1.4. THE INTRODUCTION
It should do 3 things
1. If the commentary is on a piece of prose fiction, briefly contextualise the passage in the story
or novel as a whole i.e. say what action has produced the situation which is central to this
passage. Do not recount the entire plot. Do not recount the biography of the author.
Hint: DO NOT start your commentary with banal expressions such as “This passage is taken
from…” or, worse, “This passage is extracted from…”. Find more original, sophisticated ways
of introducing the passage. Eg. find a phrase in the passage which seems to sum up the
specificity of the piece and develop out of it.
2. state the main thematic interest of the scene (what the scene “does”) and its structure or
organisation.
Hint: When describing the structure of the passage DO NOT say “The first part goes from line
x to line y. The second part goes from…” etc. Instead, bring out the dynamic movement of the
passage, its rhetorical or logical or temporal articulations.
3. announce your line of attack (or „problématique‟) and your plan: this will depend on the
different points you choose to develop in the given passage. The points may be thematic,
stylistic or linguistic (but preferably a combination of all three).
Hint: there is no “typical” plan or “problématique. It will depend on the specific features of
the text under study. For areas to look at, see the checklists below.
1.5 THE DEVELOPMENT
It should contain between 2 and 4 parts or “categories of things that stand out”, and should be
balanced.
1. Each part should contain an introductory sentence which signals the general theme or aspect
of the passage to be developed in this part, and a preliminary conclusion recapitulating the
points made and announcing the following point.
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2. Back up each point you make with evidence from the text (quotations). Quotations should not
just be ornamental; they should also be used to demonstrate the validity of your interpretation.
3. Each new part should signal the logical link with the preceding part thanks to a transition.
The transition announces whether the following part offers an objection to what has just been
said, or whether it will enlarge on the previous point made, or change the perspective, and
how. Transitions “guide” the reading of your commentary.
Express your ideas clearly and precisely but avoid being simplistic. Improve your expression by
experimenting with turns of phrase from the appendix section of Fr. Grellet, A Handbook of Literary
Terms, entitled “The Language of Commentaries and Essays” (p.212-229).
1.6 THE CONCLUSION
It should:
1. sum up the results of the analysis, briefly gathering together the main strands of your analysis
and reassert the passage‟s or poem‟s specificity and interest.
Hint: To avoid an impression of sterile repetition, use more varied lexical and syntactic
resources to reformulate the results put forward in the development.
2. open up the wider perspective.
Hint: opening up the wider perspective might involve signalling how the passage under study
announces a later episode, either as a parallel or as a contrast; or it might lead to a general
reflection about the writer‟s art or technique, or the genre.
Remember: a textual commentary – also known as explication de texte – is a process of folding out
(as is suggested by the etymology of the word ex-pliquer, literally, fold out), of folding back the
different layers of meaning and effect contained beneath the apparent or surface meaning of a text
Your job is two-fold:
a) to make clear / clarify the denser parts of a text to show you have understood the different
complex levels of meaning, reference and allusion; and, conversely
b) to show how an apparently simple text may conceal hidden depths of meaning which make
it more complex that it at first seems.
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2. THE COMPOSITION OR ESSAY IN LITERATURE
The procedure for researching a composition is similar to that of the commentary, but on a larger
scale, on the level of the whole text rather than just a passage.
1. Define the terms of the subject to be written about. The introduction should provide the working
definition of the topic. This need not be a dictionary definition: instead, think about how the term can
be defined in relation to the literary work under study. A good way to start an essay is with a relevant
quotation from the text in which the given essay topic is evoked.
2. Research the given essay topic by re-reading sections of the text and noting down quotations
connected to the issue. Jot down your reactions; think critically; challenge your own assumptions.
3. Elaborate a thesis statement about the essay topic. Your aim is to convince your reader that your
thesis is correct. You may not succeed in convincing your reader you are right, but at least you should
make your reader feel that your argument is thoughtful and well-informed.
4. Write a first draft. Re-read this draft critically, trying to identify the function of each paragraph or
group of paragraphs (“part”). (Ask: What does this paragraph do? explain, illustrate, contradict,
summarize etc?) Give mental sub-headings to each part. How does each paragraph relate to the
previous paragraph? Write a sentence linking them together. If you cannot do this, it is likely your
essay is disorganised. Re-think the order of the paragraphs.
The development may take different shapes but should never simply “tell the story” or relate the
biography of the writer:
a) The What How Why approach: selects elements in the text to answer the given
subject, and studies the different literary means deployed to dramatise them before
examining the implications – ideological, philosophical, psychological, social – of
these choices. Looks at what the author reveals, consciously or unconsciously, in this
way.
b) The thèse-antithèse-synthèse approach is a classical approach but needs to be handled
carefully in order to avoid crude contradictions.
c) The distinction-identification-relativisation approach is more nuanced and complex,
but all approaches should move from the obvious to the less obvious, from the explicit
to the implicit.
Each paragraph should advance the demonstration one stage further and should provide textual
evidence of the pertinence of the point that has been made. Make sure your quotations are full
quotations, or are coherently inserted (between speech marks). Avoid merely ornamental quotations:
quotations should be followed by analysis. Avoid catalogues of examples without commentary or
analysis. Define technical terms.
State provisional conclusions where possible, never losing sight of the essay topic.
5. Write out the definitive draft. Present your work carefully. It is a reflection of yourself, your
personality. Leave a blank line in between each main part, after the introduction and before the
conclusion.
- Check your grammar, spelling and punctuation. Do not start every sentence on a new line.
Do start every new sentence with a capital letter.
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-
-
-
Check your syntax: are there any short sentences that can be combined to make more
sophisticated long sentences? Are there any overly-long sentences that can be broken into
shorter ones? Can any repetitions be eliminated (by varying your vocabulary)?
Check your level of language: written English differs from spoken English. Avoid “oral”
phrases such as “a bit”, “sort of”, “kind of”, tags and contracted forms such as “We‟re”,
“he‟s”.
Check your style: avoid awkward rhetorical markers such as “In a first part… and in a second
part… and as a conclusion I would say that…” Avoid filler phrases such as “It is interesting to
notice that…” or “We can say that…”
Hints for improving style
1. Instead of using “I” or “we” in order to express your reactions, find more impersonal ways of
formulating your idea. Refer to the “reader” or “readers”, or use the passive voice, more common in
English than in French.
2. Use the present tense, not the past tense, when referring to narrative events eg. “When Joseph goes
to London he becomes frivolous and vain”. These events are not historical events so the past tense is
not justified. They are fictional events, reactualised every time they are read.
Further reading
David B. Pirie, How to Write Critical Essays, London, Routledge, 1992.
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3. EXAMPLE : TEXT COMMENTARY ON A LITERARY EXCERPT
Passage to be commented upon: « the birds on the steps of the National Library » (J. Joyce, A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), chap.V, p. 243-245)
 Text
1
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
What birds were they? He stood on the steps of the library to look at them, leaning wearily on
his ashplant. They flew round and round the jutting shoulder of a house in Molesworth Street.
The air of the late March evening made clear their flight, their dark darting quivering bodies
flying clearly against the sky as against a limp-hung cloth of smoky tenuous blue.
He watched their flight; bird after bird: a dark flash, a swerve, a flash again, a dart aside, a
curve, a flutter of wings. He tried to count them before all their darting, quivering bodies passed:
six, ten, eleven: and wondered were they odd or even in number. Twelve, thirteen: for two came
wheeling down from the upper sky. They were flying high and low but ever round and round in
straight and curving lines and ever flying from left to right, circling, about a temple of air.
He listened to the cries: like the squeak of mice behind the wainscot: a shrill twofold note.
But the notes were long and shrill and whirring, unlike the cry of vermin, falling a third or a
fourth and trilled as the flying beaks clove the air. Their cry was shrill and clear and fine and
falling like threads of silken light unwound from whirring spools.
The inhuman clamour soothed his ears in which his mother‟s sobs and reproaches murmured
insistently and the dark frail quivering bodies wheeling and fluttering, and swerving round an
airy temple of the tenuous sky soothed his eyes which still saw the image of his mother‟s face.
Why was he gazing upwards from the steps of the porch, hearing their shrill twofold cry,
watching their flight? For an augury of good or evil? A phrase of Cornelius Agrippa flew
through his mind and then there flew hither and thither shapeless thoughts from Swedenborg on
the correspondence of birds to things of the intellect and of how the creatures of the air have
their knowledge and know their times and seasons because they, unlike man, are in the order of
their life and have not perverted that order by reason.
And for ages men had gazed upward as he was gazing at birds in flight. The colonnade above
him made him think vaguely of an ancient temple and the ashplant on which he leaned wearily
of the curved stick of an augur. A sense of fear of the unknown moved in the hearts of his
weariness, a fear of symbols and portents, of the hawklike man whose name he bore soaring out
of his captivity on osierwoven wings, of Thoth, the god of writers, writing with a reed upon a
tablet and bearing on his narrow ibis head the cusped moon.
He smiled as he thought of the god‟s image for it made him think of a bottlenosed judge in a
wig, putting commas into a document which he held at arm‟s length and he knew that he would
not have remembered the god‟s name but that it was like an Irish oath. It was folly. But was it
for this folly that he was about to leave for ever the house of prayer and prudence into which he
had been born and the order of life out of which he had come ?
They came back with shrill cries over the jutting shoulders of the house, flying darkly against
the fading air. What birds were they? He thought that they must be swallows who had come
back from the south. Then he was to go away for they were birds ever going and coming,
building ever an unlasting home under the eaves of men‟s houses and ever leaving the homes
they had built to wander.
Bend down your faces, Oona and Alleel,
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I gaze upon them as the swallows gazes
Upon the nest under the eave before
He wanders the loud waters
50
55
60
A soft liquid joy like the noise of many waters flowed over his memory and he felt in his
heart the soft peace of silent spaces of fading tenuous sky above the waters, of oceanic silence,
of swallows flying through the seadusk over the flowing waters.
A soft liquid joy flowed through the words where the soft long vowels hurtled noiselessly and
fell away, lapping and flowing back and ever shaking the white bells of their waves in mute
chime and mute peal and soft low swooning cry; and he felt that the augury he had sought in the
wheeling darting birds and in the pale space of sky above him had come forth from his heart like
a bird from a turret quietly and swiftly.
Symbol of departure or of loneliness? The verses crooned in the ear of his memory composed
slowly before his remembering eyes of the scene of the hall on the night of the opening of the
national theatre. He was alone at the side of the balcony, looking out of jaded eyes at the culture
of Dublin in the stalls and at the tawdry scene-cloths and human dolls framed by the garish
lamps of the stage. A burly policeman sweated behind him and seemed at every moment about
to act. The catcalls and hisses and mocking cries ran in rude gusts round the hall from his
scattered fellowstudents.
 Exercises
a. Observation: focus on the repetitions, be they lexical or syntactic (shrill / soft / frail /
quivering bodies / temple / to fly-flew-flight / ever // use of -ING forms). Analyse their
narrative and poetic values.
b. Comment upon the insistence on the notion of “gaze” and “gazing”.
c. Symbolic reading: scrutinize the bird and the water imageries. Would they be relevant with a
Freudian interpretation of the passage (in terms of sexual drive)?
 Possible organisation (plan & „problématique‟)
a. Introduction
 Give a brief summary of the story so far. Mention the presence of another epiphany earlier
on (the Seabird girl- pages 185-187)
 Show that the passage does not relate facts or events; nor does it “explain” / “justify” or
“account for” anything. Actually, what is at stake is a “reading” of the world and this
reading is what urges Stephen to go away and leave Ireland forever. Reading and writing
are key notions (all along the Portrait but it is especially true in this very passage); show
the multiple references to reading and writing via terms such as writer-writing-codesign…, and of course via the mention of Thoth, the Egyptian god of writers.
The development might be organised as follows:
b. PART I. Stephen‟s “reading” is purely intellectual
 the main topics / themes to be found in the passage are centred on Knowledge / Culture /
Reason, as is evidenced by the presence of the corresponding semantic fields, together
with Stephen‟s questioning and rhetorics.
 more precisely the passage is saturated with « cultural » elements and details :
a) classical culture: the myth of Daedalus & Icarus / Roman divination / Thoth /
Cornelius Agrippa / Swedenborg
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b) „modern‟ culture, that is to say the culture contemporary to Stephen and Joyce‟s: the
Symbolist movement /Yeats (The Countess Cathleen) / Baudelaire (see the poem
“Correspondances”, reproduced down below)
This hardly comes as a surprise since the passage, which belongs to the last chapter, when
Stephen is getting ready to “take his flight”, mainly revolves around aesthetic questions: art is indeed
the reason for Stephen‟s desire to leave (he is leaving to write).
Transition: far from being exclusively motivated by Stephen‟s logics and logical arguments
(they often prove extremely clever as was the case of the conversation with the dean of studies
during the funnel-tundish episode – p. 205), the scene highlights the notion of signs, in the
sense of auguries. This might be viewed at best as some form of paganism or, at worst, as
superstition: see for instance that Stephen is counting the birds, wondering if it is odd or even,
odd numbers being interpreted as bad luck from Roman times. The fact must be underlined,
not so much because it comes in opposition with Stephen‟s main intellectual upbringing, his
religious formation as because of the emotional dimension that expresses itself here. One
might draw upon the analogy the text makes between the birds‟ cry and Stephen‟s mother‟s
“sobs and reproaches” (lines 16-19).
c. PART II.
Stephen‟s “reading” of the world (indeed) does not originate in any rational order but belongs to the
realm of emotions / feelings / affect. Incidentally desire pertains to that dimension and in that
perspective a parallel, however limited to a few paragraphs, should be drawn with the „Seabird girl‟
epiphany. Analyse then the major two (lyrical) expressions of Stephen‟s psyche:

romantic elation (focus on the metaphors, on the music and rhythm of the style poetic prose-)

fear of the unknown. Show that a simplistic dichotomy between good and bad omen
pervades the text. Contrast with the denotations of “the house of prayer and prudence” or “the
order of life”…
d. PART III (or expanded conclusion)
The above dichotomy, which obviously constitutes a dialectical relation, might not be the ultimate
interpretation. Stephen‟s dilemma (and future decision) actually does not amount to a mere alternative
(intellect OR affect). When Stephen leaves to confront his reading of the word with the reality of the
world itself (quote the last sentence of the Portrait: “I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality
of experience …”), he is driven by both kinds of forces, emotional AND intellectual. He is as much
determined by his social, intellectual of historical background as by his personal and emotional
history.
3. Further reading
Baudelaire‟s poem “Correspondances” might be read “in parallel” with the passage:
La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers
Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles ;
L‟homme y passe à travers une forêt de symboles
Qui l‟observent avec des regards familiers.
Comme de longs échos qui de loin se confondent
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Dans une ténébreuse et profonde unité,
Vaste comme la nuit et comme la clarté,
Les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se répondent.
Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d‟enfants,
Doux comme les hautbois, verts comme les prairies,
– Et d‟autres, corrompus, riches et triomphants,
Ayant l‟expansion des choses infinies,
Comme l‟ambre, le musc, le benjoin et l‟encens,
Qui chantent les transports de l‟esprit et des sens.
(Les Fleurs du Mal : « Spleen et idéal », 1861)
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LE COMMENTAIRE DE CIVILISATION
Le commentaire de civilisation est différent du commentaire littéraire. On s'intéresse au texte en tant
qu'objet de communication, avec son message propre, transmis à un moment donné de l'histoire,
destiné à un public de lecteurs ou d'auditeurs
Commenter un texte, c'est essayer d'expliquer l'effet que ce texte produit sur le lecteur. Un texte dit
plus que la simple information ou le simple message explicite qu'il est censé transmettre. Il faut
essayer de montrer comment ce sens a été fabriqué et dans quel but, comment et pourquoi il y a là
matière à réflexion.
L‟écueil majeur du commentaire de civilisation, celui qu‟il faut éviter à tout prix, c‟est la paraphrase :
la répétition du contenu apparent ou manifeste du texte sans justement chercher à comprendre
comment l'agencement du texte, la rhétorique, les niveaux de langue, l'humour ou l'ironie disent autre
chose au lecteur que ce qui semblait évident à première vue. Lors d'un commentaire de texte, il s'agit
de poser un problème et de le traiter, mais en pensant avec l'auteur, en analysant son texte. Il s'agit de
le comprendre, de saisir sa structure ainsi que ses enjeux.
Vous devez faire le commentaire en anglais et ne vous y trompez pas, même s‟il s‟agit d‟un
commentaire en civilisation, la qualité de votre anglais sera prise en compte dans la note finale qui
vous sera attribuée.
1. REMARQUES GENERALES



Il faut garder à l'esprit que l'objectif des textes que vous serez amenés à commenter est non
seulement de transmettre des idées mais aussi de faire réfléchir.
De plus, il ne faut pas perdre de vue le fait que ces textes ont été énoncés ou écrits dans un
contexte bien particulier, à un moment donné de l'histoire; vous devrez donc les analyser en
référence à l'époque où ils ont été produits.
Il vous appartiendra de dégager et d'expliquer les deux niveaux de sens que comprend
généralement tout texte, à savoir le message explicite (qui est donné immédiatement par le
texte) et le message implicite (qui est compris en contexte par le(s) destinataire(s) du message
originel et qu'une bonne connaissance de la période vous permettra de mettre à jour).
2. TRAVAIL PRELIMINAIRE


Il faut commencer par s'interroger sur ce qu'on appelle le paratexte, à savoir le titre (si le
document en contient un), l'auteur, la date de publication, la nature du document (ex. :
discours, lettre; source primaire, ...), le lectorat ou l'auditoire probable (qui peut d'ailleurs être
déjà indiqué).
Après avoir lu le texte deux ou trois fois sans prendre de notes ou surligner, on pourra
procéder à l'analyse détaillée du document qui devra déboucher sur un compte-rendu critique
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
synthétique : quels sont les arguments avancés et comment s'articulent-ils les uns par rapport
aux autres ? Quel est la tonalité du texte (style, rythme, procédés et modalités de l'énonciation,
...) ? Comment le contexte historique permet-il d'éclairer le document et inversement quel
éclairage le document apporte-t-il au contexte ? Que dit l'auteur et comment ? Pourquoi le ditil ainsi ? Quelles étaient ses intentions ? Quelles étaient les circonstances et les enjeux ?
L'auteur est-il convaincant ?
Si, en général, l'étude préliminaire ne peut être que linéaire, il est déconseillé de faire un
commentaire linéaire : on risquerait alors non seulement de se répéter mais également de faire
de la paraphrase plutôt que de n'analyse. Les idées qui ont été développées suite à l'étude
préliminaire devront donc être classées, hiérarchisées et synthétisées en vue de l'élaboration du
plan, qui devra donc être synthétique.
3. ELABORATION DU PLAN





Les différents éléments qui vont constituer votre commentaire devront s'enchainer avec clarté
selon une progression logique.
L'objectif d'un commentaire est de rendre compte du document en exposant la problématique,
en analysant les arguments principaux à la lumière de ce que l'on connait de la période, en
montrant comment ces arguments s'articulent, quels effets ont été recherchés, quels procédés
rhétoriques ont été utilisés, en portant un regard critique sur ce qui est dit (l'auteur se
contredit-il ?? Son argumentation est-elle logique ?)
Dans un commentaire de texte, il faut aussi tenir compte du non-dit. L‟auteur a-t-il omis des
faits ? Et dans quel but ? C‟est à vous de faire état d‟éventuels faits manquants pour mieux
éclairer le texte et les intentions de l‟auteur.
Attention à ne pas perdre de vue le texte pour éviter d'être hors sujet et à ne pas se lancer dans
un exposé général sur la période: veillez à vous détacher du sens littéral du texte.
Le commentaire pourra être organisé autour des grands thèmes traités par l'auteur (2 ou 3
aspects), autour des points centraux de son argumentaire ou encore en fonction des divers
angles d'approche adoptés (économique, sociologique, politique, ...).
Les différents arguments que vous mettrez en avant devront être illustrés en faisant directement
référence au texte (pensez à préciser les lignes correspondant aux citations tirées du texte; évitez de
surcharger votre commentaire de citations; une citation doit venir à l'appui d'un argument et non
l'inverse).
3.1. L'INTRODUCTION
L'introduction de votre explication doit être constituée de préférence des quatre étapes suivantes. Cela
a le mérite d'obliger à aller à l'essentiel, en évitant toutes les généralités telles que la vie de l'auteur,
qui alourdissent le propos.
 Thème: identifier le thème dont il est question. Il s'agit de comprendre de quoi parle
exactement l'auteur. Les généralités sont à exclure, il importe de se pencher sur le texte dans
sa configuration précise. Ne confondez pas le thème avec la thèse, c'est-à-dire ce que l'auteur
veut démontrer.
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Problématique: il s'agit de la difficulté centrale soulevée par le texte. La problématique ne se
décèle pas immédiatement, il vous faudra la dégager. C'est la question fondamentale que
l'auteur pose implicitement.
Thèse: il s'agit de déterminer la position de l'auteur dans ce texte, ce qu'il a voulu démontrer
dans un contexte précis.
Plan du texte: votre introduction se termine par l'énoncé du plan, qui référence brièvement le
nombre de parties contenues dans le texte, et leur contenu.
3.2. L'EXPLICATION DU TEXTE

L'organisation du développement suit les mêmes règles que celles d'une dissertation: pensez
aux transitions, introduisez et concluez chacune de vos parties, et évitez les phrases
interminables. Puisque le texte propose une solution à un problème, l'élaboration de cette
solution peut constituer votre fil directeur. Éliminez tout ce qui n'y a pas rapport. Il est
conseillé de regrouper les arguments de l'auteur selon des thèmes, ce qui ne correspond pas
toujours à l'ordre du texte. Une fois les arguments dégagés, vous pouvez critiquer (évaluer,
porter un jugement positif ou négatif) sur l'argument principal, l'idée forte. Notez bien que
critiquer signifie soit montrer les limites de l'argument, soit le renforcer à partir de vos
connaissances, et non donner votre avis de manière infondée.
3.3. CONCLUSION


Il s'agit de faire le bilan de ce qui fait l'intérêt du texte et de porter un jugement critique sur la
qualité et la cohérence du texte (l'objectif recherché est-il atteint ? La question est-elle traitée
de manière exhaustive, objective ?), sur sa représentativité (est-il typique de son époque ?
Pourquoi ?) et sur sa portée (les événements ont-ils donné raison ou non à l'auteur?, ...).
Il faut donc élargir le débat, ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives. Il ne faut surtout pas se lancer
dans une nouvelle analyse ou apporter des éléments de dernière minute qui auraient pu figurer
dans le corps du commentaire.
3.4 LES PIEGES A EVITER
Voici quelques conseils qui vous permettront d'éviter les fautes habituelles dans ce type d'exercice:
 Ne s'occuper que d'une partie du texte. Expliquer un texte, c'est déterminer son sens global.
L'approche d'un seul élément ne convient pas, le travail doit porter sur le texte tout entier.
 Oublier le texte et faire une dissertation. Ne mettez pas le texte de côté, comme s'il vous
donnait simplement une piste de réflexion. C'est le texte qui prime, et votre travail est de
l'expliquer et de le commenter.
 Considérer les exemples comme secondaires. Accordez une place privilégiée aux exemples
contenus dans le texte. C'est souvent eux qui permettent d'avoir une bonne interprétation de la
thèse de l'auteur.
 La paraphrase. Il s'agit d'expliquer les concepts, de souligner leur organisation interne, leur
dynamique dans la logique du raisonnement. Evitez donc de simplement reformuler ou, pire,
d'enchaîner les citations.
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Les jugements de valeurs. Il faut garder de la distance par rapport au texte et éviter à tout prix
de faire des commentaires de type « He should have… », « I don‟t know why she didn „t… ».
Sources
Fiche élaborée à partir des ouvrages qui suivent :
- Annales de Capes Externes d'Anglais, Paris, Vuibert, 2002, 3eme édition
- Le commentaire et la dissertation : Littérature et civilisation, Paris : Editions du Temps, 1997.
4. METHODOLOGIE : DU VOCABULAIRE POUR LE
COMMENTAIRE DE TEXTE EN CIVILISATION
Cette liste n’est aucunement limitative
4.1. INTRODUCTION
a . Origin, date, title, author, addressee
 This text is an extract from
 This is a passage from
 This extract is taken from
 „X‟ is part of
 The extract we are commenting upon / on is taken from
 a book / a history book
 an essay / a pamphlet
 a poem
 an Act of Parliament
 a newspaper article
 a letter, etc
 which was published in (date), that is to say at a time when / [X] was King of England / [Y]
had been King of England for 10 years / England had been at war with France for 12 years
OR:
 In „[title of the text]´, which is an extract from [Title of the Book], a [X] published in [Y], that
is to say [X], [X] deals with….
 It is entitled „[X]´
 It is contemporary account of… / a primary source, since the writer witnesses (took part in)
the events he relates here / lived in England during the period referred to in the document.
 His view can be expected to be biased as, at the time, he was…
OR:
 In spite of the author‟s position this a rather objective account of…..
OR:
 It is a secondary source.
 The writer gives us his view with the benefit of hindsight.
 He can be expected to have / an objective / an impartial / a global view / of the events.
OR:
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in spite of the fact that is a rather biased approach of…., since it……..
It was written by [X], who was …… at the time of the events related / mentioned / here. His
view is rather objective / subjective / biased / prejudiced…., all the more so since at that
time………
 The English reformation was written by A.G. Dickens, a famous historian of the period who is
mainly concerned with the religious aspect of the question. It is therefore a secondary source,
so…….
 This letter was addressed to X who was…….
 As this book had been banned, it was circulated in secret in England and therefore was not
widely read.
 This sermon / speech was delivered to an audience of…., hence the style, which is……
b . Main subject
 This passage deals with / is about / concerns / is concerned with / + GN
 The point in question in this text is + GN
 The main topic / subject / of this passage is + GN
 Be careful! The subject is not the same as the theme: „The theme of Dickens‟s text is Henri
VIII‟s divorce´. Its subject is „the assessment of the religious and political consequences for
England of Henri VIII‟s divorce´.
c. Approach
 This passage is a general approach / a description / a detailed description / a descriptive
approach / an analysis / an objective analysis / an impartial relation / a polemical account / an
impassioned narrative / a eulogy / a (violent) criticism / a parody / a revaluation / an
assessment of + GN.
d . Main point and structure of the text
 In / through this document the author aims at putting across the view that… / conveying /
expressing the idea that…. / convincing the reader that…..
 The structure of this text is very clear / quite straightforward.
OR:
 The structure of this passage is rather confused.
 The author starts by stating his main point, which is…..
 Then, he gives a demonstration of it which he backs up with examples.
OR:
 After an introductory passage in which the author gives his opinion on…., he goes on to
dismiss the view held / put forward / by [X].
 Then he attempts to prove his point by giving a demonstration illustrated with examples.
 He bases his demonstration on statistics.
 He backs up / supports / his thesis with convincing quotations from…..
e . Structure of your commentary
 examine / consider / discuss / assess / concentrate on / focus our attention on …
 Then …..
 Having discussed / After discussing / the writer‟s description of…. /concentrate on
and finally move on to the question of …….
4.2. THE BODY OF YOUR COMMENTARY
a . Locating the references in the text
 In line 7, the author says that…..
 In the first paragraph, the writer assesses the importance of….
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
In the very first line of the text ……
From line 8 (down) to line 11, Mr. X develops the point he made at the beginning of
the second paragraph.
 Throughout / all through / the text, the writer keeps reminding the reader that ….
 As the writer puts it in line 9, ……
b . Describing what the writer does
 The author writes / says / claims / asserts / maintains / declares / states that ……
 He gives an account of events / of a situation.
 He describes / depicts / portrays + GN
 He raises the issue of + GN
 He takes up / tackles / the subject of…..
 He concentrates / focuses his attention / dwells on + GN
 He draws attention to + GN
 He insists on…, he lays stress / emphasis on + GN
 He underlines + GN OR that + sentence
 He devotes 3 lines to + GN. He alludes to + GN
 He quotes (from) the Bible to support his claim
 He examines / considers / discusses / studies / analyses + GN
 He illustrates / demonstrates / proves his point by saying that….
 He presents / provides the reader with examples
 He expresses / gives / utters his opinion on + GN
 He considers the arguments for or against
 He indicates / points out the reasons
 The reasons why….
 why / when / how /where / that + sentence
 He puts forward / develops the idea that….
 He concludes that….
 He summarizes / sums up his view by saying that….
c . Commenting on the writer‟s words and arguments
Explaining
 What the author really means is that….
 By using the word …., the author refers to …..
 At that time, the term „puritan´ was a word of abuse.
 It was a derogatory / pejorative word
 This is a clear reference to + GN
 In line 8 the word „ship´ is used metaphorically / in a figurative language /
metaphorical sense. It means / it stands for / represents the church, whereas the phrase
„crossing the ocean´ (line 10) is used in the literal sense. (sens propre)

He mentions „the heretics´, that is (to say)/ namely the Protestants who…

In other words, one could say that….
 In short / in brief / the author is aiming at convincing the reader that….
· Confirming and illustrating the writer‟s point
 In line 10, the author says that most people were dissatisfied with the King‟s policy.
Indeed, many petitions were signed and riots took place in…..
 The writer‟s point is confirmed / borne out by + GN
 The author is (perfectly) justified in asserting that the Queen was worried in so far as
+ information
 Moreover / what is more / in addition / besides + information
 All the more so as …..
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It must be borne in mind that, at that time, the British economy was …
This example must be set against the background of religious intolerance that
prevailed at the time
 The economic background of these events must be studied.
 To illustrate this point, a few examples could be added.
 This reminds one of + GN / that + phrase
 This calls to mind + GN
· Drawing conclusions, putting forward hypotheses
 It reveals / shows / proves / indicates / implies that….
 From this, we can infer / conclude / derive / gather that…..
 Use modal verbs expressing conjecture: may / might / must
 I presume / suppose / imagine
· Challenging the author‟s view
 Although the author is right to say that….
 However justified the author may be in claiming that….
 The author is perfectly right when he says that…, yet / however it must added /borne
in mind /
 The point has to be made that ….
 The writer‟s analysis / reasoning / demonstration is faulty / flawed / inaccurate
 He is prejudiced / biased / in favour of / against ….
 His account is partial / incomplete / partisan
 He misjudges / misunderstands + GN
 He overestimates / overrates / overvalues / exaggerates the importance of…
 He minimizes / undervalues / underestimated / plays down + GN
 He seems to have a lot of preconceived ideas on + GN
 He totally ignores the fact that… (il ne tient absolument pas compte du fait que..)
 He fails to mention + GN OR + that….
 His criticism is (totally) irrelevant / unfounded / off the point / because…
4.3. CONCLUSION
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In conclusion / to conclude it can be said that… (pas ‘as a conclusion´)
In this commentary, it has been shown / demonstrated that….
In view of the historical context, it can be concluded that….
We shall sum up by saying that …..
· Assessing the historical value of the document
 It is a valuable / reliable / historical document since it…
 It can be trusted because ….
 It has no great historical value. It is unreliable since it….
 It sheds new light on the debated question of + GN
 It allows the modern reader to understand….
 With the benefit of hindsight (=´rétrospectivement´)/ retrospectively it can be said that this
document had a tremendous influence on + GN
 [X]‟s opinion was confirmed / disproved by what happened later, that is …
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4.4. ADDITIONAL REMARKS
a . Tense

Most of the time, you will have to use the present to describe what the author does :
e.g. The author underlines the fact that….
 Use the simple past and not the present tense to refer to historical events e.g. Henri
VIII came to the throne in 1509
 Do not use „will´ or „shall´ to refer to past events in English! Jacques 1er succédera à
Elisabeth en 1603´ : James I succeeded / was to succeed her in 1603´.
b . Capital letters
 Remember that the English system is different from the French one. e.g. Then English
(les Anglais), the English constitution (la constitution anglaise), the English language
(la langue anglaise). In English both nouns and adjectives of nationality have a capital
letter.
c . Link words
Enumeration
 Pour commencer: First / to begin with / to start with…
 Ne pas dire *at first ni *at last.
 Pour ajouter des arguments par ordre croissant d’importance, utilisez:
 Secondly, and far more importantly / above all / on top of it all / last but not least /
most important of all
 Par ordre décroissant, commencez par : First and foremost / First and most
important(ly)…
Transition
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
We have discussed Wolsey‟s part in the divorce suit. Now, …..
As for / As to the Pope‟s attitude, ….
With reference to / with respect to / with regard to / as regards / regarding the reaction
of the bishops….
Let us now turn to….
Contrast


Henri VIII did not favour Protestant ideas. On the contrary, he remained faithful to
traditional Catholic dogmas.
On the one hand, he severed all links with Rome. On the other hand, he retained the
traditional Catholic hierarchy.
He never promoted Protestantism. Instead, he persecuted protestants.


Phrase + Yet / however / still / nevertheless + phrase
Although / even though + proposition + phrase

Concession
4.5. ADDITIONAL VOCABULARY (SYNONYMS)
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Admit : acknowledge, concede, disclose, reveal; recognize
Confirm : establish, reinforce; endorse, verify
Deny : contradict, disagree with, disprove, oppose, refute; discard, disclaim, reject
Describe : define, detail, explain, express, illustrate, report, specify
Explain : define, demonstrate, illustrate, make clear / plain; give an explanation for, give a
reason for, justify
Imply : give (someone) to understand, insinuate, suggest; indicate, mean, presuppose
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Indicate : add up to, denote, imply, manifest, point to, reveal, signify, suggest; designate,
specify; express
Justify : confirm, defend, establish, support
Show : indicate, present, reveal; demonstrate, explain, point out, present, prove
Specify : be specific about, designate, mention.
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