How to Write a Characterization: A Comprehensive Guide

This page provides an in-depth overview of the characterization process, focusing on the preparation, writing, and review stages. It offers valuable insights for students learning to analyze literary characters effectively.

Definition: A characterisation is a description of all the features that make up a personality and its development.

The guide distinguishes between two main methods of characterization:

1. Direct (explicit) characterization: The reader is directly informed about a character's personality by the author, another character, or the character themselves.

2. Indirect (implicit) characterization: The reader must draw conclusions about a character by studying their behavior, opinions, choice of words, and way of talking.

Highlight: Before writing, it's crucial to identify how the character's personality is revealed in the text through various elements such as social background, actions, thoughts, and others' perceptions.

The writing process involves several key steps:

1. Collecting facts and drawing conclusions about the character
2. Organizing notes into paragraphs, each dealing with a specific characteristic feature
3. Writing an introduction to present the character and their situation
4. Moving from outward features to inward nature in the analysis
5. Using text references and examples to support findings
6. Concluding with a summary of the detailed analysis

Example: When analyzing a character's helpfulness, you might write: "John's willingness to assist his neighbors during the flood demonstrates his selfless nature and strong sense of community."

The guide emphasizes the importance of using present tense in characterizations and provides a helpful checklist for reviewing the finished work.

Vocabulary: Text reference - Citing specific parts of the text to support your analysis.