Great Books Finals Reviewer

Note Taking

It is a practice of writing down or recording key points of information

Advantages of Note Taking

• Organized and systematic recording of reviewing notes

• Relationships between ideas are easy to see

• Helps visually track and process information to check understanding

• Reduces the amount of writing and redundancy of information

Disadvantages of Note Taking

• Some methods can’t be used when the discussion or reading process are time-bound

• Locating and identifying appropriate categories

• Difficult to edit

Methods of Note Taking

• Cornell Method

• Outlining Method

• Mapping Method

• Charting Method

• Sentence Method

Outlining

A blueprint of a written structure, this helps the writer construct a more unified and better organized idea of the composition

Methods of Outlining

• Topic Outline

• Sentence Outline

• Mixed Outline

• Paragraph Outline

Summarizing

Method of using a few words to give the most important information. It is also the sorting of information and pulling out the essential ideas rewritten in your own words

Rules in Summarizing

1. Divide

2. Read

3. Reread

4. One sentence at a time

5. Write a thesis statement

6. Ready to write

7. Check of accuracy

8. Revise

Divide

Skim the text you are going to summarize and divide it into sections

Read

Read straight through

Reread

Label areas that you want to refer to as you write your summary

One sentence at a time

Make sure that what you include in your sentences are key points, not minor details

Write a thesis statement

Create a thesis statement that clearly communicates what the entire text was trying to achieve

Ready to write

Write the introduction, body, conclusion

Check of accuracy

Reread your summary and make certain that you have accurately represented the author’s ideas and key points

Revise

You should revise it for style, grammar, and punctuation

Lost Generation

Young American expatriate writers after World War I who felt disoriented or alienated. The group included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and others seeking meaning through love, writing, drink, and hedonism.

Jazz Age

The 1920s era of miracle and excess, marked by new prosperity and cultural shifts. It offered a promise of a better life but was morally and spiritually empty at its core, according to Fitzgerald.

The American Dream

The belief in upward mobility and prosperity; in The Great Gatsby, it’s portrayed as doomed and ultimately a sham.

New money, new values

The rise of self-made wealth after WWI, challenging old money elites. While it suggested new social mobility, it often led to inequality and surface-level success.

Bootlegging

The illegal smuggling and selling of liquor during Prohibition. It became a symbol of corruption, and Gatsby’s wealth is linked to this practice.

Radiance and rottenness

Fitzgerald’s term for his novel’s mix of glamour and moral decay. He described it as a radiant world with deep, sustained imagination, but also filled with drunkenness, flippant dialogue, and insincerity.

Color and time

Symbolism in the novel where colors like white, pink, yellow, and especially green represent themes of illusion, desire, and unreachable dreams. The green light, in particular, connects Gatsby’s personal hope to America's early promise.

Belated acclaim

Though initially underappreciated, The Great Gatsby is now regarded as one of the most significant US novels, admired for its structure, language, and social critique.

Flawed milieu

The morally bankrupt social setting depicted in the novel – flashy, shallow, and obsessed with wealth and image.

Forensic exposure

The novel’s in-depth critique of its time, unmasking the emptiness beneath the glitter of the Jazz Age.

First-person informality

The narrative style used by Nick Carraway, blending casual tone with richly descriptive prose and deep insights.

Green light

A recurring symbol representing Gatsby’s dream and the broader theme of striving toward an unreachable future.

F Scott Fitzgerald

Born in 1896, author of The Great Gatsby. A leading figure of the Lost Generation, chronicler of the Jazz Age, and known for both his literary brilliance and personal struggles.