Question

In this section, you’ll help a peer develop and strengthen their own ideas and writing.

Sophia, your friend, tells you that her grandpa Hank has been experimenting with BookTok as well.

Sophia asks if you would be willing to check out her grandpa’s most recent video and give feedback. In the video, Sophia’s grandpa hopes to impart a positive message about aging to others in his generation, using the poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas.

When you check out the video, you notice that Sophia’s grandpa recites the whole poem at the start of the video. You ask Sophia to go through her grandpa’s script to check where he could make some changes.

What advice could you give to her grandpa to make his script more engaging?
Question 4 options:

He could leave the script as is and just speed up the video.


He could add his overall interpretation of the poem.


He could add a few short summary sentences about the poem that come from a reputable literary website.


He could animatedly recite three or four of the most effective lines that best convey the tone and message of the poem.

Answer 1

He could add his overall interpretation of the poem.

Why: sharing his personal take ties the poem to his message about aging, makes the video more original and relatable, and helps viewers understand why the poem matters to him. Reciting only the whole poem risks feeling passive or long; speeding up or copying summaries from other sites reduces authenticity. (If he wants to be more performative, he could also combine a few animated lines with his own interpretation.)