This is a really exciting week! Our major focus is going to shift from reading and thinking about literature to writing about it. More specifically, how to structure our writing about it. In this blog post, you will find:
A Bird's Eye View of our Writing ProcessAs you know from reading our syllabus, this course is designed around four units, and each unit culminates in an essay. Something we haven't completely discussed yet is how each of the units follows the writing process. Although it might not feel like it, we have already begun the writing process for our Character Analysis essays. Let's take a look at our process as a whole:
Reading the short stories, analyzing the short stories, writing the analytical paragraphs, making our dialectical journals—all this falls into Step 1 of the writing process. In other words, we've been prewriting and gathering information for this essay since the first day of class. This week we'll be tackling step 2 and 3 of the writing process. With these two steps, we are really going to focus in on the structural elements of your writing. This writing process will be the same in every Unit. If you like patterns and predictability (I do!), it might be satisfying to know that these steps of the writing process will be repeated three more times. So all the work you invest in honing your skills now in Unit 1 will pay off for the rest of the semester. About OutlinesLet's talk about structure. This week is all about structure. (Next week will be all about development of ideas.) Different modes of writing have different structural expectations. A story, for example, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This the structure of a narrative. Academic essays have a very detailed standardized structure. You have seen this before: Title Introduction Body Paragraph 1 Body Paragraph 2 Body Paragraph 3 Conclusion The blue text indicates the paragraphs that are more dependent on abstractions, and the red indicates the paragraphs that rely more on concrete evidence. (Here's a link to last week's post if you'd like to revisit the Ladder of Abstraction.) Also, as you will see below, each of your body paragraphs follows the same structure as the analysis paragraphs we wrote in class. If the paragraph structure at the end of last week's post was helpful to you, you can use it as a guide for all three body paragraphs for this essay. As far as I know, the five paragraph essay has been a classroom standard since the pioneer days. We aren't going to end here (because we have another draft), but we are going to use this structure as a jumping off point for all of your analytic essays. Here is a more detailed blueprint I'd like you to follow for your outlines: TITLE I. Introduction A. Hook: Start with an engaging sentence. B. Background Information: Brief context about the literary work (title, author, etc.). C. Thesis Statement: Your main argument or interpretation of the work. II. Body Paragraph 1 A. Topic Sentence: Main idea supporting your thesis. B. Context: Brief context for the evidence. C. Evidence: Specific examples from the text. D. Analysis: Explanation of how the evidence supports your topic sentence and thesis. III. Body Paragraph 2 A. Topic Sentence: Another idea supporting your thesis. B. Context: Context for this new evidence. C. Evidence: More textual evidence. D. Analysis: Analysis of how this evidence supports your topic sentence and thesis, focusing on a different aspect or literary element. IV. Body Paragraph 3 A. Topic Sentence: Final idea supporting your thesis. B. Context: Context for the evidence. C. Evidence: Additional textual evidence. D. Analysis: Explanation of how this evidence ties back to your topic sentence and thesis, focusing on a unique aspect or literary element. V. Conclusion A. Restate Thesis: Rephrase your thesis statement. B. Summarize Key Points: Brief summary of main points from body paragraphs. C. Closing Thought: Final reflection on the literary work or the broader implications of your analysis. Thesis Creation WorkshopSo now you know that this first draft is all about structure. In my opinion, the thesis statement is the most important structural element of an essay. Everything else in the essay should be designed around the thesis—to support it, introduce, reestablish it, deepen it. My personal goal is for all of you is to walk out of Monday's class with a teacher-approved thesis statement worthy of designing an essay around. Ok so, how do we write one? Decide which story/poem from class you have the most thoughts about: "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway, "Puppy" by George Saunders, or "Thank You, Ma'am" by Langston Hughes. Then pick the character you are most interested in. Consider the following questions:
These are just jumping off points to help you form a strong thesis statement. Your thesis should not address all of these. After I thought about the first two points above, I came up with this thesis for "Viva La Vida": The narrator's satisfaction with his life increases as he learns to value simplicity over social power. First Draft of the Character Analysis EssayThe first draft of your essay will be at least 500 words. That means each of the paragraphs above will be about 100 words each. This is a true first draft because it will look substantially different from your last draft. You will basically just be putting the structural elements above into an essay.
This essay (and every future essay) will be assessed using a rubric. Each rubric will change a bit depending on what skills we've focused on over the course of the unit. For this draft, I'll be looking for the following 4 characteristics in your writing:
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