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Chunks How do you get started?
Why use chunks? • In writing, especially in analysis and research papers, there has to be a balance between facts and opinions or Concrete Details and Commentary. To help find that balance and to understand what is missing in a piece of writing, students will be using the following terminology and formats.
Definitions • Topic Sentences: A topic sentence supports the thesis and is a statement that must be proven in the paragraph. • Concrete Details: A concrete detail is "stuff" from the story that supports the topic sentence. It can be facts, illustractions, examples, quotes, citations, reference, etc. • .
Definitions • Commentary: A commentary sentence is "stuff" from your head. It is the insight, analysis, opinion that relates the concrete detail back to the topic sentence.
Definitions • A concluding sentence restates the idea in the topic sentence and provides transition.
Structure • Chunk Paragraphs • One Chunk: TS, CD, CM, CM, CS • Two Chunks: TS, CD, CM, CM, CD, CM, CM, CS • Three Chunks: TS, CD, CM, CM, CD, CM, CM, CD, CM, CM, CS
In Animal Farm, Clover represents a caring and motherly figure to the other animals. For example, she talks to Mollie, the horse, when others will not. In addition, Clover warns Boxer to slow down and nurses him when he collapses. Furthermore, she sees the changes in the Seven Commandments and in the pigs at the end. She works hard to help the other animals regardless of what the negative consequences may be. In Animal Farm, Clover represents a caring and motherly figure to the other animals. She talks to Mollie, the horse, when others will not. She cares about keeping the animals together. She isn’t mean to Mollie but wants her to understand how her decision to leave may affect the farm. In addition, Clover warns Boxer to slow down and nurses him when he collapses. In her concern for him, she models the kind of behavior that the animals wanted from Mr. Jones but did not get. She sees the injustice of the system and understands the punishment of hard work. Furthermore, she notices the changes in the Seven Commands and in the pigs’ behavior at the end. The knowledge that something is wrong leads her to speak out. Her commitment to Animal Farm is most important in her mind, and she wants to put her beliefs into action. Clover works hard to help the other animals, regardless of what might happen to her. Literary Analysis:
Literary Analysis: Claim Data This poem uses excellent imagery to depict how blind folks affect our lives, to evoke sympathy for the blind, and to criticize mainstream America for its callousness towards the disabled. In the first three lines Kooser describes how the blind can suddenly fill an elevator “with a great white porcupine of canes.” A porcupine is noted for its prickliness; we are apprehensive when it is around and we do not want to touch it. The blind person, according to Kooser, evokes a similar reaction: their presence in a situation causes “prickliness,” and it makes us uncomfortable. Commentary
How does this compare to a five paragraph essay? • The five paragraph essay has an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. For our purposes, the body paragraphs are chunks. • Introduction Paragraph: The first sentence should get the reader's interest so that he or she will want to read more. Also, provide the topic and a few general commentaries that lead the reader to the thesis. The last sentence of the paragraph should the thesis statement.
DO NOT • Announce your intentions (In this paper I will. . . or This paper is about . . .) • Use a dictionary or encyclopedia definition (According to the Webster dictionary, leadership means . . .) • Dilly-Dally (get to the point without too much sidetracking) • Include a question
CONCLUSION • Conclusion Paragraph: This is the point where you can make your last commentary statements about the thesis and tie up loose ends. It has been awhile since the thesis was stated, so restate the thesis in the conclusion, but in different words. Possible things to include in the conclusion: a call for action, end with a warning, suggest results and consequences. Only do one of these things though.
DO NOT • Bring up new ideas (It is also possible that another solution would be . . .) • Make statements that are too sentimental (The fate of the world . . .) • Do not apologize for your view points (This is just my opinion though . . .)
Symbolism Analysis • Mockingbird: The mockingbird represents innocence. Like hunters who kill mockingbirds for sport, people kill innocence, or other people who are innocent, without thinking about what they are doing. Atticus stands firm in his defense of innocence and urges his children not to shoot mockingbirds both literally and figuratively.
Boo Radley • Boo Radley represents fear. Small town folks fear that if they act eccentric and fail to adhere to social rules they too will end up like Boo, isolated and remembered as a grotesque monster. It is this fear that supports the social status quo and keeps individuals from standing up for that which they believe. Until people can understand and accept Boo, as Scout does at the end of the book, they will always be stuck in a world filled with fear, lies, and ignorance.
Theme Analysis • Jem also learns powerful lessons from his father regarding bravery and cowardice. Early in Mockingbird we learn that Atticus does not approve of guns. He believes that guns do not make men brave and that the children's fascination with guns is unfounded. • To prove his point, he sends Jem to read for Mrs. Dubose who struggles to beat her morphine addiction before she dies. He wants to show his son one shows true bravery "when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what" (121). The most important theme of Mockingbird
Con’t Theme • Atticus also role models his sense of bravery by refusing to carry a gun to protect Tom Robinson from angry farmers and refusing to carry a gun to protect himself after Bob Ewell threatens guns. But bravery runs deeper than the decision to carry a gun. Atticus shows bravery when he takes Tom's case despite knowing that his town would turn against him and his children. Jem shows bravery when the children intervene on behalf of Atticus and Jem refuses to leave his father's side during the showdown with farmers at the jailhouse. And, perhaps the biggest lesson Scout must learn is to turn away and show real bravery rather than fight when people antagonize her.
