Writing Review 11CP

1. Writing Review 11CP

2. Hook (H) • The opening sentence of your essay; grabs the reader’s attention and sets up what your paper will be about. Strategies: • World connection about your topic • Dramatic fact • Simile/metaphor/analogy • Straw man (stating the opposite and a rebuttal) • A relevant definition • Set the scene

3. Hook Examples…all from the human nature essay about Lord of the Flies • Even the most moral people occasionally feel the compulsion to do something they know is wrong. • Unsupervised children can be like a pack of rowdy animals. • Human nature is an abstract and widely debated concept. • Thousands of children were evacuated from Britain in World War II during Operation Pied Piper. • Some say the quality of being good or evil is instinctual. However, it can be proven through literature that environment is the main factor in shaping someone’s human nature. • Imagine a group of pre-adolescent boys on a deserted island with no adult supervision. Order is likely to unravel at warped speed.

4. Thesis (T) A sentence (or sentences) with a subject, an arguable concept, and a direction for your body paragraphs. This typically comes at the end of your introductory paragraph. Subject = the text(s) or topic(s) you are addressing in your essay + mention of the author(s) if applicable (WHAT) Arguable concept = an idea that must be proven; one that is not obvious or self-evident (WHY) Direction for BPs = There should (probably) be as many points as you will have body paragraphs. They need to be consistently analyzed in terms of how they relate back to your arguable concept. (HOW) For Example: In Lord of the Flies by William Golding,there is a constant struggle between good and evil that is expressed through the battle between Ralph and Jack, specifically in regard to their personalities, their treatment of symbolic items in the novel, and their allegorical personas.

5. Introduction Paragraph 1- Hook (H) 2- Background (BG): Introduce topic/text and why it is of importance. Make sure you give some background on the text (basically the issues in the text that relate to your topic), without resorting to unnecessary summary. 3- Thesis (T) *Usually 5-8 sentences.

6. Topic Sentence (TS) • The first sentence in a body paragraph; introduces the topic. • Must have enough information to guide (but not explicitly state) the evidence/concrete details you will include in this paragraph. For Example: One of the most potent allegories in this novel is that of World War II, and the leaders during World War II who had opposing ideologies and motives.

7. Concrete Detail/Example/Evidence (CD) • A concrete detail is a specific reason to support your argument. • Sometimes it is a quote or paraphrased example from the text; other times it states an implied textual truth. • For example: First and foremost, Jack is characterized as a clear parallel to Adolf Hitler.

8. Support/Analysis/Commentary (CM) • This is the place to analyze the corresponding concrete detail and how it relates back to the topic of your essay/thesis. • In reflections or personal essays (like college/scholarship essays), you can SPREE: -State your opinion -Personally respond -Reflect -Explain your interpretation -Explicate relevant issues (explicate = combination of explain + analyze)

9. But when you are analyzing text, there is no first person allowed. Ways to generate commentary when analyzing text: • Consider the author’s diction. Why does he or she use this word/phrase? Does the word/phrase have a special connotation? Is it a charged word/phrase? How does this choice of word/phrase help to reflect the author’s message? (LANGUAGE ANALYSIS) • If the essay is about rhetoric (persuasion), explain the general purpose of the persuasive strategy referenced. (LANGUAGE ANALYSIS) • Connect to literary terms whenever possible. Consider how one event foreshadows another, or how a metaphor’s meaning is particularly relevant to the message the author is conveying. (TERMINOLOGY AWARENESS)

10. Ways to generate commentary when analyzing text (cont.): • Address the author’s message. He or she wrote the text for a reason – what is that reason? (THEMATIC AWARENESS) • How will the reader/intended audience likely feel or react to the quote/ paraphrased example? (Be careful here – don’t speculate too much). (AUDIENCE AWARENESS) • Is there any evidence in the text to counter what is explained in the concrete detail? (DETECTING POTENTIAL BIAS) • What is not stated in the corresponding quote or paraphrased example, but is rather implied? (SUBTEXT) • Don’t just analyze what characters say; analyze how they interact with each other. (CONTEXT) • All concrete details in the same paragraph should support the same topic sentence, but they should not be interchangeable, or your commentary will grow stale quickly. There should be a progression of ideas within each paragraph as well as the essay as a whole in order to keep moving forward toward the next level of insight. (DEVELOPMENT)

11. Commentary Example Hitler is infamous for his inhumane treatment of Jews and other disadvantaged groups during the Holocaust, as well as the propaganda he used to get the Nazis on his side. Jack similarly targets the weaker individuals on the island, such as Piggy, Simon, and the little’uns. He also tantalizes his followers (the hunters), with the promise of meat and survival, while Hitler is correspondingly well-known for his powerful, manipulative speeches that scapegoated the Jews as a supposed way to return Germany to glory. The allegorical parallel of Jack to the most evil dictator ever to live is an obvious representation on Golding’s part of the ultimate darkness that potentially exists in the hearts of humans.

12. Integration of Text You can integrate text in many ways: • Refer to the author(s) [last name(s) only!] • Refer to the name of the text(s) • Integrate quotes from the text***** • Paraphrase examples from the text • Use terminology to describe different parts/print features of the text, keeping in mind the different genres of text we will examine – terms like excerpt, prologue, epilogue, preface, foreword, afterword, appendix, caption, illustration, headline, introduction, conclusion, body, chapter, vignette, stanza, verse, lyric, etc.

13. Technique for integrating quotes: Transition, lead-in, quote (TLQ) • Transitions are words or phrases that help to organize the order AND purpose of the examples in your essay. • Lead-ins: 1) help to explain what you are trying to prove with your quote (i.e. they connect back to the TS or arguable concept in thesis), or 2) provide context for when/where the quote appears in the text. 1) In contrast, Ralph appears to share qualities with the well-liked Allied leader FDR when he says: “we need to have an assembly” (Golding 57). 2) For instance, when Ralph is approached by the officer at the end of the novel, “he [weeps] for the end of innocence" (Golding 198).

14. Concluding Sentence (CS) • Last sentence in a body paragraph • Sums up the purpose of that paragraph as it relates to the thesis and the concrete details discussed • Might be similar to TS but should show a new level of insight • Might need to be more than one sentence For example: The characters in Lord of the Flies who bear similarities to World War II leaders remind the reader that human nature is filled with extreme opposites.

15. Body Paragraph Formula • A Chunk refers to the combination of a Concrete Detail connected to sentences of Commentary/Analysis within a body paragraph. • The CD does not always have to come before the CMs. Usually, you state an example (CD) and then analyze it (CMs), but sometimes it is appropriate to discuss the arguable concept component (part of your CMs) first and then support it with an example (CD), and then analyze it further (CM). • It is advisable to have at least two chunks in a body paragraph, more (or perhaps less) as needed to make the point you need to make in that paragraph. • Formula: TS (may be more than one sentence), however many CDs /CMs you need to make your point, and then CS (may be more than one sentence).

16. Conclusion Paragraph The Conclusion should do most (not all) of the following: • Recap your main topics of discussion • Reflect on what you said in your essay • Say more commentary if there is anything relating to your topic that has not been stated • Discuss how the topic relates on universal/world scale • Discuss the author’s effectiveness • Make predictions/state future implications of topic • Include a proposal or call to action if appropriate • Link back to the hook if possible  Which strategies are more appropriate for literary analysis? Non-fiction analysis? Research papers? *It gives a finished feeling to your whole essay. It DOES NOT repeat words or phrases from your paper and especially not from your thesis and introductory paragraph, though it may re-state concepts overall.

17. Upgrading Language • Improve diction– get rid of redundancies and vague words, and choose precisely connoted words to help you get your meaning across as powerfully and as efficiently as possible -ex of redundancy: on the other hand though, -vague words: it, they, good, bad, large, interesting, etc. • Improve syntax – don’t write choppy sentences but don’t always use long, complex sentences; variety in sentence length can be used deliberately for impact • Improve sentence starters – don’t always follow a typical subject-verb pattern (this is…). -start with an adverb: “Unfortunately,…” -start with a prepositional phrase” “In the minds of many Americans…”

18. So to sum it all up… • Structured writing is difficult, kind of like a jigsaw puzzle with many moving parts and pieces that look alike but are not exactly alike. • Hopefully you have realized this already, but writing takes a lot of time and a lot of revision to perfect. • However, you need to keep the type of writing you are doing in mind. If you are working on something at home with multiple revisions, then you have ample time to make sure all the puzzle pieces fit and will be held to this standard. • On the other hand, if you are doing a timed write in class, you oftentimes need to use only the essential parts of this structure in order to get your point across and you can’t obsess over every word choice or you will run out of time.  What components discussed today are non-essentials in a timed situation?