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Writing a book report/analysis for a college history class

By Kerry Chandler. Writing a book report/analysis for a college history class. The Prompt. For your outside reading of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe , you have the following prompt:

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Writing a book report/analysis for a college history class

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  1. By Kerry Chandler Writing a book report/analysis for a college history class

  2. The Prompt For your outside reading of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe , you have the following prompt: What is the author’s intent (that is, what point was she trying to communicate) in this book and how does she communicate that intent to the reader?

  3. The Prompt What is the author’s intent (that is, what point was she trying to communicate) in this book and how does she communicate that intent to the reader? There are two parts to this prompt: What is the author’s intent? How does she communicate that intent? We must answer both parts of the prompt in order to fully answer the prompt.

  4. Thesis Statement The cornerstone of any good paper is a good thesis statement. It needs to say exactly what the writer is going to argue in this paper without saying “I will argue.” It forms the framework for the rest of your paper. Here is an example for the same prompt applied to With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge: In With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge, the author communicated to the reader the horror and sadness of war for the common enlisted man by showing the bad living conditions of enlisted men, the dangers they faced, and the psychological effects of war upon them.

  5. The Paper’s Structure Introduction: The first paragraph is an introduction. It might have one or two introductory sentences (though it’s not necessary), but should quickly get to the point with the thesis statement. Body Paragraphs: There should be body paragraphs that follow the structure of the thesis. Each begins with it’s own mini-thesis – a topic sentence. Sledge demonstrated the horrors of war by showing the terrible living conditions of Marines. Sledge demonstrated the horrors of war with examples of extreme dangers he faced in the war. Sledge demonstrated the horrors of war by detailing the psychological trauma it caused him and many of his fellow Marines. Conclusion: The conclusion should basically just repeat the thesis (worded differently when possible). Loading your conclusion with a lot of flowery rhetoric is a crutch that college professors will see through immediately.

  6. Body Paragraphs Begin with a topic sentence. Sledge demonstrated the horrors of war by detailing the psychological trauma it caused him and many of his fellow Marines. Are built up of concrete examples. One example of this psychological trauma was how new Marines would recoil at dead bodies, while veterans would often desecrate them. For instance, Sledge expressed horror at seeing fellow Marines harvest gold teeth from dead Japanese soldiers on Pelelieu (pg. 220), but by the end of the Okinawa campaign, he had become so desensitized to death that he started to do it himself until shamed out of it by a friend (pg. 342). Should never take up an entire page of paper – if you need more than one page to make the argument in your topic sentence, then try to break that up into two separate points instead.

  7. Citations It sometimes seems like every professor has different requirements for citations in papers. History professors typically want you to use the Turabian/Chicago style. For this paper, since it’s over a single book, you can just use the following: (pg. 320) At the very end of your paper, put the correct Turabian or Chicago style citation for the book (Google it, folks) you read. Note on quotes: When possible, avoid any long quotations. It’s better to just use your own wording and then cite where you are getting it from.

  8. Other Tips and Tricks Don’t ever: Write in the first or second person Use passive voice (this is sometimes unavoidable, really, but try to avoid it as much as you can) Change tenses mid sentence or paragraph. I really hate it when people had been changing their tenses in the middle of sentences that they will be writing. Have a quote that goes for more than 2 lines (and even that is really pushing it – the best quotes are 3-5 words and only one or two in a paper at most) Always: Cite anything that isn’t 100% from your own brain.

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