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Writing about Prose

Writing about Prose. Introduction. Opening Sentence: Move from specific to general. Start with a direct quotation from which you can generalize your response.

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Writing about Prose

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  1. Writing about Prose

  2. Introduction • Opening Sentence: Move from specific to general. Start with a direct quotation from which you can generalize your response. Example: Cormac McCarthy’s metaphor from The Crossing, “great beauty, like flowers that feed on flesh,” captures the paradox of beauty and violence in nature that is the subject of this excerpt.

  3. Option 2 for opening sentence • An object/element within the reading of symbolic significance from which you can generalize your response. • The brooding darkness of predawn hangs over Cormac McCarthy’s nameless character as he enters into a spiritual encounter with the natural world.

  4. Option 3 for Opening Sentence If you are familiar with the genre . . . • The traditional western story gets new life in this excerpt from McCarthy’s The Crossing. • Or style . . . • McCarthy’s excerpt from The Crossing begins with a series of actions followed by reflection, written in a stream of consciousness style.

  5. Middle sentence(s) • A. Mention the experience that the excerpt describes:: The excerpt moves through a silent process of a boy burying a wolf. Within this moment , however, is an entire philosophical/religious awakening. • Or Put techniques up front. Always mention techniques first, and use words “such as” so that you do not limit yourself. • B. McCarthy employs techniques such as diction, imagery, figurative language to deliver a silent spiritual awakening of his main character

  6. Thesis • A fact followed by the primary opinion/interpretation you will support in the body of your essay equals an assertion, or thesis statement. • Refer to the author/book (fact) and your interpretation of the content/meaning of the excerpt (opinion) as it relates to your focus. (If your focus is experience, experience, plug experience in content/meaning, if the your focus is values of characters plug that into meaning/content, if your focus is mood, meaning or tone, plug that into the content meaning)

  7. Sample thesis • McCarthy’s depiction of a boy quietly mourning a wolf creates a powerful experience of nature and its spiritual force.

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