Summer Reading Novels: Essay Workshop

1. Summer Reading Novels: Essay Workshop Thesis Statements / Integrating Quotes

2. THESIS STATEMENTS • Answer the prompt in your thesis statements! • WHY did the author include these themes in the novels? • SAMPLE: In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut purposely makes the protagonist a weak man named Billy Pilgrim to show the true effects of war. • SAMPLE: In The Things They Carried, O’Brien shows that not all soldiers were courageous because many of them struggled with dealing with the fear of shame.

3. THESIS STATEMENTS • Make sure you have: • YOUR SUBJECT: What are you writing about? • YOUR ARGUMENT: What are you trying to SAY about your subject? • WHY: Why is this argument important? What was the greater purpose?

4. INTEGRATING QUOTES • REMEMBER, you do NOT have to use the entire quote! • A well-integrated quotation will seamlessly be included in your sentence. When read aloud, I should not be able to hear where the quote begins/ends. • Mix up the various ways you integrate quotes to show sophistication. • AVOID “For example”

5. Integrating Quotes • “ ‘He scares me’, she whispered to her husband about Billy Pilgrim” (Vonnegut 184). • Others also saw Billy as insane. This was clearly seen when Lily whispered, “ ‘He scares me’… to her husband” (Vonnegut 184).

6. Integrating Quotes • “He didn’t look like a soldier at all. He looked like a filthy flamingo,” (Vonnegut 33). • Vonnegut highlights the fact that Billy Pilgrim did not belong in the war when he says, “He didn’t look like a soldier at all” (Vonnegut 33). • Billy Pilgrim was completely out of place in the war and “looked like a filthy flamingo” (Vonnegut 33).

7. Integrating Quotes • “So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help,” (Vonnegut 101). • In order to numb himself towards death, Billy Pilgrim had to try and “re-invent [himself] and [his] universe. Science fiction was a big help” (Vonnegut 101).

8. Integrating Quotes • “When Billy saw the condition of his means of transportation, he burst into tears. He hadn’t cried about anything else in the war,” (Vonnegut 197). • The numbness that Billy felt towards death is shown when “he burst into tears” about the horses in war but “hadn’t cried about anything else in the war” (Vonnegut 197).

9. Integrating Quotes • “Every so often, for no apparent reason, Billy Pilgrim would find himself weeping,” (Vonnegut 61).

10. OUTLINE IDEAS • In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut purposely makes the protagonist a weak man named Billy Pilgrim to show the true effects of war.