Thesis Essay Outline

1. Thesis Essay Outline I. Introduction II. Body Paragraphs A. Quotations III. Conclusion

2. Author and Title in the opening sentence General background information on literature piece Examples include short plot summary, character development, description of theme(s), and relation to other topics Should be relatively brief and concise: 5 to 7 sentences Should relate to thesis statement Thesis statement placed in final sentence of introduction Example: In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a young boy named Huck Finn decides to escape the confines of society and flees down the Mississippi River with Jim, an escaped slave. As they both travel down the river, there emerges a definite conflict between the shore and the river. For example, on shore both Jim and Huck experience the most base of human emotions: greed, pride, murder, and revenge; moreover, freedom and happiness are experienced while on the river. Both Jim and Huck only feel truly free while on the water and nervous and afraid while on shore. Introduction

3. Review of Basic Paragraph Template Topic Sentence: explains what entire paragraph is about Body: supporting sentences that explain, prove, describe, or illustrate topic sentence Clincher: restates topic sentence in a slightly different manner Thesis Body Paragraph Topic Sentence should relate specifically back to one aspect of your thesis statement, not the whole thesis Need to prove your thesis through specific examples and quotes Clincher Statement should relate to topic sentence and so also thesis Body Paragraphs

4. Sample Body Paragraph Thesis: The three themes present in the movie “The Princess Bride” are revenge, true love, and good versus evil. The first theme of “The Princess Bride,” revenge, can be seen as the character Inigo Montoya searches constantly for the six fingered man who killed his father many years ago. As a twelve year old boy, Inigo witnessed his father’s murder at the hands of a six fingered man over a sword made by Inigo’s father, and in trying to defend his father, was scarred on his face as a lesson taught to him by the six fingered man (p. **). During the adventure Inigo asks everyone, including Wesley, if he has six fingers. Revenge has driven him for the last 15 years or so on one quest: to track down the six fingered man. When Inigo discovers that Count Rouen is the six fingered man, he confronts him and says, “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father; prepare to die” (p. **). Even though he is wounded three times by Count Rouen, Inigo Montoya’s revenge drives him to continue the fight where he eventually kills Count Rouen (p. **). With his feeling of revenge finally quenched, Inigo now has nowhere to turn since he says, “I have been in the revenge business for so long that I don’t know what to do” (p. **). He eventually takes over as the Dread Pirate Roberts. Inigo Montoya’s quest to find the six fingered man who killed his father displays the theme of revenge in the movie “The Princess Bride.” Topic sentence relates to one aspect of thesis Indirect quote: no quotations necessary Direct quote: quotations necessary Indirect quotation Direct quotation Clincher statement: restates topic sentence and hence relates to thesis

5. Direct Quotations • Direct quotes: any quotation taken word for word from the text • “Minister Dimmesdale stepped upon the scaffold for the first time” (p. 172). • Ma Joad was very desperate when she faced off against the family by saying, “We ain’t a-breaking the fambly up” (p. 234). • “’Richard, get in here this minute!’ Granny yelled at me when I hid underneath the bed from Grandpa” (p. 97).

6. Indirect Quotations • Indirect quotes: used when you reference a scene or event from the work in detail without using direct quotes (summarizing) • Huck and Tom attempted to free Jim from the shed by having Jim write notes on rocks, saw through the bedpost, dig under the shed, and face the snakes and rats Tom threw into the shed (p. 23-27).

7. Block Quotations Block quotes: used when direct quotes are more than three typed lines No quotation marks are needed; the blocked quote is single spaced and indented two tabs from left margin; page number(s) still needed

8. Sample Block Quote In Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, the author sets the atmosphere of hardship for the reader immediately in the first paragraph of the story: Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean towards each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness - a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, Northland Wild (p. 1). Notice: Block quote is tabbed in, is single spaced, includes the page number, and doesn’t utilize quotation marks.

9. Restate thesis in first sentence Summarize each main point of thesis in one or two sentences Conclude the essay Restate thesis again Link to current events Link to other literature Link to personal lives Sample Conclusion The three themes present in the movie “The Princess Bride” are revenge, true love, and good versus evil. Revenge is demonstrated when Inigo Momtoya has searched many years for the six fingered man who killed his father and finally kills him to avenge his father’s death. When Wesley returns as the Dread Pirate Roberts to keep his beloved Buttercup from marrying the Prince, the viewer sees the theme of true love. Finally, good versus evil is present throughout the movie as the protagonists must battle rous’s, the evil Prince, Vinzinni, and Count Rouen. All three of these themes relate to many issues seen in the viewers’ lives today. Conclusion