The Interior Logic of a Paragraph: Context, Evidence, and Analysis Writing Boot Camp! Pt. 2 AY! This is General C returning for PART 2 of your GOSH DANGed Writing Bootcamp. THINK YOU WERE THROUGH, CUPCAKE?! NO SIR! Today you will learn how to: SUPPORT, CITE, AND ANALYZE. NOW GET OUT A NOTEBOOK. GET OUT A PENCIL. OR GIT DOWN AND GIMME 20! The Interior Logic of a Paragraph: Context, Evidence, and Analysis

Let’s Refresh What are the essential elements of an introduction? What purpose does a thesis statement serve? What are topic sentences?

So your intro is solid. Your thesis rocks So your intro is solid. Your thesis rocks. And your topic sentences are argumentative and logical. Now what? Find your evidence!

Evidence, Schmevidence? Actually, it’s not schmevidence. Without EVIDENCE your argument has no support and is INVALID! The EVIDENCE in a paragraph provides strong support for your topic sentence. It can take the form of a cited quote or cited paraphrase.

Okay. So I have my evidence. I just put it in the paragraph right? WRONG! It needs to be SET UP, ANCHORED, and CITED correctly

The SET UP: Context and Background Before you simply throw the evidence into your paragraph you need to provide what’s called CONTEXT (aka background info). The CONTEXT leads the reader to the evidence by providing necessary textual information or historical background. This should be approximately 1-2 sentences between the TOPIC SENTENCE and your EVIDENCE.

Anchors Away! It is essential that all direct quotes are set up or ANCHORED! Without a proper anchor, a quote is FLOATING: Simple Anchor - According to Mr. C: “Ms. D is the best history teacher ever” (Czarnecki, 45). Internal Anchor - Mr. C often described Ms. D as being “classy, cool, and collected” (Czarnecki, 46). Block Quote - After Mr. C realized he was teaching Humanities with Ms. D, he launched into a rant that could only be described as excited: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum (Czarnecki, 47). Paraphrase - Mr. C and Ms. D are very excited to work together (Czarnecki, 48).

Citations All citations should be in MLA format. This includes a works cited page and parenthetical in-text citations. To properly punctuate a quote: “_____QUOTE_____” (Author’s Last Name, Page #). You could think of this as: QUO[actual quote] PAR[parentheses] PUNC[punctuation] If citing from a website without an author, substitute the website’s TITLE…NEVER USE THE URL ADDRESS!!!!

Not quite. You still need to ANALYZE your evidence. YESS! I have my evidence; I’m ready to anchor and cite them correctly. Done-zo, yea? Not quite. You still need to ANALYZE your evidence.

Analysis: The Stuff of Champions Analysis is where the magic happens. In your own words, explain to your audience why your first piece of evidence supports your topic sentence. In other words, what does this evidence prove about your topic? Why do we need to know about this? Simply put: Analysis connects your EVIDENCE to your TOPIC SENTENCE.

Almost! All you need to do is TIE IT UP. Geeze General C. I’m exhausted. The analysis took everything out of me. Please say I’m done. Almost! All you need to do is TIE IT UP.

At the end of each paragraph... You need one or two sentences to wrap the paragraph up by connecting it back to the thesis. This way your paragraph comes FULL CIRCLE!

Let’s Put It to Work! (again) Take out the sample essay we highlighted in Pt. 1 of your (gosh danged) writing boot camp. In a NEW COLOR, HIGHLIGHT in the body paragraphs: The CONTEXT ANCHORS PROPER CITIATIONS ANALYSIS The SENTENCE THAT TIES IT ALL TOGETHER If there is a mistake or something needs to be added, MAKE THE NECESSARY CORRECTION.