ENGLISH II SEPTEMBER 26, 2011 Turn in worksheet for “And of Clay Are We Created” now. No warm-up today. Right now, get out a piece of paper to take notes. 

REMINDERS Last call for homework? You no longer need your textbooks… If there is a part of the story that you have not yet read (i.e homework you forgot to read or class reading you didn’t complete because you were absent), it would be to your benefit to finish reading that. Homework: If you need to, finish reading. Also, if you need to find more diction, detail, imagery quotes that display tone well, do that.

STANDARDS Writing Strategies 1.3: Structure ideas and arguments in a sustained, persuasive, and sophisticated way and support them with precise and relevant examples.

ESSAY TIME! This week, you will be writing your very first essay on a piece of literature! In the following notes, I’ll give you the format to follow for this essay. You CAN use these notes on your test, as well as your chart… so make sure that BOTH are ready the day of the test!

ESSAY FORMAT Most essays about texts are 5-paragraph essay. The first paragraph is the Introduction The next three paragraphs are all Body paragraphs The last paragraph is the Conclusion.

ESSAY FORMAT What are the names of the four sentences in your introduction?

INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH 1) HOOK: make a shocking statement, ask an interesting question, or present a catching scenario related to the story. Do not even mention the story’s title or characters yet. 2) EXPLAIN: Explain why you gave this statement, question or scenario and how it relates to the story. 3) BRIDGE: find a way to link your hook to your thesis (i.e. a brief summary of what happens in the story). 4) THESIS: make a statement that… 1) mentions the story’s title, 2) answers the prompt and 3) lists the three things that your body paragraphs will discuss. Note the four parts can be 4 sentences, but each part can be more than one sentence.

BODY PARAGRAPHS 1) TOPIC: Say which of the three things you will focus on first and what you will try to prove. 2) EXPLAIN: Explain your first sentence more. 3) EVIDENCE: Give an example from the book (textual evidence) to help prove your point. 4) EXPLAIN: Explain how you interpret this textual evidence and how it proves the thesis statement. 5) EVIDENCE: Give another example from the book. 6) EXPLAIN: Explain how your second example proves your thesis statement. 7) WRAP-UP: Summarize what your two examples prove about your thesis statement.

CONCLUSION RESTATE: Restate your thesis statement in different words. APPLY: Apply these ideas to the real world (i.e. why is it important to know this in the real world?). CONCLUSION: State what lesson/main idea we (the readers) should learn from the story and/or from your essay.

IN-TEXT CITATIONS When you are giving evidence, you should… Give quotes from the story whenever possible (if it is not possible, you may summarize specific parts of the story, but for this essay, quotes are needed) Put quotation marks around actual quotes. tell where that quote came from by including IN-TEXT CITATIONS after the quote In parenthesis, put (the author’s last name and page number). Example: “Her voice sounded exhausted.” (Allende 994).

WORDS NOT TO USE… When you are asked to write an essay that does not specifically ask for you to talk about yourself, NEVER use the words “I”, “me”, “my”, “myself.” Instead, use words like “the reader” or “we”, which is more appropriate. Also, stay away from the word “you” or “your”; discuss the importance of the literature to ALL of its readers– not just one or two.

ESSAY Now, let’s look over the essay prompt to see what you will write about… “In order to help readers understand how the narrator feels, writers of fiction usually use very specific words and descriptions to help their readers. How does the narrator in “And of Clay Are We Created” feel about either Rolf Carlé or the natural disaster based on diction, detail and imagery used throughout the story?” OR what is Rolf’s tone towards Azucena based on the diction, detail or imagery?

ESSAY FORMAT GUIDELINES After receiving a writing prompt, you first should: Figure out what you are being asked to do. Find out what each of your three body paragraphs (your three main points) will be about. Make sure you have at least two examples from the text to support each of these three main points. Write a thesis statement that answers the questions on the prompt by including the three main points that you will be discussing. Next, organize your essay into five paragraphs. Follow this format for any literature-based essay:

ESSAY FORMAT GUIDELINES Let’s start to plan the introduction for your essay! Turn your “And of Clay Are We Created” chart over and let’s get started! First, write a thesis sentence that 1) mentions the name of the text, 2) answers the prompt, 3) lists the three things that will prove your point in each body paragraph. Next, find evidence for your thesis to go in your body paragraphs. Now that you have your thesis and evidence to prove it, come up with an attention-grabbing way to start.