1. Practice Task 3 Assignment (Easter Break Assignment)
How Can I Ace This?
Practice Task 3 Assignment (Easter Break Assignment)

2. Task 3
Students will perform a close reading of the text and write a two to three paragraph response that identifies a central idea in the text and analyzes how the author’s use of one writing strategy (literary element or literary technique or rhetorical device) develops this central idea.

3. Task 3 1 text Up to approximately 1,000 words
Could be narrative or informational text

4. Task 3: Recap Two to three paragraph response
Identify central idea (whatever you believe it to be)
How one writing strategy is necessary for the central idea to exist
Evidence of that writing strategy (direct quote from the text)

5. Task 3: Central Idea
YOU DON’Y HAVE TO UNDERSTAND EVERY WORD OF THE TEXT!
SIMPLY IDENTIFY WHAT YOU PERCEIVE AS THE CENTRAL IDEA.

6. Task 3: WRITING STRATEGY
You MUST discuss one writing strategy!
The directions provide examples if you draw a blank. Some we’ve discussed this year:
Ethos/Pathos/Logos
Parallelism/Juxtaposition
Eulogy
Collage
Frame story
Imagery (ALL FIVE SENSES)
Satire
Irony
Setting
Conflict (internal or external)
Suspense
Personification
Repetition
Allusion
Alliteration
Assonance
Syntax (short sentences, long sentences, stream of consciousness)
Etc.

7. What should my paper look like?
A brief introduction that ends with your thesis statement.
At least two examples/pieces of evidence that support your thesis.
An explanation/analysis of HOW those examples PROVE YOUR THESIS.
A brief conclusion that restates your thesis.

8. Writing a Thesis Statement
In “This Work,” [This Author] uses [that literary device] to show/demonstrate/prove [this central message].
In Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses parallelism to show that even though life is already determined, you can create meaning by looking at the positive.
In “EPICAC,” Kurt Vonnegut uses personification to demonstrate that there is a fine line between man and machine.
In “Long Walk to Forever,” Kurt Vonnegut uses satire to mock the institution of marriage.

9. Evidence? Meet Analysis.
EVERY SENTENCE OF YOUR BODY PARAGRAPH IS OF EQUAL IMPORTANCE:
Formula:
Topic Sentence/Claim
Evidence
Analysis
Concluding Sentence

10. Evidence? Meet Analysis.
You must say why and how this evidence supports your argument
You have to explain the significance of the evidence and its function in your paper
What turns a fact or piece of information into evidence is the connection it has with a larger claim or argument: evidence is always evidence for or against something, and you have to make that link clear

11. I Still Don’t Get Analysis…
Questions that may help you explain how your evidence is related to your overall argument:
O.k., I’ve just stated this point, but so what? Why is it interesting? Why should anyone care?
What does this information imply?
What are the consequences of thinking this way or looking at a problem this way?
I’ve just described what something is like or how I see it, but why is it like that?
I’ve just said that something happens-so how does it happen? How does it come to be the way it is?
Why is this information important? Why does it matter?
How is this idea related to my thesis? What connections exist between them? Does it support my thesis? If so, how does it do that?