1. Writing a Character Sketch English 11

2. When You’re Writing a Character sketch  Look for qualities of character and/or personality traits that you see in the character you want to write about  The main goal is to be able to accurately describe the character through actions, thoughts, and how others perceive him/her  In essence, you are introducing the reader to the character you are writing about with great detail

3. Topic/Theme Sentence  The overall theme of the paper (or paragraph); the main idea of what you are writing; include the most important character traits:  The subtopics ( these become the topic sentences in your body paragraphs if multi- paragraph) should be included in this paragraph as well. For example, use 1 – 3 sentences to list the traits that you are going to talk about. End with a transition sentence  This is now your INTRODUCTION (if multi- paragraph, it’s the intro paragraph)

4. Example Theme Statement Laurie’s mother from the short story “Charles”, by Shirley Jackson, is portrayed as a static character. She tends to be oblivious in most examples, obsessive when it comes to Charles, and inadequate as a mother to Laurie.

5. Body Points: Arguments  This is your argument; if it’s one paragraph then they become points based on order of importance – if it’s a multi-paragraph, each main point is the topic of a separate paragraph  Detail the traits listed as the subtopics from the Introduction. Those subtopics should be the topic sentences in each body paragraph (if multi-paragraph)  Use as much detail as possible to prove your points! DO NOT just retell the story!

6. Expansion of Points  State the point or idea clearly  Use an example(s) to prove your thought  Quote from the text  Something that was done, or implied ideas  Explain your point thoroughly – complete the thought with (commentary)

7. Example of Body Points To begin, it is apparent that Laurie’s mother is oblivious. She is completely unaware of reality when it comes to her son. For example, Laurie comes home from school telling his mother about how the naughty boy, ‘Charles’, got in trouble for being rude to the teacher. However, while Laurie is retelling this story, he himself is being rude to his parents, a sure sign that there is no Charles and that Laurie, in fact, is Charles.

8. Body Points Cont’d Additionally, Laurie’s mother is obsessed when it comes to stories regarding the fictional ‘Charles’. This is evident when she goes so far as to comment that “with the third week of kindergarten Charles was an institution in [her] family”. Allowing herself to be fooled for so long is further proof of her fixation. This also demonstrates her obsession with Charles as telling his tales becomes a daily routine.

9. Last Body Point Finally, Laurie’s mother presents as inadequate when it comes to parenting. She is always curious about Charles and encourages Laurie to share stories about him. What she should be doing instead, is parenting Laurie on how Charles’ behaviours and actions are inappropriate, and teach Laurie that if he behaves similarly, he will be punished.

10. Concluding Sentence All in all, Laurie’s mother is regularly oblivious regarding her son, obsessed with the fictional Charles, and inadequate when it comes to parenting. Her actions and responses to Laurie throughout the story help to determine these traits.

11. Final Thoughts:  Remember a good paragraph is 10-12 sentences in length.  All sentences need to have a subject and a predicate; they should be a complete thought.  Ensure you have enough detail to back up your points; vary your sentences and order your points effectively  Remember, quality adjectives, strong verbs, adverbs, prepositions; and writing that is spelling and punctuation error ‘free’ tends to make text more interesting  PLAN!