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Instructions
Body paragraphs (sometimes called “discussion sections”) are the parts of your essay that aren’t the intro or conclusion. Each of these paragraphs will have: a leading topic sentence that states the paragraph’s focus, evidence (quotes, examples, or research), and analysis (your explanation of how the evidence supports the paragraph’s main idea.
Prepare
Choose a story or poem from this Module to focus on
Decide what aspect or element of the story to focus your paragraph on. (For instance: how the setting emphasizes the story’s meaning, or how a character changes in the story)
Re-read or scan through the story or poem to find quotes to use in your paragraph
Be sure you’ve read Chapter 30, pages 1914-1918
Use these reference guides provided in this lesson
Write
Paragraph that includes:
Topic sentence
Explanation
Example from selected story or poem (Summary and Paraphrase)
Quote from selected story or poem
Analysis of evidence
Summary sentences bringing it all together
Check
Your writings should be:
About 300 words long
Related to the readings, assignments, and/or discussions from the selected Module
Evidence of critical thinking
You should avoid:
Including material from anything other than the selected literary work
Googling, researching, or looking up the story or poem
Copy / pasting from other submissions
Unprofessional discourse
Conversational language (you, I, etc.)
To reiterate what is addressed in your textbook, be sure to review differences between directly quoting, partially quoting, and paraphrasing.
Literature TOPIC ( CHOOSE ANY ONE
)
The essay should be in MLA format
1)A Rose for Emily
2)Where Are You Going…
3)I’d Love You to Want Want Me
4)To A Daughter Leaving Home
5) Barn Burning
Direct Quote: Complete sentences are taken word-for-word from the source.
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King states, “Nourished by the Negro’s frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible devil” (605).
(
Notice that King’s name does not appear in the parenthetical citation because it appears in the speaker tag or signal phrase.)
One example can be seen in her poem “The Chuppah,” in which Piercy uses a chuppah, an object similar to an alter used in traditional Jewish weddings, to symbolize her most recent marriage. According to Schneider, “Piercy will use these symbols as a springboard for lyrics that represent her distinctive relationship to Judaism […] and makes such ritual objects her own by integrating them into her life and poetry” (234).
A couple of points–
Notice the speaker tags or signal phrases:
According to Schneider and
King states. You will need to attribute your direct quote to the source. Don’t just shove a quote into the text without a speaker tag or signal phrase.
Regarding direct quotations: Use them sparingly. If you can paraphrase and still convey the author’s original meaning, do so. Direct quotations are often longer than necessary and contain material irrelevant to your discussion and thereby only distract your reader.
Notice the quotations marks: They must be there.
Partial Quote: Clauses, phrases, or keywords are taken directly from the outside source.
In Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue,” Tan states that “people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her” (489).
In addition to Piercy, other poets’ works were influenced by Judaism as well. Jacqueline Osherow, a fellow Jewish poet, was greatly influenced by her religion and in her collection
Dead Men’s Praise, in which Osherow describes “the tensions between being a Jew, a woman, and a poet” (Schneider 654).
Paraphrase: The text is written in your own words; however, the ideas/points come from the readings.
In Stanton’s
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, she states that men have a history of wrongdoings and act as if they own the women or as if men are better than women. Even though women deserved and demanded equal rights, many men in the American society still questioned their reasoning and capability of such rights (591).
As a child, Piercy had a severe case of the German measles, putting her close to death, and during this time her grandmother gave her the Hebrew name Mara, meaning bitter, because of a superstition in her culture that a bad name would keep death away. While her family tried to change her Hebrew name, she decided to keep the original name her grandmother had given her (Rodden 76).
This is very important: notice the parenthetical citations that appear following each reference to the research. Every time you use information that you read in another source–whether you directly quoted, partially quoted, or paraphrased from that source,
you must include a parenthetical citation.
If you are in doubt about whether you need to cite a source, ask me.
Failing to cite a source with a parenthetical citation appropriately is plagiarism, regardless of whether you directly quoted, partially quoted, or paraphrased. The penalty for plagiarism can range from a verbal/written reprimand, a lower grade on the assignment, automatically failing the assignment, automatically failing the course, or being expelled from school. Again, when in doubt, ask your instructor.
Writing Toolkit: Paragraphs / Discussion Sections
Perhaps in high school, when you wrote your papers, you might’ve written what is commonly referred to as “the 5-paragraph essay.” These essays, typically, offer a 1-paragraph introduction, 3-“body” paragraphs, and one concluding paragraph. This organization was helpful because it gave students a useful model for outlining their thoughts and arguments.
However, as you move through your academic career in college, you’ll be expected to produce documents that are much more in-depth, and the 5-paragraph essay isn’t a model that will suffice the different contexts, topics, and audiences that you’ll be writing about and for.
Therefore, for the remainder of this semester, we’ll be using other approaches to organize and develop our papers. This means, as outlined on the previous page, that your introduction might be longer than 1 paragraph. Likewise, we’ll move beyond referring to the bulk of our papers as “body paragraphs” and will identify them as “discussion sections.”
There are several important rhetorical moves within the discussion sections. So, consider this organization to help develop your discussion sections:
·
Make a point (i.e., topic sentence)
·
One argument is _____.
·
Explain the point.
·
In other words, this means that _____.
·
Offer evidence and sources to support or foil the point.
·
For example, we see when _____.
·
This point is supported by other sources. For example, so-and-so writes that _____.
· Introduce your source to your unfamiliar reader by first and last name and article title.
· Summarize/paraphrase the source that you’ll be using to support the point
· Quote from the source to support or foil the author’s position
·
Bring it all together (What is the larger “so what” here? How might this point connect to larger concerns for ethics, economics, or the environment? Think about identifying how the sources connect back to the original point and what the bigger “take away” for your audience is.)
·
This is important because of _____.
Notice that the models below follow this organizational model. While the topics may differ, they demonstrate PIES (i.e., point, interpretation, example, so-what). Also, notice that these discussion sections
· Are topically organized,
· Include a subject heading to help introduce the section information for readers,
· Can be longer than 1 paragraph, and
· Typically move from general-to-specific.
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Example 1: Horror Film Paper Topic
Daring the Nightmare
[Topic sentence] One purpose that horror films serve is that they allow audiences to “dare the nightmare” and remain unaltered. [Explanation] Horrors film create suspense using images that symbolize our fears about death, destruction, the afterlife, or the unknown–all of which we might be curious about but that also frighten us. Good visual images keep the audience on the edge of their seats since they don’t know what is to come–yet they are often begging for more. [Example for support] Stephen King writes about this effect in “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” “When we pay four or five bucks and seat ourselves at tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie, we are daring the nightmare.” King argues that we want to be scared and want to be on the edge of our seats with the unknowing ahead. It feels cathartic to see the worst that can happen to someone or to see the worst behaviors in others, and then we can leave the theater knowing that we are safe and that there are people out there worse than we are. Just like in the classic horror film,
The Sixth Sense, we want to “see dead people,” too.
[Topic sentence.] Audiences see this characteristic illustrated more specifically in the 2004 film
The Orphanage when audiences are encouraged to “dare the nightmare” of being haunted by ghosts and to face our fears about the afterlife. [Explanation, connecting to example from the film] Specifically, in the film, audiences are introduced to Laura, her husband, and her adopted son, Simon, after they move into the old home that Laura grew up in as an orphan. From the onset of the film, though, something seems mysterious about the house: the swing set outside would start to move and make creaking sounds and then Simon starts speaking to imaginary children, including his new friend Tomas who has a secret room in the house. [Specific example from the film for support] Audiences are introduced, though, to a nightmare world when, during a party, Simon mysteriously goes missing, and it’s as if he’d vanished into thin air. While Laura and her husband search for Simon with the help of the police, Laura decides to enlist the help of a psychic, Aurora, to find Simon. In one scene, audiences see what Aurora sees, the presence of ghosts who are angry and scared. The presence of the ghosts suggest that something sinister happened in the house many years ago. When Laura is skeptical of what she thinks might have happened in the house and to her son, Aurora tells Laura, “Seeing is not believing, it’s the other way round. Believe, and you will see.” [Significance, bringing it all together for the audience] In this case, Aurora is also telling audiences that they need to suspend their disbelief–both while watching the film and in their own lives. We all have those moments when we think someone might be watching us or when we wonder if there are ghosts near us. The film is tapping into those fears that we all share and asking us to dare the nightmare of the unknown and death.
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Example 2: Media Stereotypes of Disability: The Supercrip
After viewing many movies with the supercrip stereotype,
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape feels refreshingly honest in its portrayal of disability. It moves away from the impairment defying story of the supercrip and instead shows a more realistic take on the effects of cognitive impairment. The supercrip is a particular narrative of the media that makes us feel more a bit more comfortable with the idea of disability. The media thrives from these stories of the supercrips who can overcome their impairment in an uncharacteristically impressive way, driven by their own sheer will. There is nothing particularly uplifting or spectacular about mentally retarded Arnie Grape, and that’s just fine. He is lovable in his unabashed, innocent manner and leads a simple, content life. In the opening scene of the movie, we see him and Gilbert anxiously waiting for the long line of RV’s to drive through the town like they do every year. Watching this gives Arnie pure pleasure and joy, although seemingly mundane to those around him. Arnie doesn’t have any special talents that make him exceptional; he isn’t trying to attend college despite all odds; his family is just relieved that he can live till his current age of eighteen. He isn’t there to be an inspiration to us and to make us feel more comfortable about his impairment. Arnie is just fine being Arnie. The most important thing that we should recognize is that there is no reason for him not to be satisfied with his life or condition. It is rare that we see a film that conveys a side of disability that is not aspiring to be more like the rest of the general population.
As a society, it is easy to adore these supercrip narratives because we are attracted to the thought of someone who had once made us feel a little uneasy become more like the rest of the general public. Time and time again we are fed a cookie cutter image of success that we then begin to attribute to all those who are disabled. This becomes an issue for the disabled community because supercrips make up a very tiny percentage of the disabled population. These expectations are not something that can generally be regarded as realistic. Yes, there are those who can overcome all odds and do the impossible, but to most, there are things that just simply cannot be obtained because of the severity of their impairment or the barriers that society has unintentionally placed in their way. Eli Clare, a writer and transgender activist with cerebral palsy writes in his essay
The Mountain about the supercrip saying, “Supercrip stories never focus on the conditions that make it so difficult for people with Downs to have romantic partners, for blind people to have adventures” (116). Because the media rarely shed light on these issues, we tend to remain unaware of the barriers that are long lasting within the disabled community. It is important that we recognize these issues and stop putting all our faith into the expectations that a supercrip provides us so that changes can be made. The different and more straightforward portrayal of a cognitive disability like Arnie Grape’s is so important because it can represent a larger portion of the disabled community (as opposed to the smaller supercrip population) to a mass audience; therefore raising more awareness of how an impairment effects those who are disabled.
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Example 3: Purpose of Education: Enlightenment
Enlightening young minds with new ideas in school is the first step to creating something spectacular. We are always looking for new ways to understand science, history, math, and literature. After all, these subjects, which make up our contemporary liberal arts tradition, build upon and inform each other. As far back as 150 years ago, at the genesis of the “American public university system,” scholars justified the liberal arts tradition because, as Cardinal John Henry Newman suggests in his essay, “The Idea of a University,” everything is built on top of the basic roots of knowledge. Specifically, Newman states, “In the combination of colours, very different effects are produced by a difference in their selection and juxtaposition” (52). Newman uses an analogy about colours to show how, when colors are not presented alone, but combined, create an entirely different image that illuminates and transforms that other. This same concept applies to the acquisition of knowledge through formal education. Combining two subjects and ideas may expand the minds of not one but many; this creates something unique, enlightening, and transformative–both for ourselves and in others.
More recently, though, educators and scholars have addressed how education can both enlighten oneself and others. Still, enlightening others through education goes beyond the classroom, as Newman imagined it. Our experiences outside the classroom can also transform our way of thinking and lead to new reforms of this world. We can see this example, for instance, in professor and writer Olivia Castellano’s essay, “Canto, Locura, y Poesia.” Castellano describes how she struggled to find her identity as a woman, scholar, and educator. However, Castellano’s passion for language propelled her forward while in school in Los Angeles in the 1960’s and 70’s. Socially oppressive systems conspired to suggest often and frequently that Castellano was defective, inferior, or incapable. This, instead, led Castellano to “prove to anyone who cared to ask…that [she], the daughter of a laborer-farm worker, could dare to be different” (91). Castellano’s success in education served as a model of the possibilities for Hispanic woman and men who may have been shunned away from education. In challenging those who suggested Castellano should be a second-class citizen unworthy of an education, Castellano served as an example of how one person could achieve greatness and enlighten the minds of many others who shared her same struggle. Enlightening society as a whole by impacting the individuals within helped Castellano and others accomplish what they never thought was possible.
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Example 4: Purpose of Education: Live for Oneself
One purpose of education is to enable a way to live for oneself. In other words, many individuals are faced with the choice of creating for themselves their destiny or following the wishes of their parents. Many of these individuals find that education allows them to follow the path that they want in life. For example, for writer and college professor, Olivia Castellano, education was a means to make her life what she wanted it to be instead of the life her parents wished for her. As a poor Mexican-American living in urban Los Angeles, many of Castellano’s female relatives married young and began raising children at a very young age. Castellano’s parents expected her to do the same. However, she was determined to go her way and seek an education. She announced in rage to her mother one day before storming off to her bedroom, “I was put on this earth to make books, not babies.” This quote describes how Castellano felt about the plans her parents had for her. She did not want to get married, raise children, and clean houses like her parents expected her to do. She quickly became absorbed in her books, and by the age of fourteen, she was reading Marx, Rimbaud, and the like. Eventually, she overcame everyone’s limited expectations for her life and became a college professor. So, education, then, has helped many students overcome the limitations placed on them by other people. They seek to become the person they want to be and find the career that is right for them. Education is the first step in doing so because it prepares the students for their job and the decisions that will have to be made every day in a life.
