The Story and Its Writer Ninth Edition

You need to choose three stories from the book “THE STORY AND ITS WRITER” Ninth Edition by Anna Charters, and cite from these sources (letters, essays, author bios, etc) in order to support your own analysis of the story that you choose. The sources are all in the back of the textbook. Each Casebook has about 8 sources. The Three eligible stories: A Good Man Is Hard to Find Everything That Rises Must Converge A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings Introduction Paragraph A first sentence that grabs the reader’s attention and introduces your general topic. •  Give a brief overview the primary source (one of the six short stories). Include the title/author of the text. •  You can include the title/author of each secondary source you will use and talk about what all the research (secondary sources), cumulatively and as a whole, helped you understand about the short story. Speak in general terms about what sorts of issues the sources discuss. (Do not go into too many specifics about each article in the intro. Save this for body paragraphs). Body Paragraph #1 •  Starts with a Topic Sentence. The topic sentence is the first sentence of your body paragraph. It should argue a small part of your thesis or a sub- topic of your thesis. What is the first aspect or ‘part’ of your thesis that you want to discuss? A topic sentence should not be overly general or common knowledge—meaning, “The wife is a character in “Cat in the Rain” is too general and not a good topic sentence. Everyone who read the story knows this. Instead, one could make an argument about the wife’s character. For example, using the thesis statement above, I might first want to discuss the setting of “Cat in the Rain” to show the wife’s desire for attention.) •  Presents evidence in the form of a research source: what does a critic argue? How does that relate to the story? Do you agree or disagree with the information in the secondary source and why?  NOTE: This last point should be implied in your analysis: try to avoid using first person pronouns when possible. •  Presents analysis of the critic’s claim. Why is this an important point? •  Shifts back to the primary source (the short story) to uphold or refute the critic’s claim. Body Paragraph #2 Think about: how are you going to transition from the previous paragraph’s ideas to the next paragraph’s ideas? You usually want to play on what you said at the end of the previous paragraph to bridge the ideas. •  Starts with a Topic Sentence: The topic sentence should argue a small part of your thesis or a sub-topic of your thesis. What is the first aspect or ‘part’ of your thesis that you want to discuss? (For example, the use of dialogue in “Cat in the Rain” based on the thesis above.) •  Presents evidence in the form of a research source: what does the critic argue? How does that relate to the short story? Do you agree or disagree with the information in the secondary source and why? (It can be related to what your first research source said.) •  Presents analysis of the critic’s claim. Why is this an important point? •  Shifts back to how you read the primary source to uphold or refute the critic’s claim. Body Paragraph #3 Think about: how are you going to transition from the previous paragraph’s ideas to the next paragraph’s ideas? You usually want to play on what you said at the end of the previous paragraph to bridge the ideas. •  Starts with a Topic Sentence: The topic sentence should argue a small part of your thesis, or a sub-topic of your thesis. What is the first aspect or ‘part’ of your thesis that you want to discuss? What is the third aspect you’d like to discuss and how is it related to the previous point? (for example, the various ways to read the “cat” as a symbol based on the thesis above). •  Presents evidence in the form of a research source: what does the critic argue? How does that relate to the the short story?  Do you agree or disagree with the information in the secondary source and why?  (It can be related to what your first research source said.) •  Presents analysis of the critic’s claim. Why is this an important point? •  Shifts back to how you read the primary source to uphold or refute the critic’s claim. Body Paragraph #4 Think about: how are you going to transition from the previous paragraph’s ideas to the next paragraph’s ideas? You usually want to play on what you said at the end of the previous paragraph to bridge the ideas. •  Topic Sentence •  Repeat steps for previous paragraphs above •  You may have more than 4 body paragraphs!!! Conclusion: •  What are some of your overall conclusions and interpretations about this work of literature? •  Do you think the text’s story is (still) relevant in today’s day and age? How and why? Double check *Is your essay organized and coherent? Does each body paragraph connect back to your thesis in some way? *Do you avoid plot summary of the primary source? Meaning, your essay should be about specific elements of the text and does not need to give a detailed summary of what happened in the story as a whole. When you mention the narrative, always mention parts of the story that relate to the idea in the topic sentence rather than simply re-telling the whole story. *Do you include a Works Cited page that lists all of your sources, including your primary source, in MLA style? *Do you avoid using quotes that are over 4 lines long? You can shorten quotes by using ellipses to leave out some of the critic’s words. Ellipses are three periods … *If you use a quote that is over 4 lines long, you need to follow MLA guidelines to “block off” the quote.