Here is a Template (Outline) for your First Essay: due Tuesday June 30

Template for An Essay: For Those Who Like Structure

I.               Introduction:  Briefly explain the context of the film or story you are writing about.  Do not give extensive plot summary, only what is necessary to get to your thesis. 

II.             Thesis should appear at end of opening paragraph.  It should contain the argument in miniature.

III.           Three body paragraphs should each expand on or illustrate your thesis; each should contain ONE example from the text or film.  These paragraphs should follow sandwich model: claim, evidence, analysis of evidence.

Example of sandwich paragraph:

Sentence 1 (top piece of bread): your claim

Molly consistently outsmarts her captors, proving that she is not as “Neolithic” as they assume.

Sentence 2: (meat): evidence

When she thinks of ways to trick the tracker, such as when she leaves in the rain to cover their tracks, misleads them with a bag belonging to Daisy and hides in the trees with her charges, she shows she is always imagining how to evade capture.

Sentence 3: (bottom piece of bread) analysis and paragraph conclusion

The viewer actually watches how Molly demonstrates her intelligence and skill.  In fact she consistently proves that she is smarter than those who are bent on “retraining” her mind for an inferior life.

IV.           Conclusion: here try to reach for a philosophical reflection on the purpose or main theme of the film or story in relation to your argument. Both here and in introduction you may also wish to include some relevant contextual or historical information (about the Stolen Generation, Moore River Settlement, the reason behind the book about young Arabs in America).

We will discuss citing sources in class.  If you are absent, just follow MLA format for film or book.  These are easy to look up.

General Rules about Essays:

1.     use the present tense

2.     assume your reader has read the text*

3.     use quotations for direct speech or passages

4.     if passage is more than 25 words indent (center)

5.     heading: your name, course, date, essay # and my name

6.     include works cited at bottom of page—alphabetical

*don’t say Molly evades her captors by hiding in trees (observation); say when Molly evades her captors, it shows her cleverness (analysis).