WEEK 5

Good Morning!

SOME IMPORTANT NOTES...

1. Title formatting: BIG items (books, plays, movies, etc.) get italicized. SMALLER items (chapters, short stories, poems, songs, etc.) get "quotes." And formatting is never mixed, so don't use both just because you forget which is which.

2. Quote formatting: Don't put direct quotes in italics (or bold or highlighted or any other formatting). Some of you really like doing that. I'm not sure why. Quotation marks are all you need.

3. Topic Sentences. Part of how I grade most of these literary analysis papers is to glance through the body of the essay and look at the topic sentences (the first sentence of the paragraph). I'm looking for simple, clear sentences that get right to the point of that paragraph. "Finally, Antaeus and T.J. both have to face a Hercules." Or something like that. If I can't do that, then there's a problem. While there are times when putting a topic sentence somewhere else (in the middle or at the end) is appropriate, for these kinds of essays, it's not. 


Your work for this week:

1.  You MAY have another draft to do for the "Antaeus" essay. 

2.  Watership Down essay...

I hope you enjoyed reading one of my all-time favorites. An aunt read it to me and my siblings when we were kids, so I grew up thinking it was just a silly children's story. Then for some reason I picked it up as an adult and recognized right away that there was a lot more going on than bunny rabbits getting chased around farms.

You've probably guessed correctly at our first piece of writing. You'll be discussing Hazel as a leader. This is straight-forward literary analysis of the simplest kind. You'll identify those characteristics of Hazel's that make a good leader and cite examples (with lots of quotes) from the text. Nothing tricky or nuanced here--it's meat-and-potatoes literary analysis. And for that reason, there will only be ONE draft of this essay. Keep that in mind. You have all week to draft, revise, and proof. 

So...

Write an essay in which you thoroughly discuss Hazel's leadership qualities. Here are the basics...

• Discuss FOUR leadership traits (so be thinking 4 body paragraphs with clear and simple topic sentences).
• Include at least TWO "QUOTES" PER TRAIT. (Remember, quotes don't need to be lengthy; in fact, they shouldn't be longer than 2 lines, and even that should be rare. Review the 3 ways of incorporating quotes into your writing.)
• Title and author's name in the intro paragraph
• 800 words minimum
• Absolutely no plot re-telling (I've read the story a dozen times; I know the plot. Just talk to me about Hazel's leadership. We're just talking – one expert to another.)

3.  LBGB...

• Read the "Style and Usage" section of chapter 3. 
• Look at these usage pairs and write a correct sentence using each (You may use my examples as models, but write your own):

            a. affect / effect
            b. assure / ensure / insure
            c. compose / comprise
            d. farther / further
            e. i.e. / e.g.
            f. me / myself

        

DUE FRIDAY NIGHT.

Have a wonderful week!