The Essay Process

1. The Essay Process I know, I know, you have heard this all before…right?

2. The Thesis Statement is… • A declarative sentence that states the main idea of your paper • Found in the paper’s introduction • Arguable, literary, focused and literary • An argument, assertion or position • Should be reflected in the content of every following paragraph

3. A Thesis Statement is not… • An announcement • An emotional plea • Vague • Too broad or too narrow • An entire paragraph long

4. Which is the better thesis? • There is a lot of loneliness in the novel. • The book says a lot about mother-daughter relationships. • Mama Elena’s treatment of Tita is the source of all Tita’s problems. • Esquivel uses Tita to communicate her message about guilt. • Esquivel uses a variety of minor characters to suggest the idea that loneliness is a great motivator.

5. Thesis Myths: • You can’t start writing an essay until you have a perfect thesis statement. - your final thesis statement may not actually be written until you’ve completed the body of your paper. You should change your thesis a few times. • A thesis statement must be one sentence in length. - Clear writing is more important. - 2 or even 3 sentences may be used. • A thesis statement must come at the end of the introductory paragraph. - This is most traditional, however, it is possible to introduce theses earlier on, or even later if you have more than one intro.

6. Everyone’s Favourite Paragraph: The Intro • Write in the funnel format: • Start with a broad statement about the topic • Mention the title, author and characters of the texts to be studied • Narrow down to the literary idea and/or message that the book communicates (thesis) • The thesis can be the second last sentence in your intro. paragraph. The last sentence is usually a ROAD MAP or METHOD STATEMENT to show the reader your plan for the body paragraphs

7. A Sample Intro. • Almost everyone has experienced loneliness. It is an inevitably human state to feel alone and to desire the company of someone else. In her novel Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel tackles the subject of loneliness through the main character Tita but she also studies it through other characters. In fact, with a variety of minor characters, Esquivel suggests that loneliness is an almost constant state for many women in Mexico in the late 1800s and early 1900s with the only answer or cure coming, not in the form of a romantic love, but in the companionship of other women . This can be seen most clearly in the characters of Nacha, Chencha and Morning Light.

8. The Snappy Start • This is the attention grabber of the essay. You want your paper to be interesting enough so that your reader will want to read on. • A snappy start can be any of the following: - A series of questions about the topic of your essay - An interesting story or anecdote about the topic of your paper - A startling or unusual fact or figure related to your topic - A definition of an important, topic related term - A quotation from a well-known figure or literary work related to your topic

9. Example: • How far would you go for a friend? Can you be sure that what you do for your friend won’t hurt him in the end? Well, in William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio sacrifices his life to save Romeo’s, however his choice ultimately costs Romeo his life. • The above is an example of two questions which lead to the thesis or topic of the essay.

10. Body Paragraphs are as easy as P.I.E. • Once you have chosen a thesis, written an intro. and decided on your structure/organization, all that is left is to write your body (supporting) paragraphs. • Follow this simple structure: begin with the POINT your paragraph/section is about, provide ILLUSTRATION/PROOF(usually a direct quotation or example from the novel), and then an EXPLANATION. Most teachers focus on this final part because anyone can suggest an idea and/or find quotations, however, it takes a strong thinker/writer to explain the relationship between the example and the point that’s being made.

11. Sample P.I.E. Paragraphs • Which one is the better P.I.E. paragraph? • Esquivel uses food imagery and magical realism to get at the idea of sorrow. Early in the novel, Tita is born on the kitchen table in a “great tide of tears” (Esquivel, 2). This birth is magical as no baby is really born in this way. It might mean that Esquivel is trying to show the reader that Tita’s birth is strange or unusual which means that Tita is that way herself. It could also show how Tita’s life will be filled with tears. This idea is made even better by the amount of salt, which is ten pounds, which might show the amount of sadness in Tita’s life will be a great amount too. The fact that Tita’s birth caused her mom not “even a whimper” of pain is ironic as Mama Elena causes Tita a lot of pain later in the story (Esquivel 1).

12. Samples cont… • One example of a routine event made magical by Esquivel occurs early in the novel as Tita is “washed into this world on a tide of tears” (Esquivel, 2). As Nacha relates the story, Mama Elena’s labour was premature and took place “right there on the kitchen table” with the smells of spices and herbs rich in the air (Esquivel, 2). Labour begins because of Tita’s wailing and then, interestingly, she is born before her mother can even react to the pain of the birthing. Later in the day, after the trauma of the birth has been forgotten and the amniotic fluid has dried, it is collected by Nacha and is sufficient in quantity to “fill a ten-pound sack” (Esquivel, 2). The salt is subsequently utilized for cooking, and according to Nacha’s account lasts a long time, perhaps even long enough for Tita to employ it when she begins her kitchen duties later in the novel.

13. Earning Style Points • Always write in present tense “Tita decides” rather than “Tita decided”. • Avoid the use of second person (you). An essay is not an instructional manual and examples will come from the text, not the readers life. • Avoid repetition at all costs! This includes transitional words/phrases.

14. Quotations • Direct quotations of a person’s words, whether spoken or written, must be in quotation marks. • Quotation marks are not required for paraphrasing or using someone else’s ideas but you still must cite your sources. • For Example, Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that senseless consistency is the mark of a small mind (121).

15. Short Quotations • Quotations under 4 lines should be worked into the text of the paper. • When you quote directly, edit the passage; use as few of the author’s words as necessary to accurately support your point. This puts you in control instead of the author. Quote only when the author’s words are unique, startling, or occur in a sentence you’d never write. “He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know” (Lao-tzu).

16. Long Quotations (4+ Lines) • With longer quotations, the left margin should be indented (usually by using tab) • Long quotations do not need quotation marks as they are already set apart from the rest of the text • These quotations should also be single spaced while the rest of the paper is double spaced • Long quotations are introduced using a colon (:)

17. Sample Long Quotation: • Allende does not waste any time before introducing the reader to foreshadowing in the novel as is evident on the first page of the text: Barrabás came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy. She was already in the habit of writing down important matters, and afterward, when she was mute, she also recorded trivialities, never suspecting that fifty years later I would use her notebooks to reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own. Barrabás arrived on a Holy Thursday. He was in a despicable cage, caked with his own excrement and urine, and had the lost look of a hapless, utterly defenseless prisoner; but the regal carriage of his head and the size of his frame bespoke the legendary giant he would become. It was a bland, autumnal day that gave no hint of the events that the child would record, which took place during the noon mass in the parish of San Sebastián, with her whole family in attendance.

18. Some Final Quotation Pointers • When altering the original text within a quotation, use square brackets [ ] . • For example, “[Clara] was already in the habit of writing down important matters…” In the original text, [Clara] was actually the pronoun, she. It was necessary to change this in order to accurately reveal the character being discussed in the passage. • NEVER alter the author’s intent or message by omitting material that intentionally misrepresents what the original material is saying. • To omit part of the original material, use ellipsis (…) to signify an omission.

19. Punctuating Quotations • To indicate short quotations (fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and specific page citation (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the text, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text. For example: • According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree. • According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (184). • Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)?

20. Punctuating Quotations cont… • Quotations should be smoothly woven into the fabric of your paper. Quotations work best and enhance meaning and main points when they are placed in context. Most direct quotations that are fairly short need a partial or full sentence introduction. Your quotation should not be separate, independent sentences. For example, a basic quotation introduction without mention of the source author: Some have described the Detroit Red Wings’ chances of winning the Stanley Cup as “better than 100 percent” (Kemp 21) Or, the introduction of the quote can mention the source author: Mr. S. Kemp describes the Detroit Red Wings’ as “the greatest team in the universe” (55).