The FIVE-PARAGRAPH ESSAY

1. The FIVE-PARAGRAPH ESSAY With Literary Analysis Thesis Statements and Perfect Paragraphs

2. The FIVE-Paragraph ESsay Intro is like a funnel. Start very broad, get increasingly specific, and end with your debatable and specific Literary Analysis Thesis Statement. Body Paragraph 1: begin with a point, then focus on one specific way of supporting your thesis. Body Paragraph 2: begin with a point, then focus on one specific way of supporting your thesis. Last paragraph like a reverse funnel. Start by restating your thesis, then get increasingly broad, and end with a claim about what the author or character intends to teach the reader. Body Paragraph 3: begin with a point, then focus on one specific way of supporting your thesis.

3. Literary analysis thesis statementS • Lead with the name of the author and the title of the work and an appropriate verb. • i.e. Edgar Allan Poe, in “The Raven,” shows… • WHAT component = • your major claim about the story, play, or poem • i.e. (what?) the power of Intuition over Intellect… • The connector word “by” (or a synonym) • i.e. using… • HOW component = • the way the author or character conveyed the information that lead you to make your major claim; a literary device like a. description of setting, or b. plotting, or c. characterization, or d. metaphor/simile/personification, etc. • i.e. (how?) the symbolism of a dark, shadowy, inexplicable bird sitting atop the bust of Pallas Athena, goddess of Wisdom.

4. PERFECT Paragraphs • P = Sentence 1: Point, debatable and specific. • C1 = Sentences 2 and 3: Context from the novel leading up to your quotation. • Q = Sentence 4: Quotation from the text, tagged and parenthetically cited. • E = Sentences 5 and 6: Inference explaining the significance of the Quotation in light of the Point. • C2 = Sentence 7: Conclusion.

5. Perfect Paragraph Practice • The following is a list of elements that belong in a Perfect Paragraph on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” • Label them with the appropriate letter: P, C1, Q, E, C2. • ____ Poe writes this tale about a man who is haunted by the feeling that he has been insulted. This feeling drives him crazy, and he determines to do something about it. He swears revenge, but he has a very particular idea about how we will achieve that revenge. • ___ In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allan Poe depicts the “spirit of the perverse” by the characterization of his first-person narrator; he describes that man as, at the same time, wanting to get away with and wanting to get credit for a crime. • ____ Poe writes, “A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong” (1). • ____ If Poe defines “the spirit of the perverse” as one’s ability to harass oneself, then his characterization of the tale’s narrator as desiring two nearly incompatible goals is a great example of that “spirit.” The narrator who vows revenge will have hard time both failing to get caught for a crime and succeeding at being known as the one who committed it. In other words, he will have a hard time both avoiding being “overtake[n]” and “mak[ing] himself felt.” • ____ The perversion of the narrator’s desire lies in his knowing that he should not try something so difficult—not to mention wicked—and trying it anyway.

6. MORE INFO • If you would like more detailed information on the “P.C.Q.E.C. Paragraph,” then revisit our slideshow from Q1, which features: • A sample from Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer • MLA format • Tags • Parenthetical Citations • Works Cited pages • Good luck studying! Happy holidays!