Synthesis Essay
Due Friday, April 18th by 11:59 to Turnitin.com
150 points Peer Edit due Monday or Tuesday after Easter weekend Requirements: Heading and title (see How to Write Your Essay link for guidelines) Five well-developed paragraphs minimum Three parenthetical citations minimum with accurate internal MLA citations Works Cited section at end of essay (see MLA guidelines link) |
Building Better Introductions:
ACTS A=Attention Getter C=Context (background information to orient reader to topic) TS=Thesis Statement (what you are going to prove and how you are going to prove it) Strategies: Funnel Introduction: Begins with a very broad general idea and continues with more and more specific ideas until it arrives at the thesis sentence—the most specific idea in the introductory paragraph. ex) Everyone has a dream. Some people dream of success while some people dream about making the world a better place… Contrast Introduction:
Anecdotal/ Scenario Introduction: Tells a brief story in order to introduce the thesis. For example, if you were writing a paper arguing that one person can make a change in society, find a story about a person who has done just that. In the 1960s in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person. Her seemingly small act of courage inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott. |
For more MLA guidelines click on the link below:
MLA Guidelines for Citing Drama
Quoting Dialogue in Prose Drama (2 or More Characters) MLA 3.7.4 Tips for quoting dialogue:
Early on in the play “A Raisin in the Sun,” Walter explodes when Ruth refuses to listen to his ideas: RUTH. Eat your eggs, Walter. WALTER. (Slams the table and jumps up) --DAMN MY EGGS-DAMN ALL THE EGGS THAT EVER WAS! RUTH. Then go to work. WALTER. (Looking up at her) See--I’m trying to talk to you ‘bout myself--(Shaking his head with the repetition)--and all you can say is eat them eggs and go to work. (Hansberry 34) Citing Poetry in the Text of Your Paper (Parenthetical Documentation) Because poems are often reprinted in various editions and anthologies, they are cited by line number rather than by page number. Quoting Three Lines or Fewer MLA 3.7.3, 6.4.8 When you are quoting three lines or fewer from a poem, you may incorporate the quotation into the body of your paragraph. Tips for quoting up to three lines of poetry:
Example Eliot immediately engages the reader with his use of the second person in the opening lines: "Let us go then, you and I / When the evening is spread out against the sky" ("Prufrock" 1-2). However, if you have mentioned the title of the poem in the sentences immediately preceding you quotation, you can cite the line number only. Example In his "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," Eliot immediately engages the reader with his use of the second person in the opening lines: "Let us go then, you and I / When the evening is spread out against the sky" (1-2). |