write an essay where you make inferences (or draw conclusions) about a writer’s personality. An autobiographical account is colored by the writer’s viewpoint. Consequently, readers can determine a great deal about a writer by examining and considering the details in the author’s work. You will determine your judgments by examining the manner in which the author portrays himself, events, and other people.
Choose ONE of the following options:
a. Write an essay in which you describe Powhatan’s personality.
b. Write an essay in which you describe William Bradford’s personality.
c. Write an essay in which you describe King Philip’s personality.
Your challenge is to describe the personality of this person in a two-page (about 600 word) essay by drawing conclusions about the author.
Review the reading from the textbook and base your response on information provided in the reading. As you approach this assignment, move through each of the five steps described.
Step 1: Exploratory Writing and Collecting
In this step, you will gather data, generate ideas, and determine your own opinions. Reread the work by your author in your textbook. When you come across clues to the author’s personality, note them. Try some free writing on the subject. Start writing (or typing) your impressions of the author. What type of person is this individual? Why do you feel this way? See if you can write about these ideas for five minutes without stopping.
After going over your notes and free writing, complete this chart. In the first column, list adjectives that you believe describe the author. In the second column, list specific details from the work that indicate the adjectives are accurate. NOTE: while this chart will help you organize your ideas, you do NOT have to use the copy provided in this document. You may draw one by hand on a separate sheet of paper if you like. (You will NOT submit the chart with your project.)
Adjective
Evidence
Step 2: Planning and Shaping Your Essay
Now that you have gathered your data, it is time to start planning your essay. Your goal is to create a working thesis statement and at least three main point statements to support it. You will need evidence from the reading to support each of your main points.
Remember that your thesis statement is the focal point of your essay. It answers the following questions:
1. What is the subject of my essay?
2. What is my opinion on this subject?
Your thesis statement must include the name of the author, the title of the author’s work, and your opinion regarding the author. For example, “The events that Jonathan Edwards describes in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” show him to be a passionate, pious person. A guide for writing a thesis statement is included in the Appendix of this course.
Once you have established a thesis statement, you can begin to draft a paper that will support it. Everything in your essay should defend or serve the thesis. It might be helpful to write your thesis statement at the top of your page, or paste it onto your computer screen on a sticky note.
Once you have a thesis statement established, you will need to create at least three main points to support it. In effect, you will prove that your thesis is accurate. What are three reasons that you believe your thesis to be correct? Write these thoughts down as complete sentences. They will be the topic sentences for the body paragraphs in your essay.
Step 3: Drafting
At this point, you should have a skeleton outline of your thesis statement and topic sentences. Let this outline grow into a paper. Begin with an introductory paragraph in which you introduce your topic and state your thesis. Then compose the body portion of the paper. It is here that you will prove your thesis.
Each body paragraph will begin with a topic sentence and elaborate upon the idea that the topic sentence expresses. In your paragraphs, you will note the details and evidence from the text that support your thesis. Each body paragraph should include at least one quote from the text to support your thesis. Your paper will end with a conclusion. Here, you will restate your thesis (in different words) and make a final statement about what your essay shows.
Note the author’s first and last names the first time you mention him. After that, use only the author’s last name. Cite all direct quotations from the textbook in the MLA style. Use in-text citations. If the quotation is no more than four lines, simply incorporate it into the text:
Anne Bradstreet writes that her “love is such that rivers cannot quench” (7) in “To My Dear and Loving Husband.”
If you are using a quotation longer than four lines, you will need to begin the quotation on a new line and indent each line of the quotation. Cite the page number for the quotation at the end of the quote. These quotations do not use quotation marks. Look at the following example:
So I sold some of my books to raise a little money, was taken
on board privately, and as we had a fair wind, in three days I
found myself in New York, near three hundred miles from home,
a boy of but seventeen, without the least recommendation to, or
knowledge of, any person in the place, and with very little money
in my pocket. (78)
If you have further questions about the proper use of citations, a good reference source is the MLA Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publications. A summary of the guide is in the Appendix of the course.
Step 4: Revising
After you have completed your draft, read through it and check for the following. Revise your work as necessary.
My Thesis
a. Does it directly respond to the assigned topic?
b. Is it an opinionated statement?
c. Do I introduce the writer and the title of the piece of writing?
d. Does my paper cover everything that I promised I would in my thesis? (If not, revise the thesis or develop the body portion of the essay.)
My Topic Sentences
a. Are each of my topic sentences opinionated statements?
b. Does each statement relate directly to the thesis?
My Evidence
a. Do I have enough evidence to prove each of my topic sentences?
b. Is my evidence specific?
c. Have I cited direct quotations?
My Conclusion
Have I restated my overall point and made a final statement about what my essay shows?
Step 5: Editing and Proofreading
Print a hard copy of your draft. Read it aloud and check for the following:
a. no skipped words
b. complete sentences
c. correct spelling
d. correct words (for example there or their)
e. appropriate use of apostrophes
f. appropriate use of commas
g. appropriate use of semicolons
h. appropriate use of colons
i. appropriate use of quotation marks