Controlling Idea Paragraphs

Controlling Idea Outline

1. Write your topic sentence(s)-

Remember your topic sentence should:

• State the author’s and texts you’re using

• Restate the controlling idea, and how it is used in the text (this is your argument)

ex: In I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen, and Mother’s Love both authors discuss the importance of the relationship between a mother and her daughter illustrating the differences between how a mother shows her love.

2. Highlight or underline 2 quotes from each text that support your topic sentence.

3. Write 2 -3 sentences introducing, presenting, and analyzing each example

ex: In I Stand Here Ironing, Tillie Olsen shows …. when she says “....” . This further illustrates…. proving ….

4. Synthesis statement that looks at all these examples together--what do they emphasize/illustrate/explore together?

ex. Throughout I Stand Here Ironing, and a Mother’s Love, both authors discuss the importance of …. helping the reader better understand …. because ….

NEW HOMEWORK POLICY

All Homework must be completed the week it is assigned. I will NOT accept make-up homework later than the Friday of the week the assignment is due.

Literary Element Paragraph Structure

Literary Element Paragraph Steps:

1. Write your topic sentence(s) See post below.

ex: Tobais Wolff uses characterization in Bullet in the Brain to....

2. Highlight or underline 3 quotes from the text that support your topic sentence.

3. Write 2 -3 sentences introducing, presenting, and analyzing each example

ex: Tobias Wolff describes Anders as …. when he says “....” . This further illustrates Wolff’s characterization of Anders as …. proving ….

4. Synthesis statement that looks at all these examples together--what do they emphasize/illustrate/explore together?

ex: Throughout Bullet in the Brain Tobias Wolff’s characterization of Anders as …. helps the reader better understand …. because ….

Topic Sentences

Topic sentences are THE MOST IMPORTANT part of your paragraph, because they guide the quotes you will you use and how you will use them. Without a good topic sentence, your paragraph is likely to be aimless, rambling and mostly summary. Here are basic rules of writing topic sentences:

1. Refer to (but do not summarize) the text being used

2. Identify the controlling idea/literary element to be discussed in paragraph

3. Clearly present a general analysis or interpretation to be proven by examples

An example: In his science-fiction novel Flight, Sherman Alexie (reference to text) writes his character Zits into numerous settings (reference to literary elements) and other characters’ bodies in a way that crosses time and space. One reason for this “flight” is to illustrate how individual circumstances affect Zits’ journey of self-discovery in a positive way (general analysis).

This topic sentence forces the writer to choose examples that display/prove the positive quality of Zit's self-discovery while using Setting for support.

The Forest or the Trees? Or How to Write about Literary Elements

Have you ever heard the saying "Can't see the forest for the trees"? Usually this means that you are so focused on the small details (the individual trees) that you can't see the big picture (the forest). In other words, try to see the bigger picture rather than getting distracted.

To be a great reader and writer, you need to be able to see all the details and decide whether we're looking at the trees and the forest. What??? Simply put: you have two ways to analyze literary elements. If you are reading an entire book, you need to look at the forest, the big picture (things like theme, setting, or character change). If you are reading an individual page, poem, or passage you should look at the trees or specific language and literary devices (things like metaphors, symbols, repetition, alliteration, or juxtaposition). 

How is this useful to you? For the regents you have two tasks that involve the use of literary elements. The literary element paragraph and the critical lens. For the paragraph you are writing about the trees, for the critical lens you are writing about the forest.

Examples:

The Forest: A study of setting in Flight. 

The Trees: A study of the repetition in a passage of Flight.

Stream of Consciousness

Have you ever caught yourself thinking about something and then wonder how you started thinking about it in the first place? Then you start tracking back through your thoughts to realize how one thing led to another even though they aren't actually related? If so, then what you've done is followed the stream of your consciousness (your thoughts or awareness of things in the world).

This is an important part of our psychology. It is also a process that has inspired writers and the way they write their novels. We are just starting Alexie's novel Flight, which uses stream of consciousness to follow the main character's thoughts from one observation to another:

"I can hear my new foster family bumping around in the other rooms. I don't care about them. There are more important things to think about, so I look in the mirror and count the zits on my face.
One, two, three, four, all the way up to forty-seven."

What the character thinks is interrupted by what he sees, which is then followed by a long section on just how many zits the character has.

The best way to recognize this is to see the "links" in the chain of the characters thoughts. Thinking about zits, leads him to think about why he has them, to thinking about who he inherits acne from, to thinking about how his father left him when he was born.

So why tell you all of this? Perhaps I was just thinking about it. Perhaps you could use the technique to describe both the style of the novel and the character who is doing the thinking (character development). Which reminds me: YOU SHOULD WRITE ABOUT THIS FOR EXTRA CREDIT. How does Alexie use stream of consciousness to present a theme or a complex idea? Find an example and analyze the stream of thought.

Sherman Alexie's Purpose as a Writer (our class' perspective)

 What is Alexie’s purpose as a writer?

• To expose racism in order to show how society works
• Explain the hardships of Native Americans & reservation life
• Show permanent and personal differences within society
• How situations change individuals
• How society impacts others.
• How people “hide” themselves and create “fake identities”
• Express how Indians are perceived by others
• To teach acceptance (of yourself, of community, of others, of culture)
• To develop teen literature (development stories-- coming of age, bildungsroman)

• To teach the world about the REAL culture of Native Americans’ in order to beat the stereotype
• The “humanity” of Native Americans: we understand the personality and depth of characters through his use of Point of View (POV)
• To express Native American feelings
• To depict the mistreatment of Native Americans--uses literary techniques to convey this figuratively
• To write about ALL minorities and their experience with things like racism and discrimination
• universal situations in a minority’s perspective