Part A: Answer - In one sentence, state your claim that answers an essential question or prompt. Some teachers will call this your main idea, central argument, or thesis. It becomes your TOPIC SENTENCE.
Part C: Cite Evidence – If you are writing an informative or argumentative response, write a fact. If you are writing a literary analysis response, write a quotation from the text or provide a specific example.
Part E: Explain Evidence – After citing a piece of evidence, you need to explain why it is relevant. You should go beyond just paraphrasing the example. Try to assess, analyze, critique, or evaluate the evidence’s importance. Be sure to explain why this fact supports your main idea.
Further Development: Repeat Parts C and E – It is important to provide additional evidence to support your main idea --to defend the argument in your CLAIM/ANSWER.
Last Part: Conclude – Using different word order and synonyms, synthesize your claim/argument.
Body Paragraph: A-C-E
Topic Sentence/Answer/Claim
o Concrete Detail #1 (citation/evidence – quote or summarized examples)
o Concrete Detail #2 (citation/evidence– quote or summarized example)
Conclusion Sentence/Transition sentence – synthesizes the argument and/or leads the reader into the next body paragraph
Atticus is the adult character least infected by prejudice in the novel. He has no problem with his children attending Calpurnia's church (Lee 118) or with a black woman essentially raising his children. Atticus knows interacting with different races will make his children stronger people. He goes to Helen's home to tell her of Tom's death, which means a white man spending time in the black community. Other men in town would have sent a messenger, but Atticus does not subscribe to the prejudice of his time period--he has no fear of or desire to avoid the black community. His lack of prejudice does not apply only to other races, however. He is unaffected by Mrs. Dubose's caustic tongue (Lee 107), Miss Stephanie Crawford's catty gossip, and even Walter Cunningham's thinly veiled threat on his life (Lee 135). He does not retaliate when Bob Ewell spits in his face because he understands that he has wounded Ewell's pride — the only real possession this man has. Atticus accepts these people because he is an expert at "climb[ing] into [other people's] skin and walk[ing] around in it"(Lee 22). With the respect Atticus shows all people, he models to his children, and readers, how best to avoid providential prejudices.
Works Cited
“Character Analysis Atticus Finch.” Cliffnotes: To Kill A Mockingbird. Houghton Mifflin.
2016. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird/character-analysis/atticus-finch . 30 Sept. 2019.
Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird. New York: Glencoe, 2002. Print.
Atticus encourages his children to respect others. Scout watches Atticus talk to Walter, Jr., about the weather and farming (Lee 25) -- topics the uncomfortable poverty-stricken child has an interest in. To demonstrate she has internalized her father’s lesson, Scout talks Walter Cunningham, Sr., into leaving the jail (Lee 118) because she asks about his own children and reminds him that he, like Atticus, is a father. Most importantly, though, Atticus, at the end of the novel, teaches Scout that people are “nice when you finally see them” (Lee 218). Even after the evil of men’s hearts Atticus encounters, he holds respect and hope for his fellow men.
Works Cited
Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird. New York: Glencoe, 2002. Print.
As with any paragraph, start with a TOPIC SENTENCE. Your audience should not have to guess as to what this paragraph will discuss. As you move through your paragraphs, be sure to use transitions in your topic sentences.
Next, give some context/background/transition phrase to move into your first piece of evidence. Do not simply plop a piece of evidence in without introducing it. Context, background, and transition phrases provide STYLE/FLOW/VOICE.
Thirdly, provide the evidence through a paraphrase, a summary or a direct quote. After you provide this evidence, you MUST DOCUMENT YOUR SOURCE PARENTHETICALLY! If you don’t, that is plagiarism! Note the documentation in the sample paragraphs below.
Next, and this is what most students omit, analyze the evidence. Comment on it in THIRD person. Make a statement. What does that evidence prove or say about YOUR argument? Explain the details/evidence/citation.
Okay, now transition to your next piece of evidence. Then repeat the last two steps of citation/evidence with explanations/analysis.
Do this for as many pieces of evidence as you have.
Finally, wrap the paragraph up with a clincher. Remind your reader what this whole paragraph was about. Tie your information back to the topic sentence/claim/ thesis. This provides COHESION.
(from Ms. Dinkenor, 2016)
Yet another reason capital punishment should be abolished is its inefficiency. A proponent of capital punishment would argue that its implementation is necessary for the lowering of the crime rate. However, there is no evidence to show that capital punishment decreases the crime rate. First-hand accounts strengthen the gravity of this argument. Robert Morgenthau, a district attorney of Manhattan, confirmed a decrease in crime rate without the death penalty: “In 1975, when I became District Attorney, there were 648 homicides in Manhattan; in 1994, there were 330. The number has been cut virtually in half without executions- proof to me that they are not needed to continue that trend” (Morgenthau). Even beyond New York City there is evidence to prove that executions do not lower the murder rate. Many law enforcement officials do not support the death penalty. The 1995 Hart Research Associates study found that the police chiefs put capital punishment last in the ranking of importance for reducing the crime rate. “Only 1 percent of the chiefs actually ranked it first for crime reduction” (Dieter 23-24). Police chiefs do not believe that the death penalty significantly reduces the number of homicides (Dieter 23). If the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent, as some proponents say it does, it should no longer be used. For example, “In the ten years following the abolition of the death penalty, the homicide rate in Canada had reached a 15 year low” (Ross). Evidence beyond American borders certainly suggests that capital punishment harms society rather than helps it.
Another solution lies in laboratories where scientists work diligently to create a cost-efficient ethanol product from a cellulosic source. Because cellulosic ethanol originates from indigestible plant fibers found in switchgrass, sawdust, and any leftover plant matter including agricultural waste, it does not take away from a possible food source (Lashinsky 6). Vinod Khosla, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, believes that without using more land or lowering food production, the U.S. can produce enough ethanol to replace the majority of petroleum used in small vehicles (Lashinsky 2). Scientists use enzymes to break down the cellulose in plant matter to turn it into a glucose that can then be fermented into ethanol. As of now, the best enzyme comes from a genetically-altered Trichoderma Reesei fungus (Lashinsky 9). This superior enzyme makes it possible to break down the pulpy matter called lignin that holds the plant stalks up. The process to make cellulosic ethanol proves expensive, thus creating a difficult task to overcome. In order for ethanol to ascend, the production price must be competitive to that of gasoline. The U.S. Department of Energy has been able to reduce the predicted cost of ethanol from biomass to 1.22 dollars per gallon and could lower still to 0.86 cents per gallon if a zero cost feedstock is reached (Bourne). Environmentally, however, cellulosic ethanol leads the way by helping to reduce carbon emissions. By using switchgrass to fabricate fuel, the government could reduce the amount of new carbon being put into the atmosphere as well as reduce the amount of old carbon in the atmosphere, potentially reducing global warming. The carbon from ethanol has been in the atmosphere recently; therefore, it does not contribute to global warming. In this sense ethanol does not add additional carbon to the atmosphere but recycles carbon already in the air. The majority of the carbon absorbed by switchgrass lies within the root system being left in the ground during harvest, which makes the carbon returned to the atmosphere a smaller amount than that confiscated from the air (“Unseen Benefits of Switchgrass”). Facts prove cellulosic by far the best choice for the environment, but the high cost of production keeps the idea not ready for production yet.
(from Ms. Dinkenor, 2016)