Download Step I : A Fill-in-the Blank Introduction

Drafting the Introduction, Thesis, and Topic Sentences for Paper 5
Step I : A Fill-in-the Blank Introduction
In ___________________________, ___________________ recounts his _____ _______________________
(book title)
(author)
________________________________________________________________________________________________.
(general comment about the main focus of his autobiography)
As both an eyewitness and a victim of the slave system, Frederick Douglass ___________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________.
(an additional comment about Frederick Douglass’s overall purpose for writing the book)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
(an additional sentence to build on the previous sentence and to lead into the thesis)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Frederick Douglass’s autobiography is an abolitionist polemic in which he argues _______________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.
(State the argument you plan to discuss)
Through his effective use of ____________________________________, ________________________________________,
literary device
literary device
and ______________________________________, Douglass exposes ___________________________________________
literary device
subject
in order to ______________________________________________________________. See another effective thesis below.
purpose
Another possible thesis: Frederick Douglass’s effective use of language throughout his narrative reveals his persona as
an orator and a rhetorician. (You could then discuss his use of chiasmus, parallelisms, diction and/or dramatic asides or
other stylistic devices including his use of anecdotes resembling Biblical parables.)
More Sample Thesis Statements:
 Through his effective use of anecdotes, vivid imagery, and appeals to pathos Frederick Douglass argues that the
institution of slavery is a destructive force that corrupts the slaveholder and brutalizes the slave.
 Through his effective use of rhetorical strategies, Frederick Douglass argues against the prevailing ideas that
slavery was a benevolent institution, slaves were happy and content on plantations, and slavery was both natural
and condoned in the Bible.
 Douglass traces his personal development from a demoralized slave to an influential orator by steadily
authenticating his selfhood and his humanity through his steady quest to achieve an identity beyond slavery, a
quest he achieves through his “grand achievement” of literacy.
(Begin with his early quest for knowledge and longing for the natural—relationships, birthdate, knowledge of his father,
his learning to read, his ingenuity in continuing his education in reading and writing, his desire to educate others, his study
of rhetoric and mastery of skills, etc.)
Step II. Writing the body paragraph. Your first sentence should be directly related to the first subtopic of your
thesis. The following are suitable topic sentences.
 Frederick Douglass’s effective use of _________________ develops his argument that slavery is
________________________.
OR …
 Frederick Douglass’s use of ______________ reveals his condemnation of the institution of slavery and its damaging
effects on slaveholders.
OR…
 Douglass inserts dramatic asides throughout his autobiography in order to interject critical commentary about slavery
and its destructive effects on those involved.

Every sentence after your topic sentence will be an example of the technique or topic introduced in your topic
sentence. In between each example, add commentary or a clarification statement to elaborate on the example,
explaining what Douglass’s point is in the example from the text. Support your key claims with quotes smoothly
incorporated from the autobiography. These quotes should be approximately one to six words long and fit nicely into
a structure of your sentence (subject, direct object, prepositional phrase, subordinate clause, or noun or adjective
position).