Download Attacking the Prompt

Building an Essay
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Carefully read the prompt.
Underline words which give specific, direct,
important instructions/topics to address.
Pull out and bullet words/directions underlined.
Brainstorm answers for the bullets.
Use these answers for the bullets to develop the
thesis.
Based on the prompt, decide how many paragraphs
to use.
Pre-write for the body paragraphs.
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Prompt: Writers often highlight the values of
a culture or a society by using characters who
are alienated from that society because of
gender, race, class, etc. Choose a character
from your summer reading, and show how
that character's alienation reveals the
surrounding society's assumptions and moral
values.
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Step 1: Read the prompt.
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Step 2: Underline words which give specific, direct,
important instructions/topics to address:
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Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a
society by using characters who are alienated from
that society because of gender, race, class, etc.
Choose a character from your summer reading, and
show how that character's alienation reveals the
surrounding society's assumptions and moral values.
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Step 3: Pull out and bullet the words/directions you underlined:
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Character from TKAM
How Character is Alienated:
Society’s Assumptions/Moral Values:
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Step 4: Brainstorm answers for the bullets.
Character from TKAM – Boo Radley
How Character is Alienated: literally locked away and shunned as a
menace by the town
 Society’s Assumptions/Moral Values: unforgiving of people’s choices
and fearful of what they do not understand
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Step 5: Use these answers for the bullets to develop the thesis.
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo
Radley is literally locked away and shunned as a
menace by the town which reveals that
Maycomb society is unforgiving of people’s
choices and fearful of what they do not
understand.
Some authors use children as characters to
provide a more innocent point of view. Choose
a child from your summer reading and discuss
how their innocence is portrayed through their
thoughts and actions.
Read the prompt.
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Underline words which give specific, direct,
important instructions/topics to address:
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Some authors use children as characters to
provide a more innocent point of view.
Choose a child from your summer reading
and discuss how their innocence is portrayed
through their thoughts and actions.
Pull out and bullet
the words/directions
you underlined
Brainstorm answers
for the bullets.
 Use these answers for the
bullets to develop the thesis.
 Create your thesis