five paragraghs about relicense. three body paragraph is about the characters’s story. The first is between maggie jones help victoria, the second is the mcpherons help victoria, the third can be chosed..
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Essay Assignment 2
Background: In completing this essay assignment, we will be considering the concept of resilience, as discussed in Deborah Blum’s article, “Finding Strength: How to Overcome Anything,” and connecting it to the novel Plainsong by Kent Haruf. In this novel you will read about several characters who face stressful and painful challenges in their lives, yet they are still able to “survive and thrive,” to use the words of Blum. Haruf’s novel especially illustrates how having the support of other people can be instrumental in a person’s ability to go through difficulties in life.
Purpose: Through this assignment you will have the chance to read both extensively and intensively. This assignment is designed to help you develop critical thinking skills by thinking deeply about the novel and the argument it makes about the healing effects of kindness and support, both financial or material and emotional, from people around us.
You will also build your writing skills, incorporating the elements of an effective essay into your paper. You will also learn to select and integrate quotes from the text to use as evidence to support your claims (points) and then explain the meaning and importance of these quotes in terms of your purpose.
Assignment: Write an essay – five or more paragraphs in length- in response to the following prompt.
How do the characters and the plot in Plainsong illustrate the point that getting support from others plays an important role in resilience? In other words, how does this novel suggest that people can make it through painful and difficult experiences if they have connections to others?
Here are some questions to help you generate the content of your essay:
Which characters are resilient when they face challenges?
What are their challenges?
What role does the support of others play in these characters’ road to resilience?
Who provides support?
Why do they provide support?
How do they provide support?/What support do they provide?
What is the effect of the support?
Which sentences and events in the plot are especially relevant to this assignment? (Mark them as you read.)
Requirements:
- Save all of your prewriting and drafting and keep it in your two-pocket folder.
- Write a minimum of 900 words (introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion).
- Include a clear thesis at the end of your introduction.
- Use topic sentences to introduce key points (claims) at the beginning of each body paragraph.
- Develop your topic sentence points with solid evidence, including direct quotes from the novel in each body paragraph as well as your explanation of the importance/significance of the quotes – what they reveal in connection to your points/claims.
- Follow MLA style of documentation throughout. (We will go over this in class.)
- Submit your essay through Blackboard and also in a two-pocket folder.
Due Dates:
9/29 Read p. 100-250 (Answer the assigned questions.); bring a typed and printed draft of at least one body paragraph. 50 homework points
10/1 Read p. 200-301 (Answer the assigned questions.) Bring a draft of at least three paragraphs to class. 50 homework points
10/6 Printed rough draft of all paragraphs due with two extra copies to share. 50 homework points
10/8 Polished essay due in your two-pocket folder and on your flash drive
Attachment
Skeleton of Introduction + Model Body Paragraph with Textual Evidence and Analysis
| Introduce/explain/definethe concept of resilience, the importance of support in resilience, and the novel.
Example Thesis |
Begin your introduction in an interesting way to attract readers. Use a quote or paraphrase from “Finding Strength: How to Overcome Anything.”
Similar to Blum’s article, Plainsong emphasizes the idea that _________________________________________. This novelillustrates the importance of connections between people and shows how these connections can lead to resilience. |
| Topic Sentence
Body #1 Use relevant quotes to describe the challenging situation and to summarize the support she receives. (Use mainly present tense verbs.) Interweave your analysis/explanation of her situation, based on the quotes. What do the quotes indicate, demonstrate, suggest, or illustrate? Provide your analysis of how the support makes a difference in her life. Here analysis means your ideas/thoughts/explanation on the effects of the help. You can use words such as probably and likelyand surely to indicate that these are your conclusions/well-reasoned guesses/inferences based on the evidence from the story andyour own experience and knowledge oflife. |
Mrs. Stearns receives support from Ike and Bobby, and that support has a positive impact on her ability to cope with her lonely circumstances.Before Ike and Bobby get to knowMrs. Stearns, it is clear that she is a lonely old womanwho has little contact with other people, as the following words demonstrate:“Her voice sounded as if she hadn’t spoken in days” (43). Mrs. Stearns uses canes to walk, and she has no one to help her take care of her apartment. Her apartment is “crowded with all manner of things” (43). When Ike and Bobby come into her apartment, she reaches out to them for company. She seems eager for someone to talk to. “Sit down and start talking” (44), she tells them. She wants to get to know the boys and find out about the world outside her apartment.Even though Ike and Bobby feel uncomfortable and would probably rather not stay and talk with this strange woman, they are polite, and they are willing to talk with her. After telling her about their teachers, they kindly demonstrate interest in Mrs. Stearns by asking about her family, and she replies, “They’re all gone. Or they’re all dead” (46). We can infer that no one has taken much interest in Mrs. Stearns for a long time, and she feels grateful for the boys’ attention. A degree of closeness develops between Mrs. Stearns and the boys, as Bobby opens up to her as well, confiding that their mother has moved out of their house. Mrs. Stearns tells them that she is “very sorry” (46) to hear about their mother, which indicates that although her outward appearance is scary to the boys, she is a kind person.Because Mrs. Stearns has been willing to reach out to the boys for emotional support, and they have responded to her need, a bond between Mrs. Stearns and the boys has formed, and she asks them to return for a visit in the future. After Ike and Bobby leave Mrs. Stearns, one can surmise that she feels better. The human contact has made her feel less lonely, and she now has their next visit to look forward to. The simple form of emotional support that Ike and Bobby have shown to Mrs. Stearns just by listening and talking to her surely makes her more resilientas she faces her future. This interaction between the boys and Mrs. Stearns suggests that something valuable springs up when people take an interest in others, even if they feel a bit uncomfortable. As this scene illustrates, sometimes people give one another emotional strength, even when they do not realize it. |
Skeleton of Introduction + Model Body Paragraph with Textual Evidence and Analysis
| Introduce/explain/define the concept of resilience, the importance of support in resilience, and the novel.
Example Thesis |
Begin your introduction in an interesting way to attract readers. Use a quote or paraphrase from “Finding Strength: How to Overcome Anything.”
Similar to Blum’s article, Plainsong emphasizes the idea that _________________________________________. This novelillustrates the importance of connections between people and shows how these connections can lead to resilience. |
| Topic Sentence
Body #1 Use relevant quotes to describe the challenging situation and to summarize the support she receives. (Use mainly present tense verbs.) Interweave your analysis/explanation of her situation, based on the quotes. What do the quotes indicate, demonstrate, suggest, or illustrate? Provide your analysis of how the support makes a difference in her life. Here analysis means your ideas/thoughts/explanation on the effects of the help. You can use words such as probably and likelyand surely to indicate that these are your conclusions/well-reasoned guesses/inferences based on the evidence from the story andyour own experience and knowledge oflife. |
Mrs. Stearns receives support from Ike and Bobby, and that support has a positive impact on her ability to cope with her lonely circumstances. Before Ike and Bobby get to know Mrs. Stearns, it is clear that she is a lonely old woman who has little contact with other people, as the following words demonstrate:“Her voice sounded as if she hadn’t spoken in days” (43). Mrs. Stearns uses canes to walk, and she has no one to help her around her apartment. Her apartment is “crowded with all manner of things” (43). When Ike and Bobby come into her apartment, she reaches out to them for company. She seems eager for someone to talk to. “Sit down and start talking” (44), she tells them. She wants to get to know the boys and find out about the world outside her apartment. Even though Ike and Bobby feel uncomfortable and would probably rather not stay and talk with this strange woman, they are polite, and they are willing to talk with her After telling her about their teachers, they kindly demonstrate interest in Mrs. Stearns by asking about her family, and she replies, “They’re all gone. Or they’re all dead” (46). We can infer that no one has taken much interest in Mrs. Stearns for a long time, and she feels grateful for the boys’ attention. A degree of closeness develops between Mrs. Stearns and the boys, as Bobby opens up to her as well, confiding that their mother has moved out of their house. Mrs. Stearns tells them that she is “very sorry” (46) to hear about their mother, which indicates that although her outward appearance is scary to the boys, she is a kind person. Because Mrs. Stearns has been willing to reach out to the boys for emotional support, and they have responded to her need, a bond between Mrs. Stearns and the boys has formed, and she asks them to return for a visit in the future. After Ike and Bobby leave Mrs. Stearns, one can surmise that she feels better. The human contact has made her feel less lonely, and she now has their next visit to look forward to. The simple form of emotional support that Ike and Bobby have shown to Mrs. Stearns just by listening and talking to her surely makes her more resilient as she faces her future. This interaction between the boys and old Mrs. Stearns suggests that something valuable springs up when people take an interest in others, even if they feel a bit uncomfortable. As this scene illustrates, sometimes people give one another emotional strength, even when they do not realize it. |
Jermaine Byrant
Nicole Johnson
OVER
RATING
YEARS
