The One-Paragraph Essay Writer’s Workshop The One-Paragraph Essay

Topic Sentence/Thesis For a one-paragraph essay, your topic sentence will serve as your thesis statement. When writing a five-paragraph essay your thesis statement is the last sentence of the introductory paragraph.

Thesis Your thesis should state the purpose of the paper and what you plan to argue. It should also indicate how you plan to support your argument. In the short story “Indian Education,” Sherman Alexie establishes a satirical tone through the use of humor, an exploration of racial stereotypes, and concise sentence structure.

Body of Paragraph/Paper In the body of your paragraph (or paper) you will support each point with textual evidence. Be sure to explain how the textual evidence you have provided supports your claim. A good rule of thumb is to have three points to support your thesis.

In the story, the narrator parodies the traditional Spokane way of naming children: "I was always falling down; my Indian name was Junior Falls Down. Sometimes it was Bloody Nose or Steal-His-Lunch. Once, it was Cries-Like-a-White-Boy, even though none of us had seen a white boy cry“ (Alexie). These names reflect incidents of violence against the child, but the experiences are lightened by self-mocking humor helping to create the story’s irreverent tone.

Concluding Sentence Your concluding sentence can restate your thesis in a different way. To take your paper to the next level, your concluding sentence (for this particular assignment) could broach how the tone makes the piece more effective. For example, you could argue that the story’s solemn tone helps convey how detrimental racial stereotypes can be.