All Quiet on the Western Front Synthesis Essay You can do it! Here’s a few tips to help!

Class Average for Character Analysis 75.5% We can do better!

Watch for Grammar Mistakes Possessive vs Plural – Life was unfair in the 1930’s. WRONG! The s is in reference to the 10 years between 1920 and 1930. The 1930s don’t own anything. Contractions – Leave them out of formal writing. QUOTES belong in a sentence. “Jesus, what a tramp.” WRONG. George exclaims, “Jesus, what a tramp.” RIGHT! Informal phrases – Writing like you talk! “sugarcoat things”, “snoopy man”, “mental guy”, “had the guts”, “being snotty”, “good guy” “24-7” NO! NO! NO!

Fix Format Problems Too many examples, too little analysis –George is brave because he kills Lennie. (Continues with a description of the circumstance.) George is brave because he protects Lennie by helping him escape Weed. (Continues with a description of the circumstance.) WRONG! This leaves out WHY these examples PROVE that George is brave. Funnel Introductions/Conclusions killed me (and your grades)! If you start with your thesis statement, you didn’t do it right. If you ended with just restating your thesis statement, you didn’t do it right! Page numbers for where the quote OR event is in the book – If you are talking about an instance directly from the novel, whether verbatim or not, you MUST include the page number for reference. (For poetry you don’t need a page #)