Literary Analysis Using the TRIAC Paragraph

TRIAC Paragraph T = TOPIC SENTENCE an argument supporting your claim about the text R = REFINEMENT a refined statement of that claim I = ILLUTRATION the passage from the text – quoted A = ANALYSIS the passage illustrates your claim C = CONCLUSION statement you now have clearly shown to be true

T = Topic sentence: State what the paragraph is about, or what you will argue or claim.

R = Refinement: Rephrase the main idea in sharper, slightly more particular ways. This restatement is often preceded with transitions like that is, in other words, or what I mean is. Again, this restatement may run only a sentence or two.

I = illustration, quote from the text: Support your ideas I = illustration, quote from the text: Support your ideas. Give examples. Illustrate. Sentences that do this are often preceded with the transitional phrases for instance or for example.

A = analysis: Analysis means telling readers how to understand the examples or illustrations.. Words like since, therefore, because, however, and nevertheless all work to signal your logic.

C = conclusion, closure: Anytime you're ready to draw together several threads of your logic, you're making a conclusion. Such sentences are often preceded with in conclusion or thus, though these transitions aren't always necessary and can sound a little clunky.

T = an argument supporting your claim about the text   R = a refined statement of that claim I = the passage from the text – quoted and embeded A = analysis of how the passage illustrates your claim C = statement you now have clearly shown to be true

Sample TRIAC Paragraph  TIt seems almost like a fantasy world that the characters have created for themselves, which doesn’t really fit in the ‘real world’. RThere is a sense of illusion in the lavish nature of these parties, almost as if they are a front for something. IFor instance, “On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight…(Fitzgerald 39) AThese people spent their days and nights devoted to partying and readying themselves for the next opportunity for debauchery. AFitzgerald is showing us the rampant growth of materialism that has swept the nation during these times, and suggests the moral deterioration of the era. CPeople are more concerned with the parties and affairs than more significant matters.