Practice Paraphrasing Remember to: -Introduce -Incorporate -Interpret (Connect to your thesis)

So What Is Our Thesis? The narrator in “The Scarlet Ibis” is a dynamic character.

Thesis: The narrator in “The Scarlet Ibis” is a dynamic character. So what does the essay have to show?

So what does the essay have to prove? The essay must show how the narrator changes.

So how do we show the narrator changes?

We show the narrator changes by using support from the beginning, middle, and end of the text to demonstrate how the narrator changes.

A Passage We Might Cite from the Beginning of the Story: “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who was possibly not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow” (Hurst 351). Put the passage in your own words.

Introduce your paraphrase Incorporate your paraphrase grammatically into a sentence Interpret your paraphrase and connect it back to your thesis

Possible Paraphrase At the beginning of the short story, the narrator considers ending his brother’s life because he is disgusted with his brother’s physical problems and he suspects his brother has mental problems too (Hurst 351). At this point in the story, the narrator is filled with shame and disgust for his brother.

A Passage We Might Cite from the Middle of the Story “Doodle told them it was I who had taught him to walk, so everyone wanted to hug me, and I began to cry” (Hurst 355). Put the passage in your own words.

Introduce your paraphrase Incorporate your paraphrase grammatically into a sentence Interpret your paraphrase and connect it back to your thesis

Possible Paraphrase As the story progresses, the narrator discovers he can teach his brother to walk and share this with his family (Hurst 355). The narrator is changing his attitude toward his brother from shame and disgust to pride and delight.

A Passage We Might Cite from the End of the Story “I began to weep, and the tear-blurred vision in red before me looked very familiar. ‘Doodle!’ I screamed above the pounding storm and threw my body to the earth above his. For a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my falling scarlet Ibis from the heresy of rain” (Hurst 361). Put the passage in your own words.

Introduce your paraphrase Incorporate your paraphrase grammatically into a sentence Interpret your paraphrase and connect it back to your thesis

Possible Paraphrase By the end of the story, the narrator is full of regret, trying to protect his dead brother from the storm he left him in (Hurst 361). The narrator who first felt intense shame, then intense pride, now faces deeply intense regret.