Thesis Statement Your thesis statement is the last sentence in the first paragraph. It presents a point or an argument that will be supported by your paper. It does NOT need to contain three parts. Example: Middle Eastern literature illustrates the concept that women are valued by whether and how many children they can produce. Your introduction should follow the Hook, Bridge, Thesis format.

Claim Statements Each body paragraph will begin with a claim statement, similar to the topic sentence of the TED123C format. This will present a smaller argument that supports your thesis. Example for the thesis listed in previous slide: “Women in some biblical stories felt great distress when they could not conceive, and they resorted to extreme measures to give their husbands children.”

Body Paragraphs In each body paragraph, you will provide specific examples from texts you read in class, as well as your own analysis and interpretation, to support the claim statement. For the claim statement given in the previous slide, I might discuss the stories of Rachel and Leah and Sarai and Hagar, and how women in both stories felt so desperate to give their husbands children that they had their maids sleep with their husbands. I would add my own opinions and interpretations, and explain what this tells about the context in which the piece was written (analysis).

About analysis… GOOD analysis does not just paraphrase a line from text. VARSITY analysis looks for greater meaning and explains this greater meaning in the context of the piece.

Conclusions Your conclusion should follow the same format of TED123C.

Formatting 12 pt. Times New Roman 1-inch margins all around (you will likely need to change the settings on your computers!) Double spaced, without skipping lines between paragraphs (again, you will probably need to change the settings on your computers!) Your name, due date, class period, and assignment title in the upper left corner. Enter twice, then begin the first line of your essay.

MLA You should do a bit of outside research to augment your paper. You may use sources you found to prepare for your debate. Use these sources as SUPPORT for the claims you make in your paper. Be sure to correctly parenthetically cite ALL sources used (including novels and biblical passages from class), and include all sources on a Works Cited page.

Organization I recommend that you address one archetype or stereotype in your thesis, and discuss at least three textual examples for support (at least one for each body paragraph), OR discuss three archetypes or stereotypes in your thesis, and discuss at least three textual examples in your body paragraphs (at least one for each paragraph). Although I recommend a five-paragraph format for this paper, it is not required if you prefer another format. However, you still MUST have clear organization!

Transitions Look back at the information posted to my website about transitions. I expect to see transitions in your paper and will take off points if they are not used!

A word about grammar… There is NO REASON to have any fragments, run-ons, or comma splices in your paper. There is NO REASON to have pronoun- antecedent errors in your paper (we will go over this before the paper is due). Any other grammar errors should be EXTREMELY MINIMAL.