1. Action/Reaction Module Assessment Review Your Module Assessment is Monday/Tuesday of next week!

2. What do I have to do for my module assessment? ▪ Write a five paragraph essay about how the actions of characters in a story affect the story, the character their self, or others around them. ▪ There are different ways to achieve this: – Choose one character from the story and discuss how one action affects three different elements of the story (characters, the plot, or their own life) – Choose three different characters from a story and discuss how they each have one action and those actions have reactions – Choose one character who has three different actions and discuss the reactions of those actions

3. The Five Paragraph Essay ▪ The five paragraph essay should consist of an introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. ▪ Each paragraph should be a minimum of five sentences in length. ▪ Each of the body paragraphs should have at least one example of textual evidence. (a quote from the text— doesn’t have to be dialogue) ▪ You may also choose to incorporate a quote in your introduction and/or conclusion, but it isn’t required.

4. The Five Paragraph Essay: Introduction ▪ The introduction paragraph is very important because it’s the first impression of your paper. ▪ The first sentence of your intro should include: the title of the work you’ll be discussing, the author’s name, and the topic of your paper. – In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Othello, the traditional roles of good and evil take on unique forms as characters evolve over the course of the play.

5. ▪ The second (and maybe even third and fourth) sentence should focus on what, specifically, your paper is about. – Iago, for example, appears harmless at the outset, but before the end of the play, he transforms into one of Shakespeare’s most infamous and terrible villains. On the other hand, Othello is kind, hard-working, and devoted at the beginning, but somehow becomes a murderer before the curtain closes.

6. ▪ The last sentence of your introduction is the thesis statement, which defines the sequence of the rest of your essay. ▪ The thesis statement should list, in order, the topics of each of your body paragraphs. – There are several contributing factors to Iago’s transcendence to villaindom, even more reasons for Othello’s fall, and the ultimate outcome can only be death, for the most despised and, likewise, the most dearly loved characters.

7. The Five Paragraph Essay: the Body ▪ Your body paragraphs should be in the exact order they are mentioned in your thesis statement. ▪ The first sentence of each body paragraph should be a topic sentence, which tells your reader what each respective paragraph will be about. – When readers are first introduced to Iago, he appears innocuous, if resentful, but by the end of Othello, he is a manipulative murderer commonly referred to by scholars as the vilest of all villains. ▪ The middle sentences of the paragraph should explain the reasoning and evidence (textual) of your claim. ▪ The last sentence of each body paragraph should help readers transition to the next paragraph.

8. The Five Paragraph Essay: Conclusion ▪ The conclusion should recap and reiterate everything you discussed in your paper. ▪ Do not mention anything you haven’t mentioned before. This confuses the reader. ▪ Drive your point home and leave readers with a final thought. – I like to end my conclusion with a quote that leaves my readers thinking, but you don’t have to take this approach.

9. Stuff to Avoid ▪ Asking questions – This is annoying. ▪ Figures of speech – “When we flip the script…” – “The tables turn…” ▪ Slang/informal language – “down low” or “low down” – “weird” – “in his/her feelings” or “feeling some type of way” ▪ Passive language/sounding unsure – “Maybe Mama thought that Dee did this because…” – “Maybe Dee was angry about…” ▪ Opinions and/or Judgement – “I think…” – “In my opinion…” – “It’s crazy that…” ▪ Using “had” in weird places – “She had burned the house down because…” ▪ Unnecessary details – “Maggie’s hair was singed and her dress was burned…” ▪ Exclamation marks ▪ Affects vs. effects – “Affect” is a verb. – “Effect” is a noun.

10. Grammar Stuff ▪ Do not use a comma to separate two complete sentences. This is called a comma splice. – She was burned in a fire, that’s why she was self conscious. ▪ To correct this, use a semi colon or a period, but not a comma. ▪ A/an: Use “a” before words that do not begin with a vowel sound. Use “an” before words that begin with vowels or vowel sounds. – She was an honorary girl scout. ▪ SPELLING ▪ Sentence fragments: your sentence must have a subject and a verb. – He was tired of being by himself. – Tired of being by himself. ▪ Capitalization: proper nouns should be capitalized – Names of people, specific places, specific nouns with names The first letter of a new sentence should be capitalized. ▪ Quotation marks/ parentheses – They aren’t the same thing.

11. How to Quote and Cite ▪ Textual evidence, also referred to as “quotes,” does not have to be in the form of dialogue (conversation between characters). It can be any portion pulled directly from the text. ▪ DO NOT PARAPHRASE. Any textual evidence must be word-for- word and placed inside quotation marks. ▪ Your quotes should be no more than three lines long, and I only count this as one sentence (out of five) in a paragraph. ▪ Ways to cite: – Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263). – Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

12. Questions?