1. Your guide to passing the Honors Paper.

2.  Look at your prompt and figure out what it says.  Break it down into parts!  Your prompt asks for Causes of your turning point. Effects of your turning point. Historical significance of your turning point.  This becomes the skeleton for your paper…spooky.

3.  Mrs. Pleasants has provided a list of topics that you may choose from.  Pro-Tip: Pick something you’re actually interested in.  You’ll be working with this topic for 6 weeks. You don’t want to get tired of it!  If you’re not sure, start reading on a couple of different ones! Pick the one that doesn’t bore you  If you don’t see something that you’re interested in, but you have something that could be a turning point, start putting together

4.  THIS IS THE HARD PART! So we’ll break it down into multiple steps  Step 1: Ask yourself a question about your topic  Step 2: Start brainstorming and researching answers to this question. Since your prompt is laid out for you, answer that question with those pieces in mind. (Causes, Effect, Significance)  Step 3: Put steps 1 and 2 together!  Now, lets do it together.

5.  Remember, you have to have at least 3 sources for this paper  What’s a good source you ask? NOT WIKIPEDIA. Academic Journal Articles, the Non-Fiction section, Books, Sourcebooks (Fordham University), etc. We’ll be in the library on April 9 th and Ms. Dyer can help you if you don’t understand.  Pro-Tip: While you are doing your research, make source cards. You’ll be turning these in AND they’ll help with your Works Cited page.  Don’t worry about this now, we’ll teach you how to make them later.

6.  Dig that thesis statement out and break that bad boy down into the skeleton we made in the first step.  Example:  Superman is cool because he can fly, save people in danger and is an alien Paragraph One: Superman is cool because he can fly. Paragraph Two: Superman is cool because he can save people in danger. Paragraph Three: Superman is cool because he is an alien.

7.  With this outline, you’re basically deciding what is going to go in each paragraph, and lining up the paragraphs so that they flow!  Pro-Tip: The best way to write a body paragraph is  1) State your point  2) Explain your point  3) Give examples This is where your sources come in!

8.  Example:  Superman is cool because he can fly, save people in danger and is an alien Paragraph One: Superman is cool because he can fly. This is cool because….  Example, example, example Paragraph Two: Superman is cool because he can save people in danger. This is cool because….  Example, example, example Paragraph Three: Superman is cool because he is an alien. This is cool because….  Example, example, example

9.  Take your outline and put all of the sentences together and make it sound somewhat competent.  Remember, with your sources, don’t just put quotes in all willy-nilly like.  Make sure you tell me who said it, why they said it and why it’s important to your paper.

10.  Pull that thesis out again.  Your conclusion is basically like the last 10 seconds of a commercial where you’ve forgotten what the person is selling. So, they bring that product back out to remind you.  So tell me again with a little more detail what you’re arguing.

11.  Remember, it is probably the worst idea you’ll ever have if you decide to start with the introduction  How do you even write an introduction for a paper that doesn’t exist yet?  Slap some historical context in there  This is important because it’s impossible to understand a turning point if you don’t know the conditions beforehand!

12.  Put all of that together and you have a rough draft!  Pat yourself on the back and go get a milkshake for a job well done