1. Building an Essay

2.  Carefully read the prompt.  Underline words which give specific, direct, important instructions/topics to address.  Pull out and bullet words/directions underlined.  Brainstorm answers for the bullets.  Use these answers for the bullets to develop the thesis.  Based on the prompt, decide how many paragraphs to use.  Pre-write for the body paragraphs.

3.  Prompt: Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that society because of gender, race, class, etc. Choose a character from your summer reading, and show how that character's alienation reveals the surrounding society's assumptions and moral values.

4.  Step 1: Read the prompt.  Step 2: Underline words which give specific, direct, important instructions/topics to address:  Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that society because of gender, race, class, etc. Choose a character from your summer reading, and show how that character's alienation reveals the surrounding society's assumptions and moral values.

5.  Step 3: Pull out and bullet the words/directions you underlined:  Character from TKAM  How Character is Alienated:  Society’s Assumptions/Moral Values:  Step 4: Brainstorm answers for the bullets.  Character from TKAM – Boo Radley  How Character is Alienated: literally locked away and shunned as a menace by the town  Society’s Assumptions/Moral Values: unforgiving of people’s choices and fearful of what they do not understand  Step 5: Use these answers for the bullets to develop the thesis.

6. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley is literally locked away and shunned as a menace by the town which reveals that Maycomb society is unforgiving of people’s choices and fearful of what they do not understand.

7. Some authors use children as characters to provide a more innocent point of view. Choose a child from your summer reading and discuss how their innocence is portrayed through their thoughts and actions.

8. Read the prompt.

9.  Underline words which give specific, direct, important instructions/topics to address:  Some authors use children as characters to provide a more innocent point of view. Choose a child from your summer reading and discuss how their innocence is portrayed through their thoughts and actions.

10. Pull out and bullet the words/directions you underlined

11. Brainstorm answers for the bullets.

12.  Use these answers for the bullets to develop the thesis.  Create your thesis