1. Writing a Thesis or Topic Statement
Thesis: What an essay or report will prove
Topic Sentence: What a paragraph will prove
Each identifies a subject and tells what will be proven.
Sample:
In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, Madame Loisel is self- absorbed.

2. Evidence
Evidence comes from the text.

3. Madame Loisel is self-absorbed.
Example: “She suffered from the poorness of her house.”
Example: What she did not have “tormented and insulted her.”
Example: “And these were the only things she loved; …”
“…she felt that she was made for them.”
Example: “She would weep whole days…”
Example: “…with grief, regret, despair, and misery.”
When she visits her rich friend, she only feels “despair, and misery.”
What she does not have “torment[s] and insult[s] her.”
She is miserable as she views “the poorness of her house.”

4. Write in present tense:
While her husband was pleased with the rudimentary meal, Madame Loisel had a grand illusion of “delicate meals, gleaming silver, tapestries.”
She longs for fancy clothing and jewels because she felt as though “she was made for them.”
Madame Loisel had “no jewels,’ and they “were the only things she loved.”
She felt that she was “born for every delicacy and luxury.”

5. Example
Wrong tense:
She longs for fancy clothing and jewels because she felt as though “she was made for them.”
Present tense:
She longs for fancy clothing and jewels because she feels as though “she [is] made for them.”
When changing tense in a quote, use brackets around the new word or part of word. Take out the old word or part of word. Notice the above changes.

6. Building Commentary – Connect the quote to the thesis or topic sentence.
Topic Sentence: Madame Loisel is self-absorbed.
Quotation Sentence: When she visits her rich friend, she only feels “despair, and misery.”
Commentary: This shows that Madame Loisel cares only about having material items. She does not appreciate her friend’s good fortune; she only feels “grief” that such fortune is not hers. Madame Loisel’s response indicates that she believes she is entitled to a life of luxury.

7. Adding Quotation Sentences – Use transitions
This self-centeredness is also obvious when it comes to the daily routine of her life. When Madame Loisel thinks about the scotch broth for dinner, she only “imagine[s] delicate meals” and “gleaming silver…” These images confirm _______________________________________
____________________________________________________.
They also show _______________________________________
______________________________________________________.

8. Concluding Sentence Consider what you have said.
What does the reader come to understand?
What is the writer’s purpose?
Through Madame Loisel’s selfish character, the reader comes to understand that a self-seeking personality only leads to a life of emptiness. De Maupassant’s story admonishes people about paying attention to what they do not have and ignoring what they do have in life.