Develop a formal introduction paragraph with a hook, orientation, and thesis all focused on your subject. IMPORTANT: DO NOT announce what you’re going to do at any point in your essay.

Give your essay a title that is creative and relevant to the story and to your analysis of it.

Develop a formal introduction paragraph with a hook, orientation, and thesis all focused on your subject. IMPORTANT: DO NOT announce what you’re going to do at any point in your essay.

Develop a thesis statement that is comprehensive and complete with all the required parts: subject, opinion, and logic. (The story and its conflict are your subjects, your interpretation of the story and its conflict is your opinion, and what you see happening in the story that leads you to your opinion is your logic.)

State your thesis at the end of your introduction paragraph, and then make certain that every supporting paragraph that follows relates to and supports that thesis.

Provide a sufficient number of supporting paragraphs that are complete with a topic sentence, a sufficient number of evidence sentences that support the topic sentence, and a summary statement all unified by your thesis.

Use your own words and ideas for all your topic sentences. Topic sentences are to be analytical. (DO NOT use any quotes or plot summary for a topic sentence.)

Quotations are to be used in your evidence sentences of supporting paragraphs only. (DO NOT use any quotes from primary or secondary sources in topic sentences or in your introduction paragraph or conclusion paragraph.)

Quotations cannot stand alone: every quote needs to be integrated and made part of your own sentence in a way that maintains the grammatical integrity of your sentence. Otherwise, it’s free floating. For a long quote that needs to be set off from the rest of the text of the paragraph, use a colon to introduce it.

Support your thesis with evidence, examples, and quotes from the story. In every supporting paragraph, include at least one quote from the story as effective support for your topic sentence. All of your points should be founded in the text itself, and you should quote enough in your evidence sentences to make the connection clear.

Assume that your reader knows the story but has to be reminded about certain specifics and details that have bearing on the argument you are making in your paper. In other words, summarize no more than necessary. You may summarize briefly for the sake of supporting a point but not for filler.

Support your thesis with research. In every supporting paragraph, include at least one quotation from a peer-reviewed article about your short story as effective support for your argument.

Use at least two peer-reviewed articles as secondary sources, quoting each at least twice to effectively reinforce your argument. That’s a total of four quotes from secondary sources. Access peer-reviewed articles through the Pierce College Librarys online databases, such as Academic Search Complete, Gale Literary Sources, and JSTOR.

All research must come from the Pierce College Library databases and must be about the story you are analyzing. If you find an indispensable source that’s in the databases but is not directly about the story, you may use it as an extra source, but don’t let it lead you off topic, and you’ll still need to use two other articles that are about the story, specifically. And, all three sources will need to come from our library’s databases.

Cite all quotations and sources according to 9th edition MLA guidelines, including parenthetical documentation that corresponds to your list of works cited.

Bring your essay to a fitting close with a conclusion paragraph that gives your essay resonance and a sense of completion and reaffirms your main point in retrospect of the analysis you’ve just presented.

Finally, your works cited page should have at least three listings: one for your primary source (the short story you are writing about) and at least two for your secondary sources (the peer-reviewed articles you attain through research). Your works cited page should list only those sources you have actually referenced in your essay.

Throughout your essay, be direct, stay focused, maintain an active and academic voice, eliminate filler, use transitional elements between and within paragraphs as needed, and revise your writing thoroughly. Be mindful that you’re emphasizing and staying focused on what’s important about your subject and opinion: maintain a sense of exigency.

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