Revise rough draft

1. Topic Sentence (1-2 sentences)

a. Include ideas or key terms from both texts, if applicable (depending on the prompt).

b. Tie the main idea of the paragraph to the prompt and its key terms (and therefore to your thesis statement).

c. Transition between paragraphs, indicating how one body paragraph relates to and builds upon the one that came before it.

2. Text 1 | Quotation(s)

a. Introduce and cite (using MLA format) the quotation you will be working with from Text 1.

i. Do this very soon after the topic sentence.

b. Provide context.

i. Fill your readers in on what they need to know in order to make sense of the quotation and the connection you will be making with it.

ii. Note that you may need to bring in additional quotations (or “snippets” of quotations) to fill the reader in, for example, on a key term or idea that is used in the quotation.

c. Close Read, Analyze, Interpret.

i. Make sure the sentences immediately following a quotation work with that quotation. In other words, rather than generalizing or moving onto the next idea, be sure that the very first sentence(s) after a quotation refer back to the quotation to explore what particular words, phrases, or images suggest, imply, reveal, or emphasize about the question of the prompt or issues that arise from it.  

d. Explain how the work you have performed with the quotation ties into your argument and, therefore, relates back to the prompt and/or its key terms.

3. Text 2 |Quotation(s)

a. Transition to Text 2 by indicating the relationship you are establishing between the two texts.

b. Introduce and cite a quotation from Text 2.

i. Make sure this quotation pairs well with the quotation(s) from Text 1.

1. There should be a direct connection between the quotations from the two texts, a connection that is based, for example, on similar ideas or key terms, or that is based on applying key terms or ideas from Text 1 to an example or a “new” context presented in Text 2. In other words, select quotations that will enable you, for example, to use words and phrases from one text to help you discuss and interpret the other text.

c. Provide context.

i. Fill your readers in on what they need to know in order to make sense of the quotation and the connection you will be making with it.

ii. You may need to bring in additional quotations (or “snippets” of quotations) to fill the reader in, for example, on a key term or idea that is used in the quotation.

d. Close Read, Analyze, Interpret.

i. Make sure the sentences immediately following a quotation work with that quotation. In other words, rather than generalizing or moving onto the next idea, be sure that the very first sentence(s) after a quotation refer back to the quotation to explore what particular words, phrases, or images suggest, imply, reveal, or emphasize about the question of the prompt or issues that arise from it.  

4. Connection I

a. Explain the connection that you are making between the two texts.

i. Assume that this connection is not obvious to your reader, whom you assume has not read either text.

b. Synthesize the two texts.

i. For example, use “unpacked” language from Text 1 to help you discuss Text 2. Spatially, what this means is that words or phrases from the first quotation you set up will reappear in the second half of your body paragraph as you discuss the quotation from the second text.

5. Connection II

a. Explain how the connection you have made between the texts/quotations ties back into your argument/thesis statement and, therefore, to the question of the prompt and its key terms.