Need Help With a Peotry Essay

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Intro P aragraph vs a B ody P aragraph

The purpose for a n introduction p aragraph is to set up your thesis. Your thesis is the basis for your analysis. A good thesis provides a direction for your analysis. An introduction paragraph does not have to contain any quotes, because it usually isn’t trying to prove/support anything. It merely sets up the thesis that you will prove/support in your body paragraphs. It can contain quotes, if those quotes help set up a thesis. Sometimes a quote or two can serve as anchor or a direction for the overall paragraph. Further, you can sometimes use a quote or two to “frame” an analysis. A good quote that really ties everything together could be presented as part of the set-up in the introduction paragraph, and then re-presented in the conclusion to bring the analysis full-circle. Body paragraphs are different from the intro paragraph , because their purpose is to present and explain evidence that ultimately supports the thesis. When you analyze something, you break it down into its parts in order to understand a deeper meaning. Here’s a way to think about analysis: you wouldn’t buy a used car because it looks clean and shiny would you? I hope not. I hope you would analyze the car by looking under the hood, by listening to the engine, and by feeling the car in a test drive. That’s breaking the car down into individual components in order to discover the hidden issues/advantages of the vehicle—and that is analysis. The analysis of the used car is actually not so different from analyzing a story or a poem—just as you have to interpret the problems with the car based on the evidence, you can interpret meaning in literature, history, art, film, medicine, etc. When analyzing a story/essay/poem, you have to think about the parts. Figuring out a way to take them apart can reveal how the subject (story/poem/essay) functions, or fails to function—it can also give insight into the deeper meaning/ purpose of the story/poem/essay. Analysis can be done on a variety of subjects: tv shows, film, art, literature, a text message, someone’s body language, a sales pitch from a salesman, a psychological profile, an enemy’s tactics, or even when you strategize to cope with situations at work or in life. All of these things have parts. Even when you proofread your paper, you are analyzing it, and it helps to have a sense of the paper’s parts. Papers have parts, too. It might help to think of your paper in its parts : I will continue with the car metapho r—the whole paper is the car. T he thesis is the heart of your a nalysis (it’s like the engine that drives the car). Your intro paragraph sets up you thesis—like the frame of the car that houses and supports the engine and gives shape to the car. Your thesis is the engine itself—it drives the paper. But a thesis, like an engine, is only as good as its parts. T he topic sentences of each of the body paragraph s are the sub-parts (like the systems that make up the engine that drives the car—fuel system, carburetor, etc.). Finally, the individual pieces of evidence ( the quotes and their explanations) in each body paragraph are the smallest p arts (like the individual parts that compose the systems that make up the engine that drives the car). The concluding paragraph of your paper is a usually just a summary of your main points and a reiteration of you intro paragraph—it’s like the suspension. If everything else works and you connect the parts correctly, then the suspension supports your car, and it should run smoothly--your paper should prove your thesis. All of these things have to work together in order for your analysis to run smoothly. BODY PARAGRAPHS support your thesis. Unlike the intro paragraph, a body paragraph must contain a clear topic (main idea) and a minimum of two pieces of evidence to support the topic (main idea). Each body paragraph topic (main idea) must support the thesis (the big idea for the whole paper). In an analytical essay, the minimum number of body paragraphs is three. It is the “meat” of your analysis.

A simple BODY PARAGRAPH must contain the following : 1. A topic sentence (one sentence) 2. Introduction and production of first evidence (this done in a single sentence). 3. Explanation of first evidence 4. Introduction and production of second evidence (single sentence). 5. Explanation of second evidence 6. Conclude the point of paragraph, and transition to next point/paragraph (1-2 sentences) Following this basic structure, a body paragraph will be between 6 and 10 sentences.

Sentences beyond six are normally used to help explain complex ideas. Extra sentences can help pull the evidence together into an overall conclusion (which would wrap up the point) and/or assist in making a transition to the next point (body paragraph) or paragraph (concluding paragraph). Sometimes, extra sentences can help set up your evidence by providing context for the quotes (an example of context is when you might summarize a bit of the story or describe something in the story so the reader understands how the quote appears in relation to action of the story/parts of the poem). Topic sentences should always be one sentence. Introduction and production of evidence (quotes) should always be done in a single sentence. Essentially, this is what I have said in all the handouts. I have tried to express it in different terms here. There are some options and rules that you will only find in the handouts from previous papers. You have to try to organize this stuff in a meaningful and usable way that works for you—sometimes that’s the most important thing you must learn to do.