You should have a strong first draft now. Next steps:
1. Make sure that you have indeed proven your thesis.
2. Make sure that everything you discuss in the body of the essay is revealed in the introduction. Revise the introduction to match the body paragraphs.
3. Check that all body paragraphs have strong conclusions.
4. Check that all body paragraphs refer at some point to the overall thesis. Make connections to your thesis throughout the essay. Don't make the reader guess at these connections. Spell them out.
5. Finally, check for diction. Revise sentences--vary sentence length, type and beginnings.
6. Use strong verbs: emphasize, illuminate, depict, portray, exemplify, elucidate, Cut THere is, This is etc by re-writing the sentences.
Deadlines:
Bring a typed, double spaced, edited copy of your essay to class THURSDAY for peer editing. Don't arrive and ask to print it. Arrive with it printed. Marks awarded for arriving with the essay. Marks awarded for peer editing as well.
Wed. class: Review of the Renaissance unit for next Tuesday's unit test. Unit test consists of 15 multiple choice questions on the core list, plus a sight poem para. and a Lear passage paragraph analysis.
Thurs: March 8: Peer Editing
Friday: March 9 Renaissance Review
Tuesday: March 13 Arrive with your typed essay and your quote log.
Thursday; March 15 Lear notebooks are due. We will be choosing novels to read for our bookclub so DO NOT MISS THIS CLASS. IF YOU ARE LEAVING EARLY, SEE ME TO CHOOSE A NOVEL. I suggest you read the novel during spring break (if possible) so that you will not be so pressed for time when you return.
Novel choices:
Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte (1847) Jane Eyre synopsis
Tess of the d'Ubervilles Thomas Hardy (1891) Tess synopsis
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte (1847) Wuthering Synopsis
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen (1813) Pride and Prejudice synopsis
Great Expectations Charles Dickens (1860) Great Expectations synopsis
1984 George Orwell (1948) 1984 synopsis
The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood (1985) The Handmaid's Tale synopsis
