While we are working on our Writing Workshop, our focus is on developing the ability to express thoughtful understanding about literary passages through written response. Your task is to select your current or previously finished independent reading book and imagine you are writing an essay responding to this prompt: Analyze how the author uses at least two literary devices or stylistic techniques to convey theme to the reader. Then, write an introductory paragraph that would begin this essay. Your introduction must:

• Begin with a hook or lead

  • A Question, Quote, Anecdote, or Statement of Intrigue (QQAS) related to the topic. If you ask a question, answer it; if you use a quote; analyze it; if you use an anecdote or statement of intrigue, explain it.

  • A lead may also establish context for the story by briefly detailing character’s, their motivations, the setting, conflicts, or the setting, but must include only those details necessary to understanding the analysis that will follow.

• A connection between the QQAS (and/or context) and the thesis, using a TAG (title, author, genre) statement (e.g., “Heker’s short story “The Stolen Party” conveys the same ideas…)

• A thesis statement that makes a claim

  • Remember that your thesis must be clear, so it should identify the literary devices the essay will talk about and make a clear theme statement (consider carefully: what theme topics does your novel seem to focus on? What does it say about them?)

Goals are to produce a clear and coherent introductory paragraph that suggests an understanding of how a work’s theme or central idea can be developed by choices made by the author..

Exemplary Work will be grammatically accurate and effectively direct the reader’s attention toward a thesis that logically follows from the introduction that precedes it.