Hi Class,
Here’s what I had on the board today:
The analysis paragraph is much like any other research paragraph. It should begin with a Topic Sentence. Then the writer introduces claims and counterclaims. Finally, the writer interprets and evaluates the evidence on each side.
EXAMPLE:
The motivation and urgency that Silla feels to go it alone and buy a house is complicated by her need for her family’s support. Two instances of this support come in the form of her two daughters. Even though Silla says late in the novel that “people got to make their own way” (224), she relies upon many friends and especially Ina and Selina. Further, Trudier Harris, in “No Outlet for the Blues,” agrees that “[a]lthough the change does come, Silla has difficulty trying to recapture that old self” (66). Indeed, Sill does not want an old self. Instead, she wants a house. But the irony is that she does not want a house, she wants a home; she wants a stable family environment that she makes impossible. While it is possible to say that Silla wants revenge for the family that she never had, it makes more sense to claim that she wants what she never had, what she can’t have, but what she so desperately desires.
Email any questions.
Best,
Prof. Scanlan
