Pacing
Writing Learning Goals:
Analyze how pacing determines what the reader knows and learns
Determine effective essay pacing
Apply effective essay pacing
Analyze how pacing determines what the reader knows and learns
Determine effective essay pacing
Apply effective essay pacing
Pacing is saying the thing that needs to be said exactly how it needs to be said, clearly and concisely. In other words, not any rambling, summary, repetitive bits, but also with enough detail that the reader understand exactly what you mean.
In American Experience, we're going to write argumentative essays. Pacing is important to convince the reader of your thesis or claim - you want to explain clearly and fully, but not ramble, repeat yourself, or include extra information that doesn't really matter. We learn paragraph structure to make sure that we have all the parts of the paragraph that help the reader believe our thesis or claim.
In American Experience, we're going to write argumentative essays. Pacing is important to convince the reader of your thesis or claim - you want to explain clearly and fully, but not ramble, repeat yourself, or include extra information that doesn't really matter. We learn paragraph structure to make sure that we have all the parts of the paragraph that help the reader believe our thesis or claim.
Guide to Effective Pacing in American Experience:
1. Have a strong thesis or claim. Your thesis or claim is your opinion or conclusion about the text. Use precise language. Be specific. It is better to have a specific, narrow thesis rather than a broad and vague thesis.
Examples of strong theses:
"Hawthorne encourages readers to be themselves by contrasting the forest and civilization by using Pearl’s innocence, Hester’s change of attitude and the joy Dimmesdale finds in the shadowy vegetation."
"Hawthorn manipulates sunshine to tell the reader don’t try to hide the truth, always be the person that is inside by showing who the characters really are, how they are perceived, and how they change. "
"In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses nature to compare a person’s perception on the light and dark contrasts throughout the town, the forest, and in people."
Make sure your thesis answers the question that Ms. Ringelspaugh or Mr. Palmer are asking you.
Always have Mr. Palmer or Ms. Ringelspaugh check your thesis before moving on to the next steps. That does not mean that they won't ask you to revise, clarify, strengthen or tighten your thesis later, after they've seen more of your paper. But checking your thesis with Ringelspaugh or Palmer first makes sure you're heading in the right direction, answering the question, and that you've narrowed your topic sufficiently.
2. Use specific evidence. When writing about literature, take quotes from the novel or short story to use as evidence of your conclusions. When writing about history, take quotes or facts from the best primary sources you can find.
Remember that a quote can be any set of words that you copy directly from the text. It does not have to be dialogue. Quotation marks around dialogue in a novel indicate that somebody said that. Quotation marks around evidence in your essay work the same way; they indicate that somebody said that--the author of the novel.
If you take a quote that was dialogue, then you have special rules to indicate that quote was dialogue. Use double quotation marks around the quote, then single quotation marks around the dialogue.
Example: "Ms. Ringelspaugh said, 'If you don't leave this room right now, I'll scream,'"
Notice the single quotation marks around the dialogue and the double quotation marks around the whole quote. On the end, the quote ends where the dialogue ends, so the double and single quotation marks are right next to each other.
For essay in American Experience, you want a minimum of three quotes per idea or prong. Minimum. Four, five, six, seven quotes are better. Use enough evidence to leave no holes in your argument. Use enough evidence that you prove that your conclusion is right. Use enough evidence to leave the reader with no questions left because you've already answered them all.
3. Organize your essay. Have two, three, four, or more major section to your essay. Write strong topic sentences that organize your evidence and help you prove your overall thesis. Categorize your evidence into these major sections.
4. Use paragraph structure.
Topic sentence: What you're proving in this paragraph or section of your essay.
Introduction to evidence:
When writing about fiction: One sentence of plot to cue your reader about what you're talking about or where you are in the story. You don't want to summarize the plot here, you don't need to go one for multiple sentences. Just one cue to let the reader know what you're talking about in your evidence.
Some questions to answer in your introduction to evidence when you're writing about fiction:
--Who is speaking?
--Who are they speaking to?
--Why are they speaking? To whom or what are they responding?
--What major event just happened or is coming up next?
--What literary element is the author using here?
When writing about history: One or two sentences of source information. Show the reader that this is a valid source. Discuss the reason's its a valid source and, perhaps, any limitations to the source.
Questions to answer in your introduction to evidence when writing about history:
--What is this?
--What source is this from?/Who is speaking?
--What is this source responding to or commenting on?/What is this speaker responding to or commenting on?
--When was this source created? Why was this source created?
--What are the limitations of this source? What are the flaws or downfalls of this source?
Evidence: Those quotes or specific facts or stories from primary document evidence.
Comment: This is your analysis and the largest section of your essay. Here, you explain how your evidence proves both that topic sentence and your overall thesis. This section is multiple sentences. Go into detail. Explain your thought process and how you made that conclusion. Explain every nuance of your conclusion. Explain, explain, explain. Comment on the validity or importance of that evidence. Tell what that evidence means or what inferences you can make from that evidence. Write lots here!
Questions to answer in your comments:
--What does this document/evidence tell me?
--How does this piece of evidence prove my thesis?
--What challenges does this document suggest?
--What will this evidence impact? What will happen because of this evidence?
--How would a different reader/thinker conclude differently? Why are you right and they are wrong?
--How is this document/evidence similar to other documents/evidence?
--How does this evidence work with other pieces of evidence? What additional information does it add? What do you know from them together that you don't know from them individually or separately?
--Why should we pay attention to this evidence?
Conclusion: Add once sentence of conclusion onto the end of your paragraph to end strongly and firmly.
5. Remember not to use personal pronouns. Even though the thesis is your opinion, write like this is the obvious truth to everyone, not just to you. Instead of saying, "I think that Hester is the devil," just say, "Hester is the devil." Cut the "I think" off the front.
Personal pronouns include: I, me, you, we, us
6. Check the rubric. The writing rubrics and the analysis rubrics are posted on this very website and you'll receive a hard copy in class on Monday. For this essay, we'll use the Thesis, Evidence, and Pacing and Analysis of Literary Text or Synthesis of Literature and Historical Time Period rubrics.
7. Use MLA formatting. We use MLA formatting to prevent plagiarism, give credit to our sources, provide structure to our writing, and familiarize you with it before you hit college and you have to do it all the time. Check the MLA formatting page to learn more.
Have fun writing!
Examples of strong theses:
"Hawthorne encourages readers to be themselves by contrasting the forest and civilization by using Pearl’s innocence, Hester’s change of attitude and the joy Dimmesdale finds in the shadowy vegetation."
"Hawthorn manipulates sunshine to tell the reader don’t try to hide the truth, always be the person that is inside by showing who the characters really are, how they are perceived, and how they change. "
"In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses nature to compare a person’s perception on the light and dark contrasts throughout the town, the forest, and in people."
Make sure your thesis answers the question that Ms. Ringelspaugh or Mr. Palmer are asking you.
Always have Mr. Palmer or Ms. Ringelspaugh check your thesis before moving on to the next steps. That does not mean that they won't ask you to revise, clarify, strengthen or tighten your thesis later, after they've seen more of your paper. But checking your thesis with Ringelspaugh or Palmer first makes sure you're heading in the right direction, answering the question, and that you've narrowed your topic sufficiently.
2. Use specific evidence. When writing about literature, take quotes from the novel or short story to use as evidence of your conclusions. When writing about history, take quotes or facts from the best primary sources you can find.
Remember that a quote can be any set of words that you copy directly from the text. It does not have to be dialogue. Quotation marks around dialogue in a novel indicate that somebody said that. Quotation marks around evidence in your essay work the same way; they indicate that somebody said that--the author of the novel.
If you take a quote that was dialogue, then you have special rules to indicate that quote was dialogue. Use double quotation marks around the quote, then single quotation marks around the dialogue.
Example: "Ms. Ringelspaugh said, 'If you don't leave this room right now, I'll scream,'"
Notice the single quotation marks around the dialogue and the double quotation marks around the whole quote. On the end, the quote ends where the dialogue ends, so the double and single quotation marks are right next to each other.
For essay in American Experience, you want a minimum of three quotes per idea or prong. Minimum. Four, five, six, seven quotes are better. Use enough evidence to leave no holes in your argument. Use enough evidence that you prove that your conclusion is right. Use enough evidence to leave the reader with no questions left because you've already answered them all.
3. Organize your essay. Have two, three, four, or more major section to your essay. Write strong topic sentences that organize your evidence and help you prove your overall thesis. Categorize your evidence into these major sections.
4. Use paragraph structure.
Topic sentence: What you're proving in this paragraph or section of your essay.
Introduction to evidence:
When writing about fiction: One sentence of plot to cue your reader about what you're talking about or where you are in the story. You don't want to summarize the plot here, you don't need to go one for multiple sentences. Just one cue to let the reader know what you're talking about in your evidence.
Some questions to answer in your introduction to evidence when you're writing about fiction:
--Who is speaking?
--Who are they speaking to?
--Why are they speaking? To whom or what are they responding?
--What major event just happened or is coming up next?
--What literary element is the author using here?
When writing about history: One or two sentences of source information. Show the reader that this is a valid source. Discuss the reason's its a valid source and, perhaps, any limitations to the source.
Questions to answer in your introduction to evidence when writing about history:
--What is this?
--What source is this from?/Who is speaking?
--What is this source responding to or commenting on?/What is this speaker responding to or commenting on?
--When was this source created? Why was this source created?
--What are the limitations of this source? What are the flaws or downfalls of this source?
Evidence: Those quotes or specific facts or stories from primary document evidence.
Comment: This is your analysis and the largest section of your essay. Here, you explain how your evidence proves both that topic sentence and your overall thesis. This section is multiple sentences. Go into detail. Explain your thought process and how you made that conclusion. Explain every nuance of your conclusion. Explain, explain, explain. Comment on the validity or importance of that evidence. Tell what that evidence means or what inferences you can make from that evidence. Write lots here!
Questions to answer in your comments:
--What does this document/evidence tell me?
--How does this piece of evidence prove my thesis?
--What challenges does this document suggest?
--What will this evidence impact? What will happen because of this evidence?
--How would a different reader/thinker conclude differently? Why are you right and they are wrong?
--How is this document/evidence similar to other documents/evidence?
--How does this evidence work with other pieces of evidence? What additional information does it add? What do you know from them together that you don't know from them individually or separately?
--Why should we pay attention to this evidence?
Conclusion: Add once sentence of conclusion onto the end of your paragraph to end strongly and firmly.
5. Remember not to use personal pronouns. Even though the thesis is your opinion, write like this is the obvious truth to everyone, not just to you. Instead of saying, "I think that Hester is the devil," just say, "Hester is the devil." Cut the "I think" off the front.
Personal pronouns include: I, me, you, we, us
6. Check the rubric. The writing rubrics and the analysis rubrics are posted on this very website and you'll receive a hard copy in class on Monday. For this essay, we'll use the Thesis, Evidence, and Pacing and Analysis of Literary Text or Synthesis of Literature and Historical Time Period rubrics.
7. Use MLA formatting. We use MLA formatting to prevent plagiarism, give credit to our sources, provide structure to our writing, and familiarize you with it before you hit college and you have to do it all the time. Check the MLA formatting page to learn more.
Have fun writing!
