Performance Indicators: P.S ELA-5 Writing Craft: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.A. Create an effective introduction. B. Use showing details v. telling details. C. Maintain a focus on the main idea throughout the body paragraphs. D. Write an effective conclusion.P.S. ELA-6 Research- based Writing: Compose research- based writing to examine a topic through the selection, organization, analysis, and synthesis of relevant content.A. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources B. Assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience C. Integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and over reliance on any one source D. Follow a standard format for citation (MLA). E. Select and limit an appropriate topic. F. Take notes using a minimum of five sources. G. Prepare an outline and multiple drafts H. Write a works’ cited page. I. Write a strong introduction and conclusion. J. Include precise, effective quotations that directly correspond to the main idea. |
In recent years Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has been recognized as one of the most popular novels in American literature. The objective mind requires evidence in order not to be subdued by sentimentality, so its not only natural, but responsible to wonder why this story has endured. Perhaps the greatest achievement of this novel is the wisdom that is offered page after page through the lens of the young narrator who attempts to make sense of an imperfect society. Subsequently, your research paper will be spurred from the wisdom offered within this story.
Directions: Write a well-organized research paper that includes an introduction, several paragraphs addressing the task, and a conclusion. The paper will require you to select one of the quotes from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird to use as the inspiration for the theme of your paper. The research paper must be at least five double-spaced pages, but should not exceed ten pages.
Once you select a quote you will organize your discussion according to the following guidelines:
1. interpret the quote
2. determine a focus of your discussion that addresses the issue revealed by the passage. Your ability to evaluate, synthesize and analyze is deliberately on display here. The direction that you determine your paper to go will likely be inspired by a legitimate interest in the novel or societal history.
3. consider other literary works and/or developments past or present that can be incorporated into your discussion.
4. Remember that a research paper is driven by the recognition that you are not attempting to prove a point or observation as with other expository writing assignments. A research paper attempts to enlighten the reader about the legitimacy of the identified theme/topic supported by the findings of considered experts. An essay is driven by the opinion of the writer while a research paper is driven by the evidence the writer acquires.
On DAY 12 of the class syllabus you will submit your thesis statement for your research paper to turnitin. Along with the thesis you will submit a copy of your selected quote including the four others that you have considered, the character who expressed each quote, and the theme generated by the passage. You are also required to include an explanation as to why your selected quote is the centerpiece of your research paper.
Essentially your composition is to be driven by a meaningful focus inspired by a similar societal concern expressed To Kill a Mockingbird
A research paper is formulated from these characteristics:
(a) Make observations about something using facts, reasoning, and argument, to satisfy the reader’s need in some detail.
(b) The means of the assignment then is to illustrate something in words or tell about the topic in order to heighten the reader’s awareness.
(c) The writer must evaluate their composition to examine and judge the significance, worth, or condition in order to determine the value to the reader.
Select five quotes from those offered below or from passages that impress you from the novel not presented here. You are to indicate what character expresses the quote, what the event is that inspires the quote, and what topic/theme is embodied from the statement. Finally, select one of the quotes that will serve as the inspiration for your research paper topic.
EXAMPLE:
“There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep ‘em all away from you. That’s never possible.”
Character- Atticus Finch
Event- Atticus attempts to explain to his son about the disappointment of the trial’s outcome.
Theme/Topic- Injustice, too often people are ruled by bias rather than truth.
THE QUOTES:
“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—” “Sir?” “—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
“He turned out the light and went into Jem’s room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.”
“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.”
“Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself.”
“You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change.”
“Best way to clear the air is to have it all out in the open.”
“This time we aren’t fighting the Yankees, we’re fighting our friends. But remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they’re still our friends and this is still our home.”
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
“Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?”
“There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep ‘em all away from you. That’s never possible.”
“But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal- there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution gentlemen, is a court. It can be the Supreme Court of the United States or the humblest JP court in the land, or this honourable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.”
“The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.”
“As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it – whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.”
“How could they do it, how could they?” “I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it—seems that only children weep.”
“It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.”
“So it took an eight-year-old child to bring ‘em to their senses…That proves something – that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they’re still human. Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children.”
“Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.”
“There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them.”
If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time… it’s because he wants to stay inside.
RESEARCH PAPER STANDARDS:
1. The paper is to be 5-7 double-spaced pages composed according to MLA guidelines
2. You are required to use at least five different reference sources. Your reader believes that the original source is the most valid source; track your on-line sources to the original source where the evidence was located from.
3. You are required to use at least fifteen cited parcels of evidence from your selected sources of information. The information does not have to be equally selected from your sources. You will also be required to submit at least fifteen pieces of evidence that likely include quotes, passages, facts, data, etc… This accumulation of evidence will be submitted on a separate document to Turnitin. The portal on Turnitin is labeled: Research Paper Notes Page. You must include the cited source along with the evidence that you will use in the research paper. In recent years the notecards have been modified so that you can present your acquired cited information on one document.
4. A works cited page is mandatory along with a title page although the works cited page and the title page do not count as pages in your research paper.
5. You must use MLA parenthetical citations throughout your paper when you display evidence (direct or paraphrased).
5. The research paper along with the research paper notes are due on DAY 19 of the syllabus.
The links below will be helpful if you require further support with organizing and writing your composition according to MLA standards.
Citation rules
Sample Research Paper
MLA Sample Research Paper