Your paper will compare and contrast three stories you read in this unit. First, choose three selections from these stories you read:
Raymond’s Run
Abuela Invents the Zero
The People Could Fly
Tom Sawyer
Born Worker
The purpose of your essay will be to answer the questions: -How do these three stories answer the Essential Knowledge Question? Are their answers similar or different from one another?-
The introduction of your paper should begin the discussion by telling your reader what the Essential Knowledge Question is.
Think about these questions as you write your introduction:
What does the Essential Knowledge Question mean?
Why might different people answer the question differently?
How can a story have an answer to a question like this one?
The Applications you wrote on these stories will become the rough drafts of your body paragraphs. You have already thought about how the characters and the writer might answer the Essential Knowledge Question and gathered quotes from the stories to help support your answer. However, you cannot just copy these paragraphs into your paper as they are.
Here is what you need to do with them first:
Add transitions. How does this paragraph fit with the one before and after it in your paper?
Review your teacher’s feedback on your previous assignments. Did your teacher recommend that you make changes?
Focus it. Choose only the best parts of your previous assignments in this unit. Your paper might focus on only characters or only writers. What pieces fit best into your paper?
Add more support. Try to add at least one more quote to support your thoughts.
Relate it to the other stories. In what significant ways is this story’s answer similar to or different from the others you will discuss?
Your conclusion will be more personal. What is your answer to the Essential Knowledge Question? Why is this question still important for you today?
This essay should be between 400-600 words in length.
