I have attached the body draft you have worked on previously here.

Instructions:

You will be working on turning your body draft for Paper #1 into a final draft. To do this, you will add:

• An Introduction

• A conclusion

• A title

• Works Cited page

Introduction

Here is the structure that I am asking you to use for the introduction.

1. The “hook” or the “grabber” is what you use to make the reader curious about what you have to say. Here are some ideas:

    A. An anecdote. (Keep it short and, of course, to the point.)

    B. A quote. (Please do not use famous-person quotes; they are cliches. Think about internal dialogue or a short quote from a real person.)

    C.  A question or series of questions. (Make sure they actually are thought-provoking. Questions are overused.)

    D. A challenge to the reader. 

    E. An idea you are about to challenge. (“Some people think that A is true, but it is not.”)

    F. A list. (A student once listed everything task she was responsible for growing up. The list was long, but she kept the sentences short.)

2. Background. Give any background necessary to understand what you are writing about. (I hate to even mention this because so many students overdo it. It is rare that a short essay on a general topic even needs it. When you do give background, err on the side of shorter rather than longer.)

3. Transition to your thesis statement. (Sometimes your transition will be a word or phrase at the beginning of your thesis statement. Sometimes it will take a whole sentence.)

4. Your thesis statement, which for a literary paper, should include the name of the author, the type of work, and the title of the work (if you have not mentioned them already). E.g., The miller’s daughter from “The Robber Bridegroom,” of the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collection, is a powerful female role model.

Note: Some instructors suggest that you end with a map or a list of your main points. I do not find it necessary. In a short paper, I find it a distraction. If you choose to include a map, make sure it takes no more than a sentence. Otherwise, you start stealing from the contents in the body, confusing your reader and dulling the impact of your terrific hook.

Conclusion

Approach your conclusion the same way you did your introduction, by thinking of your goal and a cool strategy to meet it. Your goal is to leave your reader with a final gift from you. It should not be a summary. Also, keep it short; do not undermine the coolness of your strategy with rambling to get to page count.

One technique is to think of the introduction and conclusion as bookends, as a set. It is one of the reasons I had you hold off on writing the introduction and conclusion until the end of the paper. Even when I write the introduction first, out of habit, or to get something down on paper, I always go back and rewrite it at the end, when I am ready to write my conclusion.

• If you begin with a question, close with an answer.

• If you begin with the first half of a story, close with the end of the story.

Bookending is not always the answer for your conclusion. There are plenty of other wonderful gifts to give your reader at the end of your paper:

• A great conclusion for any literary paper is the answer to this question: “So what?”. You convinced your reader, now what are they supposed to do or think differently? Should they stop reading fairy tales to their kids? Stop waiting for the prince? Stop hoping for a happy ending? Take the fairy tales more seriously?

• Advice. (Make sure it is specific, useful advice, not cliched inspirational talk.)

• A resolution. (This is the writer deciding, resolving, to follow a new course of action based on the experience of writing the paper.)

• A look to the future. (How could things be different if I followed, or the world followed, what the student was arguing for?)

• A concrete next step. (So, as a result of this, right now I will…)

• An update. (If the events you covered in the paper were in the past, your audience would love to know how everything turned out.)

What should you avoid?:

• Summary, as we have discussed.

• Any version of “But I will leave it all up to you” or “Everyone sees things differently.” I am glad you are open-minded, but you have convinced me of your point of view! Do not make me feel like the change I went through was for nothing.

• Generic inspiration. People are especially tempted to do this when they write about hard things they have been through. It really undermines the power of the story to say, “But I guess everything was meant to be” or “What does not break us makes us stronger.” Respect your story!

Works Cited

Use the citations provide below only:

Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. “Bearskin.” Pinkmonkey.com,       pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/story012.pdf. 

Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. “Rumpelstiltskin.”                         Pinkmonkey.com, pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/story012.pdf.