Using the Jane Schaffer Writing Program

10 Easy Steps to writing a paragraph

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Writin’ Rita

Created by Deanna Pratt

Hi, my name is Writin’ Rita. I’ll guide you along the writing process andwill answer any questions you have.

Anytime you see an underlined word, you can click on it to view the definition, synonyms, or more information.

Think you missed something? Still a little confused?At any time you can hit the left arrow key to take you back to a previous slide.

Why are you writing?

The purpose of writing a literary response paragraph is to develop an argument and to support it with evidence from the story, play, poem, or article.

In other words, you will form an opinion about the story and use details from the text to prove your point.

Don’t worry; it’s easy!

Step 1: Know what you are writing about?

Let’s Begin: We’ll start with an easy one. Let’s use the story of Cinderella. Click on the word Cinderella to read the story.

Writing Prompt: Write a 2 chunk paragraph analyzing why Cinderella is so sad in the beginning of the fairytale.

Step 1: Know what you are writing about

When we first begin writing we need to think of three very important questions:

1. What format will I be using?

2. Who is my audience?

3. What am I being asked to write about?

Slow Down!I bet you thought we would begin

writing immediately.

We have to think about the writing prompt so we know what we are

being asked to do.

The prompt tells us to write a 2 Chunk ParagraphClick here to learn about 2 Chunk Paragraphs

What is a 2 Chunk Paragraph?

Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated by her wicked stepmother. It depresses poor Cinderella to know her stepmother ignores her needs. She is not allowed “to have nice rests and comforts,” like a fine room or a comfortable bed. Cinderella knows her stepmother has abandoned her and does not care about her well being. Cinderella’s sadness is also caused when her stepmother abuses her, treating her unfairly. She is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps,” while her stepsisters enjoy divine meals. She feels discarded by her stepmother because she does not treat her as an equal to her sisters. The stepmother’s rejection of Cinderella causes her sadness.

Chunk 1 1. commentary sentence

(CM) that sets up the example.

2. fact from the text (CD)3. Another commentary sentence that

continues to analyze the example (CD).

Chunk 2 This chunk of info explains that her

stepmother mistreats her by denying her the same luxuries as her sisters.

Contains 2 CMs and 1 CD

Topic Sentence

Concluding Sentence

This is 1 CHUNK of information that explains

one of the reasons Cinderella feels mistreated

by her stepmother and stepsisters. In this chunk

we know she is sad because she is not being

taken care of.

Writing Prompt: Write a 2 chunk paragraph analyzing why Cinderella is so sad in the beginning of the fairytale.

Step 1: Know what you are writing about

When we first begin writing we need to think of three very important questions:

1. What format will I be using?

2. Who is my audience?

3. What am I being asked to write about?

We know we are going to prove Cinderella is sad throughout the fairytale, but we still need to develop an argument that states why she is so sad. We need to complete the following statement:Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because___________.

The prompt tells us to write a 2 Chunk ParagraphClick here to learn about 2 Chunk Paragraphs

This is a literary response paragraph for school, so we will use 3rd person formal language. We will NOT use I, me, you, your, my, mineWe will NOT use cuz, b/c, w/o, gonna, stuff, or things.

CD (concrete detail)

Information from the story on the surface

* the “what * facts

* examples * evidence * support * plot references * paraphrases * citations/quotes * plot summary * what the play-by-

play announcer would say

1CD: 2CM

Writing Prompt: Write a 2 chunk paragraph analyzing why Cinderella is so sad in the beginning of the fairytale.

We need to complete the following statement:Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because___________.

CDs What happens in the story?

What does the character do?

Always write CDs in red. This

makes them easy to identify.

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

She is not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

Step 2: Begin by brainstorming possible CDs a. Use the chart to the left to learn about concrete details (CDs). b. Use the T-Chart below to list some concrete details (CDs) from the story

when Cinderella feels sad.

Step 3: Narrow down CDs

T-Chart Prompt: Why does Cinderella feel so sad in the beginning of the fairytale?

CDs CMs (concrete details) (commentary) What happens in the story? The character feels _____ What does the character do? on the inside.

CD (concrete detail)

Information from the story on the surface

the “what facts examples evidence

support plot references paraphrases

citations/quotes plot summary * what the play-by-

play announcer would say

1CD: 2CM

She is not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

Since we are writing a 2-chunk paragraph we will need to have

2CDs, or 2 examples, in our paragraph.

Click on the 2 CDs that have the most in common with each

other.

Great Job! The first 2 CDs do have something in common. They are both related to the way Cinderella is treated by

her stepmother and wicked stepsisters. While the 3rd CD is a fact from the story, it isn’t related to the way her family treats her. We will use CD1 and CD2 as our two examples in our paragraph.

Let’s plug them into our outline before we forget!

2 Chunk Paragraph Outline

Topic Sentence:

CM CD 1 CM

CM CD 2 CM

Concluding Sentence:

She was not allowed “to have nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

Step 4: Brainstorm CMs

T-Chart Prompt: Why does Cinderella feel so sad in the beginning of the fairytale?

CDs CMs (concrete details) (commentary) What happens in the story? The character feels _____ What does the character do? on the inside.

She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.” Now we need to figure out what they

have in common. Their main similarity will be our main argument.

What do the first and second CD have in common?.

CMs will answer the question: The character feels ____

on the inside. Learn more from the CM chart to the right.

CM (commentary)

Information from your head

The stuff under the surface

Words with feelings that can be described.

The ‘so what?” why is it important? analysis interpretation evaluation significance of event a character’s feelings why did ____ do that?

•what the color commentator would say

1CD: 2CM

Mistreated

Neglected

Ill-treated

Deserted

Abandoned

CD1

CD2

T-Chart Prompt: Why does Cinderella feel so sad in the beginning of the fairytale?

CDs CMs (concrete details) (commentary) What happens in the story? The character feels _____ What does the character do? on the inside.

She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

CM (commentary)

Information from your head under the surface

Words with feelings that can be described.

The ‘so what?” why is it important?

analysis interpretation evaluation

significance of event a character’s feelings

why did ____ do that?

•what the color commentator would

say1CD: 2CM

Mistreated

Neglected

Ill-treated

Deserted

Abandoned

CD1

CD2

Great job! Cinderella feels sad because she is mistreated, neglected, ill-treated, deserted, and abandoned. She feels this way because she is not

allowed to have “nice rests and comforts,” and because she is given

“no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

See the difference between CDs and CMs?

CDs CMs (concrete details) (commentary) What happens in the story? The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside.

She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

Mistreated

Neglected

Ill-treated

Deserted

Abandoned

CD1

CD2

These are facts from the story.

They are events that actually take

place.

This is information from

your head. The stuff under

the surface.

Words with feelings that can

be described.

Step 4: Time to organize our CMs

CDs CMs (concrete details) (commentary) What happens in the story? The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside.

She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

Mistreated

Neglected

Ill-treated

Deserted

Abandoned

CD1

CD2

Remember, our main goal is to complete the statement:Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale

because_________. This sentence will be our main argument, or topic sentence.

It will be the statement that we will prove throughout the paragraph.

Step 5: Time to organize our CMs

CDs CMs (concrete details) (commentary) What happens in the story? The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside.

She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

Mistreated

Neglected

Ill-treated

Deserted

Abandoned

CD1

CD2

Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the paragraph because ______________.

To complete this statement, choose the CM that is the biggest idea. In other words, which CM encompasses all of

the other words?Let me show you what I mean.

Being neglected, ill-treated,

deserted, and abandoned are all examples of

being mistreated. Being mistreated

is the biggest idea.

Step 5: Time to organize our CMs CDs CMs

(concrete details) (commentary) What happens in the story? The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside.

She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

Mistreated

Neglected

Ill-treated

Deserted

Abandoned

CD1

CD2

Now we can complete the statement:Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated by her

wicked stepmother.

Hooray! We just wrote our topic sentence. Let’s plug this sentence into our outline and

learn a little more about topic sentences.

Being neglected, ill-treated,

deserted, and abandoned are all examples of

being mistreated.

Being mistreated is the biggest

idea.

Topic Sentence

1st sentence of the paragraph

Sentence that states what you will

be proving

* The argument

* An opinion

*arguable statement

* Sentence that takes a side

* Controls the content of the paragraph

1/paragraph

Not sure what a topic sentence is?

Read the blue chart to learn more.

Always write your topic sentence in

blue. This makes it easy to identify.

Step 6: Write Topic Sentence

Topic Sentence

1st sentence of the paragraph

Sentence that states what you will be

proving

* The argument

* opinion

* arguable statement

* Sentence that takes a side

* Controls the content of the paragraph

1/paragraph

Good Topic Sentences

1. a SPECIFIC argument.

This topic sentence offers a SPECIFIC reason Cinderella is sad in the beginning of the fairytale. The entire paragraph will prove that being mistreated by her familyis the reason she is so sad is

Good example:

Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated by her wicked stepmother

and stepsisters.

Topic Sentences MUST have:

2. ONE argument

This topic sentence offers ONE main argument. We will only be proving Cinderella is sad because she is mistreated.

Topic Sentence

1st sentence of the paragraph

Sentence that states what you will be

proving

* The argument

* opinion

* arguable statement

* Sentence that takes a side

* Controls the content of the paragraph

1/paragraph

Bad Topic Sentences

Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated, abandoned, and neglected.

Uh Oh! There are 3 arguments in this sentence. Can you find all 3?

Having more than one argument in a paragraph makes your paragraph vague and less focused.

You are a much better writer than this!

Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale.

So what? This topic sentence does not have a specificargument. We know Cinderella is sad, but it does not offer one SPECIFIC reason for her sadness. This paragraph doesnot have an argument to prove.

Paragraphs that lack a SPECIFIC argument in the topic sentence will not have focused examples. After all, how can you choose relevant

examples if you don’t know what you are trying to prove?

Too Much!!

Too Little!!

2 Chunk Paragraph Outline

Topic Sentence:

CM CD 1 CM

CM CD 2 CM

Concluding Sentence:

Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytalebecause she is mistreated by her stepmother

and wicked stepsisters.

She was not allowed “to have nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

Step 5: Still organizing our CMs

CDs CMs (concrete details) (commentary) What happens in the story? The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside.

She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

Mistreated

Neglected

Ill-treated

Deserted

Abandoned

CD1

CD2

Topic Sent.

Chunk 1 CM

Now we need to match a CM (commentary) with CD1 (concrete detail)

Which adjective best describes how Cinderella feels when she is not allowed to

have “nice rests and comforts?”I’ll do the first one for you.

Step 5: Still organizing our CMs

CDs CMs (concrete details) (commentary) What happens in the story? The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside.

She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

Mistreated

Neglected

Ill-treated

Deserted

Abandoned

CD1

CD2

Topic Sent.

These are good words, but wewill not need them in this paragraph.

Chunk 1 CM

Chunk 2 CM

Now we need to match a CM (commentary) with CD2 (concrete detail)

Which adjective best describes how Cinderella feels when she is given “no lovely

dishes, nothing but scraps”?

Excellent! Cinderella feels deserted by her

stepmother when she is not given the

same wonderful food her stepsisters are allowed to have.

Writin’ Rita

Mistreated

Step 7: Web Off the Word for Commentary Sentences

This WOW chart (Web Off the Word) will help

us with our commentary (CM), or analysis. This is usually the hardest

part for new writers, but this chart makes it a

piece of cake!

We already know our main argument. We are proving that Cinderella is sad because she is

mistreated. We will write mistreated

in the center circle.

Mistreated

Chunk 2 CM: Neglected

Chunk 1 CM: Deserted

Step 7: Web Off the Word for Commentary Sentences

We also already know our CM Chunk 1 and CM Chunk 2 because we labeled them on the T-Chart.Click here to review the T-Chart

Using the same words over and over again

can get boring.Let’s think of

synonyms, or words that have the same

meaning as Chunk 1 CM and Chunk 2 CM

ignored

discardedabused

abandoned

Mistreated

Chunk 2 CM: Neglected

Chunk 1 CM: Deserted

She knows her stepmother has

abandoned her and does not care about

her well being.

Cinderella’s stepmother abuses

Cinderella by treating her unfairly.

It saddens Cinderella to know her stepmother ignores her needs.

She feels discarded by her because she does not treat her as

an equal.

Step 8: Write your commentary

abandoned

abused discarded

ignored

Now write 2 sentences

explaining what it means for

Cinderella to feel deserted. Let me show you what I

mean…

See, we used various words to add variety to our word

choice.

View T-Chart Review

Now write 2 sentences of your

own explaining what it means for Cinderella to feel neglected. Click

on the empty clouds when you

are finished.

2 Chunk Paragraph Outline

Topic Sentence:

CM CD 1 CM

CM CD 2 CM

Concluding Sentence:

Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytalebecause she is mistreated by her stepmother

and wicked stepsisters.

She is not allowed “to have nice rests and comforts.”

She is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

Cinderella feels her stepmother and stepsister ignore her and her needs.

She feels discarded by them because they do not treat her as an equal.

Cinderella’s stepmother abuses Cinderella by treating her unfairly.

She knows her stepmother has abandoned her and does not care about her well being.

Mistreated

Step 9: Web Off the Word for the Concluding Sentence

Ill-treatedNeglected

DesertedRejected

Concluding Sentence

Last sentence of the paragraph

Sentence that wraps up the argument you proved.

1/ paragraph

Concluding sentences need to repeat the argument in the topic sentence without repeating it word for word. Use the web to brainstorm some synonyms. You can use some of the words we

thought of earlier.

Cinderella feels sad in the beginning of the fairytale because she is mistreated by her wicked stepmother. It depresses poor Cinderella to know her stepmother ignores her needs. She is not allowed “to have nice rests and comforts,” like a fine room or a comfortable bed. Cinderella knows her stepmother has abandoned her and does not care about her well being. Cinderella’s sadness is also caused when her stepmother abuses her, treating her unfairly. She is given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps,” while her stepsisters enjoy divine meals. She feels discarded by her stepmother because she does not treat her as an equal to her sisters. The stepmother’s rejection of Cinderella causes her sadness.

Step 10 : Pull it all together

Let’s review the steps we took to complete this paragraphYou can use this list when you are writing your own paragraphs.

Step 1: Know what you are writing about You must be familiar with the content before you can form an educated opinion. You must understand the writing prompt.

What is it asking you to write about? Who is your audience? What is your purpose?

Step 2: Brainstorm possible CDs Think of facts from the story that are related to the writing prompt. List them on the left side of the T-Chart in red ink.

Step 3: Narrow down CDs For a 2 chunk paragraph, choose 2 CDs that have a something in common. Label CD1 and CD2 in red ink on your T-ChartEliminate all CDs that are not related.

Step 4: Brainstorm possible CMs List all words that relate to the way the character feels about the CDs (events from the story) that you listed on the T-Chart. List these adjectives on the right side of the T-chart in green ink

Step 5: Organize CMs Choose the CM that is the biggest idea (the adjective that encompasses the other words). Label this TS, for topic sent Choose a CM that best describes each CD. Label the first: Chunk 1 CM and label the second: Chunk 2 CM.

Step 6: Write topic sentence Write a arguable sentence answering the writing prompt that includes the CM you chose to use as the argument for the topic sentence Label this in blue ink on your outline.

Step 7: Main CM Web Off the Word Write your main CM (the adjective you used in the topic sentence) in the center circle of the WOW chart. Brainstorm four synonyms for the word. Use these words when you are writing your commentary sentences.

Step 8: CM Sentences Write Chunk 1 CM and Chunk 2 CM in the rectangles on the WOW chart Use the 4 synonyms from the center circle to write 4 sentences that comment, or analyze, CD1 and CD2 Label these sentences in green ink on your outline.

Step 9: Web Off the Word for Concluding Sentence Brainstorm synonyms for the argument in your topic sentence. Write a concluding sentence that wraps up your paragraph and restates your argument without repeating the topic sentence word for word.

Step 10: Put it all together Follow your outline when writing your paragraph.

Important Terms Review

Topic Sentence

1st sentence of the paragraph

Sentence that states what you will

be proving

The argument

opinion

arguable statement

Sentence that takes a side

1/paragraph

CD (concrete detail)

Information from the story on the

surface

the “what facts examples evidence

support plot references paraphrases citations/quotes

plot summary * what the play-by-

play announcer would say

1CD: 2CM

CM (commentary)

Information from your head

Words with feelings that can

be described

The ‘so what?” why is it important?

analysis interpretation evaluation

significance of event a character’s feelings

why did ____ do that?

•what the color commentator would say

1CD: 2CM

Concluding Sentence

Last sentence of the paragraph

Sentence that wraps up the argument you

proved

1/ paragraph

Writin’ Rita

T-Chart Review

CDs CMs (concrete details) (commentary) What happens in the story? The character feels ___ What does the character do? on the inside.

She was not allowed to have “nice rests and comforts.”

She was given “no lovely dishes, nothing but scraps.”

At midnight “she slipped from the Prince’s arms and ran down the steps.”

Mistreated

Neglected

Ill-treated

Deserted

Abandoned

CD1

CD2

Topic Sent.

These are good words, but wewill not need them in this paragraph.

Chunk 1 CM

Chunk 2 CM

Back to Web Off the Word