I recommend opening the paper with a paragraph reiterating what the teacher’s question is. The you can break down each aspect of the question into separate sections of the paper. In other words, you write about what you thought of the book, then spend some time on if and how it changed you. You close out the paper with a paragraph that marries the opening paragraph. That is, make sure you bring your points home. If the book changed you then you want to mention that it did. Or if the book was boring you want to mention that it was.

Then print it out and put it aside for about 2 hours. After 2 hours, go back to it and read it out loud. Fix any grammatical mistakes you catch and any sentences that you know need fixing. Trust me, when you read it out loud you’ll find all sorts of places that you can add more information or change things around to make them sound better.

Introduction

–Funny anecdote…like “I always thought this way until I read this book.” Tell a quick story about your life before the book, and a brief statement about the change that you made.

Para. 2-10

–Pick a theme from within the work (the author’s underlying meaning) that relates to your change. You can look up themes for the book, I believe, on Sparksnotes.com. Talk about how the theme is shown in the book. An example of this is, “In the novel, the theme of forgiveness is prevalent throughout. It can be seen in this way, this way, and this way.” Pick a theme that extends between more than two characters. For example, if you are using forgiveness show how person A relates to person B, how person B relates to person D, and how person D is different from all of the others. Try and make each example scenario of the theme at least one paragraph in length. Describe how the themes are woven into the work and how they made you think (this is the reader interaction).

Para. 11-12

Describe how the theme relates to you. Do you agree with the author’s intention? Why or why not? For example, to take the theme of forgiveness a bit farther, say that you think that forgivenss was necessary for certain people, but not others. Or whatever.

Para. 13 (possibly 14)

–Conclude the essay. Restate the themes, how you and the characters relate with them, and conclude by restating your change or what you learned.

Good luck!

Whenever I have to write a paper, I make a list of notes, I then begin writing the body (main ideas) and then go back to write the introduction. I almost always do well on papers. (A)