Essay Planner
J.P. McKenna
Your Name
Mr. McKenna
Teacher Name
English Literature 10
Day Month
Year
27 January
2016
Class
Date
The Battle 0f Chancellorsville was a good resource for
Stephen Crane’s novel, The Red Badge of Courage.
Title: For the title, write down what you are trying to prove. (In other words, what is
the point of the essay?) Make sure that it is a statement and NOT a question.
In The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane wanted to present the reader with an
accurate representation of what it was like to fight in the American Civil War. He used
the Battle of Chancellorsville as the backdrop for his novel because the nuances of the
battle suited the development of his story. In other words, he had an idea of what
events he wanted his characters to go through, and the Battle of Chancellorsville
conformed to these events perfectly.
Introduction: This is the first paragraph of your essay.
1 - With your first sentence, re-state your title, adding more detail to it. For example,
explain why your point is a valid one.
After that, you can include several different items depending on what you feel is
important, such as:
- You can talk about the history of the topic. (Be basic, do not over-explain)
- You can bring up why what you are demonstrating is important.
- You can bring up the opposing position. (But be SURE to PROVE why the opposing
argument is incorrect, do not bring it up for the sake of adding more text.)
Next, you MUST summarize HOW you are going to prove your point. You should
have 2 or more arguments depending on the size of your essay.
Argument 1: The events in the battle conformed to Crane’s plans for the main
character.
Argument 2: Since Crane wanted the focus of the battle to be non-partisan, he chose
a battle that did not have a major political or social significance that
would take away from his focus.
Argument 3: Chancellorsville was a heavily wooded battlefield. This assists Crane’s
narration, as he wanted to emphasize how lost and confused everyone
was.
Arguments Note: Try to have an organization to your arguments. There are several
orders you can use such as: Ascending or descending in order of importance, if there
is a timeline, you can list them in the order which they appear, etc.
If you are doing a Pro vs. Con essay, you can either review all of the Pros and then go
into the Cons (or vice versa) or you can address the Pros and Cons of each issue you
are covering, one at a time.
BODY: In the Body of your paper, you will address each argument and establish
proofs of why the point of view you are expressing is the correct one. Each argument
should be supported by 2 to 3 pieces of evidence
Argument 1
The events in the battle conformed to Crane’s plans for the main
character.
Evidence 1 In the novel, Crane wanted to include a scene with the main
character running away, and another scene later on, where Henry
aggressively fights against the enemy. The long duration of
Chancellorsville allowed this to happen.
Evidence 2
Evidence 3
Argument 2
Since Crane wanted the focus of the battle to be non-partisan, he
chose a battle that did not have a major political or social
significance that would take away from his focus.
Evidence 1 If the battle had been Bull Run, there probably would have been a
lot of focus on the fact that it was the first battle of the war. If the
battle had been Gettysburg, it might have become distracting to any
reader who is aware of what occurred there, since it is the most
famous battle of the war.
Evidence 2
Evidence 3
Argument 3
Chancellorsville was a heavily wooded battlefield. This assists
Crane’s narration, as he wanted to emphasize how lost and confused
everyone was.
Evidence 1 During the course of the novel, the main characters very rarely have
any idea where they are or how the battle is progressing. The large
(8-miles) size of the battlefield, and its forest environment is
conducive to this storytelling.
Evidence 2
Evidence 3
CONCLUSION: Your conclusion will inevitably be somewhat redundant.
(Redundancy is NOT always bad. It becomes effective when you are trying to hammer
home a point.) However, to reduce the negative effects of the redundancy, find a way
to re-word your statement and arguments.
Statement Rewording - You can re-word your statement by talking about the nature of
your Arguments and Evidence.
Summarize your arguments - Find a way to express each argument and how you
proved them in one sentence apiece.
Argument 1
Rewording:
Argument 2
Rewording:
Argument 3
Rewording:
Conclusion Statement: You will write down your point a final time. A good way to end
a paper is by demonstrating why your point is valuable.