epic hero paragraphs
information about how to improve
your paragraph
What items caused McLean to
deduct one point?
• extra sentences
• incorrect thesis/paragraph topics
missing
• incorrect topic sentence
• no connection to thesis in #2
sentences
• no connection to thesis in concluding
sentence
Soooo, let’s take a closer look
at the items that lost points
extra sentences
Remember, your
support
paragraphs at this
point must follow
the structure given.
Also, you have one
sentence per line
or number.
I.
A.
1.
2.
B.
1.
2.
C.
1.
2.
D.
topic sentence
support #1
Explanation of Support
Analysis/Explain how
information supports
thesis
support #2
Explanation of Support
Analysis/Explain how
information supports
thesis
support #3
Explanation of Support
Analysis/Explain how
information supports
thesis
concluding sentence
incorrect thesis/paragraph topics
missing
You were to write a thesis with three
paragraph topics which answered the
prompt given.
Using Harry Potter as an example, your
thesis/paragraph topic sentence should
look something like this:
Harry Potter is a hero due to his bravery, his
loyalty to friends, and his ability to rely on
instinct.
incorrect topic sentence
Your topic sentence should state paragraph
topic and your thesis.
Here are some great topic sentences from
your classmates:
1. Odysseus is a very intelligent epic hero.
2. Odysseus’ strength is one quality he
displays as an epic hero.
3. One of the factors that makes Odysseus
an epic hero is his physical strength.
no connection to thesis in #2
sentences
Your #2 sentences should provide analysis and
explain how information presented in A, B, or
C and your #1 sentence supports your thesis.
Here are some great #2 sentences from your
classmates:
The epic hero wisely devises a plan to drug the
Cyclops and blind him, then in the morning
when the Cyclops lets his sheep out, to hide
under them to escape the cave.
no connection to thesis in #2
sentences
Here are some great #2 sentences from your
classmates:
Not any man could have destroyed
Polyphemus’s eye which is why Odysseus
stands out and is an epic hero.
If Odysseus hadn’t thought of the intelligent
plan to “sling a man under each middle one”
(694), then the epic hero’s journey would
have ended there.
no connection to thesis in #2
sentences
Why are the previous #2 sentences great?
Note that they all have the phrase epic hero in
them.
The #2 sentence’s job is to make a connection
to the thesis, support the thesis. If your thesis
is Odysseus is an epic hero, then your #2
sentence MUST include the phrase epic hero.
no connection to thesis in
concluding sentence
Your concluding sentence should summarize the
evidence you provided in A, B, and C, and the
sentence should also include the thesis.
Here are some great concluding sentences from your
classmates:
Odysseus’ intellect saves him and his men from being
trapped on the island of the Lotus-Eaters, allows
Odysseus and his men to escape from Polyphemus,
and saves him from a great death at the Sirens’
island, making Odysseus an extraordinary epic hero.
no connection to thesis in
concluding sentence
Here are some great concluding sentences from your
classmates:
Odysseus is an epic hero because of the physical
strength which allows him to survive the battle of
Cicones, hang on for dear life on the fig tree and
chuck a pike at the Cyclops’s eye.
So overall, strength is obviously an epic hero trait that
is shown when Odysseus drives three men back to
their ships, when he needs two layers of rope to hold
him to the mast, and when he holds onto a fig tree for
hours.
Soooo, let’s take a closer look at
the items that DIDN’T lose points,
but if you work on these things,
your writing will be better,
stronger, more EPIC!
Including DIRECT EVIDENCE in A,
B, and C sentences
Note the difference between the following
sentences . . .
Including DIRECT EVIDENCE in A,
B, and C sentences
In the Odyssey, Odysseus
shows his physical
strength when he fights
near the coast of
Ismarus and “stormed
the place and killed men
who fought. Plunder we
[Odyssey and his crew]
took, and we enslaved
the women” (683).
Odysseus shows his
physical strength
when he battles the
Cicones.
Which sentence do you want in your paragraph?
Quotation Incorporation (QI)
Do not have a sentence comprised solely of
a quotation. A good writer seamlessly
incorporates another’s writing into his or
her writing. In order to do this, writers use
a transition into a direct quotation.
Let’s look at some examples from your
classmates who effectively incorporated
Homer’s words into their own.
Quotation Incorporation (QI)
Example
A. The intellect Odysseus possesses
helps him to get through many tough
situations, such as when Odysseus
realizes the delicious lotus plants his men
are about to eat are very dangerous,
because “those who at this honeyed plant,
the Lotus, never cared to report, nor to
return” (685).
Quotation Incorporation (QI)
Example
C. Another event in which Odysseus shows
high intelligence is when he decides to sail
towards Scylla, “the monster of the grey
rock”, instead of Charybdis, a giant
whirlpool (708).
Quotation Incorporation (QI)
Example
C. The intellect of Odysseus is
demonstrated again when Odysseus tells
his crew members, “‘you are to tie me up,
tight as a splint . . . and if I shout and beg
to be untied, take more turns of the rope
and muffle me’” (705).
Quotation Incorporation (QI)
Example
B. While trapped in the Cyclops
Polyphemus’ cave, Odysseus shows the
reader another example of his intelligence
when he realizes, “if I killed him we
perished there as well . . . ” (690).
Write about literature in present
tense
Please remember literature is ALIVE!
Odysseus is always an epic hero, he is
always trying to get home, so writers must
write about literature in present tense.
All examples in this slide show have been
edited for tense and are written in present
tense.
Refer to literature by correct terms
• You are writing about an epic poem.
Please call it an epic poem, not a story or
a book.
• The epic poem consists of episodes.
Please call them episodes, not stories,
sections, or parts.