English 8
Writing Your Body Paragraphs
In any essay, you have a paragraph that introduces the paper and a paragraph that
concludes the paper (brings it to a close). The paragraphs in-between, which are the
paragraphs that actually prove your thesis to be true, are called body paragraphs.
The purpose of a body paragraph is to provide one well-defined argument, including
textual support, for your thesis. Each body paragraph must have a clear point to prove,
supporting evidence to prove it, and must clearly relate back to your thesis. Beginning in
8th Grade, we will use the TEST format. Though you will expand upon this format as you
write more essays, each body paragraph in your essay must contain the following
elements:
1. T=Topic sentence
a. Each body paragraph must begin with a clear topic
sentence that:
i. Sets up the topic of the paragraph
ii. Relates the paragraph back to the thesis
iii. Is powerfully worded
b. Example topic sentence
i. Though she has been through a traumatic
experience and desperately needs the help of her
friends, Melinda has been truly abandoned by
those closest to her.
2. E(Explain)=Set up the quote
a. In every body paragraph, you will use one or more direct
quotes from a text (usually the novel upon which you are
basing your essay) to support your thesis. If the quote just
appears out of nowhere in your body paragraph, and you
don’t provide any context for what is happening in the
quote, it will really confuse your reader. So, you need to set
up your direct quotes before they appear in your body
paragraph.
i. To set up a quote you need to:
1. Explain what is happening in the scene that
you are quoting from
2. Explain who is thinking/speaking the quote
3. Explain how it relates to the topic of your
paragraph
ii. Accurately and effectively setting up a quote can
take anywhere from 2 to 5 sentences (or more),
depending on the nature of your quote and thesis.
iii. Caution – You never want to introduce a quote by
saying, “In this quote…” Instead, use phrases to
lead into the quote.
1. Examples
a. At one point in the novel, Melinda
thinks, “…….” (Anderson 43).
b. After Melinda approaches Rachel to
tell her the truth about Andy, Rachel
says to her, “……..” (Anderson 33).
c. Melinda is truly depressed after the
attack. She even begins to “…….”
(Anderson 33).
3. S(Support)=A well-selected direct quote
a. In order to truly prove your thesis, you need to use wellselected quotes from the text to support the points of your
body paragraphs.
i. You must use at least one direct quote per body
paragraph in every literary essay. If you are able to
do so without crowding your body paragraph too
much, you are encouraged to use more than one
direct quote per body paragraph.
b. A well-selected direct quote should:
i. Clearly support or prove the topic of your body
paragraph
ii. Be a powerful or important moment from the book
iii. Show the reader that there is clear evidence in the
novel to support your thesis
c. You should select your quotes for your body paragraphs,
when possible, from different parts of the novel. If all of
your quotes come from the same few pages, it will appear
to the reader as if you do not truly have that much evidence
to support your thesis.
d. Shortening a direct quote
i. Sometimes, you may need parts, but not all, of a
direct quote to support your thesis. In this case, use
an ellipsis (…) to shorten the quote.
1. An ellipsis notifies the reader that you have
not used the entire quote.
a. Example – “We hold these truths to
be self-evident: that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights, that among these
are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness” (Declaration of
Independence).
b. Example (shortened) – “We hold
these truths to be self-evident: that
all men are…endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable
rights…among these are…the
pursuit of happiness” (Declaration of
Independence).
2. Note – You can only alter a quote if you
keep its meaning the same. You cannot alter
a quote to change its meaning.
e. Altering a direct quote
i. At times, you may need to change a word or a tense
of a word in a direct quote to make it fit
grammatically in your paper. If you change any part
of a word, or add a word, to a direct quote, you need
to use brackets [] so that the reader knows that you
have made a change.
1. Example – If you needed to make the above
quote from the Declaration of Independence
fit a single person, instead of a nation, you
could alter the wording
a. As a nation, “we hold these truths to
be self-evident: that [this man is]…
endowed by [his] Creator with
certain inalienable rights”
(Declaration of Independence).
f. Formatting a block quote
i. If the quote you are using in your paper goes over
four lines of text, you need to format it as a block
quote.
1. To format a block quote, you need to
complete the following steps:
a. Indent the entire quote 10 spaces (or
2 tabs)
b. Keep the quote double spaced
c. Do not put quotation marks around
the quote, unless the quote is from
dialogue
i. If the quote is from dialogue,
you use only a single
quotation mark (‘)
d. Properly cite the quote at the end of
the quote
e. Do not indent the next line of text in
your paragraph. It should be doublespaced from the end of the quote, but
it should not be indented.
g. Citing your direct quotes
i. After you have placed your well-selected direct
quote into your body paragraph, you must cite it
using MLA (Modern Language Association)
format.
1. The use of MLA format is required on all
formal essays in high school and will likely
(some colleges use other styles) be required
on all papers in college.
ii. MLA Citation – After you have quoted from a
source, you must cite the author’s last name and
page number on which the quote appeared.
1. Example: “I am Outcast” (Anderson 4).
a. As you can see, the citation, which
appears in parenthesis, has the
author’s last name and the page
number on which the quote was
found.
b. Also note that the quotation marks
go before the citation, but the period
goes after. This is because the
citation is part of the sentence.
4. Explain how the direct quote proves the point of your body
paragraph
a. After any direct quote appears in your paper, you must
explain in great clarity and depth how it proves the point of
your body paragraph (and, by extension, your thesis).
b. This is where your depth of thought and analysis of the
novel really come into play. You need to clearly explain to
the reader how the quote you selected proves your point.
i. When explaining the quote to the reader, you don’t
want to state, “This quote shows” or “As you can
see in this quote”. You need to explain the quote
without addressing the reader directly.
ii. Example – When Melinda says, “I am Outcast”
(Anderson 4), she is expressing how truly alone
she feels. This statement summarizes her life
after the party. She has no friends, the entire
school hates her, her parents don’t take the time
to talk to her, and she is in a deep state of
depression. She is truly an “outcast” in every
sense of the word.
5. T(Tie-back)=Tie-back sentence
a. A tie-back sentence does the opposite job of a topic
sentence, though it has the same characteristics.
b. The tie-back sentence is the sentence at the end of your
body paragraph that:
i. Brings the body paragraph to a close
ii. Relates the body paragraph back to the thesis
iii. Is powerfully worded
c. The tie-back sentences, along with your thesis statement in
your intro, your topic sentences, and your restated thesis in
your conclusion, help form the necessary structure of your
paper.
d. Example tie-back sentence (see the example topic sentence
above for reference):
i. Melinda, at her darkest hour, after being
brutally attacked by Andy Evans, needed her
friends to help love and support her; sadly, they
instead left her alone to fend for herself.