Writing your second body paragraph on prejudice or courage in To Kill a Mockingbird
Your first sentence should be your topic sentence (the main point you’ll be making in this
paragraph, either about how Jem and Scout’s view of courage has matured a bit since the start of
the story, or about how in Maycomb the “disease” of prejudice is passed from adults to kids but
that certain adults and/or experiences help the kids Jem and Scout develop a resistance to it, and
specifying who those adults are or what those experiences are). This topic sentence should begin
with a transition (such as “Later on” or such as the prepositional phrases “Towards the middle of
the book,” or “As the story continues” or “As the children grow up” or “As the kids mature”
etc.). You must NOT use the term “topic sentence” or the term “thesis” or in any way refer to
this essay itself (so no sentences like “As referred to in the Introduction) and you must NOT
refer to yourself as the writer of this essay (so no phrases like “I think that” or “I believe that” or
“In my opinion”) or to the reader of this essay (so no phrases like “As you can see” etc.). On the
following lines, write your topic sentence, beginning it with a transition.
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For the second sentence of the second body paragraph, write enough context about the first
quotation you’ll be using that someone who has never read the book before would be able to
understand what is going on in that upcoming quotation. In this Context-Before-Quotation
sentence, establish what has happened just before that moment in the book that you’re going to
show in the quotation, or what is going to happen right after it, and where that moment takes
place, and who is involved in the events shown in the upcoming quotation. If it’s dialogue,
establish who is saying it and to whom that character is saying it. If it’s narration, it’s Scout
speaking to the reader, and you should write that. Again, you must NOT refer to the essay itself
(you must NOT use any terms like “quote” or “quotation” etc.), and you must NOT refer to
yourself as the writer of this essay or to the reader of this essay. So on the following lines, write
your Context-Before-Quotation sentence (we have practiced writing these with the quotationblending exercise worksheets).
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Here, write your quotation from the book, followed by the page number or page numbers from
which you quoted it.
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Here, after that first quotation, you write an explanation as to how that quotation shows/proves
the topic sentence and claim/thesis, but again, you must NOT use terms like “quote,”
“quotation,” “topic sentence,” “claim” or “thesis,” and you must NOT refer to this essay itself
(so no sentences like “That quotation proves the topic sentence and thesis because …”). You
also must NOT refer to yourself as the writer of this essay (so no sentences like “By quoting this
part of the book I have shown …”) and you must not refer to the reader of the essay (so no
sentences like “As you can see” etc.). Instead, keep it simple: write something like “This shows
that …” or “This proves that …” and then write what it shows or proves, relating back to the
point that the kids now see courage in a more mature way (as a result of seeing more mature
courage demonstrated by other characters or by things other characters have said to them) or
how adults in Maycomb pass on the “disease” of prejudice to the children of Maycomb by being
prejudiced around them and/or explicitly teaching them to be prejudiced. So on the following
lines, write your Explanation-After-Quotation sentence (again we practiced doing these on the
quotation-blending exercise worksheets).
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Here, write a transition sentence that bridges the first example to the next example or leads the
reader of the essay to look at a different aspect of the same example. So if you are writing about
prejudice, and you’ve just established how most adults in Maycomb teach the kids to be
prejudiced, now you might transition to the idea of how certain more progressive adults who
know better (like Atticus, Miss Maudie, Calpurnia, etc.) teach the kids Jem and Scout,
specifically, to NOT be prejudiced, thus helping them develop resistance to the “disease.” Or if
you were writing about the kids’ maturing view of courage, you might have given the example
of the kids learning a more mature view of courage by watching Atticus shoot a mad dog,
risking injuring or killing Nathan or Boo Radley if he missed and the bullet went into the
Radleys’ house and having to live with that guilt for the rest of his life, but choosing to shoot the
mad dog because he knows that if anyone else (less skilled at shooting than he is) tried to shoot
the mad dog the chances would be higher that that person would miss the shot and someone
would get hurt (either the bullet hitting someone or the dog having a chance to fatally bite
someone), and here you could transition into talking about how Atticus also sacrificed his own
personal code of ethics of not ever wanting to shoot an animal again (he had been a hunter years
ago but gave it up because it was unfair to the animals) but doing so in order to protect the
public safety/serve the greater good (which is made clear through what Miss Maudie tells Scout
after Atticus had shot the mad dog). So on the following lines, write your transition sentence to
smoothly transition from your first example to your second example, or to examine a different
aspect of the same example.
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For the next sentence, write enough context about the second quotation you’ll be using that
someone who has never read the book before would be able to understand what is going on in
that upcoming quotation. In this Context-Before-Quotation sentence, establish what has
happened just before that moment in the book that you’re going to show in the quotation, or
what is going to happen right after it, and where that moment takes place, and who is involved
in the events shown in the upcoming quotation. If it’s dialogue, establish who is saying it and to
whom that character is saying it. If it’s narration, it’s Scout speaking to the reader, and you
should write that. Again, you must NOT refer to the essay itself (you must NOT use any terms
like “quote” or “quotation” etc.), and you must NOT refer to yourself as the writer of this essay
or to the reader of this essay. So on the following lines, write your Context-Before-Quotation
sentence (we have practiced writing these with the quotation-blending exercise worksheets).
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Here, write your quotation from the book, followed by the page number or page numbers from
which you quoted it.
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Here, after that second quotation, you write an explanation as to how that quotation
shows/proves the topic sentence and claim/thesis, but again, you must NOT use terms like
“quote,” “quotation,” “topic sentence,” “claim” or “thesis,” and you must NOT refer to this
essay itself (so no sentences like “That quotation proves the topic sentence and the thesis
because …”). You also must NOT refer to yourself as the writer of this essay (so no sentences
like “By quoting this part of the book I have shown …”) and you must not refer to the reader of
the essay (so no sentences like “As you can see” etc.). Instead, keep it simple: write something
like “This shows that …” or “This proves that …” and then write what it shows or proves,
relating back to the point that the kids now see courage in a more mature way or how certain
more progressive adults who know better (like Atticus, Miss Maudie, and Calpurnia) teach the
kids Jem and Scout to not be prejudiced, either teaching the kids by example or by specifically
and directly teaching the kids to not prejudge other people. So on the following lines, write your
Explanation-After-Quotation sentence (again we practiced doing these on the quotationblending exercise worksheets).
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This last sentence of your second body paragraph should relate both examples and quotations
back to the topic sentence and thesis. In other words, it should state what the point was of
having used those examples and quotations and what you just proved about what the author was
showing about prejudice or courage, again WITHOUT using terms like “topic sentence” or
“thesis” or in any way referring to the essay itself or to yourself or to the reader of the essay.
This last sentence is to sum up the paragraph and drive home the point you’re making (the topic
sentence, which relates back to the claim/thesis) but again, WITHOUT using terms like “topic
sentence” or “thesis” or in any way referring to the essay itself or to yourself or to the reader of
the essay. So on the following lines, write your second body paragraph’s last sentence that sums
up the paragraph and drives home the point of it.
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