Each of the body paragraphs in your essay should explain one of your key ideas from your thesis.
 Your thesis should be clearly stated at the end of your introduction.
 Each body paragraph should begin with a topic sentence. Each topic sentence should relate to your thesis.
 Each body paragraph must include evidence to support the topic sentence. Remember you are telling this person’s story as you explain your insights. Select details that bring that story to life and help us to explain your insights. You may add information as you polish your draft.
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You must cite any information that is not common knowledge. If in doubt, cite it.
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If you do not have citations either you are focusing too much on common knowledge, or you are not citing information that should be cited!
Sample Paragraph (There would be 2-3 paragraphs about compassion in an A essay.)
Elie compassionately sacrificed for his father at the selection at the Buna concentration camp. Wiesel felt first-hand what it was like to stand before Dr. Mengele, a high ranking German officer, and go through the
“selection”: a process where in a matter of seconds a person was judged worthy of going to work in one of the camps or selected as fodder for the gas chambers (Wiesel 29). These selections were regularly done as the Germans sought to systematically kill the Jewish population. The imminent danger of Elie and his father upon their arrival at
Auschwitz is eerily captured by a quote from SS-Sturmbannführer Gricksch in a 1943 Auschwitz report entitled
"Resettlement of Jews", in 1943: “The results of this ‘resettlement action’ to date: 500,000 Jews. Current capacity of the ‘resettlement action’ ovens: 10,000 in 24 hours” (“Selection”). Upon arrival at Birkenau-Auschwitz, the 15-yearold Elie and his father, Shlomo, were immediately separated from his mom and his sisters. Elie passed selection, but initially his father did not. Without time to think, Elie acted with compassion and sacrifice, causing a commotion that allowed his father to return to the side of those who were selected for work (Wiesel 31). He risked his life for his father because he knew that his father would die if he did not. Elie’s reaction is quick-witted for a youth who has no prior knowledge of the selection process and is driven by his love and respect for his father.

Another key idea in my essay is courage. As with the key idea compassion, an A essay would include several examples of how Wiesel demonstrated courage. This is an example of one of those paragraphs. Note that this example does not list facts but explains in detail an event in Wiesel’s life to prove the topic sentence about courage.
Wiesel demonstrated courage by facing his horrific past and writing about it. While few Jews survived the
Holocaust, an even fewer number of Jews were able to make something out of their lives in its aftermath. One of the most significant events in Wiesel’s emotional recovery came nearly nine years later when he was on assignment as a young reporter for a French newspaper and was told to interview the famous Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac (Lucado
18-20). Bitter over the Holocaust experience, Wiesel left the interview in anger and frustration because Mauriac, a devout Catholic, kept referring to and mentioning the divine love and compassion of Jesus Christ. Wiesel angrily told
Mauriac that Jewish children, not far from where they sat, had only a few years ago suffered, “a thousand times more, six million times more than Christ” (Lucado 19). On his way to the elevator, Mauriac caught Wiesel and asked him to return to his apartment so he could listen to Wiesel’s story. As tears filled Mauriac’s eyes, the story unfolded into the night. Once Elie had finished, Mauriac implored Wiesel to abandon his vow of silence (Wiesel had vowed to himself to never speak of the terrible days in the concentration camps ever again after his liberation in 1945) and write his story because people needed to hear it (Lucado 18-20). This moment helped Wiesel to find the courage and inspiration to face his past and to write his memoir. He wrote his story because he knew that the story needed to be told. In the initial drafts he wrote in detail about his memories writing 900 pages; this was later condensed to 127 pages and translated from
Yiddish to French and later, to many other languages including English (“Biography”).
Check List
1. Do you have a thesis statement?
2. Do you have three key things that you want to show about your research subject in your essay? Are these somehow encompassed in your thesis?
3. Do you have topic sentences that relate in some way to your key ideas?
4. Do you tell this person’s story through your key ideas? Beware of just listing facts. Explain your insights into the facts? Provide details and cite your details.
5. Do you have citations in the proper format? (See the examples.)
6. Do you cite at least 3 facts for each adjective? (More is great!)
7. Do you have an effective conclusion?
8. Do you have a Works Cited sheet?
You may reorder your ideas. They do not need to be in the same sequence as your outline. If you want to tell his or her story chronologically, but framed by topic sentences that show your insights into this person, that is okay. Just take care not to give me a chronological list of facts without your insights. I am looking for your insights into why this person is extraordinary, either as a hero or a villain. Show me that you have thought about your research subject and have reflected on how he or she fits into the tragic story of the Holocaust.

B. Elie Wiesel shows compassion when he encourages Zalman on the Death March.
1. Runs with Zalman- even though may slow him down
2. Won’t let Zalman quit
3. Elie knows what is at stake for Zalman-especially compassionate for a boy
C. Elie Wiesel’s compassion for Rabbi Eliahou helps him to deal with the loss of his son.
1. Son abandons him on the Death March
2. Elie scolds his son in his mind
3. (This shows how he cares about a stranger, even when he has no reason)