Step 2: Researching Your Topic
Prewriting, Researching Examples: On a separate piece of paper, write down directly cited examples from
1984 of at least two full sentences each that will support a thesis based on the topic on which you have
chosen to write. Be sure to use parenthetical citation format when citing your examples, complete with
quotation marks, attribution, parenthesis, author’s name, page number, and correct punctuation.
Example on Parenthetical Citation of Dialogue:
During a discussion on the nature of Big Brother’s power, Winston struggles to
convince O’Brien how ‘‘it is impossible to found a civilization on fear and
hatred and cruelty. It would never endure.’
‘Why not?’
‘It would have no vitality. It would disintegrate. It would commit
suicide.’
‘Nonsense. You are under the impression that hatred is more exhausting
than love. Why should it be? And if it were, what difference would that make?”
(Orwell 324)
Example on Parenthetical Citation for the Internet:
The hurdle 1984 presents us with is the same challenge “Orwell confronted in 1939: How to do what's
right without doing what's wrong? In 1939 (and earlier), Orwell struggled with how to pursue progressive
politics in a highly polarized climate that presented no ideal options. Fight the evil that must be fought, he
concluded. Fight one battle at a time. WWII won, he turned to saving the English language - and
promoting "political regeneration." Today, we face a similar crisis: How to defeat the terrorists without
turning our democracy into a lie without turning our democracies into Oceania?” (Bryson par. 23)
Your Research Must Include Examples of at Least Two Sentences Each to Accomplish the
Following Criteria:
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12 Examples from 1984 Supporting the Thesis
2 Examples from 1984 Supporting an Antithesis
2 Examples from the Internet Supporting the Thesis
2 Examples from the Internet Supporting an Antithesis
Tips for Finding Examples to Support Your Thesis:
 Look over all your cited examples in your reading responses
 Look over all your Cornell Notes.
 Click on the 1984: Complete Book On-Line link on our English IV-P web page
 Go to the Internet and search using the following key words: 1984 + big brother +
corporate control, 1984 + big brother + corporate control, 1984 + foreshadowing, 1984 +
big brother + Bush administration, 1984 + big brother + Obama administration, 1984 +
newspeak, 1984 + doublespeak, 1984 + satire + Soviet Union, 1984 + big brother + Nazi
Germany, 1984 + existential themes, 1984 + big brother + U.S. torture
Note: Don’t forget that you cannot cite sources from Wikipedia, SparkNotes, E=Notes, or any other
summative type of web site, including citing anything from an essay web site.
This essay meets the following English Language Arts Standards: Writing Strategies-- Organization and Focus
Standards 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. 1.4 and 1.5; Writing Applications Standards 2.3, 2.5, and 2.6)