Name: ____________________________
Short Story/Poetry Synthesis Essay—Due 4.23.15
8th Language Arts
Choose three of the short stories, poems, essays, and/or movies that we studied over the course of this
unit. These will become the three body paragraphs of your essay. Circle three of the options below that
we have covered (or will cover) in class:
Short Stories
Poems
Essays
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
“Skin” by Lucia Perillo
“Whose Body Is This?” by Katherine Haines
“Last Shot” by Tobias Wolff
“Lady Liberty Wears Glasses” by Tupac Shakur
“Black Men and Public Space” (Brent Staples)
Excerpts from Crank (Ellen Hopkins)
“Poem About Chris Brown” (Jamaal St. John)
“White Men Can’t Drum” Sherman Alexie
“Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou
“Always Running” by Luis J. Rodriguez “The Gentle Man” (William Carlos Williams)
“Nikki-Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni
“The Poor” by William Carlos Williams
Movies
songs
“My Mother Vs Meth” by Brittany
Whale Rider, directed by Niki Caro
“Whiplash” by Lisa Selle
“Beyond Recall” by Sharon Bryan
Hotel Rwanda, dir. by Terry George
“Hero” by Family of the Year
“Part of Eve’s Discussion” by Marie Howe
August Rush dir. by Kirsten Sheridan
“In the Event of my Demise” by Tupac Shakur
other
“The Rose That Grew from Concrete” by Tupac Shakur
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“The Cruel One” by Thomas R. Smith
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“Morning After” by Langston Hughes
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“Drug Abuse Poem” by Everick Henderson
“I’m a Fool to Love You” Cornelius Eady
“Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same” R. Frost
“The Facebook Sonnet” by Sherman Alexie
Prompt: Using three pieces of literature from this list, create and support a statement about the most
important issue(s) of our time.
Think about your three chosen pieces. What is a thesis statement about current issues that you can make to
connect these three pieces? Hints—What is the most important issue in today’s world? Personal, social, or
political? Topics we’ve covered—gender issues, identity, family, substance abuse, poverty, religion,
mortality/death, violence, race issues, politics, war. What are these authors saying about society/today’s issues?
What is their point about current issues? What issues have more impact—personal, social, or political? OR…
What does this literature say about society? Positive or negative? Turn it into a sentence. For consideration—
Someone could write a nice essay about family from the pieces we’ve read. Or music. Or self esteem. How about
love? Mortality? God? Money? Power? Or any of the topics listed above?
Thesis statement:
Title and Author of Piece One: __________________________________________________
Line from the piece
Connection to your thesis
Title and Author of Piece Two: _________________________________________________
Line from the piece
Connection to your thesis
Title and Author of Piece Three: _______________________________________________
Line from the piece
Connection to your thesis
Organize your paper like this:



Introduction—Hook, TAG (title, author, genre) for all three, thesis statement
Three body paragraphs—Introduce the piece, give a quote, explain the connection to your
thesis. For pieces two and three, connect it to the other pieces.
Conclusion—Apply this information to the real world. Why is it important? Why does it matter?