Sample Essays and Incorporating Quotes

By

 

Sample Essays

Here are copies of the high-quality student essays that we studied in class. You can access both an unhighlighted copy to complete the activity with, and a highlighted copy to compare with your own results.

Sample Essay 1

Sample Essay 2

  • Highlighted Copy: TBC

Activity

Read each essay carefully, and then take out four different coloured highlighters.

  1. In the first colour, highlight all references to KEY TERMS, WORDS AND IDEAS (including their synonyms) in the essay’s introduction.
  2. In the second colour, highlight the MOST IMPORTANT SENTENCES in each body paragraph. These should be the sentences which set up the key ideas/arguments that the paragraph will explore.
  3. In the third colour, highlight any QUOTES (note: only highlight the quotes themselves, NOT  the entire sentence).
  4. In the fourth colour, track the development of the WRITER’S IDEAS (i.e. the student’s ideas) as they develop through each body paragraph/the essay. This is not simply where they make reference to a story, but where they offer an interpretation or conclusion about the author’s intention.

Vocabulary: As you are highlighting the essay, make a GLOSSARY of any useful vocabulary that you come across. Include definitions of any words that you are not 100% familiar with, and pay close attention to any LINKING WORDS that the writer uses.

 

 

Incorporating Quotes

By year 11 is essential that you are fluently incorporating all quotes that you use in your essay. An examiner will give no leniency to sloppy writing and perceived unfamiliarity/uncertainty with a text that you have studied.

It is evident that many of you need to further develop this skill. This skill was introduced in year 7, and was expected to be embedded by the end of year 8. Therefore, your first point of reference will be the Year 8 Essay Writing Guide (click here to access it). Scroll  down and go through the section ‘It’s Elementary: Finding and Using Quotes’ carefully. Pay particular attention to the embedded Prezi, which explains the process of finding and incorporating quotes through using examples from The Ghost’s Child (while the specific examples are not relevant/more basic than what is expected at year 11, it nevertheless illustrates the necessary skills).

This next document will then give you some examples of acceptable and unacceptable quoting and includes some activities that build upon your study of Interpreter of Maladies. Read it carefully, use it to review your own previous work, and then complete the activities at the end:

 

Text Response Essay Practice Topics

Below are some options for further practice in essay writing. The more you write, the more  you improve, as long as you take the time to plan and review your work, with close attention paid to responding to previous feedback.

Topic 1: Jhumpa Lahiri has said: “the characters I’m drawn to all face some barrier of communication.” How are communication barriers explored in Interpreter of Maladies?

Topic 2: What are the roles and significance of rituals in Lahiri’s stories? Pay attention to both the rewards and drawbacks that maintaining long-established rituals brings to the characters.

Topic 3: ‘In many of these stories, it is the final sentence which leaves the reader with something both profound and troubling.’ To what extent to you agree with this statement?

Topic 4: The narrator of ‘The Third and Final Continent’ ends his story with the statement: ‘Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have travelled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept.’ In what ways are Lahiri’s characters bewildered?

Topic 5: How does Lahiri explore the importance of families in Interpreter of Maladies?

 

When approaching each topic:

  1. Identify the Key Words in the essay topic. What do they mean in relation to the text?
  2. Find the evidence (both ideas, stories and quotes) that will form the basis of your response.
  3. Find ideas the connect different stories (i.e. find stories that share similar ideas/themes/symbolism/etc). Make sure that you pay close attention to key terms.
  4. Use your answers to Steps 2 and 3 to create a detailed, dot-point essay plan.
  5. Write your essay.
  6. Review your essay, paying close attention to your use of structure, topic sentences, quotes and vocabulary.