Writing+Process

=Anatomy of an Analytical Paragraph=

Before Junior year, you've used a format that looks like this:
Subtopic:
 * Topic Sentence
 * Detail/Example A:
 * Excerpts
 * Detail/Example B:
 * Excerpts
 * Detail/Example C:
 * Excerpts

In our writing this year, we're going to:

 * 1) Add a layer to this model called Analysis/Commentary
 * 2) Begin to use some more complex language to refer to these paragraph elements: Assertion, Evidence, Commentary
 * 3) Work with the idea that structure is a tool that writers use to construct and communicate ideas and can therefore be manipulated, changed, and molded to suit the needs of the piece
 * 4) Finally, we are also going to assume that your reader has read the text in question

New Analytical Writing Terms

 * Assertion:** an original, opinion-based, interpretive statement that is a thesis for a whole paper or relates to some aspect of a thesis
 * Evidence:** can be direct quotation or paraphrase; factual
 * Analysis/Commentary:** original interpretive, opinion-based that explains how the evidence supports the assertion given in the topic sentence

Your outline might look like this:
Subtopic/Paragraph Purpose:
 * Topic Sentence/Assertion:
 * Evidence:
 * Analysis/Commentary:
 * Evidence:
 * Analysis/Commentary:
 * Evidence:
 * Analysis/Commentary

Here is the digital copy of the outline: You will only find One paragraph (copy and paste it in order to build the number of body paragraphs that you need (**minimum** of three)).

Final Considerations

 * 1) Remember that you can and should use a varied number of evidences per paragraph—three might be the max
 * 2) Ratio of factual sentences to interpretive sentences—you should have many more interpretive sentences in a paragraph than factual ones
 * 3) Structure is organic; it is a tool belonging to a writer.

Questions to consider when collecting information about a text and trying to create a thesis