How to Properly Structure a Paragraph using “Going to the Moon”

1. How to Properly Structure a Paragraphusing “Going to the Moon” ENG 4U0

2. Instructions to the student • You are responsible for listening throughout this PowerPoint and taking notes that may not be on the PowerPoint. It will also be posted on the MyClass site. • The points that will be discussed are key in ensuring your success in the 4U0 course.

3. The Topic Sentence • Each paragraph that you ever write in your lifetime, but particularly for this course, must have a topic sentence. • This goes at the very beginning of your paragraph, and gives SPECIFIC reference to what your paragraph will be about…

4. Topic Sentence: Example • The short story “Going to the Moon” by Nino Ricci represents a significant tie to archetypes and the various course themes. These are represented through the archetypal loss of innocence, along with certain cultural and economic influences the narrator experiences.

5. Body of the Paragraph • In the body of your paragraph, you will have arguments. The number of arguments is up to you, but often it is safe to go with three.

6. Developing an Argument • Introduce your point • Give proof (referring to the text and/or providing quotes) • Use integrated quotes: Stitch the quotation into the fabric of your explication. Set up the context and analyze. • Provide analysis

7. Set up the context Example of Developing an Argument Integrate/stitch in the quote pieces. Economic influences affect the narrator socially given the narrator’s family’s financial situation (Point). The young narrator refuses to wear his winter jacket when the zipper breaks and his mother sews “buttons down the coat’s front” with “crude holes for them along the track of the broken zipper” (Ricci 216) (Proof). Instead of letting the other students and Miss Johnson see his family’s “poverty” and strangeness” in the “makeshift repairs” (Ricci 216) he wears only a sweater to avoid being a social misfit at school (Analysis). Include citation

8. Point, Proof, Analysis: Repeat! • Continue to develop your arguments using the point, proof, analysis method • Between arguments, use TRANSITION words – there will be a worksheet on Transition Words on the My Class Site • Aim for significant & meaningful ideas that show critical thinking, not just retelling what you have read(ex. I know who JFK is now connect what he represents to the ideas in the story! An example with JFK will follow shortly)

9. Concluding Sentence • Each paragraph that you ever write in your lifetime, but particularly for this course, must have a concluding sentence. • This summarizes your paragraph, reiterating your point

10. Concluding Sentence: Example • As a result, economic influences affect the boy’s social life at school

11. Stitch the quotations into the fabric of your paragraph Complete Paragraph (with connection to 2 course themes, minus the archetypal loss of innocence) The short story “Going to the Moon” by Nino Ricci represents a significant tie the various course themes. These are presented through the social and economic influences one may experience. (Topic Sentence) Economic influences affect the narrator socially given the narrator’s family’s financial situation (Point). The young narrator refuses to wear his winter jacket when the zipper breaks and his mother sews “buttons down the coat’s front” with “crude holes for them along the track of the broken zipper” (Ricci 216) (Proof). Instead of letting the other students and Miss Johnson see his family’s “poverty” and strangeness” in the “makeshift repairs” (Ricci 216) he wears only a sweater to avoid being a social misfit at school (Analysis). As a result, economic influences affect the boy’s social life at school (Concluding Sentence).

12. Another Sample Paragraph(using literary devices) Social & cultural Allusions Catholic allusion employed as a psychological symbol. John F. Kennedy functions as a symbol in Nino Ricci’s “Going to the Moon.” His civil rights record makes him a symbol of hope that the sorts of discrimination experienced by the protagonist as the son of Italian immigrants might eventually be eliminated. His death symbolizes the unlikelihood that these forms of discrimination will ever cease to exist. Kennedy’s death is mentioned in the story shortly before the allusion the Detroit Riots of 1967 which also reflect the profound racial tensions that cause so much conflict in the U.S. and that are reflected in the narrator’s experience in Canada. Kennedy’s death also reinforces how the narrator and his family are deluded to believe the United States to be the sort of “heaven” described in the first few sentences of the story when it, in fact, is no better than the “purgatory” that is Windsor, Ontario.

13. Formal Writing Tips • No 1st person, singular OR plural: • No “I” or “we” in formal writing. • DON’TuseYOU • Eg1: “You will see that my essay…” • Eg2: “This essay will show you that…” • Write in PRESENT TENSE: You must use the present tensethroughout your writing! • The only exception is if you are referring to something that actually took place in history, or before the start of the novel

14. Writing your own Analytical Paragraph See the “Homework” section of the myclass site for instructions