CHL137 Essay Assignment

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CHL137 Essay Assignment

• Prewriting Part III
• Organization

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Last time we discussed

• Developing a thesis
• Finding direct quotations to use as evidence
• Weaving quotations into your writing
• Correctly citing quotations within your writing

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Today well focus on

• Audience awareness (clarity, tone, rhetorical
  strategies)
• Organization (paragraphing, transitions, logical
  pattern of organization)
• Note these, plus Correctness, are the rest
  of the qualities I will evaluate when I grade the
  essays (we discussed the others last time).

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Organizing

• Dont just start typing an essay without a plan!
• Develop a focused, arguable thesis
• Gather evidence (quotes examples)
• Make a plan (put material in an order that best
  supports your thesis).

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Practice

• Weve already discussed developing a thesis,
  gathering evidence, and citing sources.
• Now, at this next point in the process youve
  already developed a thesis and have searched
  through materials to gather evidence . . .

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Working Thesis

• Some critics argue that Harry Potter is
  stereotypically masculine. Harry, however, is
  not a stereotype because he is a complex,
  multi-faceted character who embodies both
  masculine and feminine traits.

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2. Gather Evidence

• Quotes from scholars who claim Harry is
  stereotypically masculine
• 2. Examples from the novel that demonstrate my
  thesis that he is a complex, multi-faceted
  character.

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Source Elizabeth Heilman

• In the Harry Potter books, boys are
  stereotypically portrayed, with the strong,
  adventurous, independent type of male serving as
  a heroic masculinity, whereas the weak,
  unsuccessful male is mocked and sometimes
  despised (231).

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Source Terri Doughty

• The Harry Potter books do not problematize
  masculinity this is, perhaps, one reason for
  their appeal for boy readers. Rowling follows an
  older narrative tradition, in which the boy-hero
  comes to maturity supported by a cast of
  fathers who are there when he needs them, but
  who also let him make his own way when he needs
  to do that (253).

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Notes

• They do have a point. The books follow the
  monomyth, Harry is good at sports, doesnt spend
  a lot of time reading, and often engages in
  violent, action-packed adventures.
• The best rhetorical strategy then would be not to
  try to prove them completely wrong. I should
  instead acknowledge that, yes, he does have
  these traits, but that they are balanced out by
  others. . .

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Evidence to support my thesis

• Harry learns empathy (in HPGF he feels badly
  about never asking about Nevilles family)
• Harry shook his head, wondering, as he did so,
  how he could have failed to ask Neville this, in
  almost four years of knowing him. . . . Harry sat
  there, horror-struck. He had never known . . .
  never, in four years, bothered to find out . . .
  (602-3).

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Other examples of empathy

• In HPOP Harry is deeply troubled by the cruelty
  of his male role models and learns to develop
  empathy for Snape, a character he has, until
  then, despised and feared. Harry, who learns as
  the series progresses that he has much in common
  with the younger Voldemort (Tom Riddle), even
  learns to feel empathy for his enemy.

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Example of sensitivity

• The Dementors affect Harry more deeply than they
  affect any of the other children, both male and
  female. For example, in Harry Potter and the
  Prisoner of Azkaban, both Harry and Rons little
  sister, Ginny, are distraught when a Dementor
  boards the Hogwarts train. Ginny is shaking
  like mad, but Harry is the only student on the
  train who faints. Harry didnt understand. He
  felt weak and shivery, as though he were
  recovering from a bout of flu he also felt the
  beginnings of shame (86).

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Lupin as role model for Harry

• Professor Lupin, who is not stereotypically
  masculine and is in many ways an outsider,
  becomes a mentor to Harry and helps Harry to
  understand the despair he feels when Dementors
  are near. He tells Harry, you have nothing to
  be ashamed of (187), that it is okay for boys to
  feel and express emotions.

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Relationships, not individual

• Although Harry feels alone much of the time,
  Rowling does not seem to advocate the idea of the
  lone hero (a masculine stereotype). While Harry
  must face Voldemort alone, he is only able to
  defeat him because Harry, Ron, and Neville
  destroy the last horcruxes and because a whole
  community (Dumbledores Army, the Order of the
  Phoenix, and others) fights together.

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More notes on relationships

• Unlike many male heroes (see Hourihan) Harry is
  able to develop and maintain a very close
  friendship with a girl (Herminone), who he values
  as an equal. Note quotes from both Hourihan and
  Rowling needed here . . .
• Etc. (you can probably come up with even more
  examples . . . But you get the idea . . . )

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What not to do

• If you just sit down at your computer without
  a clear plan or without having gathered any
  evidence, the result is likely to be warm-up
  writing . . .

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Warm-up writing

• There have always been issues involved with works
  of literature. There are many issues involved
  with HP, probably because the books are so
  popular in todays society. People discuss things
  like religion, race, genre, mythology and
  folklore when talking about the HP books. They
  also discuss gender as an issue . . . YAWN!

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3. Make a Plan

• Figure out what it is you want to say and then
  allow your thesis and the evidence youve
  gathered to shape the organization of your essay.
• In other words, know what you plan to say and the
  order in which you plan to say it before you
  start to write.

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Plan

• Since my thesis is in two parts,
• Some critics argue that Harry Potter is
  stereotypically masculine.
• Harry, however, is not a stereotype because he is
  a complex, multi-faceted character who embodies
  both masculine and feminine traits.
• I can structure the essay with 2 parts

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Plan

• Introduction Evidence that some critics argue
  that Harry Potter is stereotypically masculine.
• Body and Conclusion Evidence showing that Harry,
  however, is not a stereotype because he is a
  complex, multi-faceted character who embodies
  both masculine and feminine traits.

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The Intro might be something like

• In her essay, Blue Wizards and Pink Witches,
  Elizabeth Heilman argues that the HP novels are
  filled with gender stereotypes In the Harry
  Potter books, boys are stereotypically portrayed,
  with the strong, adventurous, independent type of
  male serving as a heroic masculinity, whereas the
  weak, unsuccessful male is mocked and sometimes
  despised (231). Other critics agree. Terri
  Doughty writes that . . . etc. . . . which
  leads into my thesis statement.

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Body of paper

• The rest of the paper should prove my point (I
  shouldnt spend too much time giving attention to
  the other side of the argument, but should offer
  evidence to support my point).
• If I categorize my quotes, I can build paragraphs
  structured around various topics empathy,
  relationships with others (maybe one on girls and
  one on community vs. individual), and a paragraph
  on sensitivity . . .

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As you organize, consider

• What order of information would work best to
  prove your thesis?
• Do some points deserve more attention, more
  detailed analysis than others?
• What order makes more sense? Do some ideas
  naturally transition into others?
• Remember -- this is not a 5-paragraph theme and
  you dont need to have one point per paragraph!
  Instead, let your examples dictate how many
  points and how many paragraphs.

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Conclusion

• Think of your conclusion as a place to Draw
  conclusions.
• Do not simply repeat your thesis and evidence.
• This is the place to tie it all together So
  What? Why does your thesis matter? Why is it
  important? What conclusions can be drawn from you
  argument?

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So what?

• Who cares if Harry is stereotypically masculine
  or not?
• Hes not a real person, just a fictional
  character. Why does Rowlings portrayal of
  gender in a work of fiction matter?
• Are there larger considerations to think about?
  Why are there so many debates about Rowlings
  portrayals of gender in the books? Why is this a
  topic people seem to feel strongly about?

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• Next class HP3 as adolescent literature
• Monday, April 14 Writing Workshop
• Drafts due.
• Wednesday, April 16 Essays due.
• April 16 and 21 HP3 Film adaptation
• April 25 Final exam 11 a.m.