This document provides guidance for students on writing assignments analyzing The Three Musketeers during a literature unit. It discusses using MLA format, developing literary arguments with strong theses and relevant examples from the text, and properly incorporating quotes to support arguments. Students will complete reading blogs, essays, and a final brochure project responding to elements of the novel.

1. Writing About Literature:
Applying writing strategies to
The Three Musketeers
By: Cara Hamlin
(For use with Three Musketeers Unit)

2. Introduction
During this unit on Dumas’ The Three Musketeers,
we will be exploring literary devices and strategies,
narrative voice, writing style, P.O.V, and much, much more.
Throughout the duration of the unit, you will be asked to
respond to your reading not only verbally, but also through
writing in the forms of:
 Reading Blogs
 Free-writes
 Essay
 Final Project: Brochure

3. Format
As already discussed you will be asked to write
various pieces. All of these, except for the
brochure, will need to be in MLA Format. Let’s
review how this format works…
 Heading: Goes in upper left side of page. Your
heading will include:
 Introduction: The intro will be a paragraph in
which you introduce your topic. This will include
your thesis, or the sentence(s) stating the main
idea or stance.
 Body: This will be the longest section of the
piece. It will be one or more paragraphs
(depending on the length of the assignment.)
This will contain your main arguments and
supporting material.
Your Name
Ms. Hamlin
Class Title
Date
Now that we
know format,
let’s talk
content…

4. Literary Arguments
• Making basic literary arguments should be familiar
to you, whether you realize it or not. Even from
the time we are children, we are asked our opinions
about stories, characters, style, etc., in an
informal fashion.
• One of the goals of this unit is to help you adapt
these skills and use them to form written pieces
dealing with literature.
• Throughout the unit, I will be asking questions such
as these:
• Who is speaking? How do we know this? What
does this P.O.V. add to the story? How might
this story have been different if it were
written through the eyes of someone else?
• Why does the author begin the story with an
account of D’Artagnan’s early life? What kind
of impression do we get of D’Artagnan because
of this?
• Compare and Contrast Milady and Athos
specifically in regards to their ideas about
Let’s learn
how to
support an
argument…

5. Support for Your Argument
Support:
Jut like you use examples to make a point, you use
examples from a piece of literature to make a
point about an aspect of a literary work. Keep in
mind that you need to:
 Use enough points to make a strong argument
 Use relevant examples that illustrate the point
you are making. For example, you would not
support a topic about supernatural elements in
the Arabian Nights with the example from
Twilight. Make sure you know how your examples
apply to your topic, otherwise the reader will
have to guess, or will not know at all.
 Use correct examples and provide a chapter or
page number so that the reader can go back
and look at the passage you are referring to.
Example: On page 35 of the book, the author
describes how Harry Potter came to receive the
letter that he had been accepted into

6. Support (Continued)
 Smoothly transition from one idea to the next.
Example: You would not go from writing about
D’Artagnan’s fencing abilities to a discussion of
Athos’ troubles with women, BUT you might go from
the fencing argument to a discussion of D’Artagnan’s
physical characteristics.
 Do not simply state a passage that illustrates your
point; Explain the relevance in detail.
It might help to map out your arguments like this…
Main Topic:____________________________________
Argument 1:_________________________________
Examples:________________________________
Argument 2:_________________________________
Examples:________________________________
Argument 3:_________________________________
Examples:________________________________
Quotes are a
common type
of support.
Let’s review
using these in
out writing…

7. Using Quotes
 Use quotations to supplement your argument.
 Quotes take two forms—Short or Block.
• Short quotes are less than four typed lines.
• Block quotes are four or more typed lines.
• To decide whether to use a block quote or a
short quote, consider the argument you are
making. Does it require you to quote a large
passage? Can you simply summarize the
information and then discuss?
 Use quotes inside a sentence. Do not simply
insert a quote as its own sentence.
 Cite your quotes in proper MLA
parenthetical format.
 If you need to leave out parts of a quote,
use ellipses (…). For example: He describes
the dog as a “big, ugly brute (…) who does
not want to obey” (25.)
 Know the difference between direct and indirect quotes.
For example: Direct: He wrote that “she was the type of
girl who would always do her homework” (26.) Indirect: He
said that my mother had been in earlier to buy groceries.

8. Summary
Literary Argument
MLA
Format
Solid
Arguments
and
Examples
Thesis or
Main
Topic