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EWRT 1A – Connecting to Hunger Games – Paper #2 150 points
Skills: Narration and Description – Your Life and the Novel
Objectives
To Lean to Write a Clear and Cohesive Paper
To Learn Narrative writing
To Learn to integrate quotations MLA style
To Learn to do Basic Research
To Learn MLA Documentation Style
The Writing Assignment: Using The Hunger Games as your starting point, write an essay about
an event in your life that will engage readers and that will, at the same time, help them
understand the significance of the event. Tell your story dramatically and vividly in 3-5 pages.
Format: MLA style (For help, see “MLA Formatting” on the website). Please give your paper
an original title; don't underline or put quotation marks around your own title.
Content: Please see sample essays in Chapter 2, temporal transitions (32-3), connections to
personal and social issues (36-7), and all the suggestions on pages 42-61 for help.
You may choose your own structure that fits your story. However, here are some suggestions:
Choose a fairly long quotation (four typed lines or more) from The Hunger Games that
reminds you of a situation or experience you once faced.
In your introductory paragraph, first summarize what is happening in the novel at that
point, and then explain the context for that quotation.
Then write a transition paragraph, making a connection between the quotation and the
event in your life. Your thesis sentence will be the sentence in which you clearly make that
connection.
Then write about that event in your life, giving sensory details, dialogue, and background
material. You may continue to refer to Hunger Games by quoting or giving examples from it, if
you like, but this is not required. The main idea is to think in depth about an event in your life --
to sort out the meaning of that event. What happened to your soul at that point? Or did you only
understand the true meaning of the event later? Remember to tell a story.
The neatest conclusion is to connect the meaning of your event to your quotation in the
last paragraph. This will tie your essay into a neat package. If that is too difficult, then do at
least try to move to the present day, and articulate how you NOW feel about that event.
Notes:
• Use present tense when describing the events in a novel or film or story: “Rue is dying”
or “Haymitch is drinking heavily.”
• Your thesis for this paper will be the transition sentence: “Katniss’s mother’s complete
breakdown reminds me of what happened to my aunt.” Or “Katniss distrusts Peeta even
though most of his actions should make her trust him – I can relate.”
• Use chronological order to tell your story.
• Use past tense to describe the event(s) in your life: I found water.

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Due Dates:
See Syllabus
Submission Requirements: Please submit your essay through Kaizena. See the instructions posted on the
website
Format Requirement: MLA-style formatting and citations
Length: Your finished text should be between three and five pages, excluding the Works Cited page.
Research Requirements:
Works Cited Page
A Works Cited page names all of the sources that were used in an essay or research paper; it credits the
source or sources for the information you present, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize to support your
thesis. A Works Cited page also serves as a reference to the sources that were used so that a reader or
writer can quickly refer to the original text.
The Works Cited page for this research project must contain at least one entries: The Hunger Games.
Expected Student Learning Outcomes
§ Demonstrate outlining and brainstorming abilities
§ Demonstrate an awareness of the time needed to plan, search, and write an essay
§ Demonstrate an awareness of sentence structures
§ Demonstrate an understanding of multiple rhetorical strategies: Narration, Description,
Exemplification, Explanation, and Persuasive Reasoning.
§ Learn to integrate quotations effectively and correctly
Previously Learned Skills Required to Complete this Assignment
ü The ability to summarize sources
ü The ability to write grammatically correct, clear sentences.
ü The ability to write a clear and concise thesis.
ü The ability to brainstorm material for an essay.
ü The ability to organize an essay
Best Practices
Ø Write a thesis that helps readers understand the main point of the essay.
Ø Avoid telling the reader that something is “interesting,” or “exciting”; instead create images or
use examples that show it.
Ø Come to my office if you are unsure, confused, or behind.
Traps to Avoid:
Ø Failing to tell an interesting story.
Ø Failing to sufficiently connect your story to an incident in the novel.
Ø Seeking to present the subject from memory or hearsay.
Ø Citing Wikipedia as a source for your research paper.