This document provides guidance on writing an essay about a memorable personal event. It discusses using quotations from another text to introduce the topic and transitioning to discussing one's own experience. It offers tips on using descriptive details, dialogue, and figurative language like similes and metaphors to engage readers. The document also emphasizes establishing a clear timeline through temporal transitions and verb tenses. Integrating quotations using signal phrases and formatting long quotes is reviewed. Finally, checklist questions are provided to help structure the beginning, middle, and end of the essay draft.

1. EWRT 1A: Class 13

2. Me versus Myself
Me
• Me is an object pronoun, which
means that it refers to the
person that the action of a verb
is being done to, or to which a
preposition refers.
• They want me to study more.
• Tell me a story.
• Between you and me, he's right.
• Carol wants to meet with John
and me tomorrow.
• The book was written entirely by
me.
• Please call Hillary or me with
any questions.
Myself
• Myself is a reflexive or stressed
pronoun, which means that,
generally speaking, it should be
used in conjunction with the
subject pronoun I, not instead of
the object pronoun me.
• I bought myself a car.
• I myself started the company.
• I did the laundry by myself.
• I feel like myself again.
• Tired of waiting, I just did it
myself.

3. I versus Me
• John and me/I went to the store
• Me went to the store
• I went to the store
• John and I went to the store
• Maria went to the store with Chase and I/me.
• Maria went to the store with I
• Maria went to the store with me.
• Maria went to the store with Chase and me.
http://www.shmoop.com/video/sentence-fragments

4. AGENDA
Video: Sentence Fragments
Essay #3 Review
 Discussion: Bragg: “Analyzing Writing
Strategies” #1 p 36: Comparing
 Writing:
 Similes and Metaphors
 Time Transitions and Verb Tenses
 Integrating quotations MLA style
Preparing the complete draft: SMG
52-53
 Video: Basic Paper Formatting
 Video: Works Cited Page, Formatting

5. ESSAY # 3
Finishing it up!

6. Review: The WritingAssignment
Complete draft due at our next meeting!
• 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 three to five 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.

7. Review: This is what we have written so far
• Introduction/Long quotation
• Transition/Thesis
• Intro to event
• Description of places
• Description of people
• Climax (with sentence strategy)
• Dialogue (or 2)
• Significance
• Concluding strategy

8. Check the beginning to make sure you
have introduced your quotation
• So, you have your long quotation, and you are all ready to
jump off of it to start your narrative portion of the essay.
There is a bit of a trick here, though. You can’t just begin
your essay with a quotation from the book. You have to
introduce it to the reader.
• There are a number of ways to do this. One way is to briefly
introduce the novel and the author. Another way is to
summarize the context of quotation before you present it.
After the quotation, you can do a brief explanation of how it
connects to your own story. You can use another style of
introduction, but you must have your own words before you
insert a quotation from the novel!
• Take a moment and write a brief introduction to your
quotation.

9. NEW SKILL:
USING
FIGURES OF
SPEECH

10. Metaphor: a literary figure of speech that describes a subject by
asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as
another otherwise unrelated object.
All the world’s a stage
Simile: a figure of speech that directly compares two different
things, usually by employing the words “like” or “as.”
I’ve been working like a dog

11. Bragg: “Analyzing Writing Strategies #1 p 36
1. Review “Analyzing Writing Strategies” #1.
2. Locate the comparisons in paragraphs 1, 3,
7, 9, 13, and 16.
3. Consider the strength of metaphors and
similes. Pick a few favorites and think about
how you might use comparisons like them in
your own writing.

12. • Formulate 5-7 metaphors or
similes appropriate to your
essay.
• Write them down so you
can include the best ones in
your essay!

13. BASIC FEATURE:
A WELL-TOLD STORY
New Skill: A Sentence Strategy:
Time Transitions and Verb Tenses

14. As you draft a remembered
event essay, you will be trying
to help readers follow the
sequence of actions in time.
To prevent readers from
becoming confused about the
chronology, writers use a
combination of time
transitions and verb tenses to
help readers understand
when the event occurred and
when particular actions
occurred in relation to other
actions.

15. occurred when she went to the mall for “a day of last-minute
Christmas sopping.” Early in her
essay, Dillard identifies when the event took place:
“On one weekday morning after Christmas . . .”
(par. 3). You can also use calendar time to
establish the time the event began; if your narrative
Covers several days, you might readers a series of time cues
throughout the essay so we can easily follow the progression:
“A year before his death”; “That August, I had turned 22”; and
so on.
Cite calendar or clock time to establish when the
event took place and to help readers follow the
action over time. Writers often situate the event in
terms of the date or time. Brandt, for example,
establishes in the opening paragraph that the event

16. Use temporal transitions combined with appropriate verb
tenses to help readers follow a sequence of actions.
Writers can employ temporal transitions such as after,
before, in the meantime, and simultaneously to help
readers keep track of the sequence of actions:
When I got back to the Snoopy
section, I took one look at the
lines. . . . (Brandt, par. 3)
In this example, when signals
that one action followed another
in time: Brandt did not take a
look at the lines until she got
back to the Snoopy section.

17. • Here’s another example of
a simple one-thing-and-
then-another time
progression:
• We all spread out, banged
together some regular
snowballs, took aim, and,
when the Buick drew nigh,
fired. (Dillard, par. 7)
In this example, the word
when together with a series of
simple past-tense verbs
indicates that a sequence of
actions took place in a
straightforward chronological
order: they took their
positions, made snowballs,
aimed, the Buick came near,
they threw their snowballs.

18. Look for a paragraph (or paragraphs) in your essay that tells a
part of the story that relies on order. Now, add temporal words
to help the reader understand when events happened.
After, afterward, before, then, once, next,
last, at last, at length, first, second, at first,
formerly, rarely, usually, another, finally,
soon, meanwhile, at the same time, for a
minute, hour, day, during the morning, day,
week, most important, later, ordinarily, to
begin with, afterwards, generally, in order to,
subsequently, previously, in the meantime,
immediately, eventually, concurrently,
simultaneously
Here are a list of words that will help you establish order!

19. REVIEW:
INTEGRATING
QUOTATIONS
MLA STYLE
To make sure you have integrated your quotations correctly,
watch the video, and then read the next slides carefully.
Check your own work to make sure it meets MLA standards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pTrU_YyjxI

20. According to the St. Martin's Guide, there are three
main ways to set up a signaling phrase:
1. With a complete sentence followed by a colon.
• The effects of Auld's prohibition against teaching Douglass to read were
quite profound for Douglass: "It was a new and special revelation" (29).
2. With an incomplete sentence, followed by a comma.
• Douglass argues that Auld's prohibition against literacy for him was a
profound experience, saying, "It was a new and special revelation" (29).
3. With a statement that ends in that.
• The importance of Auld's prohibition to Douglass is clear when he states
that "It was a new and special revelation" (29).

21. Using Signal Phrases:
• One common error a lot of people make when they
include a quotation is that they tend to put the
quotation in a sentence by itself. Unfortunately, we
cannot do this. We need to use what Diana Hacker
calls a signal phrase to introduce the quote and give
our readers a context for the quote that explains
why we are taking the time to include it in our
paper.

22. Take, for example, this section from a student
paper:
Incorrect: Katniss doesn’t respond to Cinna’s statement, but she
agrees in her head. “He’s right, though. The whole rotten lot of
them is despicable” (65).
Correct: Katniss doesn’t respond to Cinna’s statement, but she
agrees in her head: “He’s right, though. The whole rotten lot of
them is despicable” (65).
Or
Correct: Katniss doesn’t respond to Cinna’s statement. However,
she thinks, “He’s right, though. The whole rotten lot of them is
despicable” (65).

23. Long quotations
• For quotations that are more than four lines of prose,
place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omit
quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with
the entire quote indented one inch from the left margin;
maintain double-spacing. Only indent the first line of the
quotation by an additional quarter inch if you are citing
multiple paragraphs. Your parenthetical citation should
come after the closing punctuation mark. When quoting
verse, maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain
double-spacing throughout your essay.)

24. The classroom was noisy as the MUN students filed in[. . .] Mr. Mustard
began in the middle of the program, and the room quieted down as we strained
to hear the narrator’s voice:
I look up at the buildings, these immense buildings They are so
enormous. And along the edges of each enormous building are
the nets. Because right at the time that I am making this visit,
there has been an epidemic of suicides at the Foxconn plant.
Week after week, worker after worker has been climbing all the
way up to the tops of these enormous buildings, and then
throwing themselves off, killing themselves in a brutal and public
manner, not thinking very much about just how bad this makes
Foxconn look. Foxconn's response to month after month of
suicides has been to put up these nets. (Mr. Daisey and the
Apple Factory)
For example, when citing more than
four lines of prose, use the following
example:
Hanging
indent for
long
quotation: 10
spaces

25. When citing two or more paragraphs, use block quotation format, even if
the passage is fewer than four lines. Indent the first line of each quoted
paragraph an extra quarter inch.
Katniss thinks about how difficult it would be to get a meal like this in District 12:
What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food
appears at the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I
now commit to combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy
to come by? What do they do all day, these people in the Capitol,
besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new
shipment of tributes to roll in and die for their entertainment?
I look up and find Cinna’s eyes trained on mine. ‘How
despicable we must seem to you,’ he says. (65)
Katniss doesn’t respond to Cinna’s statement, but she agrees in her head:
“He’s right, though. The whole rotten lot of them is despicable” (65).
Although our world does not really…..
Indent 12.5
Indent 12.5

26. Refer to the SMG
52-53
for more help!
Preparing the
complete draft:
Answer the
questions on the
next slides to
ensure you are
on the right
track with your
draft.

27. The Essay: The Beginning
1. Do I have my quotation?
2. Have I introduced my quotation?
3. Have I explained it?
4. Do I have a transition to my own story?
5. Have I aroused readers’ curiosity?
6. Can my readers identify with me? Should I tell
them a few things about myself?
7. Should I do something unusual, such as
beginning in the middle of the action or with a
funny bit of dialogue?

28. The Story
1. Should I follow strict chronological order? Or
would flashback or flashforward make the
narrative more interesting?
2. Do I have narrative action and dialogue that
intensify the drama?
3. Can I add description to detail or dramatize the
story?
4. Do I have a climax that builds appropriately?

29. MLA style Paper Format
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xAc4yZ8VSA

30. MAKING A WORKS CITED
PAGE MLA STYLE
Ensure that you have a properly formatted works cited
page. You are likely only citing one text for this essay. I
have included a version of that citation on the next
page. Please modify it to reflect the text you are using.
Watch the video!

31. Student 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng_PeRBFa4s
Works Cited
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic, 2008.

32. The Ending
1. In my effort to conclude with some reflections on
meaning, have I tagged on a moral? Do I sound too
sentimental?
2. If I want readers to think well of me, should I conclude
with a philosophical statement, as Wolff does? Should I
end with a paradoxical statement like Dillard? Should I
be self-critical to avoid seeming smug?
3. Have I emphasized the events continuing significance in
my life? Have I contrasted my remembered and current
feelings?
4. Have I framed the essay by echoing back to my long
quotation? Do I give readers a sense of closure?

33. HOMEWORK
Post #17
Your revised introduction with your properly integrated quotation and
transition to your thesis.
Post #18:
Five similes or metaphors appropriate to your essay.
An example or two of how you used time transitions in your essay.
An example of one quotation with an appropriate signal phrase.
Write: Complete Draft of Essay #2
Endeavor to format it MLA style
Make a works cited page for your essay.
Bring: Two clean, complete (three pages or more) copies of
your draft; SMG
Quiz 7