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Lesson Two - On the Rainy River

Lesson

Assignment 1

(20 marks)
Open a new Word document. Label it E301U2L2.1surname
In this document, complete the assignment outlined below.
Submit this assignment using the Dropbox for U2L2 Rainy River thesis.

Consider the unit question,Ā "In his autobiographical short story, "On the Rainy River", what idea does author Tim O'Brien developĀ about theĀ nature of motivations that direct an individual's course of action?"

You are not going to write an essay in response to the question, but an introductory paragraph for that essay ONLY, set up in the following manner:

  • generalization - catch the reader's attention (at least 1 sentence)Ā What can you say about the nature of our motivations? Will you define nature? Provide a quotation that speaks to the essence of motivations? How will you introduce this topic?
  • title, genre, author - suggestion of organization and details (at least 3 sentences) "On the Rain River", short story, Tim O'Brien - the hint of organization will be the kinds of things you will discuss in our essay. What will you say about O'Brien to explore your thesis? If youĀ are going to discuss the fear of death and the fear of shame, for example, those ideas will be part of this section.
  • thesis statement (at least 1 sentence)Ā Remember that a thesis must be "a general truth about life - with a narrowed focus". That means that your idea must work for you, for me, for your neighbour, for Tim O'Brien. The narrowed focus is to prevent you from writing "The nature of motivations is different for everyone." While that IS a general truth about life, there is no argument to it. How can you narrow that down and answer the question?

BEFORE crafting your thesis statement, use the thesis planner. (If you don't have Word on your computer, download the document and then upload it to your Google Drive. It will open in there!!)

  1. Write out the TOPIC:Ā "What idea does the text creator developĀ about theĀ nature of motivations that direct an individual's course of action?"
  2. LIST the Key Words: nature, motivations, direct, individual, course of action
  3. DEFINE and REFINE (use a thesaurus) the keywords in the LEFT column.
  4. CHOOSE evidence from "On the Rainy River" that corresponds with each keyword. Ā List that evidence in the RIGHT column.
  5. Write your thesis statement.
  6. Write the introductory paragraph for your essay.