Baldwin Study Materials for Essay

I Am Not Your Negro study guide with essays and background material on Baldwin, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and Martin Luther King.
http://www.magpictures.com/iamnotyournegro/images/share/educational/curriculum.pdf

I Am Not Your Negro transcript: 
https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=i-am-not-your-negro

"Sonny Blues" Quotations:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/370824-sonny-s-blues-by-james-baldwin---penguin-60-s-series

"Recitatif" Critical Essay:
http://franklinscourses.pbworks.com/f/Recitatif%2BCritical%2BJSTOR%2BEssay.pdf

Ten Steps to Writing an Effective Essay & Thesis Statement Templates

        1.      Read and Read and Read Prompt:  Whatever you choose, make sure to think about every facet of the question.  Read over and over again.  Think.  Digest what you are about to accomplish.

        2.      Return to the text.  Return to your blog responses, journal, and class notes.  Go back and look your work again with the prompt in mind. How is everything new now that you are seeing the plays with the prompt in mind? 

        3.      Rehearse.  What?  Yes!  Rehearse and perform a verbal essay using the prompt and the works.  How would you address a jury of your peers with you proposed thesis?  What evidence would you use?

        4.      Find your Evidence:  Find and cite valuable passages for each of the parts of the above prompt.  Go to the net and cut and paste at least 10-12 passages and or quotations to use in your piece into a word document.

        5.      So what’s your point?  Thesis statement:  The questions in the prompt are guiding your essay. Look at your 10 major passages and ask yourself…what message am I taking away from this reading experience?  Write a solid one sentence thesis statement of purpose.

       6.      Organization:  Look at the list of quotations and organize the quotations into the paragraphs.  DO NOT BE AFRAID TO JUMP AROUND.  JUMP AROUND.  JUMP UP, JUMP UP AND GET DOWN!

        7.      Your thesis and 10 Quotations.  Your complete thesis is the heading and the 10 quotations should be arranged in the order you would use them in your argument.

        8.      Compose body paragraphs:  Using the prompt and your accompanying quotations - start writing your essay.  Make sure you come to some sort of conclusion in the third paragraph.  You may even have a brief conclusion as another paragraph.

       9.      Read your essay over: The professor’s eyes should not be the first set of eyes to read your essay.  Make sure it is solid.  Read it out loud. 

       10.   Compose your introduction:  Keep it brief and make sure the thesis statement you wrote is the last sentence.

Thesis Statement Templates

Prose/Open Response Example #1: 

              (Insert author’s name) presents readers with _________________________ as a means of __________________________.  Through the use of __________________________, ____________________________, and _________________________ he/she demonstrates the necessity for human beings to ________________________.  However, this becomes more complicated because___________________________.  Therefore, (Insert author’s name) uses ________________________ to make his/her point that in order to ____________________ one must ___________________________.

Prose/Open Response Example #2: 

              In the art of fiction, an author may choose to utilize (insert literary device) as a means of ________________________________.  (Insert author’s name) takes this device to another level in _____________________________ by revealing  _____________________________ through the use of _________________________.  Through the course of the novel/play, ____________________________________.  However, by the end of the work ___________________ ________________. Therefore, (insert author’s name) utilizes (insert literary device) to make the point _________________________________________________.

Prose/Open Response Example #3: 

              Often novelists/playwrights _________________________________.  However, (insert author’s name) chooses to ______________________________________ in his her novel/play ____________________________ in order to reveal _________________________________________ about (insert theme).  While on the surface it may appear _________________________, by the end of the work, (insert author’s name) proves __________________

______________________________.  Therefore, ______________________________________________________________________.

Poetry Example #1: 

              A poet may choose to utilize (insert literary device) as a means of describing the complex feelings attached to________________________________.  (Insert author’s name) takes this device to another level in _____________________________ by revealing  _____________________________ through the use of _________________________.  On one level, the poet reveals ____________________________________.  However, the use of (insert literary device) also brings out the paradoxical feelings of ________________________________. Therefore, _______________________________________________________________________.

Poetry Example #2: 

              A poet may choose to utilize (insert literary device) as a means of describing the complex feelings attached to________________________________.  (Insert name of poet #1) takes this device to another level in _____________________________ by revealing  _____________________________ through the use of _________________________.  (Insert name of poet #2) also tackles this notion, yet utilizes (insert literary device) in order to describe _____________________________________________.  On one level, both poets reveal ____________________________________.  However, when one examines ______________________________ one will notice the paradoxical feelings of ________________________________. Therefore, while (poet #1 ) describes _________________________________________________, (poet #2) reveals that what really counts is _____________________________.