Essay #2 Analysis of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
Essay # 2 requires you to write a five-paragraph essay analyzing irony in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” Your essay must be at least 600 words (please include a word count at the end. The essay must be in MLA format and must include an appropriate title. This essay is worth 20% of your final grade.
We will discuss this story in class and together will begin to collect some of the textual evidence you will need to complete your essay. It is your job to expand on this preliminary work and complete an outline for your essay.
Here are steps to guide you as you write this essay:
Look up any words or allusions you do not understand.
Review the evidence on irony we collected in class.
Expand and enlarge this pool of evidence so that it reflects your personal ideas and includes enough material to write a well-organized and well-developed 5-paragraph essay.
Organize your evidence into three distinct “piles,” each of which will become the basis for one of your supporting paragraphs. Each paragraph should develop one idea about how irony is evident in the story. For example, you might notice that some of the evidence suggests that the setting of the story is ironic, or that the characters’ actions are ironic.
After considering the topics of your three supporting paragraphs, write a thesis statement that comments on irony in “The Lottery” and provides a “blueprint” for the essay that will follow. In other words, what are your “piles” of evidence going to explore? How do they support your thesis? Make sure you put your “piles” in some kind of logical order – most important to least important, least important to most important, etc.
Using the information you have gathered thus far, write your outline (see below).
Using your outline as a guide, write your essay.
Make sure your thesis is clear and that you have included your blueprint information in the thesis paragraph.
Make sure you include enough textual evidence in each supporting paragraph; in other words, make sure each paragraph is fully developed.
Make sure your paragraphs use adequate transitions between paragraphs and sentences. Make sure you include a concluding paragraph that summarizes your argument using language that is different from the language you used in the thesis paragraph.
Proofread carefully. Do not use contractions. Be careful of run-ons, sentence fragments, agreement errors, comma errors, and all the other grammar we have been discussing all term. Use appropriate transition words.
Make sure your essay has an appropriate title.
When your essay is finished, please post it to Canvas in the appropriate place. Please post only Word files — no PDFs or Google doc files, please). Please submit the final version of your essay to Canvas by noon on April 17.
Please submit your outline with your final essay.
Please complete the following outline before you begin writing and use it to write your essay. You must submit your outline with your final essay.
Thesis Paragraph
Thesis sentence
Blueprint
First Body Paragraph
Topic Sentence
Support 1
Support 2
Support 3
Second Body Paragraph
Topic Sentence
Support 1
Support 2
Support 3
Third Body Paragraph
Topic Sentence
Support 1
Support 2
Support 3
Concluding Paragraph
Reworded thesis sentence and a Clincher
