Freshmen Marking Period One Project : Elements of Fiction Paper Fall 2015
Due: ______
This marking period we have been studying fiction, in particular, short stories. Your goal is to write a paper on the short story of your choice in which you describe the elements of fiction used in the story which make the story compelling.
Your must do the following:
1. Start with a strong thesis statement. Your thesis statement is a sentence (or sentences) in which you tell your reader what you will prove. In this paper, you are proving that your chosen short story is excellent because of its use of literary techniques.
2. Include appropriate vocabulary in describing your story. Use your elements of fiction definitions.
3. Offer at least three quotes from the text to support your thesis statement. Each quote will be an example of an element of fiction at work making your story great in some way (compelling, romantic, action-filled, poignant. . . ).
4. All quotes must be properly formatted.
5. End with a summative conclusion which reasserts the validity of your thesis statement, addresses the overall importance of using literary techniques to create a compelling story, and a sentence which unites the three body paragraphs, reinforcing the significance of using the techniques in the story, mention the name of the short story again.
For the bold sentence in number five, think of it this way: You chose the story because you like it, and literary techniques are what build a good story. In this sentence you will explain how the three examples given in the three paragraphs can be looked at as working together to build one wonderful story. Perhaps the techniques are helping to build the moral of the story. . . or reinforce the theme. . . or create thrilling action. . . or create pulse-racing suspense.