Research Writing – Outline Organizer
Introduction/Thesis Statement (Subject + Opinion):
· Opening Anecdote (Question, Story, etc.): Author JK Rowling mesmerized graduates and honored guests with her commencement speech at Harvard University in May 2008. This author of the Harry Potter books provided insight based her life story.
· Thesis Statement: One of her quotes stuck out: “We do not need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” This quote was a reflection of the events that happened in Rowling’s life and has since impacted the lives of many people.
Body Paragraph 1:
· Topic Sentence: These were many moments throughout JK Rowling’s life that greatly impacted her and her path as a writer.
o Point One: Even as a child, JK Rowling showed a very strong imagination – an inner magic that would influence her later in life.
o Evidence: According to JK Rowling’s official biography from her website, Rowling loved playing make-believe with her sister Di. They would put on murder mystery plays. Rowling would be the stage manager and set her sister’s scenes.
o Point Two: As she grew up, Rowling had a dream and confided in one person. These experiences became an inspiration for an important part of the Harry Potter series.
o Evidence: According to Rowling’s official website, in high school, Rowling would ride in a Ford Anglia with her friend Sean Harris. She confided in him on how much she wanted to be a writer. This car was an important piece in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The dedication in the book was to her close friend.
o Point three: Happy events were not the only ones that impacted Rowling as a writer.
o Evidence: While JK Rowling was an adult, her mother was diagonised with Multiple Sclerosis. In 1990, she passed away from complications from the disease.
· Concluding Sentence: These moments, both happy and difficult, led Rowling to become the woman she is now.
Body Paragraph 2:
· Topic Sentence: When JK Rowling spoke at Havard University’s commencement in 2008 and gave her words of wisdom, it was not without many events that tested her “inner magic” that led up to that moment.
o Point One: The road to becoming a famous writer to speak at Havard University was a difficult one for Rowling. Things were hard before Harry Potter.
o Evidence: According to JK Rowling’s official website, Rowling had her daughter and wrote at any point she could. The book was rejected numerous times. Christopher Little Publishing eventually accepted the novel.
o Point Two: While speaking to the graduates, Rowling made sure not to sugarcoat any of the difficulties she faced while waiting for a publisher to take the Harry Potter series prior to her success. She showed what “inner magic” she needed to head towards her goals.
o Evidence: Ode magazine covered the 2008 commencement speech and pulled this quote particularly from Rowling’s speech: “I was jobless, a lone parent and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless.”
o Point three: Again, Rowling broke all misconceptions of her life prior to the success of Harry Potter that have been seen to some as a fairy tale.
o Evidence: Rowling stated during her speech: “Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.”
· Concluding Sentence: Rowling’s background and experiences provided her with the ability to serve as a “living example” of what finding magic inside oneself truly looks like even in difficult times.
Body Paragraph 3:
· Topic Sentence: JK Rowling’s advice of finding the magic within a person’s self has greatly influenced many, not only the students present at the speech, but herself.
o Point One: The people who witnessed that speech at Harvard University learned an important lesson that day: Failure does not mean that something cannot be done. Rowling’s quote showed that through her many failures before being published. It just means that a person must try again because the ability exists.
o Evidence: A reporter from Ode Magazine wrote: “That’s not a message we hear a lot about these days. Saunter into the self-help aisle of the average bookstore and it’s clear just how success-obsessed we are. The shelves are crammed with books purporting to reveal, in flowery language and pastel colors, how we can lose weight, make money, go green.”
o Point Two: Even those who did not get to hear Rowling’s commencement could take a lesson from her about being a failure and finding the ability to keep going.
o Evidence: Through the article about Rowling’s speech in Ode Magazine, readers were able to see that failure comes to many successful people: “The stories of the world’s most successful failures suggest that what matters most is not whether you win or lose, but how you fail.” The article also provided examples of well-known stars like Michael Jordan.
o Point three: In the closing of her speech, Rowling shows how she lives by her own principles.
o Evidence: Rowling closed her speech with her own words in mind: “That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.”
· Concluding Sentence: Rowling’s quote has influenced others to understanding that it takes time to find the magic inside of each person.
Concluding Paragraph: JK Rowling’s words have impacted many through the Harry Potter books. It is not just her written words that have done so. Rowling’s quote from her 2008 commencement speech, “We do not need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better,” has done so as well. Without her sometimes difficult life story, Rowling may have not had the ability to effectively say this same message.