Non Fiction

Independent Research Project - a study in non-fiction

IRP in CSI Style! Below is a sample graphic organizer - complete and submit a graphic organizer before building your presentation.

When you begin to compose your IRP think like a forensic investigator who is working to solve a case… You are putting the analysis before your audience, but to convince them of your message you must plan your presentation! (Not to say that your presentation will be a crime!) THINK CSI!

C = Claim. This is your introduction and should include an introductory slide. Present a short speech where you include these points:

• Introduce yourself: “Good morning fellow students. I am ________________ …”
• Credit th eauthor and mention the title of the book
• State the topic you are presenting: “…and I’d like to present you with _______...”
• Explain your claim: “This is relevant because ___________...”

S = Support. Speak to your audience about your topic. This is the BULK of your presenation. 

§         Show your PowerPoint, ComicLife, or any other audio/visual aid. The following points you should either explain as the presentation is being given or should be part of the presentation: Give structure to your presentation - at least three content slides.

 

1.      Prove why the topic you have chosen is important.

2.      Supply facts, anecdotes and statistics to strengthen your support.

3.      Include pictures, interviews, sound or video clips and tie these together to fully explore the topic you have chosen.

 

I = Impact. Tell your audience why your topic is relevant to them. These are your concluding statements and should be accompanied by a concluding slide.

• State why the information you have shared is relevant to your audience.
• Explain how the information you presented might affect your audience.
• Thank your audience for their attentiveness and ask for questions.

Paragraph 6 Novel Study

Novel Study: Paragraph 6 

Conflict: Conflict is often expressed in the following terms:

 

 

 

 man vs. self                              

                                                man vs. man

                                                                       

 

                                                                    man vs. society

                                                                

 

 
Write a paragraph that identifies the central conflict of the narrative and show how that conflict is both developed and resolved.

 

Remember that your paragraph should contain a hook and clincher (come full circle)!

Ex:       Struggling against the forces of a democratic government can often seem daunting, but that struggle pales in comparison to struggling against the unbridled power of a totalitarian regime. In Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four Winston’s essential conflict is best described as Man vs. Society. Winston sees the injustice in a government that continually alters history by rewriting historical records and destroying the truth. He lives in a state of perpetual angst when confronted daily by the illogical contradictory platitudes, “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength” (Orwell, 1948, p. 3). Winston is a paranoid individual who is constantly worried that his thoughts will betray him - that he is guilty of “thought crime”. He grapples with blatantly illogical doublespeak and cannot reconcile himself to an easy peace with the political environment in which he exists. In Nineteen Eighty-Four the eventual resolution of Winston’s conflict with society only transpires when he loses the struggle, when he is broken by the indisputable power of the totalitarian state. One learns through the experience of reading this narrative that the power of the state will almost always triumph over the will of the individual. Conflict with society, that entails a struggle to reconcile oneself with an illegitimate state, is not likely to end on a positive note.

Paragraph 5 of Novel Study

Climax to resolution: like the punch line of a joke or the answer to a riddle, the narrative climax is the point of highest interest in a story. The climax is often followed by a resolution to the conflict(s) of the story and a conclusion.

On Freytag’s Pyramid the climax is shown as the peak of his PLOT GRAPH. The falling action and conclusion show another horizontal line that is somewhat elevated from the horizontal of the introduction. The idea is that after reading the story you, also, are in a heightened state of awareness or understanding.

Write a paragraph that explains why the book you are reading should leave its readers in a heightened state of awareness or understanding. Consider: thematic relevance; vocabulary; literary expression; literary device; development of character

Remember that your paragraph should contain a hook and clincher (come full circle)!

Ex:       In the throes of intimacy Julia and Winston are ambushed and arrested. In Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four the unexpected climax and eventual resolution of Winston’s conflict with society carry such a strong theme that one cannot help but be intellectually stimulated by the story. The climax is as inevitable as his subsequent torture and the final breaking of his spirit. After their arrest both Julia and Winston visit room 101 where they each betray the other and succumb to the totalitarian power of the state. One learns through the experience of reading this narrative that the power of the state will almost always triumph over the will of the individual.

Paragraph 4 Novel Study

Theme

Great stories, like the one you are reading are often great because they convey themes. Theme is defined as a message that the writer wishes you to get from his story.

The central idea may be expressed as a singular encompassing theme, while at the same time there are often lesser themes within the story.

Theme is expressed as a complete thought:

§  War is a futile endeavour that is best avoided, by both leaders and their citizens.

§  The bonds of blood are often stronger than those forged by friendship.

Prepare a 5 in 1 and post it to your blog: you may post it as a picture or compose the 5 in 1 on your blog and add a picture:

 

 

Components:

 

1. Write a theme that you feel best encompasses the author’s central idea in the novel that you are reading. 

2. Write a paragraph that explains how the theme is developed in the novel.

3. Quote a few lines that you feel best capture the theme. Cite the quotation according to AMA format.

4. Create an image that you feel best captures the theme. (Think of an image that reflects the themes above: bonds of family vs. bonds of friendship or the futility of war. How would you draw these themes?

5. Write a title that encompasses all of the other elements of this assignment!

Novel Study Paragraph 3

Novel Study: Paragraph 3
 

Rising Action: often events in a story that lead to heightened suspense will inevitably lead to a point of greatest interest, or climax.

 

Along with Setting, Character and Causative Incident, Rising Action is a part of the dramatic structure of a story. Freytag developed a way to graphically illustrate the dramatic structure of a story in a PLOT GRAPH, which is also referred to as Freytag’s Pyramid.

In a work of fiction there is usually rising action. Write a paragraph that explains how rising action or suspense is created in the story that you are reading. Trace the sequence of 2 or 3 or even 4 events that serve to heighten suspense.

 

Remember that your paragraph should contain a hook and clincher (come full circle)!

 

Example paragraph with some missing lines!

(Hook) When Winston saw the words, “I love you” on the slip of paper that the black haired girl surreptitiously slipped into his hand he knew his life was about to change. The reader also senses at that Winston’s life is about to change. This is one in a series of two more events that Orwell uses to add suspense to his novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four… (here you would include two more events that typify rising action)… You can be sure, as a reader, that when the main character gets a love note from a dark haired stranger, that there’s going to be some action in the story. (clincher)

Novel Study: Paragraph 2 

Every story worthy of that name has a conflict, and conflict is the direct outgrowth of a causative incident (CI). From the story that you are reading, identify the CI and write about how that CI came about and what likely conflict it will encourage.

Writing the paragraph: unity and coherence:

A paragraph is unified when it stays on topic.

A paragraph is coherent when the point made is clearly made. 

To achieve unity and coherence write a paragraph that outlines the CA and indicates what likely conflict will transpire. 

The criteria for this paragraph: 

• Maintaining unity
• Achieving coherence
• writing in active sentences
• using at least one correlative conjunction

To add style to your writing play with your words. Add a hook that you return to in the concluding sentence.

 

 

Example:

            (hook) When you look around at others you probably assume that people are all the same - and that only you are different. Well, in that regard we are all the same - we each like to think that we are the different one! In Sherman Alexie’s novel, Part Time Indian, the man character, Junior, likes to think that he is unique. This wildly original thinking, though, is what leads to the causative event in this book. Junior, a Okanagan native boy, leaves his rez school in central Washington to attend a white school in the nearby town of Reardon. Because he’s fought with his teacher at his reservation school, Junior makes the decision to attend Reardon High School, and consequently finds himself between two worlds, the world of his native heritage and his adopted white culture. Without a doubt this causative incident should lead to plenty of conflict, in the variety of both man versus man and man versus self. So, the next time that you are looking around to see that everyone else is the same, give your head a shake and realize that there are as many differences as there are people out there! (clincher)

Novel Study Paragraph 1

Novel Study Paragraph # 1

While reading the novel select one quotation which “strikes” you and write it down. Include a proper reference to the quotation you select.

Example: “One of these days, thought Winston with sudden deep conviction, Syme will be vaporized.” (Orwell, 1948, p. 56)

The reason for selecting a specific quotation should be because it…

 

Annoys you…

Angers you…

Inspires you…

Frustrates you…

Makes you think…

Confuses you…

Reminds you…

Etc.

1. Copy verbatim the quotation and reference accordingly. State which of the above apply to the selected quotation.
2. Tie the quotation to the story in such a way as to give a bit of background to it.
3. In a clearly structured paragraph respond to the quotation with an explanation about why the quotation addresses one of the above concerns. (topic sentence, developing sentences and concluding sentence)

 

Example: “One of these days, thought Winston with sudden deep conviction, Syme will be vaporized” (Orwell, 1948, p. 56). It angers me to think that Winston lives in a society where he is able to consider that his friends or even his coworkers might just disappear one day. That they would disappear for having committed a thought-crime makes the realization of the absolute control of the totalitarian government even more repugnant. Winston, through the voice of the narrator, muses on the myriad ways that people in his society can merely disappear, and then even disappear from all references - as if they had never existed. I would like to think that if I lived in such a society that I, too, would be a rebel. I’d like to think that I would join forces with others to overthrow such an authoritarian regime. But what chance would I have. If I had grown up in such a regime, how would I know what political system would better afford the freedom that I so desperately craved?