Essays due to turnitin.com by 11:59 p.m. tonight!

Here are some reminders:

1) Re-read yesterday's blog for sources you might need.  Don't lose points for faulty format!  That's the easiest thing for EVERYONE to control; it requires simple attention, not brilliance, polished prose, or an SAT vocabulary!

2) Yes, we've been talking about THEME and THESIS because your introduction needs both!  Find a useful, illuminating theme (some insight or understanding about the concept of being an outsider) that you see in your book, but first  phrase it as a "universal"; then turn it into a thesis that applies to your book only.

Here is how this might work using Huck Finn (which was brought to mind as the first-page MLA sample)
THEME:  Sometimes people who are rejected by society and even live on its fringes can see moral truths more clearly than those who form the social mainstream.
MIDDLE STEP:  Show how that theme connects with your book:  Mark Twain's memorable Huck Finn, a 12-year-old near-orphan who rebuffs most efforts to "civilize" him, nevertheless manages to understand something that has eluded everybody else he knows:  slaves are people too, and can claim as much human dignity as anyone else.
Finally, turn it into a THESIS (claim plus "road map"):  Despite the many ways in which Huck can be considered an "outsider," his journey downriver with Jim leads him to the moral high ground which allows him to see and reject a major flaw in the society around him.
Such a paper would briefly catalogue a range of ways in which he "is" an outsider; reveal some of the ways/reasons his views began to change; discuss the climactic, transformative moment in detail; and finally show how Huck's kindness to Jim helped change the opinions of at least a few people in Huck's sphere of influenc.

OR--use the same universal THEME to make a different point--that both in town and on his journey downriver, Huck was able to see a variety of human and social flaws in the people he meets, such as  . . .[two or three specifics here], culminating in his risking his mortal soul to also reject the laws that protected his society's acceptance of slavery.

THE POINT IS--have some "richer" theme behind an overly simple thesis claim:  Character X is an outsider because of [three simple reasons].

3) Bring both your grey lit book AND the choice book (if you have a school copy) to class tomorrow--plus your ID.  We're going to the book room . . .