ESSAY (850-1,000-word thesis-driven)
Write an essay that makes an argument about a question/theme shared by the two books. The overall
purpose of the project is to discover common ground shared among two stories and interpret their
significance in terms of understanding childhood trauma, memory, identity, or another overarching theme.
Consider what you can learn by integrating experiences from two authors to better understand an important
theme in literature.
● Support your thesis using specific examples from both texts.
● Identify a specific audience for your essay, which will, in turn, influence the writing purpose. The
intended audience should include one of the following:
○ Academic and scholarly (may or may have not read the books)
○ Professionals at a teacher’s conference (assume the audience has not read the books)
○ The general public who are interested in world literature (think readers of magazines
such as The Atlantic; assume the audience has not read the books)
USE THIS!
● Thesis: In your essay, use a thesis that takes a stance and offers reasons in support of it. Crucial toany piece of argumentative/interpretive writing is its thesis. The thesis arises from the topic, or
subject, on which the writing focuses, and may be defined as follows: A thesis is an idea, stated as
an assertion, which represents a reasoned response to a question at issue and which will serve as
the central idea of a unified composition. When you compose a thesis statement, think about how it
satisfies the following tests:
1. Is it an idea? Does it state, in a complete sentence, an assertion?
2. Does it make a claim that is truly contestable and therefore engaging?
3. Are the terms you are using precise and clear?
4. Has the thesis developed out of a process of reasoning?
5. Can you back up your thesis with specific evidence from the texts?
Book 1: Persepolis by Satrapi
Book 2: A Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong
