Assignment Sheet: The Giver Persuasive Essay
Utopia or Dystopia?
The Giver describes a society in search of perfection, which is a recurring theme in literature. Somebody in Jonas’s society decided that eliminating or limiting choices and feeling, among other things, would ultimately create a perfect place in which to live. By eliminating and/or limiting choices and feelings, the creators were able to implement Sameness, which would then provide a conflict-less environment in which to exist.
To most kids in our society, the changes in Jonas’s world would be difficult to accept because we in America value our freedom to choose and to voice our desires. Did the creator’s of Jonas’s community truly improve society as we know it today?
Your assignment is to write a persuasive essay in which you decide whether the society in The Giver(which has eliminated and/or limited choices and desires) is an improvement from ours in 2009 or a deterioration.
Persuasive Essays can be done in different ways, but you are asked to follow the outline that I have provided. Study the format. Notice the obvious differences between a Persuasive structure versus a Literary Analysis structure.
Assignment Requirement:
1)Rough drafts must be revised and edited when turned in with the Final Draft.
2)ALL (rough and final) Drafts will be color coded, typed with 10 or 12-point font, and follow all other Writing Guidelines.
3)The Final Draft must not exceed two pages and must not be shorter than 1 ½ pages. One-inch margins are to be used.
THE OUTLINE
Introduction Paragraph:
1)Start with an attention-grabbing sentence to introduce the issue of creating a perfect society.
2)Briefly describe society in The Giver.
3)Thesis Statement: In one or two sentences, state your opinion by taking ONE side of the issue. Be clear and concise.
Body #1: Choices
1.Supporting Evidencecomes from paraphrasing information from the book about the role and effect that eliminating and/or limiting choices has on the community.
A) TOPIC SENTENCE: By depriving/protecting the citizens of/from choices, the creators of Jonas’s society made their community an improvement/a deterioration from our world.
B) ONE DIRECT QUOTE: Use one direct quote to illustrate your points from the Supporting Evidence. A QUOTE CANNOT POSSIBLY BE YOUR ONLY EVIDENCE.
2.Commentary: Provide clear analysis as to why eliminating and/or limiting choices either improves or deteriorates the citizen’s life experience. Explain thoroughly and specifically how eliminating and/or limiting choices will cause the citizens to have a better or worse life experience. Be sure to explain how their lives are improved or deteriorated because of the lack of choices.
Body #2: Feelings
1.Supporting Evidencecomes from paraphrasing information from the book about the role and effect that eliminating and/or limiting deepfeelings has on the community.
A) TOPIC SENTENCE: By depriving/protecting the citizens of/from their feelings, the creators of Jonas’s society made their community an improvement / a deterioration from our world.
B) ONE DIRECT QUOTE: Use one direct quote to illustrate your points from the Supporting Evidence. A QUOTE CANNOT POSSIBLY BE YOUR ONLY EVIDENCE.
2.Commentary: Provide clear analysis as to why minimizing citizens’feelings either improves or deteriorates each citizen’s life experience. Explain thoroughly and specifically how eliminating and/or limiting deep feelings will cause the citizens to have a better or worse life experience. Be sure to explain how their lives are improved or deteriorated because of the lack of deep, meaningful feelings.
Body #3: REBUTTAL
1.Start with a TOPIC SENTENCE that introduces the OPPOSITE opinion of your Thesis Statement.
2.Give the strongest two arguments that the opposing side would use to support the opposite opinion of your thesis. (No Quotes Required for this Paragraph.)
3.COMMENTARY (5-7 sentences for EACH separate argument: After EACH argument, explain why the opposition evidence is wrong.
Conclusion:
1.Restate your Thesis Statement in a new and interesting way by briefly reminding the reader of your strongest argument(s).
2.So-what: Consider the following ideas:
a) Can a utopia ever be achieved?
b) How can a society or culture ever improve if people will always disagree on how to improve?
c) If utopia cannot be achieved, where can we find hope for betterment?
d) How can an individual overcome a failing society?
e) Original ideas:
SENTENCE STARTERS
The Giver Persuasive Essay
Sentence Starters forBody Paragraph 1
Suggested Sentence Starters for Supporting Evidence of Body 1: Revise wording as needed. Decide on the most logical order in which to put sentences.
☺In The Giver, citizens are given. . .
☺Additionally, they are only allowed to…
☺Some choices that the citizen are deprived of/shielded from are…
☺Citizens can only… which causes…
☺Most importantly, the community is… which ultimately causes/allows the citizens to be …
☺The community values… by deciding to…
Suggested Sentence Starters for Quotes in Body 1: Anyone who forgets to introduce his/her quote or forgets to provide relevant context, will drop his/her final draft grade by 20%!!
☺One scene that best illustrates… comes when …
☺In this conversation…
☺At that moment, The Giver informs/responds/tells/points out/suggests that…
☺In that instance, Jonas suggests/questions/shows/feels/tells/ points out that…
☺During a conversation with . . . [the character] said, “. . . .,” (page). By this, [the character] meant . . ., which shows…
☺In Chapter , we see that … which illustrates the idea that . . .
☺In one important scene, . . .
☺This idea is best illustrated in the book when . . .
Suggested Sentence Starter for Commentary in Body 1: Revise wording as needed. Decide on the most logical order in which to put sentences.
☺By eliminating choices, the community is deprived of/protected from… which is a positive/negative change because…
☺People need…because…
☺People can do without… because…
☺A person’s life is more… when…which is why…
☺In order to feel a sense of… a person requires… which is why…
☺The most convincing element of improvement / deterioration is that … because …
Sentence Starters forBody Paragraph2
Suggested Sentence Starters for Supporting Evidence for Body 2: Revise wording as needed. Decide on the most logical order in which to put sentences.
☺The community values… by deciding to…☺In The Giver, citizens are given. . .
☺Additionally, they are only allowed to…
☺In order to eliminate and/or limit deep feelings such as …, the citizens are only allowed to…
☺Some feelings that the citizen are deprived of/shielded from are…
☺Citizens can only… which causes…
☺Most importantly, the community is… which ultimately causes/allows the citizens to be …
Suggested Sentence Starters for Quote in Body 2: Anyone who forgets to introduce his/her quote or forgets to provide relevant context, will drop his/her final draft grade by 20%!!
☺One scene that best illustrates… comes when …
☺In this conversation…
☺At that moment, The Giver informs/responds/tells/points out/suggests that…
☺In that instance, Jonas suggests/questions/shows/feels/tells/ points out that…
☺During a conversation with . . . [the character] said, “. . . .,” (page). By this, [the character] meant . . ., which shows…
☺In Chapter , we see that … which illustrates the idea that . . .
☺In one important scene, . . .
☺This idea is best illustrated in the book when . . .
Sentence Starter for Commentary in Body 2: Revise wording as needed. Decide on the most logical order in which to put sentences.
☺By eliminating and or limiting deep feelings, the community is deprived of/protected from… which is a positive/negative change because…
☺People need…because…
☺People can do without… because…
☺A person’s life is more… when…which is why…
☺In order to feel a sense of… a person requires… which is why…
☺The most convincing element of improvement / deterioration is that … because …
Sentence Starters forBody Paragraphs 3 (the Rebuttal):
Suggested Sentence Starters for Supporting Evidence in Body 3:
One /Another argument opponents might give is that. . .
The opposition may argue that . . .
Opponents believe / think / point out / like to point out / focus on the fact that . . .
Although the opponents may assert that . . . , I maintain that . . .
The main argument opponents point to is that..
Suggested Sentence Starters for Commentary in Body 3:
To such an argument, I would counter that . . .
Still, I maintain that.. because. . .
Although such arguments have some merit, I still argue that . . .
To answer this, I would point out that . . .
To respond to such allegations, I would argue . . .
Though such arguments might seem logical, the real truth is that . . .
Logically, an argument about . . . makes no sense because . . .
The Giver Revision Handout
Peer or Self?
Introduction Paragraph:
1).Start with an attention-grabbing sentence to introduce the issue of creating a perfect society.
2).Briefly describe the society inThe Giver.
3).Thesis Statement: State your opinion by taking ONE side of the issue.
Body #1: Choices
1).The writer has a topic sentence that correctly introduces that topic of eliminating choices.
Supporting Evidence:
2).The writer gives a thorough explanation of how the community eliminated and/or limited choices.
3).The writer gives a thorough explanation of the purpose for eliminating and/or limiting choices.
4).The writer gives a thorough explanation of the effects of eliminating and/or limiting choices has on either improving or deteriorating the community.
Quote:
5).Writer used ONE direct quote from the book.
6).The direct quote is either narration or dialogue, not both.
7).The quote should NOT be its own sentence by itself. Example of what not to do: “We really have to protect people from wrong choices” (99). See below for positive example.
8).Writer used quotation marks and citations correctly. Incorrect answers: (page 54) and (p. 54) Use your notes or you’ll be sorry!
9).The writer introduced the quote and provided context for the quote (i.e. who said it, when, why, to make what point)
An example of a quote with good introduction and context. Learn from it!!
One scene that illustrates the reason that the community eliminated choices occurs when Jonas voices his desire to have colors. After The Giver explained that allowing citizens to choose colors would lead to their desire for more decisions and about more important issues, Jonas realizes that protection is more important than freedom when he says, “We really have to protect people from wrong choices” (99).
Commentary
10).The writer smoothly transitioned into explaining why eliminating and/or limiting choices improves or deteriorates the community. Do NOT allow the student to start their Commentary in these ways: This scene proves… This quote shows… The quote means..
11).The Commentary is at least 5 sentences.
12).The Commentary clearly explains why citizens’ lives are better OR are worse because of the elimination and/or limiting of choices.
13).The writer tells specifically how a citizen’s life improves or deteriorates because of the lack of choices.
14).All the sentences in this body paragraph take only ONE position of the essay, not both.
15).Writer used transitions to help organize ideas throughout the paragraph. (e.g. To begin with, First of all, however, In order to, For these reasons, Consequently)
16).The writer used Mrs. Miller’s sentence starters correctly.
Body #2: Feelings
1).The writer has a topic sentence that correctly introduces that topic of eliminating and/or limiting deep and meaningful feelings.
Supporting Evidence:
2).The writer gives a thorough explanation of how the community eliminated and/or limited deep feelings.
3).The writer gives a thorough explanation of the purpose for eliminating and/or limiting deep feelings.
4).The writer gives a thorough explanation of the effects of eliminating and/or limiting deep feelings has on either improving or deteriorating the community.
Quote:
5).Writer used ONE direct quote from the book.
6).The direct quote is either narration or dialogue, not both.
7).The quote should NOT be its own sentence by itself. Example of what not to do: “We really have to protect people from wrong choices” (99).
8).Writer used quotation marks and citations correctly. Incorrect answers: (page 54) and (p. 54) Use your notes or you’ll be sorry!
9).The writer introduced the quote and provided context for the quote (i.e. who said it, when, why, to make what point)
Commentary
10).The writer smoothly transitioned into explaining why eliminating and or limiting deep feelings improves or deteriorates the community. Do NOT allow the student to start their Commentary in these ways: This scene proves… This quote shows… The quote means..
11).The Commentary is at least 5 sentences.
12).The Commentary clearly explains why citizens’ lives are better OR are worse because of the elimination and/or limitation of deep feelings.
13).All the sentences in this body paragraph take only ONE position of the essay, not both.
14).Writer used transitions to help organize ideas throughout the paragraph. (e.g. To begin with, First of all, however, In order to, For these reasons, Consequently)
15).The writer used Mrs. Miller’s sentence starters correctly.
Body Paragraph 3: The Rebuttal
1).Topic Sentence introduces the opposing argument.
2).Supporting Evidence 1: First argument is clear and logical.
3).First argument is thoroughly explained.
4).Commentary 1: The writer used transitions or sentence starters to begin countering the opposition’s first argument.
5).The writer maintains the position that he/she stated in the thesis.
6).The writer logically and completely proves the opposition’s first argument is wrong.
7).Supporting Evidence 2: Second argument is clear and logical.
8).Second argument is thoroughly explained.
9).Commentary 2: The writer used transitions or sentence starters to begin countering the opposition’s second argument.
10).The writer maintains the position that he/she stated in the thesis.
11).The writer logically and completely proves the opposition’s second argument is wrong.
12).The paragraph is well organized.
13).The paragraph doesn’t sound schizophrenic.
Conclusion:
1.The writer restated the Thesis Statement and briefly reminded the reader of the strongest argument(s).
2.So-what: The writer ended smoothly with some kind of concluding idea. Circle the idea that the writer used.
a) Can a utopia ever be achieved?
b) How can a society or culture ever improve if people will always disagree on how to improve?
c) If utopia cannot be achieved, where can we find hope for betterment?
d) How can an individual overcome a failing society?
e) Original ideas:
General Comments:
1. Make sure the writer did not use “eliminated and/or limited.” The writer must use one of the words, depending on the point of the sentence.
2. What were the strengths of this essay?
3. What were the weaknesses of this essay?
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