Examples, Checklists, and Troubleshooting

Follow the Shared Example

The models below use the original fictional passage “The Empty Chair” in Chapter 3. They are teaching material, not a published story or a student submission. Paragraph numbers locate this practice passage; use the citation system required for your actual assignment.

Annotated Sample Essay

A seat becomes an invitation

Opening: An empty chair can welcome someone, but it can also be kept unavailable. In “The Empty Chair,” Mina first blocks the seat beside her and later offers it to a new student. The chair changes from a barrier into an invitation, showing Mina becoming willing to connect even though she still seems hesitant.

Annotation: The opening identifies the passage, the recurring detail, and an interpretation. It avoids claiming that Mina’s motive is known.

Body paragraph 1: At first, Mina controls access to the seat. She puts her backpack on it and sends the new student towards other benches. She moves the bag only after he leaves (paragraph 1). The timing makes the bag seem more than a temporary place to store something: it functions as an obstacle while the student is present. The passage does not explain why she keeps him away, so this reading concerns her actions rather than a definite claim about her feelings.

Annotation: Specific actions support the point. The interpretation follows the evidence and keeps its limitation visible.

Body paragraph 2: Mina’s later invitation changes the chair’s role without making the change entirely simple. After noticing the student’s chessboard, she leaves the chair empty on Monday and asks whether he needs a second player. Yet “She kept one hand on the chair until he sat down” (paragraph 3). The invitation supports a reading of increased willingness to connect; the continued contact with the chair may suggest hesitation. Interest in chess is another plausible part of the change, since the passage draws attention to the board in paragraph 2.

Annotation: The paragraph connects evidence from different moments, quotes accurately, and acknowledges a reasonable alternative.

Ending: The chair moves from something Mina guards to something she offers. That change makes connection visible through an ordinary action rather than an explanation of her thoughts. Her hand remains part of the final image, leaving room to read the invitation as a tentative beginning rather than a complete transformation.

Annotation: The ending develops the significance of the body’s analysis. It adds no invented chess club, friendship history, or universal lesson about loneliness.

Use the Source Record

• Source: AuthZ, “The Empty Chair,” fictional teaching passage in chapter 3.
• Locator: paragraph 3.
• QUOTE: “She kept one hand on the chair until he sat down.”
• PARAPHRASE: Mina maintains contact with the seat while the student accepts her invitation and sits.
• MY ANALYSIS: The gesture may suggest hesitation alongside willingness to connect.
• Limit: The passage does not state her feelings or say what she does with her hand afterwards.

Keep these categories separate in your workbook. Record the actual author, title, version, and locator for real sources. Exact wording needs quotation treatment; paraphrased ideas also need credit. Follow Chapter 7 and your teacher’s citation requirements.

Revise a Weak Claim

Before: “Mina becomes completely confident and makes a lifelong friend.”

After: “Mina becomes willing to invite the student to sit with her, although her final gesture may suggest hesitation.”

The revision removes an invented future and qualifies an inference. Practise the same move on a sentence from your own draft: identify the evidence, remove additions, and distinguish observation from interpretation.

Use the Workbook in Order

Start with the assignment planner, then develop your main points. Use the opening-and-ending planner after the argument takes shape. Keep source records during reading, and complete the revision and submission checks last. Blank continuation pages are for your work; only the separately labelled teaching example is pre-completed.

Final Checklist

• I answer the assigned question and can state my main idea.
• Each paragraph has a purpose, evidence, and explanation.
• My quotations and paraphrases match their sources.
• I distinguish an interpretation from a stated fact.
• I follow the required citation, format, collaboration, and AI-use rules.
• I reopen the final file and verify what I actually submit.

Troubleshooting

If the essay retells the passage, explain what a detail contributes to your interpretation. If the thesis promises too much, narrow it to the evidence. If feedback is unclear, ask about a specific paragraph. If a source or tool supplied an idea, record that contribution accurately rather than treating disclosure as permission to use a prohibited method.