Directions: You will be constructing a writing piece that determines a theme in our anchor text (American Born Chinese) and analyzes its development through a text by citing specific textual evidence and explaining how the evidence supports your determined theme. This should be done in AT LEAST THREE FULL PARAGRAPHS. Use the checklist and the rubric below to guide your writing.
Your writing piece should...
-STATE YOUR THEME (you should do this in a sentence at the beginning of the writing piece. This does NOT count toward your three paragraphs.)
-CITE EVIDENCE FOR YOUR THEME
-CLEARLY EXPLAIN HOW THE EVIDENCE FITS/SUPPORTS YOUR THEME
-You should complete both of these tasks for each of THREE pieces of evidence, and give EACH of them their own paragraph
Below is an example of a theme statement and one paragraph that supports the theme statement with evidence from the text along with an explanation of that evidence.
The paragraph should contain a topic sentence. The topic sentence states the main idea (or claim) for that paragraph. The topic sentence may come at the beginning or at the end of the paragraph.
The paragraph may also contain contextual information. This gives enough information to establish the part of the plot referenced in the paragraph and any pertinent details.
Evidence directly from the text is provided. This evidence should support the main idea (or claim) for the paragraph.
The bulk of the paragraph includes an explanation of how the evidence supports the main idea (or claim). One good rule of writing: if you think you have explained yourself enough, add at least one more sentence to explain yourself in a little more detail.
Theme Statement: Conformity often leads to struggle with belonging.
In American Born Chinese, conformity almost causes Jin-Wang’s date with Amelia to end in smelly tragedy. Although they have immigrated to the U.S., Jin-Wang’s parents continue to conform to the culture they experienced as teenagers in China. He states, “When my parents were growing up in China, neither of them had ever heard of–let alone used–deodorant, so it never occurred to them to buy such a product for me” (168). His parents conform to the expectations of Chinese society; that is, they do not see the need for deodorant at his age because no one their age used it growing up. Jin-Wang, however, wants to conform to American society, where many students carry deodorant with them during the school day to reapply as needed. In other words, Jin-Wang wants to conform to the hygiene standards of his peers. Because his parents conform to different ideas about hygiene, Jin-Wang finds himself caught between two cultures. Conforming to both cultures at the same time is not possible, though, and heightens the struggle Jin-Wang faces to identify as either Chinese or American and the difficulty to belong to both the Chinese culture at home and the American culture where that home is located.
Theme Statement Stems
____________ leads to / is often a result of / causes ________.
__________ is more than __________, it is _____________.
A human that __________ is __________________.
Without __________, we are __________________.
In order to ___________, __________ must ______________.
