An alternative to the 5-paragraph form.

• Pattern: Identify the pattern or thing that you find most interesting/revealing.
• Working thesis: Make a claim about the above pattern. In other words, so what?
• Introduction/Pan: In your introduction, identify your chosen pattern and state your working thesis.
• Track: In your first body paragraph, trace the pattern broadly over the course of the book.
• Zoom #1: Choose a passage that is important and representative for your chosen pattern and Working Thesis. Identify:
  • What can you say about this passage? (So what?)
  • What else can you say about it? (Make more than one claim; 10 on 1 analysis)
  • What else can you say about it?
  • How is this passage representative of what you're arguing in your thesis?
  • How has your thesis evolved (developed further) given this passage and your claims about it?
• Zoom #2: Repeat the above, including all items (a-e). Choose another passage that is important and representative for your chosen pattern and Working Thesis.
  • What can you say about this passage? (So what?)
  • What else can you say about it?
  • What else can you say about it?
  • How is this passage representative of your argument?
  • How has your thesis evolved?
• Zoom #3? #4?
• Conclusion: After all of your "zooms," End with a final, culminating "So What?" In other words, show what your in-depth analysis has taught us about the book as a whole.