Okay, so I decided on a more structured paragraph after all:
You will write a paragraph that analyzes the struggle between Reason and Romanticism (in this case understand Romanticism to emphasize the imagination and unexplained) in "The Fall of the House of Usher." Imagine that your paragraph belongs to a paper with the following topic:
Prompt: To what extent does "The Fall of the House of Usher" represent the triumph of Romanticism over Reason?"
The paragraph you're writing is the the first thesis paragraph (not the introduction or the antithesis paragraph) so you will write about the side you belief in. In other words, you will either say that the story shows Reason triumphing of Romanticism(the imagination) or Romanticism triumphing over Reason.
Topic statement(s): Transition + acknowledgement of antithesis + thesis statement. (You do not have to use a specific POA point for this assignment.)
You will need three piees of evidence. Your evidence should be a quotation from the text. If there is a long passage, provide a short quotation that is at least an excerpt from the story.
Instead of following a strict What/How/Why format after each quotation, explore what is interesting about your quotation focusing on some insights that your quotation reveals about the characters, symbolism, imagery, parallels, etc. Make sure, however, that you do ultimately explain that your quotation shows your side of the prompt.
Note: This is still a formal voice essay (so you can't say "I think this is interesting..."). Please avoid saying "This is interesting because" because that will drive me crazy.
Also, this assignment will allow you to practice transitions for thesis/antithesis writing, which is a good thing.
